Chapter 3
Bucky meets a kid named Peter.
He's bubbly and energetic-- everything that Bucky's not-- but they get along quite nicely. Sometimes, when he's in the lab watching Tony, the kid will come by just to help. It's like watching a father-son duo together, and Bucky wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Peter turns out to be a genius like the engineer.
Something about watching them work together gets him nostalgic; back to when Captain America saved him for the first time and they spent all afternoon celebrating with the howling commandos, then heading off to do what they had always done: sit around by the window and talk.
Nor Bucky or Steve was a genius, and quite frankly, they'll never be, but that didn't mean they couldn't have sensical conversations about life and (mostly) end up getting over-emotional about it.
That was in the past, in the days when he was just barely scarred from the sight of war-buddies and battlegrounds roaring with tragedy. If he could, Bucky would've pulled himself aside and just gave clearance on the future: Things’ll turn out okay, buddy. Just you wait.
If only he could.
~
Peter learns about what happened to Bucky quickly. He comes in one afternoon, the usual, happy buzz absent as he sits down on the couch and flashes an apologetic smile.
Bucky's confused about the sudden change, but it doesn't take long for the situation to click in: He's being pitied again, only this time it's by a kid not even a quarter of his age and smarter than he'll ever be.
“Steve told you,” Is all he says, and readily earns a short nod in response.
“I get sensory overload just like you. The spidey senses get all frazzled, make it hard to focus on anything.”
“Steve told you to say that, too.” Bucky sighs, leaning back against the sofa and clenching his jaw. He doesn't like being babied, especially when it's Steve's outright doing, no less.
“Actually, no.” Peter replied sheepishly. “I was going through a system Mr.Stark had me code. There was some…” He hesitated, “footage.”
Bucky knew exactly what the kid was referring to and promptly tightened his grip on the couch as to not groan out his frustration.
“I gotta say, I never thought I'd witness somebody nearly choke out Iron man. It's pretty cool.”
If it weren’t for the expression on Peter’s face, Bucky would have glared holes into the damn kid. He didn’t, but a small huff was as far of a longshot than the usual, sarcastic remark he’d make. Sam probably saw that side of him more than anybody else in the place.
“I didn't even know I was doing it.” He mumbled, feeling the guilt bubble up right in his chest.
“Like you're underwater and your head's about to explode, right?” Peter asked.
“Yeah,” Bucky muttered quietly.
It was silent for a moment, save from the TV playing on low volume. Then, Peter spoke up again, but this time his voice was more cheerful. “Wanna see something cool?” He doesn't even wait for an answer as he stands up and slings his backpack over a shoulder. The thing was obviously packed full of books, but Peter carried it around like it weighed nothing.
Bucky stares, blinking a few times, before he gets to his senses and joins the other. “Yeah,” He repeats, and stays curiously silent for the rest of the time.
~
They end up in the main vent system of the compound. Stark ordered them to be built large enough for any of the Avengers to escape, if needed, but probably didn’t take in consideration that it was an easy access for whenever Bucky has his panic moments.
He hasn’t had any recently, Peter’s one to point out, and mentions that there’s a whole file on the entire vent system he’s waiting to get-- Under Tony’s supervision, of course.
It’s a nice agreement they come to: Bucky’s allowed to stay in here whenever he wants, and in return, Peter gives him a map and gets to ask as many questions about the forties as his little head could think of.
He starts off as soon as Bucky agrees, smiling all wide and adorable, eyes big in his face out of interest. “Did you ever see that movie Citizen Kane?”
“The reporter who couldn’t figure out the meaning behind rosebud? Hell, that came out the year I got drafted.” Bucky chuckled, shaking his head fondly. Jesus, when’s the last time he’s seen a film?
“Yeah!” Peter exclaimed happily. “Uncle Ben and I used to watch that movie all the time. He was really into everything from that era, especially all the movies with Cap in them.”
Bucky nodded, cracking a grin and leaning back against the cool vent wall. The soft draft of air running through was soothing in a way that he couldn’t really explain-- Not with words, anyways. It was nostalgic, reminded him of those nights on rooftops in the city. Steve was such a small thing back then, it’s ridiculous his heart even fit in his ribcage.
He then shifted to peek out a slit in the wall. “Ben sounds like a great man,” He commented, watching as some scientist shuffled from test tube to test tube.
Banner; he wasn’t the type to be around much. Bucky’s barely even heard him speak, let around stay around the compound enough to provide moments of conversation. He just talks to Tony, uses terms that sound far too advanced, and scatters off in a car with Happy until they leave everybody’s line-of-sight.
