.13 | Distractions

By a miracle, they made it to the Quinjet that was waiting for them - and that was when Merida's inside started swirling around nervously. She had never been on anything like it. It looked out of this world, all dark and gray with a whirring soft purring motor and a futuristic look to it that made it more science fiction than real life. The lights on the bottom were a baby blue, and they flickered as the aircraft landed softly.

She hesitated as the group stood before the Quinjet, none of them vibrating at the nervous frequency she was. She glanced at Steve who was on her right, before looking at Natasha and Sam, who were already starting to power walk towards the aircraft. She hesitated briefly and Steve looked down at her as her eyes widened with panic.

"It's safe, I promise." Steve assured her, already taking notice of the way her face paled considerably and the cautious feline eyes looked on wearily at the strange flying vehicle.

She nodded silently, but even his encouraging words couldn't shake the nervous feeling away, she felt her hands become clammy and she swallowed past the nervous lump in her throat. Merida had been captive by the circus for far too long...what else was she missing out on?

As the Quinjet opened, a ramp stretched out allowing the four of them to walk on. She noticed the ease in which Natasha and Sam strutted up the ramp, already disappearing from sight as Merida and Steve were just now walking up from the bottom. Her harrowed eyes took in all the sights and sounds - the mechanics of the aircraft even. Her feline senses were in overdrive and she worked her nose lightly as the hint of steel and foreign scents invaded her nose.

Once inside she paused. The small compartment inside was spacey enough to fit the four of them plus the driver, but other than it was fairly compact.

Natasha was leaning against the front where the driver was speaking to her, "You owe me," The driver's voice was male, sarcastic and slightly muffled as Natasha smirked at him.

He turned his head around to reveal a middle aged man with tousled feather brown hair, some facial hair around his chin and a large nose. He raised a brow at her and she stared at him as her heart continued to race from being inside the foreign aircraft.

"Clint, this is Merida. Merida, this is Clint." Steve introduced the two as Clint nodded curtly.

"So, you're what all the fuss was about," Clint answered with a small smile as Natasha rolled her eyes. Natasha nodded towards the control panel before him, "Just get us back home before we're made,"

"Have you told Fury yet?" Clint asked lowly before punching a few buttons and reaching his right hand towards a button above his head, pushing it quickly as the ramp they walked in on started to raise up and close them inside.

"He'll find out soon enough," Natasha chimed out as Clint and her shared a look. Sam plopped down in the seat behind Clint and buckled up, "Hey Barton, no tricks this time. We have guests,"

Clint smirked, "Is someone scared they're going to get sick again?"

Sam mumbled something under his breath at the jab as Natasha rolled her eyes at the petulant banter. She quickly joined Sam and sat down, buckling herself in as Clint prepared the aircraft for lift off.

Merida glanced at Steve quickly and he nodded towards the back two seats behind Sam and Natasha. She sat in the one behind Natasha, her hands were shaking as she pulled at the lap belt and the one that went somehow over her shoulders and buckled in the middle - much like a carnival ride.

Steve watched as she fumbled around with them before coming to her side and kneeling in front of her, his blue eyes captivating her for a brief moment.

She didn't like the pull she felt near him because didn't understand the shift that had happened on the bridge earlier. On the drive over to the aircraft, she had grown quiet, internalizing her thoughts and emotions as Steve nervously fidgeted beside her on the drive over here too. Merida wondered if he had felt what she had felt too.

"Here, let me help," He offered politely as his taut arms pulled at the lap belt and then at the seat belt that draped over her front and clicked in the middle. She watched with rapt attention as he worked, committing to memory how each one fit into the buckle. His eyes dipped down once to her fidgety hands that sat so small in her lap. Merida noted he smelled like linen and something familiar...like apple spice. 

She was too nervous to speak so she allowed Steve to help her, growing quiet as he moved back to his own chair and buckled up. She closed her eyes tightly and bowed her head down as the Quinjet lifted up, Clint turning around briefly to notice Merida's unease.

"Hey kid, it's not so bad once we're in the air. I promise," Clint offered kindly. She forced a small smile, but it came off awkward and she looked away.

She had missed so much in life - that she was very aware of. She had never had a phone, no laptop, nothing. Merida had lived her life in a cage; barren and cut off from society. So the first thing for her to witness being the Quinjet was really something, but it was also extremely frightening for someone who had never flown.

