#back luck

It started on Monday. Like any other morning, you poured your cereal into your bowl only to find out someone had eaten it, leaving just a few crumbs behind. To add insult to injury, the milk had been left in the fridge so long, it was now pretty much cottage cheese. You had tried searching for something else for breakfast but nobody in the tower had bothered going shopping for groceries. Now thoroughly annoyed, you decided to skip breakfast altogether.

 And that was only the beginning of the week.

 The rest of the week was a series of accidents and unfortunate incidents. At lunch one day, you somehow managed to bite your hand eating a sandwich. On a minor mission, an insect flew down the collar of your shirt and stung your back in a place you couldn’t reach. Someone ate the last of your leftovers that you were really looking forward to at the end of the day. One time drinking hot coffee, you tipped the beverage down your front. A chair broke as you sat on it. You even choked while drinking water.

 The hits.

 Just.

 Continued.

 Coming.

 The final straw happened on Thursday. You were walking into the living room when you kicked your little toe hard against the doorway. Letting out an unholy screech and a string of swearwords, you fell to the ground clutching your foot.

 “Need a medic?” Sam smirked, looking down at you.

 “At this point, I think I need an exorcist...”

 “Yeah, I noticed. I thought for sure that scream was the demon escaping...”

 Unable to hold it in anymore, you burst into tears.

 “Hey, hey, hey, now... I was only joking. I’m sorry...” Sam knelt down and pulled you into his arms and rocked softly with you to comfort you.

 “It’s not your fault, Sam. This week has just been the worst... Everything has just been going wrong... yesterday I left my door open, Alpine wandered in and peed in my shoe which I didn’t notice until I put it on and... You know I’m not the superstitions type but this week...” You started crying again.

 Sam held you close and comforted you until you had settled down. It was times like this you were glad to have such a caring boyfriend.

 “Do you want to sit on the couch and watch movies?”

 “Y-yeah,” you whimpered.

 “Yeah? Okay...” Sam helped you get to the couch, taking care not to touch to injured toe which had already blossomed into a massive bruise.

 Sam gently set you down on the couch and put your foot up on the coffee table to keep it elevated. Afterwards, he put the movie on for you, wrapped you up in a blanket and got ice for your damaged appendage. Throughout the movie, Sam fed you snacks and made sure you had something to drink. While you may have been a full grown adult and capable of taking care of yourself (although this week had made you question that last part) it still felt nice to be taken care of. The rest of the day went without incident.

...

 The following day, you absolutely refused to come out of your room, lest something else bad happen to you. Sam knocked on your door.

 “Come on out, Y/N...”

 “No! I’m never coming out again until this stupid week is over!” you whined.

 “I made an appointment with a physic...”

 “You know I don’t believe in that mumbo jumbo...”

 Just then, a shelf on your wall decided it was time to collapse. Taking this as a sign, you opened the door.

 “Let’s go see the physic...” you mumbled with all the attitude of a sulking child. Sam grinned and put his arm around you, helping you to walk as you were still limping due to the severity of the hit to your little toe.

...

 The place Sam brought you to was something out of a movie. There were glass jars filled with mysterious objects lining the shelves and bundles of dried herbs hanging around. The smell of patchouli filled the air. Crystals of various shapes, sizes and colours sparkled in the light. You were about to walk out when a woman emerged from behind the maroon velvet curtains. She wore a purple bandana on her head, many bangles on her wrists and hoop earrings. The woman certainly fit the stereotype of a physic.

 “Welcome to my shop. I am the great Madame Nobunaga. With what can I help you with today?” she spoke in an exotic European accent.

 “Sam, this is stupid,” you whispered.

 “Do you want to get rid of your bad luck or not?”

 You carefully pondered your options before deciding that you did not want to suffer another day with something else going wrong.

 “Hi, um... this week, I’ve had some really bad luck and...”

 “Ah, yes, yes, my child. I can see your aura is a mess. Come with me in the back room and we shall do a cleansing...”

 You gave Sam an unsure look but with his approving nod, you followed Madame Nobunaga into the back where a small table covered by a midnight blue cloth had been set up. You sat on one of the cushions provided.

 “Now... let us begin. Close your eyes... breathe in the positivity, breathe out the negativity...”

 You closed your eyes and breathed as she told you while she pottered around, muttering and humming.

 “You are not focussing. Try to focus on the positive things in your life.”

 Positive things. Right. What was positive about your life? Sam. Sam was a big positive. The way he would comfort you, protect you, be there for you no matter what. Yes, Sam was the love of your life. That was a big positive. What else was there? Your friends, you guessed. The way they would make you laugh and support you... and there was Alpine too. Although Bucky’s cat could be a pain in the butt with the way... no, no, no, don’t go there. That was negative. Focus on the positive...

 By the end of the session, you were surprisingly feeling a lot more relaxed.

 “Would you like to buy a protective charm to keep away the negative energy?” Madame Nobunaga asked.

 “Couldn’t hurt,” Sam shrugged.

 With a sigh, you purchased the charm to put by your bed (even though you felt like it was a bit of a rip-off), paid the woman for her services and left.

 “See? That wasn’t so bad was it?”

 “Yeah, well... we’ll see...” you grumbled.

...

 Over the next few days, you began to actually began to see improvements. Sam helped you fix your shelf, and nothing that was sitting on it was damaged. Bucky was nice enough to buy you a new pair of shoes to replace the one his cat had soiled. Tony had taken you all out to dinner at a nice restaurant and paid for everyone. Fury had given you and Sam a whole week off together. Things were finally looking up again.