Elevated

It was a bit like the first time she’d set foot in the lab.

Tony had sauntered in like he owned the place (right, he still did) and started making demands. Nora was neither surprised, nor irritated. She didn’t lose her pen but set it down to listen instead. Bruce, on the other hand, was furious. Or as close as he could get without turning green.

“No, Tony, I’m not going.”

“Sure you are. It’ll be fun.”

“It won’t! It’ll be a press circus! What do you think they’re going to-“

Tony waved a hand, “It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine!” Bruce practically shouted. For him. It wasn’t overly close to what an ordinary person might consider a yell.

Tony rounded on her, “Tell him, Silver!”

Nora raised her eyebrows, “Tell him what?”

He rolled his eyes, “That it’ll be fine.”

Nora nodded. She could actually do that, “It will be fine.” She gave Bruce a serious look, “Pepper would never let it turn into a circus.” Bruce opened his mouth, and shut it, because that was true, “I think it’ll be fun. I’ve never been to a fancy banquet before.”

Bruce continued to frown, “You haven’t been to one because it’s ridiculous. Who even wants to celebrate a paper on Gamma Interference with Micro-ordinance Particles?”

“Me.” Nora asserted, “That’s way cooler than natural history and the museum has a thing every year.” Nora liked the Museum of Natural History. She wasn’t sure why she was throwing it under the bus to make a point. She changed tactics, “What if I told you the second is my birthday?”

Tony scrunched up his eyebrows and looked at her seriously, “Really?”

“Yes.” Nora answered, “And I would love for my party to be Gamma Interference with Micro-Ordinance Particle themed.” She gave Bruce a pleading look, “C’mon Bruce. It’ll be fun!”

Bruce didn’t look convinced. He looked a little sick. But he nodded very slowly and let out an ‘okay’ that sounded anything but.

The lab door whooshed open.

Tony waved a hand and griped, “Do you do any work here Silver, or do you just wait around for Khan to emerge from cryo-sleep all day?”

“The second one.” Nora answered, “Guess what Bucky?” She scooped Luna’s leash off the table and went to meet him at the door where he was eyeing Tony with interest. Probably because they’d watched Star Trek and he’d liked it a lot, “Tony’s throwing a party for my birthday.”

Bucky frowned, “What?”

“Alright you got me, he’s throwing Bruce a banquet because our paper blew up all over the place.” Nora took his hand and they started down the hall, Luna trailing Bucky’s heels, “It just happens to be on my birthday.”

Bucky made a noise. The kind he used to make a lot and didn’t often anymore. The kind Nora could only describe as horrified.

“Hey,” she stopped him outside the elevator, “What’s wrong?” He didn’t say anything, but the muscle in his jaw twitched like he was trying and couldn’t. Nora thought about the sentence she’d given him. She was good at math. She could add up two and two, “Oh shoot. Sorry, I didn’t really think-“ she stopped, twisted a lock of hair around her finger, and let it go, “You’re right. This sucks.”

She took Bucky’s hand and tugged him onto the waiting elevator. Then she clipped Luna’s leash as they started to descend, “I thought a banquet would be cool, but I didn’t even think of how it would screw up my whole birthday.”

Nora had made a plan, but she realized suddenly she’d neglected to inform Bucky what that was at all, “I didn’t tell you- crap I’m doing an awful job of explaining myself today. I had an early call from this researcher out of Brazil this morning and I couldn’t help him either.” She handed Luna’s leash to Bucky who was waiting patiently for her to get to the point and took his other hand.

“I thought we’d marathon all the Lord of the Rings movies in my living room and eat ice cream cake. Then Tony started talking about the banquet and I thought that would be cool, but I should’ve known better. Tony’s always wrong! I should’ve sided with Bruce!”

Bucky pulled her hand gently to steer her around a missing chunk of sidewalk, glancing over his shoulder as he did.

“I can’t believe I got suckered.” Nora mumbled, letting Bucky steer her out of the walking traffic and into an alcove set into the face of one of the tall buildings that lined the street.

Bucky turned to survey her. He was frowning, “Nora, I can’t-“ he got stuck and made another upset noise.

It had been a while since that had happened and Nora wondered what about the situation was upsetting him so badly, “I know.” She replied, “I don’t expect you to go, it’s fine. The things going to be at the tower, I'll come over before and then meet you after.” She reached up to press a hand to his cheek. He still looked upset, “We’ll have cake for a midnight snack instead.”

They stood together in the alcove for a long time, Luna pressed to Bucky’s thigh and Nora’s hand on his cheek. He seemed so unhappy, but he didn’t or couldn’t say why, and Nora didn’t know how to help him do it. Eventually he took the hand that rested against his cheek, squeezed it, and tugged her back into the traffic of the sidewalk towards the Spruce.

The conversation lingered. Nora hated that Bucky was upset, and didn’t know how to fix it. She could not, in good conscience, bail on the banquet. Not after she had convinced Bruce that it would be fine.

Bucky came for coffee like usual the rest of the week, and Nora spent two nights in his apartment. He didn’t broach the topic of the event, and Nora wasn’t sure if she should. She knew they’d have to talk about it again as it approached, but she didn’t want to make him feel like he had to go.

On the Weekend, Darcy and Nora took a cab to a vintage place in Chelsea that specialized in formalwear. They had agreed that if they had to buy something ridiculous and fancy for Tony’s banquet, they could at least have fun doing it.

Nora explained, as she flipped through hangers, the problem.

“Obviously I can’t ditch Bruce, but Bucky seemed really upset about the whole thing. I don’t feel good about leaving him alone in his apartment to go to a giant party either.”

