[ For a moment, Bucky just looks at her. He can't argue, but it sounds so crazy when she says it like that. Just knowingly walking into danger like she's walking into a day at the office. ]
No wonder you're friends with Steve.
[ He snorts and takes a sip of his coffee, knowing he'll be right there with her like the idiot he is.
He's never been one to look for danger. Joining the war and following Steve back into it hadn't been about some love of fighting. Bucky's just not that guy. Give him a fight worth fighting, though, and he'll give everything he has to it. ]
[Hopefully she never has cause to tell Bucky about the time she jumped out of a helicarrier at 40,000 feet without a parachute. He's not exactly wrong, if they're being honest.
Truth is, she doesn't like going in without a plan, but not even the locals have much to offer, except that it can't be good. Sometimes you can wait, figure out the best angle, but sometimes you wait and it gets worse. So here they are, and she smiles, clearly amused.]
I'll take that as a compliment.
[She wasn't a person people commonly compared to Steve, spy still among the first thing people thought of about her, no matter how often she was the superhero. You couldn't balance the scales, but you could try to be something better.]
You should. I'm friends with him and who's cooler than me?
[ He laughs and starts to shoulder his bag. Ready isn't something he's felt in a while, but he can adapt like nobody's business and he'll do that now, too. Just keep moving forward and land on his feet, right? Or his head. Whichever. ]
[She laughs with him, because she's known James for a long time and cool is not a term she'd ever use. Anyone who uses the phrase 'what do the kids say' unironically isn't cool. And Bucky's definitely his own person, but he doesn't strike her as much better on that particular metric.]
Well then, let's see if we're lucky.
[Bag over her shoulder, drink in her hand, and she starts walking in the direction of their destination. She'd had a local map it out for her once she'd worked out the SOS.]
[ Bucky's pretty aware that he isn't actually all that cool. Comfortable with himself? Sure, to a point. He was considered cool when he was growing up, but he doesn't think anyone other than Steve sees that in him these days. ]
Let's see if you're lucky. My luck ran out a few decades ago.
Well, don't get your hopes up. I'm sure mine isn't much better.
[She used to think she was cursed, as a matter of a fact. The Curse of the Widow!
She'd had a tendency for extras people around her to end up dead. But these days she keeps her circle of friends a lot smaller. The spy life and the superhero life both tend to deal in casualties, and she stands in-between both. Not so long ago she'd killed someone she would have called a friend.]
But, if we're going to end up in trouble, I'm pretty sure we can handle it.
You and me? Oh, I'd pity whoever thought they could get one over on us.
[ He'll probably eat those words, but he's not sure he cares right now. The world ended, Peggy's alive again and he's seemingly made friends with some bizarro copy of himself. Whatever this place does next, he figures it'll be just as much of a mind fuck. ]
Between the two of us, we could probably topple a government or two, right?
[ He's joking, as much as the truth can be a joke. He wouldn't do it, but that doesn't mean he couldn't. ]
[This place is a mess, but so far it hasn't been worse than anything she's had to live through, even if there had been talk of dragons. So she's fairly sure that Bucky and her can handle whatever they happen to run into.
She laughs lightly at the joke, her smile crooked and a little playful as she looks over at him.]
Oh, with all day? I'm sure we could manage at least three.
[It's easy to shrug it off with someone like him, because she understands what it is to have your mind twisted to be someone's tool.]
[ Bucky laughs as they move away from the center of the city. Not everyone understands his humor. Or maybe they just don't appreciate it, but sometimes a dark joke is all he's got to tether him to his sanity. If he can't laugh, he might actually have to look at the reality of it all. ]
Maybe we should go into business together. You think anyone needs to hire a small army that talks back and doesn't follow orders well?
[Natasha understands dark humor. A lot of the time it's the only sort of humor that she can manage. Her history is a mess, layers upon layers, frequently taken from her, rearranged. And if you can't laugh, how else do you cope with it?]
I don't know, people tend to not like the talking back. And we wouldn't want to put the Golden Cage out of business.
[There's a joke she could make- something about Buckies across the multiverse. But she once ran a foul of a woman pulling together disparate versions of herself to form a criminal empire. Not a pleasant memory, even if they'd made it out alive. So she leaves it there.]
Pretty sure they're going to have to do a whole lot worse than third to get someone that doesn't talk back, if we're honest.
[She doesn't know Peggy, but between James and Steve, and a couple of the other people she's met here, she's not betting those theoretical employers would make out too well if obedience was a deal-breaker.]
