A/N: I already have two Lokane Halloween fics, so it is seemed only right that I do a WinterScience Halloween fic, too.
Enjoy!
Halloween was Jane Foster's favorite night of the year. There were many reasons why, most of them not what one would expect. The biggest was that it was the only time Jane could go out at sundown and not feel like she'd missed anything during the day. The second was that she could remove the painful caps that covered her fangs every other night, and no one batted an eyelash because they'd already seen fifteen other people in vampire costumes. Apart from that, Jane didn't care much for horror movies, couldn't eat candy if she wanted to, and hadn't dressed up since she was seven. Halloween was less a night of fun and celebration for Jane, and more a night of freedom.
And so, as the sun disappeared over the horizon and the sky turned from orange to black, Jane Foster slipped out of her tiny one room apartment (which was really just a refurbished shed), secured a coat around herself, and walked against the wind into the welcoming darkness.
She met Darcy on the front lawn, her kinda-sorta-landlord dressed to the nines in a black, sequined witch costume, complete with pointy hat, thick green and purple make up, and a cleavage baring top Jane was surprised could contain her friend's generous curves. A group of trick-or-treaters ran off down the driveway, their bags one mini Reese's bar and one caramel apple licorice package heavier.
"Morning, Jane!" Darcy called out, grinning wide to show perfectly straight and flat teeth Jane sometimes envied. "Have a good sleep?"
"Would've been better without the hours of screaming since eight in the morning," Jane grumbled.
"You heard that?" Darcy asked. "Sorry, I told Ian that we had the TV on too loud, it's just we wait all year long to have an excuse to marathon the Saw movies."
"Could you at least shut the window next time?"
"I was going to, but once Jigsaw's on screen, we just lose it. Totally forgot you were out there at all."
Jane sighed, and then a lion, a Buzz Lightyear, and a Batgirl scurried up, brandishing plastic pumpkins and bags and demanding their dues. Once Darcy had taken care of them—and the ballerina and Queen Elsa who came right after—she turned back to Jane and did a quick spin all the way around.
"Like my costume? Bet you can't guess what I am."
Jane cast a glance at the unnecessarily floppy witch hat. "You're right, I can't."
In the absence of more trick-or-treaters, Darcy replaced the candy bowl inside the house and shut the door. The motion sensory device in her cartoonish Frankenstein's Monster decoration was set off as she walked down the stairs, and it's obnoxious evil laugh, accompanied by clichéd organ music, followed her all the way to Jane's side.
"I got it yesterday at the Halloween store. Last one they had and only one size too small!"
"That's great, Darcy," Jane said, "but I thought you guys were staying in tonight."
"We are," Darcy said. "Ian's out picking up our dinner. I'm going to surprise him when he gets back with a little treat of my own. Think he'll like it?"
"After recovering from the initial heart attack? Yeah, probably."
"Awesome! That's exactly the look I was going for."
Darcy did a dance in place, jumping up and down so that her breasts bounced and the shirt came down a little more. Jane had to take it back; Ian probably wasn't going to recover.
"I hope you guys have fun tonight," Jane said. She started for the street, Darcy quick to follow.
"You know where you're going?"
Jane shrugged. "Probably just around the park. It's nice this time of night."
"Only you would ever say that," Darcy said, shaking her head. "That place gives me the creeps even during the day. You know, there's a rumor that mountain lions go down there at night to chomp on the squirrels and the rabbits."
Jane had heard that story once, from a transient wandering drunkenly up and down Main Street at three in the morning. His dramatic warnings against entering the small town's only park had involved coyotes instead of mountain lions. Other times it was cougars, or wolves. Once it was Saber Toothed Tigers, whispered among a group of boys within Jane's earshot; all part of a hazing ritual for the new kid in town. As long as it was a beast of sufficient ferociousness not at all indigenous to the area, anything was fair game for this urban legend.
"I think I'll be okay on my own, Darcy, don't worry," she said.
"Oh, I'm not, not really," Darcy said, nudging Jane with her elbow. "You may look all cute and innocent on the outside, but I doubt any mountain lion could win once you go all vampire on them, eh, Jane?"
She nudged her a second and third time. After the fourth, Jane stepped out of reach.
"I've never 'gone vampire' on anyone, and I'll thank you not to scream what I am to the rooftops. Again."
"But what's the fun of having a vampire for a best friend if you can't brag about it?"
To her whining tone, Jane gave no acknowledgement. She was already in the street and walking down a row of one story houses, identical in all but color to the one left in her wake. She waved goodbye to Darcy as a spaceman, a Raggedy Ann, and a Snow White darted past her, giggling and throwing 'Trick or Treat' and 'Happy Halloween' around with youthful abandon. Jane smiled at their backs. She remembered being that young once, a long time ago. A much longer time than most would think if they went only by her looks. Later on in her life, as she reached adulthood, she had thought that one day, she'd have some kids of her own to take around on Halloween.
