📍BERLIN, GERMANY
───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰ ───

If everyone around him knew that Tony Stark was not having a good day, then they wouldn't have approached him to deliver him even harsher news. Since his mind was paying more attention on fixing the mess Steve and Sam got themselves into, he didn't have time to think of anything — or anyone — else. He had made sure that Vision watched over both (Y/N) and Wanda back at the compound, where he knew she'd be safe and that he didn't have to constantly check over her. Call it an irrational fear, but after being told that she had died in that plane crash all those years ago and suddenly having her back into his life, Tony did not want to risk losing (Y/N) all over again.

A junior agent walked into the office with a phone and tablet in his hands, eyebrows furrowed as if he was deeply worried. His eyes were scanning the area for Tony, so he could disable the red alarm blaring on his phone.

"Excuse me, sir — "

"No, Romania was not Accords-sanctioned," Tony payed him no mind since he was on the phone with Secretary Ross, pacing in the middle of the office. From the corner of his eye, he saw Natasha approaching with the men of the hour. "Colonel Rhodes is supervising cleanup."

Natasha told to Steve and Sam as she guided them to the office. "Try not to break anything while we fix this."

"Consequences? You bet there'll be consequences," Tony continued, eyeing Steve before returning to the call. If he wasn't that busy in his own world, he would've noticed the agent trying to call his attention unsuccessfully. "Obviously you can quote me on that, because I just said it. Anything else? Thank you, sir."

"'Consequences'?" Steve questioned with raised eyebrows once Tony ended the call.

"Secretary Ross wants you both prosecuted," Tony replied and stuffed his phone back in his pocket. "Had to give him something."

"I'm not getting that shield back, am I?"

"Technically, it's the government's property," Natasha was the one to give him an answer, flashing him a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Wings too."

"That's cold," Sam shook his head.

"Warmer than jail," Tony remarked with a smug smile, wanting to catch up with Natasha but his eyes then trailed to the younger agent.

By now, the agent was sweating out of nerves and looked utterly annoyed by the blaring alarm on his screen. He did everything he could to try and shut it down, but he somehow couldn't. The letters in all caps on the tablet read out Security Breach, and he needed help to figure out the problem.

"Wow," Tony firstly exhaled once he saw the agent. "You look pale, little guy. Go get some sun — "

"Sir," the agent finally let some words out. "I'm sorry to interrupt. But, it's the compound. There's been a security breach of some kind."

This made Tony's shoulders tense, he immediately forgot he was supposed to join Natasha in another office. "What? Did you check through all the security footage?"

"That's the problem, sir. I — "

"Mr. Stark," a third voice interrupted the conversation. A security guard of the building came running to the office with a sense of panic. His forehead was covered in beads of sweat and it caught the attention of the people walking through the area. It even stopped Natasha, Steve and Sam in their tracks.

Tony didn't comprehend why the security guard was panicking and urged him to speak. "I'm sorry, sir. I couldn't let — "

"Tony!"

The sound of the anger in that tone made him flinch. Even if he tried to look away from her glare of fury, her anger radiated through the entire room. (Y/N) came strutting into the office with a frown on her face, eyes slowly dispersing the glow on them as they scanned the place until she found the object of her anger. It caught Natasha by surprise, since last time she talked to her there was an ocean between the two.

"(Y/N)? What are you doing here?" Natasha was the one to call on her first since she knew that if Tony did it, smoke might come out of her ears.

This seemed to work. (Y/N)'s glare softened by a the slight move of a muscle. "Had to come here as soon as possible."

"Why? Weren't you in the compound?"

"Yeah," (Y/N) cleared her throat and her eyes flickered to Tony's figure. Her tone turned scarily calm for the anger she expressed just a few seconds ago. "Can we talk? In private, please."

"Sure, honey," Tony nodded hesitantly, fearing what was coming. He took a step closer to her and gestured to follow him. "Come on."

Tony lead the way to one of the many empty offices in the building with (Y/N) following after him with her anger slowly disappearing. There were agents who were still staring with confusion in their eyes, and there were some who tried to calm the security guard down from having a heart attack. Natasha watched them with curiosity from her same spot in the office, her arms crossing on her chest as she joined Sam's side, despite the awkwardness between them.

"Uh-oh. Mom and Dad are fighting," she said in her monotone voice saved for these types of comments, it even brought a smile to Sam's lips.

───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰ ───

Meanwhile, Tony had closed the door to an empty office and allowed (Y/N) to take a seat on one of the chairs. He removed his sunglasses to get a better look at her, since it had been a full day without seeing her face.

"So," he said to break the tense atmosphere. "You want to tell me why you left the compound? You were perfectly fine there."

"Yeah, perfectly fine until I realized it was a prison," (Y/N) crossed her arms defensively.

Tony scoffed incredulously. "Prison? You're exaggerating."

"Oh, am I?"

"It's 100 acres with a lap pool. It's got a screening room," he listed off in his own defense. "There's worse ways to protect people."

