Chapter 13
Tony watches as Bucky edits a video of some kind- kittens it looked like this time- frowning at the screen. It was interesting to watch him work, to see the way he examined the clips he had shot with a camera Tony made him and glued them all together into some usually bizarre narrative. Bucky didn’t seem to like narratives that made a huge amount of sense and it was starting to show in his fucking bizarre movie taste. Tony didn’t like anything Bucky did, especially not weird musicals that also included body parts being ripped out and Paris Hilton for some reason, but he dealt with it. Better than Yasha’s horror flicks. He’d be worried if he wasn’t sure that Yasha had little desire to actually inflict violence unless, for some reason, he felt pushed to. He had reacted worse to Tony’s bruise than Bucky had and honestly that was a feat.
Bucky kept looking at his bruise and for awhile his face was unreadable but eventually it settled into cold disgust. Yasha was just flat out angry and for some reason Tony thought that was better than Bucky’s reaction. Maybe it was because it was obvious that Yasha never had much respect for Steve in the first place so he had nothing to lose when he saw that bruise while Bucky did. Either way Tony felt bad almost for Steve. This situation was his own making but Tony knew what it was like to lose everything you cared about. It was just that unlike Steve he wasn’t so selfish that he took his pain out on others- usually he just took it out on himself to a point where others accidentally got caught up in his shit.
“What are you thinking so hard about over there?” Bucky asks, smiling up at him.
He considers answering honestly but decides against that and goes for what drew his attention to begin with. “I appreciate your ability to edit,” he says. It was crude at best but he had to start somewhere, plus his ability to tell some ridiculous story was kind of funny in a weird way.
Bucky gives his computer screen a skeptical look, “I’m sure you could do better than this and I have it on good authority that you don’t usually work with editing software,” he says.
Yeah, be probably could but that wasn’t the point. “Doesn’t matter, the video itself isn’t what I care about. It more… the curiosity and the willingness to learn something so far out of your comfort zone,” he says.
Bucky snorts, “Rhodey said it was always some weird thing that attracted you. Something no one else would even think of. I um… don’t see the appeal in this,” he says, gesturing to the video in front of him.
“Most wouldn’t when it isn’t skill I’m attracted to. But I um… like when people use the things I make them and unlike the rest of the Avengers you aren’t using weapons. People I care about using things that aren’t meant to at least maim people is kind of my… thing,” he says, shrugging.
Bucky smiles a little, “so you like taking care of people? That’s adorable,” he says and Tony wrinkles his nose. “Make that face all you want but its true now come here, I’m having some trouble with this.” Tony considers not going over to spite Bucky but he goes, sitting beside him and looking over what he had so far.
*
Natasha shakes her head as Shuri Dummy wheels along behind her. “He likes you,” Tony says, nodding to the bot he’s given inexplicable personality traits.
“This is a robot, it has no feelings,” Shuri tells Tony.
Predictably he makes an offended noise, “does so. Well, not like humans but he does have some basic code that’s essentially robot emotions. FRIDAY’s personality and sense of emotions are much more developed, but Dummy still has enough put into him that he has a personality.”
Shuri raises an eyebrow at the bot skeptically and Dummy wheels forward almost apprehensively, claw spinning just a little before he backs off a little and wheels over to Tony’s toolbox. He picks up a wrench and brings it back, poking Shuri in the arm with it. “Tell your robot to keep its wrench to itself,” she says, trying unsuccessfully to wave the robot off.
“He wants you to play fetch,” Tony tells her. Shuri gives the bot another skeptical look before she throws the wrench, eyebrows shooting up in surprise as the bot takes off after it at top speeds. When he finds the wrench he brings it back immediately, handing it off to Shuri. “Be careful, if you throw it too much he’ll decide to play forever and trust me you get bored way before he does.”
Shuri, however, looks enthused. “Your robot plays fetch! That is brilliant!” she says excitedly. “I never would have thought of that,” she says, throwing the wrench again.
