ax_main | Bucky and Natasha (April)

Bucky and Natasha drive home after Kitty's birthday shindig. Interrogation and sarcasm follow.

Driving Natasha home from a party was pretty standard. Usually he was incognito, glasses on, and in his assistant alias. Going to a gathering as equals and actually enjoying the night was a new thing.

"Longer commute than usual," Bucky quipped as he pulled onto the highway.

"Really," she returned, voice utterly flat. "That's what we're doing? Smalltalk?"

Bucky kept his eyes on the road, but his lips quirked. He reached and switched some music on.

There was a brief pause where she eyed the radio, then turned enough to give him a look out of the corners of her eyes. "You know, you do passive-aggressive surprisingly well."

“I learned from the best,” Bucky said lightly. “What’s in your mind, Stark?”

"Many things," was the immediate answer, out before she even really thought about it. Just a placeholder, mostly, as she tried to get her thoughts in order. It wasn't entirely untrue. "You seemed to be enjoying yourself tonight."

“Yeah,” Bucky agreed. “Very different kind of party. How about you? All performance, or did you get the chance to enjoy yourself?”

She lifted one shoulder in a kind of offhand shrug. One party was pretty much the same as any other, the fact that this one was all highschoolers aside. "I didn't realize you and TJ were so close."

There you go. Bucky was wondering if she’d comment on T’Challa or TJ first. “Dance class. Sparring. She knew about some variations of me from other universes. It makes some things easier to talk or avoid talking about.”

Natasha's eyes flicked towards him briefly and then away again. "That doesn't weird you out?"

Bucky snorted softly. “You found me locked up in your basement. I’m from another time, in my own way. My life is already weird as shit, Stark. If there’s a possibility that in some other world I didn’t get taken... and maybe somewhere we won, Steve lived, and most of my crimes get replaced with happily ever afters then that’s nice to hear. It’s not this world. But still.”

Okay, that was unexpected. For someone who tended to be as fiercely private as Bucky, she'd sort of half-expected him to share her misgivings. Apparently not. "I never took you for a multiverse theory guy."

"Nazis experimented on me using futuristic technology," Bucky said dryly. "If I'm really lucky there's no such thing as heaven or hell, but I'm not writing off shit I can't see just because I haven't experienced it yet."

"Okay, fair," she said, lifting one shoulder in a kind of shrug. When he put it that way, fine. "What I mean is, it doesn't bother you someone just...knowing that about you?"

Bucky’s shoulders relaxed as he followed her line of thought. “I don’t like telling people. Could put them in danger.” Natasha was different, she got a pass, because she saw with her own eyes where he started. From there it was hard to pile on lies. “But if she already knows? Kind of a relief. Unless she’s really Hydra and this all bullshit to get close to me and bring me back in. If that’s the case, good thing I have healing and she doesn’t. Even if she’s real good.”

Bucky was such a romantic.

Natasha couldn't help but give a little amused snort at that. "If she is a spy, you'd think she'd have a less outlandish story than 'I'm from a different universe.' I think you're probably safe there." The rest of it was worth a bit more thought. The fact that he wanted people to know, but didn't think he could...that put a different spin on things.

"Would you want to go public? Ignoring the danger thing."

Bucky could only follow her thoughts so far sometimes. “Go public?”

"About who you are. All other considerations aside."

“How public are you talking?” Kind of hard for Bucky to isolate that action. “Tell the media that surprise experimentation on mutant children has been happening since the second war and you should all be damn ashamed. Also watch out for brutal organization that may or may not still be out there? Or just tell the school that I’ve been hurting people since before all you kids were born, but don’t worry— I’m a good guy now. At least so far as I’m making sure no one hurts you again.”

She was going to guess that was a no, then. "Just a thought," Natasha said with a slight shrug. "If you wanted it, we could make it happen. And nobody's going to be worried about you," she said firmly. Not unless he wanted them to, anyway.

He eyed her speculatively from his periphery before focusing on the road. “How about you?”

"How about me what?" Playing dumb? Perish the thought.

“This road goes in two directions,” Bucky pointed out. “School or outside it. Anything you want to get off your chest?”

"Nope!" Natasha said brightly, and coincidentally managed to find something very interesting to look at out of the windshield. It was a fair enough question, but the idea of going public with her bodyguard's actual identity made her skin itch a little.

“So let’s keep secret keeping and see where it goes,” Bucky suggested.

"Why are you so reasonable all the time?" She slanted him an amused look out of the corners of her eyes. Mostly because it seemed like a good way to break the sudden tension in the air. "It's unhealthy."

“I’m well adjusted,” Bucky answered dryly. “C’mon Stark. What’s the alternative right now?” It was unclear if he meant to her statement on his disposition or her opening question about coming clean.

"Move to a tropical island and raise goats?" Natasha shrugged a little. "There are always options."

Bucky snorted. “You wanna buy an island and raise goats with me?”

"How do you know I don't already own and island?" Which was very much not the point. "I have...things I need to take care of. You don't, not really. Not if you don't want them."

“Plain speak. I can’t make decisions if you keep me in the dark,” he pointed out.

Natasha cocked an eyebrow. "You know exactly what I'm talking about," she said, holding up one hand, palm out, in an imitation of her 'bodyguard'.

“So nothing new on our whirlwind adventure. Just breaking down corruption and whatever other shit Grandpa Howard has gotten his crazy ass into.” Bucky signaled to switch lanes. “If you want me, I’m with you. At some point I may need to deal with my own shit, but right now I’m not in a good place to track down Hydra.”

"Let's give it at least a year before we take down any Nazi organizations," she agreed dryly. But that plural was completely unconscious, as if there was any other possibility. "And your girlfriend?"

“Friend,” Bucky corrected. His lips curved. “Good friend,” he amended, because maybe it would go that way. “If dimension hopping is for real she might be a better ally than you think. But why get ahead of ourselves? We’re pretending to be normal, right?”

Natasha snorted a little, though what part she was feeling sardonic about was hard to tell. "I think normal might be a bit of a reach for this place."

"True," Bucky agreed. "Pretending to be superpowered students of some kind. I mean. Are you actually going to take classes when the college thing starts up, or is that just excessive degrees for you?"

"I don't have any degrees," she said dryly. Howard had made sure of that. Not that she needed them necessarily either. There was no question of what shed be doing with the rest of her life regardless of the letters she could stick after her name.

Natasha let out a quiet sigh. "I don't know. Maybe if there's something interesting."

"You can bang out the academics in your spare time." Bucky shook his head. "Seriously, Stark. I think you'd still be incognito if you pretended to be a half as smart as you actually are."

"Yeah," she flashed him a toothy grin, "but it wouldn't annoy the old man nearly as much."

"I mean. Being annoying is your first life calling," Bucky agreed thoughtfully. A grin played at the corner of his lips.

"Rude," Natasha told him with no real heat. "Things are working out fine for the moment."

"Yeah." Things were working out surprisingly, all told.