Hey all, how's it going?
I know I got quite a few requests to go more Bucktasha/WinterWidow with this, and originally I said no, but I keep finding places to work it in so...
Also some of you may have noticed I changed the rating on this from K+ to T. When I wrote this scene I realized I didn't know the guidelines for how much Bucktasha I could put in a K+ rating, so I decided to check, and discovered that this has been a low-level T story for a very long time and just never got changed over, so sorry about that.
Hope you all enjoy!
Bucky took the small animal to the lab with him and set it down on the nearest table, where it sat down and pawed at Bucky's hand until he started rubbing its head. The other Avengers were there already, along with Wanda and the Vision.
"What's going on?" Steve asked.
"You know how we created an algorithm to try to locate magic users when Lassie got turned human?" Stark asked.
Bucky guessed Lassie was in reference to the small animal, and they all nodded.
"We altered the program to cast a wider net, trying to figure out if we could find anyone who might be a potential threat." Bruce explained.
"That sounds an awful lot like the kind of thing SHIELD went down for." Steve protested a little.
"You'll be thankful we did it when we show you what we found." Stark pulled something off of a computer screen and projected it into the air in front of them.
It looked like-
"A Hydra database." Stark explained.
"We're only in the first level, but we can access some of their communications, and we're working on going deeper." Bruce added.
"Are they planning anything?" Clint asked.
"Not that we can see yet, but they're talking about a plan. We just don't know what it is."
He could feel Wanda pushing into his head a little and looked over at her with a silent stern look.
She stopped pushing, but looked very worried about him.
"Can I interact with this projection?" Bucky asked, looking back at Bruce and Stark.
"Go ahead." Stark waved him on.
He scanned through the database until he found what he was looking for. "Access to what they're planning. I can't take you any further than that, but it's all there."
"Thanks." Bruce nodded to him.
"Until we have any intel, we're all on standby. The minute we know what they're planning we gear up, all of us. Got it?" Steve planned.
"Whatever you say chief." Natasha nodded, and they all nodded in agreement.
Everyone went their separate ways, and Wanda came over and hugged him.
"Are you alright Bucky?"
"I thought I told you not to get in my head. You know what happens." He hugged her back gently.
"You know that's not what I'm talking about, and I was worried about you."
"I don't care, you stay out of my head Wanda."
She sighed. "Are you alright?"
"For now. We have a clear mission, we find out what Hydra wants and we stop them."
The small animal appeared to be having a conversation with the Vision behind them.
Wanda stayed in Bucky's arms but looked over at him. "Are you talking to him Vision?"
The Vision looked up. "I believe so. Once your companion was made human I realized communication was quite likely possible. I'm not good at it, but I think I can understand the meaning of what he's saying."
"What is it saying?" Bucky asked, rubbing its head.
"He is also worried about you. Hydra seems to scare him."
Bucky picked it up gently and held it to his chest. "Don't be scared. I'm here, I'll protect you."
It curled up against his heart and closed its eyes, and he rubbed its head gently.
It was two days before they found anything.
He visited Angela in the meantime to let her know what was going on and leave the small animal with them, and she wished them all luck, and Vicky offered him her tooth for good luck, which had finally come out.
He politely declined, but thanked her for offering.
He could tell Angela was worried, but he assured her there was no need, he could handle himself, and he had the others there with him.
They finally found the plan of attack, and they were all very glad they did. A group of Hydra soldiers were going to attack the American embassies in a few key locations around the world.
They split up into teams, with himself and Natasha on one team, Clint and the Vision on another, Steve and Wanda in a third, and Stark and Bruce running backup. They considered calling in the Spider-Man, but Bucky remembered he'd been studying for a math test and they decided not to bother him.
He and Natasha flew out to England, and when they landed he wished he'd had Steve with him to see this. It had changed since the war, but it still felt familiar.
Natasha noticed, and offered to kidnap Steve and bring him in after the mission was over. He was never sure if this was her sense of humor or if she was very into committing crimes.
They found the embassy, and made arrangements to stay in the hotel down the street. The top floor had a good view of the embassy, so they stayed up there, and took it in turns watching it through the night. They didn't talk much, and Bucky appreciated the silence, focusing in on the mission and trying to keep himself balanced between himself and the soldier, a line which he thought would have grown more pronounced as he got better but instead seemed to be blurring.
During the day they went outside and tried to look like a couple of tourists, staying within earshot of the embassy at all times.
"Three hostiles to your one o'clock." Natasha said over his earpiece eventually, and he looked over. Sure enough, there were three Hydra soldiers there, also looking like they were trying to blend in, but definitely concealing weapons.
He spotted another four behind them. "Four more to your six."
"I see them. I'm coming to you."
Natasha came over to him and leaned on the wall next to him, watching over the terrain. They spotted another three coming from their north.
"Do we take them now?"
Natasha shook her head. "If they don't make the first move we can't do anything, otherwise we're the aggressors. It'd get us in a heap of legal trouble."
One of the Hydra soldiers started looking their way. The two of them were trying to look inconspicuous, but he was the winter soldier and she was the black widow, the odds of that really working were low.
"Bucky?"
"Natasha?"
"поцелуй меня, прежде чем они заметят нас." (Kiss me before they see us.)
