Elevated

Nora was finding it increasingly difficult to leave the tower.

Not because she was afraid, in fact the entire kidnapping incident refused to stick with her. It was bizarre how little space she allowed it in her brain. It probably had something to do with being rescued by a small army of superheroes and knowing they would do it again if they had to.

No, it could be entirely attributed to the tower being where Bucky was. They still went to the Spruce at noon, but now with increasing frequency he would text her after or turn up in the lab at the end of the day and she’d take the elevator up instead of down.

Sometimes they’d hang out in the lounge where apparently a lot of team bonding took place. Nora liked it because she liked the team. She liked it more when they went to his apartment. They’d lounge around and watch something or read. She taught him a handful of board games that she brought over and left stacked on one of his empty bookshelves. He taught her a handful of card games she was sure were from the thirties.

Bucky’s fridge stopped being empty. She wasn’t sure if he was going to the grocery store or having things delivered, but he’d started to cook. She didn’t know where he got the recipes, they definitely weren’t from the thirties, but he was extremely good at it. Nora thoroughly enjoyed all the things he cooked. She tried to help, but he didn’t want her to. He didn’t say as much, but she could infer from his picking her up with hands fixed around her thighs and setting her on the counter.

So, she would sit instead and fill the kitchen with questions that he answered with increasing ease. She’d tell him about her day or something she’d read and steal anything snackable that hit his cutting board. While he waited for pans to heat or water to boil, he’d stand between her legs and kiss her. He managed not to burn anything despite Nora’s best efforts.

Nora was extremely happy. Of course, it also had her feeling generous, so when Clint called her one evening after dinner while she and Bucky were in a stalemate regarding dishes, she answered.

“I need help,” his tone was begging.

Nora was pretty sure she was going to say yes, but she had to at least pretend that she needed to know what she was agreeing to, “With what?”

The pause stretched. Bucky frowned at her. Nora rolled her eyes, “I’m hanging up.”

“No! I just-“ there was a shuffling noise, “Tony got the boxes from Jane’s old lab delivered but- it’s a lot. I need help.”

Bucky was shaking his head at her. He’d apparently forgotten about the dishes and was sliding his hands up her thighs instead. Nora wanted to see where he was going with that. But she also felt bad for Clint. He at least deserved a chance, and Nora was of a mind that he would treat Darcy far better than any of her recent dates.

“Fine. Where are you?” Bucky scowled.

“My place. Thank you Nora, seriously, you’re a life saver.”

“Uh-huh,” Nora muttered, already regretting her decision, “You owe me.”

“Yes. I do. I know. Thank you.” The line went dead.

Nora pretended that Bucky didn’t have superhuman hearing, “So that was Clint,” she let the words trail off. He rolled his eyes, “You don’t have to come. It’s definitely going to suck.”

“Why?” He asked, drawing little circles on the inside of her thigh with his thumb.

It could have meant, why is it going to suck? But Nora was positive it was why did you agree? “I dunno. I’m really happy, I want my friends to be happy too.” Bucky stopped frowning. He didn’t quite smile, but he did kiss her and Nora thought that was just as good. They left the dishes and he went with her up to Clint's apartment.

Nora thought it might be a nice place, but it was very difficult to tell. Tony must’ve thought he was being funny when he granted Clint’s request because the entire apartment was full of boxes and bins. It seemed to Nora that it couldn’t all have been from Jane’s old lab, but there was no way of knowing at a glance. Clint was already manic, he let loose a long string of thank-yous followed by another long string of swearing when he answered the door. Natasha was sitting in the middle of his rug and rolled her eyes.

“There’s gotta be a way to narrow this down,” Clint said, gesturing to the stacks.

Nora frowned and flicked the lid off one, “I wouldn’t count on it. Have you been in their lab? It could be literally anywhere. Like, tucked into some random file.” She sifted through the contents with interest, “Why the heck is Tony keeping this stuff anyways?”

“He doesn’t like throwing things away,” Natasha answered, opening a box of her own.

Nora clicked her tongue.

They sifted through boxes for hours and didn’t find anything. At least, they didn’t find Darcy’s iPod. Nora found a series of extremely interesting formulae and notes scrawled on assorted takeout menus. She set them aside on the coffee table to give back to Jane at some point. Bucky did an extremely thorough job sifting through the contents of every box and occasionally held up a piece of equipment for Nora to see with a, “What?”

The first three she could name, and did, giving him a cliff notes explanation of what the machine was supposed to be for. The fourth she squinted at for a while before saying, “Well I think that’s half a waffle iron spliced together with a vardostat but I can’t even begin to guess why.”

Natasha made surprisingly quick work of her boxes, and didn’t complain at all. Nora thought she and Clint must be extremely good friends if she was willing to be there.

