"You ready to face the crowds?" Steve tried to focus on his public face and not on how handsome his boyfriend looked in uniform next to him as they stood behind the door to the lobby full of photographers.
"Sure." Bucky flashed him a grin, but Steve could see the slight hesitation behind it. "Smile for the cameras, give them some sound bites about patriotism and sacrifice, then go inside and change and have our actual party with a nice carefully vetted guest list and no press. You know the people on the guest list, right?"
"Some of them. And the rest are known by people I know and trust, so I trust them." Bucky raised an eyebrow. "Coulson's inner circle, Tony's college buddy who became the liaison between Stark Industries and the military—he's the one who pulled the strings to get paperwork done and people out here to get you the same special status as me on short notice, by the way— Thor's girlfriend, and two of her colleagues who are also friends of his."
"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, thank you for being here tonight." JARVIS announced to the room. "You will have fifteen minutes to ask questions and take photographs, after which you are asked to exit in an orderly fashion. Let me start by introducing Director Phillip Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division." Phil pasted on a smile and waved to the press as he crossed the room to stand at one end of the roped-off area. "Captain Steven Rogers." Steve stepped out, looking smart in his old army uniform. Captain Showreel indeed.
Natasha re-tucked Bucky's ponytail down his collar. "Brace yourself. I bet you're up next."
"Still can't believe I gotta salute that dork." He grumbled jokingly, trying to ease his nerves by making light of the situation.
"Sergeant James Barnes." Bucky took a deep breath and stepped out into the near-blinding sea of flashing cameras, letting his old uniform take him back to the 40s and his training. Steady gait, erect posture. Halt at attention. Snap a salute. Pretend not to see the flicker of almost-smirk on Steve's face. (He'd pay him back for that later.) Cross the rest of the way. Copy Steve's stance, at attention and angled so as to watch both the door that they had entered and the main door where people would enter from outside. So far so good.
"Tony Stark and Virginia Potts, CEO of Stark Industries." Tony strutted in, waving and winking at the cameras. Definitely his father's son. Pepper waved politely to the cameras, the picture of professionalism.
"Doctor Bruce Banner." Bruce walked quickly across the room to join them, looking uncomfortable.
"Thor Odinson and Doctor Jane Foster." Thor strode in, waving happily and looking far too comfortable with it all. Fucking royalty. A young woman took a spot next to him, and he put an arm around her.
"Agent Natasha Romanoff." Natasha was all measured poise as she crossed.
"Agent Clinton Barton." Clint looked a little uncomfortable in his suit, but exuded the same confidence as Natasha. Must be in their training.
"Colonel James Rhodes." A uniformed man that Bucky hadn't met before entered from outside. Automatically, Steve and Bucky both saluted.
"The floor is now open for questions."
"Can you explain in your own words yesterday's incident? Why were you engaging an enemy agent in a public place?" There were murmurs of agreement in the crowd.
Natasha's opinion of what the reporter was implying showed only in the slightest stiffening of her shoulder blades. "It was not our plan. We were shopping and I was recognized by a person with a grudge. Sergeant Barnes saw him go for his weapon and threw us both out of the way, and we dealt with him."
Bucky nodded, trying to sound as confident as his new teammate. "I was waiting for her, and he caught my attention because something about him felt off. I saw him spot her and do a double take and reach for a likely place for a concealed weapon, and I just reacted. His attention was on her, because I don't think he realized who had pushed her, so I let her keep him distracted while I found a makeshift weapon and took him down."
"You let the woman distract the shooter." The reporter sneered.
"You do realize this is the Black Widow we're talking about, right?" Clint piped up.
"Nat can handle herself." Bucky added. "I pushed her because I didn't know if she'd spotted the shooter yet, but once she knew he was there, she would have wiped the floor with him even without me. I just hurried things along."
"You're saying this was a Hydra operative, but he didn't recognize the Winter Soldier?" A woman in a no-nonsense pantsuit asked.
