[Bucky Barnes, Cast; R] In Derelict Sidings The Poppies Entwine Character/Series: Bucky Barnes, Cast; Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: R Notes: Do you have any idea how hard it was to end this? Tony did not want to shut up. Title: In Derelict Sidings The Poppies Entwine: Chapter 19 Author:yuuo Word Count: 3983 Summary:Packing what was going with them took only a few hours; clothes, a box and a half of books, and those records and record player.
Packing what was going with them took only a few hours; clothes, a box and a half of books, and those records and record player. Dishes, furniture, all that could go. Food had to be thrown out, and they decided to be nice and not make whoever the CIA was bringing in to help them do that. There was nonperishables in the cupboards, so Steve sorted through those to send to a food bank while Bucky cleared out the bathroom. Wasn't much in there, their basic toiletries, that rubbing alcohol that they'd both thought they'd never had reason to use until Steve got an ear infection, and some hydrogen peroxide.
And Steve's damn styling gunk.
No hair dryer, though. After living with a woman for awhile again, he praised everything for that.
They briefly discussed moving Bucky's bed back to the second room, just for appearances, but at that point in the last month, neither cared enough for appearances. If the handful of people who were coming in had weird thoughts, that was on them. Neither Steve nor Bucky cared.
It was about two-thirty before there was a knock on their door. Bucky assumed that it was someone from the CIA, or a hired hand to help move, but he didn't work on assumptions much, not now, not with how paranoid he was. He moved out of sight, where the door would block him, and motioned to Steve to answer it.
"Hello, Steve," Sharon said once the door was open. Bucky relaxed, stepping out from behind the door. She tilted her head. "Hello to you too, James."
"Bucky," he said. "I go by Bucky to my friends."
She smiled. "Bucky it is, then." She glanced past them. "You got our boxes, I see."
Steve sighed. "In spades." He moved to let her in. "We've already packed what will go with us. We've been working on boxing up dishes and stuff, but those are going to a charity or someplace, because we won't need them."
She wandered around the small apartment, maneuvering around boxes. "We gave you too many," she said. "Don't worry about packing the things you don't need. We have crews coming in to take care of furniture, we'll have them take care of those other things." She looked up at them. "You said you have everything else ready to go?"
"Yeah," Steve said, glancing back at the less than a dozen boxes they had gathered with the words 'take' written on them in giant red permanent marker.
Sharon crouched by them, weight testing each of them, not flinching at any, not even the box with the books. She was stronger than she looked. Good, meant she was up for her job of trying to keep up with Steve and Bucky. "This'll fit in a small trailer," she said, standing. "We could fit it in a regular mini-van, but you'll want your bike, and it's best that we don't have three separate vehicles trying to keep track of each other on the interstate." She looked over at them. "So we'll take these and the bike, meet you at the Avengers Tower."
"You'll probably beat us there," Bucky said. At the puzzled looks on both Steve and Sharon's faces, he continued, "I want to stop in Annapolis and see my brother before we get to New York."
"Absolutely doable," she said. "I'll be near you, I'm keeping a personal eye on you two right now. But you won't have to worry about me being in the way. I'll have some of the people on our team get your things to the Tower. Tony Stark is waiting there, he can direct our men where to put things, so everything will be ready for you when you get there."
"Works for us," Steve said.
They sorted through a few more details before parting ways, although with her being their unseen shadow, 'parting ways' came with a different definition.
DC to New York was normally a four hour trip- they could be there by dinner time. But they took an hour detour over to Annapolis. This time, Bucky didn't hesitate in the car once they'd parked in front of Peter's house, unbuckled and got out and walked to his brother's door without waiting for Steve.
It was about thirty seconds between Bucky knocking and Peter answering the door. Peter's age-weathered face looked older, suddenly, marred by grief upon seeing Bucky. Bucky braced himself for Peter to fuss and worry and possibly rage at an institution that couldn't hurt him anymore. Peter let them in, shut the door behind them, and stared at Bucky like he wanted to hug him until all the bad things went away, or if he wasn't sure it'd be welcome.
