Peter and Jude's Day Of Fun AKA Bucky's Worst Nightmare
Jude was lounging in the common area of the Avengers Tower on a rather lazy Saturday afternoon when the door opened up to reveal a frantic looking Peter Parker. Peter’s eyes locked in on her immediately and before she could process what was happening Peter was across the room in a flash.
“Miss Winter Soldier Ma’am, I need your help!” he exclaimed grabbing at her hands and pulling her up from the couch.
“Whoa, ok. What’s up? What’s happening? Who’s on fire?” she asks placing her hands on his shoulders to steady him.
“Ok so, um… I need your help with my college essay. You see Miss Winter Soldier, I completely forgot about this application and it’s due like today. And it’s not really an essay it more like uh… like uh… a video interview and a bunch of short answer questions and a section for people’s references. And I am freaking out! I don’t know where to…” Jude tightens her grip on his shoulders and gives him a brief shake.
“Peter, please take a breath.” He stops and takes a deep breath in and nods his head.
“Alright, there you go. When is the application due today?” she asks.
“Midnight.”
“Oh? Ok that’s good we have plenty of time. So next question, why me? I mean… I’m going to help you no matter what but like why not your aunt or Tony?”
“Well, you see Miss Winter Soldier, Aunt May had to deal with an emergency at the soup kitchen, Tony is in California with Pepper and Happy for a Stark Industries thing, Ned is stuck a family reunion, MJ is visiting MIT with her mom, I would ask Cap or Mister Falcon or really any of the other Avengers but most of them are on that recon mission and won’t be back until Monday, and the rest of them are you know… with family or on solo missions. So yeah… Help me Miss Winter Soldier you’re my only hope.”
Peter finally takes breath and glances up at Jude with his big brown puppy dog eyes, as if Jude wasn’t already going to help him. She shakes her head and smiles.
“Alright kid, last question, do you call me Miss Winter Soldier because you like to call me that or do you not know what my real name is?” Peter face flushes as he starts to stammer. Jude lets out a small laugh and pats him on the back. “It’s ok Petey, you can call me Jude, it’ll save us both some time.” She winks at him and sets off to the kitchen area.
“Now next thing next, we’ll start with the short answer questions and then move on the video portion. Where is your application?” She asks as she starts to clear of the kitchen island for the two of them to set up shop. Peter pulls out his Stark Industries laptop and opens up the application web page.
“Right here, there are 25 short answer questions and here are the details for the video and the recommendations.” Jude starts to read the list of requirements and lets out a low whistle. “Jesus, do they want your first born too? What school is this for anyway?”
“The Technical Institute of Greendale, it’s like my third choice. MJ, Ned, and I all agreed on our top three schools so I have to apply in case I don’t get into MIT or CAL TECH.” Peter starts to fidget with napkins next to him just to have something to do with his nervous energy. Jude looks over at him and places her hand on top of his.
“Peter… everything is going to be fine. I have no doubt you three will get in to MIT and CAL TECH and whatever other schools you have applied to. And we got this, look most of the questions answer themselves. ‘Why do you want to go to Greendale’ ‘What majors are you interested in?’ These are easy. So here, you start answering these and I’ll start on your recommendations. Then we will review each other’s work and then work on the video together, ok?”
She gives his hand a slight squeeze and he nods his head. Peter takes a deep breath and grabs the laptop and starts on the questions, Jude gets up to grab her own laptop to start on the recommendations. He needs three, so she decides to call Tony relentlessly until he has no choice but to answer, while doing that she starts writing a recommendation of her own. The last one with be more difficult to come up with. She could probably write a second one and just sign Steve’s name, he wouldn’t mind, he’s forged more documents than Joseph Cosey.
Tony pick ups on call number twelve.
“Someone better be dead.” Tony deadpans.
“That is an awful thing to say Tony, there is a child present.” She deadpans right back.
“Seriously Bonnie what do you want?” He replies and Jude can just tell he is rolling his eyes.
“Peter needs a recommendation for a college application and is too scared to bother you, so I did it for him.” Jude answers with a smirk. She hears Tony sigh and grumble something to himself.
“I’ll have Happy send you one from me and another from Pepper for good measure. Anything else?”
“Nope that would be perfect! Bye Bye Daddy Warbucks!”
“Please don’t ever call me that again.”
“No promises.” She replies and hangs up before Tony call retaliate.
Jude decides to write up another recommendation and sign Steve’s name on it for a few extra brownie points. ‘Honestly what school in their right mind would reject a kid with a letter of recommendation from the Star-Spangled Man With A Plan’ she thinks with a snicker.
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After and hour Jude has Peter’s four recommendations uploaded to his application and has gone over his short answers and deemed them perfectly acceptable. Peter is much calmer now that half of the process is over and is ready to move on to the video portion. He hands Jude his phone to start recording.
“Peter, darling, your phone is terrible.” Jude says looking at the cracked screen and the ridiculous picture of Ned. She lets out a chuckle and takes out her own phone. “We’ll use mine.”
“No arguments here, you phone probably has better quality anyway.”
