AN: Guess who forgot what day it was yesterday! I accidentally went on a drawing binge on Sunday and spent 8 hours sitting in the same position. Woke up with sore muscles so ended up sleeping in.

I also saw Logan at the weekend. I liked it. I really liked it. It had a number of plot points that I had already planned into this which was interesting. I'm actually slightly enamored with how they did X23, like so enamored that I'm considering writing another X23 fanfic using that version of Laura. I need to stop thinking up new fanfic ideas and start finishing off some of the ones I have started :P

Anyway Laura and Bucky time!

Enjoy :)

Chapter 12 - BLTs and Leather Jackets

The bell above the door signaled the arrival of the girls, drawing everyone's attention onto them. Laura cursed the sound as she spotted the grin that was quickly growing on Tony's face. "Ladies! I hope all that dress shopping made you hungry" The billionaire rose from his seat, taking great pleasure in Laura's scowl as he greeted Pep with peck on the cheek. "So where is it?"

He addressed the question towards Laura and watched in delight as her scowl slowly morphed into a glare. However he was surprised when Nat answered for her. "She didn't buy it, Tony. Let it go."

Natasha stood by the shorter woman's side, smirking as she raising a challenging eyebrow.

Tony recovered quickly turning his attention to the deadly assassin in front of him. "Didn't buy it?!" Tony echoed in faked shock and horror before turn back toward the table. "Did you hear that? How are we going to recreate the picture for the photoshoot if we don't have the dress?"

Laura ignored the idiot as her eyes took in the long table that the rest of them were sitting at. The boys had clearly moved a couple of tables to create enough room for all of them, it even looked a bit too big. Clint lay on a couch at the far end, watching the entertainment but Laura had to suppress her smile as the Captain America face palmed at the show Tony was putting on. She expected to find Barnes in the seat next to his friend. So far she had hardly seen him without Steve by his side. Scanning the room, her glare softened back into a scowl as her eyes found the dark figure sitting in the far corner.

"No dress needed, I can recreate it for you right now" Natasha retorted before she flipped Tony off, receiving a snort of laughter from Clint for her efforts.

Pepper rolled her eyes at them before interrupting "Come on, Tony. Let's eat already, I'm starving!" She didn't give him the chance to argue, dragging towards the table as he mumbled on about rude spies.

Laura registered that the arrogant inventor had backed off but kept her eyes on Bucky as he remained hunched over at the isolated table. His baseball cap was tilted down to hide his face as he seemed to shrink into himself. It almost felt like he was trying to fade into the background and disappear but Laura reasoned that she was probably overthink it. She came back to the moment as she felt something push her. She stared accusingly at Romanoff as the spy moved past her a step or two. Natasha just smirked motioning toward the back corner with a subtle head movement.

Laura rolled her eyes at the redhead but took the prompt, moving past the table as Natasha went to sit. She didn't particularly want to sit at the same table as Stark anyway. She'd choose dealing with Barnes over Stark any day.

She looked back briefly as she sat down, expecting some comment from the rich man-child but instead found Nat leveling one hell of a glare at him. A smirk tugged at the sides of Laura's lips but she quickly flattened it when she caught sight of Rogers staring at her curiously. His eyes moved off her the moment she connected with them, snapping quickly onto Natasha.

"So you didn't get the dress?" She turned round fully, assessing the man in front of her carefully. He clearly wasn't comfortable. The strange thing was that if they were in a busy train station or packed bus, he fit right in but they were stuck in a practically empty café, yet he still looked like he could get up and run at the drop of a hat. He sat on the edge of his seat and hands flat on the table. He hadn't taken his coat or hoodie off, despite it being fairly warm inside.

"No, it em… wasn't my colour" Laura replied, distracting herself by removing her scarf and coat. Bucky was eerily similar to his alter ego in this paranoid state.

