Sunday Funday
Tony woke up with a criek in his neck and felt some small weight against his chest, he looked down and saw that it was Jungkook, the events of yesterday immediately playing in his head. The kid healing all of a sudden, Rhodey finding out about Spiderman, and having a talk about maybe being a father figure to the kid. He really needs to have to talk with him about it. Maybe today or maybe next week? He’ll figure it out when he gets there, if he gets there.
Before he got too caught up into his thoughts, he felt the kid start to move, “Well morning sunshine. You look like you slept comfortably, did you enjoy using my chest as your personal pillow?”
The kid groaned and rubbed his eyes, as soon as he was done, he immediately jumped up, making Tony jump a bit too.
“Uh sorry Mr. Stark! I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you!”
“Woah Kid. It’s okay. No harm done. Now how’s omelets for breakfast?”
“That sounds great!”
“Alrighty kid, well let’s go get ready for the day. After breakfast, let’s head to the downstairs gym. I can feel you buzzing with energy and you definitely need to burn off all the sugary stuff I let you eat yesterday. Aunt hottie is going to kill me if she finds out that you haven’t been eating greens.”
“Yes! I can finally show you how I can do 200 pushups in a row!”
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“197.198.199.200! Did you see that Mr.Stark!”
“Sure,did kid. Now let me get off your back before I break your spine or something like that.” Tony hopped off Jungkook’s back. The kid wanted it to be more of a challenge, so half way through he told Tony to sit on his back.
“Mr.Stark don’t worry you practically weigh nothing to me! You can’t hurt me.”
“Jesus kid. How much can you lift?”
“Uh I don’t know. I’ve never really tested that out.”
“Cho’s right we have to start testing your limits. We’ll do it as soon as I get everything else sorted out.” Tony patted Jungkook on the shoulder and went towards the elevator. “You can keep working out, I’m going up and making some protein shakes. I’ll tell you when they’re ready so you can head up.”
Jungkook nodded and hopped on the treadmill. He started off running slowly, but as the minutes passed, he felt like he was going too slow, so he hiked it up a notch. Then another and another. He just kept running and running. However he wasn’t tiring himself out. He felt like he needed to release some unknown tension that was growing in his body. He needed to stop thinking. Overthinking was going to be the end of him. His thoughts kept running faster than him. He needed to tire himself out.
Since running wasn’t doing its job, he decided to do pull ups. 200, maybe 300 will do it. He jumped up to the bar and started. He could feel the pull of his back muscles, his arms pulling the rest of his body up, and his chin raising above the bar. He could feel his arms straining but not getting tired. He was at 400 pull ups and he still didn’t feel sore. He still wasn’t tired. Maybe another couple hundred will do it. He did about 10 different variations of pulls ups, but none of them seemed to clear his head.
Maybe if he punches it out, fights against his thoughts, literally and mentally. Jungkook jogged over to the punching bag and started punching the daylights out of it. All of a sudden,he felt some anger spike in him. With each punch, he felt his anger rise and didn’t hesitate to pull his punches. He was so damn angry. Angry at his friends for thinking less of him. Angry at them for bothering Aunt May while she was working, for making her worry. Angry at them for being nosy teens who don’t know when to stop, who don’t understand the saying ‘I’ll talk to you later, so don’t call me’. He was angry at the Rogues. Angry at Steven Grant Rogers for severely hurting and almost murdering Tony. Angry that he wouldn’t fight with Tony against the accords. Angry that all of their problems could have been solved if they had talked it out. Angry. Furious. Enraged. Every variation of anger one could think of was an embodiment of what Jungkook was feeling.
A sharp smack echoed around the gym. Jungkook’s breathing was heavily and erratic. He then snapped out of his angry state, finally noticing that the bag had snapped off the chain and broke against the gym floor, the contents of the punching bag spilled against the floor. He dropped his fists, hands becoming cold and clammy. His heart hammered in his chest, fear trickling down his spine. He just knocked the punching bag to the ground like it was nothing. Like it weighed nothing.
You see Jungkook usually didn’t break anything at all because he felt bad, even though Mr.Stark said that he had more than enough money to replace it. Aunt May taught him to be gentle with others' belongings. He’s never felt this amount of rage in his life. He was terrified of himself. What if he somehow unleashed this type of anger on someone? What if he hurt someone just because he was mad? He couldn’t stop shaking, his thoughts getting even worse. What was going on with him? Maybe he should take Mr.Stark up on that therapy option, he didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
“F-FRIDAY, where is the broom?” He said with a shaky voice.
