The Spark

“(Y/N), you need to focus”

I sigh, clenching my fists to extinguish the flames on my hands. I rub my hands over my face, looking up into the patient face of Wanda, who is standing on the other side of the room, her red powers roiling and writhing over her hands.

“Focus on what?” I groan, looking down at my hands.

“You need to focus on controlling it, not letting it control you” I am just about to retort that it doesn’t control me when the door to the smaller training room bursts open, and Tony strolls in, followed by a tall, muscular blonde man, who immediately bursts into flames and throws a fire ball at me.

Swearing, I catch the fire ball in my bare hands, extinguishing it with a clap of my hands.

“What the hell dude!” I yell at the blonde man, who just chuckles and the fire on his body fades away leaving him in a pair of what must be fire-resistant shorts. He struts forward, into my personal space and grins down at me.

“I promise you’ll enjoy this” He says with a smirk, and I flinch. He’s so distracted at leering at my face so he doesn’t see me pull my hand back, but Tony does. Tony jumps forward with a shout but I had already set my hand ablaze, then slammed my palm straight into the blonde man’s chest, using the wind to help me, and he goes flying across the room, slamming against the opposite wall. He grunts and slides down to the ground, a charred hand mark on his chest.

“Who. Are. You?” I emphasise each word loudly so he can hear me clearly from across the room. I wait for reply as he rolls onto his side as he attempts to get up. My lips draw back into a snarl as he laughs, getting to his feet and walking slowly towards me.

“Well aren’t you a fiery one?” I go to take a step back but someone’s warm hands wrap around my shoulders, holding me still. I start to squirm in the person’s grip but the owner of the hands quickly walks around me to reveal Tony, who’s facial expression is full of worry and concern.

“(Y/N), sweetheart, it’s alright. This is the obnoxious and idiotic Johnny Storm. Remember Bruce telling you about him?” Tony squeezes my shoulders carefully, eyeing my flaming hand subtly. Looking down, I see that the flames had turned a deep red and spread up my arm.

“Sorry Tony” I mumble, clenching my hand to extinguish the flames, my other hand running over my face.

“No worries sweet cheeks, good to know you can defend yourself” Tony shrugs, but I can tell that he was slightly nervous. He pulls me into a side hug, then moves out of the way so I’m facing Johnny again.

“Hi, I’m Johnny Storm, part of the Fantastic Four” Johnny smiles at me, his eyebrows rising as he waits for me to say something. But I stay silent, looking him up and down, then I finally rest my gaze on his face. Tony pokes me, and I sigh.

“I’m (Y/N). (Y/N) (Y/L/N)” I say flatly. Tony pokes me again.

“Nice to meet you. Sorry bout hitting you” I quickly add that last part before Tony pokes me again. And Tony seems pleased that he doesn’t have to poke me again.
“So, Tony told me you have a power you need to control?” Johnny smirks as he brushes away the charred handprint off his chest. Shrugging, I snap my fingers and flames spread up from my fingertips and up to my elbows. He makes a surprised face and walks closer to me, gesturing for me to raise my hands and he circles me, taking a look at my ass on the way around.

I snort, and gesture for him to hold up his hand to mine. Humming, He lifts his hand up, and with a smirk of my own, I touch my flaming fingertip to his palm, and flames spread over his hand and back over his body, and he yells in surprise, jumping back.

I chuckle genuinely, my eyes lighting up as he looks at me suspiciously.

“What, how?” Johnny asks, examining the new fire on his skin, watching it writhe and swirl in patterns.

I shrug, then frown as he clicks his fingers, obviously trying to turn the fire off, but it doesn’t.

“Um, why isn’t the fire going out?” Johnny asks, a little panicked as he shakes his hand frantically. I smile as he brushes at his arms.

“(Y/N)” Tony says warningly. I sigh.

“I don’t know! Maybe it’s a different type of fire, mine versus his kind of thing” Johnny looks at me with a shocked expression.

“Did you know this would happen?” He looks at me getting closer to me.

“Well, seeing as it isn’t your fire, it’s mine, it would make sense that you wouldn’t be able to control it” I step away from him.

“Well, if you can control it” Tony’s voice fades off, and I know what he’s thinking.

