Elevated

Nora and Bruce worked in Tony’s lab. He had a Coolidge machine he never used and enough computing power to run a small nation.

He was also massively annoying. He’d wander by and snark at Nora’s calculations, doodle on her boards, and criticize how quickly she could calibrate her equipment. But Bruce seemed to like working with him, they laughed together when Stark wasn’t busy bugging Nora, so she let it go. Luna slept in the front seat of a vintage hot rod. Their work was interesting again.

Sam texted her a few days after the lab got blown up and asked Where are you working these days?

Nora texted back Stark’s lab. It’s weird.

The following day, coming up on noon, the elevator door slid open and Bucky took exactly one step out. He surveyed the lab, frowning. Nora wondered if Sam hadn’t asked because as far as she knew, Bucky still didn’t have a phone to do it himself. She was glad to see him.

Luna took off to greet him and Nora threw down her tablet where she’d been running numbers on the couch and stood to find the leash. It was enough to get Tony’s attention where he had been writing some sort of complicated code. He glanced at Nora, then towards the elevator.

“That the fuck? Why is the Tin Man in my lab?”

Bruce turned from his board to glance at the elevator, “Hey Bucky.”

“Want a cookie or something Bruce?” Nora asked, snagging her coat from where she’d left it on one of Tony’s suits. He had been extremely offended by her using his multi-million-dollar super suit like a coatrack and it filled her with glee.

“Sure, thanks Nora.” He had liked the chocolate-chip cookie, but he really liked peanut butter.

Tony looked both confused and annoyed, “I want a cookie.”

Nora passed Bucky Luna’s leash and stepped into the elevator, “Nobody asked you.” The door shut over his noisy assertion that she was fired. “How’s it going Bucky?” He looked the same as he always did, straight postured in dark leather, but his eyes stuck on her face. Nora felt a sudden zing of nerves.

“Fine. Are you okay?”

She remembered, suddenly, the bandage on her face, “Oh yeah,” she reached up to touch it, “If it scars I’m totally gonna tell people I fought the Hulk.” Bucky made a soft noise that might’ve been a laugh, or might’ve been nothing, “I really hope the lab gets fixed soon because Stark is driving me up the wall.”

The elevator doors opened and Bucky made another soft noise, this one annoyed, as they crossed the lobby.

“Apparently,” she said loftily, wedging her hands into her pockets and lamenting her lack of gloves, “Nobody will insure him for Hulk related accidents, so it’s going to cost an insane amount of money to replace everything and Pepper Potts is in some kind of fight with the board about it.” He didn’t have anything to say to that, which was fine. It was an insane problem. Nora surveyed Bucky, remembering something else Tony had said, “Do you break a lot of furniture?”

Bucky turned to look at her, his eyebrows knit together.

“Stark said he can’t get insurance for your metal arm either. I know I’ve seen you destroy an elevator door but do you break stuff by accident?”

He made an unhappy sort of sound, “Sometimes.”

Nora clicked her tongue, “Can you feel it?” He didn’t say anything so she elaborated, “Your metal hand.”

“No.” He said. Then, “Not really.”

Nora hummed, “Seems unfair.” Bucky looked at her, “I mean Steve’s just as strong right? And Thor keeps that crazy hammer on the coffee table like a paperweight. They must break stuff too right?” He didn’t answer but she had to assume they did. Maybe she’d text Sam later and ask.

“Do you know what you want?” She asked when they got to the doors of the coffeeshop.

“Gingerbread.”

“Hmm, seems like a strong choice. I hope you won’t be too disappointed in like a week when the holiday flavours are gone,” Nora turned to the door as Bucky moved to sit at his usual spot, “Shit.”

Apparently, Shmidt and Fowler had taken up coffee-breaks and were standing at the end of the line. Nora frowned at their backs, but they had stolen her ideas and she wasn’t about to let them steal her coffee place too. She yanked the door open and stepped into the warmth of the shop. They didn’t turn to look for a minute, and then they did.

“Nora,” Fowler smirked at her from under his stupid mustache, “I didn’t know you still worked around here.”

Nora squinted at him. Did they think she got fired? “Yeah. At the tower.”

Shmidt gave her a similar nasty sort of smile, “I heard Stark wasn’t too happy with you and you got moved out of R&D.”

