Amelie | bucky barnes

Three: organising plans

Amelie

Later that day, I hesitantly got ready to go to one of the smaller meeting rooms to go over mission details with Bucky. I was still pissed at Steve for pairing me with him, but I certainly didn't feel the same amount of anger towards him that I did for frozone. It's like being at school again - being paired with a classmate you aren't compatible with AT ALL. Maybe I was just being bitchy, but at the same time, what effort had he ever made to even be civil with me? This was the same question I asked myself every time I saw the jackass.

As I made my way through the tower, I finally made it into the room we had organised to meet in at 6pm. We had contacted through email, as bluntly and as straightforward as possible. I was not going to message him more than I needed to. When I entered, he was sitting back in his chair. His arms were folded and his face was glued to a notebook sitting in front of him. As soon as he saw me, he sat up right, giving me the Kubrick stare. He'd fit right into a horror move alright.

"You're late," he said sternly.

I checked my watch. It was one minute past six. "By one minute. It doesn't matter."

"It does matter. You have a watch, or do you struggle with time keeping?" He asked, flicking his pen in his hand.

"Like you haven't been late to anything in your entire life?" I question, walking closer. I'm hit with a strong waff of aftershave. "You smell like an airport duty free."

"At least I'm on time," he snapped. I sat down beside him. Not by choice. He also had to see my iPad because all of the data was on it.

"Get over yourself," I say, my knee accidentally bumping his under the table. He moved it away, glaring at me.

"You don't have to sit so close," he grumbles. "If you were any closer, you'd be practically sitting on me."

Did he seriously just say that.

"Oh my god. Can we please just get on with this without you complaining about something for five minutes?" I sigh. He huffed, but fell silent once more. This was the happiest I'd been since I entered the goddamn room.

"We'll be taking a car to the location. The base is apparently in New Jersey, which is luckily not too long of a drive," I said, showing him a map.

"I know how far New Jersey is from New York," he said bluntly. "Why do you even have a map?"

"So that I know how to get there, obviously?" I respond.

"How do you not know the route already?" He questioned, looking at me as if I was the most clueless person in the world.

"Sorry, Einstein. Not all of us have been around for a century."

"It's got nothing to do with that. It's a question of common sense."

"Sure just add it onto the long list of things I do wrong," I said, rolling my eyes. "I'm sure that's your favourite hobby."

He rolled his eyes. Maybe karma would make them roll back into his head if he did it again. "I'm driving. End of discussion."

I didn't even put up a fight. At least I could blame him if we did end up somewhere wrong. "We'll get to the lodge in the evening so we can set everything up. The hydra base is on the outskirts, but there's multiple buildings in the area. We'll track it down then get as much data as we can about it. The second week will be used to plan how we bug it and shut it down."

He read the bullet points on my iPad again. "Whatever. Sounds fine. Guess we'll just have to see if the plan runs smoothly or not."

"And there he is. Mr Sunshine," I reply, sarcastically, closing my iPad.

"As opposed to little miss I believe in everything," Bucky said to me, looking at me straight in the eyes.

"Only room for one pessimist in this room and you're taking up all of the space," I replied, standing up. He stood up at the same time, looking down at my Stanley cup.

"What the hell is that supposed to carry? A week's worth of water?" He questioned, lifting it up. "Why is it so big?"

"It's just a Stanley cup," I said, talking it back.

"You named it Stanley?"

"No, you mug. That's the brand name," I sigh. Did this grumbly old man understand anything?

"Absolutely nobody needs a cup that big. It's not productive. What happened to regular bottles?" He said, still glaring at it.

"They're cute. They come in different colours and it's actually nice not having to fill something up so regularly. It's just something that makes me happy," I tell him. "Just leave it alone."

"A cup makes you happy?" He asked. Now he really was looking at me like I came from planet Zanzibar.

"I know the emotion is alien to you, Barnes," I told him. He scoffed.

"You aren't bringing that thing on the mission. It's stupid looking," he said.

"I don't give a rats ass what you think," I told him, grabbing my stuff. "It's coming with me. Good night."

I headed off to my room to pack my bag. I thought about the next two weeks away from the compound. What a shit show this was going to be pretending to be his wife for two weeks...