The Pen is Mightier! (penismightier) wrote in chaotic_library, @ 2014-07-22 01:44:00 |
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Current music: | Sugar Cult - Memory |
[Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts; R] A Day In The Life
Character/Series: Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts; Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: R
Notes: In which Bucky stabs Tony's lunch, Tony offers to be Steve's best man, and Steve has to play therapist.
Title: A Day In The Life
Author: yuuo
Word Count: 14352
Summary: It wasn't until about eight-thirty in the morning before Bucky wandered out of the bedroom, still in his sleep pants and t-shirt and without having bothered taming his hair or anything, shuffling to the kitchen.
It wasn't until about eight-thirty in the morning before Bucky wandered out of the bedroom, still in his sleep pants and t-shirt and without having bothered taming his hair or anything, shuffling to the kitchen. Steve was seated at their dining table, which sat just off the kitchen, watching him over a cup of coffee.
Nothing was said before Bucky poured his own cup and had joined Steve at the table, eyes half-lidded and not making any move to actually drink the cup in front of him.
"Didn't sleep well?" Steve asked.
Bucky made a noncommittal noise that sounded vaguely like a zombie.
"Nightmares?"
Bucky made that noise again, still not really answering. It was way too early to think. It was actually about an hour later than he was usually up, but it sure as hell felt earlier than that.
"Wanna talk about it?"
He opened his eyes enough to actually look at Steve this time, though it took him another long second to formulate an answer. "No." He yawned. "Wasn't one of those nightmares. Just the old-fashioned kind."
Steve smiled faintly. "Monsters under the bed? I still get those. I think that's just normal."
"Oh, good, something in my head is still normal."
Steve gave a heartfelt sigh, clearly weary of this discussion. It was far from the first time they'd had it. "Bucky, stop being so hard on yourself. I mean it."
"You always do," Bucky said, not offering any promise to change. "When I start feeling saner, I'll stop."
"The more you do it, the harder it'll be to feel sane," Steve said, not calling surrender without a bit more of a protest. Obnoxious bastard.
Bucky gave him a grumpy look. "Steve, stop. I'm tired of this conversation. You don't live in my head, you don't have to deal with these things except as the occasional friendly fire. Stop pushing me." He looked down at his coffee, debating actually taking a drink. "Besides, it makes it easier to deal with if I make a joke about it. I'm sorry for my deadpan delivery. Didn't mean to upset you."
"It's fine." Steve set down his cup. "I didn't realize it was a joke. You're pretty self-deprecating."
"Most of the time, I'm not serious," Bucky said, which was as close as he'd get to admitting that it wasn't always a joke. There were plenty of times he felt that genuinely frustrated with himself as to say and think something that would ultimately set him two steps back from the one step forward he'd taken.
Steve seemed to let it go at that. "You might want to wake up faster," he said. "In case you forgot, Tony and Pepper are showing up today around noon to visit."
Bucky looked at him blankly, then swore. "I forgot that was today. Fine, I'll finish my coffee then try to look like I can go out in public without a leash."
Steve laughed. "You'll try?"
"Until I have coffee, I can't promise anything," Bucky said, finally picking up his cup.
Steve had brewed some rather weak coffee that morning, so it took a second cup before Bucky felt human enough to clean himself up for public appearances.
"That took you awhile," Steve said, waiting for him at the table and playing with Bucky's tablet. "When'd you turn into a woman?"
Bucky gave him a murderous look. "I hope someone sets your hair on fire."
"If I keep talking, it'll probably be you starting that fire," Steve said, setting down the tablet.
"You're damn right. Jesus. Who put extra asshole in your cereal this morning?"
Steve stood up and walked towards the door, grinning like the jerkface he was. "I used the wrong container. I thought it was sugar."
"We need to start labeling them, then," Bucky said, grabbing his cap and pulling it on. "And we really gotta figure out a better way to make it hard to recognize me. I'm tired of wearing this dumb thing every time we go out."
"What, you don't like hat hair?" Steve said, still clearly full of piss and vinegar, if the laugh in his tone was any indication.
Bucky gave him another glare, though not quite as murderous as the last one. "Until you have long hair, you can't understand hat hair."