Bucky sighed. "All right, get it out," he said, pulling his brother into a hug. Peter returned the hug, as Bucky predicted, like if he just held on tight enough, long enough, what Hydra did would be undone. Bucky patted Peter's back. "Hey, stop that. I can't breathe."
Peter let go and leaned back, studying Bucky. "Well," he said, voice a bit thick, but otherwise strong, "I see why you couldn't tell me before."
"Just do me a favor and don't try to go after anyone," Bucky said. "And don't think it's so bad. I wouldn't be here now with you if it hadn't happened. So it's not all bad."
"I can still wish it hadn't happened," Peter said. He motioned to the living room. "Come sit?"
Bucky glanced at Steve for a second, who had been staying quiet, then back to Peter. "We can't," he said. "Tony is forcibly relocating us to the Avengers Tower in New York, since DC's not precisely safe for us anymore. We just stopped to let you know that we're out of the stockade and safe and okay." At Peter's disappointed look, Bucky put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll visit, don't worry. You haven't seen the last of us. And Tony might even be nice and let you come visit us. Get a chance to see that ugly building he's moving us into."
Peter smirked, a bratty smile that Bucky gave a suspicious look to. "You mean that building in Manhattan? Where you'll be living? As a Manhattanite?"
Bucky scowled. "I was trying to avoid that thought." Manhattanites were snobs, prissy, up-scale jackholes that Bucky tended to look down on, completely unironically. Brooklyn was infinitely better.
"Would I be a good little brother if I didn't point it out?" Peter asked, still with that grin.
"If you weren't old and brittle, I'd kick your ass," Bucky grumbled.
Peter laughed. "I'm old, but I'm not that brittle yet. And you're still older," he said. "Did you like the book?" he asked, switching subjects.
"Yeah," Bucky said. "Pretty good book. Love how you gave me an incomplete series to read. I'm going to be waiting forever for the latest one to come out."
"I'm sure there's an end in sight," Peter said. "When you get settled, send me your new address, I'll start sending them to you."
"Peter, I can get them myself."
"Let me do this, Bucky," Peter said. "I can't do anything to fix what happened or make up for lost years, but I can buy you a damn book series."
Seeing that this wasn't an argument worth winning, Bucky smiled. "All right, you win."
Peter once again offered them a chance to sit and get some warm coffee or tea before going back out into the December cold, but they declined. He took it with disappointment, but grace. "Just don't let me spend another Christmas without my brother," he said.
That hit Bucky in the gut a bit."Don't worry, I'll have you boxed and shipped up to the Tower for Christmas this year," he promised. "If Tony doesn't like it, tough. He can soak his head in his spiked eggnog."
They exchanged goodbyes and hugs, then Steve and Bucky returned to their car. Sharon was haunting them somewhere nearby, but Bucky pushed that out of his mind for the most part as they took the detour back out to I-95, heading up for New York City.
Bucky would've loved to say he missed the city, but so much had changed, it almost wasn't the same city to have missed. He made a point of not watching traffic, knowing that it'd only give him a headache- he had a bit of a problem about stupid drivers, and NYC was full of them -but watched the people go by, the Christmas decorations hanging everywhere, the sales advertised in store windows.
Steve followed their GPS, specially programmed with JARVIS, courtesy of Tony and passed along by Sharon, to what was going to be their reserved spot for the rest of however long they had to stay at the Tower, probably indefinitely. Manhattan. Damnit.
A tall woman with dark hair up in a twist met them on the first floor of the building. Steve seemed to recognize her. "Hi, Maria."
"Hello, Steve," she said with a smile, then glanced at Bucky. "And you, Mister Barnes."
Bucky looked at Steve. "We know her?"
"I do," Steve said. "Maria Hill, used to be Nick Fury's assistant."
Oh. Bucky pulled on a neutral expression he didn't exactly feel. He'd forgotten that it wasn't just the Starks that had been personal to the Avengers, but Nick Fury, as well. He nodded in greeting, saying nothing.
