The Pen is Mightier! (penismightier) wrote in chaotic_library, @ 2015-01-03 15:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | bruce banner, bucky barnes, clint barton, maria hill, marvel, natasha romanov, novel, pepper potts, r-rated, sharon carter, steve rogers, thor, tony stark, yuuo, yuuo: marvel |
[Bucky Barnes; R] I'll Be Home For Christmas: Chapter 12
Character/Series: Bucky Barnes, Cast; Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: R
Notes: Bucky and Maria were unintentional. Also, Bucky makes me describe the weirdest things. That's what I get for having a male who likes to cook and also likes girl watching. Yeesh.
Title: I'll Be Home For Christmas- Chapter 12: With Eyes On Me
Author: yuuo
Word Count: 5593
Summary: "Your hair has gotten long again."
"Your hair has gotten long again," Steve said upon rejoining Bucky at the table after having done the lunch dishes.
Bucky stared over the top of his tablet at Steve. "Yeah, it needs cutting. What brought this on?"
"The ball is in less than seven hours," Steve said. "You might want it cut before then, make it more presentable."
Bucky grabbed one clump of hair from around his face, pulling it forward to stare at it. It was rather long. It'd gotten past shoulder length, where he usually kept it. "I could always tie it back," he said. He pulled his hair up to prove his point, and realized that the hair that framed his face that he kept shorter than the rest was staying back instead of falling forward like it was supposed to. "Okay, yeah, time to cut it."
Steve got up. "I'll get the scissors."
While Steve left to get the good hair scissors from the bathroom, Bucky grabbed his chair and pulled it away from the table, out far enough to be walked around, but not so far that the table couldn't be reached with a good stretch. He felt a little weird still having to have his best friend cut his hair for him, and probably would feel less so if Steve were actually a professional in the field, but for now, what was, was.
He peeled off his shirt and deposited it on the back of another chair, then sat down in the loner chair and waited, for about three seconds before Steve emerged from the hallway, scissors and a comb in hand.
"You know," Steve said, setting the scissors down on the table, "one of these days, I should take a couple classes in this so I don't worry I'm giving you a lopsided cut."
"You haven't so far," Bucky said dismissively, holding still as Steve started combing his hair into sections.
About half of Bucky's hair was cut and littering the ground around them when JARVIS interrupted. "Excuse me, sirs, but Mister Stark is at the door. Shall I tell him that you seem to be busy?"
Bucky didn't even have to see Steve behind him to know that Steve was looking at him expectantly, leaving the decision in Bucky's hands. "Let him in," Bucky said. "It's not like we can't talk while doing this."
The door opened, and Tony came around the corner of the entryway, a newspaper folded up in his hand, and stopped in his tracks. "Is this some sort of weird bonding ritual that I just walked in on, or have we never heard of a salon?"
Bucky resisted the urge to shake his head, keeping still except to give Tony a level stare. "Tony? Please take three seconds to think about what the chairs in salons look like."
Tony's brows knitted together, then a light bulb all but appeared over his head. "I had not made that connection. Hm. I could find someone who can do that professionally without the chair?"
"Steve does fine," Bucky said. "I'd rather not have a stranger with a sharp and pointy object so near to my head and neck."
Tony shrugged. "Your peace of mind," he said.
"What'd you stop by for?" Steve asked, and Bucky could hear the quiet metal snip at the back of his ear.
"Just making sure everything's ready for you guys tonight. Your suits came in okay?"
"They're fine," Bucky said. "They did final fitting a couple days ago, there were just a few centimeters here and there to fix. We picked them up this morning."
Tony nodded. "Good. Good. Cap, is Sharon showing up and please tell me if she is, she has appropriate dress?"
Behind Bucky, the snip-sniping never stopping, Steve made a quiet chuckling sound. "I haven't seen the dress, but she says she was more than happy to charge it to the CIA, because she never could afford to dress like a princess growing up."