Tony grins and explains how he did it and, to Natasha’s surprise, his explanation seems to go over her head. She’s watched the two interact, and she’s seen what Shuri can do, and even without that by Tony’s own admission she was the smarter one. So it seems odd to her that Shuri wouldn’t understand his explanation until Tony explains it in a different way with a lot more words she doesn’t understand. The jargon works though because Shuri’s eyes light up as understanding dawns on her. “I am so making robots that fetch!” she says excitedly, throwing the wrench for Dummy again and watching as he wheels after it.
With Shuri entertained Tony walks over to her. “Find anything useful?” he asks and she sighs, handing over the information she knew FRIDAY already gave to him. The best and worst part about being friends with Tony was his technology- FRIDAY would have given him whatever she found relevant. Granted she could tell the AI not to do that and she has, but this time it was easier to have Tony in her business rather than out of it.
“You know I picked up a trail. But… it might be best if you checked that out,” she says begrudgingly. Overemotional wasn’t her thing- it never has been. But lately all of her hot buttons have been pressed and she knew when to leave well enough alone and step back from things some. And Tony, for all his faults, was a good person to help her out in that regard.
He sighs, “I did and things aren’t quite lining up but in weird areas. I think it’s a trap for you specifically, but there’s this weird stuff on the Winter Soldier too but I can’t figure out how Bucky would factor in. Maybe this week’s villain thought you’d go to Steve after getting pissed off at me and this is some weird way to lure him in too?” he asks more than states, frowning at the screen in front of him.
It wouldn’t be a bad choice in subject- the only think that could have possibly lured Steve away from Bucky was more information on Bucky. At least until Tony threw a wrench into things and now she suspected that Steve was a lot more desperate than he let on. That couldn’t bode well for someone with his personality but that wasn’t her business. She didn’t go sticking her dick where it didn’t belong; Tony could deal with that mess.
“Maybe so. But I’ve been going to you since this started, why change things now?” she asks.
Tony shrugs, “because I’m an asshole?” he says.
She rolls her eyes, “if that was a reason to dislike a person I wouldn’t like most of the people I do. You have more technological ability than Steve and a wider circle of influence as well as knowledge on how to use it. And a moral compass that changes to suit your situation best. You fit my needs more than Steve ever would unless I want sheer bravery and a solid punch. Or good PR. This person seems to know me and not know me well in almost equal parts,” she says.
“Or maybe not. Steve’s moral compass is whatever it takes to keep Bucky around,” Tony points out. “This person seems to know that. What I’m curious about is why I haven’t been targeted.”
Natasha laughs, “not everything is about you, Stark,” she says but there’s no heat behind the statement. Actually she was curious too. She and Steve were the more dangerous members of the team, but Tony probably ranked number one as far as danger goes simply because he was ballsy enough to do stupid things on a whim and hope they worked. Both she and Steve took much more calculated risks than that. Plus there was Tony’s genius and wide influence to consider- that only did more to make him someone to target.
“Guess not. I’ll take it though,” he says. “So, we going to follow this lead or what?”
She considers it for a long moment before she nods, “we should proceed with caution,” she says more to herself than Tony. It was a rare occasion, she thinks, that she needed that reminder more than Tony did but she accepts her fate.
“Alright. I’ll see if anything else useful pops up before we make another trip halfway around the world,” he says, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder before walking away.
*
Tony is surprised when Shuri’s eyes light up in shock and glee. “That is amazing she says and he frowns as the suit covers his body. Amazing for what he had before, yes, but considering what she had? Not really.
“You made T’Challa’s entire suit come out of a necklace, this came out of a bulky sweater. This should not be impressive by your standards. Except for maybe the shape shifting part,” he says more to himself than her. That had been a nice blend of alien tech that Peter had found not long ago that he chose to study. It wasn’t like any US agencies knew what the fuck they were doing with it and if people who were going to use the tech to rob people and whatever someone needed to figure it out. So he was drafted to figure it out and it didn’t take long. So if he stole some alien ideas an implemented them, well, that was the price of learning new things and the government should have expected that.
