The Coffee Shop Girl ~ Bucky Barnes

Chapter 9

Bucky kept his expression flat as he and Natasha returned to the communal area of the Compound, the woman walking over to the counter and picking up a glass whilst he dropped his jacket over the back of a chair before sitting down. Most of the rest of the team sat in various spots around the room, engrossed in books or magazines, video games or their phones, or in the case of Stark, looking suspiciously between Bucky and Natasha.

"Where have you two been all morning?" He asked, not bothering to hide the curious note in his voice and not making any effort to soften his blunt enquiry.

"Where do you think?" Natasha's tone was flat and her expression dangerous as she challenged the man.

"I think you've been to the café without me and not brought any bread back for the rest of us." Tony frowned at the two of them, pointing his finger at Natasha in an accusatory manner. "And I can't believe that you would do that to me."

"We haven't actually." Natasha told him as she filled the glass with water before moving over to sit on the sofa across from Bucky. "Barnes needed new trainers so we headed into the city to find some."

Bucky couldn't help but appreciate just how effective Natasha's lie was - it wasn't difficult to believe that she could be a world famous assassin. He actually was in need of new shoes as he had been going out running so much that his current ones were wearing through remarkably quickly, and Natasha had actually suggested that they could go buy him a new pair that morning if he wanted. They hadn't gone to buy him any in the end as he didn't really feel up to that much human interaction, but they could easily tell Stark that they hadn't found anything suitable and fob him off by agreeing to use the internet next time.

Stark clearly wasn't entirely convinced by Natasha's lie though - probably because he knew how good she was at twisting the truth to fit her own ends - and picked up the tablet that had been sitting next to him on the counter, almost certainly checking the route of the tracker that was undoubtedly attached to the car. They had relied on him doing this and it was the first thing that Katia had specified as part of her plan when asking FRIDAY to help them. The AI had helpfully altered the displayed route of the tracker so that it would look as though they hadn't been anywhere near the café, instead claiming that they had visited multiple shops that would sell suitable shoes before turning around and heading back to the Compound, factoring in the actual traffic jam that would affect the timings for their journey.

Tony gave a slightly irritated huff as though he was still convinced that they must be lying but also didn't have any evidence to back up his claim. Returning to whatever he had been doing on his phone before their walked in, he allowed the room to return to a peaceful silence for a few moments.

This quiet was soon disturbed as multiple pings, beeps, and bloops rang through the room and everyone on the team picking up their respective devices, checking the notification that had appeared there. This was the second part of Katia's plan as everyone except Stark received two messages; the first was a text warning them about what was about to happen and telling them what they had to do for it to work. The second was also received by Stark and was an email informing everyone that Director Fury wanted to meet up with them the following week at a specific time and address.

The best thing about the second message was that Katia had actually had Natasha's help in hacking into SHIELD's system and changing the Director's diary, so it also looked to him as though Stark had something he wanted to talk about and so he should meet the team at the same time and address that was contained within their emails. Katia had claimed that this second message was just a decoy so Tony wouldn't think it strange that everyone except him was receiving a message and her plan would lose the element of surprise, but Bucky could tell from the look on her face that she didn't really mind the havoc that her actions would cause when everyone showed up and realised that none of them had anything to say to the others.