Chapter Text
She watched them from her vantage point in a fir tree – one arm wrapped around the trunk to steady herself, the other curled hugging her knees. The man with the iron arm – the winter soldier; the captain, the Russian assassin Romanov, out on the battlefield once again, who these enemies were she didn’t know. It’d been going on for at least 15 minutes now, longer than usual. She made a point of observing from a distance, they worked together as a team – she didn’t know anything about being a team.
“Bucky!” she heard the captain yell in alarm, her attention dragged suddenly away from her thoughts, she saw the winter soldier scrambling on the floor backwards into one of the tree trunks not 10 feet from where she sat, an enemy backing him up with a clear shot. Everybody else was so far away, and then it just happened. She jumped. She finally joined the fight.
Her powers were something that scared her, scared her shitless. They weren’t drawn out by anger or voluntarily, from what she could tell. It was sadness, loneliness, desperation, fear. Looking at the powerful assassin suddenly blindsided on the floor, so open, it struck a bolt of fear straight through her chest – and suddenly there it was. Fire. It blazed from her, she walked it forwards, terror ringing in her ears as she watched the enemy burn, screaming. Looking behind him as she felt it ebb as the danger fizzled from existence, she saw the other enemies retreating.
A large hand grabbed her shoulder and swung her around – staring up into the eyes of the winter soldier, she stumbled backwards and bolted…well, tried. A heavy weight hit her from the side as she found herself wrestling with Romanov. Easily pinned, heart pounding like a bird trying to bash its way out of a cage, she stared, terrified, up into the eyes of half of the Avengers team.
“Who are you?” The red headed Russian demanded, “who the fuck are you?!”
“K-Kairi, my name is Kairi. Please let me go.” She found herself stammering weakly, delirious with the realisation of the events of the past few minutes. She’d given herself away. Her hiding was over. They knew.
10 minutes forward, she was on the jet with them, headed back to the stark tower – not entirely voluntarily either, her hands were behind her in cuffs, she’d gone and done it now. Well done. She thought to herself angrily, furious at her own stupidity. No more invisibility, no more freedom. Solitude forever lost. Her thoughts jarred on the last one – solitude. Recently, her self-executed exile had seemed less than ideal, she found herself longing for other people, just to talk, laugh, hug – be close to. Friends.
“Where are you from?” A voice rasped from opposite her, coughing to clear it, Bucky Barnes asked again, “Around here, or somewhere else?”
She sensed the others turn to watch her response, not daring to properly lift her head from staring at her shoes, she murmured “England. I’m English – I was. I live here now. Near where you were just fighting. I’d like to go back, please.”
“We’re not finished with you, you have a lot of questions to answer.” Natasha’s voice stated clearly from somewhere above her to her left, presumably standing over her.
As they arrived at the Stark tower, it seemed remarkably empty and clear of staff, she was quickly ushered by the captain and Barnes into some kind of holding cell, given some water, and a couple of minutes later, a plate of bread, cheese and ham. She settled herself on the chair in the corner, decidedly un-hungry. The captain re-appeared at the door, he spoke through “Nick Fury, our director, is coming through to talk shortly, no hard feelings about the cell? We’re just not sure if you’re on an enemy side yet.”
“No hard feelings.” Kairi sighed in response, drawing her knees back up to her chest, her seemingly automatic position nowadays. She idly picked at the hole that had been ripped in her jeans, presumably from her tussle with Romanov.
What felt like hours later, Nick Fury let himself into the room. He was alone.
“Your name is Kairi, correct?”
“Correct.”
“What is your surname?”
“I…It’s complicated. I don’t really have one.”
Fury frowned, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.
“How so? Everybody has a surname, apart from Cher or Vision.”
Fiddling nervously with the ends of her hair, Kairi replied “My mother’s story about who my father was changed a lot, she died, I never really found out who it was, and she kept changing her own so…”
Thinking for a moment, he responded “Well, what did you go by in school?”
“Kairi Green, just something generic I picked.”
“That’ll do fine then. So, Kairi Green, I’ve heard you generate quite the heat. How did that come about?”
