Worldcon
The few weeks after the Kree incident found things very quiet. Steve was for once taking things easy as he recovered from his latest near miss. He even turned down a mission. He cited that he needed to take some personal time. “Not sure they are gonna allow me to go kid.” Peter sulked at the counter. “Why can’t they let you live a somewhat normal life?” He took a seat next to him. “They are but I can’t just go off and do whatever. They want to make sure it's safe. Too many Hydra surprises lately. He continued to frown. “Just go with your friends and have a good time. Besides you don’t really want to be dragging an old man around… what was it again?”
His face lit up at the chance to explain. “World con! And it turns 100 this year well technically its over 100 but this is their 100th gathering. It’s super cool they are gonna have it back here in New York where it started out at NyCon in-”
“In 1939! I was there!” He was startled by the sudden excitement Bucky was exhibiting. “I took Steve for his birthday. It was so great. We gotta go. I didn’t think that was still a thing!” As if on cue Tony, Pepper, and Steve came in. “Perfect timing. Steve! I wanna go do something with the kid next weekend.” Tony and Steve looked at each other. “That depends...what is it?” He put his hands in his pockets. “Oh well it's um..tell him Peter.” He quickly pushed him forward.
“Oh right my turn to talk. So um there's this thing.. Worldcon and-”
“Hold it, you want to take Barnes to one of your nerd conventions?”
“Yes?” Tony looked at Steve. “Not sure if that's a good plan. What do you think Rodgers?” He crossed his arms. “I mean maybe. We can look into it.” Bucky and Peter were both smiling at them. “Ok well this is weird.” Pepper laughed. “I think it’s cute. Peter could use a friend and James needs the social interaction. How about we ask Bruce to go? He’s a good chaperone.” Tony clapped his hands together. “Cool cool send the king of the nerds to baby sit Parker and the old man.” Peter let out a cheer. “Yes! hanging out with Dr. Banner and the winter soldier! this is gonna be awesome!”
Over the next few days Peter was trying to talk Bruce and Bucky into costumes. After much deliberation they settled on star wars. Bucky chose Han Solo, Bruce picked a Jedi and Peter wanted to be a storm trooper. “Aren’t you a little short to be a storm trooper?” Steve quickly quipped when they presented the plan at dinner. “Damn! The old man got us on a Star Wars reference!” Tony looked over at Bruce. “Banner, language Steve is RIGHT there.” He hung his head “Still have not lived that one down.” Bucky grinned “Did he do the language thing again?” Tony dropped his fork “What do you mean again? There was a first time?” Steve gave him a look that practically begged him to stop. “He made the mistake of saying it the first time the reels were being filmed. Dugan Didn't let him live it down for a moment. We even started a swear jar because of it. The best moment was when Steve ended up having to put money in it. We really let him have it for that.”
“What did he say and why?” Peter looked at him. Bucky saw Pepper nod towards Morgan who was eagerly awaiting the rest of the story. “Well…. What he said is not appropriate for certain company at this table and as for why I guess he had a good reason… They dropped a tank on him.” Morgan's eyes went wide. “What?how?” Peter was at the edge of his seat. “Well when Captain america was out on the field he was the target they all wanted to hit. A few of them got desperate and bold enough and you can do anything when you have enough adrenaline so they rolled a tank over on him. Thankfully they did it on a hill and it rolled over him and kept going barley missed his head. But he had a few cracked bones. Few hours later he was good. A bit sore but no worse for wear.”
Pepper smiled a silent thank you for being mindful of Morgan. “So you guys will be gone for the weekend then wont you?” She asked. Bruce shrugged. “Not really we will be here in the evenings.” Tony rolled his eyes. “No you won't. I’ll get ya a room at the hotel. Go have a good weekend then I don't have to have three nerds walking in and out of my building two days in a row.”
“It's five days!” Peter squeaked. Steve looked up. “Five days? You sure about this?”
"Steve it's fine. I know the people here nothing's going to happen. It will be fun. Trust me. Besides who would think to look for the winter soldier at a sci-fi convention." Bruce seemed to ease some of his apprehensions a bit. "Fine but I want you to check in each day." Bucky rolled his eyes. "Okay mom." Tony raised an eyebrow. "You really missed your window on the whole horrible teenager thing you know that." He responded by sticking his tongue out at Tony. "Rogers, control your brat." Steve couldn't help but laugh.
