Chapter Text
Yelena crossed her arms. “So, what is super secret meeting about?”
Bucky shifted uncomfortably and looked sideways at Alexei. “It’s not super secret,” he said. “It’s just… private.”
“Right, of course. What is super private meeting about?”
“Bob,” Alexei said.
“I rather figured that,” Yelena said, rolling her eyes and looking around to see if there was something good to lean on. There was not. She was stuck standing awkwardly in this weird little triangle in the middle of the room, without even the ability to look like a nonchalant cat.
“The thing is - what he did, during the battle, today,” Bucky said, still looking more sideways at Alexei than forwards at Yelena. “It was…”
“Stupid and vaguely suicidal and wildly irresponsible with his own life and kinda ours as well?”
“Yeah, that, thank you, Yelena,” Bucky answered. “And, the thing is,” he was way overusing that phrase, Yelena noted, “if you or any of the others had done that, you’d be over my knee or Alexei’s the second we got back to the tower.”
Yelena tilted her head a little.
“And if Winter Soldier had done it, he would be over my knee also as quickly,” Alexei added, while Bucky twitched.
“Uh-huh,” Yelena said. “I am not the sort of person who does that, like you two, but I am guessing I am here as Bob expert?”
“Yeah,” Bucky said. “Because the reason we’ve never done anything before is concern about setting something off for him. The thing is, there are basically two big differences between his stuff and ours, right? One, the sources of his problems are less fantastical than most of the rest of ours. So he’s more likely to get set off by normal things than we are. I mean, Ava, for example, as long as we don’t experiment on her in a lab, we’re pretty much set. A spanking’s mostly okay for the rest of us, if we’re careful how we go about it, because our problems are weirder than that.”
“This is true,” Yelena said.
Bucky looked sideways at Alexei yet again, like he was hoping Alexei would take up the thread of conversation, but he did not, and Bucky’s shoulder slumped slightly in resignation before he resumed. “And, two, his responses to getting set off are more, um, fantastical, than ours. I mean, if you start having a problem, or even me, we can just stop for a bit and let you calm down, or if it’s bad we can stop altogether and come back to it the next day. But if he gets set off we could accidentally nuke Manhattan. Or the planet.”
Yelena hummed. “Also true.”
Bucky looked appealingly at Alexei again, and this time he finally obliged. “So we are unsure what to do. And wondered if you might have thought.”
Yelena nibbled on her lower lip a bit. “I mean, your points are true, but also it does not seem - ”
There was a knock on the doorframe, and they all jumped.
“Hi guys,” Bob said.
The three attendees of the super private meeting exchanged vaguely panicked looks.
“So, um, apparently even when I’m the one using the body, Sentry and Void can still both hear you guys from like, really far away?”
The looks became less vaguely, more acutely, panicked.
“They didn’t tell me what you were talking about, but they did say to tell you that they wouldn’t interfere. But that it might be better for Yelena to stick around. Dunno what any of that means.“
Bucky’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline, then he turned back to Yelena and Alexei. “Not sure about you, but that sounds to me about as close to active approval, plus guarantee of safety, as we could possibly get.”
“True again, you are on fire, today, Soldier,” Yelena said, and walked to Bob where he stood in the doorway. “Sorry, Bob, but you will feel better after. In your head, at least,” she said, and patted him on the shoulder. “And also you do have it coming, I will not lie to you. At the moment.”
Bob’s eyebrows pulled together, and he looked at her in confusion. “What?”
Bucky drew a deep breath. “Alexei, you want to deal with this, or me?”
“He is all yours, Winter Soldier, best of luck to you, very brave of you to offer, you have my respect!” Alexei patted Bob on the same shoulder Yelena had and hastily strode past him out of the room, and Bob looked backwards down the hallway at him, and then back at Yelena and Bucky, rather nervously.
Bucky screwed up his eyes. “Fuck.”