Steve dropped the smile, staring at him like he'd just said something really damn stupid. "Bucky, anyone with hair can get hat hair. Unless your brilliant powers of observation missed it, I have hair."
"It looks dumber with long hair," Bucky grumped at him, following Steve out the door and waiting while Steve locked up.
"If you say so," Steve said, locking up behind them. "Okay, time to put on the silent routine. Tony and Pepper are renting their own car, so we can just take the bike to meet them."
Bucky gave him an annoyed look, but went quiet. He usually was fine with not talking, it meant he didn't have to try to rely on rusty old talents in dealing with the public at large. But it also gave Steve way too many opportunities to say something snarky at him without having to worry about Bucky being an asshole right back. Steve didn't tend to take advantage of the situation like that, but sometimes the punk couldn't help himself. Bucky usually just gave him a glare to induce death until Steve laughed and then shut up.
With the crap Steve had already given him that morning, and with Tony adding his own brand of special into the mix, Bucky had a feeling he'd be doing a lot of internal swearing and wanting to slap someone.
At least Pepper would probably be on his side.
They were meeting their friends at the Smithsonian; for some dumb reason, Tony wanted to finally get to see the Captain America exhibit. Both Steve and Bucky had tried to convince him it wasn't all that great, and it was weird for them to go to it, but Tony ran right over them with the threat that he'd just buy the museum and take it home with him to see it. So in the name of keeping Tony from actually making good on that, they agreed.
It was the middle of the week in a September, so the museum was not quite as crowded as it was on weekends or in the summer, when families would start playing tourist while the kids weren't in school. There was a decent sized group of kids that looked like they were either in jr. high, or maybe freshmen in high school. But they were mostly contained by their teacher and adult escorts, so they weren't underfoot. Bucky didn't pay them much mind.
"There they are," Steve said, standing up on his tip toes and waving. Bucky turned his attention from trying to not trip over small people to spot Tony and Pepper. Tony waved back, acknowledging Steve and Bucky's presence, and the two pairs navigated through the thin crowd to meet up somewhere in the middle.
"Hi, you two," Pepper greeted cheerfully once they'd finally gotten to the middle.
"You're a bit late," Tony said, clearly giving them shit about it. Bucky bit back a sigh.
"Sorry," Steve said. "Traffic between our place and here was a bit thick. Everyone wanted to go get lunch. I don't understand why they can't pack a bag lunch for themselves instead of clogging up the roads and wasting their time grabbing a burger from a cheap joint."
Tony gave him a frustrated look. "You are still not modern enough. Come on, I want to finally see this exhibit and laugh at how outdated you guys were back then."
Steve scowled. "Is that why you wanted to come here? Tony, you didn't have to drag us here for that, you just had to open Wiki."
Tony flashed him a shit-eating grin. "There's nothing like seeing a relic in person. Besides." He held his hands out in a shrug. "I want to see what things were like back then. I grew up on stories about you, it'd be nice to get more than anecdotal lessons. The old man didn't know everything, and I don't know what questions to ask you old fogeys to get the rest of the story. This is a good place to start."
Steve shook his head. "I still think this is dumb."
"Hey, look at it this way, you have a fan that's not going to bug you for an autograph," Tony said. "Now, are you going to show me the best parts of this place, or am I going to be trusted to wander around on my own?"
Pepper laughed. "Don't trust him to his own devices," she said.
"I know better than that," Steve said, heading for the exhibit.
Bucky pulled up the rear, not really excited to be there. The place dredged up a lot of memories that he didn't always like having in his face. Times were better back then in a lot of ways, but talk of the war inevitably led to the fall, something that still gave him nightmares and probably always would. He preferred remembering things before he enlisted, and nothing in that exhibit really talked about that part of Steve's life.
They wandered around, Steve answering Tony's occasional question, but Tony was uncharacteristically quiet for the most part, reading and studying the displays. Bucky had seen it all before, and knew everything it said first-hand, so he didn't pay much attention, mostly watching the crowds and focusing on keeping his head down to avoid being recognized. Coming here, where his face was plastered around, was never safe, so Bucky always felt a bit more paranoid on the very rare occasion one or the other of them had dragged them to visit the old days.
"Born 1917?" Tony said, loud enough to draw Bucky's attention. "He's old."