Of course, that was back before the days of razor blades in the gumballs and suicide victims being mistaken for decorations, back when Halloween was safer for the children. As many as Jane had seen tonight (and she'd seen a lot) it didn't hold a candle to the swarms of little ones that used to run around in homemade costumes with giant pillowcases full of popcorn balls.
And it was before… well…
Jane's stomach rumbled as she rounded the corner between Darcy's block and the next one over. Her wide brown eyes picked up at least seven people in the near vicinity, took in every detail of their faces and costumes, even before the growing hunger tripled the power of her senses. Instantly, she could smell them, all of them. A combination of chocolate, chili dogs and fresh apples, all the foods she had loved most as a human.
She grabbed the canteen out of her pocket, popped open the cap, and tipped it over her lips. Warm liquid rushed down her parched throat, as bland as water. Jane swallowed it with a grimace, sighed as the burning ache that came with every bout of hunger faded. She let a few more drops fall onto her tongue and then put it away. The seven people who shared the street with her walked on by, necks untouched and none the wiser.
Blood substitute saved the day again.
She didn't run into anyone on her way to the park, human or otherwise, until it was directly in sight, just beyond the grocery store and the dress shop. Jane felt their presence long before she saw them, an unfortunate infliction that not even her stance again feeding could fix. The stench of them—for it was always so foul that it would be too kind to call it a scent—was obvious as soon as Jane stepped off the curb. Their voices followed, howling with joy over things most would find anything but joyful.
"Hey, lookee lookee! It's Janie!"
Jane picked up the pace, hands shoved in the pockets of her favorite jacket. It did little to protect her from the wind and it lacked a hood, so she couldn't even try to hide herself.
"Janie, don't ignore us," the scratchy voice was in her ear, and then a pale white arm draped around her shoulder. "We're tryina talk to you here, Janie! Wanna know what you're up to this fine evening."
Jane pulled away, before the woman's superior strength could hold her down. She took a quick look at her, at wild red eyes with make up caked on and fangs jutting out of black painted lips. Her three friends were much the same, perfect for three so proud to revel in their own hedonism.
"I'm fine, Olivia, just fine," Jane said. She walked a little faster, but of course they kept up without trouble.
"How're your pets doin'? I saw the girlie at the store last night. She was lookin' especially delicious. She ever decides to drop that little pansy boy of hers, tell her to look me up!"
Jane clenched a fist. 'Don't react. Don't react. You don't like violence and you couldn't hope to take them on anyway. Just one of them would rip you apart.'
"Thanks, I'll see you later."
She all but ran around the corner, Olivia and her coven members jeering after her. If Jane had even a shred of good luck left, they'd find some homeless bum or drunk to play with, and leave her the hell alone.
The night was not yet a bust as she entered the park without further trouble. As expected, the place was empty, devoid of all traces of life, man or beast. A part of her thought it would be funny to find a claw or a clump of hair stuck to a fallen tree branch, something to take home and freak out Darcy with. Wouldn't that be good payback for keeping her awake all day with that mindless gorefest?
Enjoying a laugh at the thought of her joke, Jane took the usual path to her favorite park bench. It was the one just by the bridge. Bicyclists and runners used this path when the sun was high in the sky. Jane had seen them once or twice through a pair of thick sunglasses, followed their path with her eyes while her fingers scratched at incessantly itchy skin slathered with sunscreen.
When they weren't around, it was the sellers; men in bulky coats peddling poor quality watches; a church group funded bake sale; a troop of girl scouts with a table covered in cookies. The last one always warmed Jane's heart. She'd been a girl scout herself once, and the best cookie seller in her entire troop. She liked to think it had more to do with her doe-eyed innocence charming all the neighbors and less to do with her parents and her godfather bringing the order sheet to work with them every year.
The memory was one of many that roused Jane's spirits when she was holed up in her tiny shed, in her much too soft bed and on the verge of sleep. Tonight, it erased Oliva's grotesque grin and replaced it with her mother's proud smile when Jane was awarded another merit badge or brought home a perfect report card. It made her close her eyes and tilt up her head, and almost miss the shadow passing over the streetlamp, so fast that even one with eyes wide open might not have seen it.
It was Jane's ears that alerted her to his presence, that acute hearing that could pick up a pin drop in an explosion. Whoever it was, they took three steps before slowing to a halt. They stayed where they were, long enough for Jane to trace the lines of broad shoulders and hear the slow, steady rhythm of his breathing. He had not moved in some time, standing supernaturally still with his back to her. He raised his head, up to the sky with his nose out. He took a long whiff of the air and then turned, rather abruptly, to face her.