“The broom is next to the weights.” The A.I replied. “Jungkook, your heart rate levels have rapidly picked up. If they do not slow down soon, I will have to alert Mr.Stark, hence Protect the Baby protocol.”
“N-no. No. There’s no need. I’m okay. I’m just taking a breather, ya know from the work out.”
“Very well. Jungkook, you do not need to clean the punching bag. The cleaners are scheduled to come at 3:00pm. There’s no need to sweep.”
“Uh okay, but I’ll just sweep a bit. Make the job a bit easier for them, after all I’m the one who caused this mess.”
He swept up what he could and headed towards the elevator. Surely the shakes would be ready by then. As he went up the elevator, his hands began to shake more. The pit in his stomach grew more.
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“Oh. Jung. I was just about to call you up. Your shake is ready. Look I even added a little fancy umbrella to make it just a little more special.”
“Thanks, Mr.Stark. Is this a tiny ironman umbrella?” Jungkook said, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Yes. Yes it is.” Tony said, while taking a big slurp of the mango and banana flavored protein shake through a swirly straw. “Don’t you raise that eyebrow at me kid. That’s my thing and I’ll have you know that Iron Man is so popular that he has little umbrellas made of him.”
“Hey. I’m not judging. Just wondering when they’ll make Spider-Man drink umbrellas.”
“When you join the Avengers kid. They’ll make tons of merchandise for you. But, I wouldn’t worry too much kid, I’m sure there's some store in Queens that makes unofficial merch of you.”
“Awesome!”
Tony looked at Jungkook with fondness and love in his eyes. This kid was adorable and so loveable, whoever dared to hurt this kid would be in a world of pain. He couldn’t believe that such a bright, kind, and adorable kid has gone through so many terrible things. If he could he would wrap tons of bubble wrap around him. From the moment he saw Jungkook’s computer setup made completely from garbage scraps, he knew that he was going to protect him and give him anything he could ever want. Yes, he messed up a couple of times, but after each time he did he prayed that the kid would forgive him and preached that he would do better than last time. And he has just done that, god he doesn’t even know how the kid forgave him after the Vulture mess. If Tony was him, he would have never forgiven him, but that’s the thing about the kid, he has the biggest heart that has ever walked the earth. Jungkook is a very forgiving kid.
The more he looked, the more he was able to see the smallest details that made up the kids face. He noticed the mole underneath his lips and on his nose, he noticed the little dent in his face (from a childhood accident he guessed), how his teeth were bunny like, and how his eyes would look like Bambi’s when he would get lost or confused. His kid was adorable. The more Tony stared, he noticed something alarming that caught his eyes. Jungkook’s knuckles were bruised. From what Tony can tell, they were relatively fresh. He averted his eyes back to his shake and began to think of where the kid could have gotten those brusies. The gym? He knew that the kid was down there longer than he was, but how come his knuckles were bruised. The only reason they would be is if he somehow accidentally punched a wall repeatedly or if he used the punching bags in the gym, which made Tony a bit shocked. Jungkook always refused to use the punching bags because he was afraid that he would break them so easily that Tony would have to buy hundreds more (not that Tony didn’t mind, he could buy tons more if the kid wanted him too). If Jungkook indeed did use the punching bag then he would have known to tape up his hands first and wear his boxing gloves. See, Tony was an overprotective mentor so he had taught Jungkook to take care of his hands when boxing.
“Jungkook?” Tony asked, only to get a hum of acknowledgement from the kid. “Did you use the punching bag? Not that I mind kid, I would buy a hundred if you really wanted to go to town on them, but did you?”
Jungkook stopped drinking his shake, put his cup down, stared at his lap,and nodded. He then pulled his hands closer to his lap and held them together, trying to cover the bruises that Tony had already seen.
“Okay. That’s fine, but why didn’t you wrap your hands up and put some gloves on? You know I taught you how to. Unless you forgot to? I can show you how to do it again.”
“I know how to do it. I just forgot to do it.”
“Oh. Well try to remember to do that next time or your hands will look like how they look now. Why don’t we go put some ice on them?”
Jungkook nodded and moved his hands away from his lap.
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“Jesus Christ Barnes. You’re like Steve, you run like a goddamn cheetah. Why do I even go running with you guys?” Sam complained while chugging his water. “Leaving me in your dust! I need a new set of lungs. You guys ran like 13 miles in 30 minutes. You should be ashamed of yourself. You should take another lap. Did you just take it? I assume y'all just took it.”