"Don't worry," Maria said. "The Avengers consider you as much a victim of Hydra as Director Fury was. There's no need to ask forgiveness." She held out her hand. "It's nice to finally meet someone who is so important to Steve. According to Sam, he's been happier since you came home."
Bucky took her hand. "Nice to meet you. You don't have to call me 'Mister Barnes'."
"What would you like to be called, then?" she asked.
He considered that for a second. "Well, I guess if I just got taken in by the Avengers, it'd be easiest if everyone just called me Bucky. Less confusion."
She smiled. "Very well." She looked between them. "This way." She kept talking as they headed towards the elevators. "The top ten floors are the R&D floors, except the very top level, which is a penthouse that is exclusively for Avengers use. There's really nothing up there but a bar and some seating with a view, but Tony likes his luxury and likes sharing it with his friends." She pushed the elevator button, then turned to them while they waited. "The living quarters are the five floors directly below R&D. Below that is a medical center primarily run by Doctor Banner. Unless it's an emergency, you'll be receiving all medical care here, from now on."
"Can't say I mind that," Steve said. "Public hospitals mean armed guards outside your room and even that might not be enough protection."
Maria smiled. "You'll both be in the best care. Doctor Banner is even working on some medicines that will metabolize slowly enough to be useful for you two. Basics such as painkillers and antibiotics. I'm sure he'll expand once he's had a chance to see if his current experiments are working."
Steve glanced at Bucky. "Hopefully, he won't have reason to," he said, looking back at Maria.
The elevator dinged, and Maria led them in. "Living quarters level five," she said once all three of them were clear of the doors.
"Right away, Miss Hill," JARVIS's voice said.
Steve frowned. "JARVIS runs the whole building?"
"To an extent," Maria said. "Mostly anything to do with the Avengers. The rest of the building runs on its own computers. But areas exclusive to members of the Avengers, JARVIS overrides the building's AI and handles things personally. Tony trusts him."
"A high honor," JARVIS said. Bucky had a feeling he only spoke up to be a smartass. Smartass computers. Welcome to the twenty-first century.
"The rest of the building has various purposes," she said as the elevator took them upwards. "You can ask JARVIS for a full layout later, familiarize yourself with your new home, but at least at first, you probably won't need anything outside of the living floors and the medical center."
"Mostly offices?" Bucky asked.
Maria looked at him. "And small businesses. Those will be of more interest to you, I'm sure, but for now, your needs will be taken care of by Stark Industries employees. Just until you're settled, then you'll be shown around the relevant areas until you feel comfortable on your own."
"That won't take long, it's hard for us to get lost," Steve said.
Maria smiled. "I'm sure," she said. She glanced up at the display that showed what floor they were on. She didn't say anything more as the numbers ticked by, leading them up further.
The elevator finally dinged again, doors opening, and Maria led them out. "This is the floor you'll be living on."
"The whole floor?" Steve asked, looking around the expansive lobby area, and sounding rather flabbergasted.
"Hardly," Maria said with a note of amusement at Steve's expense. "Each floor has ten apartments, more than enough for the team and any future additions that come along." She led them down a hallway, to a door labeled 'R-B'. "Tony thought he was being funny," she said, motioning to the letters. "He still thinks your taste in music needs work."
Bucky studied the letters a moment. They were obviously supposed to mean 'Rogers - Barnes', but he wasn't sure he understood the musical reference. He looked at Steve questioningly.
"Rhythm and blues," Steve said, catching Bucky's unspoken question. "Sam's introduced me to some, it's not bad. Still prefer Bing."
After Bucky had nodded in acknowledgment, but said nothing further, Maria opened the door and led them inside. "The door is locked by JARVIS, all you have to do to get in is complain at him."
Bucky studied the apartment, doing his own inspection while Maria led them through the rooms. A proper dining room. A kitchen about twice the size of their old one. A living room with a nice view out a large picture window that almost took up the wall. A large hallway leading to a bathroom that his sister would've loved, two linen closets, and their bedrooms, right next to each other. The bedrooms were unreasonably large. A laundry room. Their things were already there, boxes waiting to be opened.
