chapter eighteen
╰ ( civil war )

💫 ━━ STEVE had sent Paisley to go and keep Spider-Man distracted. That was her job, and she was told that she just had to do whatever she could token him distorted and away from the adults. 

"Hey!" Paisley shouts, throwing a tennis ball that she had found at the spider person. "Just stop, okay."

"Mr. Stark said that you'd try and get me to stop, that they would send you to keep me distracted." The spider person Paisley assumed was only a few years older than her said, keeping their head straight as they looked towards her. 

Paisley nodded. "He knows. He always knows. I'm Paisley." The twelve year old stuck her hand out, waiting for the other person to shake her hand. 

"Is that your real name?" Peter was hesitant, but he stepped closer but refused to place his hand in the younger girls. 

"It is. I'm Paisley Maximoff." Paisley watched as Peters eyes flashed blue.

"Peter." He placed his hand in hers, shaking it up and down slightly in what seemed like a truce. 

"What are you two doing without me? Huh?" Ryder asked, landing on the ground near the two. "Pais."

"Ryder!" Paisley bounced happily, exited to see her friend. 

"Tony asked me to keep you both distracted." Ryder was quick to tel them both, moving to sit on the ground to shown them he wasn't a threat. "He knew shed work her magic on you."

"What?" Peter asked confused, looking quickly between the two kids that were sitting on the ground. "Huh?"

Paisley grinned and held her hand out, creating a blue ball of magic. "Theres a lot more too."

"Wow." Peter reached out to touch the ball, retracting his hand and holding it to his chest in surprise when it disappeared. "Thats so cool."

"Where're you from?" Ryder asked once Peter had sat down. 

"Queens. You?" Peter answered and asked. 

Both Ryder and Paisley shrugged. Paisley was the first to open their mouth, letting the truthful words roll off her tongue. "We don't know."

Bucky ran over towards the kids, Steve by his side. When the two noticed that they were just sitting there, doing no harm, they stopped. 

"We gotta go. That guy's probably in Siberia by now." Bucky told Steve.

"We gotta draw out the flyers. I'll take Vision. You get to the jet, and you have to take her with you, she can't be caught here." Steve looked towards Paisley. He shifted and looked backwards his friend. "Please, Buck."

"I will, I'll make sure she's okay." Bucky tells Steve. "I promise."

"I'll meet you there okay, but don't wait up if something happens. Got it?" Steve asked, shifting his shield on his arm. He's looking at Bucky, in a way that tells them both that keeping Paisley and Bucky safe is what matters right now. 

"Got it." Bucky tells his friend over his shoulder. he moves towards where the three kids are, his hands raised in surrender. "Kid, we've got to go."

Paisley looks up from the ball she held. "I know."

Ryder stood and moved in front of Paisley who had stood up. "You can't leave."

"I'll see you later, Rye! I'll only be gone for a little while, and it's what my dad would want, he'd want me to help and stop the rest of the winter soldiers." Paisley wrapped her arms around Ryder, giving him a quick hug before she moved to stand with Bucky.  "Lets go."

💫 ━━ PAISLEY is sitting by Steve in the co-pilot chair.

Steve is flying the Quinjet towards mountains where they need to be. Bucky sits behind them in one of the chairs, folding and unfolding his hands. They've been flying fro a little while now.

"What's gonna happen to your friends?" Bucky looked up from his lap. 

Steve stares ahead,  he sighs and shakes his head. "Whatever it is... I'll deal with it."

Bucky thinking about it, running it all in his head. "I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve."

Paisley looks over her shoulder. "That wasn't you. You may remember, but you couldn't control your actions."

Steve nodded. "What you did all those years ... it wasn't you. You didn't have a choice."

Bucky sighed. "I know. But I did it."