He had left the light of the lamp to linger in the darkness, but darkness alone couldn't beat a vampire's night vision. He was a tall man, muscular beneath the tight shirt he wore and fair skinned. He had a pair of blue eyes the likes of which one could easily get lost in. Set in a scruffy face surrounded by long dark hair, with plump pink lips that seemed to beg to be kissed, there was no denying how attractive he was. In the space of four seconds, Jane had learned that contrary to popular belief, vampires were, in fact, capable of blushing.
"Hello," a voice said, and Jane's cheeks reddened even more as she realized it was hers, "Happy Halloween."
A beat. He raised an eyebrow, and though that was something Jane had seen a hundred times before on a hundred different faces, something about him made that look one of the sexiest things Jane had ever seen.
"You, too," he said, and he started walking over. "Kind of night you wouldn't want to spend alone."
"I like being alone," Jane said, turning away. "Especially tonight. Halloween is… special to me."
The man hummed, and it was right up against her ear, so she knew that he hadn't taken the hint and was going to sit next to her.
"If it's so special, you should share it with someone," he said. "No fun having a special thing if you keep it all to yourself."
"Are you suggesting that I'm hogging a holiday?"
He grinned, revealing teeth even whiter and straighter than Darcy's could ever hope to be, and though Jane felt the usual stab of jealousy, there was something about it that was oddly endearing.
"I'm James Barnes," he said, holding out a hand, "my friends call me Bucky."
Jane took his hand. He had a very firm grip that caught her by surprise.
"Jane Foster," she said, "it's nice to meet you."
Bucky slid down on the bench, almost level with her now. He looked at the full moon and inhaled deeply. He held his breath for a time, long enough that Jane began to count the seconds until he exhaled. It happened at twelve, and his sigh was long and soothing, like he had spent far too much time on edge and only now could truly relax.
"You must like the moon," Jane observed.
"It speaks to me… but you'd know that already."
Jane furrowed her brow. "I would?"
"Well, yeah," he said, like this was the most obvious thing in the world and Jane was an idiot for not figuring it out right away (okay, the latter was more her than him; call it a complex). "You're a vampire, right?"
If Jane had needed air, it would have been sucked right out of her body. She also might have fainted, before running away and never looking back.
"I… how did you know that?" she asked. She hesitated briefly; it was a very awkward question. Nevertheless, it was one that needed asking.
"The fangs mostly. They're kind of a giveaway."
He stared at her mouth, at teeth partially concealed by barely parted lips that Jane instinctively sealed as she swallowed. Whatever was lodged in the back of her throat didn't budge, not even after a second and third try. It wasn't a sign of nerves, though, or so Jane liked to think. She could no longer be too nervous after what he had said. Now there were only cool waves of relief banishing the clenching fear.
A costume.
He thought she was wearing a Halloween costume.
Of course he did. Nobody really believed in vampires unless they had met one, and aside from Darcy and Ian, the only other humans she knew who met a vampire either got bitten, died, or became one themselves. Jane smelled not a hint of vampire on him, either as one or having been touched by one. So of course he was just a perfectly normal guy taking a leisurely midnight walk through the park who felt like complimenting her 'costume'.
"Oh," she said. "Yeah, when you put it that way, you're right. I am a vampire."
"And a very adorable one, if you don't mind me saying."
It was the second time in a row Jane found herself blushing.
"I don't really have the right look, do I?"
"Who says there can only be one look for a vampire?" Bucky asked, crossing his arms over his chest. The wind whistled overhead as he moved, but it sounded strange. Almost like whirring gears. "There's not just one look for people like me, is there?"
"No, but you still look good," Jane said, and that had definitely slipped out past some important speech filter in her brain that seemed to disappear completely around gorgeous men. Jane wished she could say this was the most embarrassing thing she'd ever said to a man, but she was living beyond her years, and so she couldn't.
A chuckle rumbled deep within his chest which, as Jane could now see through his skintight shirt, was a very nice chest indeed. That was really not something she needed her brain pointing out right now. The damn thing was rebelling against her. It was a wonder she hadn't honed in on his ass the moment she saw him.
"Hey, can I ask you something? Kind of a personal question, but something I've always wondered."
"Y-yeah, that's fine."
Bucky scotched over, the heat that radiated off of him unlike anything Jane had ever felt before. Even her cold skin was warmed. He brought his face close to her ear, and Jane's heart pounded (a hell of a feat considering it didn't beat).
"I just wanted to know," he said, "is it true what they say about vampire bites?"
Jane stared.
Bucky stared back.
He tried so hard and failed not to smile, and when Jane finally got his meaning and groaned, the mask shattered and he dissolved into full blown laughter.
"I'm sorry," he said between hearty guffaws, "was that too much for having just met?"
"A little," Jane huffed. "I mean, I know men can be perverts, but at least wait until the second date."
"We'd have to have a first date for that, doll," he said.
Jane nodded. It was the only thing she could do other than what she really wanted to do, which was smack her head against the nearest tree until she mercifully lost consciousness. Again she had embarrassed herself. Again. This guy was not good for her mental health.
