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Yelena is very busy in her office.
She is doing a lot of very important office things.
She is a very busy woman, and it's very important that she gets some time to herself in her office to do her important office work.
… She is doing no work. At all. She is sitting naked in her hot tub and enjoying the steam, and she has not moved a muscle in at least twenty minutes.
The door swings open, a very sudden movement, with no knock, no warning, and she instinctively reaches for the knife that she definitely does not keep underwater at all times. But it's just Bucky, as gloomy as ever, storming in with a purpose the way he so often does.
“You know, Bucky,” she says, playfully patronizing, “you're supposed to wait for my assistant to let you in.” And he usually does, so she has to assume something extra juicy is going on.
“Didn't feel like it,” is the extent of Bucky’s response, and he pulls off his leather jacket and tosses it on one of the lounge chairs. Next to go is his shirt, and then the tank top he wears underneath that she's always thought was a little slutty in the best way.
As he turns his attention to his shoes, Yelena quips, “You know, if you're gonna strip out here, you could at least put on a show for me.”
Bucky just looks at her, the most unamused look known to man on his face, and she smiles to herself.
Bucky strips himself down, and she doesn’t think much of the fact that he’s standing in front of her with his dick out because this is far from the first time he’s done it – and his is far from the first dick she’s seen in her office, though it is one of the more impressive ones – and he climbs into the hot tub across from her.
She can see very clearly the moment he’s gotten comfortable in here, because he visibly relaxes. He lets go of the tension in his shoulders, he lets his head fall back, he lets his eyes flutter closed. He really does look so damn comfortable. Out of pity, she gives him a minute or two to enjoy it before she starts asking questions.
“Walker or Alexei?” she asks.
“Neither.”
“Neither?” she repeats skeptically. She doesn’t believe that.
Bucky just hums.
“Don’t tell me it was Ava,” she says. Ava’s a bit spicy, but she and Bucky usually get along. Still, she’d believe it was Ava that pissed him off before she’d believe that it was Bob, so if it wasn’t Walker or Alexei…
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Bucky grumbles.
She presses her lips in a firm line. Was it Ava, then? That didn’t really sound like a yes, but if it wasn’t her, either, she’s not sure who…
Oh.
Oh.
She knows who it was.
“What did Sam Wilson want?”
Bucky groans and opens his eyes to glare at her, and that’s how she knows she got it right. She grins, not at whatever’s going wrong in his life (because there’s always something going wrong in his life) but because she is a genius and that deserves recognition.
“Well?” she says. If he’s using her hot tub office, he’s going to spill the tea. It’s the entrance fee. He should know that by now.
Bucky groans again, but this time, it’s more defeated than annoyed. “He said he wanted to talk.”
Yelena furrows her brows. “Well, that's good. You want to talk to him.” This has been his whole thing since their big fight after the team got together. He wants to talk to Sam.
“Yeah, well, he asked to talk at the Watchtower.”
Yelena's eyes go wide. “No,” she says quickly. “No, you did not agree to this. You are not bringing Sam Wilson to the Watchtower.”
“Of course not,” Bucky says, like it's ridiculous she would even doubt that. “Five minutes with your dad and he would never talk to me again.”
Yelena huffs. “And I wouldn't blame him,” she says. Bucky's doing him a hell of a favor with this. “So what's the problem?”
“Now he's pissed at me because I won't let him in the tower,” Bucky says. “He thinks I'm keeping him from the team–”
“And you are,” Yelena says, “and he should thank you for that.”
“Well, he disagrees,” Bucky says, with all the exasperation in the world. “And now he doesn't want to talk to me anymore.”
Yelena scoffs. “That's it?” They can't meet in the Watchtower, so they can't meet anywhere? That's ridiculous.
“That's it,” Bucky says, and he closes his eyes again, slumping down beneath the water.
Yelena shakes her head to herself. “I know you do not like to hear me say it–”
“Then don't say it.”
“– but Sam Wilson sounds like a bitch.”
Bucky groans, letting his head fall back.
“I do not understand why you are so obsessed with him,” Yelena says. “He is not a nice person. You are better off without him.”
Bucky groans again, louder this time, more communicative, as if telling her to shut up without using those words (or any words, for that matter). It's stupid because she is absolutely correct, but she shuts up anyway. He’ll see it someday, and she’ll be there to say she told him so.