Knowing that Steve had been born in 1918, it was pretty obvious which display they'd finally found. He looked over to see his three friends at that damn memorial to him. He watched their reflections; Tony and Pepper were genuinely reading, but Steve was studying the picture like he might undo everything and wander back in time if he just stared hard enough.
Bucky had tried more than once to keep him from doing that, had to every time they were there, but Steve rarely listened. It made Bucky uncomfortable. He knew it was just guilt on Steve's part, but sometimes Bucky couldn't help but worry that somehow, he wasn't as good as he'd been back then, like he somehow wasn't good enough anymore. He rationally knew that wasn't likely, not with the way Steve was, but the idea still haunted him from time to time.
It was one of a million issues that Bucky had developed since his memories had come back, and while he'd been getting better about talking to Steve about them when they came up after that mess in Kiev, there were still some things he just couldn't bring up yet. This was one of them, and part of him wondered if it'd be one that stayed firmly behind mental lock and key for the rest of their lives.
Knowing his luck, however, Steve would probably catch him at just the wrong moment and wrestle it out of him.
"Excuse me?"
A low female voice tore his attention away from getting lost in his own head again, and Bucky looked around a moment before noticing the shy-looking teenage girl in front of him. She was wearing a gray shirt with a round emblem on it that Bucky realized was a depiction of Steve's shield on one half, Bucky's metal arm on the other.
The girl was holding a black sharpie. "You're the Winter Soldier, right?"
Bucky wasn't a hundred percent sure if he should confirm that or not, or even how to, but with a look of confusion on his face, he reluctantly nodded.
The girl held up the sharpie. "Will you sign my shirt? I'm a big fan. Is Captain America with you? I'd like his autograph too, if he's here and you think he'd be willing to."
Steve being willing to was no question; while he wasn't always comfortable with his star status, he was nice enough to oblige fans that approached him. Bucky, on the other hand, had never been asked to give an autograph, or even really noticed, and when he was, most people felt too unnerved by his silence to interact with him.
So Bucky wasn't quite sure how to react to this.
But the girl had asked nicely enough, and she looked like it'd taken all her courage to approach him, and while Bucky had become more of an asshole than he used to be, he wasn't that much of an asshole that he could upset a kid like that. So feeling very awkward, he took the sharpie. The girl half-turned, pulling aside her hair to expose the back of her shoulder for him. It took him a second to figure out how to sign 'Winter Soldier' rather than his real name and still have it look like a familiar signature. He finally scribbled out something that looked vaguely like the right name, then capped the marker and handed it back.
The girl smiled, looking like he'd just made her century for her. "Thank you! Is the captain here?"
Bucky inclined his head towards where Steve was finally wandering away from Bucky's display. The girl turned to approach Steve, and after a bit of hesitation, Bucky followed. Steve noticed Bucky first, and before Steve could say or do anything, Bucky motioned to the incoming fan.
"Captain America?" the girl asked, sounding a bit more confident than she had when she'd approached Bucky.
Steve gave her a personable smile. "I deny everything that guy might've told you about me."
The girl shook her head. "Oh, he didn't say anything. But he was really nice when I asked him to sign my shirt. Is it okay if I ask you to, too?"
Steve looked at Bucky in shock, and Bucky refused to give him a reaction. Not that he needed to, Steve knew how to read Bucky's lack of expressions. Recovering quickly, Steve looked at the young fan. "You have a lot of courage," he said, taking her offered sharpie. "Most peole aren't brave enough to approach him."
While Steve signed her shirt, the girl smiled. "I'm a big fan. I couldn't get your autograph and not his. You both protect people when you go out. I know most people don't really think of it that way, since you're the hero and nobody really knows anything about him, but I don't think that's fair."
"You're a rare one, then," Steve said, capping the marker and handing it back to her. "You look a little young to be here alone, so you'd better go find your parents or class or whoever you're here with."
The girl tucked her marker into her jeans pocket. "I'm here with my class. My teacher's probably going to give me detention, but it's worth it. Thank you!" Then she hurried off and disappeared into the crowd.
Steve took a step closer to Bucky, staring at him as if he'd sprouted a third eye in his forehead. "You actually gave her your autograph?" Bucky shrugged a bit awkwardly. Steve shook his head. "You surprise me sometimes."