"I'll have you know, I don't know anything about what vampire bites feel like," she said.
"Haven't gone hunting for a while?"
"Vampires don't hunt." Might as well play along for all it was worth. "We find a human with a blood type that suits our tastes, get them alone somehow, then take what we need and leave them alone. We're not killers, or we shouldn't be."
"I never meant to imply that you were," he said, his tone apologetic though he didn't quite say the words. "So you just drink some of their blood and that's it? No consequences?"
"You have to share blood to turn a human if that's what you mean," Jane explained. "Otherwise, and as long as you don't take too much, worst case scenario is the human gets tired and disoriented for a while."
"You guys really have it all figured out."
"It comes from years of trial and error. We've almost been exposed a hundred times. Where do you think vampire fiction comes from?"
"Oh, trust me, I know the feeling," Bucky said. He spread his arms over the seat and crossed one leg over the other. It looked quite comfortable, and it brought his hand so very close to Jane's shoulder that she had to lament the fact that he was wearing gloves. "So I'm guessing that when it's over, the human doesn't remember it. That why you don't know what a bite feels like?"
Jane's eyes dropped to her lap. Her fingers had been tangled there for the last few minutes, as if she was some nervous teenager at her first school dance, wanting to ask the popular older boy to dance but knowing that she'd be shot down.
And that was one more thing that was getting her. Why on earth would she be afraid to talk about this?
'You mean aside from the part where you're telling a human all your secrets in the hopes that he won't figure out you're not kidding?'
"Actually, it's… more because I've never done it."
He blinked. "You've never done what?"
Jane bit her lip, gently. "I've never bitten anyone… or tasted blood."
Another gust of wind howled and blew Jane's hair out of her scarf. It tickled her cheeks, but as she brushed it aside, she kept her eyes on Bucky, gauging his reaction. He seemed to not understand her meaning at first, his lips (perfect, perfect lips) carried a touch of a frown that only deepened as it hit him.
"Wait… you've never drank blood?" He sat straight up. "How are you alive?"
He was taking this little game of theirs very seriously, and Jane was starting to wish she had just made up a story about stalking virgins in the dead of night and slipping into their rooms as mist through the cracks at the bottom of their doors. She could've gone the extra mile even, claimed that she was covered in sparkly glitter paint and liked to chase after impressionable high school girls. Then they could have had a good laugh and that would have been the end of it.
Oh well, no point in crying over it now. No point in clamming up either. She'd already told him pretty much everything.
"There's a substitute," she said, tapping the canteen in her pocket. "It's a recent development. I'm told it's not as good as the real stuff, but it provides all the necessary nutrients, so I can't complain."
"Substitute, huh?" He gave a little snort. "That's convenient."
"You know what's even more convenient? I was turned only a year after it came out. I got there just in time."
He flashed a thumbs up, and Jane giggled. That was an honest to God giggle.
First blushing, now this?
What the hell was going on with her tonight?
"I mean, I guess it does put me at a disadvantage," she said, going to straight to rambling, her old standby for cases of the nerves. "I'm not as strong or as fast as I could be, and my sixth sense is pretty weak."
"Sixth sense?"
"Yeah. Vampires all have a sense that tells us when someone is coming and what they are. See, everyone has a distinctive scent based on their species. Humans, vampires, animals, you know what I mean."
"Right, right."
"And since I don't drink real blood, mine is kind of… stunted. I can only sense other vampires. Otherwise, everyone smells exactly the same to me."
"So theoretically speaking," Bucky inched closer, and now his fingers brushed the lining of her jacket. He stared deep into her eyes, his own flashing like he had some great secret to tell. "You could be talking to… I don't know, a werewolf, let's say… and you wouldn't even know it?"
"Pretty much," Jane said, and when she saw it all laid out like that, it did sound kind of silly. It wasn't like she risked killing anyone. Certainly enough 'well meaning' fellow vampires drilled that one point into her a hundred times before she went off on her own with a year's supply of substitute in her bag. "And while I can't be completely sure, I could very well be the only vampire around who's sworn off of blood, so I'd watch my back if I were you."
"Eh, I think I could take one measly vampire bite," he said, "in fact, if you ever decide to end your hunger strike, allow me to preemptively offer as much of my blood as you would need."
Was he kidding?
He was kidding, right?
Well, if he was, two could play at that game.
"Oh, I see how it is." Jane leaned in. He smelled like leather and spice. "You're playing up the whole altruistic act to get on my good side just so you can find out if the stories about vampire bites are true."
Bucky threw up both hands in mock surrender. "Shit. You got me."
Conversation flowed much more easily from there. A group of daring children rushed behind a row of bushes, taking turns snapping photos of each other, no doubt to prove they had been brave enough to enter the deserted park on Halloween night. Jane doubted she or Bucky would appear in any shots, but he took to making silly faces at the camera anyway. Once they were gone, Jane relied the urban legend to him and all the multiple choice options for what kind of terrible beast could be lurking in these shadows, ready to pounce on its unsuspecting prey.