Both of those things were accurate, but not in the way they seemed to think, “Yep.”

“That’s too bad. Where’d they put you? Down in Troubleshooting?”

Troubleshooting was a job for smart people who were boring. It involved taking someone else’s technology or code, finding what went wrong, and fixing it. Nora frowned. She didn’t particularly give a shit what Shmidt or Fowler thought, but it sucked in a specific sort of way that they were still talking down to her. Bruce respected her work, and for all the shit he talked, so did Tony.

Shmidt and Fowler both stopped smirking at her suddenly and looked over her instead. Their expressions slipped into something that wasn’t quite fearful but was definitely nervous. Nora felt a feather-light touch on her elbow and turned to look, “Hi Bucky. Did you change your mind about the gingerbread?” She didn’t think he had. He was standing very straight and scowling at Shmidt and Fowler.

“Right,” she said, turning back to the men, “I’m not in Troubleshooting. I’m working with Dr. Banner on ninety. Well-“ She waved a hand, “Ninety-one with Mr. Stark right now, there was an issue with our lab.” Two sets of disbelieving eyes darted from her to Bucky and back. Nora gestured to the barista who was staring at all of them, “Are you ready to order?”

They were. They ordered, then receded to a corner to shoot weird looks at her and Bucky while they took their turn. Bucky scowled at both of them but ordered his latte when Nora poked him in the ribs. Nora ordered a peanut butter cookie for Bruce, and a chocolate chip for Tony. He drove her nuts, but he was better than Fowler.

Luna was waiting for them on the patio where Bucky had tied her leash to a table. Nora held his coffee while he retrieved her. “Thanks Bucky. How’d you know they were bugging me?”

“You don’t swear,” He answered, taking his cup.

Right, she had cussed when she saw them through the window, “Hm, yeah they just always get under my skin. Doesn’t matter anymore, they know I got promoted and I doubt they’ll bug me anymore knowing I’m pals with a superhero.”

“I’m not.”

Nora glanced at him, “Not what?” He didn’t answer, but she made the leap pretty quickly on her own, “Not a superhero?” She thought he maybe looked uncomfortable, though it was as hard to tell as usual, “I dunno Bucky. The elevator, the lab, Shmidt and Fowler. You’re definitely my hero.”

He looked right at her. She couldn’t read his face, but her heart beat hard anyways.

Bucky thought about Nora’s words a lot.

They stuck in his head, rattling around and shaking everything loose. The warm thing in his chest swelled up, squashing the shame at his admission to breaking things. It didn’t happen a lot, but sometimes he broke the arm of a chair, or the edge of a counter, or a piece of silverware. He’d get upset and forget he was holding it.

It made him hesitant to touch Nora. She hadn’t minded holding his hand, and he didn’t see how he could forget holding hers, but he worried anyways.

The air in the lounge was clearer than it had been in weeks. Bucky worried, but everyone else seemed okay. Steve and Sam were speaking again and Bucky had forgiven them both. He’d forgiven Clint too, who was particularly relieved. He wasn’t afraid to crack a joke anymore.

“Nora’s taking Friday off,” Sam supplied suddenly from where he sat at the island with a beer and his cell phone.

Steve had nothing to say about that, just kept slicing cheese and didn’t cut himself. Clint did have something to say about that and loudly questioned, “Why’s she telling you?” from where he was layering an enormous lasagna. Bucky cut a glance at Sam from the corner of his eye. Why was she telling Sam?

“We text.” Sam said like it was obvious, “Cause we’re friends.”

They did text. Nora had apparently texted Sam that they were working in Tony’s lab. Bucky was of two minds. He thought he might like that Nora got along with the team. He definitely liked that he knew where to find her now. He just sort of wished Sam would cut it the fuck out. Something hot and ugly rolled in his stomach whenever he mentioned a message from Nora.

He took a sip of his own beer. Nora only had Sam’s phone number because he didn’t have a phone when she’d asked. He paused, drink hovering somewhere halfway to the counter. If he had a phone, he wondered, would she text him instead? He frowned.

“Bucky? What’s wrong?” Steve was giving him a weird kind of look. Clint looked up and frowned at him.

He definitely wasn’t fucking answering that one.