Chapter 4
“So I’m thinking of leaving my apartment,” Natasha said casually as they sat around the table.
The four couldn’t agree on a restaurant for lunch, so they’d ended up at a local diner. Natasha recalled many early mornings, late nights and everything in between spent here with various assemblies of team mates throughout the years.
Tony was sitting quietly on the bench next to Jan, who looked more bored than anyone else, especially considering this was her idea. Natasha and Bucky were seated on the stand alone chairs across from them. Bucky had barely looked up from his food and Natasha had idly started the conversation more out of a want to break the slightly uncomfortable silence than a real need to share something with her friends.
“Cool. Let me know if you need help moving your stuff,” Bucky said in between mouthfuls of pancakes.
She stirred her straw in her iced tea, fully aware that Tony’s eyes were trained carefully on her.
“But you love your apartment,” he said. “Why would you want to move?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was thinking it’s time for a change. Maybe a bigger place, where Liho would have more room to run around.”
“Change is good,” Jan was saying with a nod while Tony gazed at her with a frown on his face as he pondered Natasha’s noncommittal words. She clapped her hands suddenly. “Ooooh, we could get the whole team together, have a house-warming party at your new place once you’re all settled!”
Natasha cringed inwardly at the thought, but she didn’t say anything. James must have read her mind though, because he glanced at her sideways with a half smile and nudged her playfully.
“Are you going to finish your fries?” He asked.
She shook her head. “Help yourself,” she said, sliding the plate over to him. She smiled back, grateful to him for causing a distraction and to have some place to look other than Tony’s probing gaze.
“I see nothing has changed as far as your appetite is concerned,” she said teasingly.
“Cute,” Jan said out loud. She looked at Tony. “Don’t you think they make a cute couple?”
“Adorable,” he said flatly.
Jan grinned. “It’s nice to see you two getting along again. Kind of just like old times with you working together, too.”
“You know, you could just stay at the mansion until you figure it all out,” Tony said, his eyes still on her.
Jan looked from Tony to Natasha and back again, chewing her meal slowly.
Natasha was glad when the waiter brought their check.
“Well, this was pleasant,” Bucky said with only a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Thanks, Stark.”
“Yes, thank you, Tony,” Natasha added.
“My pleasure,” he said softly. He held the door open for all of them and suddenly Natasha felt a little panicked as she realized that she did not want to go straight back to the mansion with Jan and Tony.
She looked up at Bucky, as if an excuse would magically be written somewhere on his face.
“I guess I’ll catch up with you guys later,” she started, just as Jan squealed.
“Hey, look the fair’s in town!” the shorter woman was practically jumping up and down. “We should totally go!”
“I really don’t think Nat and Bucky would want to go to a carnival…..” Tony was saying.
“Why not?” James said quickly to Natasha’s surprise. She raised a quizzical eyebrow at him and he winked.
Natasha turned back to Tony, spotting her chance. “It could be fun,” she said.
“Yeah, don’t be a spoil sport,” Jan added with a pout.
“I should get back to work,” Tony protested, now only half-heartedly.
“Please, sweetie?” Jan asked with large round eyes.
“Maybe we could walk around once,” he finally conceded.
Natasha shook her head as Jan smiled satisfactorily, taking him by the hand and leading the group through the entrance. She knew Tony’s tastes in women varied from time to time, but she would never understand how these two Avengers lasted in a relationship. It must have been the science thing.
The carnival was buzzing with attendees, enough that the four could pass through inconspicuously, but not so much so that it was over-crowded. Families enjoyed sugary food at a nearby set of picnic tables under a makeshift tent, teenagers loudly played games and couples walked by hand in hand.
The smell of gasoline lingered in the air as they walked past the motor powered rides and a band was playing on a temporary stage.
“Let’s go see if these guys are any good,” Tony said, his demeanor brightening slightly. Jan was shaking her head, pointing to a booth where some people were squirting water at a target until a balloon popped.
Natasha turned around to find that Bucky had stepped away to wait on a short line at a food tent, returning seconds later with a large puff of cotton candy.
“Come on,” he said, nodding over to where Jan and Tony were playing a game and the billionaire was laughing in spite of himself. “I’ll win you a teddy bear.”
“Um, the plan was sort of to break away without having to explain myself,” Natasha said bluntly.
“Fine. You can do whatever you want. After I win you a teddy bear.”
He motioned to Tony and Jan. “Hey, Stark!” he called in a challenge.
Natasha rolled her eyes.
“You remember the last time we were at a carnival?” He asked idly as they walked over to their friends.
“When we were undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D.?” She said. “Yeah. We made out behind the bumper cars until those thugs showed up.” She nudged him lightly in the ribs. “That’s not going to happen this time.”
“Barnes,” Tony said, placing some bills on the counter. “Pick your arena.”
Bucky nodded over to the corner, where the attendant was arranging milk bottles into a pyramid. “You first, man.”
The attendant handed him a stack of beanbags and explained that he would have three tries.
Tony winded up and launched the beanbags, aiming the first one at the bottom of the pyramid, where only one bottle tipped over. The second one took the whole top of the pyramid out, and the third landed perfectly in the middle of the structure, obliterating all but two bottles.
“Close,” the attendant said, clearly bored.
“Whatever. No one wins these things anyway,” Tony muttered.
The kid rearranged the bottles and handed the beanbags to Bucky, who tipped his baseball cap before grasping the first one in his left hand, pulling his arm all the way back.
