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Staying on task and getting shit done were among Hope van Dyne’s greatest strengths, her intense focus a trait inherited from her genius billionaire father. But Hope had never been on a business lunch with Captain America and the Winter Soldier before, working the last thing on her mind as she watched the duo interact. They were quite…distracting. “Again, thanks for meeting with us,” Sam said as he awkwardly jabbed at the ribeye he’d ordered, cutting it impossible thanks to the sling currently holding his left arm hostage.
“You can't do that one-handed. Why did you even…” Bucky didn’t finish the thought, pushing his own bowl of curry aside to grab Sam’s plate. He hacked at the choice cut with his own steak knife. “Nevermind, just let me.”
“I said I got it,” Sam grumbled, though he didn’t look particularly put out by Bucky’s high-handedness. If Hope were placing bets, she’d land on Sam ordering a steak with the full knowledge that Bucky would cut it into tiny pieces for him at the first sign of struggle. Interesting. Catching her curious gaze, he pointed to the cast with his good hand. “Building fell on me.”
“It happens,” Scott piped in cheerfully, too consumed with his burger to notice how Hope kept trying to capture his attention. Because, really? Really-really? “So you wanna re-establish the Avengers? That’s what I’m hearing? Count us in!”
“Think it through Tic-Tac,” Sam murmured in an obvious attempt to keep her overeager significant other from the doghouse. Her breath caught when Sam turned the full strength of his magnetic grin her way. Did Sam Wilson just go around halting bad guys by smiling? Because he had certainly stopped her in her tracks.
“What?” Scott said through a mouthful of food, noting Sam’s pointed stare. Hope might've been annoyed that he was paying more attention to Sam than her if she didn’t find his fanboy tendencies oddly endearing and often hilarious. “Oh uh…yeah,” he sheepishly backtracked, looking like a chastised adolescent when he noticed her arched eyebrow. “I mean maybe. We’ll see?”
“An undertaking like that will require ample financial backing,” Hope said as Bucky slid Sam’s plate back toward him. Sam nodded his thanks, Bucky quickly ducking his head as he reached to reclaim his own food. The moment reminded her so much of the last time she was injured, how Scott had stayed by her side in the hospital and fed her the worst Jell-O ever created. How a hospital could so royally screw up Jell-O still amazed her, but what stuck out most about that event was just how much Scott Lang doted over her. Hmm. She shook her head, realizing she’d lost focus. Again. She blamed Sam and Bucky. “I’m assuming that’s the main reason we’re here? Hank Pym’s Avengers Assemble?”
“That rhymes. Sorta,” Scott commented. “Assemble. Apymble…”
She rolled her eyes. Trying to create a suitable pun might keep him occupied for the duration of the lunch. “Let’s just get straight to the point. You want my father’s bankroll?”
“It wouldn’t hurt,” Sam shrugged, seeming to appreciate her no-nonsense approach. Those who didn’t bullshit always appreciated that quality in others. She had a feeling that she would get along with both Sam and Bucky pretty well. “But if I have to pick between that and talent, I’m going with talent every time. We already have Pepper on board financially. She wants to continue Stark’s legacy. It’s a start, but before we get anywhere we need a team. We have plenty of interested young talent we can develop, but we need experience to guide and lead them.”
“We ain’t sending Captain America out with a bunch of 20-somethings guarding his back. I don’t care how good they are with arrows, shadows, lights, or wings or whatnot,” Bucky interjected with a clenched jaw, his expression stony. “Everyone has a gimmick, and a lot of it might be good. But it’s not enough when it comes to his safety. If the last few months have taught us anything, the big and bad didn’t go anywhere. It just looks different.”
Hope blinked. Honestly, she was a little startled that Bucky could say that many words. So far he’d let Sam lead the discussion as he hovered close by like a protective, bad-tempered shadow.
“We aren’t sending anyone out that hasn’t been sufficiently trained and isn’t ready for it,” Sam interjected, either not noticing or choosing to ignore that Bucky didn’t seem overly concerned for anybody else’s safety–even his own. Just Sam’s. He turned to Bucky with a frown that led into an exaggerated eye roll. Hope couldn’t help but notice it was an expression similar to the one she often wore when dealing with Scott and his shenanigans. “Why aren’t you eating?”
Bucky crossed his arms. “I am.”
“I ain’t seen you take one bite. Man, I warned you about that. You know you can’t handle heat.”
Bucky’s scowl shifted from his curry to Sam, then back to the curry. “It’s fine,” he mumbled petulantly. Good grief…was the Winter Soldier an overgrown man-child? Somehow Hope wouldn’t have guessed it, but watching the duo relate felt very familiar.
“It’s too much spice for you,” Sam mumbled right back as he speared a piece of the steak Bucky had so diligently cut for him.
Hope turned a questioning stare Scott’s way, because really how was he missing this shit? He didn’t appear to notice anything out of the ordinary with Sam and Bucky’s dynamic. And maybe this was normal, but they just seemed…so…so…domestic.
“You said you liked it. That it was good,” Bucky argued, seeming to forget their audience for a moment. Frankly, Hope was about ready to sign up for the new Avengers for the entertainment value alone at this point. She might be no-nonsense herself, but she’d found she had a growing tolerance for nonsense in others. (Love did funny things to a person sometimes.) Though she’d determined that separately Sam and Bucky were pretty reasonable, apparently combined they were nothing but nonsense. Balance, she decided.
