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Characters: Bucky Barnes and Bruce Banner
Date: A day or two after landfall end
Location: A park in the Water Sector
Situation: Bruce checked on the mold at Bucky's place so Bucky brings him a couple things back from the mainland.
Warnings/Rating: Probably pretty PG, if that.

He hasn't really done a lot of socializing lately. Bucky had narrowly escaped getting caught by customs with his little haul of tobacco, tea, and coffee - all the tobacco had gone straight back to Lord Henry for resale, but the tea and coffee Bucky had picked up himself on his own dime. The coffee was for him and Toro, but the tea and something else he'd found in a little shop he'd tucked into the bottom of his bag for someone else.

After making his deliveries for the day, he'd stopped in at a cafe to check network posts and send one Mr. Banner a quick text message - 'meet me at the same park in half an hour - JBB', and then he'd set back out again in that direction. He'd saved his Water Sector deliveries for last today, so it doesn't take him long to get there, and when he does, he sits on the back of the same bench as last time, elbows on his knees, watching the kedan pass by.

Bucky isn't a generous, giving soul by nature, but Mr. Banner had checked on the mold in his and Toro's place, and he apparently hadn't given their location away since no one had been skulking around. The way he sees it, he owes a debt, and he always pays up.

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Bruce really doesn't think of it as a debt, and isn't expecting Bucky to do a single thing in return. He's one of those genuinely kind people that just does things when he can, without any expectation of acknowledgment or appreciation. In fact, he's surprised to be contacted today, but he sends back a simple confirmation-- I'll be there.

He packs up his work, carefully records the last few data points, and heads out. He's quick moving through the city, and makes it there more or less on time. By now he's found kedan clothes and looks almost native. He slides up toward Bucky's bench with little more than a nod in greeting.

"Everything okay?" It's the immediate lookout for a crisis of a true paranoid.

It probably did seem out of the blue, all things considered, and it isn't like Bucky does a lot of socializing with the people he's met here, but he's got a personal rule against owing people, and Bruce... Well, he's a sight better than most of the other folks Bucky's met. He didn't know him before when he shouldn't, didn't judge him, didn't treat him like a little kid (even if he has no right to be annoyed at that when he actively pretends to be a teenager sometimes).

So maybe this is because he doesn't like owing people, or maybe it's a little sign of gratitude himself, he's not really sure, and doesn't dwell on it when Bruce arrives. "Hey. Everything's fine, fine as usual anyway." The kedan are still giving foreigners dirty looks and he's heard talk of violence and firings, but... "Did you go off the turtle last week?"

He imperceptibly relaxes when Bucky says it's fine, because if anyone's perpetually tensed and ready to respond, it's Bruce.

He shakes his head. "No. I'm not really a fan of anyone having blood samples of me." That's a potentially revealing statement, but he's starting to gradually open up to the idea that he can actually be honest here. For him, even this much is forthcoming.

"I'm assuming you went? See anything interesting?" Bruce is visibly curious about the answer, which maybe isn't too surprising given that he didn't go himself, but it's more than that. He's trying to piece all the clues about their situation together.

He moves his feet off the bench to make some room, trying to look relaxed, but out of his element like this, he's always just a tiny bit on edge, alert. It's hard not to be, when that's what you were trained to be. He does take note of that statement, and quirks an eyebrow slightly, leaning forward just a bit. "Yeah? It wasn't that big a deal for me. The strippin' and hosin' down was humiliating, but I've had worse." Though he keeps his tone light, casual. Conversational.

"Yeah, I had to go for... work. It was really military, barracks and all. Think it was some kinda outpost." He does know military, at least. It was kind of familiar, almost, if you ignored the town square. But now he's digging something out of his mostly empty bag - a tin and a little tube. "I had to ask around to figure out what it even was-" Superglue wasn't really a thing in 1945. "-but I think this is what passes for that 'superglue' stuff 'round here."

There's plenty to respond to, there, that Bruce could say. Countering the light banter covering up his secrets, or prying about how military Atam was. These are both things Bruce would be prompt in doing.

Instead, he's taken aback when Bucky unearths the superglue. On someone as in control and reserved as Bruce, it's a noticeable reaction, him startling slightly. "What? You got me-- you didn't have to." He can't stop the protest from leaving his mouth. "Wow, I thought maybe it didn't exist here."

It clearly wasn't an idle request that he'd made, because there's a faint element of relief to him. It was such a small thing, but he knows that although he can be more lax on what he tells people here, he absolutely has to be vigilant about his blood. A single drop diluted in carbonated, sugared soda was enough to send one man to a hospital. Bruce has never forgotten that; he knows how dangerous it is. And he's learned to take every tiny piece of an advantage as a cause for gratitude, or he'll have nothing to be thankful for at all.

"Thank you," he finally thinks to add, completely sincerely.

Bucky takes in his reaction; apparently he hadn't been expecting that, which he thinks is kind of dumb, honestly, because he had asked for it when he got here, but he doesn't say anything to that effect, just shrugs casually as he hands it over along with the little tin box - tea, a medium quality sort of blend. "You asked for it." Said in a very 'duh' tone. "An' I don't know if it's really the right stuff, it ain't exactly something they had in my day, but it's some kinda glue, I guess." Atam did seem to have a wider range of higher technological goods, though, including guns (not that Bucky could afford one), so he figures there's at least a chance of it being sufficient.