"Well, as long as by 'princess' she doesn't mean 'poofy ball gown that went out of style with Cinderella's era'," Tony said. "The only belle of the ball around here is Pepper."
Snip. Steve switched from scissors to comb. "I think she said something about asking Pepper for help on appropriate attire," he said. Bucky held still as the comb ran through his hair, stopping at the ends as Steve made sure his cuts were even enough to not be obviously bad. "I'm not sure how much help Pepper was willing or able to be, with her being busy herself and all, but hopefully she directed Sharon to someone who could help."
"I'd be surprised if Pepper turned her down," Tony said, leaning against the wall and watching Steve cut Bucky's hair like it was the most bizarre and fascinating thing ever. Really, did he have to make Bucky feel awkward for being unwilling and unable to go to a proper stylist? "She's not mad at Sharon, she's mad at you guys."
"Are you sure it's a good idea for us to even be there?" Bucky asked.
Tony pointed at him. "You promised," he said. "This is your gift to me. Don't worry about Pepper, she'd be angrier if you turned us down for anything but a life and death situation, and if one of those came up, she'd probably be angry if you didn't offer me a chance to tag along, because things have been too boring lately."
Bucky glanced at Steve out of the corner of his eye, seeing the metal of the scissors close to his head and had to resist the urge to draw back. "We're not breaking our promise, Tony," Bucky said. "Just giving you a chance to change your mind. If you want us there, we'll be there. It was more of a question of if we were wanted in the first place."
"Relax, Pepper said she'd give you a chance, she wants to see you use that chance. Never seeing you again isn't going to let her see that you're not just going to blow us off again. But enough of that, you're coming to the ball, and you're going to socialize with us and the other Avengers, and you're going to brush shoulders with some big names with big money and your presence is going to put some of that big money into a good cause. So be merry, it's almost Christmas.
"But!" He unfolded the newspaper and walked closer, holding it up for them to see. There was a small article on the front page- hardly the central focus article, but on the front page nonetheless -about the Cohen Mercy Shelter. "I thought I was going to help with that. How'd you do it?"
"Oh, that." Bucky tried to read a few lines of the article without moving his head. "The reporter that talked to Steve about his hospital visits asked me if I'd be going with, and asked questions when I said I had another volunteer job I was going to be busy with. That article doesn't mention me, does it? I pointed her to Miss Brennan directly."
Tony moved the paper so he could read it himself. "Cohen Mercy Shelter is a non-profit run by Jennifer Brennan. It's supported by volunteers, many of whom are year-round regulars, such as John Cooper, a local young man working to get into Empire State University, Mary Percell, a retiree who has almost never failed to show up to make the vets dinner, and then breakfast the next morning. And then there is newcomer James 'Bucky' Barnes, the Winter Soldier whose heart is apparently not as frozen as his name suggests." Tony lowered the paper to stare at Bucky. "It mentioned you."
"So it did," Bucky said. "Coulda gone without the play on my name, though."
"It was clever, people will remember it," Tony said, folding the paper back up. "Ball starts at seven, the Avengers are going to meet up at the medical center before we go down. Cap, get ahold of Carter, tell her that includes her this time. We're going to be wired up to keep in touch this year, and JARVIS is going to keep us appraised of anything going on."
"Don't you have security crews?" Steve asked, making a few more snips, then stood back. "Does it look even?"
Tony crouched down slightly, looking at Bucky, then straightened. "Close enough for government work," he said. "And yes, I do have crews. But this is us. And Hydra might find this a nice time to crash our party. I want all of the Avengers able to coordinate if someone decides to send more aliens or something."
Bucky began brushing hair off his shoulders and the back of his neck. "So us three, Bruce, Thor, Sharon and I assume Hill and Pepper?"
"That's right," Tony said. "We'll go over game plan when we meet up."
Steve crouched down and picked up a lock of hair and showed it to Bucky. "We let it go."
