A/N: This was a request from ozhawk, who won third prize in my 1000 Followers Giveaway on tumblr.

There were a lot of things Jane expected when she accepted Tony Stark's offer to come live in his fancy New York tower and complete her bifrost project on his dime.

Frequent sieges by power hungry supervillains was one of them.

A surprise carnival day on the ground floor that she was contractually obligated to attend was not.

She'd been signing autographs at the same table as Captain America and Ironman for four hours straight. Her hand was in agony by hour two.

Why the hell were so many people lining up? It wasn't like she was a superhero now just because she lived with them.

"You're a world famous scientist is what you are," Tony said when she complained. "Girls think you're inspiring. Guys think you're cute. Simple as that."

So there she was, scribbling shorthand on notebooks and posters (she had posters now), various scientific equipment and people's arms. A little girl, no older than six and wearing fairy wings, ran back to her parents with the right wing bearing Jane's name. After that, Pepper appeared before the crowd to call an end to today's signing session. Though the crowd booed, Jane could've kissed Pepper. She knew who the real fairy godmother around here was.

"Dude, check out this new phone I won at the ring toss!" Darcy did not share Jane's ambivalence towards these proceedings, but why would she? She still had full use of her right arm.

"Not right now, Darcy," Jane said. "I'm trying to rest before… wait, you won a phone at ring toss?"

"Eeeey-yup!" Darcy brandished the new Samsung phone, waving around a screen she had already set to a selfie of her and Jane from Liberty Island. "Sixty four gigs."

"What kind of carnival game gives away phones as prizes?"

"The same kind that gives away laptops and sports cars." Darcy pointed at the ring toss game, where the bewildered mother of one lucky ten year old had just been handed a set of car keys. "I was trying for the Cadillac, but the phone will do."

Jane looked for Tony. He was showing off his new armor for a group of starry-eyed children. His eyes flicked to Jane and he gave her a thumbs up.

'Rich people…' Jane thought.

"It's the balloon popping game that gives the really good prizes," Darcy said.

"Better than new phones and cars?"

"Way better. Like, 'super advanced technology not available to the general public' better."

Jane was about to ask (not that she wanted to) when Darcy produced a pair of metallic cuffs from her messenger bag. That thing was full to bursting with whatever other questionable prizes she had won. At least a few of them glowed bright blue. Jane wrote that off for now and took the cuffs to examine them. On their own, they seemed pretty innocuous. Small and circular, barely wide enough to go over her hand. They were a little heavy, but not by much. Jane gently tapped one side and listened for a clang or an echo. She got nothing. It wasn't vibranium, but it had to be made of something almost as strong. The surface was warm to the touch, but that could be written off as a result of hot weather. Could be, were it not for the faint, steady hum that focused around a blank screen next to a tiny black hole, too small for even her pinky finger.

Jane held up the second cuff. It looked the same as the first, with the same blank screen and mysterious hole.

"What is this supposed to be?" she asked.

Darcy grinned, snatching back both cuffs with a dangerous look in her eye. Jane knew that look well. She feared it.

"Let me show you," Darcy said.

Something beeped three times, and Jane felt warm metal close around her wrist. She gasped in pain. Another beep preceded a hissing sound, and then the clamp loosened and stopped crushing her bones. She held her arm up. The screen on the cuff had jumped to life. It flashed red and green over a few more beeps, then settled on bright red.

"What the- get this thing off of me!" Jane pulled and pushed at the cuff. She tried to make her hand as skinny as possible and slide it off, but it was a snug fit. It wouldn't move an inch in either direction.

"But isn't it cool? Super futuristic handcuffs that not even super people can break. Tony says that someday, every cop on the street will be using these."

"And he's giving them away to the public as carnival prizes?"

"Well, actually, the balloon popping game is over in the restricted section. Only people like us who live in the tower can get these. I mean, come on, the man's not stupid. Who knows what kind of trouble a kid could get into with these."

"I'm afraid to think about what you'd do with them, much less a kid."

"Wow, rude."

"Just take it off."

"Fine, fine. Party pooper." Darcy went for Jane's other arm, only for Jane to leap backwards.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I need to put the other one on first. That's how it works."

"Oh no, you are not handcuffing me."

"You're already halfway there, and I can't take them off one at a time."

"Forgive me if I have a hard time believing that."

"Too bad, it's still true. Now quit squirming and let me-"

"No, get-"

"Would you just-"

Another click. Another three beeps.