Darcy paused in her own perusal, eyeing a green gown critically, “Why would he be upset?”

Nora frowned, “Well part of the problem is that I don’t know. At first, I thought maybe it was that he thought I wanted him to go, but I don’t think that’s it.”

“Do you want him to go?”

“Well yeah, that would be great. But I don’t think he can, so I told him I didn’t expect him to.” Darcy nodded, decided against the green gown, and flipped the hanger aside with a screech, “I wonder if he just wanted to spend my birthday together?”

“That would make sense, I guess. Did you have plans to?”

“No.” Nora answered, grabbing an entire purple section and bypassing it, “I mean- I wanted to spend the weekend in my apartment with him watching movies and eating cake, but I hadn’t actually told him that yet.”

Darcy stopped browsing. She set a hand to her hip and gave Nora a hard look, “What do you want to do?”

Nora considered it, “I want to do both.”

“Okay.” Darcy said, “Then do both. I know you want to make everyone happy, but what you want is important too. If Bucky’s upset about the banquet thing he can tell you why, or he can get over it.”

Nora didn’t particularly like Darcy’s piece of advice, but she was forced to admit that she wasn’t wrong. There wasn’t anything she could do about it if Bucky didn’t tell her what the problem was. She also couldn’t give up on things she wanted to do just because he wasn’t ready to do them with her. It wasn’t fair to her, and it wasn’t fair to him either.

“I found it!” Darcy chirped suddenly, ecstatic.

Nora chewed her cheek.

Bucky was fucked.

There was no way around it. It was an unsolvable problem. He’d been turning it over in his brain for weeks and was no closer to an answer than when the words had first fallen from Nora’s lips. He blamed Tony Stark. Tony Stark and his fucking parties. Parties that Bucky didn’t have a hope in hell of making it to. Parties that Nora was required to, and more importantly wanted to attend. On her birthday.

She had told him she didn't expect him to go. Pressed her hand to his cheek so he could feel the truth of it. Agreed that they would spend the morning together and that she would come spend the night with him when the party was done. It was a good plan. One he could manage.

He didn’t want to just manage. Not on her birthday. Not after what she’d done with his. He rapped his knuckles on the countertop and appreciated the ring of vibranium against the marble.

The photo was stuck to his fridge with the little blue magnet he knew Nora had stolen from the lab. He stopped to look at it every time he walked through his kitchen. He let his eyes wander over his two favourite people squashed together and linger on the grin on his own face. It reminded him every time, that he was a person with a life and a family again. That he could have good things, even if it was difficult to find them.

He needed help. There was no point in wasting more time. He shoved off the counter and went to find Sam.

Of course, the one time he admitted to himself he needed Sam’s help, the man was nowhere to be found. Not his apartment, or the gym, or the lounge. Bucky didn’t want to do it. He almost went back to his apartment to forget about the whole thing. Nora would forgive him for it, he was sure.

He didn’t. He called Sam instead.

“Bucky?” He sounded panicked. The ambient noise of traffic in the city filtered through the speaker under his voice. That explained why Bucky couldn’t find him.

“What’s wrong?” Steve barked. Apparently, they’d been out together.

“Why is he calling you?” Clint asked. Bucky felt a little annoyed he hadn’t been invited wherever they were going. He probably wouldn’t have gone, but it would have been nice to be invited.

“I need help.” He grit, aware that what might have been a brief conversation, was about to become a whole thing.

“We’re on our way back.” Steve said immediately.

“Hey, hang on-“ Sam started. There was a shuffle, then the sound of a palm being pressed to the microphone, and a rapid rush of muffled words, “Are you okay?” He asked after a moment.

“Yes.”

“Okay. We’ll be back in-“

“Ten minutes.” Steve cut in.

“Steve-“

They descended into rapid arguing. Bucky frowned at his phone.

“Bucky?” Clint must have managed to snag Sam’s phone. Bucky could hear them continuing to argue in the background.

“Yeah.”

“What do you need help with?”

“The fuckin’ party.”

There was a long pause. “We’ll be there in ten minutes.” Then Clint hung up on him.

Bucky wasn’t sure why the hell anyone bothered to make phone calls, it hadn’t been very effective, but he supposed he got what he wanted in the end. He took the elevator back up to his apartment and waited.

They knocked when they got there, Sam and Steve and Clint all piling through the door the second he opened it. They asked no questions, just threw themselves into the chairs around his dining table and waited. Bucky had been aware he would have to explain the problem, and didn’t have a fucking clue how to do it. He frowned at them from his own chair.

After a long minute, when it became apparent Sam wouldn’t be erupting, he settled for, “I have to go.”

“To the banquet?” Clint prompted. Bucky nodded.

“Why?” Sam asked.

“It’s Nora’s birthday.”

Steve looked surprised, “Did she ask you to go?”

He understood Steve’s shock. Nora never asked him to do anything that might make him uncomfortable, much less to put himself in a room with a hundred strangers. “No.”

“Oh.” The surprise evolved into confusion, “I don’t- why do you have to go?”

Bucky made an irritated noise because obviously Steve wasn’t fucking listening.

“No, it’s her birthday, we got that.” Clint said, “But why does that mean you have to go? It doesn’t start til seven, can’t you see her before that?”

Bucky clicked his tongue. Clearly, he was going to have to spell it out for them, “‘Cause I love her.”

“Holy shit,” Clint muttered, stunned.

Steve stared, open-mouthed.

Sam blinked at him.

Bucky scowled. He would have liked very much to ask why the fuck they were all so surprised, but he thought he better save his words.

Very slowly, the surprise melted away, replaced instead by grins of varying wattage.

“Alright.” Sam said, “What do you think you can manage?”