Bucky eyed it. "Yeah, just a bit." He stood and brushed himself off some more. "What time are we meeting?"
"Six fifteen," Tony said. "If you're going to be late, it'd better be for a good reason, and you'd better have JARVIS let us know."
"We'll be there," Steve assured him. He glanced up. "JARVIS, can you give us a heads up at six, just to make sure we're on time?"
"Yes, Captain," JARVIS said.
"Settled," Tony said. "Six fifteen, sharp." He waved, then headed back out.
Bucky continued trying to get the hair off the back of his neck. "I'm going to shower, get this shit off me." He paused, looking back at Steve. "Don't worry about cleaning up, I'll do that."
Steve waved him off. "I'm the barber, we do our own cleaning. Go get that extra hair off of you before it starts itching."
Bucky didn't argue, didn't feel like arguing, just grabbed his abandoned shirt and went off to shower. There was still a few hours before they had to change into their tuxes, and, as usual, little to do in that time. Bucky decided to kill some time looking for and counting all the Captain America ornaments that he knew were hiding on that tree somewhere.
After finding about a dozen, he stumbled across a couple Winter Soldier ornaments and decided to stop looking and go back to his reading. Steve had laughed at his expense for it after calling Bucky weird for looking in the first place.
Five forty-five came, and in the interest of preferring to be early than late, they decided to get dressed and head down to the medical center. Before they left, JARVIS informed them that they would not be the only ones early. Once on the correct floor, JARVIS directed them to the first waiting lobby, where Tony was standing at the reception desk, fiddling with a comm ear piece, several others sitting next to it.
Pepper was sitting in a chair nearby, and was the first to greet them. "Hello, you two. Glad to see you decided to be early."
"Wouldn't want to disappoint you guys," Steve said.
"You're learning," she said, and although there was no trace of friendly ribbing in that statement, her tone was fairly neutral. Bucky took that as a win.
Bucky studied her dress, a cream colored gown with gold embroidery over the shoulders, cut to look like a wrap over short sleeves. "That dress looks good on you," he said, purely out of habit when dealing with a well-dressed lady he was trying to impress. Even if 'trying to impress' had a different definition than it used to. "Is it cashmere?"
Pepper raised an eyebrow, the tiniest of smiles gracing her features. "It is. Is that flattery an attempt at kissing up?"
Bucky shrugged. "A bit. But I notice things like that about pretty women. It used to get me at least a dance or two."
"Don't push your luck," Pepper said, but that smile was still there. "But thank you, I appreciate the compliment. And in the name of returning it, you both look good in those suits. And I don't think I've ever seen you with your hair up, Bucky. I think you might impress more women if you did it more often. It becomes you."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," Bucky said. "So I hear you helped Sharon pick out a dress."
Pepper's smile widened a bit. "I did." She turned her attention to Steve. "And if you're not swooning over her when you see her, you are dead to us."
Steve glanced over his shoulder at the doors to the lobby, then back at Pepper. "It doesn't take much for her to make me smile. She could walk around in shorts and a t-shirt and I'd be happy."
"Well, you're going to be raising your standards tonight," Pepper said. "I did you a favor and helped her go all out."
"You're still the only belle of the ball," Tony said, somewhat distracted.
Bucky walked over to him, looking over his shoulder at the eight small ear pieces. They were clear, and smaller than most ear buds; they'd be almost impossible to see. "Those are the comms?"
"These are it," Tony said. He handed one to Bucky. "Put this on, go to the next room, help me test these."
Bucky did as he was instructed, heading to the next room as he adjusted the ear bud in his ear. "Is this good?" he asked.
"Perfect," Tony's voice said in his ear. "Come back, help me test all of them."
They tested all eight of them, Tony pausing between each test to wipe down the tested ear piece with a sanitizing wipe and set it to his other side from the untested pieces. One piece had a bit of sound warble, and Tony was in the middle of fixing that when Bruce joined them, looking uncomfortable in his suit.