“Oh shut up Wilson. You just need to practice running. Or you know not suck at it.” Bucky replied without missing a beat.
“Oh you’re right Jesus. Let me just inject myself with some of that super soldier heroine that you guys took.” Sam said rolling his eyes, rolling up his sleeve and making needle injection motions. “And I’m pretty sure I don’t suck at it. I would say to suck it, but I think there’s someone else you would like to suck off.”
“What are you saying Sam-I-am? Huh? Too scared to admit that you suck at something. As for the sucking part, wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Oh do tell Angelina Jolie. Who would you tie your hair up for?”
“Alright. That's enough you two. Stop complaining and let's go eat some breakfast.” Steve said, interrupting the cat fight between the two. He then clapped his hands together and went towards the kitchen. “I’m thinking protein shakes and poptarts for our grand meal to start the day off.”
“Yeah Stevie that sounds great.” Bucky called out to Steve, looking at the direction in which he left with a lovesick puppy gaze.
Sam let out a scoff and stared at Bucky. “Why don’t you just drop on your knees already?! Just make sure to propose first and then wear protection, Grandpa.”
“Can it Wilson or I’ll shove my fist up your ass.”
“I’m not sure I’m the one you want to do that to.”
Bucky let out a growl and went to the kitchen. Sam chuckled and chased after the pair. He then sat at the kitchen counter and watched Bucky who was watching Steve cut some fruit and get the blender really for some protein shakes.
“Really Steve? Pop tarts? Why don’t you let the certified chef make breakfast, you Icicle pop.”
“Cmon Sam we had a big breakfast yesterday. Let’s just have a couple pop tarts you renowned chef.” Steve replied while finishing off the shakes and popping various flavors of pop tarts into the toaster.
“That's not the insult you think it is, Frosty the Snowman.”
“Trust me Sam. You wouldn’t want good ole righteous Captain America to insult you. I think the only insult he could pull out of his ass is that your shoes are untied or something cheesy like that.” Bucky said while spinning on the kitchen chair in Steve’s direction
“You know what Barnes.” Steve said putting down the knife and crossing his arms against his chest while raising his eyebrow at Bucky.
“If anyone would have told me that a strawberry flavor fill for a piece of flatbread would be this good, I would have laughed in their face and called them crazy.” Bucky said out loud trying to break the tension that was between him and Steve and trying to distract Steve from the blush growing on his face. Steve chuckled and looked at him with amusement in his eyes.
“Wait till you have the s’mores one Buck. They are to die for.” Steve replied sipping his cup of coffee.
“Alright, I think that’s enough Hallmark channel moments for me. I’m going to take a 5 hour nap so no one disturb me, unless there’s aliens again.” Sam said, getting out of his chair and heading to the elevator.
“I don’t think that qualifies as a nap bird head.” Bucky called out to Sam while turning his chair in his direction. Bucky smirked as Sam just quietly flipped him off while the elevator doors were closing. He then whipped his chair back around to face Steve who was eating his fourth pop tart. God Bucky was a whipped coward. Yes he was a feared ex-assassin, but when it came to Steve, it was like he was back in the 40’s, being really soft and vulnerable towards him. Bucky could only remember bits and pieces at a time, but from what he can remember they were beautiful and fun. He could remember going to the Rogers household everyday after school, whether it was to walk Steve home or to check up on him if he was sick. He remembers the scrawny little thing that Steve used to be. He remembers staring at him for hours on end while Steve was too focused on drawing in his sketchbook at the dining table.
“Buck. Hey bucky. Are you okay there?” Steve’s voice breaking Bucky out of his thoughts of his blue eyes.
“Huh yeah. I’m fine. Just a bit tired.” He replied while stretching his arms above his head.
Steve narrowed his eyes at him and nodded, “Well why don’t you go rest for a while. I’m going to head down to the gym for a while.”
“No, it's fine. I’ll go with you. I got to blow off some steam.”
“Okay just let me clean up and then we’ll head down to the gym.”
After they finished cleaning, they headed towards the elevator, and as soon as they hit the gym, they worked out like their life depended on it. They finished working out 2 hours later and headed to the showers, which was in the back of the gym. As they were showering they heard 2 familiar voices enter the gym, Tony and his kid intern. They decided to take longer showers in favor of the others getting tired early and leaving. It would take another hour till they heard one of them leave.
