Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Giving In
by Gabrielle Lawson
"No!" She kept her back to him but stopped rinsing dishes. The water was still running and her shoulders were stiff.
"Sarah," Bucky tried again. "I don't need it. You do."
"No," she insisted. "Sam put you up to this? I don't need no handouts from no white man!"
"Ouch." Bucky knew she didn't mean it and had just lashed out because she misunderstood his intensions. "And it's not a handout. It's an investment. In your business."
She turned around to face him. "You mean like a partner?" She hadn't relaxed her shoulders. Instead, she crossed her arms over her face.
"Yes," he assured her. "A quiet one. You run it however you want."
"So I do all the work and you get half the profits?" Her eyes flashed in challenge.
Bucky sighed. "I'll do as much or as little as you want me to for half the profits. You just know more about running your business than I do. Now, if you want to assassinate a rival, I know more about that than you."
Her shoulders softened and she looked down. "Point taken." She looked back up and her eyes were softer. "No assassinations and you need new skills. We'll work on that. I'll expect a lawyer to draw up the proper papers."
"Of course." Then Bucky panicked. The only lawyers he knew were on the cards Pepper had given him and they weren't business lawyers.
"Google," she said, bailing him out. "Computer's in the other room. You can get Sam to teach you."
Oh really? "I know how to google. I lived on my own for two years, you know."
Now there was a mischievous look to her eyes. "Sam told me how you had no furniture."
Bucky wasn't sure what he'd gotten himself into. "I did in Romania." He didn't mention that his mattress had been on the floor. "I had what I needed in Brooklyn."
Then she smiled and turned back to the dishes. "What're you boys watchin' tonight?"
"*The Two Towers**," he replied, grateful that she'd brought an end to the tense interaction.
"Well, keep the sound low so you don't wake my babies."
"Yes, ma'am."
Sam passed Bucky as he headed for the living room. "Get it started. I'll be in in a minute."
Bucky nodded and Sam turned to his sister. "You two bicker like an old married couple."
"Sam," she warned. "He wasn't flirting. We were negotiating."
"He still flirts," he grumped, taking a wet dish from her and putting it into the dishwasher.
She dropped the next plate back into the sink and turned her full attention to him, and he knew he'd overstepped. "Samuel Thomas Wilson! I am a grown woman, a widow and now older than you. I can fend off unwanted flirting just fine without you playin' referee. You are *not** my father."
Sam groaned but was thankful she hadn't hit him at least. But he knew the operative word she'd used there: unwanted. He sighed. "If he breaks your heart, I can't bring his legs."
She chuckled. "Yeah, you'd end up on the wrong side of that." She turned to face him. "It's just flirting, Sam. He needs the practice. And it's sweet."
Yep, that boat had left the dock. Any chance he had of dropping an anchor was gone. He just shook his head and gave her a peck on the cheek.
She gave him a gentle push. "Go watch your movie."
"You should join us." What was he doing? He didn't have to encourage it.
"I gotta be up in the morning," he told him. "I can't watch no three-hour movie tonight."
He corrected her. "It's closer to four."
"Oh!" she pretended. "That's much better!" She shook her head. "Now get in there and let me get these dishes going."
Sam relented and joined Bucky on the couch.
"It's so obvious you two are siblings."
The End
© 2022 Gabrielle Lawson