It had been almost six months since Bucky Barnes had moved into Avengers Tower with the team. He wasn't an Avenger though, Tony wouldn't allow it. Clint was tired of everyone tip toeing around the big man. It was time someone showed him some fun. "Come on, Barnes! We're going out, and you're coming with us." Clint boomed as he strode into the training room with Natasha.
Bucky ignored the pair, still not comfortable with Barton, and continued firing at the mangled dumby that was rotating in a tight spiral around him, its head just about ready to drop off. "James." Natasha insisted. Bucky sighed and clicked the safety on his gun. Barton hit the switch for the dumby and it disappeared into the floor. Bucky dropped his pistol into its holster and looked expectantly at Clint, who looked at Natasha.
"Get your combat suit on and meet us in the garage in ten minutes." Bucky stared as they began to walk out. Before she got through the door, Natasha turned and clung onto the door frame. "And if I were you," she smirked a little. "I would shower, too." Then she left. Bucky waited for the sound of Barton's laughter to fade away completely before exiting the training room and climbing the stairs, he didn't like the elevator.
He showered and changed into the clothes laying on his bed and debated whether or not to go unarmed. Eventually, he put his gun in his waist band and tucked a knife into each boot, before leaving for the garage. "Alright!" Barton yelled as Bucky stepped through the door to the garage.
"Here," Bucky was handed a small card, "this is your Avengers card. I'll get you into pretty much anywhere in New York," Barton leaned in closer like he was telling a secret. "and yes that includes Hooter's." Natasha slapped Barton on the arm as Bucky looked down at the card, slightly confused as to how he had an Avenger's card. "Steve convinced Tony." Natasha clarified. Bucky stuffed the card in his pocket and looked expectantly at the two.
"We're in this one." Natasha announced proudly, walking toward a very sleek black sports car with four doors and tinted windows. "Where are we going?" Natasha asked Barton as she pulled out of the garage. "Stark Expo. Drinks are free." Natasha laughed lightly, but listened carefully when Bucky mumbled under his breath. "The Future."
"You brought him to my Expo?" Tony hissed below his breath at Clint, but just loud enough to be heard over the pounding music. "Well yeah. The guy needed to get out and make up for some lost time and quite frankly the training room could use a break from him." Tony turned around when someone called his name. "Alright fine. Just keep him out of trouble would you? Can you handle that, Agent?" Barton did a mock salute as Tony turned around, before returning to the bar where he'd left Natasha with Bucky.
"Hey what are you doing?" Bucky looked up at Barton, expecting to be scolded for and unknown reason. Natasha noticed, and placed a reassuring hand on Bucky's shoulder, which only seemed to make matters worse. Barton shook his head, "You're not drinking yet." He motioned to the bartender and ordered three shots. "To the future!" he said smiling. They raised their glasses then drank, and while Clint and Natasha's head were left reeling from the strong taste, Bucky simply put his glass down and waited for them to recover.
Barton got the bar tender's attention, "Another for this guy." He shouted, pointing at Bucky, who was standing confused. "I can't." he said simply. Barton stared at him totally confused as he took the second shot from the bar tender. "Of course you can, it's free." Bucky shook his head, "I can't get drunk." Natasha seemed to put the pieces together, but Barton was still trying to hand Bucky the shot. "The serum." She said simply. Understanding crossed Barton's face, and he downed the shot himself. "Remind me not to let him drive." She said to Bucky. "Aw, Nat, you know I can handle it!" Barton whined. "I know that, but if we get pulled over, the cops won't care that you're an Avenger. It never stopped them from trying to arrest you before."
The corner of Bucky's mouth twitched up, picturing Barton struggling with four or so police officers who were trying to cuff his hands. "There we go!" Barton clapped Bucky on the shoulder when he saw the smile, which immediately disappeared upon contact. Barton quickly removed his hand, not wanting the night to go south already. "Right well, I need like ten more shots before we do anything else."
After only five shots Barton turned to Bucky. "Okay, come on, there's something you need to do before I'm too drunk to remember it." Bucky looked up, confused again. Barton smiled, "Tony has added a few things to the Expo over the last two years to accommodate for us, one of which is hand-to-hand. It's great, people pay to have their asses kicked."
Natasha scoffed, "No one has ever beaten me like that big guy beat you." Barton's smile disappeared. "That guy was huge!" He turned to Bucky, "Last year there was this one really big guy I couldn't beat. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?" Bucky smirked and spoke in Russian, "Stupid archer." Natasha snickered. Barton pointed at Bucky, "If you kick this guy's ass, I'll forget about whatever you just called me."
"What are the rules?" Bucky asked cautiously. Barton grinned, and began following the signs that said 'Avenger's Fight Ring'. "Usually just stay in the circle and don't kill them but the rules change. We'll see when we get there."
The ring was outside in what was probably a football field. Tony had had a huge wooden stage placed in the middle that was at least fifteen feet in the air, with a net circling the base. The civilian fighters were warming up as a crowed poured onto the bleachers, which had probably been extended by Tony to accommodate for more people. Music started playing as soon as the announcer took stage.
Barton strode up to the announcer, who had just greeted the crowd. "Hello NYC!" Barton yelled into the mic, and the crowd erupted into a roar. There were TV helicopters circling above, clearly this Expo was as big a deal as it was before Bucky had fallen from that damn train. Natasha leaned over, and Bucky lowered his head to listen. "He likes to put on a show." She said smiling.
