Chapter Text
BUCKY
It's chaos.
Absolutely chaos.
Bucky can tell the exact moment that it hits Natasha, and he wonders if she's thinking it the exact same way he is—that they're glorious, dumb idiots—and then he's too busy, because she barely hesitates. There's barely any space between the moment she realizes who he is and the moment she acts on it. Bucky has barely enough time to respond, but when he does, he makes the obvious play.
When he looks up from where he has his knife at Cassandra Gillespie's throat, his right leg pinning her to the table, Natasha has Tony Stark in a similar lock. She's breathing hard and glaring at him in horror.
Bucky wishes he could return the glare, but his emotions are a thunderstorm. He feels so stupid, and yet, he's also weirdly feeling like his heart just grew a size underneath his rib cage.
"Did you know?" Natasha hisses, and she must use some sort of voice distorter as the Black Widow, but there's a distinctive rumble of power even in her natural voice as she accuses him.
"Did you?" Bucky hisses back.
"Of course not! You're cute and fucking charming, how was I supposed to put that together with you also being the dickhead of the century?" Natasha hisses.
Bucky can see a waiter edging closer to them, looking petrified. Bucky winces. This is probably about to get very, very violent. He hopes Sam and Steve got his ice-cream hint and are on their way. The comm line is depressingly silent, though.
"Oh, I don't know, the whole missing the same arm as the Winter Soldier feels like a bigger clue than I had," Bucky says.
"How was I supposed to know the Winter Soldier has a metal arm?"
Bucky glances at her, thrown. "You didn't know the arm was metal?"
Natasha glares back. "I just thought you were a consummate pain in my ass," she hisses. "How was I supposed to look at someone entirely wearing black and think hey, he might be part robot."
"It's just a prosthetic," Bucky says dumbly, thinking back. Well, he guesses his tactical gear usually covers everything, including the arm.
"One of my friends is part-robot," Tony offers, helpfully.
"You shut up!" Bucky hisses, and then startles when he realizes Natasha—oh shit, the Black Widow, that's still sinking in—has yelled that at Tony at exactly the same time.
"Scary," Tony whispers, looking between the two of them. "You know what, this is bullshit," he adds, and then says, "Friday, you wanna help me out here?"
Bucky squints, because who is Tony talking to? A second later, he still doesn't know, but he's figured out enough: it must be some sort of activation code. Because Bucky's immediately flung down to the ground, Cassandra Gillespie skipping away from him, and nearby, Natasha tumbles over, convulsing like she's being electrocuted, and Bucky's heart leaps into his throat in worry for her—well, along with worry for himself, because for some reason his own arm is attacking him, what the fuck?
"I built everything my dad says is his," Tony says, backing up and looking wild-eyed. "And I can control them all still, I'm not stupid enough not to leave a back door in everything I make."
"Thank goodness, you saved me," Cassandra gushes, as Bucky grabs his left metal wrist with his right hand, but he just gets pushed backwards and he rolls on top of it, trying to use his body weight as leverage. He can see Natasha flailing in the corner of his eye like she's got some sort of tech under her dress that's choking her, goddammit Stark is a brat, just like his annoying father.
"You can get the hell away from me, liar," Tony yells, and then he hurls himself at her, and Bucky still has enough energy to be furious as he rides his own hand like it's a tiny arm-shaped rodeo bull, because if Tony's interrupted his date just for some romantic shenanigans of his own, Bucky's not exactly impressed—and then he registers what Tony's doing.
Namely, saving her from actual gun shots.
"Kid, turn this the fuck off," Bucky hisses at him, and Tony really is smart, because he does, and Bucky's able to immediately flip up the table and grab both Tony, Cassandra and Natasha, yanking them behind it.
"I can take care of myself," Natasha hisses, already moving into a crouched stance that Bucky has encountered more than once. Usually moments before he gets taken down to the ground in a painful manner.
"Those guys have guns," Tony yelps.
"No shit," Bucky snarks, peering around and trying to count the number of men currently shooting at them. "Widow, did you hire these morons?"
"Would they be shooting at me if they were?" Natasha snarks back, which, yes, valid. "Ugh, German guns, why is their reload speed so fast?"
"See, these guys are probably Hydra," Tony says, which is pretty un-fucking-helpful at this point.
Bucky grits his teeth, mentally tosses up what he would hate more—dying or living because the Black Widow saved him—and reluctantly decides he'd rather live. "How about we team up, get these two idiots to safety before we kick the crap out of each other?"