She shrugged and shook her head “I don’t know, I remember them not being there, the powers that is, when I was around 15 or 16, then I remember using them when I was 18 or so. I don’t remember much about the middle, I was...” She found a lump forming in her throat, she swallowed it away and choked out, “I was having a…d-difficult time. Depressed. I don’t really want to mull over the details.”
One eyebrow raised, Fury responded, “Most depressions don’t lead to fire powers. Still, you came to Barnes’s aid. We can discuss this later if you wish. Stark has assigned you a room upstairs, make yourself at home for now, you’ll remain here in the tower for a few weeks at least. It’s safest while we figure you out.”
He rose and opened the door to the cell-room, gesturing for her to move past him and out. She complied, then followed Fury to an elevator.
“Jarvis, take us to the room assigned for Kairi, please.”
“Certainly.” Came the response over some kind of intercom, once on the floor that was apparently where her room was to be, Fury gestured to one of two doors that she could see on the corridor.
“This will be your room, nobody will enter without your permission, and you are safe in there. Next door,” he gestured to the other door, “is Barnes. The room you are in was previously empty. He won’t tolerate trouble from your end, Green.”
And with that, he strode back into the elevator and left.
She walked numbly into her new living space. The bed, a spacious double, with its head along the wall with the door to her room, was luxurious even from a visual perspective. She could tell without touching that the sheets were of the highest quality, pristine and white. The only other furniture in the room was a bedside table with a lamp, the wardrobe was fitted in to the wall opposite. She noted another door opposite to the one leading back to the corridor, knocking lightly and receiving no response, she opened it to be greeted by an ensuite bathroom. A small whoosh of air escaping her lips, she found herself sitting with her head in her hands on the edge of the bathtub. How did this all happen so fast?
She felt so outnumbered. So trapped. Trapped in luxury isn’t the worst thing ever, she noted as she ran her hand absentmindedly over the shining silver taps, this could have turned out way worse.
The shower was wonderful. As was the bath, she couldn’t resist trying either of them. The shampoo and conditioner supplied had made her hair smell wonderful and feel insanely soft, though she couldn’t note the brand for future use, they’d been decanted into fancy bottles to match the bathroom.
As she was braiding her wet hair back, as was habit, a knock came at the door. Suddenly panicked, she was still in a towel after all, she called frantically “W-wait a minute! I just need a minute!” She hurriedly opened the wardrobe to find neatly folded clothes, she selected what appeared to be some kind of black t-shirt dress and hurriedly wrenched it over herself, closing the wardrobe and hurrying back to the door, she opened it and was greeted by a startled looking Bucky Barnes.
“Y…you’re..” Was all that came from the soldier as he stared down at her in shock.
“I’m sorry?” She found herself replying in a timid voice.
He cleared his throat.
“You’re wearing my t-shirt. I, uh, I keep extra stuff in here, it was empty before you turned up so that’s uh…yeah that’s my t-shirt, that’s on you. You’re wearing it.” He rambled on, frowning.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know I just…I had nothing to wear so I looked in the wardrobe when you were knocking because I was only wearing a towel and my other things aren’t clean and-” She finally paused to take a breath, having not found time to stop to breathe in her explanation, “and well I just wasn’t thinking, I’m sorry. I’ll go take it off.” Without leaving him time to respond, she ran into the bathroom.
Bucky’s voice came from outside the bathroom door “So…what are you changing into then?”
“Um…another towel?” Her response sounded stupid even to her, start thinking before you do, Kairi.
“Look, just keep the t-shirt. You can wear it as a night dress or whatever, I have loads, that’s why I needed the extra wardrobe space anyway. I’ll go order some stuff from Jarvis, what size are you?”
Kairi’s breath hitched in her throat at his unexpected kindness, shaking the feeling away, she replied, dazed, “Uh, a UK size 8, I think that’s a size 4 in your whole US measurement thing, I’m not entirely sure…haven’t been shopping for a while.”
“Got it.” Came the response, his footsteps audible as he left the bedroom and walked away down the corridor somewhere.
“My god.” She murmured to herself, “Bucky Barnes is helping to rejuvenate my wardrobe.”