“Tony, I don’t know how to control it! That’s what I’ve been trying to do with Wanda for the past hour!” I yell at him, waving my hands around, the fire leaving trails in the air. I sense Wanda coming up behind me, and she whispers in my ear.

“Try control it like you did with the shower water”

I feel my face frown, then I click the fire on my hands, on, off and on again. Then I look back at Johnny.

“Um, okay Johnny, try and stay still yeah?” I walk a little bit closer to him, and he stands still, but fidgets with his fingers. Sighing, I raise my hands, and I close my eyes, envisioning the flames flowing off Johnny’s skin, running onto the ground like water. When I feel a rush of power, I open my eyes, and I see the flames running onto the ground and flowing towards me. Then I feel it writhe up my legs, around my waist and up onto my forearms, gathering in my palms.

“Oh wow” I gasp, staring at the fire in my palms. I turn to Wanda, and she gasps.

“(Y/N), your eyes! Your eyes are glowing” she hisses, and I quickly extinguish the fire, and I presume my eyes fade as well.

I turn back to Tony and Johnny, and smile, hoping that they hadn’t heard Wanda. And I guess they didn’t, as Tony pats me on shoulder and Johnny whoops, covered in his own fire once again.

Snickering, I form a ball of fire in my palms.

“Hey Johnny!” I throw the fireball at Johnny the instant he turns around, and he yells, falling to the floor as the fire ball flies over his head and dissipates against the wall.

“Hey!”

“Karma, bitch” I can hear the sass in my voice, and I don’t even care. Tony snorts as Johnny looks up in shock, and Wanda snickers.

“Jerk”

……………………

“Hey Buck” I flop onto the couch next to Bucky, groaning as I lean my head back, burrowing into the comfy pillows and then go limp.

“Doll, come here” Bucky chuckles, gently pulling me over to him so my back is facing his chest. Protesting, I go to turn around to face him but he tuts. Confused, I stay still, and flinch when his fingers press gently into the back of my neck.

“Buck, what -?” My voice falters as I melt under Bucky’s gentle massaging fingers, which wander all over my back, managing to find all the knots and kinks in my back. I squirm when he hits a particular delicate spot and he chuckles, one hand still massaging my back while his metal hand brushes away the loose hair on the nape of my neck.

“Ah Jesus Buck, that feels so good” I moan, pressing back against his fingers. After a few more minutes of his administrations, I feel so much better, and I pull away from him, turning back to him with a smile on my face.

“Thanks Bucky, I really needed that”

“I could tell” He looks at me curiously. “So what got you so tense, sweetheart?”

I blush, biting my lip. Should I tell him? He deserves to know.

“Bucky, I want to show you something, but I really don’t want to freak you out” I hold out my hands in a protective gesture, trying to protect myself from what I thought would be a hit from Bucky.

“Doll, why are you scared?” Bucky’s hand reaches out and caresses my face, his other hand pulling my hands down from my defensive position. When I shrug, he sighs, lifting my chin up so our eyes meet.

“(Y/N), I am a super soldier assassin who has been cryogenically frozen on and off for over 70 years, I live in a tower full over Avengers who are brimming with magical talent or super soldier serum. I won’t freak out. I promise” His face is open and his eyes concerned as he looks at me. Sighing, I nod, and he smiles gently, releasing my face as I get up to my feet and stand in front of him, my stance wide. Curious, he settles back against the couch, looking up at me with kind eyes.

Breathing in deeply, I click my fingers and my hands burst into flames. Bucky gasps, reaching out to my hands in concern until he realises that I’m not burning. Eyes wide, he leans forward, staring at my arms in awe. He brings up his metal hand and passes it through the flames, and I flinch back, thinking what happened with Johnny would happen with Bucky but nothing happened.

Bucky goes to say something but I shake my head, holding my hand up to indicate that there’s more. Extinguishing the flames, I pick up Bucky’s glass of water that he had brought with him and set it in front of me. Then, I pull the water out of the glass with my powers and transform it into a ball, levitating it in front of Bucky.

“Oh” Bucky murmurs, reaching his hand into the sphere and smiles as the water rushes around his hand. I grunt and let it drop back into the glass, it splashes Bucky a little bit.