It takes a few minutes of silence for Bucky to really relax again, but soon enough, they're back to just chilling in the hot tub, enjoying the comfort of the hot water and the steam.
Honestly, Yelena doesn't like to share her office with people. If she wanted to be around people, she wouldn't have gotten an office outside of the Watchtower. But there's something calming about having Bucky around. Even Bob, who is undoubtedly her favorite New Avenger, doesn't have the same effect.
Maybe it's just the way Bucky knows how to shut the fuck up. He doesn't try to keep the conversation going when it doesn't want to flow. He also doesn't make it weird that they're both naked, which very few people manage to do – something she finds entertaining when she's meeting workplace acquaintances, but something she finds endlessly frustrating from her teammates. He just comes in and he soaks in the water until he turns into a wrinkly little potato, and then he leaves.
Yelena closes her eyes. “Hey, Bucky?”
“Hmm?”
“If I fall asleep, please don't let me drown.”
Bucky huffs a laugh. “Okay.”
She smiles to herself, just a little bit. She's not really sure why, beyond just the fact that she likes Bucky. She thinks a lot about that, how lucky she is – lucky they are – to have him on the team. They almost didn't. He had nothing to do with Valentina. She wasn't out for him the way she was out for the others. It was pure coincidence that he ended up getting roped into this, and her life is better for it. (His life is probably worse for it, but hers is better, and that's what matters.)
No wonder Bucky always ends up working with the Avengers. He worked with Sam Wilson and his two-person knockoff Avengers team; he worked with Steve Rogers and his real Avengers team. Everybody wants Bucky on their team. He must have some great stories because of it. He's fought side-by-side with the coolest people – with literal gods…
Wait. Has he worked with gods?
“Bucky?”
“Hmm?”
“Did you know Thor?”
“No.”
Yelena opens her eyes, only so that she can give him a puzzled look. Bucky is still resting with his eyes closed, oblivious to her gaze.
“Didn't you fight Thanos together?” Yelena asks. That's how the story goes, at least. That's what everybody's said since she popped back into existence.
“Me, him, and a thousand other people,” Bucky says.
Oh. Right.
“So you've never spoken to Thor.”
Bucky finally opens his eyes, and he looks at her with a hint of amusement in them. “Why are you asking me about Thor?”
She shrugs. “Just thinking about the old Avengers.”
“Oh.” That look of amusement fades, replaced by something a little sadder.
He’s thinking about Steve, isn’t he? She suspects that from him a lot. He’s admitted it once or twice when she’s asked; other times, he’s given non-answers that all but confirmed it. He really does spend a lot of time thinking about his Captain Americas. And the worst part is that she can’t fault him for it. She spends a lot of time thinking about her sister, too.
It’s kind of strange, she thinks, that Captain America’s best friend and Black Widow’s sister ended up on the same Avengers team together, completely by happenstance. She’d say it felt like fate, if she believed in such a thing. Really, it feels more like the universe is laughing at them, reminding them of what they could be if only they were better people, a better team.
She lets out a long breath. Well, now she's sad. That's what she gets for bringing up the old Avengers. She really should have learned by now that it never ends well, especially with Bucky. It's nothing but a reminder of the families they lost before they even really had them back in their lives at all.
There's a knock on the door, and Yelena calls for them to come in. This is great timing. They could use a distraction.
Her assistant pops her head into the room. “Ms. Belova, Sam Wilson is here to talk to you.”
Bucky bolts upright, eyes wide, and he whips around to look at her.
Yelena bites back a laugh. “Send him up.”
Her assistant nods once and disappears right back out the way she came.
Bucky whips back around. “No!”
Yelena shrugs. “Too late.”
“Tell her ‘no,’” Bucky says, with a sort of desperation in his voice that would almost make her feel bad if it wasn't so damn funny. “You’re not letting him up here.”
“But it looks like I am!” Yelena sings. “You wanted to talk to Sam Wilson; you get to talk to Sam Wilson.”
“Yelena, I am naked in a hot tub,” Bucky hisses. “Send him away.”
“Mm…” She pretends to consider that, makes a show of it, and then says, “Nah. He's coming up.” With a teasing smile, she adds, “You're welcome to leave, but I cannot promise that he will not walk in while you're ass-up picking up your clothes.”
