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Yelena puts her mug back on the shelf and grabs her bag. The weekly meeting has ended. Everyone else has left except for her and Bucky. She wanted to check her gear in the workshop, and Bucky had stayed behind to wait for her.
“Ready to go?” Bucky asks from the couch, smiling when he sees her.
“Yep.” Yelena walks toward him, rests one knee on the couch, and wraps her arms around his shoulders. “Thanks for waiting.”
Bucky hugs her back, one hand on her waist.
She presses the side of her face to his hair. From the corner of her eye, she notices a red piece of paper in his other hand. “What’s that?”
“Oh!” Bucky jerks his hand and quickly flips the paper face down. “It’s, uh… nothing. Just a flyer from a magazine.”
Yelena shrugs, presses a kiss to his head, and stands. “Okay. Let’s go.”
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“You’re looking... concerned.”
The elevator is quiet. Stark’s tech makes it completely soundless. Yelena takes a step sideways, leaning against the handrail to study Bucky. Her voice is low, slightly teasing, though a trace of real worry lingers.
“Is it your new haircut? Because if that’s what’s on your mind, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” she assures him, waving a hand vaguely at his hair. “Seriously, you don’t even need to style it. Not like mine, all fried and…”
She runs her fingers through her blonde locks.
“I keep telling you to-”
“- stop using that cheap-ass bleach. I know, I know.” Yelena rolls her eyes, throwing her hands up in surrender. Bucky lets out a small chuckle, but he drops his gaze when she smiles back.
“Hey,” he begins after a moment, “you like me, right?”
Yelena narrows her eyes at him. “Oh my god, so that’s why we’re dating.”
Bucky gives a dry laugh. “Very funny. I, uh…” He shoves his hands into his pockets and stares at the floor. “I need to tell you something.”
“Is everything okay?” She straightens, putting a hand on his arm, genuinely concerned.
“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Bucky blurts out, “Well, I mean,” he cocks his head, “not exactly, but…”
Yelena narrows her eyes again. “What did you do?”
“You know how Alexei’s always talking about wanting to get sponsored by Wheaties? So, uh… well…” He raises his index finger, giving her a charming smile- he hopes, as he fishes the red paper he shoved into his pocket earlier.
He hands it to Yelena, who takes it with suspicion.
“What am I looking at?”
It’s a concept image of their team looking badass on a Wheaties box.
“There’s Alexei,” Bucky leans in, pointing at him in his Red Guardian suit. Then he gestures to the Wheaties logo. “And there’s Wheaties.”
He looks at her expectantly.
“You photoshopped a poster for him.”
“No. Try something… a little less high-tech.”
“First of all, it’s not high-tech. Five-year-olds do this on their phones. And second,” she takes a step away from him, “I’m actually scared to.”
“Okay, Alexei asked me if I could help him get this sponsorship,” Bucky says as he takes a step to close the distance between them.
Yelena rolls her eyes.
“And I happen to know someone who knows someone who knows someone...”
Yelena stares at him, her expression unreadable.
“So…” Bucky tries, “what do you think, Yelena?”
“What do I think? You could’ve just said no! Or, I don’t know, ignored him, like the rest of us?”
The elevator doors open. Yelena storms out.
Bucky hurries after her. “I felt bad for the guy. He tried calling them himself, and they were… not exactly kind.”
“Not kind?” Yelena slows down, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah. They said some pretty nasty stuff to him.”
“Oh, that’s…” For a second, she looks like she might relent, but she picks up her pace again. “Still, you could’ve just bought him a card. Or a burger.”
“A card. What was I supposed to get? A birthday card?”
“Or take him to a game. Or, I don’t know, show him your apartment. You know he’s always wanted to see it, right?”
“I’m not showing him my apartment.”
“My point is, I can’t believe you agreed to this. You guys went to Wheaties’ office? People could’ve seen you!” Yelena drags a hand across her face.
“And you’re coming with us next Friday,” Bucky brings out that charming smile again though Yelena can’t see it.
Yelena stops in her tracks and turns. She smiles sweetly and dangerously. “Bucky, I’m gonna need you to choose your next words very carefully.”
“They won’t do the ad with just Alexei. They want all of us on the box. So they are doing a photo shoot with the five of us.”
Yelena thinks about that for a moment.
“Wait, Walker agreed to this?”
“Yep.” Bucky nods hopefully.
“And Ava?”
“She doesn’t care. But yeah.”
Yelena sighs, hands on her hips. She looks around. They’re in the garage, a few steps from her car.
“Fine,” she says at last.
“Really?” Bucky’s face lights up. He reaches for Yelena’s hand that holds the concept image, pointing at her little angry-looking figure, and says softly. “You are gonna stand next to me.”
Yelena squeezes his hand.
“Wait, you said you did this for Alexei.”
“Yeah?”
“Then why are you at the center of it?”
“Oh, that.” Bucky bites his lip. “Well, I can’t help that I’m… that they think I’m…”
Yelena crosses her arms, smirking. “Say the word, Bucky.”
He drops his head in resignation. “Good-looking. They think I’m good-looking.”
Yelena steps back and looks him up and down, still smirking. “You do look good in those jeans.”
“I look better without them.”
Yelena is impressed at how fast Bucky can turn into a flirt. She walks to her car and opens the passenger door.
“Get in.”
He does.
“Where are we going?” he asks as she gets in on the driver’s side.
“My place. We can grab takeout from that Italian place you mentioned.” She glances at him, stern. “And no, you absolutely cannot put your arm in my dishwasher.”
Bucky’s eyes widen. “That was one time! I was in a rush! I had packets to read. Do you know how hard it is to clean it with one hand?”
“And you thought it was a good idea to bring that up on our first date.”
“I was trying to make you like me!” Bucky buries his face in his hands.
“Well,” Yelena shrugs, starting the engine, “you didn’t really need to try.”
Bucky lifts his head and raises one brow at her.
“Let’s see…” Yelena pretends to think. “Yeah, I already liked you just fine when you blew up my dad’s car and kidnapped me to that warehouse. Super charming.”
Bucky is quiet for a beat, then he starts laughing. “Yeah, we absolutely don’t need to talk to a professional about that.”
One hand on the wheel, Yelena swats his thigh, but she is laughing too.
He covers her hand with his own, rubbing gentle circles on her warm skin.
“I’m just glad it worked.”