"Welcome to stardom, Mister Stoic," Tony said. He had one of his usual asshole smirks. Even Pepper looked like she was trying to hide a smile. "Feels good, doesn't it?"
Bucky gave him a look like he'd just had a glass of sour milk.
Steve laughed. "I think he's been trying to avoid that."
"Well, just wait. It'll happen whether you like it or not once the right reporter takes the right picture," Tony warned.
Not a day Bucky was looking forward to. He didn't actually mind being famous. He got used to that in the forties. But trying to keep a lid on how he'd survived was going to be a royal pain in the ass. No matter how little fault was on his head, getting authorities and the public at large to let him be if it was found out that he was Hydra's favorite attack dog was going to be difficult.
"We'll deal with that when it happens," Steve said. "Come on, there's more to this museum than just this exhibit."
The rest of the museum- at least what they saw of it -was far more entertaining. Bucky hadn't seen it all, there was simply too much there, and while they stopped at some exhibits that Bucky had already been to, they found a few he hadn't, and the farther they got from the Captain America displays, the better he felt. That place just had too many memories and Bucky spent enough time in the past, he didn't need to be there while enjoying a day out with his tiny handful of friends.
Tony called an end to what would've been an otherwise endless day of playing tourist in the museum by deciding he had to have a cheeseburger or he might waste away into nothing. Steve had warned him that they didn't really know of any high quality places for that, since neither of them really ate any kind of burger, but Pepper laughed and said that Tony's idea of a cheeseburger was Burger King.
Steve had outright laughed at Tony for that. Tony was less than amused.
Since Steve and Bucky almost never ate fast food except when they had no choice, which was basically never, Steve suggested a local cafe that had good food, far better than the average American restaurant. It wasn't expensive enough to be considered 'high end', and it was more of a hole in the wall restaurant, but the place had been founded by a woman in Steve and Bucky's time. Her granddaughter, who now owned and operated the place, used the same recipes as her grandmother, so the food was more familiar to them than most modern restaurants. Most modern places had too much grease.
Tony protested that the grease was the good part, but he was quickly overruled.
The restaurant, called "Mama's," hid itself in a quiet business zone not terribly far from the big tourist traps that D.C. had to offer. It didn't attract as much attention as well-known places, but its location kept them in business.
The hostess at the podium by the door smiled in greeting. "Hello, Captain Rogers, Winter Soldier. Glad to see you back. We're quiet right now," she said, motioning to the abundance of open tables, "so pick your poison. I'll let Mama know you're here."
Steve grabbed menus, something the hostess had forgotten, probably since Steve and Bucky both had a usual order they rarely strayed from, so they were usually unneeded. He held them out to Tony and Pepper.
Tony took his, staring at Steve. "You're known around here."
Steve shrugged, leading them to a back table that was a usual spot for them. "We come in whenever we manage to botch cooking dinner."
"And how often is that?"
"About once a week."
Tony gave an exaggerated sigh, holding Pepper's seat for her. "For two life-long bachelors, you should really know how to cook for yourselves by now."
"We cook fine," Steve protested. "We just have a thing where we try a new recipe every week and that's the one we usually burn. Modern day stoves and ovens are a lot more efficient than what we had. And cooking methods are different, too. Remember, we moved out on our own in the middle of the Depression, quality food wasn't exactly something that was easy to find. Even though Bucky was better off than me, he still rarely had the good stuff. So we boiled everything. It hid the flavor of the bad food. Turned it into inedible mush, but at least it didn't taste awful."
Tony looked at Pepper. "I'm getting a first-hand history lesson from someone who's not covered in wrinkles."
Pepper laughed, and if Tony's yelp was any indication, she had probably also kicked his ankle under the table. "Be nice, Tony."
"I'm perfectly nice," Tony protested, then looked back at Steve, seated across from him. "So what about after the Depression? Surely food was better then."
"I still couldn't afford it," Steve said. "I couldn't get a very good job with my health problems. Bucky would sneak money into my wallet sometimes, so once in awhile I ate better than usual, but as a rule, getting out of the Depression didn't do much but give me a small raise. And it wasn't long before we both enlisted, anyway. You don't cook in the military."