Bucky narrows his eyes in a steely glare. Yelena just flashes him a smile. This will be fine. It will be great. Either they'll make up and the fate of the New Avengers is saved, or, more likely, they'll fight again and Yelena will see firsthand how fucked up their relationship is, and she can use that to convince Bucky to finally give up on him.
It takes a minute for Sam to get up here – definitely long enough that Bucky could have at least hidden in one of the changing rooms, if not gotten dressed and run out entirely – but eventually, a knock on the door announces his presence, and then he steps into view.
He looks a little timid as he enters the room. His hands are fidgeting with the towel he holds. He looks around the room, anywhere and everywhere except for Bucky. It's kind of sad; Bucky's been looking at him since the moment the door opened.
“Hello, Sam Wilson,” Yelena says.
“Hey,” he says. For someone who looks uncomfortable here, he does a good job at hiding it in his voice. “Hope you don't mind that I'm crashing your party.”
Yelena rolls her eyes, not that this is really something worthy of an eye roll, but she doesn't like this man and she wants to make it known. “Firstly, this is not a party; it is my office,” she says. “Secondly, I do mind, but only a little bit. And thirdly, if you would like to continue this conversation, you can do so from the hot tub.”
Sam huffs, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “I appreciate it, but I didn't come to–”
“Oh, no, no, it is not an option,” Yelena interrupts. “If you come to my office, you come to my office. There are changing rooms behind you. You can keep your underwear on, but I do not recommend it because they will be all wet when you leave.” Spider-Man did that when he came by. She thought it was a weird decision – but then, he's a weird guy.
That twinkle of amusement disappears. “Seriously?”
“Mm-hmm,” she hums. “Because then I know that you do not have any weapons.”
“I don't have any–”
“And that is exactly what a person with weapons would say.”
Sam sighs, and he tries to find backup in the one person known to back him up. “Buck, is she…?”
Bucky shrugs sheepishly. “It's her office.”
Sam's head falls back, and he lets out an exasperation groan. “This is stupid.”
And yet, as stupid as it is, he goes along with it anyway. He takes his towel and heads back into one of the changing rooms, and there's nothing to do but wait.
Yelena pushes herself away from the wall and swims to the other side of the pool, situating herself beside Bucky. She doesn’t like it. She doesn't like that her back is to the door. But sometimes, a girl has to make sacrifices for her own entertainment.
She leans in and whispers in his ear, “He must really want to talk to you.”
Bucky just keeps staring at the changing rooms, wide-eyed and absolutely fucking terrified. She's never seen him like this, and she's fought by his side through some genuinely scary shit. Maybe it's a sign that she should have listened to him when he said not to let him up.
… Ah, well, too late to do anything about it now.
She pats him on the back. “Relax, Bucky.”
Bucky shrugs her arm off. He does not relax.
Sam steps out of the changing room, with nothing but a towel around his waist. He spreads his arms, an irritated gesture, as if to say, Are you happy now?
Personally, Yelena is very happy. Superheroes always have such nice six packs. Hell, he's not even a superhero. He's just some guy, just an ordinary dude with extraordinary responsibilities, and he still has a six pack. Where do they get them? Where can she get one? She would kill for a six pack. (She wouldn't change her diet or her exercise regiment, but she would consider murder a viable tradeoff for one.)
Sam walks toward them, and Yelena is just about to swim back to her side of the hot tub when he pulls off his towel and tosses it on the chair beside him, and then he's standing there in all of his naked glory, and – the best part, in Yelena's opinion – he looks very annoyed about it.
She looks at Bucky, really just to share a smirk at Sam Wilson's expense, but he's staring at Sam like he's the goddamn Mona Lisa. His cheeks are turning red! He's blushing! She didn't even think he knew how to do that!
So she swims back to her side of the hot tub, and she gestures for Sam to join them, right there next to Bucky where he so obviously belongs. He's grumpy about it, but he climbs in anyway, and he settles down a good distance away from his so-called friend. Bucky just continues to stare at him.
“This is ridiculous,” Sam tells her.
“Yes,” she says, “it is ridiculous that you are here, but you came nonetheless.”
Sam looks annoyed. She suspects she looks annoyed, too. In reality, she's kind of enjoying this. If she ignores the fact that this experience is doubtlessly going to crush Bucky's spirit, she's excited to see where it goes.
“What do you want, Sam Wilson?” she asks, playing up her boredom as if she has anything else to do right now.
