Chapter 20: Lockdown on Love

Clint

Ever since Loki was spotted at Chris's school Steve has been on high alert. Chris can't go to school by herself, she has to have a bodyguard everywhere she goes, and Valentine's Day is coming up and she has to stay in, so much for our plans. I walked towards her room when I bumped into Natasha.

"Hey Clint, going to see your jailbird?"

I glared at her.

"Come on Nat, be nice."

She shrugged.

"That was being nice," she spat.

I was about to walk away when she grabbed my shoulder.

"Hey, can you take guard dog duty tomorrow?"

"Why do you need Valentine's Day off, what poor soul have you taken to this time?"

She smiled.

"Now Clint that would ruin all the fun."

I groaned.

"So can you take it or not?"

I sighed.

"Sure at least I get to spend a little bit of time with my girlfriend."

She smiled and patted me on the back.

"Now that's a good boy toy."

I growled storming off in the other direction. She used to be my friend and now every time I see her rage fills my being. I found myself outside Chris's room. I opened the door without thinking of knocking.

"Chris, how you holding up?"

Her Uncle was in the room. He nodded and looked at Chris. She looked back at him and he left with a nod to both of us. I closed the door behind me and looked over at the young girl sitting on the bed. My eyes focused on her delicate features, but also the power behind the girlish figure. I walked slowly over to the bed and sat down beside her. Chris looked over at me with her wide blue eyes. I slowly leaned in placing a light kiss on her lips. I brushed my hand against her face.

"How was your day today?"

She smiled.

"Boring and a little maddening."

I leaned up against the head board.

"Well, I would expect so being watched almost twenty-four seven can cause slight insanity."

She leaned her head on my shoulder cuddling up to me.

"Yeah, it's frustrating that I can't even leave my room for Valentine's Day."

I pulled her in closer. Then I thought about it for a second.

"Maybe we can spend it outside this room."

"What are you talking about?"

I chuckled.

"I'm on guard that night."

Her lips curled into a smile.

"So maybe we do have plans for Valentine's day."

She jumped up off the bed almost thrilled.

"Good, you better have something great planned; you would hate to make my first Valentine's date terrible."

I smirked.

"First Valentine's Day?"

"Yeah, I've never had a man to go out with on Valentine's Day, so no pressure."

Yeah, no pressure.

Bucky

How did it get to this? How did she do it? How did she get what she needed? I walked up to her door. I can't do this. I turned around then back towards the door. No, I need to confront her about this. If her father found out about this it would break his heart. Maybe I can convince her out of it. I slowly knocked on her door. I heard a thump and stumbling feet on the ground. The footsteps came to the door and the knob turned. Chris opened the door wearing a bath robe and a fake smile.

"Hey Uncle Buck, Uhm I'm a little tied up right now, could you give me like five minutes."

I tried to respond but she slammed the door before I could. I knocked on the door.

"Christine opens up."

"Just a moment."

She's now testing my patience.

"That's it I'm coming in Christine."

I slammed open the door and found Chris in a Miss Avengers suit, the Miss Avenger suit. So my suspicions were true, she's Miss Avenger.

"So is there anything you wanna tell me Miss Avenger?"

She sighed as she sat down on her bed.

"Okay, so maybe I've been doing some… community service."
I rolled my eyes at her.

"Community service, you've been gallivanting as Miss Avengers when you know your father is against this."

She sighed.

"I know it is and I wasn't going to do it until a mysterious package came to me Christmas Day with everything I needed."

"So you didn't make any of this?"

She nodded her head.

"Nope, just disobeyed my father's wishes."

I sighed.

"Your Dad is not going to be happy with this at all."

Her eyes went wide.

"Are you going to tell him?"

"I don't know yet, I don't like lying to Steve."

Her shoulders drooped.

"But you're pretty good at this whole crime fighting thing."

She perked up a little.

"Uncle Buck, we all make mistakes, I don't know if this will end up being a mistake but if it does at least I know I have done some good while making it."

I nodded. Why is it every time I talk with this kid I learn something more about myself?

She went behind a screen and changed out of her costume into some shorts and a t-shirt. She sat back on her bed and the door opened. Clint was on the other side looking a little surprised. I looked at Chris and her eyes pleaded with me. I looked back at Clint and left the room. Those two are up to something; I'm just not sure what it is yet. Thinking about what Chris said I walked over to Steve's office. I paused before knocking twice.

"Come in."

I opened up the door and Steve's face lit up at the sight of me.

"Bucky what are you doing here?"

"Visiting Chris; didn't know that she was on lock down so I thought maybe we could talk about something that's been on my lately."

He nodded.

"Sure, I got time what do you want to talk about?"

"Look I want to apologies for how I treated you and Tony in the beginning."

His surprised expression said it all but I continued talking before he could say anything.

"I didn't know how to handle that you had adjusted to life here in this time and with a man of all people, I didn't know how to cope."

Steve didn't say anything.

"I hope you can forgive me from my behavior and my actions."

Steve smiled.

"Bucky I don't care about that anymore; I never resented you for that, why do you think I wanted you to meet your niece?"

I only stared at him.

"Bucky you will always be family and family doesn't give up on family."

I smiled at Steve and he smiled back.