“Um” I take a step back as Bucky stands up and takes a step towards me, his face blank. He steps forward, getting closer to me with every step, and I can’t move back as there is another couch behind me. Eventually, we are standing nose-to-nose, and I can feel his cool, minty breath on my face. Gently, he raises his hand and cups my cheek, and his eyes are warm as he searches my face.

“Doll, what you have, is amazing” Bucky murmurs softly, running his metal hand up and down my arm as his flesh thumb rubs circles on my cheekbone.

“I’m glad that you told me, but like I said, I live in an entire building of Avengers, so I’m used to those kind of powers” I search his blue eyes, and I see nothing but honesty reflected there.

“Thank you, James” I whisper.

“(Y/N), why did you think I’d be angry that you had powers?” Bucky lifts my face up so I look him in the eyes again.

“I don’t know, you said that I made you feel almost human, and I thought maybe since I’m not exactly human anymore” I shrug, and Bucky sighs.

“(Y/N), I will never think that, because you do make me feel human, normal.” Bucky’s solemn face breaks into a grin.

“Plus, we still have a date to go on”

“Oh!” My eyes light up, and I straighten, looking Bucky in the eyes. “Really?”

“Of course, Sweet heart. Come on” Bucky holds out his hand to me, and I grab it, only registering that it was his metal hand when we are halfway out the door.
“Buck, where are we going?” I ask breathlessly as he pulls me into the elevator, pressing the up button to what I assume is the highest point in the building.

“Well I was wondering around the building like I normally do in the middle of the night, and I found this level” Bucky’s hand sweep the room when the elevator doors open reveal an entire floor full to the brim of new and old arcade games.

“Oh!” I gasp again, stepping out of the elevator with Bucky and gazing at the games around me. I glance over at Bucky, and he gestures around the room with a beaming grin on his face. I bounce on my feet and release his hand, and I start to rush towards the nearest arcade game when he shouts.

“Hey Doll?” He holds out a purse full of arcade tokens to me. I roll my eyes and grab the tokens, and grab Bucky’s hand as well, pulling him along with me.

Three hours pass when the tokens finally run out. Turns out, not so ironically, that Bucky excelled at the older games like Pacman and space invader, as well as the shooting games, but I won at all the sports games, and whether I cheated by manipulating the air was up for debate.

Grinning, I lean against Bucky’s shoulder as we twine our hands together. Gently, he guides me over to a counter, where behind it there is four entire rows of stuffed toys and prizes that could be won.

“Hello there! I’m Sarah and I’m running this book today. Please hand me your tickets and pick your prizes!” Sarah smiles toothily, taking the tickets Bucky handed to her and running them through a token counting machine to reveal that we had won over a thousand tickets.

“Ha, damn” I whisper, examining the piece of paper with our ticket number on it. Bucky nudges me gently, pushing me towards the counter. I glance back at him, and he nods, his eyes gleaming as he walks up next to me and wraps his arm around my waist.

Smiling to myself, I look at the shelves of toys and look around, seeing what he would like. After a couple of seconds, I notice a sign that said 20 tickets for one round in the photo booth. Grinning, I ask Sarah for two rounds in the photo booth, and she does, smiling as she hands me the vouchers. I look back at Bucky, who’s already holding something behind his back. I walk over to him, trying to step around him to see what’s behind him, but he just tuts, chuckling as I fake frown at him.

“Sweetheart, what did you choose?” Bucky distracts me, and I proudly show him the passes for the photo booth machine.

“Now, your turn” I insist, and he grins, revealing a plastic bag filled with what looked like boxes.

Intrigued, I take the bag he offers me, and open it to see a jumble of Avenger Pop figurines, and right on top was the Pop figurine of Bucky. I chuckle, caressing the box of Bucky gently. I look up at him, then my eyes are drawn to something behind him.

“Oh” Bucky looks around at my exclamation, and his eyes focus on the giant teddy bear that I was looking at.

“Would you like that sweet heart?” Bucky points at that, and I can only smile and nod.

“Hi Sarah, my Doll over there would like that giant Teddy bear up there, please” Sarah starts to shake her head.