"Not what I had in mind for the evening," Natasha growls, "but I guess it'll do nearly as well."
"You call point," Bucky says, reaching out to kick up a chair, and with a second neat movement, he kicks the chair at one of the gunmen at full force.
"Me?" Natasha yells, throwing the blunt cutlery from their table with deadly pinpoint accuracy.
"Like you'd listen to my commands?"
Natasha's mouth wrinkles, like he has a point and she doesn't want to admit it. "Fine. We need to get the civilians somewhere safer."
Bucky stares. He doesn't know why he's surprised that's even a priority for her. He gazes around quickly. "Gunfire seems focused on us, not even the two brats." He swallows back surprise when Tony is shot, and the bullet just glances off. That kid's brain must be a terrifying place if he can invent something that can deflect a bullet. He touches his ear to activate his commline again. "Nomad, please tell me you're nearby."
"We're outside the restaurant," Steve says. "You're surrounded. The Falcon's positive it's Hydra this time. We're thinning the herd. Uh, we seem to have help."
"Thirteen and the Wasp?" Bucky guesses.
"They're outside?" Natasha hisses. Bucky nods. "And your goons?"
"Nomad and Falcon are there too."
Natasha squints. "Can your gas-happy buddy send some knock-out gas our way?"
Bucky contemplates the logistics and nods. After hissing his plan, he snags his jacket and starts ripping it up, his metal fingers easily tearing the material, and he passes a piece to Natasha. She looks at him in surprise, like she's startled he would help her, and oh god, she must think of the Winter Soldier like he regards the Black Widow. Well, there's a compliment somewhere in there.
"It's coming in," Sam yells, and Bucky covers his face as best he can. One second later, the front window of the restaurant shatters and Redwing swoops in. Seconds later, gas starts spilling from the drone's claws.
"Go," Natasha yells, after a second, and she ushers Tony and Cassandra to the back of the restaurant. Bucky uses his arm to flip another table in the direction of the Hydra goons, and they all have to scramble onto all fours to make it into the kitchen.
His eyes stinging from Steve's combination of gases in the attack, Bucky straightens and immediately jams the nearest object—a mop—through the door handles, and then he picks up and throws an entire commercial oven at the door, because he doesn't have to hide how strong his metal arm is now, and Natasha whistles.
"Nice," she says, approvingly, already yanking out several large knives from a nearby knife block. No one's around to stop her. It's funny how quickly gunfire can empty a building.
"Did you just compliment me?" Bucky demands.
"Heat of the moment," Natasha hisses, already moving to a good exit. She puts a hand to her own ear. "Wasp, tell me the back exit of this place is safe." Whatever she hears makes her nod. "Let's move."
NATASHA
Natasha's about to roast Jan's description of safe when she opens the door to a large van reversing, and she's already moving with a cleaver in her right hand when the door opens to reveal Sharon inside.
"Get in, all of you," Sharon says, beckoning. "The Falcon and Wasp are providing cover. Move it!"
Natasha nods and grabs Cassandra, pushing her up into the van.
"Get in here, Buck," a deep male voice says, and Natasha startles to see that it's Nomad in the front seat. His voice sounds really familiar up this close, but she can't place why.
"Nomad?" Bucky breathes, and then forcibly grabs Tony Stark with his metal arm (and oh god, Natasha's never going to stop feeling embarrassed that she didn't know it was one of Stark's amazing prosthetics) and yanks Stark into the van with him, pulling the door closed.
"Blaze it," Sharon yells, and Nomad immediately complies, the van screeching as it starts to move.
"This is nice," Natasha compliments, jerking in surprise as the van is shot at—and barely even dents.
"Called in a favor from up top," Sharon says, briefly meeting Natasha's gaze in the rearview mirror. Natasha nods at her.
There's a loud thump on the ceiling. "That's Falcon and the Wasp," Nomad says. Natasha squints again, because that is a hell of a familiar voice. Nomad rarely talks around her. She guesses it must be for a reason. She's just still so rattled that Bucky—lovely, cute, makes her want to do dumb stuff, adorable Bucky—is the Winter Soldier. What even is her love life? Non-existent before now, and now...probably still non-existent. Dammit.
"We're still being pursued," Sharon says. "Shit. Evasive pattern, Cap."
"Got it," Nomad says, and Natasha swears, because son of a bitch.
"You've got to be kidding me," Natasha yelps. "Seriously?"
