tushanshu_logs | (closed) Return the favor

Characters: Natasha Romanoff and Bucky Barnes; Rikki Barnes and Bucky Barnes; Jack Frost and Bucky Barnes, Kyle Rayner and Bucky Barnes
Date: Soonish
Location: Fire Sector, Natasha's suite.
Situation: Natasha's checked up on him a couple of weeks back; now he's doing the same for her.
Warnings/Rating: Possibly violence or the potential for it, probably language.

Steve told Bucky he sent Natasha to explore the underground. In his stead.

Which is fine, in its way, because if Steve thought her the right person for the job, then she probably was. But - she'd been pretty damn silent, after that. Not that he thinks that he could notice her if she doesn't want to be noticed, or that she'd be overly talkative after the last time they met - when she sought him out and he was a mess, and then he was almost more of a mess - but still. She came to him. Now it's time for him to come to her.

And if she doesn't let him in, he can hang out with Steve, right?

He doesn't even try to sneak up to her. Just shows up at her door and knocks. And brings take-out food.

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He chuckles, and gets to work. 'Yeah, me too.' Not that deadlines hadn't meant much to him, but he'd always had much better focus when he was doing something he knew could make somebody else happy.

Bucky snorts, quietly. "Guess that can be a guy thing or something." Not a Steve thing, obviously, but - Steve was always special. "Got it disciplined out of me in boot camp, anyway."

'Keep the retraining to yourself, or my friends are going to get ideas.' Kyle was organised mess, usually, but that didn't mean Connor had warmed up to all of it.

"Just lemme know which those are, and I'll do my best."

Easy promise to make, as far as he's aware.

Kyle shakes his head. 'It was a joke. They don't actually mind. Much. I think.'

Bucky chuckles, and the sound is easy enough that some of the kedan working nearby glare it his direction, and he shrugs in return. And grins over to Kyle, finishing up his section.

"Your call. I've been known for giving people ideas that their friends ain't too fond of, anyway."

He glances at the kedan, his expression far more unfriendly, but it vanishes soon enough as he turns back to Bucky. 'I usually manage that fine all by myself, but it wouldn't hurt to have a few tips.'

Bucky almost sighs, at the hostility. They've fought side by side, in the past, with the kedan. Sparred, had friendly wrestling matches.

He's not at all overly fond of the hostility.

But he can't blame Kyle, either.

"How 'bout, over the drink, you tell me where you want pointers and I try ta give you some?"

'Deal,' he says, noticing the reaction to his own reaction and mentioning nothing. It wasn't the locals fault that they felt that way but sometimes Kyle felt so angry and tired. Mostly tired.

True enough, it does take him five minutes and he gets up, stretching. 'Any place in mind, or should I pick?'

"Lead right on. They all've got booze good enough to get better men than me. And when we hit the quota..." Bucky lowers his voice. "I might've a bit stashed away from before."

He stopped drinking himself stupid at some point. Some of the stores haven't been touched, since.

Kyle gives him a look that is equal parts incredulity, and understanding. 'Save it for a rainy day,' he says, lightly, to avoid them both having to think about things they get drunk over. 'There's decent places up in Earth, if you don't mind that they're not fancy.'

Not that he thought Bucky would mind, but it was always good to check.

Buck shrugs. He's not tripping over his feet to get that drunk, right now, but there are times.

"Pal, I half the time I don't know what to do with fancy, anyway. Earth sounds solid, thanks!"

'Earth it is.' Kyle gestures forward dramatically. 'When're you from, anyway?'

Bucky doesn't wince, but he does get briefly silent as they walk. "Last I remember, it was early 1945."

Kyle falls quiet too. 'Has the war ended?' He wants to say World War Two, but as a soldier himself he knows it's always the war, like there'll only ever be one, and it'll never end.

Bucky's mouth curls, in a not-smile, and he shakes his head. "From what Steve's told me, not for a few more months. But I know it ends and we win, so that's what matters, right?"

'It ends, we win, and our friends are alive yeah. That's all that matters.'

"Well... more or less. They thought him dead. They found him frozen - but alive - almost seventy years later. So he's alive - in the future. So, more or less?"

'Time displacement sucks.' Soranik's only a few months in the future but... seventy years. He can't even begin to imagine that. Not to mention finding somebody here who was... actually dead back home. It was too weird. Too painful, even.

"Probably. But I get a chance to find out what happened, and what happened to him, so I'm not complaining on my end."

He runs a hand back through his hair.

"He wanted to take me back with him. Somehow. To the future."

'Glass, half-full, right.' He says it with only a trace of bitterness. 'Did you ask the Emperor? If that's possible?'

"She wasn't there for that audience. But Evandau said it's not."

He squeezes his eyes for a moment.

"There may be more than one reason for that. Which I'm still... trying to wrap my mind around."

'As long as you're keeping your options open.' Because Kyle, at his heart, was a dreamer. The impossible was just one more thing to overcome.

They finally reach the bar and Kyle gestures for Bucky to go in first and pick somewhere to sit.

"Guess sometimes that's way more of an option than expected."

Bucky's gathered, actually, about three weeks' worth of alcohol allowance. So he orders some of the harder alcohol, then settles in a table that allows for some privacy.

"Anyway. How've you been?"

Kyle, on the other hand, orders something light, and doesn't raise an eyebrow when he sees what Bucky's got. Some people had bad days and you had to let them get through it on their own time.

'Been fine so far, but I think that goes for just about everybody. Ask me again in a month, you might get a more accurate answer. What about you?'

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