There were some tools in Tina’s garage that Bucky had needed to pick up and while he would normally just break in and take them, he was trying to have and respect boundaries these days. Healthy shit like that. So he, instead, sat on the porch with Han and waited for Tina to come home, enjoying the nice weather. If she kept to her schedule, she’d be arriving from work any minute now.
And she did, not much time after Bucky had settled in. But he heard the car before he saw it and that made him frown. That didn’t sound like Tina’s cute little Civic.
That’s when he saw it.
A Corvette Stingray. An expensive shade of red too. Was the Arts Centre really doing that well? Bucky wasn’t sure, but his eyebrows definitely disappeared into his hairline as he watched Tina pull into the driveway. He stood slowly, leaving Han napping on the steps of the porch, and approached Tina and her car with light steps. “Nice car. Where’d you get it?”
She probably should have known better than to just drive the corvette to work. It was safer to only take out at night, but it was so much fun to drive. How did you resist it when you owned one?
You didn’t.
But Tina should have known that the day she decided to be a little more adventurous with her drive to work would be the day she’d get herself busted. Her first thought was just keep on driving when she saw Bucky sitting on her porch. But she already knew he could see her, there would be no getting away with casually continuing on her way.
“Well, shit.” she said to herself as she pulled into the driveway and parked her new baby. She took her time packing away her cellphone, wallet, and a few other items she had thrown on the passenger seat, gathering her thoughts and mentally preparing for what was about to go down. It had only been a matter of time.
“It was a gift.” she said, locking the door behind her. She had gone over in her head all the different ways she could spin the story, making it seem like Vallo had gifted her with a car. That was entirely possible, people seemed to get gifts every month. But Tina wasn’t great at lying to people she loved. “People with money have no concept of normal gifts.”
A gift. Well, that answer definitely put a crease in Bucky’s forehead because rich people giving away cars?That was never a good thing. They always wanted something in return, whether it was a tangible something or not. There were always conditions.
“A gift,” Bucky repeated, coming to a stop in front of the car and his sister. He gave the Stingray a slow look over, before turning his gaze back over to the young woman. “Pretty expensive gift.” This was well beyond what a Honda Civic cost. And he could see it wasn’t just a base model either. There were upgrades to this car. “You got a new boyfriend?” Bucky asked, suspicion finally creeping into his voice. He started to go through the mental catalogue of rich men she spoke to...and the closest he could think of was Tony. And he definitely wasn’t giving Tina cars.
At least he better not be.
There was literally no good direction to steer this conversation, and Tina had mentally yell at herself to keep from rolling her eyes into the back of her head and the question. “Nope.” she said instead, and hoped she didn’t have to go down the checklist of anything that might rank below a boyfriend, like a car in exchange for other benefits. He had to know her better than that.
“If I had a boyfriend this level of rich I already would have organized a party on his yacht.” or something else along those lines.
Tina adjusted her purse over her shoulder, and looked down at the car in pristine conditions save for a little road dust. “It was to say thank you for saving their ass in a tight situation. I don’t think they know what a simple thank you card is.”
Outside of the teenage years,Tina hadn’t ever lied to him. And even then, she had always avoided outright lying and stuck to white lies or avoiding truths. It had always been (mostly) harmless kids stuff. As she had matured and gotten older, she never had any reason to lie about things after that.
So yeah, Bucky believed her, but 2 + 2 wasn’t coming out to be 4 yet.
“Yeah, must have been a very tight situation,” Bucky said, eyebrows furrowing together like they did when he was trying to work out something. He didn’t ask for elaboration though, wanting to let her do that on her own.
God dammit, she mentally sighed, and turned to start walking toward the house. She knew exactly what Bucky was saying with his stupid eyebrows and what he was waiting for.
Why had she never worked on her ability to lie?
“It’s from Ezekiel.” she finally said, “Who got it from one of the rich people he works with. It was a re-gift.” Just a really fancy regift. And she could see this whole thing was going to unravel in a matter of minutes, so if this was going to turn into a debate or fight, that was definitely happening inside.
Ezekiel the explosion-loving delinquent. Wonderful. Bucky knew him from their Blackpoint days and had run into a lot whenever he had been around to see Raven back in Tumbleweed. They had...a cordial relationship, at best. They were polite enough that they didn’t really fight,
But if he was getting Tina into shit, that would quickly change.
He sighed internally. Bucky knew what he wanted to say. What he wanted to do. But Tina was a grown woman now and, well, boundaries. “Whatever it was that he got you caught up in, were you safe at least? It’s not going to become a problem later?” He asked, as he followed her through the house.
“He didn’t get me into anything.” she said, trying not to sound too defensive as she unlocked the door and entered the house, kicking off her shoes at the door and putting on a pair of waiting slippers. So much more comfortable than her heels. “He saved my ass in ancient Vallo, which landed him in trouble. I returned the favor and helped get him out.”