"I'm surprised you even left the house in one piece with all the problems you had," Tony said.
Steve took that one gracefully, if the fact that he didn't give Tony a sour look or a kick to the shins was any indication. "I didn't have a choice, Tony. And even when Social Security came along, I didn't feel right taking it and sitting around when I could still do something. Besides, that program was so new back then, working got me more money. If I weren't working, I would've been existing on one meal a week."
Then Steve glanced at Bucky. Bucky gave him a curious look, wondering what he was about to get dragged into. "Besides, when I get bored, I get into trouble, and I didn't have my own self-appointed guardian angel all the time to get me out of it."
Bucky scowled, reaching over and punching Steve on the arm. Punk.
"And now that you can handle trouble, he's glued his feet to yours to replace your shadow," Tony said. "You two do everything backwards."
"It's called valuing what you have, Tony," Steve said. "Besides, we're mutually insane."
"And yet you two still manage to be straight. I don't understand how." He looked at Pepper. "We're not that bad, are we?"
Pepper pursed her lips, clearly trying to keep from laughing in Tony's face. "Tony? Shut up."
"Thank you, Pepper," Steve said. He gave Tony a dirty look. "Keep talking and I'm letting him stab you with his fork." He nodded his head in Bucky's direction.
Bucky gave Tony his best flat look that promised bodily harm when Tony was least expecting it in response.
Tony drew back, studying Bucky like he was trying to decide if Bucky might actually flip his shit and stick a fork in him, or if it was a bluff. They all knew it was a bluff; Bucky didn't hurt friends if he could help it, and very few strangers were worth the effort of doing more than walking away from. The only ones that really had to be afraid of Bucky were people who tried to hurt Steve.
After a moment, Tony pointed at him. "That's not funny."
Bucky flashed him a perfectly evil smile, sitting back in his chair. Tony gave him one more wary look, before looking at Pepper. "What do I do to deserve this?"
"Do you want the full list?"
Before Tony could do more than open his mouth in protest, a young woman in her mid-twenties approached them. "Steve! Winter! Isn't it a bit early in the day for you to show up?" she demanded with a wide smile on her face. Her ginger hair was pulled up in a bun, loose curls framing her face.
"Hi, Mama," Steve said. "We had guests in town, so we thought we'd introduce them to your fabulous cooking."
Mama blushed, and Bucky couldn't help but allow himself a small smile. He always thought she looked pretty when she blushed. If he weren't busy hiding his identity, he'd be almost tempted to ask her out for a cup of coffee. But even if his identity wasn't an issue, he'd be hesitant to actually do that. He and Steve had a healthy number of enemies lurking about, and if there was anything he'd learned from watching other superheroes in the news, it was that their civilian girlfriends were easy targets for the bad guys. Even Pepper hadn't escaped that.
He liked Mama too much to put her through that. Especially when he still wasn't interested in anything long term to offer her to make the danger worth it.
"Is your name really 'Mama'?" Tony asked.
Mama smiled. "My real name's a secret, Mister Stark. Mama is what my grandmother was called, and when she gave me the business, it became my name. Now, before you start trying to schmooze my secret out of me and Miss Potts there has to hurt you for it, why don't you look over the menu and tell me what I can fix for you personally."
Tony glanced at the menu that he hadn't even picked up off the table. "Please tell me you make good old American cheeseburgers?"
Mama smiled brightly. "Sure do, honey. Best in town." She took his menu, then looked at Pepper. "Do you need another minute?"
"Um." Pepper looked down at the menu helplessly. Their conversation hadn't given her a chance to see what the place even offered. "Do you have soups?"
"We have chicken noodle, chili, broccoli and chedder, minestrone, and today's special is chicken tortilla."
Pepper handed Mama her menu. "I'll take the special, that sounds good."
Mama turned to Steve and Bucky. "And let me guess, you two aren't going to give me any excitement by ordering anything different?"
Steve gave her a smile and a shrug. "You know us, Mama. We'd like our usuals, please."
