[Bucky Barnes; R] The Ink And Paint Club: Chapter 5 Character/Series: Bucky Barnes/Maria Hill; Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: R Notes: Phone conversations are annoying, because there's not much action you can intermingle to make it not just a bunch of dialogue. Title: The Ink And Paint Club- Chapter 5: Feeling Like A Million Bucks Author:yuuo Word Count: 3336 Summary:It was four before they fell asleep, and ten before either of them got up.
It was four before they fell asleep, and ten before either of them got up. Bucky was up first, redressed into his pants and shirt, and headed to the kitchen. Maria didn't have any hot drinks but coffee, and she seemed to like hazelnut, as that was the only option. Despite not liking coffee that much, he wanted something warm to drink. It was part of his morning routine. And Maria might appreciate waking up to something full of caffeine.
Once the coffee was started- she had a coffee maker that actually worked praise everything -he checked on her. She was still asleep, or at least not yet ready to open her eyes and get up, so he took off with use of her bathroom.
It wasn't long before she joined him, dressed in fresh sleeping pants and a tank top that was almost too thin to be considered proper. She looked like she hadn't had enough sleep and didn't care. She was also walking a bit carefully, which made Bucky have to hide a smile behind his cup of coffee. After he was sure he wasn't going to make a lewd comment about sore muscles, he motioned behind him to the kitchen from his chair at her table. "I made coffee."
"I thought you didn't like coffee," she said around a yawn, passing by him to get a cup of her own.
"I don't, but you don't have anything else warm to drink." He looked back at her, watching her pour her coffee and add creamer. "Your toothpaste tastes just as disgusting, by the way."
She turned, raising her eyebrows. "I didn't pick it out for your tastes," she said.
"I know," he said, taking a sip of his coffee, the hazelnut only barely making it tolerable. "I was just saying that your toothpaste tastes awful."
"You seemed to live through it," she said, sitting down across from him. She took a sip of her drink and grimaced. "God, Bucky, you made it strong enough to kill a horse. Is this how you drank it in the Army?"
Bucky looked down into his cup. "I didn't think it was all that strong," he said, feeling a bit guilty. "I can make some more if that's too strong for you."
Maria shook her head, taking another drink. "It's fine. I've had it this strong before, but usually only when it's going to be a long few days with little opportunity for sleep."
He grinned at her. "Well, I could always stick around longer, help you burn that energy."
The smile she gave him over her cup was warm, like a fireplace to curl up next to, but it lacked the glassy eyed lust he'd seen last night. "I'm sure you could. But I have a few things I want to do today before I go back to work tomorrow." She set her mug down. "Besides, Steve might be worried if you stayed all day."
"I can text him," Bucky said. "He didn't sound worried last night when I called him in the elevator."
For a moment, all Maria did was smile at him, like maybe she was considering his offer, or perhaps something else all together on her mind. "You should go home to Steve today, Bucky. He's probably seen the news that something happened at the club last night, and if he doesn't think we were involved, then he's lost his mind. He deserves for you to be there to fuss over. You found trouble without him."
Bucky frowned into his coffee. "I know I did. But that doesn't mean I can't take a day to focus on someone else important to me. Steve spends a lot of time with Sharon, it's not like he and I are surgically attached at the hip anymore."
"Bucky?" Her voice was soft, but firm, and he looked up at her to see a gentle look on her face that he rarely saw there. "Any other time, I would likely say yes. But I know him well enough to know that he needs to see you safe and sound, and I'm not going to interfere in that. I don't want to be the center of anyone's world, and even if I did, it's not my place to make him share that with me. Not with what you two mean to each other."
For a moment, he thought his heart might drop into his stomach- her words almost sounded like a very odd break up. But her tone didn't match that. He sat back, studying her, taking in the quiet wisdom of her statement, and the sense in her eyes that she was happy with the arrangement she'd just put forth. "I hope you don't think that this means you're getting rid of me."