Tina dropped her purse onto a bench, and headed toward the kitchen as she kept talking. “It’s nothing that’s going to follow us here to present day Vallo.”
Bucky followed her lead, kicking off his shoes at the door and finding the guest slippers. He really needed to get a new pair here, he thought as Han’s sleepy ass padded in after the two of them. “...Did you break him out of jail in ancient Vallo?” He asked, sounding like a mix of horrified and impressed, when he actually processed what Tina was saying. Because it definitely sounded like she broke Ezekiel out of jail.
Sitting his ass down heavily on one of the kitchen stools, he watched her move around, the disbelief on his face. “This was a one off, right?”
She actually stopped and turned to look at him on her way to the sink to fill up the kettle. “How did you possibly come to that conclusion?” Was it the master thief thing? Maybe that would be an easy jump, even if she hadn’t said it. Tina filled up the kettle and set it on to boil, before opening her cupboard. “Do you want tea?” she asked, changing the conversation for just a second while pulling down the tea she was after.
“I asked for help in breaking him out of jail.” she finally clarified, speaking slowly. “I didn’t attempt it alone. And of course it was a one off. I couldn’t leave him there, god only knows what kind of ancient ideas of justice come with ancient jail.”
“You said it landed him in trouble and that you got him out. Only place to get someone out of, when they’re in trouble, is jail as far as I can think of,” Bucky pointed out, leaning back and crossing his arms. His eyebrows were doing a thing again. Finally, he asked, “Why didn’t you come to me? I would have helped. And yes please, for the tea.”
The reasons seemed kind of obvious to her, but apparently she needed to state them planely. “Well, for one, you were down an arm.” That alone seemed like a good enough reason. Tina pulled two mugs down from the shelf, before dropping the tea bags into her teapot to wait for the water. “Two, because I didn’t want you to worry while you were down an arm, or like you are now.” she said, waving toward his face, his eyebrows, and she would swear she could see that vein.
When the water was done, she carefully poured into the teapot to steep.
“I am handicapable, even when I’m down a limb,” Bucky protested, though he could see how her second reason was valid. Because he was worried. And he would have been worried back then too. They had a bad habit of not wanting to worry each other though. “Even if I couldn’t have helped, Nyx could have. Noct. Any of us. You know this family has your back, even if it’s for Jones.”
Tina gave him a look as she went out, one eyebrow continuing to arch higher. “You’re going to be okay with Nyx entering into a jail break while you sit on the sidelines?” she didn’t believe it, not for a second. “I’m also not sure I’ve known the inlaws long enough to ask for jailbreak favors.” The last thing he needed was to bring drama to this new marriage. “I was careful. I made sure to get help from people who knew what they were doing.”
When the tea was steeped, she prepared both of the mugs, brought one over to Bucky, and sat down with the other on another stool.
Taking the mug from her, Bucky pressed his lips into a thin line as he chose his words carefully. It was hard, sometimes, remembering that they were both adults now. She had been a teenager when he had met her and that overprotectiveness would never truly go away. Not with the sister of his choosing.
“I know you’re smart. I know you wouldn’t do something like this half assessed. You ran ops for Rhodey, I know you’re capable. Just...I’m capable of sitting on the sidelines. I’m willing to ask my new family for help when I need to. I’m doing better at separating my emotions from reason. Let me know if you get in a jam though, next time, okay? Or at least don’t try to hide it from me after the fact.” He arched an eyebrow right back at her at this point. “Seriously, how long did you think you could have hidden that car from me?”
While she sipped her tea, she listened to him carefully. Tina was aware he was taking strides with everything, though she was never really aware of how much. She tried not to intrude unless she was invited. Would he actually be capable of sitting on the sidelines? Honestly, she wasn’t sure, but she would always give him the benefit of the doubt.
“I didn’t exactly anticipate Ezekiel being awkward enough that he thought he had to give me a car.” she said with a shrug and another sip of tea. “I knew I didn’t stand a chance after I saw it.”
Maybe he would have failed to stay on the sidelines, but the point was, he didn’t even know there were sidelines to be on until weeks later. But it looked like they were both trying to improve, so Bucky nodded. “Yeah, that kid’s something alright.” He finally started to sip at his tea. “You sure you’re not dating him?” God, Bucky would hate that so much.
“He can’t even admit we’re friends.” she said with a smirk. “We can’t be dating when we’re only acquaintances and thinks he owes people cars for trying to be a friend.” For being a genius, the boy was dumb.
Tina sat her mug down on the counter top, folding her hands in her lap. “I don’t have any plans for future jail breaks, but if I do, I will try to remember that I don’t need to handle it without you.”
Bucky knew all about inappropriate responses to things a person wasn’t used to. Kindness, at one point in his life, would have gotten anyone anything they asked from him. Maybe the kid would mature one day. Bucky had doubts, but whatever, at least Tina wasn’t dating him.