"What's going on?" Bucky says. "Don't tell me there's worse out there than Hydra?"
Natasha glances over at him, about to tell him to stop acting dumb, she knows who his friend really is, but then she stops short in realization. "You don't know?"
"Know what?" Bucky blinks several times.
"Holy shit," Natasha says, shaking her head dumbly. "I can't believe I've been bested so many times by a fucking idiot."
Bucky gapes at her for a second, and then he looks sad, and Natasha immediately feels like a shitheel of the highest order. His jaw clenches and pulses moodily. "Let's save the insults for later, darling."
Natasha glares back, hating how much she still likes the sound of that. A lot. Shit. Shit. How the hell is this her actual life?
"Can you open the back, let Jan—uh, Wasp and the Falcon inside?" Sharon says. "They're getting shot at and I don't approve."
Natasha nods and climbs past a cowering Cassandra to reach the back, and it's so weird to be opening the door to let the Falcon in. It's even weirder to see Jan clinging to him. She shuts the door and glances around at the now-crammed back of the van.
"Sorry about your date, man," the Falcon says to Bucky, his mouth turned down. "I know you really liked her."
"This is her, actually," Bucky says, and gestures at Natasha. "Natasha, meet the Falcon. Falcon, meet the Black Widow, Natasha."
Falcon's face has already turned to Natasha to smile at her and the smile freezes. "Uh, Bucky—"
"I know," Bucky says, and he sounds utterly miserable.
"Guess that makes sense, actually," Falcon says. Natasha amends her inner thoughts, because now she knows who Nomad is, that must mean Falcon is the mysterious Sam of Bucky's text records.
"Uh, maybe you could have told me sooner?" Bucky demands. "Before I made the biggest goddamned fool of myself on the planet."
"I didn't know your date was the Widow!" Sam hisses. "It just makes sense—in hindsight—that the only woman you've ever obsessed over forever is your first date in forever."
Bucky makes an adorably exasperated noise. "Well, I guess she can't think any worse of me. There's literally not much more damage that could be done."
"I don't know," Natasha says, softly. "You could have been paid to try and date me in order to steal my secrets."
"I wasn't paid," Cassandra immediately defends, realizing it's an attack on her after Tony makes a sad, strangled sort of noise.
"Tell me we have a plan," Bucky says, looking around. "Do we know what's actually going on? I presume the first two fake Hydra teams were yours."
"Guilty as charged," Natasha admits.
"Before your ice cream warning came through, we were already active—an alert went up on the deep web," Sam says. "There was a request for the forcible kidnap of Anthony Stark. We managed to trace it back to one of Gillespie's ops."
"My dad did what?" Cassandra yells.
Natasha glares, her face confidently projecting nothing but pure threat. "Can you think of any reason why he wouldn't give our op a chance before making a move like this?"
"Well…I did send my dad a text," Cassandra says.
Natasha's eyes narrow dangerously. "Saying what?"
"That...I'd fallen in love with Tony so I was going to run away with him," Cassandra says.
"Oh no," Tony whispers.
"What now?" Bucky hisses.
"Well, that's really sweet," Tony says. "But also, she was going to betray me. I'm conflicted."
Natasha sighs audibly. "Right. So now he's accelerated to actual kidnap."
"There's already a ransom demand gone to Howard Stark," Nomad calls back, grimly. "That confidence spooks me."
Bucky looks in the direction of his friend. "Please say we have an exit?"
Nomad nods. "Half a mile out."
Bucky frowns, and god help her, Natasha finds herself thinking even that facial expression is cute, and she's appalled at herself. "Is it safe?" he asks.
Sharon meets Natasha's eyes again in the rearview mirror. "We hope so."
BUCKY
The answer should have been no, because although Steve is an awesome driver—and apparently Sam and the Wasp managed to blow the tires of their pursuers' cars—somehow their movements have been anticipated.
They pull up to an airfield which seems abandoned, and it seems like it's going to be fine. An aircraft of some sort lowers down, but Steve smiles at it and waves, and Bucky relaxes, because this must be the exit plan. Steve's pulled his Nomad mask down, which Bucky thinks might be in solidarity with his own face being visible. Steve's like that sometimes.
They're exiting the van, still looking warily at each other, when the first gunshot hits them. It actually hits Sam, right in one of his wings, and he immediately stretches them wider and crouches so that he's shielding everyone. Cassandra yelps and dives back inside the van. They all crouch down and huddle closer, scoping out the threat.
