June sighed loudly, throwing herself dramatically onto Bucky's couch. "It's fine, I'll just be pale for the rest of my life. I'll be short on whatever vitamin you get from the sun. I don't know what the effects will be but I'm certain it won't be good."
Bucky pinched his brow. "Do you not have other friends? What about Claire? What about… Anyone? I'm sure you have more than Claire and me."
"Nope. Just you two," June responded, letting out another dramatic sigh. She wondered how long it would take him to give in or kick her out of his apartment. Though, it really was his fault. If he hadn't asked her what she wanted to do they wouldn't have been having this conversation for the last twenty minutes. She had come over so they could have breakfast together before doing something fun on her day off. "I have a new bathing suit. I look super cute in it."
"Go alone then, maybe you'll pick someone up at the beach and have more than just me and Claire," Bucky muttered snarkily.
"Ouch, dude. That was mean," June said, sitting up straighter. "You don't have to be a dick."
"You could take no for an answer," Bucky exploded. "Feel free to go off on your own! Or with your one other friend. I don't care what you do, but you need to drop this. I am not going to the beach with you."
June stood with her feet wide and arms crossed in front of Bucky, eyes narrowed. "You're being a fucking asshole right now. It's so nice outside. If you would just give me a good reason you won't come to the beach and swim in the ocean with me then I would drop it!"
"I don't have to tell you everything about my life," Bucky snapped. His skin felt crawly and he wished they were anywhere but his own apartment so he could leave. Though, leaving his own apartment was looking better by the second. "We don't have to hang out all the time. You sound desperate."
"Everything?" June asked, now shouting. "Bucky you don't tell me anything about your life! I don't know your last name. If I hadn't locked myself out of my place that one time I guarantee I still wouldn't know this is where you live. The most, like, personal thing I know about you is that your family is dead. And I'm not desperate to hang out with you or anyone else." June picked up her bag, glaring at Bucky with red cheeks. He stood in front of her, trying to get his breathing back to normal and keep his temper under control. "I'm glad to know you think I'm an idiot."
"I don't think you're an idiot," Bucky said, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
June threw her purse across her shoulder and forcefully pulled his jacket from his arm. She was so quick that Bbucky didn't have time to react and was left standing in front of her with a gaping mouth. If June wasn't so angry she would have pointed out he looked like a fish.
"I'm not an idiot. Like, I'm observant. I feel like an idiot because I thought that if I just gave it time and let you open up when you're ready that you would tell me - I don't even care what happened to your arm Bucky, but I wish you trusted me enough as a friend that you wouldn't be so afraid as to even mention it. You must think I'm the dumbest person alive if you thought I hadn't noticed anything different about your arm. About you. But I guess you just think I'm some desperate lonely girl. Why wouldn't you think I'm an idiot too?"
Without another word June left Bucky's apartment, taking the stairs two at a time. She slammed into someone as she was turning out of the stairwell. "Fuck, sorry," she mumbled. She barely looked at the tall blonde in front of her as she continued her dash from the building.
"Fuck him," June muttered, angrily wiping at her leaky eyes.
"Do you want to talk about what's going on?" Steve asked, doubled over as he tried to catch his breath.
"You're an out of shape punk," Bucky offered, pacing as he waited for Steve to stand back up.
"You're practically going full Winter Soldier on Capsicle," Tony said, strolling in the room. "Not that I mind. He probably needs his tight ass kicked every once in a while."
"Can you encourage him to handle his problems in a healthy way?" Steve barked.
Tony shrugged. "It doesn't really affect me… right now. But if you go all Winter Soldier in public it will." Tony sighed dramatically. "What's going on in that angsty brain of yours?"
"Now I just want to kick both your asses," Bucky said in disgust.
"Do you want to talk to us or a therapist?"
"June and I had a fight. It was stupid. I don't know what to do. I mean, I know that what I should do is nothing. Both of our lives are infinitely less complicated if I'm not part of hers."
"So why not do nothing?" Tony asked. "Sounds like the easiest option."
"Tony," Steve warned. "That's awful advice, Buck."
"It's not," Bucky disagreed. "It's also not what… Not what I want to do," he said, barely above a whisper. Wanting and knowing what he wanted were still new things to Bucky. They made him uncomfortable and left him with a looming sense of unease.
"You can do what you want with your life, Bucky," Steve said.
"You have free will," Tony agreed. "You haven't always, but you do now. Seems like it would be a shame to waste it."
"Tony," Pepper's voice came over the speakers in the ceiling. "You're supposed to be bringing Bucky and Steve to the conference room. Everyone else is here."
"Oh yeah," Tony grinned. "We have a mission. You have some time to think on it. But not when our lives may depend on it," he added.
For the fourth day in a row June turned away from Bucky's apartment after there was no answer at his door and she finally felt defeated. He wasn't responding to her calls or texts, or answering her knocks. She had come at varying times, so she could only assume he was avoiding her.
"June?"
Her name caused her head to snap up where Bucky was coming up the stairs looking worse for wear. He had a black eye and was favoring his side.
"Are you alright? I mean you don't look alright but you're alive so maybe you're alright."
Bucky laughed softly and shook his head. "Wanna come in? I haven't been home in a week so I'm not promising that it's in any state for company."