She hums in agreement. “Alright we’ll film the introduction first and then move on to the interview questions. After that we need to showcase a few hobbies you like and then record a project you are working on for Tony for extra Kudos. Then we finish up with a you talking about how much you want to go to Greendale. Then we go and get tacos. Sound good?”
“Sounds great! Ready when you are.” Peter gives her a thumbs up and gets in front of the camera.
“Ok… in three…two…one…” Jude counts down and gives Peter a nod to start.
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It took them three hours to film everything and another two to edit, but they finally finished. Peter let out the deepest sigh Jude ever heard after he hit the submit button with five hours to spare until the deadline. She reaches over and ruffles his hair and lets out a sigh of her own.
“All done.” She says with a smile.
“All done.” He repeats and reclines into the couch.
“Taco time?” Jude asks.
“Hell yeah.” Peter replies with a boyish grin.
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Jude and Peter decide to walk to the taco stand that is located a few blocks north of the Tower, it was a nice evening and not too far of a walk. Jude contemplated on taking one of Tony’s cars but thought the hassle of bothering one of his personal drivers and sitting in city traffic was not worth it. The taco stand Peter insisted on wasn’t even worth a subway ride, so walking it was. They made it to the stand about twenty minutes later. Peter ordered enough food for a small militia and so did Jude. The stand had a few tables set up off to the side where the two of them sat and happily gorged themselves.
“Can I ask a question?” Peter asked in between bites of food.
“Go for it kiddo.”
“Did you go to college? Like not to be rude or anything… but you uh… I don’t really know that much about you. I know your married to Sergeant Barnes but like that’s it.” He stuttered out quietly before shrugging and shoving another taco in his mouth.
“First of all, Bucky and I are not married. We aren’t even engaged yet. And second yes, I did go to college.” Jude replied taking a sip of her soda.
“Wait wait wait… you two aren’t married?!” He questions in disbelief. Jude chuckles and reaches for another chicken taco. “Not married.”
“Huh… really?”
“Really.” Peter huffs like he still doesn’t believe her and takes the last of the beef tacos. “Can I ask why? You two seem so in love it’s kinda gross.” He asks not looking at her. Jude smirks and shakes her head at his avoidance.
“Well Peter it’s a long story, but the short version is this… I met Bucky when I was nineteen and just started the fall semester of my second year, he stayed with me for about nine months and then he left. I didn’t see him again until he was accused of blowing up the accords. After that we were in Wakanda and he was in cryo for a while, then Thanos happened, then we were both turned to dust for five years, then we spent a year helping to rebuild and focused on getting him a fair trial. After that we had to actually go through with his trial, which was awful and tedious. And now that things have finally settled down, we can actually be together. In all honesty Buck and I have really only been officially dating for like three months.”
Peter stares at her with a mix of awe and disbelief. It takes him a few minutes to gather his thoughts, but once gathered he clears his throat and says “Only three months huh… MJ and I have been dating longer.”
This causes Jude and Peter to burst out laughing. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Anything else you want to know?” Jude asks once she finished laughing.
For the next fifteen minutes Peter proceeds to question Jude about herself and Bucky and whatever else his mind takes him to. Jude is more than happy to answer honestly each and every question he throws at her.
They finish eating and clean up their table. It had gotten pretty late and it was time to head back to the Tower. After walking for a few minutes Peter suddenly tenses and stops.
“Peter what is it?” Jude leans towards him and whispers. Peter still tense reaches out and takes Jude’s hand and holds it tight.
“You know about my… my… Peter tingle?” he whispers back. Jude nods her head (and if the situation wasn’t so serious, she would have laughed at Peter’s slightly embarrassed expression when he said Peter tingle). “I think we are being followed.” He continues, his eyes darting around trying to locate where the tingle is coming from. Jude straightens up and tugs Peter closer to her and starts walking toward the Tower again.
“Hey Kiddo listen up, we are going to keep acting like nothing happened, ok? If they don’t know we are on to them then we have the advantage. Stay close and stay alert.” Peter looks over at her and nods.
Jude reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone. She dials Bucky and hopes she isn’t compromising his recon mission. He picks up on the third ring.
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“Hey Doll, I was just about to call you.” Bucky says.
“Oh, you were huh, well I beat you to it. How are you doing Bucky Deer?” Jude says.
“Doing fine, better then fine really. We finished up the mission early and are about thirty minutes out.” Bucky smiles and he pictures Jude doing the same.
“That’s great James.” She replies quietly.
“What’s wrong?” Bucky asks immediately on alert; Jude never calls him James unless there is trouble or if he is in trouble with her. She lets out a laugh that only those who know her could tell was fake.
“Peter and I went out for dinner and are heading home now. We should be there in fifteen.” She laughs again before Bucky can reply. She continues “Oh no… no Buck Ican’t wait to see you.” Her voice is shaky. Something is terribly wrong.
“Jude, do you have your gun on you?” Bucky asks with his jaw clenched. Steve looked over at him now just as tense.
“Of course not why would I?” she replies and Bucky can feel his blood pressure skyrocket. He clenches his fist now too. Steve is by his side instantly. Before Steve can ask anything, Bucky replies to her. “Because I told you if you leave the Tower without an Avenger with you to TAKE.YOUR. GUN.”
