steve and bucky travel in style

[fannishliss]

Here are Steve and Bucky watching to make sure no one surprises us at our local pizza and burger place.  Steve looks hungry.  Bucky, as usual, is stoic, but Steve will make sure Bucky eats as much as he needs.

Here is the latest chapter of my WILDLY POPULAR Steve/Bucky AU, Therapy.  :)

“You’re telling me a god smuggled liquor out of Asgard for you,” Steve said.

Clint chuckled. “You don’t have to believe me.  But drink it slow, or you’ll be waking up tomorrow wondering what hit you.”

Just the fumes coming out of the very small glass were potent enough to make Steve shake his head.  A scent like honey — flowers — time — Steve took a very small sip and his tongue went numb. He swallowed, and warmth spread out from his throat and filled his whole body.

He looked up at Clint, eyebrows high.

“Skol,” Clint said cheerfully and went back to flipping burgers.

Steve felt Natasha’s familiar Touch on his shoulder, and smiled as she sat down beside him.

“Norse Gods? Really?” Steve asked. He’d lost twenty years to Hydra, of course times would change, but surely no one expected alien contact.

Natasha nodded.  “You can think of them as aliens instead of gods, if that helps, but Thor does command lightning, so.”

“I’d want a drop of that if I didn’t think it would put me down,” Sam said with a grin from his chaise longue.

“Oh, I think you should try it,” Steve argued, offering Sam the bottle.

Sam just raised his can of cheap beer and toasted Steve silently, while Natasha nursed her iced tea.

It was a pretty small get together, but Steve was happy to be there anyway.   Every night he slept a little better; every day his emotional responses felt a little more under his control.  Looking out across the top of Clint’s building, in a bad neighborhood of New York City, everything looked and smelled right to Steve.  The cry of sirens and the noise of car engines, honking,  shouting — it was all blessedly familiar.  Maybe the folks he was drinking with had a few more powers than unaugmented humans, but they were great nonetheless.

Some of Steve’s new friends weren’t there.  Tony and Pepper were in Malibu for the week, doing West Coast inspections.  Clint’s roomie Kate was around someplace; there was a turkey burger on the grill for her.   And Bruce hardly ever left his labs; Steve didn’t know him that well yet anyway.

“Who wants food?” Clint asked.

Sam and Steve and Natasha lined up for the giant juicy burgers Clint put onto toasted buns for them straight off the grill.  Steve layered on lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mustard, ketchup, mayo, and jalapenos, and Natasha laughed as he gingerly bit into it, groaning in delight.

“Never get enough,” Steve said after his second burger.  “But these are so good.”

“I hear you,” Sam said. “Food bills be damned, sometimes it’s fun to eat three times as much as I used to, and burn it all up.”

“Looking good,” Natasha nodded, and Sam did a little pose with a smile, showing off his trim physique.

“I made plenty,” Clint promised, his own second burger dripping onto his plate. 

Potato salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, and Kate had shown up with brownies for dessert before snagging a burger and vanishing again.

“She has a social life,” Clint shrugged.

Steve couldn’t remember a meal this good, since… well, a long time.

Contented, his stomach full like it rarely was, lulled by the strong Asgardian liqueur, Steve went ahead and asked.

“You guys were both Soldiers?”

It wasn’t polite to ask, but Steve thought maybe they were past the level of polite.

“I was,” Sam said.  “Serum didn’t bulk me up all that much, but I did get the heightened reflexes.  Perfect for pararescue.  My partner Riley and I were responders at a Hydra siege, and they took us down.  Riley didn’t make it, and Hydra shot me up.  Didn’t work out like they planned.”

Steve nodded.  “You have a strong Touch?”

Sam shook his head.  “Nah, not so much, but I am a pretty good Reader.  And I love doing Therapy.  It just feels right, you know?

Steve nodded, but looked away. “I fought a lot of Hydrans back in the day.  Readers, pushers, stingers — it got pretty hairy out there. Nobody thought in those days about how those same powers could be used for good.”