Bucky knew she'd done this to Steve to avoid Hydra capture once before, and kissed her.
Her arms laid over his shoulders and his hands went around her waist as they kissed, and he turned so she could watch out for the soldiers over his shoulder.
She tapped his shoulder when they were clear and he stopped, not letting go yet in case it was a false alarm.
"Are we clear?" He asked her quietly.
She nodded. "They're moving on the embassy, let's go."
He led the way inside, and Natasha was right, all of them were inside.
They milled around with the small crowd of people inside, keeping an eye on the soldiers.
A couple of them started to pull guns.
"Now?" He looked to Natasha.
"Now." She nodded, and they split up to start taking the soldiers down.
He grabbed one's head and hit it against the wall to knock him unconscious, and used that soldier's gun to hit another one in the head, sending him to the ground.
Most of the civilians got the hint that something was going on and started screaming and running out the door, leaving them plenty of room to fight.
There were, however, more Hydra soldiers here than they had anticipated, and they stayed separated for a while as they fought them off.
Bucky managed not to kill any of them, something Steve had stressed very heavily before the mission, and once numbers got lower he and Natasha met back up in the middle of the room as she jumped off of a falling body.
"How many have you got down?" She asked him as she threw a few kicks.
"Seven, you?" He punched one of them into submission.
"Nine. You need to catch up Barnes." She taunted as she swung her leg around a soldier's neck and hooked him to the ground.
"If I get more down than you, do I get a prize?" He wrested a knife away and slashed it.
"We'll make out some time, sound good?" She offered as she knocked the man on the ground unconscious.
"Deal. Was I really that bad?" Someone opened fire and they both jumped behind a help desk.
"Well you're better than Steve, I'll give you that much, but your technique could use some work. Push the table out on three."
She held up consecutive fingers to count to three, and they pushed the desk out to knock the shooter off balance, and Bucky shot him in the hand, knee, and shoulder, making him drop the gun and hit the ground.
There were only a few left, and they took them down with relative ease.
Bucky finished shortly before Natasha and sat down, cleaning off his knife.
She walked over to him with a hand on her hip. "Final count, 17."
"Oh, sorry. 20. Should I have saved you one?" Bucky teased.
"Good work." She nodded to him, and he held his hand up for a high five. She high fived him with a smile. "So when are we sucking each other's faces?"
"After we get the blood off." Bucky shrugged.
They sorted things out with the authorities and made contact with the rest of the team, who had apparently finished hours earlier and been picked up by Stark and Banner in the Quinjet. They agreed to meet up with Bucky and Natasha at the hotel and fly out from there back to the compound.
They had the boy downstairs bring their bags down and got in the elevator a moment later.
They were alone in the elevator, and after a moment Bucky looked over at Natasha. "Now?"
"Now works." She nodded.
They were on each other instantly, colliding roughly in the middle of the elevator. She wrapped a leg around him, he wrapped his arms around her. He slid his real hand into her hair to tug at it a little, and she bit his lip in reply.
He was starting to understand what the big deal was about kissing. He liked this.
The elevator stopped and they let go of each other. He fixed his shirt, and she fixed her hair, and the doors opened to reveal most of the team nearby, who began staring at them all.
He gestured for Natasha to walk out first and she strolled right past the team. "Let's go, we haven't got all day folks."
Everyone looked between her and Bucky in surprise and confusion. They'd apparently seen the tail end of their making out in the elevator.
"What?" He decided nonchalance was probably the best policy here.
"Were you two…?" Wanda started to ask.
"Did you…?" Steve also started.
"I'll take that fifty you owe me Doctor Banner." Stark held out his hand to Bruce.
"You had a bet?" Bucky looked to him.
"I knew you two had to get it on eventually. No wonder it took you so long to handle the embassy." Stark grinned at him.
Bucky rolled his eyes. "Keep your fifty Banner."
"Hang on, you and Romanoff aren't-" He cut Stark off.
"We aren't anything." He said smoothly. "She's right, we haven't got all day." He walked out, and they all followed.
When he got back and told Angela and Vicky about all of this they were absolutely delighted that he now had a girlfriend. When Bucky went to correct them Angela quietly indicated that he shouldn't do so in front of Vicky, and so he let her believe he and Natasha were a couple for now. Angela assured him she sort of understood, about as well as he could, and he took the small animal home to train.
Two days later he was walking past the lab when he heard Stark muttering in frustration about something, and decided to check in on him.
He helped the small animal up on the counter. "How are things Stark?"
"They're fine. Your Hydra database is just giving me a run around."
"Is there anything I can do?" He offered, and the small animal barked, presumably to pledge its support as well.
"Don't think so, I just need to figure this out. Here, I got through their coding, but all I can find is this." Stark projected some words up into the air. "Queens. Strategic importance. 204. Secure them." Stark read out.
He latched on to that number. He knew it from somewhere, he'd seen it on a door-
Bucky ran.
Oh dearie me, is someone in danger? Oh no, what a terrible shame...
As always, please feel free to leave me any reviews you'd like, I love reading what you guys have to say, feel free to leave questions, comments, and suggestions for future chapters, I love working those in as well as I can
So long, farewell, Hail Hydra.