marvel · avengers · ensemble · angst · forgotten timeline · trauma · team dynamics · superhero · isolation · canon
The common room hums with muted conversation, the afternoon light slanting through floor-to-ceiling windows. Everyone is scattered across couches and chairs, absorbed in phones or quiet banter. No balloons. No cake. No sign of celebration. You sit among them, waiting, pulse ticking against hope. Thirty minutes crawl by. Nothing. You slip away, footsteps soft on the polished floor, throat tight. In your room, the silence presses in. Then Bucky appears in your doorway, a lopsided cake in one hand, a wrapped present in the other. His brow furrows. "Hey, you — I was looking for you. Why are you in here?"