Shopping Trip
“So this is our floor.” Clint gestured to the room in front of him as he, Bucky and Lilith all stepped out of the elevator. The room they stepped into was a huge open plan living space with a sleek, modern kitchen at one end and a large, very comfortable looking lounge at the other. Separating the two areas was a small dining table that looked barely used, actually the entirety of the kitchen looked barely used.
“Your room is down this way.” Bucky grunted while leading her down a small hallway and into the last door on the left, while Clint moved toward another room in the suite. Inside there was another wall of floor to ceiling windows with a massive bed against the opposite wall facing them. To the right of it was a door that Lilith guessed lead to a bathroom.
“Thank you for letting me stay here this is amazing.” She spun slowly looking everywhere before walking towards the bed that Bucky was now sitting on and sat next to him.
“It’s fine and Clint seems to like you.” Bucky shrugged as she sat next to him looking out at the view of the city. In the silence, Lilith took the time to process what had just happened. In just a few hours she had managed to finally get a good night’s rest and found a place to stay long term too, she wouldn’t call it home, at least not yet. Feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all, Lilith pulled a piece of cold bacon from her hoodie to give her hands something to do. She pulled the paper towel it had been wrapped in off and began to eat.
“Where the hell did you get that from? Jeez, is that from breakfast?” Bucky gasped as Lilith stuffed her face. Without looking up from her food, Lilith pulled a banana out of her hoodie and passed it to Bucky who took it with a mumbled and very sad sounding thank you. Once she was done she glanced at the ex-assassin and shrugged, pulling more food from her hoodie and placing it on the bed beside her.
“I stuffed it all in there when I thought I was gonna have to leave. I probably would have pocketed some even if I had known I would be staying though. It’s just a tough habit to break when you’ve had to scavenge for food most of your life y’know?” she flashed Bucky a shaky smile before staring at her hands and resolutely ignoring him. Before things became to awkward though Clint walked in and flopped face first in between them.
“So, do you like the room Lil’? Cool, snacks.” Clint peaked out at her from the mattress and intertwined his hand with Bucky’s while reaching for a slice of cold toast.
“Yeah, it’s amazing! I have never had a room this big ever.” Granted she had never really had home let alone a room she could remember but she wasn’t gonna tell them that.
“Okay now that you’ve had the grandish tour of our floor we should probably get you ready for you shopping trip. Nat should be able to lend you some clothes to go out in. Buck wanna help her with the shower?” Clint said directing the last part towards Bucky as he stood from the bed and headed towards the door. As Bucky and Lilith both moved to get up Clint stopped walking and turned to face them.
“There is just one question I want to ask. Why our floor?” he was looking at the floor now, nose scrunched in confusion.
“What?” was Lilith’s ever eloquent response before she realised what he had asked and scrambled to answer before anyone else could speak.
“Oh. Uh, I heard what you said when Peter was showing me around” she air quoted the last part causing both men to snort “and well no one’s ever really cared before.” She whispered, refusing to meet either men’s eyes. Before she could move to get to the bathroom though Lilith was wrapped up in two pairs of strong, muscular arms. One of which smushed her shades into her face.
“Ah! Shit!” Both men dropped their arms and flinched back, like Lilith had burned them.
“What’s wrong?” Clint asked as he checked her over for any injuries.
“My shades. They got pushed into my face it’s fine.” Lilith readjusted them and before she could be swept back up into another hug she strode to the bathroom.
The bathroom was, as seems to be the theme in this place, huge. There was a bath that could have probably fit the hulk in it at one end of the room and a massive fancy looking shower in the corner, with a beautiful double vanity and mirror in the middle. Lilith glared at her reflection as she slid the shades from her eyes. She didn’t understand why everyone here was so okay with her looks. Well most of her looks anyway, they seemed to hate her eyes for some reason. Most people though would have run for the hills by now, and yet these people had welcomed them into their home.
“Don’t worry about wearing those shades around our apartment. Clint and I don’t care how you look. Your eyes are awesome though.” Bucky called from the doorway, making Lilith jump and let out the most pathetic squeak she had ever heard.
“Why give me the shades in the first place then?” She asked, still glaring at her reflection.