[She laughs softly, an amused crook of her lips as they walk. Her posture is casual, even if they're likely walking into danger.]
Please. You know if we were really taking clients, we'd be vetting them ourselves. Maybe find someone to handle the paperwork for us.
[Her tone has that edge of someone for who this wasn't theory or conjecture. She'd done it, selling her work to fund the victims of who she'd been. As if she could buy off the guilt. Isaiah had been very good at his job.
If she's honest, she misses him, just like other people she'd had in her life.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
No wonder you're friends with Steve.
[ He snorts and takes a sip of his coffee, knowing he'll be right there with her like the idiot he is.
He's never been one to look for danger. Joining the war and following Steve back into it hadn't been about some love of fighting. Bucky's just not that guy. Give him a fight worth fighting, though, and he'll give everything he has to it. ]
no subject
Truth is, she doesn't like going in without a plan, but not even the locals have much to offer, except that it can't be good. Sometimes you can wait, figure out the best angle, but sometimes you wait and it gets worse. So here they are, and she smiles, clearly amused.]
I'll take that as a compliment.
[She wasn't a person people commonly compared to Steve, spy still among the first thing people thought of about her, no matter how often she was the superhero. You couldn't balance the scales, but you could try to be something better.]
Well, I'm ready when you are.
no subject
[ He laughs and starts to shoulder his bag. Ready isn't something he's felt in a while, but he can adapt like nobody's business and he'll do that now, too. Just keep moving forward and land on his feet, right? Or his head. Whichever. ]
I can walk and drink.
no subject
Well then, let's see if we're lucky.
[Bag over her shoulder, drink in her hand, and she starts walking in the direction of their destination. She'd had a local map it out for her once she'd worked out the SOS.]
no subject
Let's see if you're lucky. My luck ran out a few decades ago.
no subject
[She used to think she was cursed, as a matter of a fact. The Curse of the Widow!
She'd had a tendency for
extraspeople around her to end up dead. But these days she keeps her circle of friends a lot smaller. The spy life and the superhero life both tend to deal in casualties, and she stands in-between both. Not so long ago she'd killed someone she would have called a friend.]But, if we're going to end up in trouble, I'm pretty sure we can handle it.
no subject
[ He'll probably eat those words, but he's not sure he cares right now. The world ended, Peggy's alive again and he's seemingly made friends with some bizarro copy of himself. Whatever this place does next, he figures it'll be just as much of a mind fuck. ]
Between the two of us, we could probably topple a government or two, right?
[ He's joking, as much as the truth can be a joke. He wouldn't do it, but that doesn't mean he couldn't. ]
no subject
[This place is a mess, but so far it hasn't been worse than anything she's had to live through, even if there had been talk of dragons. So she's fairly sure that Bucky and her can handle whatever they happen to run into.
She laughs lightly at the joke, her smile crooked and a little playful as she looks over at him.]
Oh, with all day? I'm sure we could manage at least three.
[It's easy to shrug it off with someone like him, because she understands what it is to have your mind twisted to be someone's tool.]
no subject
[ Bucky laughs as they move away from the center of the city. Not everyone understands his humor. Or maybe they just don't appreciate it, but sometimes a dark joke is all he's got to tether him to his sanity. If he can't laugh, he might actually have to look at the reality of it all. ]
Maybe we should go into business together. You think anyone needs to hire a small army that talks back and doesn't follow orders well?
no subject
I don't know, people tend to not like the talking back. And we wouldn't want to put the Golden Cage out of business.
[There's a joke she could make- something about Buckies across the multiverse. But she once ran a foul of a woman pulling together disparate versions of herself to form a criminal empire. Not a pleasant memory, even if they'd made it out alive. So she leaves it there.]
no subject
[ Which, if he's honest, is probably Peggy, the one person he knows who talks back even more than he does, so good luck, hypothetical employer! ]
no subject
[She doesn't know Peggy, but between James and Steve, and a couple of the other people she's met here, she's not betting those theoretical employers would make out too well if obedience was a deal-breaker.]
no subject
[ It's clearly a spy's market. ]
no subject
Please. You know if we were really taking clients, we'd be vetting them ourselves. Maybe find someone to handle the paperwork for us.
[Her tone has that edge of someone for who this wasn't theory or conjecture. She'd done it, selling her work to fund the victims of who she'd been. As if she could buy off the guilt. Isaiah had been very good at his job.
If she's honest, she misses him, just like other people she'd had in her life.]