Her mother would have loved this.

The Quinjet lurched up and started to float into the sky. 

The aircraft was lifted higher...and higher...her eyes widening as the clouds became increasingly prevalent around them. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the windshield that gave her a front row view of the sky no matter how frightened she was. Merida gulped and she noticed Sam's right leg jiggling up and down.

"You alright, Sam?" Natasha casually asked as she glanced over at him. 

"Never better, Romanoff," He quipped through gritted teeth as he stared ahead at the windshield, Natasha slyly smiling as she added, "I'd have thought you out of everyone would be okay with flying," 

"Not when Clint is operating," Sam retorted back as Clint looked at them both defensively.

"I scared him one time and now he hates when I fly this thing," Clint rolled his eyes before returning his gaze back to the controls as Sam pouted. Natasha softly chuckled under her breath. 

Merida found her breathing increased the more her mind raced with overactive thoughts, her chest heaving up and down as her body started to spiral out into a panic attack. 

"You know, the first time I ever saw a flying car was in 1943," Steve started gently as the whirring of the engine softened to a steady purr. She looked over at him quickly, the gentle tone in his voice was the opposite of how she felt, but she somehow found herself captured again by those soft lulling ocean eyes. 

Merida faintly smiled, "That would make you..." 

"Old." He added with a breathy laugh.

A moment paused between them and she asked curiously, "What was it like?" 

"Revolutionary. We had never seen anything like it, and Stark -" 

"We?" She asked, biting her lip as she realized she had spoken up and out of turn, that familiar dread rising in her belly from the PTSD of Killian's whipping and acts of violence, 

"I'm sorry-I didn't mean to interrupt-"

Merida looked as frightened as a mouse backed in a corner and for a moment Steve couldn't put into words the ire he felt thinking of the abuse she had experienced from Killian's filthy hands. 

Her frantic voice rose an octave and he shook his head, brows furrowed in concern, "It's okay, really. You're fine,"

Merida nodded wearily at his reply.

"Bucky and I - uhm, he was my best friend,"

He added with a hint of detectable sorrow, a deep longing that Merida could pick up not only his tone but also his scent. It hit her like a ton of bricks and then that pull in her chest, that invisible cord that seemed to keep her linked to him ever since the bridge - she could feel every inch of what he was feeling, every deep mournful emotion in his body at the mention of this person - Bucky. 

Merida frowned, "He meant a lot to you," 

It didn't take much to realize Bucky was being talked about in the past tense. She didn't know who he was, but she knew he meant a lot - someone from his past before everything had happened. 

Steve's face was pained, torn between masking the sorrow and allowing it to seep through for that brief moment.

The corner of his mouth pulled up slightly, but not enough to warrant a smile until a thought hit him and he did start smiling, a warmth passing through his aura as Merida watched silently. 

"We witnessed the first flying prototype together and now here I am flying around in the Quinjet and the Helicarrier," He paused with a breathy laugh, "He would have loved all this," 

Merida smiled softly and realized her heart had stopped pounding so harshly and her veins weren't humming with adrenaline as much anymore. She felt like her chest had loosened and she could breathe a bit better.

Her hands became less fidgety too. 

Merida knitted her brows as she looked around the interior of the aircraft and back at Steve. She was starting to realize how much she missed out on being so isolated under Killian's thumb.

"You know when I came to from being under a lot had changed - I felt like I didn't fit into this new world," 

Merida realized Steve was distracting her with small talk and she smiled gratefully. 

She felt in that moment for Steve - waking up in a world without your best friend or anyone you knew from before. It had to have been...terrifying and shocking. 

"Like you had missed so much?" Merida asked as a wave of understanding passed between them both.

She might not have woken up in a different time, but she had lived her life in a cage and had never been able to experience the true fruits of life. She still felt oddly out of place, even now, despite being around people that seemed to want to help her. 

He nodded as she looked down to her hands, her left hand briefly sweeping a piece of dark hair that fell in her face, "And now? How do you feel now?" She looked back up at him, her previous nerves slowly falling away, her heartbeat back to a steady tempo as her body had stopped humming from pent adrenaline. 

He smiled, "I'm taking it day by day," 

She smiled back and somehow she felt as if he was talking directly to her, giving her permission to take things day by day, giving her permission to adjust to this strange new world she had never been privy to since being chained to the circus. 