“I want to talk to my friend,” Sam says impatiently. “Is that okay? Do I need your permission to do that?”
“You need my permission to do it in my office,” Yelena replies, “but don't worry; I grant it to you.”
“Yeah, well, I didn't want to do it in your office–”
“No, you wanted to do it in my tower,” Yelena interrupts, “which is not any better – it is worse, actually.”
Sam scoffs, and he looks at Bucky incredulously. “Oh, great, you're airing all our dirty laundry to your new buddies?”
Bucky sighs. “Yelena, you're not helping.”
“I wasn't trying to,” she replies.
Bucky lolls his head back in his ever-growing exasperation.
Sam is no less frustrated than he is. “Look, I know you don't want to talk to me, but giving me the silent treatment is childish, even for you.”
“I'm not giving you the silent treatment,” Bucky grumbles.
“Really?” Sam asks sarcastically. He gestures to Yelena. “Because I don't even know her and I feel like she's the only one in this room that's giving me the time of day.”
“That's because I do not like you,” Yelena says, “and I want to make sure that you know that.”
“Yeah, no, I've figured that out, thank you,” Sam says sarcastically.
Bucky picks his head back up. “I don't know what you want me to say, Sam.”
“Neither do I,” Sam says, “but saying anything would be a good start.”
“If you wanted to talk to me, you shouldn't have hung up on me,” Bucky says.
Yelena raises her brows. She didn't know that.
“If you didn't want me to hang up on you,” Sam shoots back, “you shouldn't have told me you didn't want to talk to me.”
Yelena looks at Bucky expectantly. She didn't know that, either.
“I didn't say I didn't want to talk to you,” Bucky says irritably. “Don't put words in my mouth. That's not what happened.”
“Really?” Sam says sarcastically. “Because it felt like that's exactly what happened.”
“Well, it's not,” Bucky snaps. “You asked if you could come by the tower; I said no; you threw a fit and hung up on me.”
Sam scoffs. “Oh, I threw a fit?”
“You're throwing a fit right now!”
“I am not throwing a fit!”
“Yes, you are!”
Sam groans, throwing his head back in exasperation. “Whatever. This was a mistake.”
Yelena tuts at him. “Nope,” she says, shooting him a look. “You are not coming to my office just to piss off my friend and leave.”
Sam shoots her a look right back. “Take it up with Bucky,” he snaps. “I did my best.”
Bucky scoffs. “Your best?” he says incredulously. “That was your best?”
“Well, what more do you want from me?” Sam demands. “I tried to talk to you on the phone, and you told me to go fuck myself.”
“I did not–”
“So I tried to talk to you here–”
“Because you keep trying to corner me in front of my friends!” Bucky blurts out. “Yes, I want to talk to you; no, I don’t want to make a spectacle out of it!”
Yelena presses her lips together. As someone who's been enjoying the spectacle, this is a very awkward part of the conversation to listen to.
“Oh, bullshit,” Sam shoots back. “You don't give a shit about making a spectacle. Everything you do is a spectacle. You just want to keep me away from your shitty wannabe Avengers team.”
“Hey,” Bucky snaps. “Leave them out of this.”
Sam throws his hands up, exasperated, and flicks some water at Bucky's face in the process. “You're the one that brought them up!”
“I brought them up to tell you to leave them out of this!”
“Yeah, well, maybe I don't want to,” Sam says. “Maybe I want to talk about your bullshit Avengers team.”
Bucky narrows his eyes. “Sam–”
“Maybe I want to chew you out for deciding you'd rather spend your time with John fucking Walker–”
“Who I spend my time with is none of your business,” Bucky snaps.
“Yeah, well, it kind of feels like my business when you're choosing him as your new Captain America instead of me,” Sam snaps back.
Bucky scoffs, staring at him incredulously. “That's what this is about?” he asks. “Your stupid fucking title?”
Sam glares at him. “Don't call it–”
“Walker knows damn well that he's not Captain America,” Bucky says. “He's not trying to replace Steve; he's not trying to replace you. We know that we will never replace the Avengers.”
“Well, you sure as hell don't act like it,” Sam says.
Yelena clenches her jaw. This has gone on long enough. “Okay, Wilson, it's time–”
Sam lolls his head back in exasperation. “God, Nat, will you shut up and let us talk?”
It's like a punch straight to the gut.
