Table For Three
Of course, as soon as they had parked their bikes down the street from the restaurant they had led her to, they took up their normal spots. It was a strange but comforting feeling walking between these two. Walking down the sidewalk while taking up a good portion of it, they received a couple of looks, but none of the people seemed to realize who there were really looking at.
When they had parked, she had taken a moment to run her fingers through Bucky's hair, pushing it back off of his face, allowing her a much better look at him. Once again, she noticed some tension that he was carrying seemed to fade a bit at having her do such a simple touch to him. Turning to Steve, he was dressed similar to the two of them except for his ball cap that did not fit his outfit so she pulled a head wrap from her backpack and he had actually agreed to let her put it on him. It was a grey and black swirl pattern so it blended in much better. She was glad that she hadn't packed her pink skull one since he would never have agreed to that one.
Their arms intertwined, she enjoyed the warmth coming off of them now that the leftover heat from today's sun had dissipated. Luckily they didn't have far to walk before they turned her towards a restaurants door, Steve holding it open for her to pass through first. Vic had passed by this place many times, even during just one day when she was working, but she had never eaten here. It was more of a sit-down, gathering place, not really a table-for-one establishment.
Steve was greeted by the hostess, who still seemed to recognize him even with the unusual outfit, but not be in shock at who he was. She realized that they must really eat out a lot. Requesting a table for three, the hostess picked up menus and started to walk them through the half-filled tables. They had arrived a bit late for the normal dinner crowd but she noted on the door that they were still open a few more hours. The one thing about living in a big city was that it was pretty easy to find food, even late at night. There had been many places she had lived where the entire town would close down by ten at night.
When they reached the booth, the guys stood there mumbling to each other to take the seat opposite than where she had slid into. She had a feeling this was going to be a habit.
"How about this? I have a feeling that Steve is a bit more out of his comfort zone with everything tonight, so how about he sits next to me this time?" Vic asked looking between the two of them. Bucky listened and without arguing, slid into the booth across from her, but his face did look a slight bit crestfallen.
As soon as he settled into the spot, and Steve had sat down to her right, she reached out with her legs. Finding one of Bucky's leg, she pulled it slightly forward and the wrapped both of hers around his, rubbing her foot across the back of his calf. As he realized what she was trying to do, his face lightened and there was a smile trying to form on his lips.
Turning to Steve, she asked, "Am I right?"
"Yeah, a bit. I had to borrow the clothes from Bucky. I don't really own anything like this," Steve said, passing her a menu and then Bucky before opening his own.
"Well, ya'll ended up blending in fine, except for Tony being there drawing attention," she said looking over the menu. After seeing how they ate earlier, she knew why they liked this place, lots of steak and potato items. She guess that nobody would ever mistake them for salad-only people.
"We get that a lot whenever he's around. He's…" Bucky began before Steve interrupted him.
"A very charismatic friend who doesn't even know what he doing sometimes," Steve finished for Bucky, defending Tony very nicely. "So you don't normally play with the band?"
"No, they only call if Paulo can't make it for some reason, like tonight since he was sick. It's more fun than work really," she said, feeling like she definitely needed something substantial to eat. Playing used up a lot of her energy, and she should sleep well tonight. Especially since she was no longer freaking out over meeting the two of them anymore.
"So besides, drummer, bike messenger and waitress, is there any other jobs you have?" Bucky asked moving his left leg so that hers was now between his, getting a gentle squeeze from him.
"No, not in this city. It's different here than some of the other places I've lived," she said, wondering how much she should tell them this soon after meeting them. If anything, getting it out in the open so that if they wanted to walk away would probably be the best route to take. She didn't want to get too attached if they decided that this was not going to work for the two of them.
"So you've done other jobs?" Steve asked ignoring the menu to hear more. "Like what?"
"Waitress jobs are always easy to find, as well as sales, but I've stocked book shelves, worked a loading dock for a paper manufacturer, catering, mechanic, construction…" she began before Bucky interrupted.
