Frankie stood outside Bucky's apartment biting her lip. She was filled with a nervous energy that made it hard for her to keep still. Frankie had lost her nerve and made Bucky leave while the bath water ran and put a generous amount of bubbles to cover her body. She yelled for him when he could come back, and true to his word he stayed and read to her until her skin was pruned then he went home. She didn't know what exactly had gotten into her, other than she liked seeing how far she could push Bucky's buttons.
"Ya know, the neighbors are gonna start to complain about you beatin' down my door."
"Put those super soldier reflexes to use and come to the door faster."
Bucky rolled his eyes. "You're impossible."
"Yeah, I've heard that before. I came to see if you wanna walk to work together and also ask if I can borrow a jacket because it's chilly this morning."
"You don't have a jacket in your apartment? Across the hall?"
"Nope. Got rid of all my stuff before I moved. I wanted a fresh start. I probably need to go shopping for some cooler weather clothes soon, I'll add it to a to-do list or something."
Bucky retreated inside momentarily and came back in no time with a leather jacket he helped Frankie pull onto her own frame. She took her bookbag back once the jacket was on.
"Is this your only jacket? Take it back," Frankie said, watching Bucky lock his door with nothing on his own arms except his long sleeve shirt.
"I'll be fine, Birdie. You planning on sparring with me in that outfit?"
Frankie rolled her eyes, leading them down the stairs. "No. I've got a change of clothes in my bag."
"It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do some training in normal clothes now that I think about it. You'll be dressed for a fight if you go on a mission with us, but you're most likely to need to put these skills to use when you're just walking around living your normal life."
"Yeah, that makes sense. Guess we can add that to the list."
"Your muscles feel alright?"
Frankie blushed. "Yeah. Guess you were right that I needed to soak them."
"I know a thing or two." Bucky smirked down at her.
"It's because you're old."
"Ouch," Bucky said dramatically.
"What are you doing today other than training with me?"
"Sparring with Steve. A lot of my days are training as much as I want and hanging out. I really don't even need to go to the Tower unless we have a mission. But I've found that just treating it like normal working hours most days is a good routine for me to have. Every now and again Tony will have me test out some new thing he's come up with or needs my consultation on a gun. Occasionally I'll provide consultation on cases agents are working on. Sometimes though I don't feel like being an Avenger provides much purpose."
"Hmm. I've never thought much about whether or not I feel like what I do gives me purpose. I just like it."
"You blow things up. What's not to like?" Frankie laughed, meeting Bucky's eyes briefly as they walked down the street. "What'd you do before this? Before working for Tony, I mean."
Frankie groaned inwardly. The worst part about forming bonds with people has to be the mutual sharing of information about yourself. She remembered when she didn't hate it as much as she did now, but she'd always hated it to an extent.
"I've pretty much always been blowing stuff up. If it wasn't for Tony I probably would've ended up making weapons for hire at some point just from being a dumb kid and not knowing any better."
"When did you two meet?"
"Oh gosh, I was young. Maybe even before elementary school started. I was always tinkering with things and my grandpa would let me in the shed even though my grandma forbade it. I was sneaking in with or without him, though. My grandpa knew Tony's dad. He called him up one day when I exploded an old shed on our property. Told him I needed some training before I killed someone else, or worst of all myself."
Bucky laughed and bumped into her. "You've always been a handful, then?"
"That's the way I've always heard it. Now, is this an interrogation or do I get to know some things about your childhood too?"
"You could do a Google search."
"You could do a Google search and find out about a lot of my childhood antics too," Frankie rolled her eyes. Bucky laughed and began telling her about his family, about Steve as a kid and his sister and the Brooklyn of his childhood. Frankie teased him about games he'd played as a kid, finding the image of him playing marbles and rolling a hoop down the streets oddly sweet and impossible to imagine.
They arrived at the Towers and took the elevator up several floors. "Here's my stop," Frankie said, waiting for the doors to open.
"Kick your ass later." Bucky's eyes were teasing and there was a smile on his face.
"We'll see," Frankie grumbled. The doors opened, but Frankie fell back, being caught by Bucky, when Tony entered the elevator.
"My little genius," Tony exclaimed, throwing his arm around Frankie's shoulders. "I need you in my lab later today. Check in with your team, get anyone that needs a new project started and then come meet me."
Frankie grumbled about how she never got to spend time in her lab as she exited the elevator. She walked in and straight to her office, putting down her bag and braiding her hair. She shrugged off Bucky's jacket and slipped on a pair of goggles and started making rounds to see who was working on what, what tweaks might need to be made, and who out of her team was the most promising.
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By the end of the day Frankie was so over it she was considering spending the night at the Tower. Two young engineers got particularly nervous when Frankie came to their station and created an explosion that set off several other explosive devices. The lab was in shatters and Frankie shouted about it being a miracle the whole damn tower was still standing. Vision, the first to appear after the commotion, reminded everyone that what was most important was that no one was severely injured - though he did suggest that everyone get treated in medical, especially Ellen, who had what looked to be a nasty head wound.