“Everything okay?” Bob asked, voice a little pitchy, which Yelena figured was fair given everyone, including admittedly herself, was being rather ominous. If Bucky didn’t actually start explaining something soon, she would have to intervene.
“Yeah,” Bucky said. “Or, well, more or less. We wanted to… talk, about what you did today.”
“Yeah!” Bob’s voice was excited, pleased with himself, and Yelena gritted her teeth a little. “I was just thinking, about the things we know guarantee the other guys fronting, you know? And they always show up when they’re needed to keep the body alive. But not for the same reasons. Sentry saves us from dying from, like, bullets, and Void from internal or weird stuff like the serum and the kill switch. So I figured getting shot would guarantee Sentry would front immediately, without Void. And it worked!”
He sounded so proud of himself. Bucky and Yelena shared a look, both of their jaws tight.
“Right,” Bucky said, dragging the word a bit. “Did you consider what would happen if Sentry didn’t jump in fast enough?”
Bob shrugged. “Not really. I mean, he always does.”
“Uh-huh,” Yelena said. “And did you consider that Sentry is at this point unpredictable in a combat situation and does not have full control of his own powers? Or that we didn’t know yet if Sentry showing up automatically means Void will show up after when you crash?”
Bob was starting to look less pleased with himself again. Well, at least he had some ability to read the room. “Not really,” he said. “I mean, you guys were getting hurt, and Sentry could help, and… what am I here for, if I’m just gonna be useless forever because I’m too scared to actually do anything?”
Yelena took a deep breath and let it out in a heavy sigh. “It is good that you are not too scared of making things worse,” she said, and Bob winced. She hadn’t been sure whether that was a good thing to bring up, but it was an important point to establish. “But there is knowing you are not always bad for everyone, and there is being unwise, and that was very very unwise, Bob.”
Bob’s face was locked into his vague-friendly expression, but his hands were twisting at his sleeves. “If you want to say I was stupid you can just say that.”
“I did not say you were stupid, Bob.”
“No, but you meant it,” Bob said, and half-smiled up at her, which she did not like at all, because he was lying with his face, and badly, and in a way that meant he was feeling attacked. Which wasn’t exactly wrong but was also very, very wrong.
“We appreciate you wanting to help, Bob,” Bucky said. “But the thing is, quite frankly this wasn’t a life-and-death situation until you made it one.”
Bob looked at them both with rather wide eyes, that made him seem a bit like a cornered animal. Yelena did not like that at all, either. There was a reason she was not involved with this side of things.
“We kinda need to get this clear before we decide where to go from here, even though it wouldn’t make it okay,” Bucky said. “Sorry to just ask, but when you did that, were you in an episode? Or being influenced by Sentry or Void? More than usual?”
One side of Bob’s face pulled up for a moment in a wince. “Um, I don’t think so. That was pretty much just me.”
Bucky nodded. “Okay then.”
“Okay? Okay what?” Bob looked back and forth between them, which Yelena honestly found a bit odd; surely he couldn’t be genuinely confused as to where this was going, at this point?
“No skin-to-skin contact,” she advised Bucky. “Even if Void has promised not to interfere, he could still accidentally do the - you know, the thing. And it could be worse than usual if he is stressed.”
“I’m not gonna do the thing! Why would there be contact?” Bob was starting to back away, down the hall, and Yelena raised her hands.
“Whoa, Bob, it is okay. Sentry and Void, they would not let anyone harm you, yes? This was your reasoning, anyway.”
Bob stopped backing away, but it looked less like he was calming down, and more like he was considering squaring up. “With bullets, yeah, but they didn’t stop - ”
My father rang in the silence between them.
“Yeah, well, they didn’t have superpowers, then, did they?” Bucky asked. “As far as we know anyway. Nothing’s going to happen that you need defending from, Bob.”
“See, I would’ve thought that, a few minutes ago, but you’re acting awfully a lot like someone I need defending from.”
