(no subject)

[rzhavyy]

Who: Bucky Barnes (rzhavyy) & Whoever!
What: Catchall!
When: January &c
Where: Around Wyver and Olympia
Warning(s): Will add if needed!

Post for tlevels and any hijinks. If you want a prompt hit me up via PM or natalia_vdova.

Comments

For Steve

[rzhavyy]

[After this thread.]

[Bucky doesn't bother really bother cleaning up the place that he's claimed for the past couple days. He'll probably move tomorrow. He'd settled down in Bucharest, but that had taken him a while to find. The ability to quiet, to not feel like someone's watching over his shoulder, and Wyver is still too new and too fresh for that. It's a run down place, neglected, but there's half a kitchen and an empty room that's livable and that's more than good enough for him.

He just focuses on the food: bottles of beer, roasted meat, some cheese. He has a loaf of fresh bread that he works on slicing. He knows it's not really about the sandwiches, but that gives him something to do with himself until Steve arrives, and it keeps him from worrying. It should be easy, and so far it has been, once they're together. But he's bad at waiting, and this is better than sitting on his sleeping bag and fidgeting.]

[america]

[ True to his word, Steve makes his way over to the location of the given coordinates pretty much immediately post-text conversation. He didn't see any reason to wait, he'd been wanting to check in on his friend, and he hasn't had lunch or coffee either.

He finds the door and knocks gently. ]

Bucky. It's me.

[ He's in his dark-coloured Royal Guard uniform, bright red-and-blue shield strapped to his back as per usual. Never really leaves home without it, not since he'd gotten it back; it's a pretty good marker to pick Steve Rogers out of a crowd anyway. ]

Steve Gala

[rzhavyy]

[Bucky's shirt-haired and clean-shaven for the Gala, despite initial murmurs to Steve that he wasn't sure he wanted to go. But that's not the only changes in him. It's small things, pieces of someone that Bucky knows isn't, but for tonight is willing to try and pretend that he could be again. The way that the left side of his mouth quirks up and how he dances with more than once pretty girl is intentional. But there are smaller pieces too, subtle things like that way he rocks on his heels, the way his fingers fidget.

He ends up standing under the mistletoe next to Steve-- stuff is all over the place, hard to avoid. He settles for just nudging a shoulder into the other man's with a soft hum. It's as close as he's willing to get to a kiss, sorry-not-sorry.]

Did Peggy teach you to dance? You looked good out there.

[It's light and careless, the sort of thing that ends in punk, even though it's not explicitly said. It's a good night. There's still a weight on Bucky's shoulders, a darkness to his eyes and something that says that this isn't enough to chase away beyond sunrise. But he's trying, and that's something. It's a piece of a puzzle, it's a willingness to believe that there are things the Soldier doesn't touch. And that's almost good.]

[america]

[ Steve laughs.

A shoulder-nudge really is prooooobably for the best, as it is, and whatever the case may be, he's glad to see his best friend at tonight's party. He looks good. He looks like one of Steve's memories, in fact; an image of the happy, easy-going, good-hearted young man Steve knew for most of his formative years. It aches something in his heart in a way that only pain and fondness combined as one can do, and Steve reaches out to touch Bucky's arm, clasping a hand over it to squeeze gently before pulling back. ]

She did. [ Steve confirms, casting his glance back over the dance-floor where Peggy is likely getting her groove on with one of her friends. ] Without her lessons, I would have been helpless.

quest.

[beknight]

[ He's spent a lifetime overcoming the feeling of fatigue. It's always a betrayal: the accidental pull of a muscle, the flare of joint pain, sometimes he'd stared at open fractures like they could mend by the force of a glare alone. Over the years it becomes harder to stifle. And sometimes — sometimes it hits him like a tsunami. Diana was gone. It opened something in him shut away and kept down, being suffocated by a pillow, but thrashing constantly. It's quiet now, but the lingering bitterness doesn't play well with the man he's trying to be. ]

[ Bruce doesn't have to explain why they're here. He simply called and asked — he won't be made to talk. They'd made their way through the undergrowth, and they're at the mouth of the cave. The crystal drops will net a tidy fortune: at least something comes out of this for both of them. ]

[ He signals, ]

Do you hear anything?

[rzhavyy]

[Something seems off about Bruce, but he doesn't push it. He has a feeling it's part of why they're here, why they're doing this. Because they don't really need words most of the time, and because Bucky wont push him. He has too many spaces of his own that are just as raw, too many things he doesn't talk about to push at them in someone else, and an amazing lack of interest in doing so.

The mission seems easy enough, with a decent pay out, and as much as he's good at getting by with nothing, the silver's nice to have. Easier to get more when you have some. And he has some, always does, but the extra wont hurt.

He signals back:]

No. Seems clear.

[beknight]

[ They don't really need words, most of the time. Sometimes, for clarity's sake, sometimes one of their comments aimed true at the other is a joke, just between them. But there's no pressing need for that to happen. If it does, it's a pleasant surprise. ]

[ But he deals better with unpleasant — so does Bucky. ]

[ Signalling back, ]

Your lead or mine?