Eventually Nora had to go home. She agreed to come back again after work the next day, partly because Clint was really starting to lose his mind, and partly because the contents of the boxes were proving to be interesting. She was usually too scared to touch anything in Jane’s lab and it was fun getting to read her notes and look at her equipment. She wished she’d gotten to spend a little more time alone with Bucky before Clint called, but she figured there’d be other evenings.

He walked her down to the street and waved down a cab. Then he stood with his hand on the door. His expression was entirely unreadable.

“You wanna come with me?” Nora asked, grinning.

Bucky slid into the cab.

Bucky spent most of his Tuesday afternoon sifting through boxes with Clint and Sam. He didn’t really want to, but he thought he’d rather find the fucking iPod during the day so he could spend his evening with Nora someplace that wasn’t Clint’s living room.

Everything in the boxes was strange. There were files and notes and binders, filled with math he didn’t understand. There were knick-knacks that must’ve decorated Jane and Darcy’s lab at some point, and which had been indiscriminately stolen by SHIELD. There was also a great deal of equipment, none of which had a clear purpose. Bucky knew some of it was standard, even recognized pieces from Nora’s lab, but a lot of it was also cobbled together from garbage to serve an unknown purpose. He played a little game in his own head, of which was which.

Sam kept shooting confused looks Bucky’s direction like he couldn’t figure out how Clint had convinced him to help. Bucky thought he might owe Clint one after his help with the phone, but Sam still didn’t need to know about that.

“Aha!” Sam threw his hand in the air, triumphant.

Clint flipped over his dining table and onto the couch, “Let me see!”

Bucky glanced at the little black brick in Sam’s hand and pointed, “That’s not it.”

“What?” Sam scowled, tossing it into Clint’s waiting hands, “You ever even seen an iPod?”

Bucky scowled. He hadn’t, which was why Nora had shown him a picture of what they were looking for the night before, “Nora said purple.”

“Shit,” Clint muttered, “She did say it was purple.” He pulled out his phone and punched at the screen. The shrill ring filled the room from the speaker.

“Hi Clint.” Nora answered. Bucky liked hearing her voice. He tried not to be annoyed at Clint for calling her in the middle of the day. Although, he considered it briefly and decided he definitely would’ve liked it less if Clint was calling her at night.

“Hey, we found a black- crap. The big one. What the hell is it called?” He turned the device over in his hand like that would help.

“A classic?” Nora guessed, “I mean that’s cool, but definitely not it.”

Clint frowned. His question came out very small, “Are you sure?”

“Yep. Darcy said a purple Nano. I remember because I wanted a purple one, but I got an orange one instead. I hate orange.” He could hear the low murmur of Bruce’s voice, then, “No, not the fruit. The fruit’s great.”

“Fuck,” Clint muttered.

Bucky was inclined to agree. He’d really hoped they would find it and be done with the whole thing. Instead, they spent another two hours sifting through boxes. Steve turned up and Bucky found a picture on his phone to show the man what they were looking for. Then, a while later, Nora turned up and he had to fight down the urge to pick her up and carry her back out of the apartment.

She went directly to where he was sitting on the floor of the living room with a little machine that sort of looked like a switchboard, if one shrunk it down to nothing and crossed it with a toaster. She put both hands on his shoulders and leaned to look at the device, “That thing’s basically an antique.” She pressed her thumb into the muscle on his right side and spiraled a little circle. He couldn’t help the little hum that jumped out of his throat, “It’s for measuring isotopic spin and it does not work.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek and went to grab a box from the pile they hadn’t checked yet.

Bucky wondered immediately, how he could get her hands back on his shoulders. He was suddenly aware of just how tense every muscle in his back was. He frowned at the device in his hand.

All together, it took nine and a half hours. Plus whatever Clint had spent sifting through boxes in the middle of the night. Bucky found it in an envelope with a large purple flower drawn on one corner, that was wedged into the face of an extremely broken laptop. He caught Nora’s attention first and passed her the envelope to confirm his finding. She broke into a grin when she opened it.

They left Clint on his couch with the envelope clutched in his hands. Palpable relief rolled off him in waves. Bucky ignored Steve and Sam’s looks entirely as he steered Nora down the hall to his apartment, nodding along to the story she was telling about a researcher who thought her and Bruce’s entire hypothesis was flawed and couldn’t possibly have been proven on a planet with Earth’s gravity. Bucky didn’t entirely follow, but he liked hearing about it anyways.

“Nora?”

“Mhm?” She had the fridge open and was foraging for cheese cubes. It was one of the sillier snacks he’d been leaving around, he thought, but she never failed to grab a handful on her way by.

“My shoulder- will you,” he couldn’t quite get the phrasing. He hooked his left hand over his right shoulder in an attempt to illustrate the point.

She didn’t need the help, “Sure. You wanna order sushi after?”

Bucky almost forgot what he’d been after in the first place, in favour of crossing the room in two strides to kiss her against the metal door of the fridge.