The Happiest Place on Earth
Ch. 4 – Get Your Own Cheese
Steve, Bucky, Natasha, and Sam all piled onto the elevator with Nicole and Ashley and the other happy, hot and tired people heading down for either dinner or a second go in the parks. Nicole had not lost an ounce of her seemingly boundless energy, still bouncing on the balls of her feet. Sam leaned on the wall and pushed the elevator button before moving out of the way for another lady. Natasha found herself smiling at the two teenage girls in a way she had not expected from herself. Sometimes, things got real faster than anyone ever intended them to. If she allowed herself to think about it, maybe it was like she saw what she could have been in those two happy girls. Obviously, neither of them had ever shot anybody, although it looked like Nicole could throw a decent punch if she wanted to! Ashley looked like the kind of girl nobody really messed with.
Steve and Bucky had engaged the teenagers in conversation. Well, okay, if they were honest, it was Bucky standing there with his hands jammed in his pockets and Steve trying to listen. Nicole hadn't let up on the rapid-fire information vomit that dazzled the average person. The "I know everything there is to know about Disney" did not seem to be an exaggeration now that she had an outlet for it. Ashley, for as irritated as she pretended to be, smiled at movie references and shared in inside jokes. For some inexplicable reason, the girls seemed fixated on the not-quite-word "meep." It could be a response to nearly anything! One conversation went in a language that sounded almost like it was their own.
"Go to meep!" Nicole peeped at Ashley.
"You first!" the sandy-blonde girl fired back.
Bucky and Steve exchanged a smile that had been waiting the better part of five decades and punches on the arm. Steve's punch landed with more of a clanking noise than the sound of knuckles bonking into flesh and muscle. For a flash, both men looked mortified. The teenage girls looked curious. Natasha's ears perked up and Sam watched the situation carefully. No one other than them had seemed to notice the unusual noise.
"Plated jacket," grunted Bucky.
Everyone seemed to be fine with this answer and Nicole reverted back to her Disney chatter as the elevator descended. It stopped at other floors to let other people on and fairly soon the elevator was too crowded for Nicole to talk with her hands as she so obviously preferred. Ashley pulled her out of the way of getting stood on by a curvy Cuban lady with three grade-school-age children. The two little girls had tight, protective holds on their little brother. Their dad stood nearby, smiling at his family. Next second, the elevator stopped one more time and everyone pushed back to let in a young couple. Nicole looked positively enamored with the looks the two gave each other. The next floor down was the level for the Contempo Café. With the ding, the doors opened and the flux of people poured out.
"We're going to the Contempo Café for dinner," Nicole informed the group she had adopted as her Disney posse, as she had put it. "Want to come with us?"
"Nicole, you can't just ask people that!" Ashley scolded her. She pushed Nicole's shoulder to make her point. "I'm sorry about her… She has no filter!"
This time, Natasha's face split into a genuine smile.
"No, not at all!" she reassured the girls. "We were actually headed that way ourselves, and we'd love to join you. Even I'm a bit out of my depth here."
The two girls looked at her in curiosity.
"I was never much of a Disney kid growing up," explained the redhead, hoping she didn't sound too incredibly wistful. That's how it sounded to her… "But you two seem to really have everything together!"
This answer seemed to satisfy everyone, and the group trailed briskly after Nicole, who had apparently appointed herself party leader. Ashley had to trot to keep up with the shorter girl, but the Avengers party kept up easily. The young Egyptian man behind the Contempo Café's counter smiled and waved at their approach. Nicole broke into a little run, dragging Ashley behind her, and both of the girls ordered nachos. They got them within a minute and scooted off to hold a table for their impromptu party. Bucky and Steve were next, getting the same as the girls. They followed quickly with their plastic containers of nachos. Natasha looked more relieved than humanly possible when she received her sushi and scurried over to the table to join the rest. Everyone heard Sam exclaim over the ribs as he made his way to the table as well.
The Disney magic seemed to be doing its thing already, as the light dinner conversation came easily to all parties involved. Short of a few squawks from overtired small children, the atmosphere of the café felt relaxing, inviting, and totally safe. Even Bucky didn't feel the need to sit with his back squished against the nearest wall. He smiled a bit before biting into his burger with enough gusto that it made Natasha wrinkle her nose. Grease squirted in several directions and melted cheese dripped off the sides as lettuce fell everywhere. Steve crunched on his nachos and swiped Bucky's fries after every third or fourth chip, dipping the fried potatoes in nacho cheese-esque goop. Sam had stolen Natasha's wasabi blob to smear across his ribs, insisting no one could make them spicy enough.
"I watched a guy eat a whole one of those once!" Nicole chimed in, causing everyone to cringe.
"That wasn't a challenge, you know," Ashley reminded her in a tone that suggested she had witnessed that exact thing as the immediate result.
"Well, I know that now," groused the brunette, reaching across the table to dip her nacho in Ashley's cheese.
Yelping, Ashley yanked her plastic nacho container away, looking affronted.
"Get your own cheese!" she hollered, crunching quite deliberately into a chip.