"Must be a leak in SHIELD," Agent 13 murmurs to Steve, who just nods, like he'd been thinking the same thing.
"Must be," Steve sighs, and shrugs his jacket off, and Bucky's mind shuts down, because what the hell is Steve wearing on his back?
"Dude, do you always wear that under everything?" Sam says, rolling his eyes. Steve looks back, grins, and tugs a different kind of mask on—it's bright blue with a white A on it?—and yep, Bucky gives up, he's going insane.
"Obviously," Steve says. Or, Captain America says. Apparently. Maybe? Bucky's kind of having a confusing day.
"Steve?" Bucky says, confused.
Steve just winks at Bucky. "Long story. Tell you later!" he yells, and then turns away, dropping the rest of his Nomad gear in one smooth movement, revealing an entirely red, white and blue uniform beneath. Steve—Captain America, what the actual fuck—goes off hurtling towards what must be over a hundred Hydra agents, what the fuck, hurling something heavy at them, and yeah, that seems to be Captain America's shield too. Bucky's seen him on the news, just a couple of times, as part of that new team that SHIELD has tried to put together, with Giant-Girl, and a woman that could fly and make storms, and the Daily Bugle's favorite menace Spider-Man. Steve said he'd been visiting friends, what the actual hell, Steve? Bucky's going to kick his ass when this is over.
If he can. He's not seen much of Captain America in action, but Bucky's not sure his metal arm can go against super soldier.
"Ooh," the Wasp says. "Nomad is Cap, wow! Didn't see that one coming!" She beams. "Hey, Winghead, don't go without me!" The Wasp flies forward and then starts growing, her black and yellow uniform turning purple.
Natasha draws up alongside Bucky, confusion clear on her face.
"Since when has Jan been able to do that?" Natasha demands.
Agent 13 glances at her. "Uh, so, couple of years, really. But Fury thought she'd be great on the Avengers initiative, especially since Steve was assigned as SHIELD's Stark Industries rep."
"I can't believe my best friend can grow to the size of a skyscraper," Natasha says, her voice faint as she stares. "I'm a spy! I'm a superspy! I feel like I should have known this!"
"I can't believe my best friend is Captain America," Bucky says, his voice also faint. He pinches the bridge of his nose. "Do you think they need help?"
"They don't look like they need help," Natasha says. She's squinting and staring at them. Then she glances at Agent 13. "Uh...Steve? Since when are you on first name basis with Nomad?"
"I've been dating him for a year, Nat," Agent 13 says, placidly.
Natasha looks lost, like she's a second away from imploding. Bucky empathizes more than he thought he ever would with the Black Widow.
"Maybe we should do all the freaking out later," Tony yelps, pointing upwards. "As good as Cap and Giant-Girl are, we're a few Avengers short of being able to deal with that."
Bucky follows Tony's arm to see several incoming aircraft. He swears in Russian, loudly.
"I hate that I agree with you on that," Natasha says, softly.
NATASHA
There's a lot to unpack with what's going on, but Natasha's always been able to compartmentalize. She looks at what she has at hand and improvises.
"There'll be weapons in the quinjet," Natasha says, softly pointing at the aircraft that touched down. It seems like it's not under Hydra control, but the door to the jet is under almost constant fire. She can't see the pilots, which makes her feel queasy.
"Can you fly it?" Bucky asks, his eyes keenly tracking the best route. He's already contemplating the van, which is an excellent strategy.
Natasha nods. "Kids. Back in the van. Sharon, drive us. Sam, I'm going to need you to cover us so we can get into the jet. Bucky—"
He nods at her, eyes shining. "I'm with you."
She smiles, the words meaning so much more than they should. Sharon hustles back into the driver seat, and the rest of them pile into the van. Natasha takes one last glimpse of the crazy battlefield, Captain America and Giant-Girl (what the fuck, Jan?) fighting gracefully together, holding their own against the Hydra forces. They won't be able to hold them back alone for long. Natasha yanks the van door closed behind her, viciously, resentful she can't be out there fighting. Something out there explodes and she resists the urge to throw herself out of the van and join in the combat. The incoming planes are a much bigger problem.
"You two, stay down low," Natasha says, as Sharon guns the engine. "This place is bulletproof, but I don't know what artillery the incoming planes have."
"Something explosive," Tonysays, doing something with his tablet. "I'm in their systems but I can't delay them firing for long."
Natasha blinks, impressed he's able to delay them at all. "I want you both to stay in here."
"No problem," Cassandra agrees.