He made no move to continue the conversation as a teen came up to the table, a large pile of menus in his arms. "Here you…" Laura didn't let the kid finish, grabbing two menus from the pile before nodding in a brief and half-hearted attempt at gratitude.

The boy got over his shock, quickly moving onto the other table while Laura placed one menu in front of her old friend. She concentrated fully on her own, listening as Barnes picked up his and started to do the same.

She really didn't care what she ate, picking something simple just to get it out the way. However she continued to examined the menu just to avoid the awkwardness that she was already drowning in.

She honestly expected Bucky to take point on this. She was useless at talking and what do you even talk about to a man you haven't seen in 11 years. She could ask how life had been but she already knew the answer so it was a pointless thing to ask. Not to mention inappropriate and insensitive.

Cautiously she peaked over her menu to catch a glimpse of him. The menu was lying discarded on the table as the ex-assassin studied the door behind her, completely lost in his own thoughts.

Her eyes flicked back to the fancy writing on the menu before sighing. There was absolutely no hope of Barnes starting any form of communication. She'd have to bite the bullet. "I'm kind of glad to get you alone, actually".

She could practically feel his gaze zero in on her, making her shift uncomfortably. "Really?" His monotone voice held surprise that she probably would've been able to observer if she wasn't pretending to read the menu again.

"Yeah" She mentally cursed herself and wondered why on earth she had decided to lead with this. However she didn't have much time to ponder it as the teen soon returned to take their order. She ordered, just a simple sandwich and water, nothing huge and then watched as Bucky ordered just water.

A questioning eyebrow was quickly raised as the boy retreated with their menus. "Not hungry" Bucky mumbled the answer to the unasked question. Laura didn't believe him for one second but let it slide for now. "So?" Bucky pressed her to continue what she had been saying.

Laura seriously missed the menu now that she could no longer hide behind it. Talking had never been her strong suit. "I may have been a bit harsh last night. Blame it on the lack of sleep" She meant to make it sound casual but it came out more like an order, making her internally wince. The kid chose this moment to return with their drinks. He delivered them wordlessly, probably sensing the tension.

Bucky made absolutely no move to reply, just staring at her like she was some sort of puzzle to crack. He wondered if his ears were still working correctly because it just sounded like she'd tried to apologise to him. He could tell that she was avoiding eye contact, instead focusing on the rim of her glass. If he didn't know better, he'd even say that she was nervous. And he didn't know better, he could barely get a good read on her at the best of times.

Yet, here she was trying to talk to him. It suddenly occurred to Bucky that this was the first time she had actually initiated a conversation with him. "So how was shopping?" Bucky asked cautiously, wanting to keep this going and see where it lead.

Laura's eyes snapped up to catch the brunette taking a good sip of his water. A tiny amount of tension had left his shoulder. "Better than I predicted, they're good shoppers" She glanced over her shoulder to view the table where the other group talked loudly.

"And you're not?" Bucky questioned, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Correct" Laura chuckled, believing that no truer words had ever been spoken. Her mind just wasn't designed for shopping. She struggled to imagine how things would look on her.

Bucky could relate to the new information he was learning about the woman in front of him. He smiled, having finally found some form of common ground with her. "But you got what you needed, right?" He queried, saving the topic for later. Right now, he was more concerned with her having everything she needed to be comfortable and secure.

"I got more than what I needed. Too much, actually. I don't even know what to do with that amount of clothes" Laura thought that it was almost wasteful, considering she would eventually have to disappear. There was no way she be able to carry all those clothes in her backpack.

Bucky held his response as he heard sneakers approaching from the direction of the kitchen. The young waiter soon reappeared placing Laura's meal on the table with a smile. "Enjoy!" Bucky paid little attention to the kid as his eyes zeroed in on the BLT sandwich on Laura's plate. It looked good and he was beginning to realise just how hungry he really was.

He really hoped they weren't going to spend too much longer out shopping. "Well, it's not like Stark can't afford it". He distracted himself by sipping at his water.