Her smile lit up, chasing away any clouds her words might've set in. "I know. I don't want to. I just don't also want to make Steve share his place with me."
"Even if I end up sharing him with Sharon?"
Maria took in a deep breath. "I don't think that will even come up. If Sharon tried to make you share that place, I think Steve would break up with her. You two have a very special relationship, anyone from the outside has no place standing in the middle of it. Not even Sharon or I."
He wasn't sure how to answer that, not directly, but her statement did remind him of something. "Speaking of Steve and Sharon..."
She leaned forward, elbow propped up on the table and chin resting on her palm. "That gossip?"
Before he even had a chance to speak, JARVIS cut in. "Miss Hill, Mister Barnes, there is an incoming audio call from a Céleste Lachapelle, requesting to speak to both of you. Should I accept the call, or tell her to call another time?"
They exchanged a look. Bucky shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
Maria nodded once in agreement, then glanced up as they all seemed to do when addressing JARVIS. "Connect the call on the overhead, please."
"Hello?" Céleste's voice held just a trace of a French accent, and she sounded a bit nervous. "Am I speaking to Miss Hill and Mister Barnes?"
"You are," Maria said. "What can we do for you, Miss Lachapelle?"
"I wanted to extend my thanks for saving my patrons and my business. You were both gone before I could find out what happened. I only knew that the Winter Soldier had chased off the mercenaries. After giving me a heart attack."
Maria frowned and looked at Bucky. "Did you mention me at all?"
Bucky shook his head. "No. Never said a word about being there with anybody."
"Mister Barnes's reservations had your name on it, Miss Hill," Céleste explained. "I assumed you assisted in some way."
"I had a hand in it," Maria admitted. She looked at Bucky, brows knitted together. "I'm surprised you're contacting us before the police." Good, fishing for answers.
"I did not tell the police you were here, and nobody believed Gissing when he tried to tattle."
"Gissing?" Bucky said, looking upwards before taking a sip of coffee. God, he wanted to have cocoa instead. It'd been so long since he last had coffee that his tolerance for it had gone even further down.
"That is the name of the man in charge of the mercenaries," Céleste said. "Marvin Gissing. He is the head of a Bosnian mercenary team. They're a small operation with a mediocre reputation. Worse now that they were chased off by seemingly no one."
Bucky set down his cup. "Never heard of them. What were they after?"
Céleste's voice took on a mournful tone. "A painting my father owns. The government of Qatar recently tried to buy it from him, but he turned them down. That painting is what Gissing demanded as ransom. I'm sure they were hired to look like they were sent by Qatar, but they were not. They were hired by my father."
Bucky's eyebrows shot up at that, and Maria looked just as surprised. "Why'd he do that?"
"Because he wants me to give up my club and go back to restoration work with him," Céleste said, and Bucky could practically hear a shrug in there somewhere. "He was never happy that I left the family business to open The Ink And Paper. He told me many times that I was his best, though I know that is a lie. He has many talented artists working in restoration for him. He's never liked it when I defied him, and it happens often."
"So your own father tried to blow up your club, killing dozens in the process, just to convince you to come back to work for him?" Maria sounded as confused as Bucky felt. "How did he figure that would work?"
"The explosions were supposed to be very powerful," Céleste said. "My father assumed that if my club was destroyed and people had died as a result, I would be willing to give up instead of rebuild. My father underestimated how much I love this club, and overestimated how talented Gissing and his men were. He's also a pathological narcissist."
Her tone shifted into a tone that Bucky suspected would be followed by evil giggling in normal situations. "As for the what happened with the bombs, I have some exceptionally loyal staff that Gissing's men forced into planting those bombs so they could time when they took the club hostage. My employees 'accidentally' did it wrong and got rid of much of the explosive powder in the bombs. I raised their wages."
"I wondered what was with all that powder in the locker room," Bucky said. "How'd they manage that? TNT usually comes as a solid, not a powder."
