➖CHAPTER NINE!

➖ CLINT BARTON STOOD OVER A SLEEPING Bucky Barnes, his head cocked to the side as he took in the image of Katherine half laying on the man. "It's weird.." He says, thinking of how the winter soldier barely even spoke to any of them, let alone Katherine and now he was finding them in bed together.

"I think it's kind of cute." His red headed partner in crime says from right next to him, head cocked in the same direction as she took in their sleeping forms with an air of giddiness. "He's totally into her.." Clint's head swivels so fast that she fears he's broken it. "Like you haven't noticed the way he trains with her in the middle of the night, or the way he puts her to bed when he finds her on the floor or sees her off in the morning. Subconsciously the man has a thing for her, and it's adorable."

"It's not." Clint says, ready to argue when Bucky lets out a grunt.

"It's not." The soldier agrees, opening his eyes groggily. As he does so he realizes that for the first time in a while he's slept through the night without nightmares or having to wear himself out. "She's only in here because she was having memories of something and she was scared of the thunder storm.. ask Thor what crawled up his ass for me, will you?" He asks, thinking that the storm was the Gods fault.

Without really having to exert any strength Bucky sits up and picks Katherine up, carrying her back to her room. He debated opening the curtains for her, so that she could see his favorite view of the city after a rainstorm, but left it because he knew she was scared of the window.

After putting her on her bed he takes the box of pizza she had been cuddling with and exits the room, throwing it away in the kitchen before beginning to make breakfast for himself, and inadvertently the others as they gathered one by one into the kitchen as he made bacon.

He looked up after flipping a piece of the meat to find them all staring at him and it slightly startled him. "..so how'd it go?"

He rather liked Wanda, she didn't judge him for his past and as a fellow HYDRA experiment she understood what it was like, having them fuck with your mind and body in ways that you didn't approve of and then use you.

"She's injured, but safe." Tony says, eyeing the man. In his almost one year of being at the tower, the man had never once cooked or looked the least bit happy. Or even spoke this much. It was weird to them all, but they found that they rather liked this happy breakfast making Bucky.

"They ambushed her and she couldn't defend herself, I've never seen her like that." Natasha says head cocked as she watched Bucky. "Bruce is down in the labs trying to heal her, Tony just came up for food for the both of them."

"Well..here?" Bucky says putting bacon and eggs onto a plate and sliding it across the kitchen island to Tony before putting more into a second one and sliding it to him as well.

Tony takes the plates and walks out, muttering to himself about how weird that was as he walks to the elevator, Natasha hot on his heels with a plate as well.

They found that Katherine was in the lab when they got down there, which surprised them as they thought she was still asleep.

"Is she going to be okay?" Katherine asks, looking down at Wanda as Bruce works on her. The girl looked visibly saddened, and intrigued at the same time.

"Yeah, of course." Bruce says off handedly, too busy working to pay much attention to Katherine.

"She's going to be just fine, kid." Tony says, setting the plates down as Natasha puts a hand on the teens shoulder.

"She's beautiful." Katherine says softly, watching as Wanda's red powers surround her body like a protective aura as Bruce and Tony work on her.

"She is." Natasha agrees, wrapping an arm around the teen as she begins to steer her away. "And you need to go get your makeup homework started for school tomorrow."

"But mooomm," Katherine whines playfully, a grin on her face. "I want to watch the pretty super hero get healed!"

"You can watch later!" Natasha says, secretly very pleased that Katherine had called her mom, it was feeling that she never thought she'd get and a word she never thought she'd hear being directed towards her, even if it was playfully. "Go eat, annoy Clint and do your homework!"

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➖ "ALOISIA König" TONY STARK STATES, SLAPPING A FILE DOWN ONTO THE DESK OF NICHOLAS FURY several hours later. It was maybe three in the morning and they had just finished treating Wanda when they were called back to headquarters for an immediate interrogation of what had happened.

"I'm sorry?" Nick says, glancing up at the man. He would play stupid of course, this was information so classified that not even their top agents had the clearance to know it. He wondered how Tony managed to find out the information.

"Aloisia König." Tony states again, already knowing he wouldn't get the answers he wanted, but he had more than he needed when he saw Nick put his lying face on. "Does the name ring a bell? Bring about a particular face to mind?" Fury pursed his lips, shaking his head as he wondered where Tony would go with this. "No? Not even the one of our dear.. Katherine?"

"What are you on about, Mr. Stark?" Nick asks, wanting to go home for a few hours. He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the man with his good eye. "That name has no ties to SHIELD."

"That's because it has ties to HYDRA." Tony says, leaning over the desk. "Her other name, has ties to SHIELD. And I have to wonder.. does she know that you've been lying to her all this time?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Fury says, glaring. He wasn't ready to get into this, not prepared for whatever he was supposed to say or do.. it felt to him as if admitting that she were adopted or something and he wasn't even telling it to her. "It's late, Tony."

"Does Katherine know who her parents are?" Tony asks, causing Nick to sit up straighter. Stark looked at him oddly as Nick glanced at the files. SHIELDS top man didn't know what Tony knew, that was was a change. "Or what her real name even is? Or how about that SHIELD decided to torture her some more when she first got here, putting her through experimentations that's pushed her powers to the limits at only age five?"

"Go home, Tony." Nick wasn't ready to talk about this, or even think about it. Because if she knew, she'd go searching and he wasn't ready for her to be put in that kind of danger. "Now, before I have you thrown into a cell."

Tony scoffed and picked his file up, turning on his heel. "Did you know that König means King, in German?" He calls over his shoulder as he reaches the door. "And I suppose it's rather fitting, isn't it? Her father is the King of HYDRA after all."

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Hey guys, it's been a while!
But I'm back and better than ever! Expect more updates and some plot twists!