/Where the fuck did you run off to./
/Laying low, Nat. Snake's after us./
/You gonna let me join your little party?/
/Would if I could. Staying off the records./
/So that's a 'if I can find you.'/
/Getting old?/
/Not as old as you, Капиталистическая мразь/
/I don't know Russian./
/Show it to the Winter Soldier. He'll get a kick out of it./
None of them wanted to move from their position on the bed, so they didn't. But, still, Steve and Tony both began to get bored and fiddled along with their phones, while James stared resolutely into space and didn't do well when either of them tried to bring him into conversation, and protested with tortured looks whenever they tried to move. Steve's pleasantly surprised when Natasha texts him, and, as she said, he shows James the texts.
He says nothing, but there is a half-curve of a smile so reminiscent of the Bucky of before that he wants to cry and hug and kiss and punch. Once his breathing evened out, once the panic left his eyes and he relaxed, James had seemed to fit into his skin better than he had previously. Maybe it was the contact. Though Steve hadn't really understood Tony's tactics for getting him to calm down, they obviously worked. It was probably a good idea that Stark had banned him from talking.
"What's it say?" He asks, keeping his voice light and casual and trying so damn hard to treat him like Bucky.
The half-smile grows into something amused, and James replies, "Nothing that isn't true, Captain." The last part is said with such a ridiculous Russian accent, that it takes Steve a minute to realize that was a joke, and another five minutes to figure out how Google Translate works, but once he does, he's beaming and smiling and gives a little snort, bumping into Bucky's shoulder affectionately. Capitalist scum.
He pokes at the red star of Bucky's arm and grins, retorting, "At least my patriotism isn't displayed once the uniform is off." Steve almost thinks that's the wrong thing to say, because Bucky's smile freezes in place, but the ex-assassin actually gives another snort a minute later, rubbing at the star with his right hand over Steve's own splayed fingers.
It's at that point that Tony kicks Steve in the calf and pouts, spouting something about feeling left out, and that's when Steve whips one of the thin, limp pillows from behind him, throwing it at Tony's face. Tony freezes for a moment, his hair mussed and staticy, before he retaliates, sitting up from the wall and smacking Steve across the face with the same pillow.
Bucky sits still with fearful eyes, huddling closer to the corner, and Steve wants to help him, he does, but what Tony did was not okay in the grand scheme of things, so he just says, grabbing another of the pillows and getting on his knees to whack Stark across the cheek, "New mission, James! Operation: Stop Stark with Feathers!" It's terribly domestic and ridiculously juvenile, but after Bucky's panic from earlier and the unload of emotions, he wants to make things light and happy.
Though he doesn't seem to understand everything about it, Bucky- he can't stand to call him James in his own head- evidently comprehends that this isn't actually something that should include knives and guns, and isn't supposed to actually hurt. Steve is rather relieved when the fear leaves his eyes and is replaced by blatant curiosity.
Tony raises an eyebrow at the feathers floating through the air, and gives a mock show of wiping spit off the corner of his mouth, before he growls, "You're going to regret that, red, white and tights."
"Oh yeah, bud?"
"Hell fucking yeah." It's then that Steve notices that Tony has grabbed an extra blanket and he launches forward, throwing the blanket over Steve and practically screaming, "Quick, James! Tickle the capitalist and his egregious ways!"
Steve is slowly suffocating from laughter under the blanket and squirms at the mention of tickling throwing up a litany of, "No, don't you dare!"
Bucky is hesitant, but then he sort of unlocks his body from the corner and leans forward. Tony stops moving and Steve does too, when he realizes what's happening. The ex-assassin sort of pokes Steve in the ribs, as though he sort-of remembers what tickling is, but doesn't understand the use, and that's when Steve moves.
Since Tony is hardly holding him down anymore, Steve explodes out of his blanket prison and launches himself at Bucky, whose smile is replaced by neutrality as he begins to use defensive mechanisms, but then Steve's fingers are scrabbling over his ribs and his protests turn into something else, a litany of, "No, no, Steve, stop it you punk!" He laughs, throaty and full and scratchy, and it's just like Steve remembers, and that makes him grin and laugh, too.
The three of them continue to have a pillow fight and tickle battle, Bucky actually seeming to get it after a while and being a ruthless attacker who seems to know exactly where everyone is the most ticklish, and eventually they collapse. None of them are sitting in the corner anymore, but are laying side by side on the bed, and James- Bucky- looks… Well, relaxed. There's a smile on his face and a relaxed set to his body that Steve hasn't seen since… Well, before the train, definitely.
He looks over to see Stark texting furiously on his phone, and Steve takes his out to check for messages.
/Did you show him?/
/Yeah, Nat, I showed him./
/The Communists beat the Capitalists in the great Tickle War of 2014 3 to 1./
/...What./