❨ 𝑨𝑭𝑰                       . . .                     𝑏𝘰𝘰𝑘 𝑖𝑖𝑖 ❩
﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
━━━ 𝙱. 𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙴𝚂 / ❛ i may have the 
𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 of a 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣, but i have the
𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 of a 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜. ❜

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ∘༄⋅°
𝐎𝐍𝐄,                             𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙾𝙽𝙴 !

IT HAS BEEN a while since Diana and Bucky talked about Reese's peanut butter cups and their lives. Ever since then they've gone on a few dates (not a whole lot because of work and training), but it was enough to satisfy their needs of having to be together, alone, drinking wine and eating the best food in town. Tony was kind enough to give Bucky a job in his office, giving him enough money to buy whatever he wanted.

But, after a while, Bucky had to be put back in cryo.

"It's for the best right now," was Steve's answer, "I don't want him to go through it again, but we have to. His mind is still unstable, this is the best thing until we can figure out what we can do to help him."

Diana and Bucky said their goodbyes, hugging each other tightly while Bucky whispered promises and pressed kisses to Diana's forehead. She watched as the ice took over his body, leaving him in the frozen state that has been a part of him for a long time.

The Avengers didn't notice before, but Thor lost an eye, had his hair shorn and his home was no longer there.

"It's alright, my friends," he told them, clapping a hand on Steve's shoulder. "Asgard is not a place. It's a people."

Wanda and Natasha tried their best to keep Diana's mind off Bucky. They took her on lunch dates, went shopping at the mall, and even watched movies. They've barely had any "girl time" these past few months because of issues from the Civil War, Bucky and Diana's little fight, and their relationship.

"You know that your life doesn't revolve around Bucky, right?" Wanda asks Diana as she stirs sugar into her tea. Her black-paint chipped nails stand out amongst the white and tan outfit she wore, a red scarf tied loosely around her neck. Diana nods at her friend.

"Yeah," she says, "Tony made me take a job at Peter's school to keep an eye on him. Even though I already have one -"

"Two, actually," Natasha corrects, tapping her boot.

"Two, so it may be nice to take on the third paycheck."

Wanda shakes her head. "You already got two paychecks. One gives you a really great house, food, a car. The other one you have to guide people around and talk nonsense about ancient things."

"Yes, they're ancient -"

"Translation: old as shit," Natasha raises a spoon at Diana, "there is an ancient being at the end of this spoon." Diana fake laughs, throwing her hair over her shoulder. "Haha very funny Natasha. Where did you get it? A museum?" They were currently in a café in Queens, keeping both a lookout for Peter and trying to keep their daily tea time intact. "Why do we even have tea times?" Diana stared at the bottom of her teacup, seeing a little bit of sugar slide down the length of it before gathering at the side, blocking it from going any further.

Wanda straightens, spotting the familiar brown floppy hairstreak across the sidewalk. "Peter, stop." She uses her powers to freeze the boy in place, him turning to see them clearly. "Hi, Miss Romanoff, Miss Maximoff, and Miss Prince, how are you today?"

"We're good, thank you," Diana nods politely to him. She felt a connection with him, a motherly trait unlocking in her mind each time she saw him, sort of like a lioness and her cub. She would protect him at all costs.

Peter loved Diana. She always smelled like vanilla and coconuts, her hugs were the warmest, she had the kindest smile and eyes, and she would sometimes give him little candies from Paris. He felt like she was his mother.

"What's the news?"

"I took a job as a secretary at your school in order to make sure nothing goes wrong. Well, I didn't exactly take it, Tony just told me he got it for me."

"Yeah, he can be pushy at times."

"Tell us about it," Wanda rolls her eyes as she took a tiny sip of her hot drink.

Diana had pulled up a chair next to her, "would you like to join us, Peter?"

He quickly apologizes, giving Diana a sorry look. "I'm sorry, I can't, I have chemistry homework to do." He hits his palm with the side of his fist. "Maybe tomorrow, after school, if that's okay with you guys."

Wanda shuts it down. "I can't, I have to train with Vision."

Natasha looks through her calendar. "I have a meeting with the senator at 11, a meeting with T'Challa at 2, and a dinner with a friend at 4."

"What about you Diana?"

She nods, "yeah, tomorrow is my first day anyway."

"Great, that's great."

"What if you got a croissant for the road? Or... sidewalk?"