"I wasn't common knowledge." Bucky decided not to mention that he had met the man a few times. "I was a ghost story of sorts, and they liked it that way. Scarier. Most of the people that did see me didn't see me without the mask and goggles and everything on. Add that to disappearing in the midst of the helicarriers crashing, and what few people would have recognized me with my arm covered up almost certainly assumed I was dead. He wouldn't have been expecting to see me, if he even knew what I looked like under the mask."
"He's unrecognizable." Steve backed him up. "He's been my best friend since I was six, and when we found each other again, while he was still brainwashed, I had no clue who I was fighting until I ripped his mask off."
"You think there will be trouble now that Hydra knows he's alive and on your side?" An older man jumped in.
"Most likely." Phil answered, at the same time as Tony said "I think they're shitting themselves."
"They will be erratic in battle. We must be prepared, but an enemy scrambling to accommodate a change in their plans gives us an advantage." Thor took the middle ground.
"Right." Steve agreed. "We would have preferred they find out in a real fight instead of having forewarning, but we'll work with what we have."
"What do you think is going to be the biggest challenge fighting Hydra?"
"We are not going to discuss strategy." Phil jumped on it. "I'm sure they follow the news too."
"So, Bucky—can I call you Bucky?—this century has got to be a big change for you. How do you feel about, like, electricity?"
The young reporter's face was so earnest that Bucky couldn't bear to make up something sarcastic, even as the other reporters tittered. "We, um, we actually already had electricity in my day, so I'd say I feel pretty good about it?"
"Are there any tensions over the addition of someone who used to be an enemy to the team?" A more seasoned reporter sitting near the young one stepped in to save her.
"Not really. We sort of tiptoed around each other a little at first because he was a bit disoriented and we didn't know each other—" Bruce started, looking like he would rather not be there but felt obligated to contribute.
"Cyberboy is shy." Tony cut him off. "We had to lure him out of his room with sweets."
"Tony." Pepper admonished quietly. "As Dr Banner was saying, we didn't know what to expect at first, but there was never any sort of resentment and we're happy to have him around."
"I see his rank has been restored?" The close-cropped hair and the way he stood made Bucky think the reporter had probably served himself.
"Yes." Rhodes took over. "We have conducted a preliminary evaluation and granted provisional status. SHIELD will be in charge of a full formal evaluation, and his permanent status will be determined after receipt of their report."
"So he could lose it."
"Technically possible, but unlikely." Phil assured the crowd. "We have no reason to think that we would find anything to warrant that. It's really a question of whether he would be eligible to formally return to an active duty status should he want to. I expect we'll have to do quite a bit of paperwork testifying that loss of limb has not impaired his combat ability in the slightest."
"Which any idiot can see it hasn't." Tony added. The crowd chuckled.
After fifteen torturous minutes it was over and they were filing out of the lobby and into the elevators to go upstairs and have their actual party, JARVIS gently shooing the press out. Bucky breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator doors closed behind them.
"It's over. We can relax." Coulson loosened his tie slightly. "I envy my team the freedom to have spent that up in the vents on guard duty instead of in front of the cameras."
"I'm sure Darcy would have gladly traded with you." Thor's girlfriend pointed out, already removing her heels. "She was sulking about not being included in the lineup."
"Sam has been texting me all evening gloating about not having to do it." Steve complained. "Next time I say we make him. He's fought with us before. Let's make him an official Avenger so he has to do press."
The colonel loosened his collar. "The lucky bastard. I have been being all official all day and I cannot wait to get out of uniform and relax."
"You brought a change of clothes?" Tony asked him. "Good, because I'm pretty sure it goes against your precious regulations to have the kind of fun in uniform that we're going to have tonight."
"DUM-E took my briefcase upstairs for me."
"Why was DUM-E in the garage and where did it actually end up?" Tony quipped. "JARVIS?"
"I do not know why, but I made sure he made it to the guest bedroom on your floor."