"Protection? Is that how you see it?" (Y/N) tilted her head to the side in mocking. "It's fear."

Tony opened his mouth to debate, but (Y/N) was already continuing her words. "It's fear of something that you cannot control, and that freaks you out!"

"You have to understand the situation here."

"I do understand," she continued, standing up from her chair. "What if it had been me, huh? What if it had been me in Nigeria and now people all over the world wanted to lock me up and throw away the key? I know for a fact that you would've done everything in your power to prevent it, and I want to do the same thing for Wanda. We're all she has left."

"She's not a US citizen."

"Oh, really — "

"And they don't grant visas to weapons of mass destruction."

"She's a kid!"

"Give me a break," Tony snapped, until he realized how he lashed out and the hurt expression in (Y/N)'s eyes. He immediately wanted to be swallowed by the ground due to his guilt, but he still needed to say something else. "I'm doing what has to be done. To stave off something worse."

"That is a truth to no one but yourself," (Y/N) did her best to stop her voice from cracking.

Tony passed a hand through his face before saying anything else. He was tired — of the Accords, of keeping Secretary Ross off his back, and especially the fighting. He took a step forward and did his best to lower his voice so only (Y/N) could hear it despite the fact of being in a soundproofed room.

"(Y/N), I don't want to fight," he said, his hands placing themselves on her shoulders.

"Neither do I," (Y/N) told him, her voice shaky. Her mind brought her back to her conversation with Natasha, about how she wasn't going to let an emotional tie with someone affect her decision making. "But this. . .I can't stand still and let it happen."

(Y/N) stepped away from his arms and left the room without a single word or glance his way, leaving Tony to sulk by himself in the room. He knew the window-covered room would not allow that much privacy, but he didn't care then. He covered his eyes to stop the tears threatening to fall down his face, and did his best to check the area to see if anyone else was coming his way.

───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰ ───

(Y/N) huffed down a shaky breath to stop herself from showing the emotional toll the conversation with Tony brought her, especially since she was headed to the office where Sam and Steve were held and she did not want them to ask any questions about her state. She reached the office and saw how Steve's eyes were glued on the screens outside of the room that were monitoring Bucky's cell.

"Look who we have here," Sam was the first one to notice her presence. "Did things work out between you two?"

(Y/N) didn't want to answer that question. "I'm on your side."

"That's the first good thing I've heard all day," Sam replied with a smile, and the conversation made Steve remove his eyes from the screens.

The blond took notice of her quiet demeanor. "Did he try to talk you into it too?"

"Kind of," she responded. "We're not on the same page right now."

Steve was about to say something else, when Sharon Carter walked into the office with a sheet of paper in hand. (Y/N) took notice of the way Steve immediately paused by Sharon's presence, and exchanged a suspicious look with Sam.

"The receipt for your gear," Sharon handed Sam the paper and nodded in greeting to (Y/N).

"'Bird costume'?" Sam read out with offense. "Come on."

Sharon raised her hands in defensiveness. "I didn't write it."

She looked to both sides of the room to check if she was being watched by somebody else, and pressed a button on the device from the table. This made the feed that everyone else was watching outside appear on the screen of the office, along with audio and live visuals. Steve turned to Sharon to question her actions, but only received silence in return.

"I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions. Do you know where you are, James?" the doctor inside the same room as Bucky talked through the screen. "I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."

"My name is Bucky."

Steve was still flickering through the pictures of the case and he couldn't help but notice something odd. "Why would the Task Force release this photo to begin with?"

"Get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?" Sharon guessed.

"Right. It's a good way to flush a guy out of hiding," Steve agreed, but he was creating a conspiracy. "Set off a bomb, get your picture taken. Get seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier."

"You're saying someone framed him to find him?" (Y/N) asked the captain.

"Steve, we looked for the guy for two years and found nothing," Sam did his best to remind him.

"We didn't bomb the UN. That turns a lot of heads."

"Yeah, but that doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would get him," Sharon explained, frustrated. "It guarantees that we would."

Her eyes squinted at the footage on the screen. By the looks of it, she had already figured out who that might be. Steve followed her line of sight and realized it too, both eyes set on the supposed doctor scribbling down on his notebook with Bucky in the same room as him.

Unexpectedly, the lights on the entire floor were gone, leaving the entire area in complete darkness alongside the small red blaring lights on the walls. Whoever was behind this was quick, and didn't have time to waste. Because the sudden power outage, the agents' highest priority was to keep Bucky Barnes safe in his cell. The calmness had washed off Tony's and Natasha's faces and they immediately tried to find a way to help in any way possible.

Sharon guessed Steve's question before he could even speak. "Sub-level five, East Wing."

And with that, Sam and Steve rushed out of the office to find Bucky and hopefully stop the man from doing anything else.

im so sorry for this lol. things are going to get better at some point i promise :)

-see you soon, bex <3