Bucky felt out of place in this gathering. He was out of step with the Victors who would be Reaped, at peace with Steve and Peggy, but there was lingering strangeness there that Bucky didn't know what to do with save ignore. He and Steve hadn't spoken about it again, and Bucky had left it at that. Whatever Peggy and Steve settled on, Bucky would do.
He should feel the most kinship with Tony, who Bucky felt was in the same place Bucky was. Safe. But Jarvis at the table with them, able to speak, and the past strangeness with Natasha kept Bucky from being at ease with Tony, either. He remembered when he was just a clueless kid, before the Arena, still thanking the Avoxes because it felt rude not to. He'd noticed Jarvis then. In the years since, Bucky had gotten more numb to them, even if they'd never been invisible, the way they were to Capitolites. He should have guessed something, but it was a good thing he hadn't. No one else had either - probably why the guy was still alive, and Bucky had sharp eyes, but he wasn't any more special than anyone else to have seen what Tony worked to hide.
Bucky listened as the others talked, felt when Scott's eyes flickered toward him. He didn't know how much space he should have to speak ... but there was always a pretty high chance Steve would piss someone off when he spoke up. And it wasn't a lot, but Bucky had something to offer. "I can talk to Odinson, unless someone else has got a better idea," Bucky said slowly. "He's ... we had a run in not long ago. If he wanted to fuck me over, he could have. He didn't. I get the idea he's not much happier than any of us. Might be full of it and might not do any good - but I can try." He had little to lose other than what was always on the line.
Bucky hesitated and then said. "Look, we all know that I'm the safest Victor. They're sending Steve in, not. And Peg, knowing traps and details, might not be a bad idea - but this isn't the same as it always is, where the deck's stacked for the Careers, but someone else can pull out a win. They already know who they want to come out alive, and if it looks like the wrong ones are pulling through, they'll turn int around to drop 'em. If people go in, no one's coming out unless they're who Stane wants alive, no matter if you got inside knowledge. You'd need to control the Arena, or have your own way out of it."
Bucky fisted the metal of his hand absently, a habit most of them knew him well enough to expect when he was uneasy, faint whir of it sounding loud in the closed room. "Everybody's got something to lose. I never really bought that the Districts were gonna stand up. Too scared, too weak. But I've been thinking about it. However they look at us now, whatever the fuck they think - we are the Districts. Every year they send their kids in to die and the only little hope they dangle is that they get to come out us if they win. Rich, big house - easy life. We know it's bullshit, but they didn't. And now they'll see that we don't stay safe. That they wipe a whole slate clean and kill us - you - all off at once. Barton's right - you'll need a place, whatever happens, and you need people who'll back whatever you do. In the Districts and in the Capitol. They'll be pissed their showponies are getting sent off to glue before they were done watching them, too. If we can figure a way to get our people safe, then there's not much left for them to do to you. So maybe you should say fuck it, and let them know what it's really like, being us. No more little carrot for Stane to dangle at the end of the Games at all. We might be able to find somewhere in the Districts that can hole us up easier then, or keep you on the move between them so there's no single target." His eyes flicked toward Clint. "If there's no Thirteen. All I've heard are kid story kinds of rumors - but I wasn't listening much, either."
Bucky shrugged. "I'm safe," he said. "I'll be in the Capitol, mentoring Steve, and I can talk to whoever needs talking to. If we want to sound out any of the other Victors, going through Sam Wilson might not be the worst idea - he's on our side, pretty sure, even if most of us would rather carve out our eyeballs than talk to him. I don't have Peg's contacts or anything, but I'll do what I can."