Laura just nodded in agreement, due to having a full mouth. She didn't even need to look at Barnes to know he was eyeing up her sandwich. The man had a super metabolism and to her knowledge the boys hadn't eaten since breakfast, he had to be hungry. She had a couple of ideas on why he hadn't ordered something and all of them left a nasty taste in her mouth. Each idea suggested that Bucky was not recovering as well as she thought he was. It was almost like he was a completely different person compared to how he was before. At the tower he was fine, brooding and quiet but okay. Now he was paranoid and on edge. If this was how he was acting in an empty café then she didn't want to imagine what he would've been like while shopping.

She took a sip of water as she realised that they'd lapsed into silence again. "So… did you buy anything?" If she had a good read on him then she already knew the answer.

Bucky hadn't really noticed the silence until she spoke, having caught Steve looking over to see if he'd ordered something and the small look of disappointment that followed. "Em… No" he answered focusing back onto Laura and ignoring Cap for the time being. He knew that he should be eating, he was starving, but why order food that you're going to struggle to trust enough to eat.

"Why not?" Laura questioned lightly, not wanting to make him feel like he was being interrogated. She could guess what the true answer was because she'd been in his position before. Having to rely on Jubilee or even Logan to buy her clothes because it was just too much for her.

She pushed away her pity as he lied. "I didn't need anything" Bucky replied fully believing it. He had jogger bottoms and t-shirts, even a tracksuit or two. He really didn't need anything else.

Laura wasn't quite sure about that. She had noticed it yesterday. Barnes's scent had been much more noticeable. She had honestly struggled to understand how on earth she hadn't noticed it in the club. Then it all click when they left the tower that morning. Bucky was wearing pieces of Steve's clothes. She couldn't quite tell what part of his outfit had been Steve's in the club but she suspected that it was his jacket and she had pinpointed that the coat he was currently wearing was the blonde's. Barnes could really do with some more clothes. "Well, it's not like Stark can't afford it, right?" She smirked playfully, throwing his words right back at him.

Bucky chuckled slightly, finding this change in her attitude to be surprising pleasant. She had been really cold yesterday and it had irritated him greatly. Even that morning, she had been quiet but she actually seemed to be enjoying herself. He had no idea why, it wasn't like he was the best company right now. He knew he was being paranoid and he knew that there was absolutely no need to be but there was just something holding him back. A little voice asking "What if…?" What if he'd missed something? What if Hydra were following him? What if he flipped out and hurt someone? What if he was too dangerous to be around the public?

Laura finished off the first half of her sandwich in silent worry as she watched her old friend becoming lost in his thoughts again. She knew from experience that sometimes your thoughts were the most dangerous place to get lost. He stared down at his hands as if they held all the answers in he could ever want. The tension slowly returning to his shoulders.

She needed to do something to help him but what would help him? How do you fix a broken man? She searched each inch of her mind for a solution as she bit into the rest of her sandwich. She'd been so similar to him once, it was like looking into a mirror to the past.

She'd been on edge all the time, constantly ready for an attack either on herself or on her father. Secretly being absolutely terrified that she'd lose everything again. When she found Logan, she found a family. A weird group of friends and each supported her in a different way. But Bucky already had that.

Laura smiled softly as she tuned into the noise of casual conversation behind her. He had his family, he had Cap so maybe it was just a question of time. It had taken her 11 years…and counting…so how long would he have to wait.

She sighed silently, waiting didn't help her at all, and she needed to help him now. Distract him in some way or make him feel safer. An idea slowly began to form in the recesses of her mind. It was a stupid plan. It could backfire massively and make him even worse. But maybe they needed to take that leap of faith. Either way, he needed a leather jacket to call his own.

"Hey…" His head snapped up. "This may sound crazy but hear me out…" Bucky's eyes narrowed in confusion, the playful twinkle in Laura's eyes making him cautious but intrigued.

AN: A lot of talking in this chapter. Poor Bucky :(

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