"As Michael put it; 'two words, cheese grater."
Bucky burst out laughing. "There's a way I never though to use one of those."
"And now you're going to laugh every time you use one," Maria said, amusement in her voice.
"Don't worry, I imagine it will become a tale that gets embellished as time goes on around here," Céleste said.
"Where are the mercenaries now?" Maria asked, only semi-shifting topics. "Does law enforcement have them?"
"All of them, as well as my father," Céleste said. "And I fully intend on pressing charges. But I felt you deserved to know why your dinner was interrupted last night."
"Well, it's nice not being in the dark," Bucky admitted.
"I would also like to offer a monetary compensation," Céleste said. The next words out of her mouth gave Bucky a heart attack and made him choke on his coffee. "I like even numbers, so I hope one million is okay. It's a quarter of the worth of the club."
Maria nearly spilled her coffee. "One mi- that's far too much, Miss Lachapelle," she said, sounding about how Bucky felt. A million damn dollars for what was by far one of Bucky's simpler jobs. Bucky wasn't sure he'd seen that much money in his life, at least not from one job.
"I would've paid far more in compensation to families and insurance if something had happened," Céleste said. "If not that, then what can I offer you?"
A glance at Maria proved she was likely of the same mind as what had popped into his head. "Set us up with dinner occasionally," Bucky said. "We liked the food."
"Done," Céleste said. "The table by the stage will be reserved exclusively for you. You're free to come in any time you like, and all food and drinks are free."
Maria looked up again, even though the speaker that JARVIS and calls spoke through wasn't visible on the ceiling. "Would it be all right if we sometimes brought Captain America and his girlfriend along?"
There was a sunny smile in Céleste's tone. "Absolutely. As long as having that many Avengers in one spot doesn't make anything try to blow up again."
"A legitimate fear," Bucky said. "Don't worry, we'll all be on our best behavior."
After another thank you, they said goodbye and the call was disconnected.
Maria shook her head. "A million dollars."
"Tony would've offered more," Bucky said, finishing off the last of his coffee.
"I know," Maria said, not done with hers. "But I would've turned him down, as well. We have a nice arrangement now, that's more than enough."
Bucky made a noise of agreement. "But since we have our heads screwed on straight again, I gotta ask you something."
"Hm?" She looked at him over her cup, waiting patiently for his question.
"How'd you manage to get away from the mercenaries before I got done scaring off their ringleader?"
Maria's eyebrows raised. "I hope you don't think that you and Steve are the only fast ones around here," she said. "This may come as a surprise to you, Mister Super Soldier With Ancient Views On Women, but we normal women can quick on our feet, too. Or did Peggy Carter not teach you that?"
Bucky winced. "She tried. I know, I wasn't trusting you like I should've. I've got conflicting views of women in my brain. I'm trying to get out of the old one."
She reached across the table and patted his hand. "It's okay, dear. I'll have you trained soon enough." She leaned back. "But since you asked, they never saw me. While you were slipping into the employees only area, I had already gotten down and back into the kitchen. That's why I decided to wait under the stage. I didn't want to take the chance that one of them had noticed my shots came from behind them and came looking." She gave him something of a contrite look that he wasn't sure was fully serious. "I'm sorry I scared you so badly when I opened the door."
"I wasn't the only one scared," Bucky said. "You latched onto me pretty quickly."
She studied him, her cup held lazily in her hand, her expression not quite as solemn as it had been earlier when she set the terms of their relationship, but still serious. "You also weren't the only one in there who wasn't certain what was going on with the other. I was scared for your safety. I couldn't hear anything going on. All I knew was that nobody was firing any guns, but that could've changed very quickly and I wasn't in a good position to tell if those shots would've come from the office areas, or the dining area. Silence isn't a good answer when you're asking God where your partner is."