Wednesday morning came and they were all piling into Natasha’s car. She rolled her eyes when Bruce slid into the front seat. “I can’t believe my job has come to being a nerd taxi service.” He smiled “I’m sure Tony is paying you well enough for it besides you won't have to see us again until Sunday afternoon.” She looked in the rear view mirror “Rogers OK with you being gone that long?” He shrugged. “Seemed like it. We did background checks and all that stuff. Bruce promised to keep a lid on things besides it’s just a bunch of nerds.” She pulled away from the tower. “That it is.”
When they arrived at the hotel it was bustling with people. They made their way to the front desk to check into their room. To no one’s surprise Tony got them one of the best rooms he could buy which worked out because it gave everyone their own bed. Bruce looked out the window and could see the atrium filled with people below. As he looked around he could see there were other windows decorated with flags from their favorite fandoms. “Oooo maybe we should find a flag.” Peter said as he looked around. “Sounds like we have our first mission for the day after we get our badges. what say you, Captain Solo?” He could see Bucky scanning the crowd.It was much bigger than he anticipated despite his research it was hard to imagine just what 3,000 people actually looked like in one place. “It’s huge. What kind of flag should we get?” Bruce thought about it. “Well we could get a star wars one or we could aim for the silliest flag we can find. I could go either way on this. What do you say Peter?” He was working on putting the plastic storm trooper armor on. “Well that depends how silly can we get with that flag?” Bucky helped Peter finish strapping things in place. “There’s only one way to find out. Let's get going.”
As they made their way through the crowd to get registered Peter nudged Bucky. “Look the Avengers are here.” He pointed over to a group that was dressed up as the Avengers including one guy who was comically painted to be green like the Hulk. Bucky got a grin on his face. “Picture” he said as he tossed his phone to Peter. He went over to the group and asked for a shot with them. After they got a few silly pictures with them he sent the pictures to Tony and Steve. “Didn’t realize you guys were coming after all.” Tony was first to respond. “Is that supposed to be me? They look like they are wearing a trash can.” He showed the text to Bruce who laughed. “Tell him you thought he looked pretty good.” He nodded and passed the message along.
The line for registration was moving fairly slow. This gave Bucky time to examine the convention space itself. Old habits die hard and he was always aware of escape routes. He noted that Bruce seemed to be doing the same thing. In an effort to speed things along someone was coming down the line and passing out the schedule of events for the weekend. She paused when she got to the three of them. “Dr. Banner?” He looked at the woman a moment. “Dr. Foster, this is an unexpected surprise. We didn’t know you were in town.” She smiled “I try to keep this under the radar a little bit. I am running a panel on super humans later though if you would like to sit in.” He took the booklet from her. “We will have to see what our plans are. I’d like you to meet Peter and James.” Peter waved and Bucky held his hand out for a shake which Jane gingerly took. “Hi, you're the one Thor talks about.” She blushed. “Yea he and I kinda dated for a while now we are just friends.” Bucky realized he might have embarrassed her. “Sorry I didn’t mean to upset you.” Her eyes brightened. “Oh no it’s just weird knowing that a god from another world talks about you. I should let you guys get moving. Have fun.” They finally got to the top of the line and received their badges for the weekend.
They took a seat at a table nearby and looked at the weekends events. “They have a few game tournaments we could join one of those. Or trivia contests, those are cool.” Bucky looked at the list of trivia sessions and pointed to one. “I gotta do this one.” Bruce scanned the book. “The ultimate Captain America trivia contest. Really? I mean isn’t that cheating?” He got up from the table “only if they know who I really am. I’m gonna sign up right now before the spots are gone.” He came back a few moments later with a satisfied grin on his face. “You are unbelievable, you know that?” He sat back in the chair and continued to look at the other events. There were dances in the evenings and concerts and a costume contest. There were a few other panels about Captain America scattered throughout the weekend and one about the advances made by Stark industries vs Hammer tech. They found a few author readings and made some time for Dr. Foster's presentation and began to look around at everything else going on. It didn’t take long for a small collection of Princess Leia’s to find Bucky. He was doing ok with the attention until one woman was particularly bold and grabby with him.