"Construction? Like in a construction office?"
"No, I mean as in working on job sites doing framing, painting, insulation, drywall repair, interior trim…" she let her words drift off as she watched their expressions change to something a bit unreadable. "I know, not very lady like, especially considering what the two of you probably grew up with."
"It's not that," Steve said taking her hand in his. "We are both just thinking that you may not want to let Clint know that you have any knowledge about any of that, otherwise we would definitely end up losing you to him on Thursday."
"What?" she answered a bit horrified by the strange statement. Lose her?
"That man will not stop working on his farmhouse and if he finds out that you know anything about construction, he'll put you to work and we will never get any time with you," Bucky explained to her, giving her leg another firm embrace.
Hearing that, she felt a bit better before asking, "Then what do you mean by Thursday?"
The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Steve answered.
"Bucky and I talked about this earlier, but with Thanksgiving being this week, our group has already been invited up to Clint's farm for dinner. We were hoping that you would come with us."
"Unless you were planning on heading home to see your family already," Bucky added.
She dropped her head and looked at the menu, dreading what she knew was coming, but they needed to know.
"No, I had other plans for this week but I'm going to put them on hold. And…I don't see my family anymore," she said without looking up.
Vic could feel them staring at her, wanting an answer, but luckily the waitress showed up right then to take their orders, giving her a few moments reprieve to consider her answers. After all of them ordering steaks, hers being much smaller than theirs, but all three medium-rare which she found amusing, they were once again left alone to talk.
"Why would you not see your family?" Bucky stated not letting the topic drop, which she kind of hoped they would.
"I come from a small town. A very religious small town. When my parents saw the soulmark meant for two others, it disgusted them. It's the reason my middle name is Lilith," she answered, but saw only blank stares from them. They didn't know? "It has a couple of different religious backgrounds meanings. It can mean female demon or unclean one. I left home at eighteen after right after graduating high school, but I didn't really have a choice. My parents didn't want me there anymore. Since leaving, I've just been moving across the country, not really being able to stay in any one place for too long. I get a bit restless."
Steve and Bucky were quiet, a bit too quiet she thought, and she waited for them to say something, and finally it was Steve that spoke.
"That was not how we were raised to think of our soulmarks. Our parents agreed and taught us that having a soulmark destined for more than one meant that we contained more love and friendship than a normal person did. That was why we would have a third."
"It must have been nice to have raised in that type of environment," Vic said remembering how she had been shunned most of her life, not only by her family, but by everyone she had grown up with. She had gone most of her life not having any real friends, just acquaintances who didn't know about her soulmark. All except for Wade. They had been so lucky to have found each other at such a young age so that they would always have a friend.
"If you're going to make me not be depressed around you, then I think that you should do the same with this," Bucky said reaching over to take her other hand.
"I agree," Steve offered in support. "And as for being a bit restless, that may also be because of the soulmark. We've had more than a couple of conversations with Bruce regarding our soulmarks because of them not being common. His research came up with other examples of multiple partner soulmarks and found that they were sometimes a bit restless until they came into contact with each other, then they seemed to settle down, not move around as much. Like they were looking for each other."
"Maybe that was why I had the urge to come this way," she said, wondering if by both of them finally being in the same town together had drawn her here. "When did the both of you finally come to live here in New York?"
"I've been here for most of the past three years," Steve answered.
"I didn't get here until January of this year," Bucky informed her. "Before that, I was in Europe, moving around, constantly in hiding."
"I started to head this way after Valentine's Day, feeling that it was the right direction," she said.
"So, then you moved here not long after Bucky got here," Steve commented. "But somehow, until days ago, none of us ever ran into each other."
"You said that you had other plans that you were going to put on hold?" Bucky asked, which was probably going to really get their attention.
"Yeah. I had, kind of, planned to leave town. Permanently," she said, taking another sip and waiting for it.