"No chance," Tony says.
"Tony—" Natasha starts.
"Jet's been hit," Tony says. "But I'm pretty sure I can fix it." He flashes a charming grin at her, "Unless you're hiding an engineering doctorate in that dress of yours."
"Down boy," Bucky hisses in warning.
Natasha has found that most people who were as confident in their skills as Tony Stark were overconfident braggarts, but over isn't the right premodifier here, because his confidence in his skills isn't an exaggeration. Sharon and Sam lay down cover for the three of them, and Natasha, Bucky, and Tony swing up into the quinjet through a hatch in the underbelly, and Tony immediately starts fixing something that's sparking dangerously, his blue eyes bright with a quick and sharp energy.
Natasha moves towards the cockpit, and she and Bucky reach the pilots together at the same time; both pilots are on the ground, it looks like they have been hit by stray shots that punctured through the wall of the jet. Natasha's chest hurts as she checks for a pulse and finds nothing. When she looks up to see Bucky checking the pulse of the other pilot, they look at each other for a second over the bodies, and her pain is mirrored so clearly on his face.
"Let's get this done," Bucky says, his voice thick, and Natasha nods.
BUCKY
From up in the air, Bucky gets a really good glimpse of Steve fighting as Captain America, and it's really fucking something, even if he feels a little betrayed at the same time as he feels deep admiration.
He supposes it explains Steve's quietness. And the way he disappeared during the war and came back different. Bucky just figured that's what happened to everyone who experienced war.
"Okay," Tony yells through the jet. "Got the engine on line, shield's at 80% power. Some of the weapons are online, I'm interfacing with them now. Gonna aim for the engines of the other guys."
"You ever been up in a bird like this before?" Natasha asks, sliding comfortably into the pilot's seat. Bucky's sitting in the matching seat, even though he doesn't have a clue how he can help.
"Never," Bucky says.
Natasha beams at him. "You're gonna love it."
She's not wrong. Now Bucky knows that she's the Black Widow, he shouldn't be surprised by that, but then he recalls her surprise at seeing the Wasp turn into Giant-Girl, and her apparent unawareness that he's the Winter Soldier, and that the Winter Soldier had a metal arm… so he supposes she's not infallible.
It still doesn't make her any less beautiful to him. Any less frighteningly competent.
Down below, the hand-to-hand fighting seems to have slowed, so it's probably up to them now, and whatever Tony's doing apparently works, because he yells, "This is gonna be just like Duck Hunt" and two of the enemy planes get knocked out of the sky. Bucky scours the monitors in the cockpit to see that the missiles came from this jet, and he glances back at a triumphant Tony. That kid is fricking terrifying.
"If they fire at the ground, even if Jan and Steve are fine, Cassandra, Sam and Sharon are sitting ducks," Natasha says.
"Then let's draw their attention," Bucky says. He looks at her speculatively. "Does this thing have a—loudspeaker or something?"
Natasha grins, points out a microphone and punches in something on the console in front of her. "And the stage is yours in three...two...one..."
"We have the Stark kid," Bucky says. "Catch us if you can!"
Natasha disconnects the microphone and laughs. "I always thought you'd be a little bit insane under the mask."
Bucky smirks. "Just a little?"
NATASHA
By the time the enemy ships are down, and Natasha's parked the quinjet, she can see Director Fury's favorite jet already starting to touch down and a fleet of SHIELD vehicles coming up the road.
Time for the clean-up, she supposes.
There's so much Natasha wants to say to Bucky, but it all knots up in her throat, so she just nods at him instead and climbs out of the pilot seat. Tony's lowering the back ramp so they don't have to crawl out the same hatch they came in through, and she throws a grateful smile at him as she heads straight for where Sharon's already talking animatedly to Director Fury, filling him in.
Over in the distance, Steve—still in his Captain America gear—is yelling at a slowly-shrinking Jan. Natasha is going to give Steve so much shit for not letting her know he was also Nomad. A lot of Sharon's reports of engaging the Winter Soldier and his team at Stark Industries have included her "sadly having to fight one-on-one with Nomad in some random secluded room"; they're going to get a serious re-read or three so Natasha knows how much yelling she's going to need to do now she knows. It doesn't take a superspy to conclude fighting probably means kissing.