Bucky and Yelena looked at each other, then back at Bob, and Yelena answered him. “Surely you must know what would happen if any of the rest of us did this sort of thing?”
Bob’s face went vague-friendly again, but more heavy on the blank than the friendly. “I kinda try not to.”
Yelena frowned. “Wait, wait, wait. Do you - do you think Bucky and Alexei have been, what, abusing everyone? Including somehow each other? And you were just trying to ignore it to keep peace?”
Bob blinked and smiled ever so slightly. It did not look nice. It looked empty. “No,” he said. “Of course not.”
“I think you do,” Yelena said, a bit more heatedly than she meant to. “They would not. I am fine. Bucky is fine.”
Bob smiled a bit more, and it looked, for a split second before it was empty again, very sad. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m fine too. Always have been.”
“Not that sort of fine!” Yelena realized right after she said it that she was being a bit too sharp and a bit too loud, as Bucky gestured her back, and raised his own hands. Given that one of them was made of vibranium, this was perhaps less effective a gesture than when Yelena had done it, but then, it’s not like her empty hands weren’t lethal too.
“Look, Bob, I’m really not sure how to prove this without showing you, but I wouldn’t harm anyone here, including you, and Alexei wouldn’t harm me.”
Bob blinked several times, and he was back to vague-friendly. He shrugged. “I mean, if you wanna hit me, go ahead,” he said. “I can’t stop you.”
Bucky darted a glance at Yelena. “Kinda thinking this is a bad idea, now, actually.”
Yelena looked at the floor as the three of them stood in silence, then up at Bob, then back at Bucky. “No,” she said firmly. “You said you have no way to prove without showing. So we show.”
“You sure?”
“Yes,” she said. “I am sure.”
Bucky rolled his shoulders back. “Okay.”
He walked forward, to the door, then past it into the hall, and Bob stood there, vague-friendly, as Bucky took his hand in his own vibranium one - no skin-to-skin contact. Bucky used the hand to lead him back into the common area, and sat down on the sofa.
Bob looked barely even there. “You’re absolutely positive about this, Yelena?” Bucky asked.
“Yes,” she said again, and pulled gloves out of a pocket of one of her vests that was tossed over a chair - it shouldn’t be there, it had too many explosives and poisons for an area with food and pets in it, she would have to remember to remove it. She pulled the gloves on and waited to see how Bucky would position Bob.
“I’m not gonna use my metal hand,” he said. “So I guess that means all clothes stay on. Keep his hands off my legs and other arm?”
“Of course,” Yelena said, and crouched down by the sofa to Bucky’s left.
Bucky pulled Bob down, and Bob went, willingly but awkwardly, over his lap. Bob’s torso rested mostly on the sofa, and Yelena reached out and took both his hands in her own gloved ones.
“I would’ve kind of liked to talk more, Bob,” Bucky said, “but I don’t think that’s gonna help anything until you’re a little more back with us. So…” he sighed. “I guess let’s just start, then, and we’ll do this as grounding from dissociation before we get on to the main point.”
His hand slapped down on Bob’s pajamas with no further dilly-dally, and Bob barely twitched. Yelena knew from the sound that the smack had been quite weak, compared to what Bucky would probably be doing on, say, her, but still, Bob should’ve reacted more than that to the first one. Definitely not with them, then.
“So, Bob,” she said, conversationally. “You get the special treatment. Someone just to hold your hands, and Bucky being all gentle. Not that he isn’t always, we have seen what that Hydra serum can do. But he is treating you like little bunny. I guess you’re the favorite.”
Bob blinked a few times, and twitched his eyes in her direction, just for a moment. Which was more reaction than any of the few swats Bucky had delivered in the meantime had gotten.
“I’m not treating him like a bunny,” Bucky said, and Yelena almost giggled at the word “bunny” in Bucky’s gravelly drawl.
“You are. It is okay, I am not jealous. He is a good choice for favorite.”