“Off please.” He pushed the woman away. She looked at him almost shocked, “What’s the matter Solo? Can’t handle a little close contact?” He was adjusting his shirt. “Didn’t like where your hands were.” She rolled her eyes and stomped off. Bruce went over to him. “You need a minute? We could go back to the room if you like.” He looked around and straightened up. “No it’s ok. The way she touched me just brought back some bad memories. I'll be ok.” They made it a few steps when Bucky got the feeling they were being watched. He turned to see someone walking towards them. He took a step behind Bruce who quickly looked to see someone dressed as the red skull standing in front of them. “Can we help you?” The person smiled “I was just hoping to grab a picture of you three you look great.” Bruce could feel the discomfort radiating from Bucky. He turned to him. “This person would like a quick picture of us. Then I think it’s time for a lunch break.” Bucky was practically frozen in place. Peter gave his hand a quick squeeze. “Captain battle pose.” He quickly snapped to attention in his best Han Solo pose. The Red Skull thanked them and went on their way. Bruce led them into the cafe attached to the convention center and sat Bucky at a table with Peter.
“Mr. Barnes I’m sorry I didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to actually dress up as Red Skull.” He put a hand up. “It’s ok. The comic books that came out made it seem like Red Skull was some kind of made up enemy not a real person. They couldn’t possibly know they walked up to one of the only people that actually saw that bastard up close.” Bruce returned to the table with some sandwiches and tea. “Here this should help. You realize they might be at the Trivia tomorrow right?” He shook his head. “I know that now. I just wasn’t prepared for it. They looked so real. Like damn. I thought I would only ever see that face in my nightmares. Sorry we had to stop because of me.” Peter patted his back. “No worries I was actually starting to get hungry anyway so it all works out.” They enjoyed their lunch and made their way back out into the hall to find the vendor area.
They immediately found a booth with dozens of different banners. Bucky was immediately drawn to the section for lord of the rings and grabbed an Elvin flag as well as an Orc flag. Peter and Bruce found a star wars flag that was half rebel alliance and half imperials. Bucky was still digging through flags when he came across the Howling commandos flag. He walked back over to Bruce and Peter. “We should put these up later.” They continued through until it was time for the dungeons and dragons team game they signed up for. He wasn't exactly sure how a tournament style game worked but he was willing to give it a shot. He had enjoyed playing the game with Bruce and Peter. When they got to the room they found their starting table. It was a simplified version of the game. they knew each table had its own dm and the sessions were 10 rounds long with one task to be completed by the teams and one enemy to defeat between them.
They made it through 4 sessions before they were knocked out by a group of 12 year old girls. It was a good match and the girls were absolutely brutal and merciless. The head of their team reminded Bucky of Steve. She was a masterful tactician while her teammates handled some of the more interactive social parts of the game play. Bucky realized it was over after round 4 but didn’t let on that he knew. They ended the game with a hand shake and Bruce handed each of them a card about Stark Industries S.T.E.M. programs for girls. They headed back out just in time to catch Dr. Foster's Panel. It was a packed house; they just barely found seats next to each other. She smiled when she saw them walk in.
Her panel ended up being quite helpful for Bucky as it explained some of the bits and pieces regarding the avengers and other people he had only heard about but still wasn’t comfortable asking about. Of course she couldn’t exactly cover super humans without mentioning the start of it all, Project Rebirth. Once she was finished she allowed people to ask questions. There were some good ones that people asked about the social implications of super humans existing, even bringing up the attempts to legislate against mutants. There was a gentleman that stood up and something about him made Bucky cringe. “Thank you Dr. Foster for your presentation today however I can’t help but think your studies have been a little bit biased since it is no secret that you were involved with Thor for quite some time.” Jane tensed up a bit but didn’t back down. “Well in an attempt to avoid any bias my presentation has been peer reviewed and in case you hadn’t noticed Thor was omitted from it just to be safe. I maintained my focus on earth based super humans such as Captain Rogers and the Hulk.” The man nodded along “Ok but seriously what makes you qualified to present on the subject and be honest here your only connection to any of this is Thor, unless of course you have moved on to Captain America.” This elicited a bit of snickering from a few men and women in the room.
She was starting to get flustered as a few more agreed with the off handed comments. “I don’t feel like we need to battle about credentials here but if you feel so inclined you may look at my website and you can see how my work has begun to overlap with this subject among the many other subjects I specialize in. I hoped this would be a fun discussion for the weekends events especially with there being a special focus on the convention being back in Captain Rogers hometown for its 100th meeting.” The man rolled his eyes. “It must be easy to excel in a field when you have an Avenger in your back pocket.” At this point, Bucky had enough and he quietly walked over and picked the man up and took him out of the room, placing him in a nearby garbage can just outside the window of the presentation room. He came back in without a word and sat down waiting for them to continue. Jane couldn’t hold back the laugh and soon most of the room were laughing as the man comically tried to escape the can which only resulted in him tipping over spilling himself with the rest of the trash on the floor. When the room cleared she came over to them. “Thank you for the assistance. There’s one in every crowd. I have learned not to argue with them. I know my worth at the end of the day.”
