16 Nothing
Aj fell to the ground Bucky quickly catching her and lifting her up. She struggled to open her eyes.
"Aj, you okay?" Bucky asked laying you down on the couch.
"Yeah yeah, Im fine, Guys youre practically on top of me." Aj said sitting up as the rest of the Avengers moved away from her.
"I dont think Steve would mind much if he was on top of you." Tony said quickly running out of the room with Steve chasing him. She laughed lightly before looking back towards Bucky, who sat looking very worried.
"Are you feeling any different?" Bruce asked filling the silence.
"Not really." She said looking up at him. Bucky moved over to the seat next to her and grabbed her hand but quickly pulled away.
"Your hands are still freezing." He said looking at the bright red marks on his hands.
"Bucky, I'm really sorry." Tears welled in her eyes.
"No, no, no, Aj, it's okay." He pulled her closer and embraced her in a tight hug. Hse cried into his shoulder while the rest fell silent. Bruce finally spoke up.
"I think this is the cause of whatever Hydra put in you to enhance your powers, I know for a fact you couldn't do that before." He said pushing his glasses up his nose.
"Would you stop with the science questions and fix this!" Bucky yelled causing a squeak to come from Aj.
"F-fix?" Tears spilled from her eyes as she ran to the roof ignoring the pleading yells from the group.
"Fix? What's wrong with me? Why can't I be normal?" She cried curling up into a ball and slowly drifting asleep to the sound of the wind.
-
"Aj? You there honey?" Loki whispered.
"Leave!" Steve screamed.
"Steve, Loki! I'm trying to do the procedure!" Bruce yelled green tinting his face. "I'm trying to get rid of whatever parasite is killing Aj."
"Where's Bucky?" Aj asked.
"Well we needed some blood for the procedure so we used his." Bruce explained.
"All of it." Loki laughed.
"What? Why?" Aj asked calmly.
"Well darling, we need to get rid of the monster in the room, and we aren't talking about Bruce." Steve said eerily.
-
Aj shot up from the ground sweating and out of breathe.
"I am a monster." She whispered.
"No," a voice said startling her seeing as she thought she was alone. She noticed how now it was almost mid morning meaning she had slept through the night.
"Loki? What are you doing up here?" She asked standing up.
"I come up here to watch the sunrise." He said emerging from behind an air vent.
Aj nodded and headed for the door.
"Wait, can we at least be on speaking terms." He pleaded, his eyes glossing over. Aj waited for a moment before walking out the door leaving Loki alone again.
-
Aj walked to her room as quickly as possible trying to avoid everyone she could.
"I can't avoid everyone forever, but maybe if I just don't show any emotion, I won't be hurt. Like when I was with Hydra, it's wrong but I wish I was back to being emotionless." She sighed closing her door and locking it.
She went to the balcony and stood watching the scene in front of her. People jogging by, the ducks swimming in the lake, and the birds flying above. She sighed and went back into her room.
She laid down on her bed just thinking. She wanted to keep helping the Avengers but she just wishes she didn't have to feel anything anymore. If she had to be a monster she didn't want to have to feel anything.
A light knock came from her door. She got up and opened it to find Steve.
"Aj! You answered. We've all been worried sick." He said frantically.
"I was on the roof. Anyways what do you want?" She asked coldly.
"Uhh we er I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go out for lunch. I know yesterday was bad so I thought maybe you wanted to go out." He said blushing.
"Sorry Steve, I really like you, I do, but I don't think relationships between teammates is a good idea." She said closing the door leaving a very confused Steve on the other side.
-
"Guys, I don't understand what's going on with Aj." Steve said sitting down on the couch in the lounge.
"What do you mean?" Nat asked.
"Well you know how we like kissed or whatever, I asked her out today and she said relationships between teammates isn't a good idea." Steve explained.
"She's not wrong." Nat said getting a dirty look from Steve.
"Did she show any like happiness at all when you asked her out?" Bucky asked.
"No nothing at all, she didn't even show sympathy when when she told me no."
"I know what she's doing, I did it to when I first got my memory's back, she's just decided to do it now. When I first got my memory's back I still felt like a monster, I didn't want to hurt or get hurt by anyone so I didn't trust anyone and I didn't show any emotion. I became the Winter Soldier without the whole like kill everyone thing." Bucky explained.
"She just turned off the nightmare thingy in her room and won't let me turn it back on." Tony said walking into the room.
"See she's even going so far that she only wants to feel pain because she probably believes that she only deserves pain." Bucky looked at the floor.
"Let me talk to her," Sam spoke up. "She clearly doesn't want to talk to you guys but maybe she'll talk to me." With that Sam got up and headed to Aj's room.
-
Another knock came from her door, she groaned and opened it expecting Bucky but she was met with Sam.
"Hey can we talk?" Sam asked. Aj thought about it and reluctantly let him in.