“I don’t have favorites. And if I did I wouldn’t make choices like that based on it. And also - ”
“I’m not fragile,” Bob said, and Yelena and Bucky both jumped a little. “You don’t have to treat me like - like a bunny.”
Yelena almost laughed again, but it was a bit hysterical, and a bit sad, this time.
“No,” Bucky said. “You’re not fragile, and also I’m the one who decides how this goes.”
Bob rolled his eyes. “Look, if you’re trying to prove a point about not harming people, great. It’s proven, you’re capable of holding back on the super-strength, I already knew that, even Sentry is. Let’s move on.”
“Are you actually back with us,” Bucky asked, “or are you just talking on auto-pilot?”
“I don’t even know what that means,” Bob huffed, but even though Bucky’s swats were starting to get harder, Bob was still reacting far more to their words than Bucky’s hand. To which he was reacting pretty much not at all, really.
“Auto-pilot,” Yelena said, glancing up from Bob to Bucky.
“Shit. Okay. Well, the gentle way didn’t work. Let’s try this.” He adjusted the vibranium arm more carefully around Bob’s waist, and brought his hand down quickly and a lot and, ah, that was the sound Yelena was more familiar with.
At first there was no response, and Yelena was worried they would have to call the whole thing off after all, when Bob’s eyes widened, just a bit. She nodded slightly at Bucky. Several more loud slaps and Bob made a little sound in his throat, and then wiggled for the first time against Bucky’s arm, just a little, and then tried to tug one of his hands out of Yelena’s.
“You there, Bob?” Yelena asked, trying to get eye contact, and, finally, Bob’s eyes snapped to hers.
“I said I was - ow!”
Bucky rolled his own back forward, cracking his spine, which Yelena knew by now meant relief, and paused with his hand, resting it on the backside of Bob’s pajamas. “There we go. Not the prettiest way to ground, but hey, if it works.”
“He thinks you are a strong bunny,” Yelena said to Bob, in a confiding tone.
“I don’t - whatever. You enough with us to talk more about what happened today?”
“I think I’d rather not,” Bob said, his voice a little creaky.
Yelena went ahead and let herself chuckle. “No, but we would rather you not do something like that again, so I think we have to,” she said.
Bob sighed. “Yeah, okay.”
“So,” Bucky started, “if I’m getting this straight, your argument is that you think if you’re not helping in combat you’re useless and if you’re useless you should be or will be kicked out, and intentionally getting shot, and forcing Sentry to abruptly front, is a reasonable response to that concern, on the grounds that you think Sentry is reliable both as a safeguard against getting killed by bullets, and in a complex combat situation?”
Yelena raised her eyebrows, and Bob winced. “Uh, yeah,” he said. “I wouldn’t have put it like that, though.”
“Hmm. Does Sentry agree with that assessment? Because he didn’t seem too happy, earlier, and also he and Void both kinda left you to our tender mercies, when I would normally expect them to be killing me, or at least non-lethally disabling me, right now.”
“No offense,” Yelena added.
“I’m not really sure,” Bob said. “They’re not talking to me right now.”
“Mm. Do you still agree with that assessment?”
Bob twisted up his face. “Uh, no?”
Bucky looked towards the ceiling, and Yelena was pretty sure he was doing some combination of holding back a snort and praying to Rogers’s ghost for patience. “Is that a question or an answer?”
“An answer?”
Yelena failed to hold back her own snort, and Bucky tossed her a quick glare.
“Okay,” Bucky said. “So I could talk for a while about how dangerous it was to escalate a previously under control situation by adding someone to the battlefield as powerful and unpredictable as Sentry. Or about how that’s a dick move towards Sentry. But I don’t think either of those are the base issue, do you, Yelena?”
Yelena shook her head, and Bob scrunched his nose a bit in response. “I do not.”