“He was,” Peter replied quietly. Bucky doesn’t even have to look back over to know what he meant. He does, but only out of respect to flash an apologetic look and nudge at the kid’s side. In all the time that he’s known of the Spider-Man, heard the stories, seen clips on the TV, he’s never actually learned much.
Spider-Man: the new hero buzzing about the city with his identity hidden and sarcastic remarks twofold, was just as described. He was small, but not small like Steve had been; he was more lean and muscled, and had puffy hair that somehow managed to fit in that mask of his.
Peter was just a kid-- an enhanced one, yes-- but that didn’t take away the fact that he wasn’t even out of high school yet. The public eye will never know the identity of the arachnid, and Bucky found himself to be a little jealous of that fact.
Things would have been so much easier if people didn’t know who the Winter Soldier was.
He’s seen the horrible remarks about him through the media, had a fair guess that Stark had it way worse. And he shouldn’t be spending time going down the list of news coverage just to find out another person was blaming him for the state of disarray in the world. It’s just hard not to, especially now that access to such things were easily found at a touch of a screen.
Bucky grimaced, watching the way Peter’s eyes lingered on him; confused as ever. He didn’t want to ruin that innocent look on his face.
“Are you hungry?” Peter asked, tilting his head.
He wasn’t exactly sure if that was code word for something, but for one thing, Bucky was more than relieved that the subject didn’t gravitate towards his well being. He was fine and this whole day had been swarming with new things he found interest in.
Learning that calling someone “sugar” was seen as really weird had to be the most surprising.
“What time is it?”
“School just got out an hour ago, so maybe around four?”
“Then yeah, i’m hungry.”
When they both emerged from the vent, Tony gave an amused look at Bucky and then did the same treatment for Peter, though it was a little more dull. Watching a kid like him climb out of a small space had to be the norm by now, just like watching him swing by the window on days where doors were apparently deemed as “too boring.”
He’ll never understand this generation of kids’, even if he tries to.
“Hey, Gandalf. Glad you passed.” Tony goaded, smirking to himself as he turned to throw out an order to his AI.
Bucky didn’t get the reference; it was obvious on his face. But that didn’t stop Peter from giggling and explaining the premise of the movie: Short, rich person with big feet meets a wizard who invites dwarfs to his house and ends up getting the hobbit into a huge adventure with dragons, elf people, and a whole list of mythical things that made just about as much sense as those long, scientific titles Bruce uses.
Yeah, he wasn’t really too sure about that either. It made him suspicious that Peter made that entire thing up, but that theory dropped when FRIDAY made a loud confirmation that the movie was to be casted into Bucky’s room whenever he pleases. And by casted, it means he’ll get to order a movie to play on his wall like the lazy person technology had made him out to be.
“Clint’s the one who forced everyone to go on a ‘hobbit spree’ to break the compound in,” Tony continued after Peter gave up trying to explain things. “He’s got an unbelievably bad taste for movies. Even with Capsicle and his rom-coms, Clint takes the cake.”
“Have you guys’ gone to a drive in theater?” Bucky asked.
Tony took a brief moment to think, then he looked back over to the soldier with a quirked brow that said god, you’re old. He was; there isn’t anything incorrect about that, but Bucky has that heard they’re still around-- In most places over in the west, but still a thing nevertheless.
He tilted his head, long hair framing his face. “What? It’s way better than going to a regular theater, only to find out your best friend was fightin’ some greaseball twice his size.” Bucky’s brows furrowed at the memory.
Steve really was the same old idiot from back in the day, although those “greaseballs” were now aliens, robots, or a simple, non-sentient truck that happened to scratch up his motorcycle. Either way, there always was a fight going on.
That punk.
“Unlike you, nobody else has been friends with Spangles when he was the size of a stick.” Tony sighed, annoyed and fond at the same time, and waved Peter off to go back to his coding.
At the wave of his hand, Stark could get anybody to do anything. That applied to Bucky too, apparently.
“You had yourself, didn’t’cha?”
“Sorry, what was that? I don’t remember you getting so teasing all of a sudden, Barnes. Did you finally come out of your shell for me?”
“Fuck off,” Bucky grumbled, without any real heat behind it. Stark had a point: he really was starting to come around. Even if it was taking its slow, slow time.
And boy was he starting to get used to it.
He turns his focus over to Peter with curiosity. If he had known more about the kid, then maybe they could speak more than just offering food or sitting silently in a vent system for five minutes.
Don't get Bucky wrong, he liked the kid, almost as much as he liked the company of Tony. But it was a little hard to get around his vanished social skills and panic attacks when there's somebody there tip-toeing around the sensitive questions and treating him like a piece of glass.
At this point, anything could trigger Bucky into an attack.
“There's a fridge over by the back, if you want. Beer, ice cream, water, they're all in there.” Tony offers.