"I see not all of us are here yet," Bruce said. "Am I early?"
"By a couple minutes," Tony said, barely giving a look to his watch before going back to the misbehaving ear piece. "These two just got bored of waiting and joined us a few minutes ago."
Bruce walked over beside him. "So which one of these is mine?"
"Grab whichever one you want, Bruce," Tony said. "I'm working on the only one that doesn't want to."
Bucky and Steve joined them at the counter, Bucky grabbing one of the working buds for himself, and another he held out to Steve. Behind them, the lobby door opened and Steve looked over, then back to Bucky's outheld hand, then quickly back at the door. Raising an eyebrow, Bucky looked over his shoulder.
Sharon had entered, and while her dress wasn't nearly as fancy as Pepper's, a simple, long-sleeved v-cut, it flattered her, the fake poinsettia hair piece was a nice touch. The red reminded Bucky of Peggy's favorite dress suit that she'd wear when on leave with the others in the unit. Bucky glanced at Steve, biting on the inside of his lip to keep from laughing at the dumbfounded expression on Steve's face. The man was awestruck, and Bucky could all but see the little hearts fluttering around his head.
"Chrissakes, Rogers, go over there and kiss her," he said. "You've been on a date, you don't get to invoke your 'no kissing before the first date' rule anymore."
"I see the standards got raised," Pepper said, and Bucky looked over at her to see the smile on her face.
Steve's attention finally snapped off of Sharon enough to look at Pepper, bewildered. "Huh? Oh!" He looked back at Sharon. "You could say that." His smile looked ready to crack his face.
Bucky shook his head and leaned back against the counter, still holding Steve's ear piece, and grabbed another one for Sharon, once the lovely couple got done making eyes at each other.
Sharon twirled, her skirt flaring slightly, holding up her hands. "Ta-da. Betcha didn't think a government spy could clean up so nicely, did you?"
"You don't even have to clean up to look beautiful, Sharon, you know that," Steve said. "Pepper told me she helped you pick out the dress." He looked back at Pepper. "I hope I'm not dead to you yet."
Pepper actually was smiling very genuinely, like what she used to give them. "You're not. You get bonus points if you can stop staring like a goof and kiss her like a proper boyfriend."
Fortunately for Steve, he didn't get performance anxiety or buckle under scrutiny, enough time performing in the USO to be able to do just about any dumb thing in public, although the kiss he gave Sharon was far more chaste than that dress deserved. But, it was appropriate for a public display when his friends were basically staring him down.
"'Bout goddamn time," Bucky muttered. "Hey, lovebirds," he said, drawing their attention, and held up his hand with the ear buds in it. "Come accessorize for the ball." While they took their respective pieces and were fiddling with them, Bucky pointed at Sharon. "You're lucky, I've decided to let the other woman have the first dance tonight."
While Sharon laughed, Steve rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, Bucky, I won't abandon you."
"Good. Please tell me you finally learned to dance, or else your girlfriend is going to have sore toes tonight."
"I still don't know any dances from our day," Steve said. "They've gotten less creative over time. I'd have to be really hopeless to not learn today's stuff."
Bucky's face scrunched up in disgust. "Yeah, I've seen the stuff today's generation does. No form, no grace, nothing but swaying or jumping around. Sharon, your generation failed us all."
"It wasn't my fault," she said. "I didn't make the rules. But Aunt Peggy said the same. Dances in your day required a lot more involvement. I was taught them growing up, but it's been so long since I had a partner who knew what he was doing, I've forgotten a lot of it."
"Join the club," Bucky said.
"Yeah, when was the last time you danced with a girl?" Steve asked, like a complete asshole.
"Shut up, Steve," Bucky snapped. "You haven't been in hiding for the last two years. I haven't exactly had a chance to ask anyone out."
