Who: Bucky and Jo What: Doing “normal people” stuff When: Mid July Where: Starting at her place Warning: Low/Flirtations Status: Completed via Gdoc
Bucky had no idea how normal people dated in the twenty-first century. He didn’t know the first thing about courting a modern woman--which Jo clearly was. He just hoped he wouldn’t fuck it up royally and send her screaming for the hills. He figured it was probably a good thing to ask her to go out to dinner. And then… other things? Museums? Or did that make him too stuffy? Performances? Perhaps, but what kind? Dancing? Bucky hadn’t been out dancing with a woman in more than seventy years. This was all almost too much for him, so… well, a part of him wanted to just let her take the reins. But was that a bad thing? Did she want him to be assertive?
All questions he knew that he should ask her instead of mulling them over in his head. So he let her know he was on the way to her place. He stood on the front step, knocked--gently--and waited for her to answer the door.
Johanna wasn’t exactly what could be considered normal. Her life was filled to the brim with magic and chaos. Her relationships had been touched by it all and made worse for it. Madison was proving to somehow be immune to the Constantine curse, and that looked to be bleeding into her personal life.
While she did tend toward the ladies, Seamus had managed to turn Johanna’s head more than a bit. She recognized something of herself in him. Outside of Male Her, that was a really rare thing. It helped that he was sexy as fuck.
She hadn’t thought too much into it when Seamus said he was coming by. The most she did to prepare was to chill a few beers. When the knock came, Johanna pulled the door open, a smirk on her face then she leaped into Seamus’ arms and planted a very suggestive kiss to his lips.
Bucky wasn’t ever sure what to expect when he came to Jo’s place to pick her up. The jumping into his arms came as a surprise, even though it shouldn’t really. He took a half, startled step backward, but caught her easily up in his arms. He returned the kiss, meeting and matching her enthusiasm, then took a couple of large steps forward into her place so they wouldn’t be snogging on the front doorstep.
“Hi,” he mumbled against her lips.
A chuckle purred in Johanna’s throat before she returned his greeting. “Hi.” She stole another kiss before she pulled back enough to smile at him from a few inches away. She definitely wasn’t squirming to be put down.
“Wasn’t sure wha’ y’had in mind for tonight, but this should always be included in our plans.” Because yum.
Bucky was more than willing to continue holding her in his arms. She wasn’t heavy--she was pretty much normal weight for a full grown human being. And he had above-average human strength. And a metal arm.
“I’m not complaining,” Bucky responded with a little grin. “But I’m honestly up for anything. Anything.” He lifted her up a little more securely in his arms. “What do normal people do when they’re young and in love, and have the whole night to themselves?”
Well that was a whole lot of information right there. Not bad. Surprising but not bad. There was a moment where Johanna paused, but the smirk never left her face.
“First, kick the door shut,” she said then chuckled. “Didn’t know we were young anymore. Y’got me on a few years, but I’m no doe-eyed maiden.” More like he had her on a hundred years. Maybe.
“The love bit, though.” Something about her expression went sly, but more playful than anything. “Do ya, then?”
There was a pause, and Bucky’s heart sped up just a little bit. He blinked as he looked into her smirking face, and for a moment was terrified he’d said the wrong thing. It was actually quite like him to say the wrong thing.
As instructed, he kicked the door shut. Gently. Then he raised an eyebrow. “You’re young enough,” he insisted. He certainly wasn’t. His body felt young even if his mind was quite aged.
And then she asked the question that made his heart practically stop. His mouth went dry. Had he said love? Had he meant it? It wouldn’t be the first time he’d told a woman that he loved her. Might be the first time he meant it, though.
“I… I don’t know,” he answered honestly. He didn’t want to backpedal here, but he also didn’t want to lie. “I think so?”
“Young enough t’keep up wif you, you mean.” She chuckled before she snitched a kiss. Neither one of them were innocent. She’d been through too much to look as young as she did, and he was the same way.
Johanna watched him struggle to answer her. She probably should have felt bad for putting him on the spot, but if they were going to do this, they needed to put all their cards on the table. He also needed to feel comfortable being honest with her. Even about the scary bits. Emotionally scary bits.
Her smirk transformed into a smile for his honesty. “Well. In that case. I think two people maybe in love normally watch what they call a RomCom while peltin’ each other with popcorn by way of flirtin’ wif each other.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “But we ain’t normal by a long shot, luv.”
Her way of saying that word was more like a pet name. Something to say to a mate you were particularly close to. There was a difference. And until he was sure of how he felt, she’d keep it that way.
“We’re more like t’watch The Exorcist and giggle through the whole lot.” That movie got too much right, to be honest. Probably why they had so much trouble on the set and folk died. “We do whatever we feel is normal.”
Pelting each other with popcorn sounded quite unsanitary. What a waste of food. His mother would have rolled over in her grave if she knew people were using popcorn as… whatever that was. Flirtation device? Bucky’s nose crinkled up a bit.
“I like watching movies with you,” he said. That part was fine. Rom Coms were great, actually. Normally they weren’t triggering for him like war movies, and Bucky had spent enough time with science fiction and fantasy to last several lifetimes.
“All right, then.” He made a note to invite her to watch that movie together for their next date. “Are you hungry? I could take you out to dinner.” That seemed normal.
The nose wrinkle was fucking adorable. It put a grin on Jo’s face and solidified her not wanting to be put down any time soon.
“We could go out t’dinner AND go to a movie,” she suggested. “I’m told that’s a thing regular folk do. Not sure of the order it should go in, though. Eat first then theater, or th’other way around.”
This was actually refreshing: talking about whether to eat before seeing a film. It was definitely something Jo hadn’t done before coming to Madison.
Bucky nodded. He remembered taking many a young woman out before the war. Dinner and dancing. Dinner and a movie. Sometimes a movie first, then dancing. Drinks. It was the kind of thing he did before everything changed. But that was a long, long time ago.
“Dinner and a movie sounds like a good idea,” Bucky said. He leaned in to steal a kiss from her lips, then gently lowered her to the floor. “Tonight? Now? So long as there’s no popcorn throwing involved.”
Before her feet touched the ground she stole that kiss right back. A smug little smirk was on her face for that, as if she’d done something quite clever.
She continued to smile up at him as her hands slid down his arms to take his hands in hers. “See, now that’s a dare if I ever heard one. And I don’ back down from dares, luv.”