"Wolves," Bucky said without missing a beat. "Definitely wolves."
She talked about the stars that she charted in her spare time, all the night school classes she took even though she was more or less an expert on the subject, just so her mind stayed active. In turn, he told stories about his friends and the crazy situations they always seemed to find themselves in. She smiled at tales of a childhood spent keeping his scrawny best friend from picking fights with bullies, and shed a sympathetic tear when he spoke of the untimely death of his parents.
For so long, they sat and they talked. They watched costumed adults and children and tried to bet on whether a Jedi or a Disney princess would walk by next. They made guesses based on the decorations of nearby houses what kind of candy was offered inside. They hummed along to one house's elaborate light show synced up to Monster Mash that went off at ten thirty on the dot.
By the time eleven rolled around, Jane hadn't moved for so long that her butt was numb, but she didn't care to get up yet.
"So, I have a bit of a confession to make," Bucky said, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"Okay," Jane said. Where was he going with this now?
"I didn't just sit down and start talking to you because I felt like it." He clicked his tongue. "I've got this friend, I think I've mentioned him already, but I'm supposed to meet him and his wife for a late dinner in about twenty minutes, and seeing as I'm sick of them trying to set me up all the time, I've been thinking I should bring a date."
He got up, standing over Jane with one hand out for her to take.
"So would you be interested in joining me for dinner?"
Jane looked at his outstretched hand, then at his eyes which seemed to glow in the moonlight. Then she took his hand, because when she thought about it, she didn't have a reason not to.
"I doubt they're going to serve anything I would like," she said playfully, and he responded in kind.
"You never know. The waitress might make for a good snack."
He led her to the exit, or maybe she led him. It was hard to tell. He had let go of her hand, though the feel of his calloused fingers lingered long after, and Jane kept her hand cupped, so she could hold on to that sensation a little longer. Any questions about why he would keep one hand bare and wear a glove on the other could be saved for later.
The gates hung open ten feet away, no doubt left that way by the kids in their hasty retreat from danger. Jane kept her eyes on it, pulling her jacket tight around her shoulders. For all the good that did her. The thick heavy wool that had never failed to protect her before was flimsy and thin before the blistering cold that afflicted her now.
"You okay?" Bucky asked. He slowed a step as he looked down at her with obvious concern. "I'd offer you my coat, but it looks like you've got a pretty good one already."
"I'm fine," Jane said, and where Bucky slowed down, she sped up. "Just want to get going. Everything's fine."
Because of course she couldn't tell him. Couldn't let him know the kind of danger he was in if they stayed. That terrible cold was only getting worse, and their screams cut through her like a knife through butter. She squeezed his hand—when had she grabbed it?—and he took it well. According to Darcy, even in Jane's 'weakened' state, she could snap a wrist bone if she wasn't careful.
"You sure you're okay?" He was no longer looking at her, instead glancing back and forth in all directions. It took Jane longer than it should have to understand that he was checking for threats.
"Come on, let's go," Jane pulled on him, hard as she could, but all of her wrist breaking strength wasn't nearly enough to make him move. "I want to go now."
"Jane, who is coming?"
He sounded more serious than she'd ever heard him, and he looked… was that just her imagination or did his eyes flash gold for a second?
"What do you mean? No one is coming. Everything is fi-"
"I can hear them, Jane. Don't lie to me. Tell me who is coming."
"I said, no one… what do you mean you can hear them? They're too far away- no, forget it. Let's just go."
This time, when she pulled, he went right along with her. It was a victory Jane couldn't savor, because they were still in the line of fire as long as she could sense them nearby, and she had a strong suspicion that she had only been able to move him because he let her.
Two steps away from the threshold and freedom, the gates slammed shut. Jane jumped back, in time to avoid a slash across the face, straight into Bucky. He held her to him, protecting her even. He felt so good pressed up against her, but the shrill laughter ringing in her ears prevented her from enjoying it.
"Oh no," Jane whispered. She clung to him, not even realizing she was doing it, just needing something to hold on to. "They're here."
They arrived in shadow, pulling free from inky blackness to form tall, humanoid shapes that gradually turned to something all too familiar. Olivia was the first to appear, silhouetted against the moon, her hair swept over her shoulder, red eyes glowing like tiny pinpricks, sickly grin baring fangs as long as Jane's pinky finger. Her coven surrounded her on all sides, matching their leader in malice and hunger. Jane held Bucky tighter, a poor illusion that she could protect him.
"We have to run," she squeaked.
"Why? Who are they?" he whispered back, cool as a cucumber, "Friends of yours?"
Jane could've laughed. "Definitely not, but they are dangerous. These are vampires."
"I know," he said, "once again, the fangs are a giveaway."
"No, but I mean they are really vampires."
"I said I know that they're vampires."
