There and Not

"What do you want to change...?" The curtains were slowly being pulled back, revealing a side of Mantis she'd never even considered or asked about. Probably because she always oozed such optimism that it never crossed her mind that all of it could come from a dark place. "There's... something you regret?" She took Mantis' hand in hers and held them both against her chest; a gesture of trust, if she wanted to talk about it.

"I'm afraid i do like shooting the shit with you, because i've found you're the only one i can't creep out yet." Bucky replied humorously, shaking his head a bit. He enjoyed Ava's company, they was on the same wavelenght in some way. Hearing her next words however, Bucky tilted his head a bit. It made sense concidering everything but still... "Really?" He asked curiously. "If it makes you feel better.... I'm quite sure i've never kissed someone that gives me butterflies." That was a can of worms he wasn't sure he was actually sure he was willing to go into right now. "It's not sad....! People are never going to understand people like you and me, so don't play to their standards of what's normal. It's only gonna make you sad."

"When you've been taught to phase a man's heart through his chest before you've even had your first period, there are very few things than can creep me out." Visually, no. But there were other sensations that made it easy for the panic to set in. "But I guess you're right. As long as we're not dead, there's still time. ... damn, I wish I had something to toast with..." So instead, she held up her fist for a fist-bump. "Here's to us finding someone who'll sweep us off our feet, yeah?"

"I'm not the one with flawless skin here." It's not that Ava didn't appreciate the compliments; she merely felt that if the two of them were put in a lineup for a blind date, Mantis would get more votes on looks alone. "I do know. It's what I used when I needed to get into somewhere I didn't belong. A flirtatious shoulder, show a little leg, and men are dumb enough to let me in anywhere." She adjusted the little ghost on her shoulder. "How about you do this little guy the honour of naming him?"

Ava's stare narrowed; she couldn't believe he would say that to her face. "A knife? I'm more subtle than that, Barnes. However I decide to get back at you, it's in a way you'll least expect it. My answer would be you, if you keep talking like that."

Everything in Ava's body went slack on feeling her empathic touch against her mind. No more nausea, no more twisting of her insides. What a relief it was. She found it difficult not to relish the sensation every second of the day. "Much." Despite the comfort, Ava's colour didn't improve. This was all just a temporary fix, of course. "Doesn't... doing this all the time make you tired...?"

"Well, I guess that would be nice for a change." He heard himself confess before he even realized it. "Can't remember the last time I actually got to celebrate it."

Buying one. Why hadn't she thought of that? Impersonal, sure, but it was better than outright screwing up the entire cake. Better to practice in secret until she got it right instead of going all in on an important day. "Me neither, if that helps. Maybe when I was five?" She nudged his shoulder with her fist. "Trauma bonding! ... that is what it's called, right?" She could never keep up with the lingo nowadays. "What do you know how to make, our of curiousity?"

Watching Killjoys for the first time: Baby, Face Killer

At the first touch to her hand, Ava felt her stomach bottom out. That she was being "punished" for her earlier mistake. Still, she forced herself not to escape. Mantis, she told herself, wasn't capable of that. "Just... the first thing I thought when we came in here is that it would be too..." She rolled a shoulder to indicate she couldn't find the right word to conclude her sentence. "Which was a mistake on my part, thinking you were... ummm... not like that." Nope, that explanation definitely wasn't helping either. "I thought this room would make you feel awkward because I assumed you were... inexperienced." Even getting the truth out didn't make her feel any better.

      “Have you seen weapons such as those before?”

Of course they wouldn't listen to her. Goons like these were all about shooting first and asking questions later. Here, she'd been trying to keep one of their own alive, but because they saw her wearing a suit, they considered her the enemy. Ah, well. Bully to them anyway. Ava felt the noise before she heard it, the very molecules in the air vibrating around her. Nothing good could come from that, so she had a head start hauling ass before they fired. Unlike her "truce partner," however, she was shifting through one floor to the next until she hit the ground running. She refrained from snickering at the woman who'd just cannonballed a truck. "No. And I don't like it," she replied in passing. "Now if you're done wrestling with the truck, we should probably get out of here. Please tell me you got here in a vehicle."

"Promise" wasn't a word Ava took lightly. Where it should give hope, it only gave her despair, after years upon years of broken promises. She was still trying to unlearn all of that, to put some faith in a promise so that it could start to mean something else. It was the better part of 45 minutes before she returned, looking no different save for the buzz of tension radiating from her. To those with sensitive hearing, they would liken her to sound of a dull ugly tuning fork. "Sorry about that. Can we, uh, go somewhere else? This building is making my skin crawl."

"Well, your head belongs to you," Mantis pointed out with a playful smile. Her hand cupped Ava's face, thumb running across her cheek, as the empath stifled another giggle. "I think that would end up driving us both to madness!"

"Madness isn't always a bad thing..." To lose one's self in something like this? Ava would give up her years with SHIELD if she knew this kind of feeling was possible in her life. "What if I gift it to you? My mind. Would you care for it in my stead?" Then perhaps she wouldn't have to deal with those spontaneous bouts of negative thoughts that sapped her of her energy and left her feeling empty. If she could give her brain to someone else for a time while she drowned herself in the ocean of joy offered to her, she would take it in a heartbeat.

"In fact, I'm the one guy that doesn't fit in with the world around me while everyone gets the impression he's superior. In reality, he doesn't belong anywhere."

"Not superiority. I meant responsibility." What time would someone like Captain America have for a morally-grey scientific mistake who was a hitman for hire? "You have more important things to do, righting wrong and all that stuff, to have time for people like me. But... I have time now, if you're really that interested in getting to know me."

Ava huffed with amusement, her hands on her hips. "Well, that's for fencing, but I'll give you points for trying." She strode over to change her stance, moving her into a more hunch position with knees bent. "You hold out a knife like that, you're making it easy for someone to stab you in the arm. Think like a coiled spring. Close. Tight. So that you're ready to spring when they least expect it." To make her point, Ava took up a stance of her own for Mantis to mirror, her knife still strapped in its sheath. She, of course, didn't want to actually stab Mantis. "Ready?"

"The New yorker sounds like a American..... Breaking news." Bucky replied with a dramatic sigh. He knew it wasn't hard to spot him as an American even when considering how little time he actually had spent there in the large scale of things. "It's soccer..." He added humorously.

Ava overdramatically shoved a finger in his face, though the smile she wore as she leaned in said she took no offence. He was just doing it to rile her up but there was no harm in playing up the annoyance. "How very dare you. You take that back or I might have to volunteer you to help Alexei clean out his limo tomorrow..."