He follows Bucky's line-of-sight with interest, but doesn't mention it. Instead, he simply continues on a conversation with the kid to leave Bucky on his own; to make a choice.
He drinks water, and not because he's entirely thirsty, but because he needs something to do, something to fidget with, or he'll lose his mind. Steve's gotten him countless amounts of fidget toys after being recommended by the therapist. So many, in fact, that neither of them know where some of them are half the time. If they're not on Bucky's floor, they're on the upper one where an array of Avengers are. One time, he opened the cupboards to find his Rubik's Cube in a Captain America mug.
That had been a weird moment to experience on his own. God knows if it even happened at all.
When he comes back over to where he was previously, Peter is packing his stuff up in a not-so-rush as Tony scowls at a paper in his hand. From the looks of it, it's some sort of chemistry paper that may or may not have to do with the assigned homework he received.
When Bucky was in highschool, they were just barely learning about the decimal system. Poor Steve had spent so many frustrating nights ranting about how no, Buck, you can't tell me any of this is useful in real life. Have you seen Walter Stephenson? He's made a life outta cashiering down by the market. Cashiering! An’ he ain't gotta do no decimal problems, I'll tell ya.
“When is this due?” Tony asks, cutting off one of Bucky's spaced-out memory moments without even realizing it. “There's no way other kids’ in your school are going to finish quickly if you're having to ask me about it.”
“This Friday,” Peter answers, glancing up from his pack. “And Ned's already got half of it done. I just wasn't really… paying attention in class, I guess.”
Bucky raised his eyebrows and collectively gained both of their attention. “It's a dame, ain't it? Pretty girl's got you all distracted?”
It was hilarious watching Peter's face burn bright red and Tony's quickly pull together into an expression of amusement. He'll have to ask FRIDAY to play back that moment later when he has the time.
“I-I mean,” Peter stammers, and it's at that moment when he realizes there's no hope in lying about it. “She's just really cool, okay? It's kinda hard to go about things when she's around me all the time.”
Both Tony and Bucky nod in response. They've both been there, both admired someone that had the decency to graze their presence from time to time.
Tony doesn't pry, and neither does Bucky. They look at each other as if reading telekinetic thoughts was something they could collectively do, then say their goodbyes’ to Peter, who rushes out of sight as quickly as he possibly could.
That leaves them in the lab again, alone and oddly calm for the absence of sound.
“How’d you know that?” Tony asks, breaking the silence and staring over at him expectantly. His eyebrows are high on his face, and it makes Bucky wonder what emotion goes along with it.
“Know what?”
“That Pete was crushing over some girl. I’ve been spending the whole week trying to figure out what’s wrong with him.”
“Oh,” Bucky chuckles, shaking his head. “I dunno, I just guessed? He’s got that vibe about him, y’know?”
He expects to see confusion on Tony’s face because of course he doesn’t know. Hell, Bucky doesn’t even know what he’s talking about, and to expect a genius to? Yeah, that was a little far-fetched. But he doesn’t get that. Instead, Bucky just sees a smile and notices a small sound of laughter accompanying it.
“I remember being like that,” Tony shakes his head. “Cap’s gone on and on about how you charmed all the girls back in the day,” He turns, inspecting a small gadget in his hand. Bucky realizes that it’s his way of relieving anxiety; of handing the situation over into the other’s hands so that he could think.
His voice sounds a little more mumbly when he speaks up again, and Bucky eagerly tilts his head to listen. “I wouldn’t blame ‘em.”
Bucky feels his face heat up, but he decides to ignore it. Maybe somewhere, hidden away in his frantic brain, that bit of charm from back then was still there. HYDRA had gotten rid of a lot of things, but he’d be damned if they took away his sense of confidence. With Tony around, there’s no way he’ll be able to survive without it.
“What was that?” He asks, teasing grin on his face. He’s not fooling anybody; super-soldier hearing came with the whole package, and Tony obviously knew that very well.
So long for deceit.
“Have you looked in a mirror recently?” Tony scoffs, but he still keeps his eyes on the gadget. “You’ve got everybody wrapped around your shiny, metal fingers without even trying. And I thought that I was the master of that.”
“Brooklyn charm goes a long way, doll.” Bucky answered with a small chuckle.
The bantering and small conversation between the two was an endless stream, and even when Tony started to call it a night, Bucky couldn’t help but draw the moment out that much longer; see those doe eyes light up at every joke he managed to make.
Tony was right there, so close that the soldier could reach out and touch, pull him in until those eyes of his paired up to Bucky’s; pale blue on deep, hazel brown.
And it was at that moment that Bucky knew he had fallen. Hard.