No one was entirely sure why, but for some reason, this line came across as just life-threateningly funny to everyone within immediate earshot. Steve shot out one arm and caught Nicole as she tumbled sideways off her barstool-height seat. Ashley leaned forward, laughing like a hyena and pounding on the table with one fist. Sam just threw his head back and let off a bark akin to a large and very happy dog. Natasha snorted ungracefully and cursed in Urdu at the bite of pickled ginger that had lodged itself quite suddenly and with great force in her nasal passage. She shook her head, blew her nose, and laughed along with everyone else. Bucky had his right hand over his mouth, but his shoulders shook unmistakably. Sure no one's eyes were on him, he enacted his quickly-made plan. A flash of silver, a nacho chip, and then he had snagged himself some cheese.
"Get your own cheese!" bellowed Steve.
Everyone's eyes shot wide, and then the laughter redoubled. This time, Bucky almost flung himself backwards off his seat, positively howling. In this movement, his carefully-held jacket slid up his metal arm. For the first few moments, no one noticed. Steve laughed until tears streamed down his face, his cheeks tomato-red and his mouth open like a Golden Retriever's. Sam just about screamed his head off, still just about dying laughing. Even Natasha kept snorting like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality as her cheeks turned pink and she laughed at herself for the sound. When Bucky went for the cheese one more time to be told "GET YOUR OWN CHEESE" again, silver flashed once more.
"Wow!" yelled Nicole, her voice doing that thing where it shot up disturbingly in volume and pitch again. "That is so freaking cool! What is that?"
For a second, Bucky looked around like he had no idea what she was talking about. When the moment of realization dawned on him, his face went ashen. Steve turned quite pale as well. Natasha's eyes narrowed and Sam began to scarf his ribs down as fast as he could. You did not waste ribs, not even when the former Winter Soldier might be about to have an explosive episode. However, when Bucky saw the look on Nicole's face, he looked more confused than anything else. She stared with her eyes wide behind her glasses, but her braced teeth were visible in a huge smile. Ashley looked as well, but more cautiously.
"Holy Toledo!" Nicole exclaimed again. "That is wild! Can… Can I see that?"
Bucky looked at her delighted face, and then looked down at his metal hand.
"This?" he asked unnecessarily, blinking as if he had never seen it before either.
She nodded enthusiastically and shot out a hand for examination purposes when he extended his arm toward her.
"That is freaking amazing!" she kept going, looking the hand and wrist over and over.
Ashley had gone pale around the face too, but not out of fear.
"Nicole! What is the effing matter with you!" she almost yelled. "You just cannot do things like that!"
She turned to Bucky and waved her hands back and forth.
"I am so sorry, sir," she told him, trying to yank Nicole's hands away. "She just doesn't get some things. I'm so sorry for her bugging you."
For a second, Bucky stared at her like he didn't understand the language she spoke.
"No…" he said vaguely. "She's fine."
He watched her examining the metal hand. Far from being afraid – she looked like she had never seen something so interesting in her entire life! The teenager looked up at him, turned as red as Mickey Mouse's pants, and let go very quickly.
"Oh man! I'm so sorry!" she all but screamed. "I just… Wow… I didn't even think… I never do anything right… That was so far out of it… Wow…"
She looked as if she might cry for a couple of seconds when Bucky tilted his head at her.
"It's okay," he told her quietly. "But… I mean… You aren't afraid?"
All of a sudden, both girls scrunched up their faces.
"My mom taught me way better than that!" Nicole told him flat-out. "I just think it's cool looking! There was a dude with one kinda like this at DragonCon last year."
For a moment, everyone just sort of sat there awkwardly. Only the sound of Sam chomping on his ribs broke the tense silence. Ashley looked once more like she wanted to melt into the floor and remove herself as far from this situation as possible. Steve surveyed the situation carefully. He looked at Natasha two seats to his left as she stared intently at Bucky over a chunk of tuna in her chopsticks. Then his eyes darted over to Bucky on his right. Yes, it was very much time to make his move. The super soldier waited for two more seconds to be sure he had it exactly right. Next moment, his chip advanced…
"GET YOUR OWN CHEESE!" hollered Bucky, nearly up-ending the bottle of ketchup as he yanked his nachos in the other direction.
The sudden bellow from the former Winter Soldier silenced the entire café.
"… Pfft!" went Natasha.
All of a sudden, all eyes were on the redhead in the tight jeans and sweat-stained T-shirt. She had looked quite mad for some time now. Her hair stood almost on end in the Florida humidity. Anything resembling makeup had melted off by the time they passed Port Royal, South Carolina. Gone were the usual kick-your-ass boots; replaced by dirty pink Converse low-riders. And there she sat, a bit of tuna still clutched in shaking chopsticks, laughing her shapely ass off. Nearly screaming, tears pouring from her eyes, she wrapped her other arm around her midsection. The stitch that accompanied her hysterical laughter did nothing to drown out the snorts and squeaks.
Steve's jaw dropped with his nacho plus Bucky's stolen cheese halfway to it. Sam's chewing slowed to a halt, the bite still in his mouth. Ashley had no idea how to react to anything. Nicole had brightened back up and started to giggle as well. However, nobody could predict how Bucky was going to lose his mind and join in Natasha's level of complete and total mirth. He had his metal arm thrown around Steve's shoulder, the embarrassment of having the thing at all forgotten. Soon, he had his human arm draped on the table, his face hidden in his elbow. The position half-pulled Steve with him, causing the super soldier to make an erk noise. Families looked over at the six-person group in dismay at the noisy disturbance. Nicole had joined in as soon as her giggles got the better of her. She leaned on Ashley's shoulder, laughing until she cried and drooling as she did so because of the braces.
"Get your own cheese…" everyone kept saying, and every time it got said, the laughter started again.