"Now come on let's forget all that nonsense it's all in the past and I'm glad you're coming to my wedding, I actually wanted to talk to you about something as well."

"And what would that be?"

"Will you be my best man?"

Steve

"Ready to go love?"

Valentine's Day was finally upon us and I wanted nothing to do with it. I wasn't huge into Tony's version of a Valentine's Day celebration. His was going out to some club, drinking a lot, and at the end of the night I have to drag his drunken self-home. But yet again he convinced me to go.

"Dear do I really have to go?"

Tony looked at me with love in his eyes as he pushed a piece of my hair back into place.

"Yes," he said grabbing my hand.

I sighed.

"Is it your version of Valentine's Day or is it mine?"
He smiled love radiating from his eyes.

"You'll see."

He grabbed my hand and led me outside of STARK Towers. He led me to the car and we were off. I stared off through the window. What torture did Tony have in store for me tonight? But when Tony parked it wasn't in front of a nightclub, but a nice little hole in the wall restraunt. Tony jumped out of the car and ran to my side of car, graciously swinging the door open for me. I stepped out of the car, Tony smirking at the, obvious, shock on my face.

"I did good this year, didn't I?"

I nodded vigorously. My eyes brightened with this change of plans.

"This is exactly what I was hoping for."

He chuckled and offered out his arm.

"Shall we go inside?"

I locked my arm in his and nodded. He led me to the restraunt; he even opened the door like a gentleman.

"Two for Stark," he announced authoritatively.

The host sat us down at the table right in front of the window. There was a beautiful view of the streets of New York; the ambiance really brought the room together making it cozy and elegant.

"Tony, I'm so glad you took me here, you did a great job."

His ego swelled with each word.

"Well, I know you've been stressed lately and the club didn't seem like the best stress reliever."

I chuckled and grabbed his hand from across the table.

"Thank you again so much for this," I said with all sincerity.

He chuckled.

"Anything for you."

Kissing my out stretched hand he made my heart skip a beat. He let go of my hand as he picked up the menu. I followed his lead, what should I have? The fish, chicken, whatever that fancy French word is, no not the fancy French dish. I was distracted by a loud noise from the other side of the room. Two kids were looking at each other laughing extremely loud. They looked like Chris's friends from school, what were their names? Tony looked in the same direction and laughed.

"Look it's Caitlin and Josh, didn't think that bag of crazy could bag a jock."

I gave him a look.

"That isn't very nice Tony."

He shrugged.

"My apologies why are you looking over at them anyways?"

Why was I looking over at them? Maybe it reminded me of Chris sitting back at home. I looked back at the couple and noticed two more chairs at the table.

"Why are they sitting at a table for four if it's just the two of them?"

Tony looked disinterested.

"Who knows, only table they could get?"

Maybe they are just high school students. Chris could be out here with them having a good time like they are. But Loki is on the open and he doesn't need to ruin her life even more than he already has. I looked back at the menu again distracting myself from the couple. The waiter came back and we ordered. The dinner was going well until I was distracted again. Josh and Caitlin got up but there was another man and woman with them. I couldn't see them since they were hiding behind the couple but I caught a glimpse of blonde hair and a shiny necklace with a silver arrow charm on it.

It looked like Chris's hair but that couldn't be possible.

"Tony I'm going to call Chris, you know to see how she is doing."

He nodded, clearly aggravated by the interruption of the mood. I pulled out my cell phone and called her up.

"Yes?"

"Hey Chris, how is your evening?"

She sighed.

"Boring, my room is very boring."

"Sorry sweetheart I promise things will get better."

She was silent for a moment.

"Why don't you invite your friends over, just for tonight?"

"No can do Captain, Caitlin and Josh are on some fancy date and the boys from the football team are all out with their cheerleader dates so no can do, on my own tonight."

A slight giggle came from the background. Chris shushed the loud giggler.

"Who was that?"

"No one dad, just Nat talking about some boy."

Natasha did not giggle. Something was up.

"Well, I'm gonna hang up love ya dad, have fun."

The phone clicked. I tried to ignore the thought of the giggle in her room. Is she even in her room? Was Loki impersonating her right now? Does she have her under a spell of some sorts? The rest of dinner was miserable. I kept thinking about that phone call. Tony seemed to be having a splendid time. He even had a glass of wine. He paid for dinner and we walked out of the restraunt.

"Love let's go home, you seem distracted."

I shook my head.

"No dear, I don't want to take you from your good time."

He shook his head.

"I insist."

He cocked his eyebrow.

"Besides we can have so much more fun at home."

He gave me a long lingering kiss. My mind cleared of everything except his lips. We parted and he gave me a little smirk. I nodded my head vigorously.

"Home. NOW!"

We got in his car and drove back to the building. In the elevator we got started on our fun. Our lips stuck to the others. Hands untying ties and ripping off jackets, the elevator dinged and we exited heading towards the stairs. Chris was sitting on the couch with Clint. They seemed very comfy watching some movie. I disregarded them as Tony snapped the tie at my ass.

"Hurry up Grandpa."

I smirked as I ran behind him. I reached the top of the stairs to make sure Chris wasn't paying any attention when my eyes caught the glimmering arrow charm around her neck. Before I could get a better look Tony grabbed my wrist dragging me into the bedroom. Ending my investigation of the arrow charm and Chris's night.