“Sorry sir, the bear is 1500 tickets”

I hear those words, and I sigh, and I go to say something to Bucky but he holds up his hand for silence. He turns back to Sarah and slips a note out of his pocket. He hands it to her and she reads it, then nods.

“Okay Sir, here you go” She puts down the note and reaches up to the giant bear, taking it down and handing it across the counter to Bucky. Smiling at me, he turns around and hands me the bear. I smirk, hugging the bear to my chest.

“So, how’d you convince Sarah to overlook our obvious lack of tickets?” I twine our fingers together as we walk towards the photo booth on the other side of the floor.
“Well, I was digging around Tony to see if you knew any good places for hanging out, and he mentioned this floor, and he used his magic ability with money and wrote that note that basically says whoever holds this note can have everything for free” Bucky shrugs as he gently takes the bag of figurines and the bear from my arms and places it on the ground next to the photo booth machine. I lean into his arms, looking up into his eyes.

“So, what did Tony say? Did he know you were going on a date?” I raise my eyebrows at him, but he only chuckles, pulling me into the booth. Caught off guard, I squeak and fall into his lap. Laughing, he helps me get into a more comfortable position on his lap, snickering as I wrap my arms around his neck.

“Bucky, you are a horrible person” I pout at him, but he just laughs.

“Yet, here you are, with me” his eyebrows raise at me. I shrug, shifting on his lap.

“Come on Doll, let’s take some photos” Bucky grabs the voucher and pushes it into the slot, and we both watch the screen in front of us light up.

“Your photos will be taken in sets of threes. You first picture will be taken in 10 seconds” The mechanical voice echoes around the little box that we were sitting in. Smiling, we settle into a comfortable position, our faces facing the camera.

CLICK

I blink at the flash of light, still smiling, when Bucky’s hand creeps up to my face. He gently turns my face so that I’m facing him. We lock eyes, his warm blue eyes meeting my own.

CLICK

With our eyes still locked, he softly brushes some hair out of my face with his other hand, then he leans in and gently presses his lips to mine.

CLICK

I open my eyes when Bucky pulls away, a slow smile on his lips as he searches my face. I smile back at him, then quickly lean in and give him another peck on the lips.

His eyes brighten and he goes to kiss me again when the machine whirs and spits out two copies of the photos that were just taken, in beautiful, glossy photo paper.

Grinning, I lean over and grab the photos, pressing one into Bucky’s hand while I examine the other.

“You look beautiful (Y/N)” Bucky whispers into my ear, his chin resting on my shoulder as we look at the photos together.

“And you look so handsome” I whisper back, then I straighten up in his lap, and I wave the last photo voucher in front of his face.

“One more round?” I ask, and he nods happily.

“Anything for you” He presses a quick kiss to my forehead the takes the voucher from my hand and feeds it into the machine.

“Your photos will be taken in sets of threes. You first picture will be taken in 10 seconds” the mechanical voice repeats itself. Chuckling, I wrap my arms tighter around his neck, burrowing my face into his shoulder as he laughs, resting his cheek on my hair.

CLICK

I pull back from Bucky, sneaking my hand behind his head in a bunny hand gesture, and he looks at me funny, his eyebrow cocked. I giggle, our gaze locked together.

CLICK

Bucky hums, a dazed smile on his face as he looks at me, his hand caressing my cheek.

“You’re beautiful (Y/N)” Bucky whispers, and I can’t keep a smile off my face. I surge forward and lock lips with Bucky, my hand winding in his hair.

CLICK

I hear the machine beep and spit out our photos, but I keep kissing Bucky gently, pulling his hair slightly. Groaning, he pulls away, his hand falling to my waist.

“Doll, I would love to keep kissing you, but I don’t think Sarah would appreciate us kissing in here” Bucky mock pouts. I smile and give him another peck on the lips before grabbing his hand and pulling him out with me.

When we get out of the booth, he wraps his metal arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him as he hands the pictures to me and picks up the prizes.

As we head towards the elevator, I wave goodbye to Sarah, who waves back as we get into the elevator.

“Thank you, Bucky, for taking me out on a date” I say to Bucky as we exit the lift on my floor, and he walks me to my bedroom door.