Barton now had a mic attached to his shirt, "We've got a very special guest here tonight for the first night of Stark Expo!" There was cheering, "Barnes!" Clint pointed at Bucky, "Get up here!" More cheering. Natasha gave Bucky a little nudge, before following the tall man up the spiralling stairs to the ring, and clipping on her own mic. The crowd cheered louder.
Two hulking men came out of nowhere, and started patting Bucky down. He knocked their arms away and took three quick steps back, crouching slightly. "Whoa! Easy Soldier," Barton told him. The crowd laughed. "They're just checking for weapons." Bucky knelt over, still eyeing the men, and pulled the knives out of his boots, handing them to Natasha. One of the men made a grab for them but she held them close to her, "I'll hold on to them." She said, smiling. Bucky handed his gun to Barton, and shucked off his jacket, revealing his arms so he could move better, but also to make hitting his metal arm more painful. Natasha then hooked a mic to the top of his suit.
"Now that that's over," Barton began, "we thought," Barton started walking to the left side of the ring, where something was elevating through a hole in the floor, "we'd demonstrate to all of you who don't know," Barton grabbed what Bucky could now see was a trolley, with weights on it, "just how strong Bucky really is." The last part of the sentence was slightly forced as he pushed the obviously very heavy trolley to the center of the ring, where Bucky and Natasha were standing with their arms crossed.
The crowd gradually began laughing harder as they watched Clint struggle. Natasha nudged Bucky's shoulder, "Go help him, Soldier." The crowd was now laughing so loud you could barely hear the helicopters above. Bucky trudged over, placed one arm on the handle and walked back to the center, leaving Barton behind. "Super soldiers." He said under his breath, but everyone heard him of course and Bucky shot him a glare. Barton marched over and put one hundred pounds on to start, which Bucky lifted easily with one arm.
He put another hundred on, which Bucky lifted with minimal difficulty. Barton turned to the crowd, pointing at Bucky with his thumb, who was still holding up the weight. "And this guy trained for five hours before getting here, and we just got here like what," He turned to Natasha, "five shots ago?" The crowd chuckled, "Six." Bucky corrected. They laughed harder. Barton turned to Bucky, "Put your ego down, that's enough outta you." Bucky just stared. "The weight, Barnes. The weight represents your ego."
Bucky dropped the weight with a clang, and Barton gestured for the men from before to come and remove it. Once that was done, he spoke to the crowd. "You all remember that really big guy from last year right?" Natasha laughed, "You mean the one that wiped the floor with your face?" There was more laughter, and Clint frowned. "Yes, Natasha, that one." Bucky snickered a little, stretching his arms, he knew what would happen next.
"Would that asshole, and I know you're here 'cause I saw your name on the list Neil, please come to the stage now so my friend here can kick your ass." There was more laughter, and then cheering, as a huge man made his way down the bleachers and up the stairs, onto the stage. He was easily half a foot taller than Bucky, and had so much muscle on him he looked like a balloon animal. Barton clapped Bucky on the shoulder, "Knock 'em dead." then began walking away, before rushing back. "But don't actually kill him, Tony'll shit bricks."
Cheers exploded and the spotlights zeroed in on Bucky and his opponent in the middle of the ring, changing to a deep shade of red. The announcer came on through his microphone, "Allllllriiight! You know the rule! Stay on the stage! Drum roll please!" The bleachers became a rumble of noise as thousands of feet pounded on the wood. Bucky crouched, as Neil cracked his knuckles in an attempted display of power. Of course Bucky had seen much worse and this only made him smile, almost psychotically.
"What are you smiling at?" Neil growled. "You." Bucky told him in Russian. The huge man charged at Bucky, enraged, but Bucky simply straightened himself, and grabbed Neil's shoulders, hoisting himself up and locking his legs around Neil's tree trunk neck. He swatted his arms around, trying to get Bucky off of him. Bucky leaned back until Neil started to fall backwards, then he put his hands on the floor and pulled his knees to his chest and then Neil was lying flat on his stomach, trying to fill his lungs.
Bucky stood in front of him, waiting for him to get up. He wasn't done just yet. Neil pushed himself up and punched Bucky right in the face. His face whipped to the side and his unkempt hair covered his face as he stood stone still for a moment that seemed like an eternity. The audience as silent. When he finally looked back at Neil, he spat blood in the bigger man's face, which gained him cheers, then unleashed a series of blows to his ribs and smashed his knee. When Neil fell to his good knee, Bucky brought his own knee up, connecting it with the other man's face. He fell over on his back, once again gasping for air.
When he finally got to his feet, Bucky marched up, locked one leg behind his opponent's, placed a firm hand on his forehead, and pushed, pulling his leg back at the same time. This time, when Neil hit the ground with a huge thud, he was on the verge of passing out. Just before his eyes rolled back in his head, Bucky leaned down and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Welcome to the future."
Yay! An actual long one shot! *les gasp* basically I wanted to write Bucky at Stark Expo, and I figured "hey, why not make things fun?" so I tried, and if you like it you know what to do. If you didn't like it, you can make suggestions and I'll take them into consideration in future pieces.
Peace out.
