Found ⭑ A Bucky Barnes Love Story

19 - An Unusual Analogy

"It's been two weeks Tony, can you give it a rest?" Natasha folded both hands around her mug and brought it to her lips.

"The man's getting on my nerves Romanoff," Tony massaged his head with his hand before bringing it out in front of him, "can't we just give Sam a call?"

"No," Natasha's eyes flicked up from the mug and then back down. "I think you're being a bit obsessive Tony. After he returned from Wakanda, Barnes had his brainwashing removed almost entirely, and the only fragments of Winter that remain inside him are the memories of the trauma that he's been through. The Winter Soldier can't be triggered again, but my anger can, so could you please just drop it before I throw this mug at you," she cocked an eyebrow and held her mug out.

Tony was running out of patience and he contemplated the different ways in which he could explain his reasoning to the ginger seated in front of him.

"Alright. Say we leave him be," Tony stood up and walked over to the fish tank, "you see this Natasha?" He picked up a container of fish food and unscrewed the cap smoothly, picking up a small flake and holding it between his fingers, observing it for a few second before sliding open the lid to the tank and sighing.

"Fish food, great analogy genius," Natasha droned, propping her elbow up on the table and letting her head flop lazily into her palm.

Tony's eyes widened and he smirked, "Oh my gosh! Was? Was that? Was that attitude I heard? Oh my," his hand flew to his chest momentarily and he gasped before returning his attention back to the task at hand placing the container down onto the cabinet.

"Yes, it is fish food, but in this case, we're going to pretend it is, you could say, leaked information about a certain somebody." He bent his fingers as he did air quotation marks.

"Just hurry up and get this over with Stark."

Tony rolled his eyes and then dropped the flake into the tank, watching attentively as a single fish swam to the top of the water, consuming the flake in one speedy bite before returning back to its rocky cave of solitude.

"You see, if just one piece of information gets out, people don't tend to catch on straight away. Say you or I are spotted out in public, we may get noticed by a few people, but it's nothing major," he turned back to Natasha.

"Where are you going with this?"

"Patience." Tony held out his hand and then picked up the container. This time, he scooped out about 8 pieces of fish food.

"I don't think that's very safe Tony.."

He pointed at Natasha, "shush. I talk. You listen."

She held her hands up in defence and continued to watch Tony with confusion, laced with inquisition.

He sprinkled the pieces into the water and observed the tank as this time, 5 fish darted to the surface. Natasha's eyes brightened as if something had just clicked together in her head. Tony turned to her, "If multiple pieces of information, or multiple sightings occur, the public catches on pretty quickly, and people will follow others right to the source because communism!" He held up jazz hands.

Natasha stared at him with impatience and took several laboured breaths.

"No?" Tony's smile quickly dropped into a frown after catching Natasha's unimpressed expression at his corny remark.

Natasha rolled her eyes and rubbed her forehead as she mouthed the word 'no', shaking her head painfully slowly, as if she was in a daze.

"Okay." Tony rubbed the back of his neck.