"What?" "No, you can't." "Not now." She couldn't tell which of them was saying what.
Vic raised her hands to placate them into silence. "I started with these plans at the beginning of the month, well before we met. I was trying to get out of New York before the snow started. I've already given notice at the messenger service, and told my landlord that I was leaving. Now, I'll just have to make a couple of calls and straighten some things out."
"So you will stay and see how this…how we, work?" Steve asked.
"Yes. I was actually hesitant to leave, not the usual urge to move on. Maybe because ya'll were here, in town, is why," Vic admitted. "I've lived in over ten cities over the past eight years. Like I said, restless."
"That is a bit more than restless," Bucky said, looking amazed at her.
"So then, will you come spend Thursday with us?" Steve asked looking hopeful.
"Shouldn't you ask this Clint if it is OK first?" she asked, wonder what it would be like to around a group of people that might actually accept her.
"You may know Clint by his Avenger's name, Hawkeye," Bucky told her, grasping that she didn't know him by that name. She nodded in recognition as she remembered hearing that name associated with the Avengers.
"By now, Natasha has already told him all that she knows about you and he will have no problem with you joining us," Steve replied with a smile.
"As long as you ask him yourself and make sure, then yes," Vic said, hoping that she didn't end up regretting agreeing to this. Depending on how close everyone in their group was, if they didn't feel she belonged, it wouldn't matter if she was their soulmate or not. They could easily sway them into shunning her, just like everyone back home did. So she would just hope for the best, expect the worst. So far, Natasha didn't seem to have a problem, and with Tony, he had been eager to meet her, but that didn't mean that he wasn't still undecided about her.
The waitress showed up with their meals and all three of them dug into the food as if they hadn't eaten at all that day. There was normal small talk about their jobs while they ate but none of them wanted to get too personal without being able to focus all their attention on a talk like that.
As they were about finished, the waitress showed back up and offered them dessert menus to look at. She had not eaten a lot of sweets growing up since they were considered special, but when she had gotten the chance, she had begun searching and tasting everything possible until she finally reached the stage of not eating desserts at all. She had practically made herself sick of most items found on normal menus.
"What are you getting, Vic?" Bucky asked looking up at her, "Their cheesecake is very good."
She found that none of the items seemed to sound all that good, and Vic put the menu down before answering, "I don't see anything that appealing."
She could instantly see the looks they were giving her.
"I've been told I'm a bit too picky sometimes," she said.
"We both like cheesecake, so there is a chance that you might also," Steve suggested. She could see the hopefulness in their eyes, so she decided to give in. What could it hurt?
"Fine, cheesecake for everyone," Vic said, aloud which she got two smiles for. After giving the order to the waitress, it was Bucky who spoke first.
"So how long did you take lessons to be able to play the drums like that?
Here it comes, another part of her that could make them run for the hills, pun intended, she thought. She knew that Tony would get her joke after talking with him and the band earlier.
"Actually, I've never had a lesson. I'm sort of self-taught," she said, taking a drink to give herself some time. Why did she have to be so nervous? Because she was not normal. Looking up, she found them both staring at her, just like she figured. She just needed to go ahead and be honest.
"You taught yourself to play the drums?" Bucky asked with a stunned look. "How?"
"At one of my other jobs. I worked in a music store for a while. There was a drum set for customers to test out. After locking up one night, I listened to a song to play, and just started repeating the pattern," she said waiting for it to happen. The judgements. Might as well get it over with. "Now, I can play any song I listen to."
"So you're a natural musician," Steve said, sounding intrigued, and not with the usual disdain she was used to hearing.
"Can you plan any other instruments?" Bucky then asked.
"I've only tried the drums and piano," she told them, but they didn't look like they had any problem with the information.
"Do you write music also?" Steve then asked.
"No, definitely not," she said shaking her head no. "Not a single note. I can only copy other people's performances. Do either of you play an instrument?"