"But this is the real thing, Bucky. I'm not kidding."
"Neither am I."
"Hey, lovebirds!"
Jane cringed at the sound of Olivia's voice, grinding more painfully in her ears than it was usually capable of.
"Hi Olivia," Jane mumbled. She stood in front of Bucky, placing herself between him and Oliva's rabid pack. She saw the humor in their eyes as they realized what she was doing. Oh, how cute, they would think. Teeny tiny weakling Jane trying to save her precious human from being their dinner. Best joke ever. "We were just leaving."
"Oh, but you should stay, Janie," Olivia said. Her coven formed a circle around them, moving in slowly. "Your new friend here looks especially delicious. I want to meet him."
Jane grabbed for Bucky's hand, the uncovered one. The gloved one was too impersonal, and if it was as hard to the touch as his arm was…
She reached behind her, and all she felt was air.
Bucky was in front of her.
His board shouldered form cast a long shadow as he walked fearlessly into the fray.
"Hey there," he said cheerfully, as though greeting a friend on the street. "I'm Bucky. Nice to meet you."
The gathering coven stopped at Olivia's signal, though most of them had halted their approach long before that, around the time when Bucky decided it was time to play the hero.
"What are you doing?" Jane hissed at him. "Come back here."
"Relax, doll, I can handle this."
He stopped in front of Olivia. Though she towered over Jane, the vampire barely reached Bucky's chin.
"So who are you supposed to be?" he asked.
Olivia started, her mouth hanging open in shock. While not terribly high in the vampire hierarchy (those spots were reserved exclusively for the Purebloods), as a coven leader, Olivia would be used to deference and submission, and she certainly wouldn't expect food to address her like an equal. The look on her face was something Jane could even laugh about later.
Much, much later.
First she had to get herself and this idiot out of here.
"I'm surprised," Olivia said. She walked all around Bucky, her nose in the air, sniffing him. "Jane's been collecting pets for a few years now, but I never thought she'd stoop so low as to collect dogs, too."
There was a smattering of snickers, but only from the most bloodthirsty members of her coven. The rest of them hung back, moving slowly out of formation. They kept their eyes on Bucky at all times. They seemed to have forgotten Jane was there at all. Any time he moved, they jumped backwards, bodies tense and ready for a fight. Jane could smell the fear pouring off of them like sweat.
Fear of Bucky?
But why?
"Dog? Really?" he chuckled, low and deep, and not at all like the jovial laughter she'd heard from him before. "Oh boy, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that one."
"You'll be hearing it for all of your pathetic life, dog." Olivia snarled. "Why don't you go and chase your tail for a while, huh? Let us talk to Janie like civilized people. I doubt you'd know anything about that."
Bucky stood up straighter, using his height to his advantage. "Forgive me for saying, miss, but I'm getting the feeling you actually want me to rip your head off."
"Oh dear, what a brute you are to threaten a woman."
"Don't give me that shit, especially not when you're here trying to threaten Jane and have clearly done so in the past. Now I'm only going to ask you once to leave us alone. If you do, there won't be any problems."
By now, even the bloodthirsty ones were on edge. They didn't show it so much in face, which still bore all the telltale signs of feral hunger and insanity, as they did in body language. Most of them were as far from the scene as their less vicious brethren. Some of them snapped their teeth at Bucky, but if he looked at them, they shrunk back, heads bowed. When Olivia reared up, bared her fangs and sneered, they all held their breath.
"And if I don't?" she asked.
It took three seconds.
Or at least it felt like three seconds.
However long it took, it ended with Olivia in the air, dangling a foot off the ground and held by an hand that was no longer a hand. Three of her stronger coven members were on the ground. As soon as Bucky grabbed their leader they had lunged for him, and he knocked them all back with powerful strikes to the head and chest. His hand that wasn't a hand sported black tufts of fur and claws that matched his sharpening teeth. A growl reverberated from his chest, deep and filled with rage.
And yes, his eyes were definitely a deep goldenrod.
"Oh my god," Jane breathed, "you're a werewolf?"
Bucky didn't answer. He didn't need to. Those eyes and those teeth and that paw couldn't mean much else. Jane glanced at his free hand, fully expecting to see more of the same wolfish features. At some point, one of the vampires must have clawed at his jacket and torn a hole in the sleeve. Wide and gaping, it provided an excellent view of a robotic forearm that moved as fluidly (if more noisily) as a flesh and blood arm would.
Okay, fine. After everything else, Jane didn't have it in her to be shocked anymore.
"L-let go!" Olivia gasped, significantly less commanding now that her throat was crushed. "You d-dog you- urgh!"
He squeezed tighter.
"I do not like being called a dog," Bucky seethed, and for the very first time, Jane was scared of him. "I'm not going to kill you, but I might change my mind if you do it again, so do yourself a favor and quit while you're ahead."