Natasha heads over to Fury first, giving her report briefly, and trying to skim over why she was at a restaurant with the Winter Soldier when the attack started, but Fury gives her a knowing eyeball, and she guesses he is the King of All Secrets. Jan's finished shrinking by the time Natasha's covered most of it, and she heads over, hanging back awkwardly as Natasha gives her conclusion: that they probably have enough material now to sink Giorgio Gillespie, but one or two follow-up missions wouldn't hurt.
"How about you three go and see if the Gillespie girl is willing to give us a statement," Fury suggests. "I'm sure Cap can give me a rundown on what happened, and why I have so many explosions to clear up."
Natasha shoots an amused look at Steve, who's standing awkwardly a few meters away, before she nods and starts heading over to where Cassandra Gillespie is sitting in the van still, looking shell-shocked.
"Natasha—" Jan starts.
"Later," Natasha says, and eyeballs Sharon too. "We'll do the team debrief after all the business is done. I'll give you the conclusion early, though: needless to say, you're both on my shitlist."
Jan and Sharon consult each other silently for a second and then both sag at the same time.
"Fair," Sharon sighs.
Cassandra perks up when she sees Natasha coming. "Hey, does this mean I go home now?"
"We'll be sending you straight to your father," Natasha says, firmly. "Unless you give us a good reason not to."
"I hate my dad," Cassandra whines. "I don't want to go back to him. I'm over eighteen, I don't have to."
Natasha quirks an eyebrow at her. "Then would you be willing to testify to some of the weird stuff he's done?"
Cassandra blinks. "And put him in jail?" Well, that's a nicely damning first response. She tilts her head. "Why would I?"
"Because he tried to kidnap the boy you like?" Jan suggests.
"But I've known him for a hot second," Cassandra says, looking askance. "My dad is my dad, no way I'm going to grass on him."
"Let's just arrest her for conspiracy to kidnap," Natasha sighs.
Cassandra starts yelping, but it's too late; Natasha gestures at a couple of nearby SHIELD agents, and they nod at her and move in to put Cassandra in handcuffs. "But you helped me," Cassandra hisses, "you hired the guys, you gave me advice, I was just doing what I was told."
"You're over eighteen," Natasha says, almost sing-song. "Prove I was involved." She grins, shark-like. "I dare you."
Cassandra gasps.
"Sharon, can you go help process her?" Natasha asks, and surreptitiously thumbs in Jan's direction. "I need a moment."
"Sure," Sharon says, walking away with the SHIELD agents who have Cassandra in tow.
Natasha looks over speculatively to where Bucky—the Winter Soldier—is sitting on the ramp of the quinjet. Steve's approaching him sheepishly, the Captain America shield slung on his back. Natasha holds back, even though she really actually wants to go over and sit next to him. Maybe holds his hand. She swallows awkwardly.
"So," Jan says, drawing out the sound, drawing Natasha's attention away from Bucky.
"So," Natasha repeats, and she quirks an eyebrow at her. "Giant-Girl?"
Jan winces. "I thought you'd figure it out and I wouldn't have to tell you." She squints. "It's not like you're very good at telling me things. Don't think I'm not still holding a grudge that you told Sharon about the cutie you were dating first."
"You'd already been lying at the time," Natasha says, frowning.
"But you didn't know that," Jan says, folding her arms stubbornly. "I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about the Avengers thing."
"Avengers," Natasha says slowly. "It's kind of a dumb name."
"I came up with it!" Jan yelps, outraged. Then she deflates. "It kind of is a dumb name. We never actually avenge things. It's usually more...prevenging."
"I don't think that's a real word."
Jan laughs. She nods over at Bucky. "Apparently Cap's been working to recruit the Winter Soldier to join SHIELD. That means he could be working with you more often."
Natasha chews on her lower lip, looking over at Bucky. "There's something wrong with him. He's—possibly actually crazy?"
"Trying to see how that means he's not exactly your type," Jan says. She nudges Natasha softly with her shoulder. "I mean, you voluntarily picked me to be on your team when you had a choice."
"I might be regretting that decision," Natasha says grumpily, even though she knows that's mostly a lie the second she says it. Well. She said might.
"Ah, you love me," Jan says.
"I'm incapable of love," Natasha lies.
"Sure you are," Jan says, placating.
Natasha's gaze drifts back to where Bucky's shaking his head at Steve, and then Bucky's gesturing for Steve to join him, like there's no problem with Steve's secret identity, like their friendship is more important than anything else. Her heart feels like it's actually expanding in her chest, goddammit. She can still feel an echo of his mouth on hers. This might be a problem, how she's feeling, but it doesn't feel like one. It feels like a promise. It feels like Bucky's voice saying, softly, in a tone of wonder, darling.