She refused to let Tony send in a cleanup crew, instead, after everyone was bandaged by medical, the engineering team spent a good portion of the rest of the day cleaning up the disaster of the lab. Though it started tense, Frankie felt good that it seemed like they'd all grown a little closer and by the end of the clean up everyone was cracking jokes. She sent them home once the lab was in good enough shape for the next day.
Bucky suggested they skip training for the day and Frankie refused, though she was grateful that he went a little easier than normal on her sore body. From there she went to Tony's lab where she tweaked the details of Tony's latest invention, catching the safety measures that Tony hadn't thought twice about and making it more effective overall.
"You look like you've been through the ringer," Natasha said, sitting down in the conference room beside Frankie.
"My body hurts," she answered. She did a quick body scan and realized how true it was. She wasn't really tired, just incredibly achey.
"Starting the day off with an explosion will do that," Sam said.
"What safety measures are in place so that's not a recurring event?" Tony asked.
Frankie wanted to say something smart and sassy, but knew she didn't really have a leg to stand on. As the direct supervisor of her team, and Tony being her direct supervisor, this probably wasn't an appropriate time to sass.
"I told them not to touch anything. Everyone is grounded to paper and holographic simulations with FRIDAY until I pull together a safety training."
"Good," Tony nodded. "Do you need help with that?"
"Probably. Safety protocols aren't my forte."
"They aren't his either," Pepper said, walking in and sitting file folders down on the tables. "I had videos made when Tony brought some newbies on, Bruce helped with them so I'm confident in them. Let's start there and we can adjust as needed." Frankie squeezed Pepper's hand gratefully.
"Alright," Tony said. "Miss Potts is here to briefly brief us."
"There has been a series of escalating attacks in a small, rural town in France. We need you all to go there and check things out. This should take about a month."
"Are we all going?" Wanda asked, surprised.
"No," Tony shook his head. "Can't leave the homefront totally empty. Capsicle, Robocop, our Double Agent, myself, and our Little Bird."
"What?" Frankie asked, surprised. "Why am I coming?"
"You fit in well enough with civilians to not raise suspicions but aren't a civilian. You and Buck are going to blend in with the town and try and get any information you can. We'll be stationed in a hideout house about ten minutes from the house you two will be in," Steve answered.
"Me and him fitting in and not standing out?" Frankie asked with raised eyebrows, glancing over to Bucky.
"You're right. Manchurian Candidate's biggest problem is going to be helping you blend in and making sure you don't blow anything up." Natasha cracked a few jokes about the explosions today, bumping into Frankie to make sure she knew it was all in good fun.
"Enough of the peanut gallery. What's the cover?" Bucky asked.
"You two are a newly married couple, new to France. Buck, you-"
"Married?" Bucky and Frankie said simultaneously interrupting Steve.
"Yes," Tony exclaimed. "Can we get through this briefing already? I have dinner plans that I would like to keep."
Frankie raised her eyebrows at Tony, surprised by his sharp tone. 'He's usually the least serious person in the group.'
"Newly married. Buck, you'll go by your first name, James. Frankie will keep her name-"
"Is that a good idea?"
"She won't remember a cover name in the heat of the moment," Pepper explained.
"Hey!"
"Sorry sweetheart. You aren't good with covers. Or lies. It's not a bad thing," Tony shrugged. "So, James and Frankie Dubois. Barnes, your family was from France and now that you've settled down with your lovely bride you wanted to move back to the French countryside and get in touch with your roots. You'll need to get jobs, I've got all the documentation you'll need already."
"Of course you do. What about my team? Who is supervising them for a month?"
"You clearly haven't been doing a great job of supervising them while you've been here. I think they'll make it a month," Tony snapped.
Frankie's stomach dropped and hurt overwhelmed her senses. She was feeling just low enough that her eyes began to fill with water.
'Asshole, asshole. Asshole.' Frankie began doing basic math in her head to try and distract herself before the tears spilled over. She didn't pay much more attention to the logistics, she figured someone could fill her in on anything she needed to know.
After ten more minutes everyone was dismissed. Tony tried to take Frankie by the arm but she dodged his grab. "I need to pack."
"Franklin, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
"That's not an apology, asshole."
Pepper sighed and stood between Frankie and Tony. She placed a patient hand on both their shoulders. They both tried to ignore that everyone had stopped at the elevators to watch whatever was happening.
"What Tony is incapable of saying to you is that he's sorry for lashing out. What happened today scared him and he was very worried about your safety. Normally when you blow something up at that level you two are together so at least you would blow up simultaneously." Pepper said.
"Is that true?"
Tony paused. "Yes."
Frankie nodded. "Alright. You're forgiven." Pepper rolled her eyes and shoved Frankie into Tony's arms, forcing them to hug. Frankie hid her smile in Tony's shoulder.
"So hubby," Frankie said, linking her arm through Bucky's as they all waited for the elevator. "When are we consummating the marriage?"
"Enough," Tony shouted, from where he stood by Pepper.
"You're impossible," Bucky groaned. Steve's face was red while Sam and Natasha joined Frankie in her laughter.