“Because we wouldn’t have ever gotten to the point where any of that was a problem, Bob, if you hadn’t decided walking in front of a bullet, several bullets, actually, was a good solution to self-worth issues.”
Yelena and Bob both winced that time.
“I wasn’t trying to - I knew it would be fine. Ow!”
The last sound was a response to the first smack from Bucky in a while - a pretty hard one. “Not the right time for lying, Bob,” Bucky said.
“I’m not lying, I knew it would be fine!”
“Did you?” Yelena asked. “Or did you think it would probably be fine, and not care very much if it wasn’t?”
Bob was silent for a while, until Bucky raised his hand again and he started to talk fast. “That’s not fair. You can’t - you can’t punish me for being - for not caring. I can’t help that.”
Bucky hummed. “You’re not quite wrong on that,” he said. “But there are a couple things I can do. One, I can give you a reason to care in future. If you’re not going to avoid bullets because they’re bullets and you don’t want to get hit by them, maybe you can avoid bullets because if you get hit by them, your butt gets hit by me.” He demonstrated his point, and Bob’s foot twisted to the side and back as he repressed a squirm.
“And two,” Bucky said, “I can punish you for how you treated the rest of us.”
Bob’s eyebrows pulled together. “How I - did Sentry do something? I thought it went okay?”
“He does not mean Sentry,” Yelena said, low and serious. “He means you.”
Bob pulled his lower lip between his teeth for a second. “I thought we’d moved on from the escalating and unpredictable thing,” he said, although there was a bit of shadow at the back of his eyes that suggested he had not, himself, moved on from that.
“We have,” Bucky said. “This is about you apparently thinking we only see you as some sort of potential combat asset, and that we might just drop you in the street if you aren’t useful enough.”
“Oh.”
“That is very hurtful, Bob,” Yelena told him, and squeezed his hands for a few seconds to make sure he was listening.
“You’re not just a button, Press to Activate Sentry,” Bucky said, and Yelena had some thoughts about the Winter Soldier but kept them to herself. “And I, personally, am not super happy that you think we think you are. You don’t have to be useful. You definitely don’t have to be useful in fights. Wash the dishes sometimes and maybe make waffles once in a while and we’re good.”
“Or even if you cannot wash dishes or make waffles,” Yelena said. “If you can just lie in bed. Still we would not want you to go. We are none of us paying rent. You do not have to pay rent in unconscious bad guys. Or in waffles.”
“Hell,” Bucky said, “even the original Avengers kept Hawkeye around.”
Yelena tried very hard not to laugh, and ended up making a weird gulping noise. Kate would have liked that one.
Bob worked his jaw, and Yelena was concerned he was about to say something unwise. “You say that now,” he said, and Yelena groaned internally at being proven right. “But what if in a year you realize I’m still just - a useless piece of - ”
Bucky’s hand came down with enough force it must have been serum-enhanced, quite a few times, hard enough Yelena was a little glad it wasn’t on her. Bob started twisting and gasping and around when Yelena began having a bit of trouble keeping him from pulling a hand loose Bucky stopped.
“You do not say things like that about me or about my friends, Bob,” Yelena said. “Including the friend who is you. We will not realize shit. And you are not shit.”
“I’m - ” Bob started, and then stopped when Bucky lifted his hand.
“Bunnies do not have to be useful,” Yelena said. “They can just be good and soft. Or naughty and soft. That is also okay.”
Bob frowned. “Oh,” he said, “so I’m just a pet? Or a mascot? Not sure that’s better.”
“No,” Yelena said with an exasperated huff. “You are - we are all wild rabbits, yes? In a big colony burrow. Like the ones that like to murder people, in the book. All of us. And we do not have to be useful. We can just eat grass and then curl together to be warm after, and that’s okay. That’s good.”
Bob chewed on that, for a while. Bucky looked like he was about to try to move things along and Yelena shook her head at him, just a quarter inch back and forth. Give him a minute.