When she looks back at her friend, Jan's staring up at her in amusement.
"Shut up," Natasha mutters, embarrassed.
"I didn't say anything," Jan says.
"Which is why I'm angry at you right now," Natasha reminds her.
BUCKY
"So," Bucky says, and eyeballs Steve. "You wanna tell me a story?"
Steve looks like he'd rather shoot himself in the face, actually, but he sits down next to Bucky and frowns at him. "I wasn't allowed to tell you. You didn't have high enough clearance." Bucky starts to splutter, but Steve holds up a hand. "You do now. I just cleared it with, well, not my boss, but my supervisor." Steve gestures at the guy who'd arrived after all the bad guys had been subdued, a black burly looking guy in a trench coat and wearing an eye patch.
"Okay," Bucky says, and he tries to breathe evenly. He's hurt, more than he'd like to be. "So do you wanna tell me the story now?"
Steve grimaces. "It happened...well, just before I disappeared for a bit. You remember." At Bucky's nod, Steve continues. "My facility was bombed, pretty badly."
Bucky stares at the side of Steve's face. He feels suddenly cold. How badly is pretty badly? Was Steve caught up in the blast?
"I was one of only two survivors," Steve says, and Bucky's frozen with the sudden swell of empathy and pain, because Steve—it sounds like Steve nearly died? What the hell? "But there was a guy in the building, a genius, name of Erskine. He'd been creating this serum—and even though he was dying, and I was dying, he gave me it, because he couldn't operate the machine and be in it. He saved my life. And he made me like this." Steve gestures at his body. "I hated lying to you, Buck. I really did."
His eyes are shining. Bucky sighs and wishes it was easy to hate the fucker. It's not. He's just overwhelmingly relieved his friend is alive, and he's grateful. His eyes sting. "I'm just happy you survived. I'm just—I'm really mad you've been hiding something so big from me, but—you're alive. You're alive. I don't know if I can explain what that feels like."
Steve gently touches Bucky's metal arm. "I have some idea."
They're silent for a long moment, just staring at each other.
"I do really appreciate you believing it was just war that had made me buff," Steve says, because maybe he's always going to be the one that breaks their awkward silences first.
"I always had faith in you," Bucky says, and he frowns. "You could have told me, even without the whole—clearance level."
Steve sighs. "It's been a lot. A lot. Especially with the whole Avengers thing, and—the things I can do as Captain America...it's so much. I can help so many people. It's hard to know when to actually stop. I wouldn't take a vacation, so Fury forcibly assigned me to Stark Industries as the official SHIELD liaison, but then you were still—you were struggling. So I asked Director Fury—he's the head of SHIELD—if I could recruit you. But he wanted a field test."
"You...you were already working for SHIELD at Stark Industries… Are you telling me all the work we did, you set it all up?" Bucky stares.
Steve shrugs. "I just opened the door, you walked through it. The Widow's SHIELD too. I always presumed Fury sent her as a test."
"Presumed wrong," Natasha says, and both Bucky and Steve lurch up at the same time.
"Hey Nat," Steve says, gently. He frowns. "So why were you always there?"
Natasha shrugs. "My mission was Gillespie senior. I'm trying to get proof of what the fucker's up to. Thankfully now we think his daughter's going to testify against him, so I can quit and get back to some real work. Where hopefully there are no murder-bastards running around to ruin my day."
"Murder-bastards," Bucky echoes, and then sulks when he realizes she's pointing at him. "What? I've never murdered anyone!"
"You've murdered my good moods," Natasha says, moodily. "More than once."
"You blew up my favorite cover," Bucky says. "And hey, wait, I was busy being mad at Steve."
"You can't be mad at him, he's a national icon," Tony says, appearing from within the quinjet and throwing himself down next to them.
Bucky eyeballs him balefully. "You're still here?"
"Of course," Tony says. "I'm going to be an Avenger soon, networking is good for me."
Bucky turns to Steve. "This kid?"
"Don't discourage him," Steve says, softly. "Kid's an Arthurian nerd. Thinks he can make a flying suit of armor or something."
"I know I can," Tony says, mutinously. "Once I figure out the energy problem so I don't, y'know, give myself cancer."
"That's probably a good aim," Bucky says.