She's always quick with a clapback, with some sort of snippy response, but right now, it's as though the air's been knocked right out of her, and all she can do it stare at him, her eyes wide, her lips just barely parted, her heart thrumming in her ears.
It feels like an eternity passes before Sam realizes what he did, and his eyes go wide. “Oh, shit, Yelena, I–”
“Stop.” Yelena holds up a shaky hand to shut him up, but it's all she can manage. He just called her…
Fuck.
She runs her hands down her face. This was a mistake. She never should have let him in. It was stupid to think that she could fix things. It was stupid to think this would work out.
There's a hand on her shoulder – Bucky's, she thinks. She's not sure. The world looks a little blurry right now.
“I need to get out,” Yelena's voice says, though she doesn't remember telling it to.
Sam says something to her. She's not sure what it is.
There's an arm around her shoulders, and it gently leads her out of the hot tub. She feels a little shaky on her feet, but she manages, and when the world starts to clear, she finds herself in one of her recliners, with a towel resting over her lap.
Bucky's crouched down beside her, and the concern in his eyes is touching. What's more touching is that a glance down shows that he's out here buck ass naked, the very thing that kept him from trying to get out of this conversation to begin with. It’s sweet, really. The things he puts up with for her.
She raises her gaze back to meet his. “Sorry,” she says quietly. Sorry I freaked out, she means. Sorry I fucked this up for you.
Bucky rests a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”
She nods, almost imperceptibly even to herself. “Mm-hmm.” She's okay. Of course she is. She was just… startled. It's embarrassing if she thinks about it, so she tries her best not to.
Sam sighs, and there's a quiet swish of the water. “I'm just gonna go.”
Bucky's head snaps over to look at him. “Wait,” he says quickly.
“No, Buck, I think we both need a break.” It's a resigned answer, a solemn one, but a confident one nonetheless.
“No, we don't,” Bucky says. “If you want to talk somewhere else – somewhere, you know, clothed – that's fine, but we're not taking a break.”
Sam sighs. “Bucky, come on. This obviously isn't going well–”
“I don't care.”
“I think we should just take a break–”
“We're not taking a break!”
“What, you'd rather we keep going and fuck things up even more?” Sam asks sarcastically.
“Yes, I would!” Bucky says. “Because the last time Captain America and I took a break, he went home, and he left me behind." His voice cracks at the end, and maybe she's seeing things or maybe it's a trick of the light, but she swears she can see tears welling up in his eyes. She wants to reach out, to comfort him the same way he was there for her, but she suspects she's not the comfort he needs right now.
Sam just looks at him at first, silent, until finally, he sighs and says, “Get your ass back in the hot tub.”
Bucky looks at Yelena uncertainly, and she gives him a small nod. She’ll be fine. She is fine. Hell, she’s probably doing a little better than Bucky is right now.
So Bucky stands up and he makes his way back to the hot tub. Yelena looks at Sam, just out of curiosity, and she’s pretty sure he’s looking at Bucky’s dick. She smirks at that, just a little bit. The boys are none the wiser.
Bucky gets himself situated back in the hot tub, and then it’s quiet.
… Now what?
Once long enough has passed to make things even more awkward than they already were, Sam sighs. “I miss him, too, you know.”
Bucky lowers his gaze, sheepishly, almost ashamedly.
“You know I’m not him,” Sam says. “And I'm never going to be him. But he left me two things when he went back: his shield, and his best friend. Now, I may have fucked up with the shield at first, but I’m not making that same mistake with you.”
Bucky offers him a small, sad smile. “Thanks.”
“But this goes both ways,” Sam says. “I can’t carry this relationship alone. And I thought we had a good thing going. I was recreating the Avengers; you were going to fix the system from the inside. We were supposed to be a team. So I don’t understand why you would throw all that away for…” He gestures to him vaguely. “Whatever it is that you guys are supposed to be doing.”
Bucky sighs. “I wasn’t trying to ‘throw it away,’” he says. “I didn’t even want to join this stupid team. I got roped into it trying to take down Valentina and I got stuck here. Congress didn’t want me back and you were pissed at me, so this is all I had left.”
“Oh,” Sam says, and that’s it.
“I know you think we’re trying to steal your thunder,” Bucky says, “but we’re not. We were never supposed to be the next Avengers, and if I’d had a choice, I would’ve picked you. But at the end of the day, they’re still my team. You can’t ask me to throw them under the bus for you.”