They finished getting dressed and were going to silently make their way to the elevator when they heard a loud smack echo off the gym walls. They began to walk to the area where they heard the booming sound and hid behind a machine, what they saw surprised them. The kid was standing there breathing erratically with his hands in fists at his sides. The kid seemed to snap out of a daze and began to shake, he was starting to freak out. Steve took a step towards the kid in an attempt to help, but Bucky held him back and shook his head. Stark would kill them if they even approached the kid.
They heard the stuttering and breathy conversation the kid had with the A.I. They saw his hands shake as he began to sweep something they couldn’t see. They saw his shoulders sag and how he dragged himself to the elevator. They popped out their hiding place and began to walk towards what the kid was cleaning up. What they saw made their eyes widen. The intern was cleaning up the sand that had spilled out from the punching bag on the floor. Both of them looked shocked. There was no way a kid who was injured just a couple of days ago would be able to do something like this unless… unless he was like Bucky and Steve. No, that couldn’t be possible, Bucky thought to himself. Steve was given the only true serum, while Bucky and the other super soldiers were given some Hydra knock off version of it. None of the other super soldiers were alive. He had known most of them.
The only way the kid would have this type of strength is if he was somehow adopted by Hydra and escaped or if someone else had given him it, either way that kid was experimented on. Experiment on. A little kid was experimented on. The thought of it gave Bucky chills down his spine. Sure He wasn’t that old when he went through the same thing but this kid looked no older than 14. He’s too young to be going through anything like that. To be in so much pain and trauma at a young age, would haunt the kid for the rest of his life, it would destroy whatever's left of him. To hell with Stark’s off limit rule, he would do anything to protect the kid. Clearly Steve thought differently than Bucky.
“What the hell? Who is this intern? Tony’s not telling us something about him. This kid is dangerous and definitely poses a threat if he can do something like this.” Steve says, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Steve. I think the kid’s like us. I don’t know how but somehow he is.” Bucky replied, trying to get Steve to see that the kid poses no threat.
“No, Buck. That’s not possible. No one would know how to even make it, not after we burned all the research.”
“Steve. I’m sure the kid’s not dangerous. If Stark trusts him then maybe we should too.”
“Bucky, the last time we let Tony tamper with some type of thing he knows little about, it ended in people dying and the accords being made.” Steve says his voice stern, jaw clenched, and shoulders tensed.
“Don’t be stupid, Rogers. I’m sure he doesn’t make the same mistakes twice. I’ve seen his security system and his suit upgrades.” Bucky replied, glaring at him.
“Look I just don’t want you to get hurt Buck again.”
Bucky let out a sigh and shook his head, “ Stop. I don’t need you to protect me, Stevie. I’m a big boy and an ex-assassin, I’m pretty sure I can take care of myself.”
“Buck.”
“Shut up Rogers. Look, let's go and rest. We’ll ask Stark some questions later.”
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Jungkook laid down in his bed as Tony left for an emergency meeting. He couldn’t think of anything to do. He wasn’t allowed in the lab, he wasn’t allowed to patrol since he was a long way from Queens, he couldn’t leave the facility because of the Rogues, he couldn’t even work on his web shooters or climb on the ceiling! God he was bored out of his mind. The only thing he could think of was games. Games. He could go down to the arcade! Yes! The rogues wouldn’t really go down there since they’re kind old, Jungkook thought to himself.
He took the elevator to the arcade room. He was super excited and was basically jumping off the walls. As soon as he got there, the smile fell off his face, there in the room were two other people; Wanda and Vision. Jungkook didn’t have any problem with Vision but he didn’t know anything about Wanda. As far as he was concerned Wanda had a vendetta against Mr.Stark and was a part of the Rogues team.
Jungkook felt his shoulders tense and quietly walked by the pair who were playing air hockey. He walked to the back of the room and began to play Pacman.
“Jungkook. There’s no need to be tense. We are not going to harm you. We are here to make peace.” Vision said, noticing Jungkook’s change in attitude. Wanda stiffened and looked over at Jungkook, who slowly turned around and nodded.
Jungkook paused the game and exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He walked towards where the pair was, took a deep breath, put a smile on and extended his hand out to Wanda.
“H-hi. I’m Jungkook Jeon. I’m Mr.Stark’s intern. N-nice to meet you. I hope we can become friends and get along.”
Wanda froze and looked warily at his hand. Jungkook’s smile began to falter and he slowly began to take his hand back. Wanda noticed what he was doing and quickly shook his hand and let out a small smile.
“Hello. I’m Wanda Maxioff. It’s nice to meet you too. I also hope we get along and become friends.”
Jungkook felt his heat warm and let out a big smile.
“Do you know how to play Mario Kart?”