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Ava doesn't have any merch. Sure, she has the occasional poster or T-shirt, but it's rarely on her own. She's always in a group. While the others have mugs and action figures and plushies, she has nothing.
Ava shrugs it off as she usually does, when they go to show each other the merch they bought. They're all sitting in the living room, slumped across couches and chairs and legs up on tables. Yelena is proudly showing a body pillow she found of Bucky, causing him to longly exhale (out of embarrassment or patience, they aren't sure).
"All the ladies want you, Barnes." The Russian waggles her eyebrows, trying to get on his nerves, "The men too. I saw one man walking out with three versions from the vendor I bought it from."
"Good God." Bucky rubs the bridge of his nose, "Honestly, I wish I could say I was shocked that there were three versions...but I'm not."
"Is good marketing." Alexei grins, playfully slapping John's shoulder. "We should invest! Make our own! Avengerz pillows...Protect you from bad dream!"
"Absolutely not." John grumbles. "People would stab my pillow. I have enough people dragging my name on Twitter still. I don't need to see what they'd do to a pillow version of me."
Bob hides a laugh behind his sleeve, "Oh god, no." He leans forward, grabbing from John's pile.
John glances over, before grinning. "Oh that was my favorite thing I found."
Bob holds up a shirt with a badly cropped image of The Void inside a heart. The text 'I can fix him' surrounds it.
Yelena bursts out laughing, leaning over on the couch as she wipes a tear from her eye. "Oh Bobert, they have no idea."
He shakes his head, chuckling all the same. "I'm shocked you found anything for me."
"It's hard to, but there's still options. Sucks they're mostly about The Void, though. But at least people don't totally hate you for that." John shrugs.
Ava just sits there quietly. She's already scanned the piles, she knows she doesn't have anything. Not for the lack of the team trying, but people just don't seem to care about her. True to her name, Ava feels like a ghost. She's there but no-one seems to see her.
Maybe it's because she's not as personable as someone like Yelena or Bucky. Or maybe it's because she's the only non-white member of the team. Or maybe it's because she's a woman, but people like Yelena? Well, who wouldn't like Yelena. Ava is just...Ava.
She frowns a bit, but tries to keep her face neutral as she sits. Ava picks at her fingernails as the others talk in the background.
Yelena bumps her shoulder, an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry. We all tried very hard to find you something. I promise we will still be looking."
"It's fine." She says automatically, tone flat. "I get it. I don't really care much for materialistic shit like this anyway."
The blond's eyebrows crease, studying Ava's face. She opens her mouth to say something before Yelena is thankfully interrupted by John.
"Sooo, pizza and a movie tonight? I don't give a damn about Valentina's paperwork. We can do it tomorrow." He shrugs.
"Yes! Team bonding!" Alexei pumps his fist, already moving to set up the TV.
Bucky casts a concerned glance in Ava's direction, before opening up his delivery app and handing it to Bob to put in his choices first.
"Come on." Ava stands quickly, not giving Yelena a chance to say anything. "Let's go before Alexei chooses a shit movie."
Yelena follows, filing her thoughts away for later.
~~~
It's two weeks later when she gets a text. She's lying in her bed, doomscrolling to put off getting up when her phone pings. It's Yelena.
Blond Bitch: Come to the living room. :D
Ghostie: Why?
Blond Bitch: Because I have said so.
Ghostie: If this is because Alexei wants us to sign another damned brand deal...
Blond Bitch: It is not. Just come.
Blond Bitch: I will eat all of your special secret caramels that you think you hid from me behind the pancake mix if you do not come to the living room.
Ghostie: Ugh. Fine
Blond Bitch: I knew you would be reasonable :)
Ava groans, getting up and throwing on a hoodie. She makes her way to the living room, internally grumbling about whatever shenanigans her teammates are up to, before stopping at the entryway.
There's a pile of presents on the table, all wrapped in what she assumed was supposed to be halloween gift wrapping. The part that matters is that they're all ghosts. It's ghost wrapping paper.
"What the hell is this?" The words slip from her mouth.
Yelena grins, waving her over. "Just come sit."
She takes a seat between Yelena and John, who teasingly murmurs, "Good morning, grumpypants." It earns him a slap on the arm. Which was deserved, in her book.
Bob nudges the pile closer, "Open them."
"Yes, open them! But admire the paper. It is good paper, no?" Alexei leans back in his chair.
"Alexei found the paper. He's very proud of it." Bucky sighs, eyes softening when he looks at Ava. "Just open 'em."
She frowns, confused, before carefully pulling the closest box into her lap. "I'm confused. It's not my birthday."
Yelena waves her hand, "Yes, Yes, we know. Open them anyway."
Ava rolls her eyes, ripping the paper off carefully. She pulls her knife out to open the box and then stops.
Inside is a custom made action figure. Ava gently raises it from the box, fingers phasing for only a brief second as her heart stutters.
It's her.
An action figure of Ava, in her Ghost suit, with enough detail for her to be recognizable sits in the packaging. She's got a removable helmet, her swords and guns, all of it.
"How did you...Where-" She mutters, slowly taking it out of the packaging.
Yelena grins. "I had it custom made. Is the face right? I argued about it looking correct in so many emails."
"It's beautiful." Ava whispers.
John slides another one towards her, a cocky smile on his face. "This one next."
She carefully sits the doll in her lap, cradled against her stomach before gingerly opening the next one.
This time she pulls out a T-shirt. It's got an x-ray outline of her Ghost mask. Ava glances at Walker, dumbfounded.
"You said you like subtle, right? Thought this one might be cool." He throws an arm over the back of the couch, clearly proud of himself.
"Yes, it..." Her lips quirk up slightly, "It's perfect."
"This one next!" Alexei announces excitedly.
Soon enough she’s opened presents with mugs, keychains, posters, and so many more things she didn't think were options. Ava is surrounded with the merchandise, jaw open in shock.
"Alexei and I emailed all the licensing companies too. Wrote a strongly worded message about not leaving out an important member of our team." Bucky smiles. "Should be seeing some changes soon."
"We custom made all of these. It matches what we all have." Yelena says, before smugly pointing to the action figure again. "But this is obviously the best one."
Ava moves between all the items in shock, carefully examining each one while pointing out the detail in them all. She can't help how big her smile is on her face.
"Why did you guys do all this?" Ava asks.
Yelena squeezes her shoulder, "Because we see you Ava."
"And we care about you." Bob adds. "We don't want you to be left alone."
And while Ava won't admit she's sentimental, her grin couldn't contain how much this meant to her. And how thankful she was to have a team family like this.