“Sorry, man,” Sam said, politely averting his gaze.  “I know you saw some bad shit.”

Steve nodded.  “I was probably a lot luckier than most Soldiers, actually.  Anyway. Water under the bridge.”

They all sat silent for a moment, giving the War its due.

“Do you remember how they got you?” Clint asked, softly.

Steve let out a breath, ready to talk about it.  “We were after a scientist, Arnim Zola.”

Sam and Clint nodded. A lot of Steve’s life had become public record. Didn’t make it hurt any less. Natasha reached out and gently stroked his hand.  Her comfort flowed easily into him, and he could accept it as second nature by now.

“Zola was working on the Hydran serum back in those days, trying to make it stronger by incorporating Super Soldier aspects,” Steve said.  “He was anxious to get his hands on Soldiers he considered ‘prime specimens.’  That was me and Bucky, I guess.” Steve swallowed.  What was history for his friends was still so fresh to him.

“Capturing Zola was high priority for Shield —he’d left burned out test subjects all over Europe.  Bucky and I were at the top of our game.  We’d gone up against Hydra together so many times and our luck had mostly held.  We’d taken a few hits, but we were dumb kids, we thought we were invincible.”

Clint had refilled Steve’s glass and he took a swallow, let the burn ease it out of him. “We thought we’d found Zola’s base in Bavaria, but it was a trap.  We never found Zola — we were outnumbered and they got us with some kind of ray guns we’d never seen before. Next thing I know, Fury’s thawing me out and it’s twenty years later.”

“Shit,” said Clint, shaking his head.

Sam just looked at Steve, endless compassion in his eyes.  “And Bucky?”

“Presumed dead. When they found me, I was in a facility in Russia, thousands of miles from where we had been. There was no trace that Bucky was ever there, no record of what became of him.”

“They caught up with Zola in ’96 I think,” Clint said.

“They did?” Steve sat up.  He hadn’t found much about Zola in the books he’d read, only mentions of him as one of the leading scientists behind the Hydran serum.

“Yeah,” Clint said.  “Pierce wanted Zola to keep working on the serums with Bruce Banner— Shield wanted more consistency, more powerful conversions, blending Hydran powers with Super Soldier strength.  There’d been a few stories like Sam’s, with Soldiers who were captured and converted, but Zola blew it big time.”

Steve had had a few conversions with Bruce, who was always so calm and laid back. Like Tony, he always seemed distracted by his latest projects.

“Why? What happened?” Steve asked.

Sam and Clint looked to Natasha.  She shrugged a little.

“Zola thought he’d made a breakthrough and tested his serum on Bruce. Bruce’s conversion was catastrophic, and Zola… Bruce destroyed everything in their lab, and Zola with it.”

Steve tried to imagine the quiet, contemplative man he’d seen around the Tower with a death, even Zola’s, on his conscience.  He shuddered.

“None of us has clean hands,” Natasha said softly.  “The Hydran serum pulls powers out of us that are very difficult to control.  I’ve seen Pepper set a man on fire just by Touching him.”

Steve didn’t really want to picture the elegant CEO of Stark Industries, Tony’s beloved wife, warped by the heat of combat.

“What about you, Clint?” Steve asked. “Since we’re sharing.”

Clint looked back at Steve, eyes glinting white for a split second.  “I was running a con, got in over my head. Hydra took me, shot me up.  I woke up, concussion, and I’d lost eighteen months. Still not sure everything I did while I was under. I do know I almost killed Coulson. Natasha took me down.”

“You weren’t a Soldier?” Steve asked, surprised.

“Nah,” Clint said.  “I was a carnie.  Archery was my act.”

“Good act,” Steve said, impressed.

“Serum did improve my aim, but not by much.  Sometimes I go deaf.”

Steve shook his head. “That doesn’t even make sense.  Intermittent deafness. What the hell.”

“Said the Super Soldier,” Clint retorted.  “Nobody ever said the serum makes sense, why one version makes Super Soldiers and something slightly different makes Hydrans.  Nobody really gets what it is or where it came from.  When Thor first heard about the serum, he went straight to his little brother about it.”