“Yeah, I said I like it. Because I like spice. You on the other hand? We all know, chili peppers are the quickest way to take you down.”
“He is the Winter Soldier, makes sense he doesn’t like heat.” When Scott flashed a wide grin, Hope couldn’t stop her responding smile. She really loved that wonderful, smart, frustrating idiot man of hers. “This burger is good,” he plowed on, undeterred when his joke didn’t land with the other two. “So yeah, thanks for inviting us to lunch. It’s like I always say, ‘if ya gotta work, may as well make it a working lunch.’”
“You never say that,” Hope couldn’t help but argue. It was part of their love language. Hmm…maybe something else they had in common with Sam and Bucky. “I’ve literally never heard you say that.”
“Because you always make me work without feeding me. Think of how much I could accomplish if you took the time to feed me.”
“Now that I can agree with,” Bucky added. Of course, he could. Hope had already decided he was the much less sunshiney Scott in that relationship, Sam the long-suffering well…her. Bucky nudged Sam. “You should feed me more.”
“Would it make you less grumpy?”
“I’m not grumpy.”
Sam’s expression was completely unimpressed. “And what do you mean I need to feed you more? How many Delacroix cookouts have you wormed your way into now?”
“Not my fault your hometown loves me.”
“It’s your muscles not your sparkling personality, lemme tell ya.”
The bickering and bantering continued through the rest of lunch. And though they definitely discussed how Avengers Redux would work and what their various roles might be (Hope really wanted to know what part Bucky might play, since he was on Ross’ top secret Thunderbolt team–the one that no one knew about, but of course she knew about. She didn’t ask. Yet.), there was also a fair amount of repartee among the foursome. Toward the end, she was enjoying a piece of French silk pie when she noticed Sam eyeing Bucky’s tiramisu.
Bucky must have noticed his partner’s hangdog expression as well. “You said you were too full for dessert.”
“I know. I am.”
“We can get you a piece-”
“Nah man, I’m good. That steak got me. It’s just…” Steak? Hope struggled not to snort, because halfway through the meal, he and Bucky had exchanged plates. If Sam was full of anything, it was curry, Bucky polishing off most of the steak.
“Yeah, yeah,” Bucky murmured. Without preamble, he dipped his spoon in, holding a bite of dessert out for Sam. “Go ahead.”
Sam immediately leaned forward to accept the offering.
Hope stared.
Even Scott, who had been mostly oblivious to their flirty wise cracks most of the meal, stared.
Sam’s face belied his ecstasy at the mouthful of dessert. He and Bucky both turned, noting their dual expressions of shock. “I don’t get sick,” Bucky hastily explained. He held up the spoon as if emphasizing the point. “Serum perk.”
“No germs to spread,” Sam nodded, as if that was the most interesting thing about what was happening there.
“Well, that’s…uh…good,” Hope said lamely, because what did one say to that?
They wrapped up the meal, promising to be in touch as they continued to work on ways to move forward both separately and together. It was a productive meeting that unfortunately had to end when a senator arrived and wanted Sam’s attention. Much to no one’s surprise, Bucky moved right along with him.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Hope elbowed Scott. “What the hell is going on there?”
“Ow,” he answered unhelpfully.
“You could have told me.”
“Told you what?”
“Why didn’t you tell me they were a thing??
Scott’s face showed his confusion. “Because they’re…not?” The answer definitely sounded more like a question than a statement though.
“Scott, whatever just happened over there…” She gave a careless wave to where Sam and Bucky had been seated. “That’s a whole level of married I’ll never reach.”
“Come to think of it, the way Bucky shared that dessert-”
“Don’t even think about it,” Hope returned when his gaze fell to the pie she hadn’t quite put away yet.
“But they’re not even together and they-”
“No.”
He gave her an adorable pout. “But just-”
“I don’t share my dessert.”
“Just a lil-”
“Hands off my pie, Scott!” She playfully slapped the hand creeping toward her plate.
He leaned close, a naughty gleam in his eye as his voice dropped to a husky whisper. “Now that’s something I’m never promising.”
Hope winced even as she cracked up, because that was so bad. “Why do I love you?”
“I have no idea. It’s pretty ridiculous of you.” He nuzzled her neck and she let him.
“Colossally. I’m a lost cause,” she acknowledged, feigning regret.
Across the room, Bucky happened to look over, nudging Sam who had just finished exchanging pleasantries with the senator. “That’s…annoyingly domestic,” he muttered, wrinkling his nose as Hope and Scott exchanged a quick but meaningful kiss. “We sure we want them on the team?”
“Yeah,” Sam said with a smile, not minding it all that much. Maybe he was a romantic at heart, but it was nice to see two people so connected. After their volatile first meeting, he never would have predicted Scott Lang of all people to become part of a superhero power couple, but good for him. “They need to get a room though. Amirite?”
“As Torres would say, married.” He put just the right amount of sarcastic inflection in his tone, like he’d heard Torres do.
Sam angled his head in bewilderment. “I haven’t actually heard him say that. Who does he say it about?”
Bucky shrugged. “I don’t know. But I heard him say it to Bishop about someone and she agreed.”
“Hmm,” Sam returned, mulling it over for a moment before giving a shrug of his own. “Ready to go? It’s Netflix night. We could get an early start. My calendar is clear after 5.”
“Can we get pizza?”
“Man, how you already thinking of food when you just inhaled my steak?”
“You gave me your steak-”
“Because you couldn’t handle that curry-”