"Tell me more about Bucky - tell me something...good," Merida whispered with a genuine smile. 

Steve's blue eyes lit up, a whole world of stories were in the depths of those blue eyes. She didn't know why she felt the need to ask, but something in the cord that tethered them made her speak up.

To her surprise, Steve smiled as the fond memories passed through his head and without hesitating he started to tell her tales of his friendship - including the time Bucky made him ride the Cyclone on Coney Island and he got sick. 

Merida chuckled - and she realized it had been quite awhile since her eyes had sparkled and her heart felt warm. The ache of her trauma and her harrowed past momentarily snuffed out by the voice of Steve Rogers.  

As Steve continued, he watched the hesitation and dimness to her aura glow brighter, he watched as the sparkle in her light brown eyes turned a cocoa hue with flecks of amber gold. He watched as the simplest conversation took away her demons - took away the pain that she had endured being a traveling nomad with Killian. 

He saw past the bony shoulders, past the slightly gaunt accent of her cheeks and beyond the pain and broken pieces. He saw, for a brief moment during his storytelling about Bucky, the flicker of a bright soul, the beast within flaming to life as if waving a flag that she was still there, there was still a vibrant life to be had within her. 

He continued to talk, and Merida continued to listen. 

As the purr of the Quinjet fell away, and all that was left was the lilt and timbre of Steve's voice, Merida smiled and felt her fear of the aircraft melt away completely.

She hadn't even realized they were arriving at the Avengers headquarters until Clint announced loudly, "Honey! We're home!"

Everyone shifted, looking out the window as the Quinjet flew towards an opening in the Avengers Tower. Merida felt her heart pick back up again as the unknown territory made her nervous.

Steve smiled encouragingly at her as Natasha turned around to look at Steve. 

"So, who's telling Fury?" Natasha asked, looking between Sam and Steve. 

"Not it!" Sam called out quickly. 

Natasha smirked at Steve and he sighed, "It was my idea. I'll talk to him," 

Merida looked at them all and furrowed her brows, "Who is Fury?"

Sam looked back at her and made a face, "You can't miss him because he's always yelling." 

Merida frowned again and Steve made a face, "It'll be fine," 

She gulped as the Quinjet landed softly, the smallest thud could be felt as it touched down and she let out a long breath as she worked to unbuckle her seat belt. Steve and her stood up, his hand waving outward like a gentleman for her to walk first as he smiled with a spark of pride, 

"Welcome to the Avengers Tower," 

"Where the cell service sucks!" Sam called out as he hopped out of the Quinjet at the bottom of the ramp while Clint brushed past Steve and looked towards Merida,"He complains a lot, just ignore him." 

Natasha nodded curtly to Steve and walked past them to catch up with Clint, the two looking comfortable together as the two bantered amongst themselves. She looked up at Steve and they started walking down the ramp as a feeling of unease gripped her heart. 

New territory meant the beast within her would be antsy and on edge. 

She could feel its pull as if she had an itch she couldn't scratch. Merida just hoped she could keep the beast at bay. 

Author's Note: 

Sorry to keep you all waiting for the update. I do love this story so incredibly much and her and Steve are just so pure and wholesome. I can't even. I really love the story so far and where it's going. We are into Act II so this will be where she becomes adjusted to her new environment and her new friends. 

I have NO idea how many Acts we will have but my stories are always fairly long so we'll see how this goes. I'm LOVING the bonding moment between her and Steve. I love that she got to know a bit more about Steve and Bucky - even if it was just for a moment. And I love that Steve knew to distract her and I love everything about their bond. 

They are soul mates and smol beans and they are just too stinkin adorable. I never intended for them to have such an instant bond, but when I did the whole imprint moment in the last chapter I realized that it would be a fitting part of the story. Merida just doesn't realize what happened yet - but I can't wait until she finds out about imprinting. :D

Sam is HILARIOUS and I love the banter between him and Clint. LOL

I AM SO HERE FOR FURY SEEING MERIDA IN HER TIGER FORM!!! 

And I'm SOOO here for Tony and everyone else's reactions to her. 

I'm looking forward to diving into this Act and the adjustments she'll make - but let us not forget that Killian is out there still too...and he's going to want his Merida back sooner or later... :(