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"Huh," James Buchanan (Bucky) Barnes, Winter Soldier, Asset, or his current favorite name, Dragă, said when he opened a very official looking envelope with a lot of stamps. Well, it had come from America to Romania. "This is weird."
"What?" Constantin said without looking up from counting the week's proceeds and frowning. "The weather is bad. The price of plums is up. And they're not even good plums," he grumbled.
"The U.N. wants me to join one of the U.S. hero groups."
Constantin looked up. "Is it a union shop? Is there medical... yes, I know, Dragostea mea, you don't get sick, but I have seen how that bastard of an arm pains you. Let me see the paper?"
Barnes handed the paper over readily.
Constantin scanned it quickly, having no trouble with English. Being a polyglot was an advantage when selling plums in a capitol city. "This is good. They have that engineer Stark in the group. He's also an omega and can help make your arm better."
Barnes scowled. "I killed his parents."
"Yes, you did that. That makes it difficult, but not impossible, I think." Constantin frowned. "I will ask his Alpha what we can do to make it... not right, but less bad."
"You want to do it?" Barnes asked.
"Yes, why not? We could have a nice holiday, see your Brooklyn, and if the U.N. offer is not good, well, maybe we meet a plum grower from China at the U.N. It's good to have more than one supplier."
Constantin had brushed his hair carefully. It was thinning, yes, but still black. He wore his best suit, and polished his shoes before they entered the room where they were to meet the Accords people and the members of the Hero team. It had been a long flight and he was a little tired, but he wanted to look good for his James.
"BUCKY!" a large man jumped forward, brushing past Constantin as if he wasn't there, to grab James' hand. Americans Constantin thought in disdain. No manners.
"Don't worry about anything, Bucky! I volunteered to be your Alpha until we can find someone right for you!" The big man was grinning and shaking James' hand as if he owned him.
Constantin growled and slashed his hand down on the rude American's wrist, too angry to speak.
James twisted away from the man and said, "What? What the hell, Steve?"
A man wearing a lapel pin with the flag of India said, "There is a mating requirement, now, for U.S. Sanctioned Omegas." He didn't sound happy about it.
An older man wearing not only a U.S. lapel pin, but some sort of military medals (Constantin wondered if they were real) sounded smug when he added, "Unbonded omegas have a year in which to fulfill the mating requirement. Until then, they will stay under the tutelage of an unbonded alpha on the team, for their own safety."
James laughed, and looked at Constantin. His eyes had that wicked look Constantin loved. He said, in Romanian. "Do you believe this? They think Rogers would keep me out of trouble? It was always the other way." He scowled, and added, still in Romanian, "I should have given myself up when the police came for me in Bucharest."
Constantin put his hand on James' arm. He replied in Romanian, "The past is the past. If they can help you with that arm, it is worth some rudeness. Just tell them you are mine, and we will avoid that troublemaker. He is the kind who tips over the fruit cart and gets his friend to share the blame, all for a bite of apple."
James laughed again, before turning to the Accords committee. "Constantin Ciobanu is my bonded Alpha. If you want me, you want him."
The Accords committee thought Constantin a great nuisance. He could see it in their faces to varying degrees, with Rogers and the blustering man who was finally introduced as the U.S. Secretary of State the most annoyed. Blessed with a wide peasant face, Constantin could play stupid very well. In Romanian he said, "The secretary is not very good at his job. He hasn't taken a single note."
James kept a straight face as he pretended to explain, "He's an important secretary, too important to take notes."
"Or too stupid," Constantin replied. He noticed that Stark, out of all of them, tried to hide a smirk. So he spoke Romanian? Or at least enough to get the joke. "Tell them we are not going to live on their charity, waiting for the sky to fall down so you will have something to do. We can work here, if they give us work visas, and for me, a license to sell street food, and maybe a nice little cart whose wheels do not squeak. We will find our own homes." While James spoke, Constantin looked at Stark and then at the tall Alpha who stood beside him. He met the Alpha's eyes, steadily. Yes, my Omega did terrible things, he thought. But he is a good man, and deserves better.
Stark's Alpha looked at Stark. Stark shrugged and then stood up and said, "It sounds like a good deal to me." He walked up to Constantin and smiled. It was a beautifully polite and feral Omega grin.
Constantin returned it. Yes, he could work with Stark. Pack bond dynamics, his ass. Two Omega wolves would show these puppies who REALLY controls the pack.