All the bottles smashed to the floor on his first try and the attendant rang the bell before handing him his prize.
“He has an unfair advantage,” Tony pointed out.
Bucky held the stuffed bear in front of Natasha, lightly tapping her nose with its head before handing it to her and she laughed.
“So sweet.” Jan said with a dramatic sigh. “You two really are adorable.”
“Now can we go listen to the music?” Tony asked.
“Let’s go ride the ferris wheel,” Natasha said, giving Bucky a meaningful look.
“Uh, yeah. Let’s do that,” he agreed.
“Ok. We’ll meet up with you guys in bit,” Jan said, giving them a little wave as she followed Tony to the stage. “Isn’t that nice? They want some alone time,” she was saying. “They are just too cute.”
Tony looked mildly irritated. “They’re not even dating.”
It was harder to hear them among the noise of the carnival the further away they got, but Jan’s voice carried as she said, “Yeah. Like Nat’s going to remember what it’s like to be with a guy like that and not want to get back with him….”
Bucky coughed uncomfortably. “So…. ferris wheel? Or do you want to just ditch them?”
“Ditch them, of course,” Natasha said. “But ferris wheel first.”
He gave her a lopsided grin as he pushed his hands into his pockets and she linked her arm through his elbow as they headed for the ride, recalling a time when that grin had sent her heart racing.
She saw out of the corner of her eye that Bucky had handed the ride operator more than enough bills to keep them on the ride for awhile.
He waited for her to get settled in the car first before he joined her, casually letting his left arm drape across the back of the seat behind her without actually touching her as they were lifted backwards, then up and over. “I’d say this is scary, but I know they’re put together much more safely than they used to be,” he said.
“Still afraid of heights?” She asked as she set the stuffed bear down in her lap, her gaze catching on Tony and Jan dancing in front of the stage on the other side of the fair despite the fact that it had suddenly grown darker.
“I’m not afraid of heights,” he said defensively.
“You are.”
They were silent for one full turn of the ferris wheel before he asked quietly, “So… is this a good time to talk?”
She sighed. “As good as any, I suppose.”
“What are you thinking?” He looked at her carefully, his face illuminated in the lights from the ferris wheel.
"I can’t lie and say that what you did when you told S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop working on my memory doesn’t hurt me,” she said quietly. “But I do understand why you did it, and I honestly think I maybe would’ve made the same choice had the roles been reversed.”
He nodded. “That’s fair.”
“I’ve enjoyed working closely with you these past few weeks, James.”
“Me too,” he said, the relief evident in his tone. “We’re cut from the same mold, you and me.”
“But I can’t just go back,” she added gently. “I remember what it’s like to be in love with you. I do. But I can’t go back.”
“Then us being friends will just have to do,” Bucky said softly.
She smiled gratefully.
“I want you in my life, Nat.That’s never going to change.”
The ride paused as they were coming up for a third turn and she looked down, spotting Jan pulling Tony by the hand in another direction just as they were climbing higher again.
”You know, if that’s what you want, I’m pretty sure you can have it.”
The ride jerked to a stop and she looked up at him, her eyes wide as she struggled to find an appropriate response to what he had just suggested, and that’s when she saw it.
Doombots, several of them were on the ground surrounding Tony and Jan.
She looked over the edge of the door, realizing that they were stopped at the top of the ferris wheel. The car swayed back and forth, but the ride gave no sign of moving.
Tony had called his Iron Man armor, and Jan’s wings were sprouting out of her back as she motioned for the many civilians to clear the area.
Natasha could hear screams coming from the cars below them and she looked to Bucky, who nodded decisively.
“Stay here!” He shouted to their fellow ride patrons. “You might be safer here.”
She stood up on the bench of the car, gazing at the ground below and gulping slightly before gripping the safety bar above the latch to the gate, leaping head over feet and tumbling into the air to control her momentum and she landed in a hard crouch, her boots absorbing most of the impact.
Bucky’s metal arm clanged as he clambered down a little less gracefully than she had and they were off to join their outnumbered friends.
“Took you long enough,” Iron Man said sarcastically as he fired a couple of blasts from his hands.
Natasha and Bucky settled into a familiar routine of hand to hand combat while Jan flew around the outside of the circle they’d drawn the Doombots into, ushering the last of the civilians to safety.
“Tony!” Natasha shouted to get his attention. Iron Man’s glowing eyes fixed on her and she threw the bear into the air.
Without missing a beat, he sent a repulsor beam shooting out of his palm, electrifying the stuffed toy and she jumped into the air, placing a well aimed kick and sending the fireball into a robot.
The explosion was enough the scramble the signals and Bucky was crushing the arms of the last of the bots as Jan and Natasha bounded over.
“I think that’s it,” Tony said, tugging on the wires inside an open panel on the back of one of the Doombots.
“What are you doing?” Natasha asked.
“Sending a little message to Viktor,” he said with a grin.
“Isn’t that more Parker’s style?”
He shrugged. “This oughta team him a lesson about messing with Tony Stark while he’s out with his friends.”
Natasha and Jan laughed and she looked briefly at each of her teammates while she caught her breath. This was a familiar routine that she would never tire of. This was normal, easy. She could do this.
Tony’s sparkling eyes landed on hers, his pupils still dilated from the fight. He winked at her, his wide billion dollar smile showing his dimples. It was enough to send her heart racing.