"I thought so," Tony says, "because—" but then he trails off, and his eyes go wide in shock at something behind Bucky's head, and Bucky's about to just sigh, roll over, and let whatever it is shoot him—he is just that level of done with surprises at this point—when he realizes that Tony's staring at Howard Stark. Who's actually there, standing with that Director Fury guy. "Dad?"
"Hey, kiddo," Howard says, and Tony leaps up and flings himself forward and Bucky has to watch the most awkward father-son relieved hug in the world. Neither of them actually apparently know how a hug works.
"That pitiful attempt at a hug is physically causing me pain," Bucky whimpers.
"It's like they're both the claws in a claw machine," Natasha echoes, tilting her head.
"I'm going to go and find Sam," Steve says, patting Bucky on the head. "You can yell at me again later."
"I will yell," Bucky promises, as Steve laughs and hurries off, the shiny red, white and blue shield glinting on his back as he hops away. Dammit, he's more impressed at Steve than angry. Ugh. That's irritating.
"So," Natasha says, and when Bucky looks at her, she's staring off into the horizon, her pretty mouth turned up in a soft smile, "today was a bit crazy, huh?"
"Understatement," Bucky says. "Uh, apparently I'm being recruited into SHIELD? I mean, I haven't said yes yet. Steve said you're SHIELD. Is it good?"
"Well, it has its moments," Natasha says. She holds out her right hand. "I'm Natasha. Natasha Romanova. Pleased to meet you."
"James Buchanan Barnes," Bucky says. "My friends call me Bucky." He goes to shake her hand, but she pulls hers back, squinting at him in disbelief.
"You gave me your real name? In the airport?" Natasha looks horrified. "What kind of spy are you?"
"I'm kind of a terrible one," Bucky says. "Sam and Steve keep me around because of the metal fist thing. And the eye candy thing."
Natasha frowns at him, and then slowly extends her hand back out again. Bucky reaches back out to shake it, and instead, she takes it in hers and laces their fingers together. He smiles in genuine, happy surprise.
"You know, I was upset when Howard Stark sent us to England," Bucky says. "I didn't think I'd like it here."
"And you've changed your mind?" Natasha's smiling too now.
"Well," Bucky says slowly, "it has some charms to it I didn't anticipate."
"You're really charming when you put your mind to it."
Bucky smirks. "I appreciate the kind assumption I have a mind. It's actually, uh, a common joke at work. That Steve and I have joint-ownership of a single braincell."
Natasha laughs. "For us, we fight over who has possession of our last nerve." She purses her lips thoughtfully. "You often got on it." She huffs at his sudden, cheeky smile. "Don't think being cute means you get off without hassle, the Winter Soldier severely ruined my calm, more than once."
"You've called me cute and charming in the last minute alone," Bucky says. "Someone with more than one brain cell might read something into that."
"Someone with more than one brain cell wouldn't be so dense about the fact I've been trying to get into your pants since the moment we met," Natasha grumps. And then she looks startled, like she's just realized what she's said.
She isn't removing her hand from his, though. That's a good sign. Bucky takes that sign and uses it to fake a confidence he doesn't feel. "I'm a little clumsy," he sighs. "You might have to do that for me."
Natasha shakes her head ruefully. "Just don't call me the Black Widow in bed and I think we'll do fine, James."
"Well I guess as long as you don't bite my head off afterwards, we should be good." Bucky narrows his eyes. "You want to bed me, but you don't want to call me Bucky?"
"You said Bucky is what your friends call you," Natasha says, and Bucky's stomach swoops, because he'd kind of been hoping—well, she was interested in him, and even finding out he's someone she's actively spent time hating hasn't chased her off—but apparently he's been overly assumptive… "Do you really think a girlfriend would call you it too? I think your girlfriend would call you James."
Oh, Bucky thinks. He grins giddily. He feels like Sam could tell him he's secretly also Captain America and he probably wouldn't be mad. "That would be nice," he says. "And, uh, what do you think a boyfriend might call you?"
Natasha leans in close, and kisses him on the cheek. "Why don't you find out, darling?"
Bucky nods like he's thinking about it, and he wants to kiss her so badly. He tries to find it in him to care that there are witnesses, but Natasha makes it hard for him to concentrate on anything when she's around. He's fallen around her a fair few times in the last few days and he thinks he's been falling the entire time. As soon as her mouth leaves his cheek, he pulls her into a proper kiss because he's feeling brave. Natasha kisses back immediately, demanding, guiding his right hand to the slit on her dress, and his fingers find the soft, warm skin there. She tastes like promises and vodka, and the full wide freedom of a cloudless sky.
