Chapter 6
The asgardians
"Where's Barton?" Natasha asks then looking right at Fury. "We'll need all the help possible for this task and you know he's one of our best men."
"He's waiting for the other guy," Fury says.
"What other guy?" Tony, who doesn't seem to know a thing about politeness, cuts in. And despite Pepper and a few people in the room roll their eyes when they hear him, none of them shuts him up, because it seems nobody has a clue about what Fury's talking about, but everyone is interested, including Bucky.
"A guy that comes from the same place our target does." The man answers. "I know for a fact that this man is on our side; his name's Thor. I'm planning on recruiting him as well; he has very interesting abilities that I'd like to use for this project."
"I see, it seems the guy's been here before," comments Tony, reading something in his phone.
"Stop hacking SHIELD and stealing info–" Fury starts, but Stark moves a hand in his direction and nods.
"Yeah, I know. Last time, I promise." He says and Bucky knows that nobody in the room believes him.
Bucky doesn't see Steve when he moves closer to him, but he feels him approaching; he's getting use to it though. He's not sure when he learned so much about the man, but he's almost sure he did it because he doesn't trust what Fury has said.
"But how do we know he's not gonna turn his back on us?" Steve asks and he steps even closer to Bucky. "If he tries to do something–"
"He's not going to, trust me." Fury assures him. Steve nods, but Bucky knows him well enough to notice the little frown on his face.
"Well, I think it's time to get to work," Nat comments. "We need to locate our target before Barton arrives with the other guy."
Finally they all agree on something, and even Tony decides to follow Romanoff instructions and lets her use his tech to work with. Bucky wants to join them, but before he can do so Steve takes him by the arm gently.
Before Bucky can ask him what's wrong, his friend talks first.
"Are you sure about this?" Steve asks for the first time since Fury began to speak.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if you really want to be part of… this," he says and he looks worried. "We still don't know what or who are we going to fight. I'm sure it won't be easy and it'll be definitely dangerous."
"I know, Steve. But I really want to help." Bucky tries to smile at him, but doesn't work like he wants to; his friend is still looking at him like a sad puppy.
"I don't want anything to happen to you," Steve admits and Bucky smiles at him.
"I'll be fine, we'll be fine," he says. "We're together in this, right?"
Bucky doesn't know if it's because of what he says, but something changes in Steve; his eyes shine with joy and for a moment his worry seems to be forgotten. He's so happy it looks he can't help but to take Bucky in his arms and bury his face in the brunette's neck.
"Yes, we're together." Steve sighs happily in his neck and Bucky shivers for a second, because for a moment that sounds more serious than he expected.
"Hey, Capsicle! Now is not the time to snuggle your boyfriend! We need you both here." Stark's voice reaches them and it's enough to make Bucky jump and step away from Steve.
"Stop being rude, Tony." Pepper huffs.
Steve glares at him and the billionaire just smiles in response while Bucky fights back the heat he's feeling on his cheeks.
"I'm not his boyfriend," he says, because he thinks he has to. "We're just friends." But once the works come out of his mouth the whole room gets awkwardly quiet. They all look at something behind him and some of them turn his face on the opposite direction quickly. Nat looks at him with something between exasperation and sadness. He raises his eyebrows at her in a silent question at which she just shakes her head in response.
Then he notices; Steve has that sad puppy look on his face again. He tries to avoid looking at him, but has to look at him anyway when Bucky says his name.
"Steve?"
"It's okay," it's his response, but it's not, of course it's not okay and Bucky suddenly feels guilty and he doesn't know why.
He intends to insist but Jarvis' voice distracts them all.
"They're here," he announces.
It's hard to understand everything Thor tells them, but Bucky tries to anyway. It seems that Thor's from a place called Asgard and Loki, the guy who stole whatever Fury's looking for is the adopted brother of Thor. So the asgardian just wants his brother back to take him to a prison in Asgard. Of course, Fury doesn't seem really happy with Thor's plan, but doesn't say anything about it.
"Still, we need to find the guy," Banner reminds them when Thor stops talking.
"I just did," announces Barton then, with a grin on his face that Nat mirrors instantly.
Loki's terrorizing a group of people. He's in front of them, yelling and ordering them to kneel, the people are petrified. That's when Bucky decides to appear, despite Steve's protests.
The asgardian looks at him and seems to forget the rest of the people once Bucky arrives. He smiles at him.
"Metal arm. I haven't read about you yet. You're new." Loki comments. He looks more amused than surprised.
Bucky doesn't say a thing, but he wants to, he wants to know how much information Loki has on them all, how did he get it and what does he want to do with it.
"You're a quiet one. I like that," he adds.
The soldier takes a step closer, Loki notices the movement, and smirks at him. Bucky doesn't want to attack unless the other does it first. Then, just seconds after, the asgardian seems to change his mind and tries to hit him with the scepter he's holding, but Bucky blocks the attack with his metal arm just in time.
"You're fast and strong, but you don't look like someone who wants to fight," Loki comments.
"That's because I'm just a distraction."
Loki has no time to turn around, because Captain America's shield hits him in the chest, making him to fall away from Bucky. Then Thor and Ironman arrive. They both stand in front of Loki who just puts both hands in the air in surrender. Still, he doesn't seem so interested in them and looks at something behind Bucky instead and before he can turn, Steve takes his face in his hands and gets close to him.
"Are you okay?" Steve asks.
Bucky nods, but looks in Loki's direction again just to see the man smirking at them.
"Steve," he whispers. "I don't like this, it was too easy."
"It'll be fine." He says, but Bucky can see that he's worried too.
Something's coming.
