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"I don't think we should go in there," Bucky said, with what he felt was a completely reasonable amount of scepticism. And okay, maybe just the tiniest bit of dread. He stood, never taking his eyes off the door so he’d be the first to see if anything managed to crawl its way out, which felt very necessary in that moment. As in, "life or death"-necessary.
Tony frowned at him in disbelief, glancing at the entryway before looking back at Bucky with an even deeper frown.
"Are you—" he asked slowly, hesitatingly, squinting at Bucky's face. "Are you serious right now?"
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
"But how? You trained the Black Widows!"
"Does Natasha look like a spider to you?"
Tony opened his mouth to answer, then stopped before he actually spoke a word, staring at nothing with a thoughtful expression for a few seconds.
Bucky decided he didn't want to know and instead spent that time slowly pulling Tony along on his creeping withdrawal from the door, not taking his eyes from it for even a moment.
They managed a respectable distance, Bucky liked to think, before Tony shook his head and started paying attention again, abruptly stopping his movement to follow when he noticed what was happening.
"Bucky, no," he said, though by this point there was more amusement in his voice than anything else.
Bucky's voice, on the other hand was nothing if not grave. "Bucky, yes."
For a second or two, Tony just looked back at him, half-suppressed amusement still very much visible on his face if you were a super-secret ex-assassin. Or just about anyone who had spent a small amount of time with Tony at all, really.
"Okay, fine," he said after a second, and Bucky almost slumped in relief, only managing not to by the skin of his teeth. "We don't have to see the spider exhibit. Honestly, it's a surprise you're fine with Peter if they creep you out that much."
Bucky wisely stayed silent and resolutely did not mention that the first time he had frozen in the face of Peter's costume, it had been because of the petrifying fear of coming eye-to-eye with someone dressed like a spider.
Honestly. Why did it have to be a spider?