Thor and Maria joined them before more was said, one about thirty seconds after the other. Bucky didn't much notice how Thor looked, although at least his hair was pulled back out of the way, too. His somewhat unruly style otherwise would've been out of place.
But Maria looked nice, wearing a dark blue gown with a silver-sequined bodice, and her hair done in curls around her shoulders. He might have to ask her to a dance later, hope she'd oblige him a turn around the dance floor.
Tony handed out ear buds to the others, putting the broken one in his ear. "JARVIS, wire in, let's make sure we're all talking to each other."
"Installation successful, sir," JARVIS said, his voice only in Bucky's ear instead of through the overhead speakers Bucky usually heard him from. "My diagnostics indicate that the communication piece that was previously not working has been successfully repaired."
Tony tapped at his earpiece. "Yeah, I'm hearing that," he said, and Bucky could hear him both through the earpiece and from standing next to him. "Okay, people, here's the plan. JARVIS is keeping an eye on the place tonight. Stark Industries has the best security team in place for the ball, but they won't be a match for any Hydra agents here for revenge on Cap and Bucky, or any supernatural threats. Those guys will be our jobs. If something catches our attention, Sharon, I want you to get Pepper out of harm's way. It's already been said, you can't keep up with us superhero types. So you can keep my lady safe for me. Hill, if it's a threat inside the building, I want you to get to the back room where the security cameras are, chase off the security team working there, and watch the room for us. You'll be our eyes. Thor, please tell Mjolnir to not crash through walls trying to get to you if trouble starts."
"I make no promises," Thor said. "I do not control its path, merely that it comes to me from wherever I left it."
Tony made an unhappy face. "Well, I guess if we're called out to the playing field, there's already going to be some building damage. We'll deal." He looked at Steve and Bucky. "I know you two are paranoid cusses, please tell me you're armed."
"I'm not the one-man army I am in uniform," Bucky said, "but yeah, I'm armed. And I made sure he was, too." He nodded his head in Steve's direction.
Tony nodded. "Good. Bruce, if trouble breaks out, for the love of god, get out of the way. I'm a big fan of the other guy's work, but not when we're surrounded by over a hundred innocent civilians in an enclosed space."
"Don't worry, I'll be getting up here to start tending to the wounded," Bruce assured him. "I don't particularly want to destroy the building I live in."
Tony patted his shoulder. "Good man." He looked at his watch. "Okay, we're still about forty minutes to go before the ball starts. Pepper and I have argued about this a bit, so I'm letting you guys take a vote. I want to be fashionably late, make an entrance, impress our guests to loosen their wallets. Pepper thinks we should be polite and gracious hosts and greet our guests as they come in. Show of hands for who thinks we should make entrances."
Bucky and the others were all looking at each other in turn, nobody really wanting to vote one way or another. After a moment of group indecision, Bucky looked at Tony. "This is your party, why don't you be the fashionably late one with a grand entrance and the rest of us will be the polite hosts that Pepper wants us to be? Someone needs to be around to answer 'where's Tony?' when asked besides just her. She's a pretty incredible lady, but I think fielding questions from that many people might be a bit beyond even her."
Pepper lifted a finger, ticking off a line in the air. "Another point for Bucky."
Tony sighed. "Yeah, Pepper had suggested that, too. There'd be more show to the Avengers all coordinating a grand entrance! Impressing the party-goers means impressing their wallets! My idea is a good one."
"I have to agree with Tony on that one," Steve said. "When I was in the USO, the bigger the show, the more bonds we sold."
Tony motioned at Steve. "See? I'm right! Thank you, Spangles."
"But Bucky and Pepper make a good compromise," Steve added. "It might make us look less like a coordinated line of choir girls if you make your typical Tony Stark entrance, and then just say the rest of us are scattered in the crowd like party favors."
"I thought you said bigger shows sell more bonds," Tony grouched at him.