He threw her into a tree. Olivia cracked the trunk on impact, but had no time to recover before Bucky was upon her.
"Now listen carefully," he said, "I'm only going to say this once: leave Jane Foster alone, understand? She is now under mine and my pack's protection. If you make trouble for her, you make trouble for us. You don't want to make trouble for us, do you?"
She shook her head, and he shook his with her.
"That's right, no you don't." He got off of her and used the toe of his boot to push her onto her stomach, allowing her to crawl away from him. "Now beat it, all of you!"
He rounded on those who hadn't already run and let out a growl that seemed to shake the earth, and sent Olivia and the rest of her coven running. Within seconds, Jane and Bucky were alone again, surrounded by freshly fallen leaves and green grass. Bucky let out a breath, and his paw became a hand again. His teeth returned to normal, and when he opened his eyes, they were blue again.
"Well," he said, rolling his shoulders, "that was some good exercise. Need a hand there?"
He was right next to her before she could blink. Just how damn fast was he that he could move twenty feet in the time it took him to complete that statement?
These damn werewolves, really.
Werewolves…
"You're a werewolf!" Jane pointed an accusing finger at him.
"Yes, I am," Bucky said. "Thought we established that already."
"You're a werewolf!"
"You've said that three times now."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Bucky blinked at her once. Twice. "Well, at first, it was because I thought you knew. Didn't know you had that issue with your senses. After that, I guess I was trying to find the right time to bring it up. I was going to tell you on the way, but then those guys all showed up and one thing led to another, and here we are."
He shrugged.
"But that's impossible," Jane argued. "If you're a werewolf, how are you human right now? The full moon is out! I thought all werewolves had to transform under the full moon."
"All omega wolves have to transform," Bucky said. "All beta wolves, too, except under special circumstances. I, on the other hand, am an Alpha wolf. Means I have much better control over myself than the others. I only transform when I want to."
It made sense, Jane conceded. It would also explain why he was able to only partially change when every single book Jane had ever read about werewolves said that would kill a werewolf to try. To make it work, they would have to be especially powerful.
"Okay," she said, one hand on her head. "Okay, okay, but there's still one other thing that doesn't explain."
He clenched his metal fist before she could say it. He seemed to just know that was what she meant, like it was a story he'd repeated a thousand times over. Jane almost felt bad for bringing it up.
"That's... kind of a long story."
"So it started when I was a kid. My best friend, Steve, was the son of the Alpha, so it was expected that he'd take over for him one day. I used to be a beta wolf, and I was supposed to become Steve's second when we grew up."
"Second?" Jane asked. They were halfway up the street in the direction of the café where Bucky's friends waited.
"Like a right hand man. The Alpha's second is a beta who is above all other betas, but still below the Alpha. That was going to be me, but then some crazy shit happened while we were on a hunt. I don't really want to get into that right now, but in the end, I was separated from my pack and I lost my arm."
"That's awful," Jane said. She rubbed her thumb across the hand that held hers, and he smiled.
"It's no big deal. It was years ago, and I've pretty much gotten over it. Anyway, my arm was replaced, and for a while, I was under the control of this group of monster hunters. Wanted to use me to kill other werewolves and vampires for them. Apparently, their anti-'monster' sensibilities didn't stop them from using a monster to do their dirty work."
He grimaced, and Jane tried not to flinch as a hint of gold stained his irises.
"I got sick of that pretty quick and escaped. Traveled on my own for a while, got my arm fixed with some magic that would prevent it from breaking and allow it to change when I do. Along the way, I met a bunch of other nomadic werewolves. Most of them challenged me to a fight, so I kicked all their asses. Then they were required to join me, and pretty soon I had a pack of my own."
"Why didn't you ever go home?" Jane asked.
Bucky hesitated. "Well, see, back when I was with those monster hunters, they told me that everyone in my pack was dead. That they'd killed all of them. It was a big lie, of course, but I didn't know it then. I thought I was alone in the world, so I started travelling. I only found out they were alive years later, after I had become an Alpha. By then, Steve had taken over my old pack, and he'd chosen a new second. It's no big deal, though. Now we can meet as equals, and he has a good guy watching his back. His name's Sam Wilson. He's pretty tough, but he's also smart and cautious. That's something Stevie desperately needed. Dumb punk loves to run headfirst into danger."
Jane giggled under her breath. She'd lost count of the number of times he'd made her giggle tonight, and she finally had to concede that she was turning into a silly little girl with a crush.
"So I guess you have a second, too, right? What's he like?"
"She," Bucky corrected her, "and she's a badass. Scares everyone to death. Scares me a little sometimes, too."
"But she's still your second?"
"Well, the way it works is like this: you're the Alpha if you beat everyone else in the pack. You're the second if you beat everyone except the Alpha. Nobody other than Steve has ever come as close to beating me as Natasha did, but she didn't, and so, she's my second. I met her and her mate in Budapest about six years ago, and they've been at my side ever since." He removed his hand from hers, only so his arm could snake across her shoulders, making her blush anew. "Okay, I've told you my story, now it's time to hear yours. How did Jane the vampire come to be?"
