different » marvel ¹

thirty-five

   She groped at her throat where the wisps of lavender wandered over her skin, mirroring my motions. "Can—can you let—" she tried to choke out and I quickly dropped my hand, letting the energy fall away from her. Natasha landed on her feet roughly and stumbled back, nearly falling if it weren't for the chair behind her. "I see you aren't any less violent," she remarked after a moment, taking a deep breath.

   "I see you aren't a redhead anymore," I retort, walking towards her. "Sorry, I didn't recognize you." I couldn't help the grin that began to coat my face. "God, I can't believe that you're here—that I'm here!" She pulled me into a hug and I wrapped my arms around her frame, both of us chuckling as we reunited.

   "I missed you. You have no idea what I've been putting up with while you were gone," she said, half of her words getting muffled through my shoulder. "I barely even got to see you before you fled the planet, Nix."

"Just couldn't wait to escape from us, huh?" I pulled away from Nat and turned to see none other than Sam Wilson standing with his hands on his hips, a wide grin on his face.

"Sam! Hey," I let out a laugh and pull him into a quick hug.

   "How've you been, Raven?" Sam let out a chuckle and crossed his arms across his chest. "Didn't know your were gonna get back from vacation so soon," he teased, nudging my shoulder with his own.

   I shrugged. "It wasn't a vacation, Sam." I roll my eyes playfully. "After getting my memories back, I had some questions and I needed to figure a few things out, so I visited a few people."

"Did you have to wear one of those big, poofy dresses?" Natasha gestured outwardly with her hands, motioning down to the floor. "Cause Thor always described the place as fancy and—well, he didn't say it directly, but classy and proper. I imagined medieval clothing."

I let out a huff at the mention of Asgard's typical attire. "Every day. You'd think that since I don't live there, I wouldn't have any, but no, they have a closet of them that were just waiting for me," I chuckle towards the end of my sentence. "I wore one of the stupid things on my way back through the Bifrost. Warning, dresses don't travel well through space."

   "Well, that would be a sight, wouldn't it?" At those words, my heart jumped in my chest a bit, making a grin tug at my lips.

   I turned around, my eyes scanning up to meet Steve's stark blue ones. I took in his appearance, a sudden panic surging through my chest once a certain realization hit me. Steve's hair was longer that it had been a few months ago, his shoulders a bit broader from the thick armor underneath his suit, which was now a completely darker shade than the normal patriotic red, white, and blue I was used to.

   The vision, my conscious reminded me, but I tried my best at shoving it away. I had just gotten here, I didn't need to deal with that now.

   "Steven," I breathed out, smiling as I moved towards him and wrapped my arms around his neck. His arms engulfed my waist, slightly lifting me off the ground and causing both of us to laugh. "I missed you!" He gently set me back down on my feet after a moment, a bright smile on his face.

   "I missed you too, Raven," he chuckled. "So, how was Asgard? Is Thor good? Haven't seen him in a while." He walked over to the cabinet, opening it and grabbing a bag of chips.

   "It was good, but Thor was off-world while I was there," I explain, stealing a chip from Steve and eating it. I debated telling them about Loki pretending to be Odin, but decided not to since Steve would probably be against it.

Nat scrunched her nose up as she set a hand on her hip. "Isn't he supposed to be ruling it? Why was he off-world to begin with?"

"I think he's trying to find some Infinity Stones," I say, trying to grab another chip from Steve, but he pulled the bag away before I could take one. My words earned confused looks from the three, causing me to let out a small 'oh' of realization. "Infinity Stones are these rocks that were sent across space during the Big Bang. They're supposed to be the most powerful objects in the universe." I looked between them, silently gauging their reactions. "Anyway," I breathed out. "What about you guys?"

• • •

My fingers brushed over the metal as I flipped the dog tags between them. I leaned on the railing of the porch, looking at everything that surrounded me.

Natasha had flown us to an abandoned SHIELD safe house in the middle of a forest. We'd gotten settled for the night, allowing us to relax for a while. It was nice being able to be around them again, it reminded me of how things were before HYDRA's uprising. It made me realize how much I missed joking around with Steve and Sam, and talking to Nat.

   The wooden boards of the porch squeaked lightly, making me turn around to see Steve. He glanced down to my hand, a small, amused breath leaving his nose. "You still have that," he said with a smile. "It's been what? Over five years since I found out about those?" I nodded with a small smile of my own, gently taking the necklace off and letting Steve hold it.

   He pressed his forearms into the railing, leaning against it like me as he flipped the item over in his palm. "James Buchanan Barnes, Sergeant of the 107th," he read it out. "He ever tell you about the forties? I think you would've liked it, Bucky would've been trying to win you a stuffed bear at a carnival," Steve chuckled, earning an enlivened expression to fill my face.

"Tell me about it," I proposed, raising my brows slightly. "What'd you guys do back then?"

"God, don't say 'back then'. It makes it sound like I'm old." At this, I scoffed, gently hitting Steve's shoulder.

"Okay, time-wise, you're like a hundred years old, Steven." I gave him a playfully pointed look, trying to be serious, but the corner of my lips turned up into a grin. "But seriously, tell me." I looped my arm through his, earning a chuckle from him.

"Alright, there was this one time before I had the serum," he began. "I—well, I'd always somehow get wrapped into a fight with someone and I'd been pinned in this alley before, but this time, before the guy could get me, Bucky showed up and he stopped him. We went and got hotdogs afterwards." Steve had a relaxed look about him as he retold the memory, a certain fondness surrounding his demeanor. Part of me itched to see how he saw it, wanting to go inside his head to experience it, but I pushed the urge down.

"Shuri took him out of cryo," I blurted out softly. "He's gonna wake up any day now. You should come see him."

   Steve held out the necklace for me to take, shaking his head gently. "There's a reason why we don't stay in Wakanda, Raven." I slipped the necklace back over my head, settling it. "We got targets on our backs, it'd be too dangerous. We check in, but it's a risk to stay. They think you're off-world still . . . try to keep it that way," he suggested.

   "It would only be for a little while. C'mon," I tried again. "You miss him, Steve, and you deserve to be able to see you're best friend." I push part of my hair behind my ear, looking up to him. "Just think about it, okay? I know he'd want to see you, too." I silently hoped that he'd decide to at least stop by for a few hours. Wakanda was safe, T'Challa said that himself. I knew he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize the safety and security of Steve or the others, at least not on purpose.

   I gave Steve's hand a small squeeze before wrapping my arms around myself and turning to go inside. "Night, Steven," I called back. "Try to get some sleep while you can."

author's note
that's finally the end of part three of this book :) part four will be based prior to infinity war and during it. i'm excited to write it but also i don't want to go through that pain again, ya know? also, thank y'all for over 40k reads! that's literally unreal :)))