Steve shrugged. "Remember, most of my fans were twelve year olds who could harass their parents into buying those bonds because Captain America said it was a good thing to do. Different audiences. These people need to be impressed, but not overwhelmed. Overwhelming someone can close that coin purse faster than not bothering at all."
"I hate that you're right," Tony said. "Fine, fine, Pepper leads the polite brigade, and the suit and I will make our fashionably late grand entrance."
Pepper made a point of rolling her eyes and shaking her head, but didn't say anything on the subject, instead, standing up. "All right," she said. "Let's go greet our guests. They should be here soon."
As seven hit, people had already been arriving, making Bucky glad at how early Tony had the Avengers meeting to hammer out details. He managed to mostly stay out of the way, sizing up everyone for potential threat level. None pinged his radar too much, though; all of them were high society people of various ages and income levels, if the variation in suits and dresses were any indication. There were a number of young women in his apparent age range that didn't seem to be attached to anyone. That might prove entertaining later.
Twenty minutes passed, with no sign of Tony. Bucky was starting to hear people wonder out loud- very pointedly out loud -where Tony was, many already assuming that he was planning a grand entrance. Tony really needed to find a new routine if it was already this old.
At one end of the room that had been decorated and repurposed from whatever it originally was for for the ball was a low platform with a podium, where Tony was supposed to make a speech thanking the attendees for their generous donations. It remained suspiciously devoid of Tony-like life.
For another ten minutes, anyway.
Bucky and the others had all scattered into the four winds, mingling, although Bucky was pretty sure that Sharon and Steve were staying together like a couple of high schoolers attached at the hip. One attractive young woman had cornered Bucky and he was enjoying her company when the sounds of the crowd drew their attention away to the far side of the room, where Tony was walking completely casually to the podium in the Iron Man suit.
For god's sake, Tony. How does Pepper put up with you sometimes?
Tony waved, acting completely as if a man in a suit of armor was a normal, every day occurrence. Oddly, he said nothing though, not even after the crowd's welcoming applause had died down. It almost seemed awkward for about a second before Tony- out of his suit -walked in from the other side. That got a helluva reaction out of the crowd, gasps and murmurs audible as a giant chorus of sound.
"Take a hike," Tony said to the suit, waving his hands at it, and the suit disassembled, proving it empty, and flew off to whatever room it'd been hiding in before. The crowd applauded, cheering Tony's much more subtle display of showsmanship than he'd shown in the past, if old news reels were anything to go by.
Bucky resisted the urge to sigh and chase off the lady he was speaking to. She seemed rather entranced with Tony. Bucky immediately braced to either be abandoned completely, or to have to suffer through a conversation about how awesome Tony was. Neither sounded appealing, but if she waltzed off for an autograph or something, it wasn't much of a loss. She was pretty, but she was far from the only pretty lady there that might have a brain cell or two between her ears.
Once the applause had fully died down, Tony began his obligatory 'thank you for coming and throwing lots of money at us' speech, ending with "oh, and be sure to look for my fellow Avengers in the crowd. We're all here tonight."
All of us, my ass, Bucky thought. Clint and Natasha were still missing, and while Bucky had been adopted as an Avenger, he'd never been part of a mission with them, so he wasn't sure he even counted.
But he refrained from pointing that out.
The evening wore on slowly; Bucky liked parties, but he preferred livelier parties, with more than just people talking and sipping champagne and only about half of the attendees on the dance floor. Parties like the old days where almost everyone was dancing, and dancing meant more than just swaying in circles.
He managed to locate Maria in the crowd. "Enjoying the party that we're all too on edge to actually enjoy?" he asked her, walking up to her and interrupting her crowd watching.
She smiled, sweeping another look around the floor once more before giving him her attention. "It would be nice if we could relax enough to enjoy it, wouldn't it?" she said. "I seem to have lost track of the others."
Bucky looked around. "Well, I'm sure Steve and Sharon are close to each other. Tony and Pepper might be, too. Bruce is probably minimizing how much interaction he has to have, and Thor is probably trying to deflect some female attentions now that he's a taken man."