Once Maria had given them the full tour, and pointed out that their fridge and cupboards were already stocked for them, she led them back into the living room. "If you have any questions, JARVIS can help you. Tony will be by soon to see how you like the place. We've already received authorization for entrance for Agent Carter, she should be here very shortly, as well."
"Agent Carter is here," JARVIS's voice said.
They glanced at the door. "Speak of the devil," Maria said. "Let her in, JARVIS." She looked back at Steve and Bucky. "I will leave you three to work out protection details. JARVIS will let you know when Tony gets here."
Sharon stepped in, and smiled in greeting at Maria as Maria passed her, leaving the apartment. Sharon walked over to them. "It's bigger than your old place," she said. "What do you think?"
"It'll take some getting used to," Steve said. "I've never lived in a big place."
When Sharon glanced at Bucky, he shrugged. "Not without sharing with two parents, three siblings and a ton of neighborhood cats that got let in during the winter."
She laughed. "Sounds like a houseful. Hopefully this place won't be intimidating."
Steve looked around. "Shouldn't be. We'll be fine." Then he looked at her. "And where will you be this time?"
"Just down the hall again," she said. "Not far. JARVIS can notify me of trouble before the shots are fired this time."
Bucky tuned that part out, studying them and the way they were looking at each other. He sighed. "Just kiss her already, Rogers," he grumbled.
Sharon grinned while Steve gave Bucky a look that wanted to be frustrated, but was too happy to really get there. "I don't kiss before the first date," he said.
"So ask her out, stupid," Bucky said.
Steve looked at Sharon. "After we're done settling in. I'd ask you out for coffee, but I don't actually like coffee."
"We'll find something," Sharon said. "I have to move into my own place, I'll let you guys unpack."
For a brief moment, Bucky almost thought that Steve would break his 'no kissing before the first date' rule, but they simply smiled, then Sharon walked off, leaving the apartment. Bucky gave Steve a bland look. "So how long has that flirting been going on?" he asked.
"Since before you came home," Steve said. He looked at the boxes. "Tony'll be here soon, do we want to get started on unpacking first, and just be interrupted?"
"He can deal with an unpacked apartment," Bucky said. "I'm going to check that penthouse out."
Steve raised his eyebrows. "Interested in a drink?"
Bucky frowned and shook his head. "No, that shit doesn't work anyway. Just curious about the view."
Really, he just didn't want to face Tony yet. He knew he would soon, but Tony would almost definitely go over the place with Steve, first, before tracking Bucky down. Bucky knew things were forgiven, that Tony didn't blame him, or if he did, not enough to keep him from standing at Bucky's side and giving them a new, safe place to live, but Bucky just wanted a few minutes to himself before getting a chance to finally say 'sorry'.
Steve knew Bucky well enough to pick up on that. "All right, Buck. I'll work on unpacking. I'll leave your stuff in your room."
"Thanks," Bucky said, leaving without another word.
He took the elevator up to the top floor, stepping out into the penthouse. Its view was a thousand times better than the one from his new apartment, and that was impressive. One entire wall was windows, curved around with a walkway just outside of them. There were a few couches and a couple chairs gathered around a large coffee table, socialization amongst the Avengers the clear purpose. The bar that Maria mentioned covered a good portion of the far wall, and even though it wasn't going to do anything for him, he was tempted to pour himself a glass of vodka.
He walked over to the windows, crossing his arms and watching out over the sunset over Manhattan. The city had changed a lot, but it was still New York. The sunsets weren't quite as spectacular as they'd been in the plains country out west, but they were home, the streets and sidewalks shadowing over as the sun dipped behind the buildings, and the sky lit up fire red.
"Like it?"
Bucky spun, staring at Tony. He wasn't sure how Tony had managed to sneak up there without Bucky hearing him. He took a deep breath, then turned back out. "It's familiar," he said.