“Alright, well, great talk, glad we’re on the same page.” Then, as an afterthought, he added, “Oh and I got that kill switch out of my head today? So no worries about you ever having to use it.”
She didn’t know where the conversation was going to go, but she hadn’t been expecting that. At all. “I’m sorry, you did what?” Talk about not sharing things. “You let someone in your brain? What if they messed up? How do you know they didn’t do something to you?”
“I told you I was going to fix it!” Bucky protested. He still had a bad habit when it came to sharing his personal struggles. “So I fixed it! And it was Dan. He...walked through my brain? I could see it all happening and, frankly, I trust him.” It was hard not to trust a man that loved his family the way Dan loved Allison and Claire. “But it’s gone. Promise. You can even test it if you want to. I have already.”
“You didn’t say when and with who!” She retorted, leaning back and crossing her arms over her stomach. She was glad he had found someone he could trust, of course, and that it was gone and he didn't have to worry about it. The fact that he had tested it already was what really caused her eyes to widen. “What if it hadn’t?”
“Would have stopped speaking before I completed if it hadn’t,” Bucky explained, completely forgetting that normal people weren’t so casual about their own death. “I would have started to bleed from my eyes and nose before I kicked it, so it would have been a good indicator to stop.”
And to think just ten years ago this kind of conversation would have been one of the most warped things she had ever heard. But now it was something that was casually brought up in the kitchen, right after conversations of jailbreaks and time travel. “Bucky!” she said, exasperated “That was not the answer you were supposed to go with. Thank you for that nightmare image.”
“But,” he pointed out, as he finished taking a longer gulp of tea. “At least that nightmarish image will never be reality? Not because of those words anyway. Doesn’t that make this better?” Again, Bucky’s sense of normal was not other people’s sense of normal. “I also got a memory bump? Last Friday. But it was a good one, from back home.”
“Oh my god, talk about keeping things secret.” she said, mostly to herself, but definitely loud enough for anyone in the room to hear clearly. She reached for her mug again, if only so her hand wasn’t free to reach out and swat him. “A purely good memory from your world sounds impossible. You’re toning it down.”
He definitely deserved a swat or stronger, honestly. “Sam became Captain America officially and I made progress being my own person? So I’m calling it good. There was some other stuff, but no one I loved died and there was an actual difference toward good being made in the world?” Then he smirked. “I also got to flirt with Sam’s sister, so that was fun.”
That didn’t sound too awful, but she knew something not good was hanging out there among the ‘other stuff.’ “Wow, good for Sam. And bad for Sam. Does he know you were trying to become his brother-in-law?” she asked innocently, “And are you sure you’re okay?”
There was definitely some bad, but he was keeping a tight lid on the Zemo stuff for now. He wasn’t ready to deal with that himself. “Well, he wouldn’t let me flirt with him, so I gotta become a Wilson somehow,” Bucky said, lightly. Running his hand over his hair, much too long and in need of a cut, he explained, “There were some political plays happening. The government tried to make another white guy Captain America when Sam didn’t take up the mantle right away. But it worked out in the end. There was some stuff with Zemo, but I’m not ready to get into that yet.” The last part was said apologetically. He hadn’t even really talked to Nyx about it either.
America handing the mantle of Captain America on another white guy, “This is my shocked face.” she said with a deadpan stare. “I’m glad Sam took it back.” She assumed Sam took it back, because it was hard to imagine someone giving that up willingly. At the mention of Zemo, she briefly stuck out her tongue in disgust. If she ever had the unfortunate luck to meet that man, she’d hit him with the heaviest object she could reach in that moment. Whatever it was he did this time, Tina wouldn’t ask. Bucky would talk about it if and when he was ready. “Anything else?”
"A group of refugees started a revolution in a post Blip world. They died for it and we were trying to stop them from radicalizing. Sam especially," Bucky explained, trying to remember everything. It always took him a couple of weeks to have his memories come together in a linear fashion, so not everything was always in the right order. Thankfully, this memory update had been for only a few months. He could handle that better versus the ones that came with many years worth of memories.
"They did make change happen, in the end, with Sam's help." It was just too bad they had died for it. "I also think I got adopted by the Wilsons? They invited me to their cookout."
Every time people got new memories from home, Tina was once again thankful that she hadn’t received anything in years, and probably never would again. She remembered how much of a headache it was sorting through new memories, and her world was as basic as it came. It wasn’t something she wanted to experience again. “Okay, I was kidding about you trying to join the Wilson family at first, but now I’m not. Just let me know if you’re going to change your last name again, okay?”
Aiming a gentle kick at her shin, Bucky smirked, “Nah, this last one is final.” For as long as it was in his control, anyway. "Now, when do I get to drive that car of yours?"