“That was for Tony’s sake mostly. It’s nothing against you personally he just has capital I Issues and your eyes reminded him of one of them. if you want to know more than that you’re gonna have to ask Tony yourself.” Bucky pushed himself off the door frame and walked over to the vanity and pulled a towel from underneath it. Placing it near the sink, he moved back toward the shower to begin explaining how to use it, leaving after he was done and with the quiet reassurance that he would just be in the living room.
After at least an hour Lilith was finally clean and headed back into the bedroom where she noticed that someone had left a pile of clothes at the end of the bed. There was a plain, black shirt, comfortable looking jeans and a large hoodie that was fluffy on the inside. Guessing they were for her, Lilith dried herself off and got dressed.
When she was at least semi presentable she moved into the living room and to her perplexed delight was met with Clint and Bucky sitting and reading, right where Bucky said he would be. Clint was perched on the back of the plush couch reading a comic, with Bucky sitting directly in front of him. They both turned their heads to look at her as Lilith entered the room and Clint smiled
“I see you found Nat’s clothes ok.” he greeted cheerily as she moved to sit in front of him.
“Yeah I did. I should probably thank her. ‘cept I don’t exactly know who that is.” Lilith blushed as Clint and Bucky both chuckled.
“Oh, she didn’t say anything at breakfast did she? Well she’s the Black Widow. The young woman that sat next to me was Wanda and the red android was Vision.” He leaped off the back of the couch and headed to the elevator calling over his shoulder “You kinda need to come with me coz I think if we make Tony wait any longer to take you shopping he will try to kidnap you.” Bucky, who had moved from the couch to walk next to Lilith as they headed toward the elevator, gave her a quizzical glance when she flinched slightly at Clint’s words, flashes of cages, lab tables and branding irons dancing across her vision.
“You okay, doll?” Bucky asked leaning close to her ear speaking low enough so that only she could hear him. Not trusting her own voice not to give away her discomfort, Lilith nodded trying to smile, though she was pretty sure it just made her look nauseous, and stepped into the elevator that was now waiting for them. The ride was mostly quiet except for Clint humming to himself. As the doors opened onto what Lilith was beginning to believe was the communal floor, Bucky nudged her and handed her back her shades. Sliding them on she stepped out of the elevator and saw Tony, Bruce and Natasha all sitting in various seats around the living space.
“She lives!” Tony shouted lifting his arms as if praying to a higher power. At the loud noise Lilith moved, shielding herself behind Clint and Bucky. Natasha, raised an eyebrow at the movement but said nothing.
“Yes, she does.” Bruce dead panned lifting his eyes from the novel he was reading. “How was your room, Lilith?”
“Great. It’s amazing.” She mumbled from behind her wall of muscle acutely aware that Tony was looking at her guiltily.
“Can we go now?” Natasha asked no one in particular moving towards the elevator.
“Yep. You two coming Birdbrain?” Tony sauntered over to stand next to Nat who was waiting in front of the elevator now.
“Nah. I think you guys have it handled and someone should be here for when Sam gets back and starts to sulk.” He rolled his eyes moving to sit in the seat that Bruce had vacated while Bucky took Natasha’s. “Oh, and stop somewhere for lunch, Lil’ hasn’t eaten anything since breakfast.” Tony just waved his hand behind his head as he, Bruce, Nat and Lilith shuffled into the elevator.
“Oh. Thanks for the clothes. Clint said they were yours.” Lilith shifted from one foot to the other, glancing at Natasha.
“It’s alright. Do you have any preference for lunch?” she asked looking at Lilith with a soft smile.
“Not really. As long as it’s edible I’ll probably eat it.” At that she got two identical stares full of sympathy and one look of cold calculation, which was a little unnerving.
“Can we eat somewhere quiet though I don’t particularly feel like being in a crowd today.” Bruce asked.
“Sure, I know this great little café on the way to the mall.” Tony began to explain what they were going to do for the rest of the day gesturing with his hands. He kept up his constant stream of babble even as they got out of the elevator and into a very expensive looking silver car. As they pulled out of the garage Natasha, who was in the back with Lilith, turned to face her.
“Tomorrow I’m going to start teaching you some basic self-defence are you ok with that?” She was looking at Lilith with a stare that made it feel like she could see into her soul.
“Yes, that’s fine.” Lilith nodded and stared out the window of the car.