It was then that she noticed the silver of his arm showing through where his sleeve had slid up. Her eyes went wide. “Barnes?” He froze. Bruce looked around the room. “Keep that information quiet. We just want to have a nice calm weekend.” She smiled. “I can do that. Let me buy dinner for you guys at least.” Bruce grinned “Nah let’s let Tony pay for this one.” He pulled out a charge card. “He said if we needed anything this weekend put it on the card. So I think we need to have a nice dinner in our room,” he added when Bucky looked a bit nervous “I would love to have you.” She smiled “fine with me I have some things to wrap up. I can meet you in the elevator in about 2 hours is that ok?” They all agreed “Yes we haven’t seen all of the vendor hall yet or the artist alley. We should be able to finish most of it by that time.”
They parted ways and continued to the remainder of the vendor hall. There was a booth selling adult sized pajamas made to look like animals and other characters. Peter was scanning the racks when he pulled out an Iron Man one. “Oh god that's hilarious. Does stark know about these things?” They began to scan the racks and Bucky immediately found a Captain America one. He looked over at Bruce. “I should get this and say nothing just show up in the common room one morning wearing it. Bruce found a spider-man one and smiled at Peter. Well, I'm gonna have to get this one.” They quickly paid for them and moved through the rest of the booths. They had just finished the vendors area when Bruce realized it was time to meet Jane.
She had just walked up to the elevators when they had arrived. "What's in the bags?" Peter grinned and pulled out the pajamas. "We all got a pair." She grinned. "I can see why Thor likes you." Peter blushed. "He talks about us?" They stepped into the elevator. "All the time. He speaks very highly of all of you. He is still learning about James but from what I understand Loki has filled in some of the blanks." Bucky turned deep red. "Loki talks about me?" He said quietly. She gave him a puzzled look.
"We...uh we kinda had a thing for a while at the beginning of the summer." She raised an eyebrow. “You? You’re the one they have been brooding about these past two months?” She saw something in his eyes not quite hope but something familiar about it. “I...um...they...what?” She smiled. “They are a pair of heart breakers aren't they?” He looked awkwardly down at his feet. “I think I was the heart breaker.” They were now sitting in the hotel sweet he filled Jane in on his side of the breakup. “Suddenly Loki was just gone. So I figured it was just another person in a long line of people I hurt.” Peter patted him softly. “Those situations are always tough. I wish we could have helped sort it out.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Jane pulled out her phone and discreetly texted Thor.
“We need to get Loki and James to see each other. He clearly misses them.” Thor responded quickly “Agreed. Perhaps you can offer Loki a chance to be a part of your speaking engagement this weekend. I am aware that He is there with Dr. Banner and Peter.”
“Great plan. The sooner the better. I’m sure we can get them some room to speak privately.”
That night Jane proved to be excellent company. Despite what he had thought talking about the breakup was quite helpful. Even Peter was able to offer some helpful input. Once he had fallen asleep the adults were able to talk. "So why did your thoughts go to Vivian?" He began to blush again. "I felt intimidated. Being with Loki it's different. Not like being with anyone else not Steve or Stark." He froze as Bruce's eyes went wide. "Tony?" He realized what Bruce was thinking.
"No no god no. Um There was a night…with Howard and I. We were both bored and lonely and kinda drunk so one thing led to another and yeaaaa." He waited half expecting them to question his relationship with Steve but no one mentioned it. "I know what you mean. When I realized that Thor and I were headed that direction I was practically apologizing. He was patient and kind. I will tell you this, they might be gods but they are no different than you or I in the bedroom. I will admit though I'm a bit curious. You said you have been with Steve?"
He let out a laugh. "It was one time. But yeah it was...an experience. His first time with a guy. Those dames at the USO really did teach him a thing or two." At this Bruce spit his drink. “”Sorry did I ruin the illusion that Captain America was a virgin?” Jane was in near hysterics as Bruce tried to compose himself. “No it's just I never really thought that way about well ...most people especially not Steve.” Bucky grinned “yeah and that's how he gets away with so much shit.”