"Hmph. You men, creatures of habit." She may have been trying to sound cranky at them, but she had a million watt smile on her face that she seemed to reserve just for them. They were definitely her favorite customers. She didn't serve anyone else personally, that's what she had waitstaff hired for, but she handled Steve and Bucky herself. Bucky wondered why sometimes. The obvious answer would be their fame, but he half-heartedly wondered if there weren't another reason.
Probably just another girl flirting with Steve. He'd have to convince Steve later to ask her out.
Once Mama had walked away, Tony focused his attention on Bucky, which only earned him a bored look in return. "So, magpie, how do you order food in a restaurant when you have a permanent lock and key on your vocal cords?"
"He writes it down," Steve said. Tony really should've expected that by now. They'd just spent all afternoon with Bucky remaining completely silent and Steve answering for him whenever Tony tried to pry a word or two out of Bucky. He'd talk later once they weren't in public. And he was half tempted to let loose a string of profanity to make his former commanding officer proud once they were, just to annoy the shit out of Tony and make Steve roll his eyes and then introduce his face to his palm. But he had more class than to do that around Pepper.
Although if someone blew up the apartment while they were there, all bets were off.
Tony propped his chin on his elbow, staring at Bucky. Bucky returned his look with a quirked eyebrow. Tony didn't say anything at first, tilting his head a bit. "You really are good at this silent thing, aren't you? Doesn't that get frustrating?"
Bucky shrugged one shoulder with a conceding look.
"Please tell me you'll at least start talking a little bit once the press finds you? Because if you continue your silent treatment, they're going to start speculating about why."
"Let them speculate," Steve said. "They already speculate all sorts of weird things."
"Which you could dismiss if you just offered an interview," Tony pointed out.
"If the presence of RPF on the internet is any indication, I'm going out on a limb to say you're wrong."
Bucky closed his eyes wearily, hanging his head. It may have amused him to no end when Steve discovered that stuff, but it was still irritating to know it was out there. Being someone's wet dream was one thing, even though it was a little creepy, but when that wet dream had to involve some strange gay sex fetish with his best friend, it was just outright weird.
People very frequently confused the everloving shit out of him.
"Well, okay, not everyone will listen, but-"
"We'll handle it when people find out who he is, Tony," Steve interrupted him. "In the meantime, they can wonder."
Pepper put a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Tony, we can try to talk them into listening to your usual graceful media handling once we're not at a public restaurant," she said.
Tony glanced around. "Okay, fair enough. But you two will listen to my suggestions."
Steve gave him an aggravated look. "I can't wait, Mister I Am Iron Man."
"I thought you were still under ice when that came out."
This time, Steve did kick Tony under the table. "I can watch old news reports on the internet, Tony. It's not that hard."
Tony scooted his chair back. "Will you people stop abusing my legs?"
"Not as long as you keep talking," Pepper said sweetly. "And besides, Winter over there hasn't touched your legs."
"He's out of reach," Tony said, as if Bucky would do it if he were in reach. Bucky had better ways of getting back at someone for being a smartass.
"That wouldn't stop him," Steve said.
Mama approached them, four plates balanced on her arms. "Okay, guys, here's your food. Chicken tortilla for the lovely lady, an old-fashioned cheeseburger for Mister Stark, and these two cretins get their usuals. The chili's a little hot this time, Steve, be careful. Winter, here's your salad. If you four need anything, have someone come fetch me."
Tony studied his burger. "Where's the grease?"
Mama gave him a bright smile. "I don't fry my burgers. Makes less of a mess. Most people find they prefer my way once they give it a try."
Tony didn't look convinced, and Bucky saw Mama's smile falter a bit. She was a bit sensitive about her cooking sometimes, especially when she was trying to impress someone with it. Before Tony could open his mouth to say something stupid that might hurt Mama's feelings, Bucky grabbed his knife and stabbed it through the burger.
Tony jumped, staring at the knife, then at Bucky. "What the hell was that for?!"
While Bucky gave Tony a dark look, Steve grabbed Bucky's fork and shoved it into his hand. "Here, eat your salad. Your way of telling people they're being assholes needs some work." Bucky took the fork and jabbed at a piece of lettuce, but didn't stop giving Tony that look.
"Oh, Winter, honey," Mama said, giving him a sad smile. "You don't have to threaten your friends just to save my feelings. If he doesn't like it, that's fine. My way's not for everyone."