Tony walked over beside him, a bag of some sort slung over his shoulder. "I thought you might like it," he said. "How'd you like the apartment?"
"Bigger than I'm used to," Bucky said. "But it's nice." He looked down at the ground and silently counted to three. "Tony, I'm-"
"Don't," Tony interrupted. "I wouldn't have done what I did if you needed to say it."
Rather than argue the point, because arguing with Tony was like arguing with a brick wall, Bucky looked at him. "What changed your mind?"
Tony looked thoughtful, like he was trying to determine the best way to answer. Finally, he set the bag down and unzipped the front cover, proving that the bag had been the cat carrier, pulling out Tony Stark Junior. She meowed, sounding like she'd just been woken from a nap. "C'mere, Princess," Tony said, then held Junior out to Bucky. "Her."
Bucky took her, being careful with her. She made a few noises of protest at being handled, then started sniffing Bucky's metal fingers. After deciding she remembered him, she groomed them a little, then rubbed her face against them.
"I figured, any man that would go out of his way to make sure a sick kitten is cared for by friends he trusted wasn't the sort of man who could turn around and kill a friend without remorse. That'd take a very special sort of sociopath," Tone said. "And I knew you weren't that sort."
The relief was so heavy that it almost made Bucky want to cry, but he pushed that back, let it sit in the back of his mind where he could examine it later in private, and smiled instead, letting Junior squirm in his arms until she was on her back, curled up in the crook of his elbow. "She likes this position, doesn't she?"
Tony huffed. "Yes, it's her favorite. I keep telling her if she wants to lay like that, she's not allowed to get bigger. I'm not going to carry around a ten pound bowling ball."
Bucky chuckled, rubbing Junior's belly with his metal fingers. "If you wanted that, you'd have a human kid."
Tony shuddered. "Don't even joke. I mean it, I don't hear that joke ever again, or I'll kick you off the roof." He paused. "You're smiling. I'm witnessing a miracle. Every time I've seen you, you're rarely smiling."
Bucky looked over at him. "I have a purring kitten in my arms, hard not to," he said, still grinning.
"They have a sedative effect," Tony admitted. "It's purely psychological, it's a survival instinct. They're manipulative that way."
"Yeah, you sound completely sincere about that, too," Bucky said.
"You're an asshole, and I'm still mad at you for lying, but you'll make up for that." Tony said, and Bucky heard a threat in that. Not everything was forgiven, but he was being given the chance to earn it. He'd take it. After a second, Tony added, "welcome home. There, now I've said my sap for the decade, you don't get to hear it again."
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone I heard it at all," Bucky said.
"Good man," Tony said. "Oh! Your gear is here, courtesy of one Natasha Romanov. She passed along a message with it. She said, and I quote, 'stay out of trouble while I'm gone.' I don't know where she's gone, but she seems to think you need a babysitter. I'm agreeing with her."
"I've already got one," Bucky said, wanting to gripe, but more distracted by Junior's sleepy purrs. "A blond-haired one that Steve really needs to ask out."
Tony scoffed. "Just one? You've got a bunch of us now," he said. "You're an Avenger now, you're one of us. You're going to be fussed at by an entire team of superheroes."
Bucky groaned. "Great. Just what I need."
Silence passed for a few heartbeats. "So how does it feel to finally be a free man?" Tony asked.
Bucky frowned, looking at him, trying at first to figure out what Tony meant. He hadn't been in the stockade that long, Tony couldn't possibly mean that.
"From Hydra," Tony clarified. "They don't have anything on you anymore. The whole world knows, and quite frankly, we don't give a shit. We know they're liars."
Bucky looked back out over the city. "I hadn't thought of it that way." Then he smiled as that sank in more. "It's nice."
"Good." Tony patted his shoulder. "I'll let you take her off my hands for awhile, I'm going to have a drink and kick back. Feel free to enjoy the sunset."
Bucky nodded, glancing down at the now sleeping kitten- god, she slept a lot -then looked back out over the city from the top floor of his new home.