"No, thank you, Aunt May is making dinner and she'll be pissed if she heard that I already ate something," he shakes his head, feeling sorry for saying no to one of his favourite Avengers. She wasn't like Tony; she didn't constantly think about herself, she was selfless. She valued others opinions. She was honest, kind, brave; a trait many haven't achieved.

"I'll see you guys later."

He waved bye to them, all three of them chorusing their goodbyes, and going back to their conversation. "Nice kid," Wanda nods, circling the tip of her finger on the lip of her cup. The steam created a foggy cloud on the remaining black paint of her nails. It warmed the finger, giving it a small temperature change than her other cold-as-death fingers. "So Bucky is all the way in Wakanda, deep in the jungle, being looked after by T'Challa," Natasha places her phone back in her pocket, "I'm going there later on tomorrow to check on him. It's going to be alright, Diana. He's not dead, and he certainly is not the Winter Soldier." Diana sighs, looking down at her sandwich. "I know, it's just that I feel that I must protect him at all costs, and this separation and him going back under... it's... it's giving me anxiety. I mean, what if he wakes up again from cryo? What if he has a mental breakdown? There are all these different risks and I can't do anything to help him."

Natasha pats the back of Diana's larger hand, the warmth of it seeping into her skin. "It'll be alright. I promise that once the meeting is over, I would call you and tell you how it was."

"You promise?"

"You already know that I keep my promises."

"Thank you, Natasha," the Amazonian warmly smiles at the Russian, "how about we go to the mall?"

"HEY, DIANA, ONCE you get out of work can you buy milk?"

"Why don't you get Happy to do it? I have dinner with Peter."

Tony scoffs, pointing at her. "You and Peter... are a thing now? What happened to your 'I-only-speak-a-few-words-yet-chicks-still-dig-me' boyfriend?"

"Tony, we aren't dating!" Diana throws her hands up in the air. "We are just eating dinner and talking about his life, that's all. I think of him as he were my own son, not a lover." Diana wore a presentable white button-down shirt and black trousers, with black high heels to match. With those heels, she was a few inches taller than Thor. He had stopped her in the hall and took their heights, and when he saw that she was taller than him, he politely asked her to take them off. "Why?" She had asked. "Because I'm supposed to be the tallest," he pouted.

"Don't worry, Thor, I'm going to be away for some time today so you won't see me," she ruffled his hair.

"Alright," Tony puts his hands up in surrender. "Have fun. Not too much fun, though, because you're dating Cold Cuts and he's still a virgin!"

STEVE, TONY, BRUCE, and Thor were all in the lab, talking about the next mission. "There seems to be some high levels of radioactivity here in this small neighbourhood," Bruce magnifies a picture of a peaceful neighbourhood, all of them seeing little children playing amongst themselves. "It seems as if some of the Chitauri weapons were recovered and someone's using it as a... well, weapons."

Steve hooks his thumbs on the belt loops of his jeans. "But who?"

"We still have that to figure out."

Bruce walks over to one of the monitors and tests the radioactivity levels. "When we took down the Chitauri, I thought that the government took over clean-up," Thor says, his eyebrows furrowing. "They did, but I guess someone from the original clean-up group stole some of them," Tony replies. They heard the door sliding open with a gust of air, and they turn to see Happy. "Sir, there's someone here to talk to you. He goes by the name of... Jack Smith?"

"I don't know anyone by the name of Jack Smith. Do any of you?"

All of them shook their heads.

"Well, tell him to make an appointment next time," Tony points at Happy, grabbing a bag of blueberries.

"Sir, he says he really needs to talk to you. And he won't leave until you do."

"Well then, I guess he's not leaving. Blueberry?" He hands the bag to Steve. He takes a small amount, about five, and eats it in one mouthful. "Let me talk to him, please," A voice comes out from behind the door, which the owner of the voice tries to open, but Happy holds it shut. "Talk to him, please. He's been talking my ear off. He's been talking nonstop about Diana."

All of them perked up at the mention of her name. "What does he want with Diana?"

Happy sighs. "I don't know, I've been ignoring him for the past twenty minutes. He sure talks a lot though."

"Bring him in."

Happy nods and lets in a small man, about 5 feet, hunched over and wearing a suit and fedora. He had white hair and grey eyes. "What do you want with Diana?"

The man doesn't hesitate. "I want her dead."