"Oh!" June exclaimed. "I thought you were avoiding me." She followed Bucky inside and stood awkwardly by the door, unsure if she should sit down or not. She had never felt anything but at home in Bucky's apartment and she found herself not knowing what to do with her body now that she didn't feel that way.
"I didn't have a chance to avoid you," Bucky chuckled. "I went into work after you left and then we left town. If I'm being honest I probably would have avoided you, at least for a few days. Let me change and we can talk." Bucky walked into his room, leaving June where she stood. "June?"
"Yeah?" she called back.
"Sit down. You're being weird."
June laughed and walked the short distance to the couch. She pulled the blanket off the couch back and wrapped it around herself before sitting down. Bucky came back in, for the first time wearing a short sleeve shirt and exposing his metal arm. He sat down on the couch and angled his body to face June's.
"Bucky-"
"June-" A small smile teased at one side of June's mouth. "I'm sorry. I wish I wasn't such an asshole." He took June's hand in his own. "I'm not good at… normal social interaction. I don't know how to be open and I don't… remember a lot of things. I'm not good at opening up to anyone, June. My friend, Steve, we grew up together. I can't even talk to him about a lot. I need…"
"Patience," June suggested.
"The most patience of probably anyone you know," Bucky said, letting out a deep sigh.
"I'm sorry I pulled your jacket off. I wanted you to feel comfortable and tell me things about yourself in your own time and I totally took that power from you," June said, squeezing his hand.
"I need you to understand… If I could tell you, I would tell you. More importantly, I need you to know with certainty that I think you are so smart. You are so kind, you're funny. You're so patient. You care about your friends. You're so genuinely yourself. I do not think you are a desperate, lonely, idiot. It's really important to me that you know that. When I was out of town with my team it got bad for a minute and I thought about how shitty it was that that conversation might be the last one we had. I don't ever want you to feel like that because of me," Bucky said. He took a steadying breath when he finished.
"Wow, look at you emoting," June exclaimed, lightly pushing his arm.
Bucky rolled his eyes, a smile engulfing his face. "Are we alright?"
June nodded. "Wanna order some to-go food and watch a movie?"
"You choose the movie," Bucky nodded. "I'll go to the mexcian place next door and grab some food. Sound alright, doll?"
"Oh! Do you have tequila here? Can we have margs too?"
Bucky's brow furrowed. "Margs?"
"Margaritas, duh!"
Bucky laughed. "Clearly I'm an idiot. Alright, mexican and margaritas. I'll be back in a jiffy."
By the time June had flipped through every channel three full times Bucky was back with food and tequila. June jumped up from the couch and helped him lay the food out on the coffee table then quickly made margaritas. The two friends settled onto the couch and fell into a comfortable silence watching the movie together and enjoying their food. June felt the most relaxed she had since she and Bucky fought. She hated having fights with her friends and had felt particularly unsettled when she couldn't get ahold of Bucky. She realized how close they had become in the last couple of months and realized that she thought of him as one of her best friends.
June was startled from her thoughts by Bucky letting out a loud, genuine laugh. A smile took over her face as she watched him, it was so unusual for him to laugh like that. June bit her lip and snuggled further into the couch, a big smile on her face.
"I'm glad you two are on good terms again," Steve said, holding himself back from saying anything that might make Bucky shut down.
"Yeah, you were a real moody bitch the last few days," Natasha grumbled.
"I was not-"
"Yes y-"
"Don't start," Steve said in a warning voice. "I want to have a normal day with two of my friends." The words had barely gotten out of his mouth when a car went flying through the air in front of them and people began shouting and running from the other end of the street.
Bucky laughed, "So much for normal!" The trio of Avengers ran towards the chaos on the street and were surprised at what they saw.
"Did Banner change colors?" Steve asked. The three of them looked at someone the size of The Hulk but instead of the green color they were used to seeing from their friend stood a giant blue person.
"That's not Bruce," Natasha answered. "Tony, you might want to get down here," she said in her phone. The three narrowly dodged another car that was thrown through the air with ease. Steve began strategizing while Bucky took note of their surroundings. His fingers were crossed June wasn't at work today.
Natasha shouted, trying to get the giant's attention while Steve threw his shield. Bucky began walking forward, dodging the city scape that flew through the air as he made his way towards the giant.
"What the fuck is happening now?"
Bucky's stomach dropped. "June, get inside, now!"
"Bucky, what are you doing?" June asked, shocked to see him in front of her. "Do you see how big that guy is?"
"June go inside," Bucky hissed.
"Come with me," June demanded.
"We could use your help over here, Barnes," Natasha barked. Steve skidded to a stop, landing on his back beside him.
"We could really use Tony's help," Steve groaned. Bucky bent down and helped Steve up. June was shocked to see Bucky pulling Captain America to his feet.
"What's going on?" June asked.
"This isn't how I wanted you to find out," Bucky sighed. "Go inside, get in the cooler and don't come out until I tell you it's safe."
June swallowed her ire and stormed back into the bar, slamming the door. She knew it was irrational to feel as angry as she currently did with a giant outside of the bar destroying the city, but all she could feel was fury that Bucky had hid something so huge from her. Somehow, she didn't know how, but somehow he was tied to the Avengers.
"Alright, everyone into the cooler. It's steel so at least if the building collapses we'll probably survive," June shouted, ushering everyone towards the beer cooler. There would be time to deal with Bucky later. Hopefully.