I Don't Need New Friends

30. Pre-Mission Rituals

"Hey, pass me that small black bag over there?" Zoe called out from her nightstand, while Bucky stood by the closet, watching her frantically packing. "I need it for all these fucking pill bottles"

"Um, which black bag? They're all black..." Bucky smirked. "Your closet looks just like mine."

"What can I say? I'm practical and a wannabe bad ass..." she laughed. "What about you? Avengers stretchy boy's tee shirts only come in black, gray, and navy, right?"

"I have a few red ones, too." He chuckled. "Sam says that one day he's gonna hide all my black t-shirts and make me wear Thor's old Hawaiian shirts..."

"I bet you'd look great in them, but not gonna lie, the all black wardrobe is definitely hotter." She giggled. "Gives that air of mystery. Like, is he an international assassin or is he about to start his bartending shift at the Cheesecake Factory?"

"Whatever you say, wicked witch of the west..." he laughed. "Seriously, the hair, the tattoos, the mostly black clothes? Are you a respected medical professional or in a biker gang?"

"Can't it be both?" She smirked. "Also, nice try at the modern humor, you adorable troglodyte. Quick question, just out of curiosity, how much older am I than any other woman you've ever been into?"

"You know how old I am, do the math. Most of the women I've ever been interested in are worm food." He deadpanned. "Are you trying to ask me if I've ever been with an older woman before? I'll have you know that the last time I was in love, she was an entire year older than me, fucking scandalous in my day."

"So, since Sam claims to only be 39, because the blip years allegedly don't count, how old does that make you?" She was trying not to overthink what he just said about 'the last time he was in love' and freak out. "I'm interested to see what you come up with, since you actually accrued some years there in and out of cryo."

"Let's see...I was just shy of 28 when I 'died', then spent another few years out of cryo, making me about 31 the first time I went on ice. Totaling up all the times I was out, maybe another 10 years compiled, and I've been solid since 2014, then dusted in 2018, so..." he smirked. "I'm still 107, Sam is delusional, case closed." He laughed. "No, Steve and I did this once, supposedly, I'm biologically late 30s, give or take."

"So still a youngster. Interesting..." she smiled. "Changing the subject, what are your pre-mission rituals? Do you need your lucky socks or a weird meal?"

"Ha, no. My old pre-mission ritual was to get sloppy drunk with the boys. Then I didn't really get much say in what I did before a mission..." He sighed trying not to think about the bad old days. "Lately, it's been trying to stock up on reading material and savor some quiet time, because Sam never shuts up. What did you have in mind?"

"Whatever you need. I can leave you to your quiet." She zipped a bag. "Definitely different than the pre-mission ritual I'm used to though..."

"Oh really?" He smirked. "Might have to try yours out..."

"Well, I'm certainly game for that, but that's still not what I was getting at, Sergeant Barnes." She winked. "Nat and Steve and I would actually have a sleepover like little kids. We'd watch Nat's gross rom-coms, eat our body weight in popcorn, and fall asleep cuddled up together. At some point, I'd slip notes in their go bags, stick some snarky post-it's in the jet, and pack them a meal to take with them. It helped lessen everyone's anxiety. It was actually really fun."

"That sounds nice." He smiled. "I'm really glad they had you...I know it wasn't easy for you to do all that, but it sounds like you made a huge difference for both of them. If they didn't have you helping them out and supporting them through their grief, they might not have been able to do what they did and bring everyone back. On a purely selfish note, thank you for that."

"Well, if I knew you were going to be on the other side..." she kissed him deeply. "...thank you for not wanting to watch lame rom-coms."

"How do you know I don't?" He chuckled and kissed her. "Maybe we should start our own pre-mission ritual."

"You planning on coming back?" She teased. "I'm not sure you know what you're getting yourself into..."

"So far, I'm loving every minute of this, whatever it is." He grinned. "I like the note idea. Did they write them for you, too?"

"No, just me writing to them. Though once Nat did leave a note on my car in a snowstorm telling me she would find a way to haunt me if anything happened." Zoe smiled, thinking of her friend. "Thankfully, no haunting that I'm aware of."

"Well, that's the first part of our ritual then." He smiled. "We write to each other. That only seems fair."

"Okay, but, like, are you expecting a long poetic declaration? Or is something short and mildly coherent acceptable?" She asked. "I'm kind of too antsy to pen you a sonnet right now."

"Write whatever you want. I'll just be happy to read it." He kissed her hand. "For the record, I'm not exactly Shakespeare myself..."

"Oh! I've got one! Do you listen to music on your phone? We can make each other a playlist." She immediately reached for his phone. "Do you do any listening apps or do I have to actually buy all the songs for you?"

"Sam set me up with that Spotify thing. Does that work?" He asked, more than a little clueless about this. "How do we send each other music?"

"We don't. We grant each other access and send playlists." She found his account and set it for him. "Should we have a theme?"

"How about your 10 favorite songs?" He suggested. "I still have a lot to catch up on, and this will be a good way to hear new things."

"Perfect, but be warned, you're probably going to hate most of them at first." She smirked. "Bing Crosby isn't exactly my jam."

"No, this is good! This gives me things to look up and learn about." He was starting to geek out. "One of the ways I've educated myself on pop culture is whenever someone mentions something I don't know, I make a mental note to look it up later. What did anyone do before the internet?"

"It's called a library, genius!" She laughed. "I do believe they had those back in your day, no?"

"Sure, but to have literally anything you can think of in your pocket?" He grinned. "This is what technology is supposed to do. It's amazing and completely changed my life."

"God, you really are a secret nerd!" She elbowed him. "That's so unbelievably attractive..."

"Yeah?" He smirked, pulling her to him. "Wanna get to the best part of our new pre-mission ritual?"

"Fuck yes." She giggled and kissed him. "This is definitely going to be my favorite pre-mission ritual for sure."