"No big deal. You helped me and my friend out, an' I don't like owing people."

Edited 2013-04-20 00:56 (UTC)

He takes the items, his surprise fading into a kind of self-aware awkwardness as he holds the tin and the tube with a telling carefulness. Losing every single one of his possessions with frustrating regularity has given Bruce an appreciation for what he does own.

"No, it's right. But I didn't think you owed me anything. I would've had to look into the mold at some point." There's a pause as he realizes that continuing to protest isn't exactly polite. "But... thanks," he says again. "Do you want to go sit somewhere? I'll get you a drink, you can tell me about Atam."

They've got that in common, at least. Bucky never had much to his name either, hadn't since childhood, since his father died. His entire life pretty much fit in an Army footlocker, and he learned about holding onto things early on. Like recognizes like, maybe.

"No offense, but you learn not to take that kinda thing for granted." He doesn't trust a lot of people, especially here, and so he tends to assume the worst, but maybe he can move Bruce up in his mind to 'not such a bad guy'. "Sure, though there's not a lot to tell, all things considered."

Bucky is at 'not such a bad guy' in Bruce's mind, himself. Their burgeoning friendship is one fraught with trust issues.

"I can't see it for myself, so. I'd be interested in hearing it." He starts to move to lead him to a nearby cafe, glancing back to make sure he's following and keep pace with him. It's the middle of the day, and Bruce has learned his lesson about assuming others drink alcohol, anyway. Last time he'd done that they'd sat there nursing juice and ginger ale. So a cafe it is.

"And... It's not taking for granted." Bruce is almost physically incapable of taking things for granted; he wouldn't expect someone else to. "Just, I don't think we need to worry about owing each other."

It's probably good for Bucky, at least, this whole... thing. He has a bad habit of assuming the worst about people, comes from seeing all the horrors of war at such a young age. He's jaded about a lot, but it's nice to see that any negative assumptions about one person, at least, are wrong.

He keeps pace pretty easily, used to Steve's long, purposeful strides, hands crammed into his pockets in a false display of ease. It's not that he's uncomfortable around Bruce, it's just more that he's nearly always... ready. For whatever might happen. When he hears that statement, he chews it over mentally for a moment. Don't have to worry about owing each other, huh? "Yeah, alright. I can agree to that."

He hums briefly as he tries to think of where to start. "Atam was... military, like I said. Barracks, no kids... It wasn't exactly like a base, there were more shops than just a commissary."

Bruce himself is constantly in a state of perpetual awareness, of subtly scanning his surroundings, looking for black SWAT armor or the glint of a sniper scope. He's as good as Bucky is at looking like he's not doing it, though, just slides his alertness behind the unhurried calm he presents. It helps that that's not a lie, either.

His agreement gets a nod, that topic closed in his mind. Bruce isn't one for open declarations of anything, not even something so relatively benign as maybe we're starting to be friends, so don't worry about it. What he'd said, that exchange, made it clear enough to him. No need to verbalize it.

Plus he is honestly interested in hearing about Atam. "That's... the no kids, and the barracks, that's weird. Do we know what Tu Vishan's relationship with the mainland is?" There's a moment of pause as he mentally adds that to his list of things to investigate, which is rapidly growing unwieldy. "I think comparatively I'm grateful we got dragged here and not there."

They're both in good company. Bucky finds that being around someone with the same sensibilities is kind of nice; he's used to Toro being a little more oblivious from simple lack of training, to teasing him about his paranoia. And as far as Bucky's concerned now, this is... if not the stirrings of some kind of friendship, the start of some kind of unspoken alliance.

"Well the no kids thing wasn't so unusual. I was the only kid at Camp Lehigh growing up. The only kid who lived there, and not in family housing anyway." He couldn't really go back to the house his family had lived in after his father's death and after Rebecca was sent off to boarding school. "I guess the lack of family housing was strange. Might've been some kinda outpost. I don't know for what."

A thoughtful hum. "I don't know much about this place versus the mainland. This was the first bit of mainland I've seen. There was a big... half moon wall around the side that wasn't facing the shore, though. Don't know if it was to keep something in or something out." Sigh. "No kidding, though. They had some kinda stockade or something set up in the square. Didn't look too friendly, and I never saw anything like that on any military bases."

Although Bruce himself grew up in family housing adjacent to an Arizona military base, he doesn't mention it. He's not even consciously thinking about it, really. Those memories are all locked down so tight that even topics that directly touch on them don't provoke a reaction.

They're quickly approaching the cafe, Bruce frowning in obvious thought. "This whole thing is... is disturbing. I wasn't expecting kidnappers to be, ah, friendly, but Keeliai hasn't been that bad. Not nearly as bad as I was expecting." He's pessimistic enough that what he was expecting was something out of a bad spy movie, complete with capturing and torturing for information, and brainwashing to guarantee compliance. The reality had turned out to be a lot more benign, much to Bruce's bemusement.

"Maybe there's a reason Tu Vishan left the mainland. Maybe you were looking at some of those reasons."

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in which Bruce has feelings about superglue, or: what is being kind to me??

baww bruce it's okay he'll be your little bro and get you stuff

he even got an almost-smiling icon, congrats??

win!

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