Finally, Bob tightened his grip on one of Yelena’s hands for a second. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
“You are okay being strong bunny rabbit, and will not say things like that about yourself or us again?”
“I mean,” Bob said, mouth pulled to the side in a sheepish smile, “I might. You might have to remind me again. Sorry.”
Yelena shrugged. “It’s alright. Bucky has a strong arm and a lot of endurance. The serum they gave him is much better than Alexei’s.”
“I do,” Bucky said. “You just sorry about that, or you sorry about all that nonsense earlier, too?”
“Nonsense too, I guess. It was pretty unwise,” Bob said, then added hastily, “emphasis on the unwise, not the guess!”
“Feel like explaining why it was unwise?” Bucky asked.
“I mean, not particul - ”
“Bob,” Yelena said, raising an eyebrow.
Bob sighed, slumping down over Bucky’s legs. “It’s not a guarantee that Sentry will be able to stop bullets every time, so getting shot on purpose is risky, and also it’s a bad idea to,” he paused a second, “escalate a situation by introducing an unpredictable variable.”
Yelena looked up at Bucky and they both shrugged a little. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Long fancy words too, very nice.”
“Read a report from Valentina saying that about Sentry last week.”
“Hmm. Issue for another time,” Yelena said, and noted it down in her head. “For now we will take it. What else?”
“What else what?”
“What else was wrong with what happened today?” Yelena asked patiently.
Bob screwed his eyes tightly shut. “I’m a bunny not a button?”
Yelena grinned. “Very good. That sounds like the important points to me, does that sound sufficient to you, Bucky?”
Bucky smiled at her, just a little, and nodded. “Sounds good to me.” He looked and sounded much less tense than was normal for him when he did this. It occurred to Yelena suddenly to wonder how much it stressed him when he had to do this alone.
“Great,” Bob said brightly. “So can I get up now?”
Bucky scoffed. “Yeah, no,” he said, and adjusted his grip with the vibranium arm again. “We still need to actually provide that incentive for you to care about bullets, and also try to get as much time as we can before you have to be reminded that we don’t think shit like that again.”
Bob’s breath started to get fast, and Yelena held his hands tightly. “Bob, I promise you, we will not harm you. You may be sore for a bit but it will be okay. Bucky would not, and if he tried, I would shoot him in the head.” Bucky raised an eyebrow. “Or at least leg. Maybe arm.”
Bob looked into her eyes, a little too deeply for it to be comfortable, flicking back and forth from her left eye to her right. “You promise?”
“Yes. Do you trust me?”
He kept looking, and Yelena found she was rather happy to have the gloves on, but carefully kept her face open, let Bob see her, find what he was looking for. “Yes,” he said finally. “I think so.”
“Okay. Then hold on tight.”
Bucky looked at her, and she nodded, and he nodded back, and Bob held her hands very tight as Bucky’s hand lifted.
Bob jolted forward towards her with the first hit and then went a bit still as Bucky laid into him, but Yelena could tell he was still there by the wide eyes looking into hers and the flickering grip on her hands, tightening when Bucky’s hand came down somewhere especially sensitive and then loosening again.
Bob wasn’t talking, like she normally would be at the point he seemed to be, no sorry or please, but he was definitely still there, and definitely feeling it. He was starting to squirm around quite a lot. He threw himself suddenly to the side against Bucky’s metal arm, and Bucky paused for a second.
“Don’t do that,” Bucky said. “You could bruise yourself on my arm.”
Bob looked like he wanted to say something unwise, but chose not to, thank goodness, instead kicking a foot a little against the floor and pressing back towards Bucky’s stomach.
“Thank you,” Bucky said, and started again.
Bob was twisting more and more, and starting to keen a little in his throat, and Yelena did not like it. She looked up at Bucky, which she had never been able to do at this point in the proceedings when she was over his lap, and was more surprised than she probably should have been to see that he didn’t look happy about it either. But he kept going, hand coming down in an exact rhythm like a machine, as tears started coming into Bob’s eyes.