His mind drifted with her words, pictured what he'd missed while he was pretending to be crazier than a shithouse rat. He'd never been in the same position, but sometimes as a sniper, it could get as frightening. It was easy to imagine her hiding in a small, dark place and listening for signs of anything, hoping the other person was safe. And he felt guilty about it. "Maybe we should've stolen a second comm and put it on a different channel so we could stay in touch."
She gave him an exasperated look. "Bucky, how would we have gotten another ear piece? We were lucky to have the one, and it was more important that you have it. If I had gotten caught, they would've taken it right back and it would've made me a higher risk hostage. It worked out better this way. I can see you're feeling guilty, and you shouldn't. It worked out. We made a good team." When he opened his mouth to say more, she pointed her finger at him, taking a quick swallow of coffee before saying what she was cutting him off with. "Don't. At this point, you'd be just being silly."
Bucky didn't deny it. "All right, fine. I know. I like to chew on my liver sometimes a bit too much."
"You have reason," she said with a shrug. "But it's a reason you need to work through and set aside." She set her mug down. "My turn to ask you a question. Now that we know those explosives were supposed to be much more powerful, how'd you manage to convince Gissing that you were serious about hitting the detonator button? You would've been caught in the explosion."
"He's an idiot?" Bucky said with a shrug. "Probably figured I'd survive it. People like to think Steve and I can do things we can't. Although I could've survived, come to think of it."
"And the diners?"
"I just told him that Steve wasn't there to hold my leash. Let him think that the Winter Soldier still had some screws loose in his head. It was actually kinda insulting how fast that one worked on him."
She gave his hand another pat. "You have time to turn your reputation around."
"Yeah, I just gotta get Hydra out of the public mind. That'll take awhile."
"Hydra can't hold you forever," she said, and Bucky almost wasn't sure what to make of her tone. It lacked the flippancy her hand pat had shown, but it wasn't as serious as he felt it should've been with that statement.
Not really yet ready to show her how much Hydra was in his head still, not more than she already knew, he chose not to comment on it, but instead he made a point of investigating his empty mug, then stood. "All right, I was being chased out earlier, I'll leave you to your coffee in peace."
Letting the subject go for the moment, she set her mug down, watching him with a smile. "You're right, you were. Get home to Steve. You have more news to share with him now."
He set his mug in her sink. "And he'll just love it," he said, passing back by Maria to the bedroom to finish putting his clothes back on. He realized after getting dressed that his hat had been left at the club. Damn. Maybe it got saved by Céleste or one of the other employees and he could get it back, along with Maria's shoes.
Bucky stopped at the table after he emerged, leaning over Maria to kiss her. "I'll see you later," he said as he straightened.
She swatted lightly at him. "Get out of here."
With a grin to break his face, he head out the door and back down the hall to his own apartment. Steve was at the table with his sketchbook, looking frustrated and stressed, when Bucky entered.
"Whatever you're working on is probably bad for your blood pressure," Bucky said, kicking his shoes off into the closet.
Steve gave him an aggravated look. "So the news said there was a hostage situation at that club you went to last night," he said, probably gearing up for a speech that would be nothing but fussy worryings at him.
"Yeah," Bucky said, walking over to the table. He draped his coat over the back of his seat. "We got out, everything's fine. So don't worry." He pointed his finger at Steve sternly. "I mean it. I didn't get hurt, neither did Maria, we got out without trouble, everything's fine."
The extreme levels of worry in Steve's tensed expression relaxed into resignation, then into affectionate exasperation. "I can't let you go anywhere without me."
"Oh yes you can," Bucky said. "You don't get to follow me down the hall to her place."
Steve's eyes rolled heavenward. "Oh trust me, that is one place I will absolutely never follow you. It sounds like your night ended okay, at least."
Bucky got a wide grin on his face. "More than okay."
"So what all happened?" Steve asked, paused, then narrowed his eyes. "At the club, not after it."
That got a laugh out of Bucky. "Steve, I'm not going to give you the birds and the bees discussion." He got up and grabbed his jacket. "Let me go get dressed. It's a long story."