Sam shakes his head. “I’m not asking you to throw them under the bus, Bucky.”
“Then what are you asking?” Bucky asks. “What do you want from me? What is it going to take to get things back to the way they used to be?”
“I don’t know,” Sam admits, and he sighs. “A lot’s changed. You know that; I know you do.”
“And I don’t care,” Bucky says. “Because you know what hasn’t changed? The fact that you are my best friend, and that I am miserable without you. So whatever we need to do to fix this, let’s do it now, because I’m not losing another person that I love.”
Sam’s quiet for a few moments, until finally, he says, “You know, the boys keep talking about how they miss their Uncle Bucky. What are you doing next weekend?”
The corners of Bucky’s lips twitch upward. “That depends. Are you about to offer me a burger?”
“If you’re willing to keep the kids entertained while I make ‘em,” Sam replies.
Bucky smiles, a real, genuine smile, maybe the most genuine smile she’s ever seen grace his lips before. “I think I could do that.”
“I’m gonna hold you to it,” Sam says teasingly. “I better not see them for a second until those burgers are done.”
Bucky chuckles. “Yeah, yeah. I got it.”
Sam spreads his arms. “You want to hug it out?”
And yet, despite how well this conversation seems to be going, Bucky hesitates. “Maybe we should wait until we’re…”
“Wearing clothes?” Sam finishes for him.
“Yeah, that.”
Sam huffs a laugh. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
Yelena rolls her eyes. This is ridiculous. They were almost there. They were so close. “My god, just kiss already, will you?” It's like she has to do everything around here.
They both look at her, just as she knew they would, which is ridiculous because they really only need to be looking at each other. They can’t kiss each other when they’re looking at her. That’s just simply not how any of this works.
“What?” she says defensively, because she did nothing to deserve these annoyed looks on their faces. “You obviously still love each other. Go kiss and make up and then you can… I don’t know, go on a date or something.”
Sam looks at Bucky, but Bucky is just staring at her, incredulous. “Did you think we were dating?”
Yelena scoffs. “What do you mean, did I think? I am not stupid! I have seen the way you talk about him! That is your boyfriend!”
“No, he is not!”
Yelena throws her arms up, rolling her eyes. “Fine! Then he is your friend who you are in love with! It’s the same thing! Just kiss him and get it over with!”
Bucky gapes at her. “Yelena!”
“I have put up with your mopey, lovesick ass for months,” Yelena says. “You are going to kiss this man–”
“Yelena, butt out of my–”
“Your love life is steaming pile of garbage, Barnes,” Yelena interrupts. “Let me do you a favor.”
“I didn't ask you to–”
“No, but your sad little puppy dog eyes did.”
“You can't just–”
Sam groans. “You guys are killing me.” He swims across the hot tub, all whopping eight feet of it, and, just as Bucky's about to say something, Sam grabs his face and presses their lips together.
It is not an elegant kiss by any means. It takes at least two seconds for Bucky to even kiss him back; it takes at least another five for him to look even vaguely comfortable doing it. Yelena smirks from the comfort of her seat. This was so easy.
When they finally separate, Bucky tries so, so hard to look Sam in the eye. It would work fine if his gaze didn't keep dropping to his lips. Yelena bites back a laugh.
“Was that okay?” Sam asks.
Bucky just blinks. It's hard to tell whether there are no thoughts running through his brain or an overwhelming number of thoughts, but it's definitely one of the two.
“Because I'm down to pretend this never happened if that's what you want to do,” Sam adds. “I just thought, you know, seemed like that was where this was heading. Might as well give it a try.”
Bucky blinks a few times. He really must be taken aback; he never seems to blink on a normal day. But finally, he manages to get out an awkward, “I kind of… liked it?”
Sam huffs, a sheepish little chuckle. “Good,” he says, “because I would've felt real weird if I had to pretend that I didn't.”
Bucky cracks a smile.
“So, we’re good, right?” Sam asks. “We’re back to normal? No hard feelings?”
Bucky raises a brow. “Just ‘back to normal,’ or…?”
Sam shrugs. “Okay, back to normal and maybe I take you out on a date before I bring you home next weekend?”
Bucky smiles softly. “I’d like that,” he says. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Good,” Sam says.
“Good,” Bucky replies.
