#theherogig

22 days. 

Tony Stark, her brother, had been stranded in space for twenty two entire days and none of them had been able to do a thing about it- and they’d tried. Nadia had lost her damn mind during the time her brother was stranded, she barely ate, barely slept, constantly on a go, constantly trying to find a new way to save him. A week in, she’d started on a futile attempt at building a space ship but it had been to no avail.  Nadia wasn’t the smart Stark, she wasn’t the genius and during that time she felt like a fraud to the stark name. She’d shrieked at anybody who’d tried to stop her, tried to do anything but help her- and when they’d found him, she’d only just been able to keep herself together. She’d kept her distance, glad to have him back safely but not wanting to take his attention from pepper, who had been the one person to keep her going during all this mess. 

But when he had collapsed and they’d had to put him in a bed, when he’d ripped his figurative heart out- she’d lost it. Any resemblance of control had been lost as she’d rushed to her brothers side as he collapsed. She’d not left his side since. They’d tried to get her to freshen up, tried to get to go get some rest but she’d insisted she had to be there when he woke up. Even when they’d promised they’d come find her the moment there was a change, she’d demanded they get out. 

She’d sat at his bedside, head resting on the edge of his bed, hand gripping his now boney ones as she waits for him to wake up. Eventually, she must have drifted off because when she wakes, her hand is no longer clutching his. It takes her a moment to realise this, to wake properly but when she does, she bolts upright, emotion overtaking her features as she sees him awake, trying not to convey it in her voice. 

“I’m having a difficult time deciding which of these two I should wear.. What do you think? The blue or green?”

“Speak for yourself. I throw an awesome party.”

He brought the rim of his glass to his lips before taking a sip. His brows knitted together as he brought the glass back down.

“Why don’t you ever come, by the way? Do the invitations get lost in transit?”

Bucky shrugged. “I get the invitations,” she said. “I’m just not much of a party person these days. ‘Specially not parties as big as the ones you throw. Too many people, y’know? I’d wind up spendin’ the whole night lurkin’ in a corner or sneakin’ out for a smoke.“

It was the staring that got to her. She hadn’t even really finished acclimating to life with the Avengers yet, to not having to hide in plain sight from the people looking for her. Sometimes she missed it -- that feeling of being invisible, of being just another face in the crowd. It had been comfortable, in a way, to be nobody very important.