“Yeah, but I have vibranium and I’m smarter- I mean no offense by that either. That and absolutely no one is even remotely close to this level of advanced. It’s not often that anyone comes close to achieving technology like mine. Actually this is the first time that has ever happened so sure, technically my tech is better, but that doesn’t make yours less impressive considering your circumstances,” she says.
Tony shakes his head, impressed with her ability to look past her own ego. It wasn’t a trait he usually shared. “Thanks. To be fair you’re the only person I’ve met so far that’s surpassed me so. Though Vankov was probably on par or close to it. Also it can shape shift!” Tony says, holding out his arm as the gauntlet melded into a canon.
Shuri’s eyes all but bug out of her head, “okay that is cool! I can’t do that! Can you teach me how to do that? How did you figure it out?” she asks, seemingly unaware that she was asking a series of questions all at once.
“I may have stolen a few ideas from aliens. The government was dumb enough to trust me with all this weird tech and if I learned a few things well, they didn’t say I couldn’t steal their ideas,” he says and Shuri laughs.
“You are exactly the way people should be. T’Challa complains about rules and diplomacy but he secretly likes it. Personally I only find rules as useful as the situation I find myself in but that’s me,” she says, shrugging.
He snorts, “I’m the same way and people don’t really get being for or against something mostly because it suits you in the moment. People say I don’t stand for anything, I say what I stand for can’t be quantified in basic laws and regulations. That and there’s an exception to every rule and I like finding exceptions,” he says. That didn’t mean he didn’t stand for anything, or that he refused to take some kind of stand- it just meant that he knew whatever he stood for meant he was going to need to break rules. Also he didn’t like rules, they were for the boring and totally average, not the exceptional.
Shuri nods, “finally someone who gets it. And what is with people being so content with things that work? Just because it works doesn’t mean that’s the best way and if it isn’t the best way- and there’s always a better way- than why settle for whatever you have? T’Challa thinks that if things are not broken we shouldn’t fix them, but I think all things are broken in some way and that we should be in a constant state of fixing them,” she says matter-of-factly and Tony smiles.
This was the kind of person that was going to lead the future. It wasn’t hard to see why she was so advanced already- her thought process was the same as his and with her heightened intelligence, well. She was born to change the world. “I have someone I want to introduce you to after this is all dealt with. I think you’ll get along,” he tells her, hoping that maybe Shuri would be able to make it past Riri’s cool exterior. It was hard to relate to peers that you were so beyond in every way though, so Shuri would be a pleasant surprise. It might actually be the first time Riri might have to ask for someone to repeat themselves to learn. That would be good for her, he thinks. And then he thought both of them could benefit from meeting Peter, who might get Riri out more and Shuri would mostly encourage it. Plus Peter could learn from the two of them and maybe they could figure out how to keep Peter from losing his backpacks constantly.
*
Generally Tony didn’t go to the kitchen late at night but he was thirsty so that’s where he found himself. What he doesn’t expect is to find Bucky- and it was Bucky- already in the fridge with what he could only describe as petals around his head. Bucky looks back at him for a few seconds, arms full of food before he scuttles off, kicking the fridge door shut behind him as he goes.
He frowns for a few moments before he speaks. “FRIDAY, did I just see Bucky wearing a flower around his head or like… am I hallucinating?” he asks the AI.
“You are not hallucinating but you are in need of sleep,” the AI tells him.
“Bucky was dressed as a fucking flower FRIDAY, how do I sleep without figuring out why?” Was this like… a meme he saw? Were people dressing up as flowers now? After eating tide pods nothing would surprise him.
“Sir, you’ve been awake for more than two days, please sleep,” the AI says. Tony sighs and shakes his head, resolved to figuring out why Bucky was a flower tomorrow.