“I just told you I’m with Peter.” She replies quickly.
“Peter doesn’t count!” Bucky says while trying to refrain from yelling. He reaches up and pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks at Steve and says “Jude and Peter and in trouble I don’t have details yet but they are fifteen minutes from the Tower. Tell Natasha to get us there in five.”
Steve doesn’t need to be told twice; he was halfway to Natasha by the time Bucky finished speaking.
“Jude I’ll be there as soon as I can. Alright doll, please… please don’t do anything stupid.” He pleads.
“I know. I love you too.”
The line goes dead and Bucky’s heart drops.
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“Shit” Jude mutters as her phone take the least opportune moment to die on her. Her hand tightens it’s hold on Peter’s.
“There is a black van following us.” Peter whispers as he nudges Jude’s side. Jude glances over to a store front window to see that Peter was correct. There was a black van creeping it way up the street.
“Peter, how secret is your secret identity?”
“Pretty secret, why?”
“You think you could swing yourself out of here?” Jude asks.
“I’m not leaving you behind!” He whisper-yells at her.
“That’s not a no.”
“It is a no if I have to leave you to do it.”
Jude couldn’t help but smile at him, he really was too sweet for his own good.
“You’re a good kid Peter.” She says giving his hand one more squeeze.
They continue their trek back to Tower all the while the van is getting closer and the sidewalk gets less and less crowded. A block away from the Tower the van’s occupants decide to make their move. Five armed and highly trained men surround Jude and Peter almost instantly. Their focus is solely on Jude, which she was thankful for because it allowed her to shove Peter into an alley before they grabbed her.
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The men left Peter and drove off with Jude. ‘Big mistake on their part’ Peter thinks as he quickly grabs his mask from his backpack and got to swinging after them. Peter was not going to let these men hurt his newest friend.
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“Hello there” the man in the front passenger seat calls, he was going to continue but was interrupted by Jude calling back “General Kenobi!” which was clearly not appreciated by anyone inside of the van except for Jude (and later by Peter when they got back to Avenger’s Tower and started to debrief).
The man turns in his seat and glares at her. He then levels a pistol at her face and sneers “I suggest you be quite.” He then motions for on the other men to tie her up. The man to her left that grabs a zip tie and hands it to the man restraining her. Once her hands are firmly tied up behind her back the man who was holding her shoves her to the van’s floor. She looks up at the man in front who is clearly the leader.
“Hey! I know you! Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” she asks with a tilt of her head and a slight smirk. Before her sat the one and only Brock Rumlow or as he started calling himself before Wanda blew him up, Crossbones. ‘What a stupid name’ she thinks while suppressing an eye roll.
“Well, I am honored… The Winter Soldier’s little bitch knows who I am.” Rumlow says while bringing his free hand up to chest mockingly. His goons laugh and Jude once again is forced to suppress an eye roll.
“Wowreal original there.” She mumbles under her breath. Rumlow didn’t appreciate that either and shot his free hand forward. He grabbed a fistful of Jude’s hair and yanked before asking “What was that girlie?”
Jude took the opportunity to spit in his face now that she was that much closer. A look of pure fury came over his face and he raised his right hand with the gun and went to strike her.
Before the gun could connect with her face a loud thump came from the roof of the van. The next moment the windshield was covered in white and the van swerved. The side door was then pulled right off and in came two spider webs. The webs were large enough to pin two of the armed lackeys to the opposite side of the van. The driver was still flying down the road unable to see as the three other lackeys started firing out the door and through the roof hoping to hit Peter.
“Are you ok Miss?” Peter calls while dodging bullets and shooting another well aimed web at one of the lackey’s gun barrel.
“Doing fine! Worry about yourself!” Jude calls back as she lurches back to detangle her hair from Rumlow’s grasp. She was successful but only because Rumlow had shifted to take aim at Peter who had just pulled himself into the van and was currently subduing the lackey he previously disarmed.
Peter sensed the danger and was able to maneuver out of the way, the bullet hit the fourth lackey right in shoulder and then the van swerved once more and lackey number four lost his footing and ended up falling through the open door. While this was happening lackey number five tried to grab Peter but Peter was much quicker, he grabbed the man’s arm and tossed him from the van. He shot a web at him so when he lands, he won’t be able to get away so easily.
“And then there was two.” Peter quips.
He then shoots a web at the steering wheel and yanks it towards himself. It comes flying back hitting the driver which knocks him out and causes the van to veer to the right. Peter lunges forward and grabs Jude and flings the two of the out of the door. The van crashes into a fire hydrant as Peter shoots another web toward the street light so he can control their escape. He sets Jude down on the sidewalk as gently as he can before ripping the zip tie, freeing her hands.
“Are you alright?” Peter asks once again. Jude nods her head and before she can speak gunshots ring out from the van. Peter and Jude dodge as best they can, Jude ends up diving behind a parked car while Peter swings up to land on the street light.
Just as Rumlow is getting out of the van Peter spots a quinjet making its way towards the scene.
“Uh oh…now you’re in trouble” Peter calls out childishly.