Reveries of Spring│Bucky Barnes

━ 𝟎𝟑

TO MARTINA'S PLEASANT SURPRISE, the following week at the Avengers Compound- within the safety of her cell- was relatively peaceful. 

She had quickly come to terms with being kept inside the cell. Of course, a part of her still resented the fact that she was considered dangerous and volatile enough to be contained, but the greater part of her was relieved. 

In her cell, she was safe- everyone was safe- and it had become almost a peaceful respite from the busy life she had been living.

She never felt lonely, however, because of the constant presence of various visitors. 

Artemis was keen on keeping her on a rigid socializing schedule, explaining that it would be best to introduce the people she would be living with little by little. 

Martina appreciated this to an extent but was still extremely worried that she would unintentionally cause them bodily harm. 

She had developed a deep distrust of herself but she embraced it. 

It could be because Martina was still in denial, because she was hanging in a state of uneasy equilibrium, and because if she were to fight against her imprisonment it would drive her mad.   

She had been spent hours on end speaking with Artemis- who always took the largest chunk of time- and found that, in her case, first impressions were right. 

Artemis was easy to talk to; dazzling, and enthusiastic. She talked nonstop about her hunts, her crazy adventures, and her time on an alien planet. Martina admired her confidence greatly, even before all hell broke loose, she was never like that. She always clung to the walls and rarely made eye contact. Artemis had become somewhat of a light in her dreary situation because for just a moment, she could forget the situation she was in. As childish as it may seem, Artemis was almost like a security blanket; this unbelievably wild and awe-inspiring persona that had reached out the Martina in her darkest of times with nothing but support and empathy. 

When Artemis wasn't keeping her company, Martina had grown to like Wanda Maximoff.

Wanda had been the one to bring several shopping bags worth of clothes to the cell. Martina initially felt bad about her spending so much money, but Wanda had assured her that it wasn't her money and that it was her pleasure and that she and Artemis needed some excuse to leave the compound.  

Wanda made jokes and explained her powers to Martina by levitating quesadillas or inserting funny illusions in her mind, much to the young woman's amusement. She felt that she could resonate with Wanda. Martina was reluctant to talk about her powers- the denial resurfacing- but Wanda assured her that her own powers had been difficult to control. She gave Martina a sliver of hope that one day she would come to embrace them. 

Martina still felt that day would be forever unattainable.

Clint had come by after her, only a handful of times, but enough for Martina to accommodate herself around him. He was nice enough, though slightly awkward, and couldn't manage to do anything besides talk about his niece, complain about his soon-to-be nephew-in-law, or make slightly inappropriate dad jokes.

Tony Stark, the voice from the intercom, was everything Artemis had warned her he would be; a billionaire dick. Egotism and arrogance aside, he was surprisingly refreshing. He- unlike Clint- made very clever jokes and he was easy to be around. Although, Martina could do without the various nicknames ranging from firecracker femme fatal to spitfire spunk.