Stranger Who Knows All My Secrets [A Marvel FanFic]

Chapter 5: The Devil, the Soldier & the Man

Stupid ideas were not something that Steve Rogers was known for but occasionally they happened. In the two weeks following the assignment in Suriname, Bucky had begun feeling as if everyone was conspiring against him and it ultimately proved to be true because his best friend in the whole wide world came up with the dumbest idea to ever grace mankind. Sure, it was originally Rhodey's suggestion with Natasha backing him up enthusiastically, but it never occurred to Bucky that Steve would actually think it was a solid plan. 

What exactly was the terrible proposition? Oh, you know, nothing major, they only wanted to bring Elena fucking Constantin onto The Avengers officially and not just onto the team but specifically as his partner. HIS PARTNER, as in she wouldn't be requisitioned by someone else at the last minute or traded for someone with a better skill set. Bucky nearly blew a gasket over it. He protested immediately, throwing out a list of people he'd rather have had as his partner.

"Thor, give me Thor. Or what about the spider kid!?" Bucky fired off.

"Peter is seventeen Buck." Steve reminded him.

"Seventeen and at the advice of Pepper's attorney told not to join the team until after he turns eighteen because if he did, he'd need to sign the Sokovia Accords and expose himself." Rhodey pointed out.

"What about Banner?!" Bucky asked.

"Retired and currently facing an ethics committee for accidentally giving his cousin superpowers," Rhodey said.

"I didn't even think a blood infusion would have made that possible." Steve sighed.

"Neither did I, but Dr Cho is barring you and Buck from giving blood now which is a shame since Bucky is a universal donor." Rhodey mentioned.

"Okay, but Thor!?" Bucky asked again.

"What does he need a partner for?" Rhodey laughed.

"What about Wanda?! Is she back yet!?" Bucky tried.

"Wanda is still in Nepal with Wong learning to control her powers." Steve said.

"Hasn't she been doing that for ages already? She's fine, she can be my new partner!" Bucky insisted.

"She created an alternate reality out of grief Bucky, she's far from fine." Steve scolded him.

"The raccoon...?" Bucky tried but both Rhodey and Steve just stared at him because he knew damn well that Rocket was off-planet with the rest of the Guardians looking for their friend Gamora.

He refused to drop it though, why did Elena need to be an Avenger? The world didn't need any more heroes! Bucky even went behind Steve's back and reached out to Scott Lang who pointed out that he already had a partner, his girlfriend Hope Van Dyne. T'Challa also told him no when he called and Bucky hadn't even started to form the words to the question as if the king knew beforehand what he was going to ask. 

T'Challa simply reminded him that his priority was always going to be the safety and security of Wakanda which meant he had no time to run around with Bucky on assignments that didn't have anything to do with his tiny nation. Bucky didn't even try talking to Carol Danvers or Stephen Strange because just like Thor, they didn't really need a partner. Bucky tried one last tactic, he went to Rhodey, begging him to be his mission partner, but Rhodey just sighed and said no. He didn't understand why Bucky was so against having Elena as a partner, but at least he had a real excuse for turning Bucky down.

With Tony still on the mend and likely to give up hero work, someone needed to run the team, and that someone was Rhodey, he was good at it too. Rhodey knew how to handle the politics, understand the intelligence data, do the public relations thing, and deal with the legality of everything they did, he had help from Tony and Pepper of course but they tried to be more hands-off these days.