“Thor has a little brother?” Steve racked his mind for Norse mythology.  Baldur, was that right?

Natasha sighed.  “Thor’s little brother, Loki, tried to start an interplanetary war that almost got them both banished.  But their mother wouldn’t let that happen without an investigation, and it turned out that Loki’s mind was under attack by a powerful enemy.  Asgard is on high alert, and that’s why Thor’s not around much, but Asgard is in open communications with Earth now.”

“What does that have to do with Hydra?” Steve said.

“Nothing,” Natasha said.  “Except that Hydra is all about mind control.  And, when Thor saw one of those Hydra energy weapons, he immediately recognized the tech. And the serums, whatever they are, reminded Thor immediately of Asgardian sorcery.”

“Oh, nothing,” Sam parroted.  “None of that means anything.  Okay.”

“Are we worried that this threat to Asgard might mean trouble for Earth?” Steve asked.

Natasha turned her blank gaze to Steve.  “Thor says it doesn’t matter if Earth is worried.  We have nothing to fight them with.”

Steve sat up a little straighter.  “I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” he said.

“Well, we’ve got our own fish to fry,” Clint said.  “What with the registration movement.”

“That’s not going forward, is it?” Steve said.  “Who’s supporting it?”

“I heard Secretary Pierce is not opposed to registration of augmented humans,” Sam said with distaste.

“That’s a violation of our civil rights,” Steve said hotly.

“Men like Pierce,” Natasha said, “get to decide who has civil rights and who doesn’t.”

“What do Fury and Coulson say?”  Steve demanded.

“They’ll fight for us, but they’re not politicians,” Natasha said.

“Politicians,” Steve grumbled.

“Be good,” Natasha said.  “Put the right face on Augmented for the rest of us.”

“Okay,” Steve said.  “I’d wrap myself up in the flag and sing the Star Spangled Banner if it would do us any good.”

“I’d like to see that,” Sam laughed.  “And a little dance where you march around, Captain Smallass?”

“Don’t push your luck,” Steve said, rolling his eyes.

There was no point in staying up to watch the stars come out in the City, but a cool breeze did drift across Clint’s rooftop and it was nice.  The Asgardian liqueur mellowed Steve and he sipped it very very slowly. It wasn’t like the old days with Shield proper, when the Soldiers tried to party as hard as they could stone sober, yelling and acting rowdy to take their minds off things.  It was a more sedate evening, four friends on a rooftop, talking, getting closer.

There was only one thing Steve would have traded the evening for — and he was pointedly not thinking about that.

Natasha caught the morose thought.

“Hey,” she said.  “Do you want to try a chain?”

“What?” Steve said.  He had no idea what she was talking about.

“A chain,” she said, grinning at Clint and Sam, who smiled back at Steve.

“My gut tells me that when you have that grin on your face, I should say no and get the hell out,” Steve said.

“No one’s stopping you,” Sam teased.

“Am I going to regret this?” Steve asked Clint.  Heaven help the world when Clint was the sensible one at a party.

“I doubt it,” Clint shrugged.  “But maybe you’re the kind of guy who enjoys regretting things.  I don’t know you that well yet.”

“I am that guy,” Steve said, a little rueful, “but Natasha’s trying to beat it out of me.”

“Do it,” Clint said, pointing at Natasha.

She opened her eyes wide and rolled them at Steve, indicating that she was doing her best.

“So what is it.  What do I do,” Steve said, taking one last swig of liqueur.

The three Hydrans looked at each other and took hands, Sam, Clint and Natasha.  Sam and Natasha each took Steve’s hands, forming a circle.

“Now we sing Kum Ba Yah,” Sam said.

“I don’t know it,” Natasha said flatly, letting out a little of her Russian accent, while Clint smirked.

Steve was starting to get nervous.  “What is it.  Come on, guys, tell me.”

“Relax, Steve.  Just feel it, okay?”

“Aren’t you supposed to get my consent for this kind of thing?” Steve asked nervously.