And then that’s settled. It’s about damn time.
Bucky’s smile fades, and he looks a little bit more wary when he asks, “As far as my team–”
“I’m not going to tell you to leave them,” Sam assures him. “If you’re happy with them, I’m not going to get in your way. And if you want to double dip, you know you’re always welcome on my team, too.”
“You know,” Bucky says, “I’d have to talk to them first, but I’m sure we could combine–”
“I would rather blow my brains out than add John Walker to my new Avengers team,” Sam deadpans.
Bucky presses his lips in a straight line.
“Don’t get me wrong; I’ll work with him if I have to,” Sam says. “If there’s something that needs your team and mine, I’ll do it. But he will never be one of my Avengers.”
“Believe it or not,” Bucky says, “he’s not even the worst one on the team.”
Sam scoffs. “You’re shitting me,” he says. “Who the hell is worse than Walker?”
Yelena butts in, which she can do because this conversation is taking place in her office, even if they seem to have forgotten. “It is definitely my dad,” she says. “And trust me, you do not want to meet my dad. He is so loud, so annoying.”
Bucky gestures to her in agreement. “That’s why I didn’t want to talk in the Watchtower,” he admits. “He can be… a lot.”
Sam laughs at that. “Man, you could’ve just said that. I would’ve said we should get lunch or something.”
“Well…” Bucky shrugs sheepishly.
“But think about it,” Yelena says. “If you did not storm into my office today, you would not be leaving with a boyfriend. So this is good. It is good that you are both bad at communication.”
Sam grimaces. “I don’t know about ‘boyfriend’ yet–”
“Yelena,” Bucky says, “butt out of my personal life.”
Yelena shakes her head, a smirk on her lips. “You do not get to tell me to butt out after I got you a boyfriend,” she says. “You should thank me, really. I did you a big favor today. Do not forget it.”
Bucky rolls his eyes, exasperated, as he so frequently is with all of his teammates, but she can see the smile he’s trying to hide. And, she realizes, Sam is looking between the two of them, with a little smirk of his own. It’s weird. She doesn’t like it.
“Why are you smiling?” Yelena asks. “Stop that.” If he’s going to smile – especially if he’s going to wear that damn smirk – he needs to direct it to Bucky and only Bucky, and leave her out of it.
“Oh, no, it’s just…” Sam huffs a laugh. “Your sister spent years trying to set Steve up with a girlfriend. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far.”
Oh.
Yelena doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, so she does neither. She just kind of looks at him, because that’s all she can manage right now.
A few seconds of silence pass, during which Sam looks increasingly more uncomfortable, and finally, he says, “I’m sorry; you just… for someone who doesn’t really look like her or act like her, you really do remind me of her.”
Yelena takes a slow, deep breath; then, “You knew her?”
“Yeah,” Sam says, “we were pretty close. Fought a lot of fights together; drank a lot of beers together.” With a small smile, he adds, “She was one of my best friends – her and Steve. Changed my life when they showed up on my doorstep that day. I miss ‘em like hell, but god, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
It hurts to think about that. It hurts to think about the fact that Sam knew her when Yelena didn’t. She would have given anything to grow up with her sister. The fact that they only had, what, eighteen months together? If that? Eighteen months when Natasha was on the run and damn near impossible to get ahold of? And Sam knew her for years – and not just as a kid, not just a life built up of Red Room lies, but the real her. It’s not fair.
But then, life never was fair. At least she can rest easy knowing Natasha had people who loved her.
“She would be proud of you, I think,” Yelena says. “That you are now Captain America; that you have your own Avengers to lead.”
“She’d be proud of you, too,” Sam tells her. “The Black Widow name is in good hands.”
Yelena gives him a small smile. He gives her one in return.
Bucky hits Sam gently on the shoulder. “Hey, Sam, did you know Thor?”
Yelena perks up. That is a great question.
Sam raises his brows. “Did I know Thor?”
“Yeah, did you know Thor?” Bucky asks again.
Sam huffs. “What’s with the past tense?” he asks teasingly. “What, did Thor die and nobody thought to tell me? The dude’s still out there.”
“We don’t know that, actually,” Yelena says. “Nobody has seen him in weeks.”
“Yeah, okay, nobody’s seen him, or nobody’s taken a picture of him in his own home and posted it online?” Sam asks. “‘Cause the dude lives in New Asgard, where everyone’s, like, four thousand years old. They’re not exactly glued to their phones.”