"Is that what that was about?" Tony demanded. "Boy, we gotta find you a voice. Calling me an asshole is a lot easier when you can talk and scares me less than having a knife stabbed through my food." He looked up at Mama. "I didn't mean to imply your cooking wasn't fine. I am not one to turn down trying a cheeseburger cooked differently. I was just trying to figure how you managed to cook one with such little grease. I doubt you have a tiny George Foreman back there."
Mama's smile brightened again. "I bake 'em. They cook all the way through without turning into grease pits or cooking unevenly."
Tony looked like he was thinking about that for a moment. "That's brilliant. Now, with all eyes on me, allow me to try this masterpiece and decide if I'll become too spoiled by it to ever eat at McDonald's again." He removed the knife, giving it a dirty look before setting it down as far away from Bucky as possible.
"Honey, if you can still go back to McDonald's after eating my food, I may as well close up my business," Mama said while Tony took a bite big enough that Bucky wondered just how much he had to unhinge his jaw to do it.
Mama waited with a nervous look on her face as Tony chewed, which was as exciting as watching a cow do it, but eventually, Tony managed to get that gigantic bite he took down his throat. He looked up at Mama. "This is amazing. I don't think I've ever had a better cheeseburger." He turned to Pepper. "We're moving here so I don't have to fly across the country every time I want one."
Before Pepper could do more than laugh in Tony's face, Steve spoke up. "Tony, I think we'd both have to kill you if we had you as a neighbor. You'd come bug us too often."
"You two need bugging," Tony said. "And I'd be on hand to fix Mister Silent's arm if he tries to catch another RPG."
Mama gave Bucky a disapproving look. "And what am I supposed to do if you get your fool self killed doing things like that? I'll lose my favorite customer."
Bucky felt himslf blush and decided to focus on his salad instead of the conversation. Normally, he'd flirt back, but it was a little hard to do that when you couldn't speak up. Damnit.
"Aw, look, you made him blush," Tony said, clearly trying to not laugh his ass off. Bucky gave him a look of pure hatred. Tony held up his hands. "Okay, hands off the fork. I don't need stabbed in the eye by it."
"Don't you mess up my table with blood, Winter," Mama scolded. "I'd better leave before I have to be witness to a murder. You guys enjoy your meal, have one of the waitresses come get me if you need anything."
Bucky watched her go with interest, not for the first time, and while Steve had never said anything about it, Tony apparently felt the need to. "I'd say you need to ask her out, but that would be the most awkward lack of conversation in the world."
No longer having the energy to give Tony much hatred for the day, reserving it for when he was really stupid, he gave Tony a tired look that waited patiently for Tony to retract his statement.
"I've tried to convince him to stop hiding," Steve said, stirring his chili idly, which was clearly still too hot to safely eat. "But while I'm used to being a celebrity, I've never been one with anything to hide, so I'm coming up with nothing helpful to spin as a reason he's still alive without giving anything we don't want in the public knowledge away."
"I have an idea or two," Tony said. "We'll discuss them later. Maybe get Mister Lonely Hearts back into the dating scene. Probably do wonders for his temper."
Steve looked over at Bucky, not saying anything to that. Bucky paused mid-bite, staring at him, wondering what that look was for, until he realized that Steve was giving serious consideration to Tony's statement. He gave his friend a thoroughly offended look. Steve should know better than that. Girls were nice, but had never been the be-all, end-all to his sense of fun and relaxation. Not dating hardly had anything to do with his occasionally short temper. That was all Hydra.
Steve shrugged. "You used to be a lot more social," he said. "Maybe interacting with more than just the three of us would do you some good."
Bucky looked away, staring down at his food while he poked at a strawberry with his fork, biting on the inside of his mouth to keep from saying something. He hated it when Steve did this, pointing out all the ways he was different from back then, as if he were somehow not as good as he was before Hydra had screwed with his head. Just because Steve had managed to survive decades mostly unchanged didn't mean Bucky had. He knew Steve wasn't doing it purposely, but it did nothing to help Bucky's insecurities.
He really wanted to tell all of them to fuck off and leave, but that felt really childish, so he settled for ignoring them completely. It wasn't like he could speak up to defend himself anyway.