“It really was my pleasure (Y/N). Watching you laugh and smile, it really was amazing” Bucky smiles at me, his hand automatically going up to rub at his neck. Smiling, I grab his hand, rubbing small circles onto his skin.

“James, it was really amazing seeing you happy as well. You look even more beautiful smiling than you do being all moody and serious. Though that is hot when you do” I tease, and I chuckle when his cheeks flush.

“Goodnight Bucky. See you tomorrow?” I wrap my arms around him, looking up at his face. He nods, gently kissing my forehead before pulling away from me, handing me the prizes.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, on the avenger communal floor” Bucky promised, pulling away, and walking back towards the elevator. When he enters the elevator, he turns around and gives me a small wave, until he disappears behind the doors.

With an uncontrollable grin on my face, I walk into my room, and I place the prizes on the bed.

“Ooh, where did you get those, sweetcheeks?” I jump at the voice, turning around to see Tony sitting in an armchair in the corner of the room, his legs folded as he studies me. Then his eyes flicker down to my hands. I glance down as well to see my hands covered in flames. I flush, muttering an apology as I extinguish the flames.
“So, I think I heard Frosty outside –“Tony grins as I blush even harder, and he stands up, walking over to me, his eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, um, you did” I admit, and his eyebrows rise even higher.

“Did he – take you on a date?” Tony asks incredulously.

“Yeah, he did! So, what?” I say defensively, my eyebrows furrowing at him. Tony looks stunned at this confession.

“What? Nothing’s wrong with that!” Tony’s mouth falls open. “Is that why Frosty was asking me about the arcade floor?”

“I guess so” I snort as Tony looks amazed. Then I turn around and take out the pop figurines out of their bag, then take them out of their boxes, and I set the figurines on my bedside table, setting Bucky near the front. I can hear Tony snickering behind me, but I refuse to turn around. Then, after I set the large bear against my pillows, I remember the photos and take them out of my pocket, smiling as I look at them.

I don’t notice Tony creeping up behind me to see what I’m looking at, then he reaches over my shoulder and grabs the photo out of my hands.

“Hey!” I exclaim as he backs out of my reach, examining the photos closely. After a minute, he looks up at me.

“You really like Bucky, don’t you?” He says quietly, looking up at me seriously. I nod, and he breaks out in a genuine smile.

“That’s great (Y/N), it really is. Does he know about -?” He gestures at my hands, but I know what he means.

“Yeah, I showed him before we went out to the arcade floor” I look up at him, my expression serious.

“Tony, I want to show everyone my powers. Get it out in the open.”

Tony nods to himself, but then he pauses, looking up at me.

“Well, about getting things out in the open, there’s someone new arriving at the tower. But only for a couple of weeks” Tony says quickly, studying my face for a reaction. I shrug.

“So?”

“So, this new guy is known as The Trickster. But he’s Thor’s brother, so Thor will be keeping an eye on him and keep him under control”

“Oh, Loki. Alright” I shrug as I flop onto the bed. I look up to see Tony’s confused expression and I sigh.

“Tony, I read books, especially mythology books. So, of course I’ve read about Loki” I pause.

“Honestly, I feel a little bit sorry for him” I mutter, and I go to turn onto my side but I hear Tony’s confused hum, so I turn back around to him.

“Well, he was adopted by his parent’s enemies, and is only told when he meets his birth father when he and his adopted brother go to fight him. So, honestly, I don’t blame him for getting mad and going evil” I rub my face.

“I guess I never thought of it like that” Tony says slowly, but then he rubs his face.

“Anyway, he’ll arrive either tonight or tomorrow with Thor” Tony smiles, and places the photos on my nightstand next to the pop figurine of Bucky.

“(Y/N), I’m really glad that you and Barnes are getting along well” he says sincerely, then his eyebrows pop into a typical Stark smirk.

“Getting along really well” his emphasis on the word ‘really’ makes me snicker. Smiling, he walks towards the door, turning back towards me when he gets to the door.

“Goodnight (Y/N)” Tony says gently. I was already really tired so when I answered, I didn’t even realise what I had said before I fell asleep.

“Night Dad”

Tony only smiles at your sleeping form, curled into a ball on top of your sheets. Quietly, he switches off the light and gently closes the door.