His hands were getting harder to hold. He was sweaty, and she had picked soft gloves instead of grippy gloves, and he was tugging more than grabbing, now. Suddenly a sharp jerk and one hand went free and flew back.
“Bucky!”
Bucky snatched the hand out of midair with his metal arm, just in time, just before it would have hit Bucky’s skin. They all froze for several seconds.
“No memory rooms today, Bob,” Bucky said.
“Sorry!” Bob’s voice was wet, catchy and a bit snotty. “I wasn’t - I didn’t mean to do that!”
“It’s fine. I’m just going to put that over here, okay?” Bucky moved them around so the hand Bob tried to block him with was locked against his side by the metal arm holding him in place. “Not gonna be as comfortable, sorry. You got the other one, Yelena?”
“Yes,” she said. “Sorry. His arms are stronger than I expected.”
“Mm. Strong bunny,” Bucky said, and started again, and somewhere during the pause Bob had fully started crying. Yelena held on to the remaining hand with both of hers and considered the merits of shooting Bucky in the head, or the leg.
Bucky was worrying at his lip while swatting, which was liable to draw blood before long. Bob was wriggling around as much as he possibly could while held by an arm much stronger than iron. Yelena was about at both her snapping point and Bob’s, when -
“Ow ow ow stop please!”
Bucky’s hand froze in midair, as suddenly as if it had hit Sentry’s telekinetic field, and then he fell forward in relief, for just a few seconds, over Bob’s back.
“Fuck. Finally.” He let go of Bob’s captured hand. “We’re done, Bob, you did great.”
“Wait, hang on,” Yelena said, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t stop if I ask you to.”
“Different situation.”
Bucky effortlessly lifted all six feet something of Bob, resettling him so he was lying on the sofa with just his head in Bucky’s lap.
Yelena took a moment to breathe, still crouched on the floor, then stood and shook out her legs a bit. And her hands. Bob had a very strong grip.
“Budge over,” she said, and arranged herself on the sofa sort of behind and sort of under Bob. Thank fuck for weird big rich person sofas.
She rested a hand on Bob’s side, avoiding where he’d thrown himself into Bucky’s arm just in case. Bucky was running his vibranium fingers through Bob’s hair, which he’d probably deny if asked about tomorrow.
“I read Watership Down a couple years ago,” Bucky said, after a bit of silence with the only sound being Bob sniffling. “Good book. Liked the rabbit language.”
“I liked the part where Bigwig didn’t spank Fiver,” Bob muttered, and Yelena snorted. She was to be honest rather impressed that the first thing Bob said after all that was sass.
“Is not perfect metaphor,” Yelena said. “But also, he would have if he had hands.”
Bucky rolled his eyes. “I was thinking, about the rabbit language. They had a word for wandering rabbits, ones living above ground that didn’t have warrens.”
“Don’t look at me,” Yelena said. “You have clearly read it more recently than me.”
“Hlessi,” Bob said, tilting his head up a bit to be more audible. “According to Void. Apparently his favorite Lapine word is Inlé.”
“Nerd,” Yelena said, and ruffled Bob’s hair around Bucky’s hand.
Bucky sighed and swatted her away as best he could without tugging on Bob’s hair. “Hlessi, yeah. I was just thinking. We’re…” Bucky screwed up his face, like he was trying to muscle through the embarrassment of what he was about to say. “We’re all, sort of, hlessi, who found a warren. Together.”
Yelena grinned widely and tossed an arm around Bucky. “Aw, Bucky, that is so sweet!”
“Shut up,” Bucky said, and very half-heartedly tried to shrug off her arm.
Bob settled into the petting hand in his hair, and the one against his side, and shut his eyes. “I like that. A warren of hlessi.” He smiled, and Yelena smiled back, and so, she saw out of the corner of her eye, did Bucky.