Jane rolled her eyes. "It's a boring story."
"Let me be the judge of that."
Which was code for 'I will not stop until you tell me, so you'd better start talking now.'
Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe that was just her projecting Darcy on other people.
"If you really want to know, I got bitten thirty five years ago when I was twenty seven. By then, my parents were both dead and I'd been staying with my godfather after I divorced my husband and he took the house. I went out for a walk one night, something grabbed me, the next thing I know, I'm waking up half a mile away in a field. I'm craving blood and I have no idea what the hell happened. Luckily, my godfather found me before I could hurt anyone. He was pretty knowledgeable on vampires, always had been, but of course he didn't tell me they were real until I became one."
"Kind of stupid of him," Bucky said, though he had enough sense to look sheepish when Jane shot a glare at him. Erik had been anything but stupid, thank you. "I just mean that if he'd told you what to look out for, maybe you could have avoided it."
Much as Jane wanted to argue, he did have a point. Erik himself had said those very words more than enough times in between fervent apologies.
"He taught me everything I needed to know about surviving. He introduced me to some friendly vampires who helped me through the changes. He found a supplier for the substitute that I still use today, and by the time he died, I was okay to be on my own. That was fifteen years ago."
"I'm so sorry," Bucky said.
"It's okay. It's been a long time." She didn't tell him that sometimes, she still shed a tear for the man who raised her once, and then gave her her life back when she'd thought it had been taken from her. "For a while I did what you did, traveled on my own. Then, about three years ago, I found Darcy."
"Darcy, I'm guessing, is that pet Olivia was talking about," Bucky said, speaking the elder vampire's name with a fair amount of venom. It made Jane smile.
"She's my friend," Jane said. "I'd met her once before when she was a kid. Her grandmother was driving, and she flipped the car over near where I lived. I pulled Darcy out of the wreck. I was told that I'd probably saved her life. Years later, we ran into each other at this twenty four hour convenience store. I didn't recognize her at first, but she knew me right away, and once she realized that I hadn't aged a day in sixteen years, she followed me around and badgered me until I had to tell her the truth. Then she offered to let me live with her and her boyfriend. That's where I've been ever since."
"I like that story," Bucky said. "Has a good ending. Darcy sounds like a fun girl. I'd love to meet her."
"Bored of me already?" Jane asked.
"I could never be bored of you."
The café was in sight. Bucky pointed it out at the corner of the road, all brightly lit and decked out in ghosts and ghouls. Inside, Michael Jackson's Thriller played on repeat, and Jane tapped her foot to the beat as they stepped inside and were immediately waved at by a large blond man who sat next to a pretty woman in red.
"You kept us waiting, you jerk!" the blond man said as they walked over.
"I was busy, thank you very much," Bucky said, "had to take out some trash. Can't expect me to be at your beck and call twenty four seven."
"You're right. Can't even expect you to be on time," was the reply, and though the words on their own were harsh, the way they were spoken, and the humor in both men's eyes, spoke of a bond that went well beyond a few endearing insults. "And who is this?"
Bucky let go of Jane's hand, only to put his arm around her shoulder.
"Steve, this is my new friend, Jane Foster. Jane, this is Steve Rogers. You know, that danger prone moron I was telling you about."
Steve scoffed. "Did he also tell you about that time he set his pants on fire while he was wearing them?"
"Hey, shut up," Bucky snapped. He grumbled something about annoying punks while Steve snickered, then he turned to the woman, "and this is Steve's wife, Peggy."
"It's nice to meet you both," Jane said.
"Likewise," said Steve, "I didn't know Buck had made friends with a vampire, if you don't mind me saying."
Peggy stared at her. "You're a vampire?"
Jane rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, but don't worry, I'm not one for biting people."
"And we've already decided that I'll be her first victim," said Bucky.
Jane choked on her own spit, and Steve laughed so hard, Jane thought he'd bust a gut.
"Guess I'm still the only muggle here," Peggy wryly remarked.
"Muggle or no, you can still kick Stevie's ass," said Bucky.
"Hm, yes, that's true."
"Hey."
Peggy sighed and pressed a swift kiss to Steve's lips, which seemed to appease him and came just in time for him to spring up and help a struggling waitress with an overflowing tray of dishes. He held it over his head like it was nothing but air and carried it away at the flushed waitress's direction.
"He's always doing things like that," Peggy said, practically glowing as she watched her husband. "Steve loves to help people."
"Then you're a lucky woman," said Jane.
Bucky huffed and crossed his arms. "I could've done that. Punk just beat me to it."
The two women shared a glance, and then, with a shake of her head, Jane reached up and kissed Bucky's cheek.
"It's okay. I won't get bored of you either."