Darcy and Jane froze. Jane had one foot off the ground as she'd been attempting to push Darcy off by her stomach. Darcy had climbed all over her trying to reach Jane's free arm. They looked ridiculous stuck in this pose, but neither one of them had the brainspace left to worry about it. Jane craned her neck all the way up and ran her eyes over her uncuffed arm. A chainlike gold appendage had sprung from the cuff, feeding into its partner to join them together as one. The second cuff was out of Darcy's hand and firmly placed around another person's wrist.

Their metal wrist.

'Oh no,' Jane thought.

A pair of bright blue eyes looked down at her. Bucky Barnes had one hand outstretched over her shoulder. Whether he'd wanted to stop the fight or Tony asked him to come and get her for more autograph signing, Jane didn't know. It was moot at this point. He clenched his fist and studied the cuff, the solid neon green that shined through both screens at them.

"Erm…" Bucky said, nonplussed, "what is this?"

He tried to raise his arm, and his impromptu experiment confirmed Jane's theory as she was dragged away from Darcy and off her feet. She let out a yelp and Bucky's arm snapped back to his side.

"Sorry," he said. "I just… how did that…?"

"They're my new handcuffs," Darcy said, pushing between them. "Really cool technology. I don't think even that arm of yours can break them."

Bucky furrowed his brow. He started pulling at his cuff just as Jane had, struggling to make it budge. Being a man accustomed to hand to hand combat, he was already miles ahead of Jane in the strength department, even before one factored in the super soldier part, but even he couldn't make a dent in the metal. He pushed so hard that a vein popped up on his forehead. When that failed, he muttered an apology to Jane before taking her by the wrist. He squeezed lightly to avoid hurting her, then a little harder when that did nothing.

"Dammit!" He dropped her arm. "What the hell is this made of? I should've at least left a mark!"

"I told you, you can't break them," Darcy said with a roll of her eyes. "They're indestructible."

"It's all right, Sergeant Barnes," Jane said quickly. "Darcy has the key. Doesn't she?"

Jane rounded on Darcy, who held up her hands in surrender.

"Of course. I have it right here in my bag." Darcy shoved a hand inside, rummaging around bulking prizes and straining the seams more than they already were. She searched far longer than Jane would've liked, and gradually, Darcy's face fell. "Er… okay, I know where I can get another one. You two wait right here. I'll be back in ten."

Darcy dashed off, disappearing into the crowd and not allowing Jane or Bucky to get a single word in. Jane ground her teeth, trying desperately to avert her eyes from Bucky. Her whole body was tense, hairs standing up on the back of her neck. She'd never been this close to him for this long before.

"I just wanted to get a hot dog," he was saying.

"You should've taken the longer route," said Jane. She sunk back onto the bench, taking Bucky with her.

"If I had, you could be cuffed to a crazy person right now," said Bucky.

Jane conceded his point, but refrained from saying so.

Seconds turned to minutes, which turned to almost twenty minutes, but it felt more like an hour to Jane, as Bucky proved to not be much of a conversationalist.

"You sure she's coming back?" he asked eventually.

"Of course I'm sure," Jane said, though her voice was fading. "I know Darcy, and she wouldn't just leave us like this."

"I'm starting to doubt that."

"Well, don't."

"Too late."

"Then shut up and leave me alone."

"Let go of my arm."

"I can't!"

"Then I can't leave you alone!"

"Well, you can shut up."

There was a tiny twitch in his left eye as his lips sealed into a line. Jane had never noticed it before, but it was clear to her now that she was up and in his face, her body a hair's breath from pressing into his. That was a position she didn't know how she'd gotten into. She could've sworn she'd been sitting down, and not starting a fight with the guy she was currently chained to and had been crushing on for over a month. If she didn't know better, she'd say that Darcy planned this, because fuck, he was even more gorgeous up close than he was from far away.

And now she was handcuffed to him.

This really wasn't Jane Foster's day.

This really wasn't Bucky Barnes' day.

Bad enough that he'd been dragged to this stupid carnival on a day he wanted to spend quietly in his apartment, but now he was handcuffed to Dr. Jane Foster, and he couldn't even go get a hot dog.

It had to be that Lewis did this on purpose. That nosy idiot must have figured out how crazy in love with her boss Bucky was, so she came up with an elaborate plan to stick them together and make him confess. She was probably in the crowd now watching them, wringing her hands in glee. It was a shame she wasn't an international terrorist or a criminal. He couldn't even justify throwing her in a holding cell until she handed over the key.

He would just have to make do and pray that Jane was right and Darcy would come back. Otherwise, God might as well strike him down now and save him from humiliating himself in front of his dream girl.

He had a sinking suspicion that neither would be happening.