“Of Course. This would go easier if you could tell me a little bit about yourself and what you know, like how you know Russian, for instance.” She prodded but backed off when she noticed that the shadows under the seats began to move, reacting to the fear that even thinking about where that particular skill came from created.
“Not yet. Please.” It came out as a whimper and Lilith lowered her eyes to stare at the floor as the shadows began to settle. She was so focused on keeping control that she missed the concerned looks the others shared.
They stopped at the café and ate lunch in a comfortable almost silence, the sound of Tony and Bruce talking about ‘science things’ and Natasha silently saying, “om nom nom” when she put food into her mouth were the only sounds coming from their table. After they had all eaten and Lilith had stuffed some food into her hoodie pockets, they piled back into the car and went on their way.
The mall was huge, loud and full of people going in every direction, many of whom didn’t seem to notice the small group of Avengers in their midst. Lilith could feel her nails digging into her palms and her breath hitch as her heart made a valiant attempt at leaping from her chest.
“You’d think people would notice us. I mean hardly anyone has and we aren’t even in disguise.” Tony whined, pouting in Lilith’s direction as he led the group further into the shopping complex. “But it is actually good to be left alone for a change. Contrary to popular belief I don’t actually like getting ambushed every time I leave my home.”
“Yes. It is nice to be able to walk around without a disguise of some kind.” Natasha murmured. She was walking next to Lilith on her left while Tony was in front of her and Bruce was to her right. She didn’t even notice her hands unclenching or breathing settle until Tony turned to wink at her and she giggled. These people that she had only known for a day somehow made her feel safe. That in itself was frightening but she didn’t have much time to dwell on it as they stopped in front of a small shop that seemed to sell underwear.
Lilith was sure that her face was glowing red as Natasha ushered her into the store while Bruce and Tony sat outside muttering to each other about something. After a very awkward hour of being fitted and trying on different things they emerged from the shop with two bags worth of undergarments.
The rest of the trip went the same with Natasha leading Lilith through the different stores to try on and buy clothes and shoes and Tony and Bruce hanging back and talking amongst themselves. There were only two times that routine changed, once was when Lilith picked up the latest Iphone and Tony all but tackled her to the ground spluttering and ranting about how Stark phones were at least 100 times better than that old hunk of junk. The other was when they were leaving and Bruce steered them into a tiny bookshop just before the exit.
“I thought you might like something to read sometimes.” he said as they all wandered around the shelves of books, each of them gravitating towards their favourite genres.
“Yeah it would be nice. But you have…”
“Nope don’t care. If you want something just grab it ok? I actually want to spend money on you, it’s how I show affection.” Tony cut Lilith off with practiced ease as he wandered over and smiled brightly but sincerely. His tone made it sound like he had this argument before many times. After that, Lilith began staring at the fantasy section of books not really paying attention to what she pulled from the shelf. She was too busy remember stealing from places like this, always trying to find something to keep her occupied and away from reality. After a while she felt someone tap her shoulder and tensed. Slowly turning she sighed when she saw that it was just Bruce holding a book out to her.
“It’s called Eragon and I thought you might like it seeing as you’ve been studying the fantasy section and pulling out all the books even remotely related to dragons.”
“Thank you. This is great.” Lilith smiled shyly at him as she took the book and moved to look at the comic and graphic novel sections.
By the time they left the mall, with more books than clothes, and managed to get to the car it was nearing dinner time. As they were driving back Natasha was observing her, watching from the corner of her eye as she leaned to look out the windscreen from the back seat. The suspicion that had been fading from her all afternoon was back full force.
Noticing the subtle glare, Lilith began to mentally backtrack to try and find out when the watching actually started and...
Oh no.
It had started after the bra shopping. Specifically, after she tried on her first bra and had gotten Natasha to do it up, which meant that she saw the scar on her shoulder and she definitely knows whose crest it was. Shit! Lilith could feel her breathing hitch slightly, shadows under the seats shifting and writhing. She flinched when she felt a slender hand rest on her shoulder and looked up to see the red head staring at her with concern and thinly veiled curiosity.
“Lil’, I won’t ask about it until you are ready to talk. I trust Clint and Yasha and they are okay with you so you don’t need to worry.” She was rubbing small circles on Lilith’s shoulder and she watched as the shadows at her feet settled and her breathing calmed.
“Thank you.” She muttered as she twisted to look out her window, this time noticing the worried glances that Bruce and Tony shared.