Maria laughed, a quiet few chuckles. "And what about you? Where have you been hiding yourself?"
"Not hiding," Bucky said. "I've been girl gazing, and for the moment, my gaze has settled on you, if you'd oblige me a dance."
"That was a stale pick up line," she said, holding out her hand. "But it worked. I think this is the first time I've been asked to dance since my high school prom."
He took her hand, leading them to the dance floor. "I'm a few decades out of practice," he admitted. "Although I don't know why you haven't been asked in five years, not with that smile."
"That was much better," she said, resting one hand on his shoulder, her other still in his grip. "Flattering a woman about her age is a timeless compliment. But it's been more than five years since I graduated high school."
"You look good for your age then," he said, trying to follow her steps without actually following. Modern dancing was disgustingly simplistic, and it only took a few steps to get the hang of it.
"So do you," she said. "But I think you might be better preserved than I am."
"I'm not sure it counts when it was artificially done," Bucky said.
"For being decades out of practice with handling women, you're certainly good on your feet," Maria said. "You've yet to step on my toes."
"The modern dances are easier than what we had in my day," he said. "We had a lot more steps involved."
"So I've seen in the movies," Maria said. "Tell me, did you really have dancing contests in your day, like in It's A Wonderful Life?"
He didn't answer at first, sorting through the roughly bajillion movies he'd had to catch up on since returning to normal life two years ago. "I don't think I've seen that one. What year did it come out?"
"In the forties some time," she said. "I don't know exactly when. It was something of a sleeper hit. Did poorly at the time, but it's a Christmas classic, now. You might know the main star, though. James Stewart. He plays George Bailey."
"Jimmy Stewart, there's a familiar name. He was the best guy on the screen in The Philadelphia Story. Although the name 'George Bailey' rings a few bells."
Maria gave the floor another glance around, before returning her attention to Bucky. "Like I said, it's a Christmas classic, so I'm sure you've heard references. I'll remember to have Steve find the movie for you both to watch. I've seen a few of his other movies, and I think it was his best one."
"That's setting the bar pretty high," Bucky said. "You'll have to do a lot of work to convince Steve of that one. The Philadelphia Story is his favorite movie."
Before Maria could say more, Tony's voice cut in. "Well, look who finally got dragged on the dance floor," he said, he and Pepper dancing their way next to Bucky and Maria. "I thought for sure you two would be too uptight about security to do anything but stalk people."
"Even paranoid people need a break sometimes," Bucky said. "How successful has the fundraiser been so far?"
"Exceeding my wildest expectations," Tony said. "Naturally, my charisma helped there. But having the lot of you around has had its effect. I told you."
Pepper sighed. "Tony, you are far too in love with saying 'I told you so'." She looked at Maria and Bucky with a personable smile. "Don't listen to him, I think the cause was unusual enough to appeal to people more than the standard charities we could've picked to support this year."
"Excuse me, sir," JARVIS said through the ear pieces. Tony paused, putting one hand over his ear. "I have received a transmission from Syria. It comes from Agent Barton. He says that he and Agent Romanov are in need of an extraction. He said it's urgent."
The four of them stopped completely, staring at each other, before Tony immediately started giving orders. "Hill, get us our ride, get it to the top of the building, we'll meet you up there. Cap, where are you and Sharon?"
"We're near the podium," Steve replied.
Tony looked at Pepper. "Go find Sharon. Carter, you stay with Pepper and keep her safe, or I'll have words for you. Everyone else, go change, we might be going into a hostile situation, none of us are better off in tuxes."
Maria had already turned and started muscling her way through the crowd. Tony took off, and Bucky was just turning to head for the elevator when Pepper grabbed his arm. "Protect him," she said.
"At all costs," he assured her, then hurried off the dance floor, through the crowds, and towards the elevators.