"Neither one," Bucky replied. "That talent is all yours."
"I always figured it was due to the soulmark," she said, a bit amazed that they were not put off by her admission. People had always acted like, and told her, what she could do was not normal, and therefore neither was she.
"Steve's good at drawing, how about you?" Bucky asked.
"Another big no. My artistic skills are a lot less Edgar Degas and a lot more Jackson Pollock," she said, which got a chuckle from Steve and a blank look from Bucky. "But if you need a room painted, no problem."
The waitress showed up with their desserts then, a slice large enough that she could have shared it with both of them and still of had plenty.
"So, you know artwork, you just don't make your own?" Steve asked taking a bit of his cheesecake.
"Yeah, I took an entire day and walked the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I first got into town," she said, hesitantly taking her first bite. As the creamy substance melted in her mouth, she realized that they had both been right, this stuff was good.
"Did you study art in school?" Bucky then asked, eating his own dessert fairly quickly.
"No, I just studied the basic classes in high school, the minimum necessary to graduate. No sports, no art classes, not a single club."
"How did you end up with a motorcycle?" Bucky after a few bites of them eating in silence.
"I grew up in dairy country. We used motorcycles and ATV's to round up the cows for milking. It's easier to use in the fields than cars or trucks," she said noticing that she was about half way through the slice. "I was already used to moving around a lot without many possessions. So I bought Riddick and learned how to do maintenance on him myself in case anything happened while traveling."
Bucky then almost choked on the bite in his mouth, "Wait...you named your motorcycle after a homicidal, sociopath, mass-murdering criminal?"
"Don't forget escape artist," she smiled at him, giving his leg a gently squeeze and pointing her full fork at him before eating it. "He's one of my favorite movie characters."
"I have a feeling that we are going to be having a lot of strange conversations as we get to know each other," Steve said placing his fork on the empty plate before him.
"Speaking of which, what do we want to do about tomorrow?" Bucky asked finishing his own slice.
"Could I offer a suggestion?" she asked still working on her piece. They both nodded in agreement. "How about we try two one-on-one dates tomorrow? I meet one of you, your choices for the dates since tonight was kind of mine, and then I meet the other. Then we can meet back up for dinner together?"
"That sounds like it may work out fine," Steve said, looking over to Bucky for approval.
"Sure, but how do we decide who goes first?" he asked pointedly at Steve. This was definitely going to be a problem eventually. She should just let the two of them fight it out but there was not telling how long that argument might last. Then the solution came to her.
"Odd man out. My match gets the first date?" she said, holding her fist out for the quick solution game. The guys then held their own fist out. "On, and I mean on, three."
As their hands formed the one and two symbols, Vic found that she was going to be meeting Steve first and then Bucky. She was sure that there was a quick frown on his face before it disappeared.
"How about ten a.m. at the Metropolitan? Even though you have been there, if you don't mind, I haven't been there since…well, since I woke up," Steve finally managed to get out, sounding like he was still hesitant about what to call it.
"Sounds good to me, and then," she turned to Bucky, "We can meet there at about two and do whatever you want. And meet back up with Steve at six?"
"Sounds like a couple of dates," Bucky said with a small smile forming on his lips.
When the waitress then brought over the single check, she tried to reach over to take it and found it grabbed up by Bucky.
"What are you doing?" Bucky asked, even though she thought it was obvious. He then passed the holder to Steve.
"Well, I asked the two of ya'll to dinner, so I get the check," she said, reaching across Steve to try and take it again.
"When you are with us, even if you did invite us, we pay. That's how we were raised and our mothers would be ashamed of us if we didn't," Steve said, placing his own credit card into the bill holder.
"That's not fair," Vic stated crossing her arms.
"Trust us, we know that life is not fair, but you're with us now and you are going to have to get used to it," Bucky said, giving her leg a firm squeeze and another one of his cute smirks. He was definitely going to be trouble.