“You’d be surprised,” Yelena says. “I see the kids on TikTok sometimes.”
Sam stares at her. “I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that these gods are on TikTok or the fact that you are on TikTok.”
“I like TikTok!” Yelena says defensively. “People are funny!”
“It could be worse,” Bucky says. “Walker gets his memes from Bluesky.”
Sam stares at him. “What the hell is Bluesky?”
“Exactly,” Bucky says. “But you didn’t answer my question: did you know Thor?”
“Do I know Thor?” Sam corrects him. “Yes, I know Thor. He kind of disappeared off the face of the earth after the Ultron thing, but we fought HYDRA together a few times looking for Loki’s scepter.”
Yelena sits up taller, straddling her chair as she leans closer. “So you did know Thor.”
“Yeah, I know–”
“What was Thor like?”
Sam scoffs. “Still with the past tense thing!” he says. “The guy’s still alive!”
“Well, to be fair,” Bucky says, “you knew him over a decade ago. He’s probably changed.”
“Okay, but I still know him,” Sam says. “We fought Thanos together. We said ‘hi’ at the Avengers’ funerals.”
Yelena cocks her head to the side. “Did Natasha have a funeral?” She didn’t hear about that. She knew Tony Stark did, shortly after the Blip. She knew Steve Rogers did, whenever it was that his old man ass finally died. But she never heard about her sister’s. She’d sort of assumed…
“Of course she did,” Sam says with a frown. “It was a pretty small funeral. Barton didn’t think she’d want a big thing – he was the one that put it together. But yeah, she had a funeral.”
Clint Barton put it together.
Out of everyone in the world, it was Clint Barton who arranged her sister’s funeral.
For the longest time, she thought Clint Barton killed her, and the whole time, he was the one to give her a proper funeral. There was no body to bury, but he went through the motions anyway, because he loved her. He loved Natasha, just like she did, and he made sure she was taken care of when Yelena couldn’t.
… She should pay him a visit someday. She’s sure they have a lot to talk about.
“Yelena?” Sam says cautiously.
“Hmm?”
“Are you good?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Sam eyes her skeptically. “Right…”
“You want to come back in the hot tub?” Bucky asks her.
She shakes her head. “I think I am going to make some phone calls,” she says. Phone calls to whom, she’s not yet sure. Clint Barton, maybe? Or Kate Bishop, because Kate can doubtlessly get her in touch with Clint Barton and she’s much more fun to talk to? Or maybe she’ll just call Bob. She could use someone to talk to, and Bob’s good at listening. She’ll call one of them. She won’t know who until she’s doing it.
Bucky frowns. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” Yelena says. “This has been nice. Thank you, Sam Wilson. I take back most of the bad things I have said about you.”
Sam raises a brow. “Most?”
She just smiles. To Bucky, she says, “You know the drill. Lock up when you leave.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Bucky says. “I’ll turn off the lights and all that.”
She nods once. This is why he gets special hot tub privileges that nobody else on the team has. She can trust him to take care of it when she’s not around.
Although, speaking of the hot tub when she’s not around…
“And please do not have sex in my office,” she adds. “The bathroom is okay, but not my office.”
Bucky’s eyes go wide. “Yelena–”
Sam just laughs. “I think we can handle that,” he says. “And thanks for not sending me away.”
“Thank you for making it worth it,” Yelena replies. “And make no mistake: if you break my Bucky’s heart again, I will end you.”
Sam nods. “Noted,” he says. He doesn’t seem too concerned about that. She hopes that’s because he’s not going to break his heart, and not just because he thinks she won’t kill him if he does. The New Avengers’ reputation would never recover from murdering Captain America, but she would still do it if it came down to it. She has no problem making promises that she won’t keep, but she’ll always follow through on a threat.
She doesn’t know how Bucky does it, she muses. It sounds scary, trusting his entire heart to one person. Hell, it fucked him up for months when things went bad. And yet, he’s going to do it again. He’s going to make that same mistake all over again, when he knows how badly it can hurt. And, the strangest part, he seems happy about it. He wants to put himself through this again. He cares about Sam so much that he’s willing to risk another heartbreak to have him back, to make Sam his and only his. She doesn’t get it, really, but then, she doesn’t have to. It’s just nice to see Bucky smile again.