Thankfully, Steve took the hint and directed conversation away from Bucky, although Bucky caught Pepper giving him a curious look from time to time. He ignored it, not really able to ask her why, able to only guess and of course, with how the afternoon had already gone, his guesses were probably miles into the misanthrope-tinted territory than what was truth. Pepper hardly had a mean bone in her body, she was probably just concerned for him.
He didn't know how to address her concern though, with or without words, so he just put it aside and focused on his salad.
The rest of the day went by a little easier. The others left him mostly alone, allowing him to shove everything back into the dark corners of his mind where he didn't have to deal with them. It probably wasn't the healthiest way to go about things, but it got him through, at least for now.
Tony had never actually been to the city, so he and Pepper dragged Steve and Bucky along all over the city like a couple of tourists from a nowhere place that never saw anything exciting. He'd accuse them of being from Nebraska if he didn't know better.
It was just past seven when Pepper told Tony that if he dragged her to one more statue or memorial or display, her feet were going to have very stern words with him. "You can play more tomorrow," she said.
"But it's too early to go back to the hotel and plant ourselves in front of the TV," Tony protested.
Steve raised his eyebrows at Tony. "You came to visit us, it is possible to visit friends at their home rather than wandering around like a bunch of out-of-towners who are only missing the mandatory camera from the nineteen eighties."
Bucky choked back a laugh.
"Give me credit, Spangles," Tony said. "My camera would be a custom-built digital camera that takes better pictures than those used in magazine photoshoots. It'd do the Photoshopping for me."
Pepper sighed theatrically. "See what I put up with? He's lucky he has me, anyone else would've smothered him in his sleep."
Steve motioned to Bucky, the first time since lunch that anyone had brought him into the conversation. "I'm sure he'll offer to fling him off the Washington Monument for you." Bucky chose to not comment, but Tony gave him a look like he wouldn't trust Bucky not to do it. Bucky didn't know if he felt amused or insulted by that, but after attacking Tony's food at lunch, he figured he probably deserved it.
Pepper smiled. "I'm sure he would, and he's a perfect gentleman for it. But despite his flaws, I like Tony enough to let him live."
Tony gave Pepper a dirty look. "Thank you, Miss Potts, that's very comforting. You're sleeping in the other bed tonight."
She gave him a dazzling grin. "You aren't the one that gets to kick people out of the bed."
"As wonderful a display of flirting as this is, I'd rather not be witness to it," Steve said. "Come on, we'll lead you back to the apartment. It's small, but if you want to pry a word out of him-" once again, Steve motioned to Bucky, "-we can't be out in public."
Bucky didn't say it, which probably surprised no one, but he was just as fine not participating in conversation anyway.
"It would be nice to see if he still has a voice," Tony said. "I half expect him to cough out grave dust when he opens his mouth."
Luckily for Tony, Pepper spoke up before Bucky could decide how to respond appropriately. "Not everyone has to talk as much as you," she said. "You're far too in love with the sound of your own voice. Sometimes silence is bliss."
"Why do you think I drag him out into public?" Steve said, and once again, Bucky wasn't sure how to react there. "He never stops saying things to traumatize me at home."
Oh. That again. Seriously, did that man never get over anything? It'd been a week since the Hot Pockets article and Bucky hadn't found anything quite that horrible to share since. He'd given Steve a happy week off from trauma. Just for that, he was going to go scouring the internet after Tony and Pepper left for their hotel. Steve would regret challenging him like that.
"Traumatize?" Tony glanced at Bucky. "What, do you teach him all the new fun slang these days that you didn't have in your day?"
"Ask him about the Hot Pockets when we get to the apartment," Steve said grumpily. Bucky really struggled to keep that deadpan look on his face instead of laughing at Steve's expense.
"What about the twinkie?" Tony said, and Pepper laughed. Steve and Bucky could only exchange a look of deep confusion before Tony sighed. "That's something else I have to introduce you two to. Anyway, yes, Hot Pockets, I prepare myself to ask about them."
Pepper reminded them of sore feet that might be forced to step on other feet if they didn't get back to a place where said feet could be rested, and after Steve gave Tony the address to plug into his GPS, the two pairs split up to meet up at Steve and Bucky's apartment.
Continue to Part 2