“Do you consent?”  Sam teased.

“I don’t know!” Steve shouted, laughing.

“Trust me, this one time, okay?” Natasha asked.  “Not as Therapy. As a friend.”

“Okay,” Steve assented.

“Sam, you start,” Natasha said.

Sam closed his eyes and that familiar warmth flowed into Steve’s left hand— but it felt different, somehow distinctly Sam.

“Good,” Natasha said.

Clint shivered.  “Mm, nice,” he said, smiling.

“Hey!” Sam said.  “Is that mine? Damn, not bad at all!”

“And you said you don’t have the Touch,” Natasha said.

“When I’m at the table with you, I don’t need to set myself up for a fall,” Sam said.

“Now you, Clint,” Natasha said.

Steve immediately felt the boost as Clint added his Touch to the wave flowing around the circle.  Sam’s Touch felt like a friendly arm around his shoulder.  Clint’s felt like approval — like someone he respected had sized him up and said “good job.”   Happiness and contentment flowed through Steve from head to toe.

“You’re all right, yourself, you know that?” Sam said to Clint, who just smiled.

“Now you,” Clint urged Natasha.

Nothing happened for a moment.  Steve was used to Natasha’s ways, how she carefully calibrated her Touch to Steve’s needs in the moment.  When her energy flowed into the circle, it rang through his bones in perfect harmony, like Clint’s sweet tenor and Sam’s smooth baritone had just been surrounded by a choir of basses, altos and sopranos, all singing in balance.  It felt like every good thing Steve had grown to know and trust in Natasha.  It felt fantastic, flowing into him, through him, all throughout his being.  It was far more delightful than Asgardian liqueur.  It was friendship, and Steve had been terrified he’d never feel that way again.

Steve’s joy overflowed and spilled out into the circle. The friendship he felt was so good, and so right.  It hurt, because it reminded him of what he’d lost — but it soothed, and he had to celebrate that and send it back to his friends.

Natasha gasped, but didn’t drop his hands.

“Steve,” she said, surprised but smiling.

“What?” he answered, happily.

“Your eyes have gone white,” she said.  “You’re Hydran, Steve.”

It was a jolt — a shock — and it should have hurt Steve to hear it like that, so sudden, but it didn’t.  Cushioned by the pure, sweet support of his friends, Steve felt like he could take anything.

“Huh!” he laughed, and his amusement zipped around the circle like a little bird, hitting him in the face like a splash of cool water and making him laugh again.

“Think we oughta bring this thing back down,” Sam smiled, laughing a little.

“Yup,” Clint chuckled.

Natasha carefully reeled it in.  Steve had never imagined Touch could travel between friends like that, layering and compounding and becoming so much more than any one of them could produce alone.

Sam and Clint dropped hands, and let Natasha bring Steve all the way down.

“Wow,” he laughed, still a little high.

“Wow is right,” Clint said.

“You okay?” Sam asked.

“I guess so,” Steve said. “I mean, that was amazing!  Thank you, so much!”

“Didn’t you have any inkling that you were converted?”

“No!” Steve said.  “Like I said, they shot us and that’s all I remember.”

“They must have injected you while you were out, and they thought it didn’t take,” Sam mused.  “I mean, when they did me, I got the empathy, and a little Touch, and ha, did she tell you I can talk to birds? — but they couldn’t make an implant stick.  You’re lucky they didn’t just finish you off.”

“I guess they planned on studying me.  Or, maybe they did a lot of things and I just don’t remember.”

“It doesn’t bother you?”

“A lot of things bother me,” Steve said.  “But right now, I don’t care.”

“I, for one, don’t blame you,” Clint said.  “Why worry about something you never even knew about?”

Clint’s conversion meant that every so often he was deaf; Pepper had to be careful not to set people on fire; and Banner — whatever he did was so bad no one would even talk about it.  Getting happy and giving his friends the giggles wasn’t the worst thing in the world, not by any means.

Steve’s life was far from ideal, but a clandestine Hydran conversion in his past was the least of his worries.