Positive Regard

Chapter Seventeen

There was a knock on the door the next day and Bucky walked in with T'challa and a girl who was maybe in high school.
"Get dressed, Rosie. We're getting married." Bucky said curtly.
"Are we?" I raised my eyebrows and didn't stand up from the couch.
"Yeah. Let's go."
"That was not a proper proposal."
"I have to... like... actually propose? It's been seventy years. I think we're past that."
"Oh, hell no." I said, before I could even think about not cussing in front of children—or, you know, kings. I wasn't sure the proper etiquette for talking to a king. He couldn't disappear without telling me and expect an easy return. "I thought you were leaving an arm there."
"I decided I can't put my hair in a bun with only—"
"Don't. Do not."
"I'm gonna do it."
"I'll chop it all of, Buchanan." I threatened.
"Do you have a hairbow?" He asked the girl. She held one out to him and he put his hair up in a bun.
"Bucky, your mother would whoop your ass."
"Mom's not here."
"Steven! Come look at your friend!"
"Your fiancée." Steve answered, coming out of his room.
"I said no." I gave him a dirty look and pointed at Bucky. "Tell him to take it down."
Steve shrugged. "I'm not his boss. He can still kick my ass. I'm not messing with it."
"It looks good down." I said, closing my book. "Like, sexy good."
He took his hair down. I win.
"All right." Bucky sighed. "I'm gonna go write a proposal."
"How's that for spontaneity." Steve grinned.
"I have to consult my notebooks." He slugged Steve as he walked down the hall.
Steve smiled and went to shake hands with T'challa. "Hey."
"Good morning." T'challa smiled. "This is my sister Shuri. Shuri, this is Steve Rogers and Rosemary Haywood."
I smiled and stood to shake her hand. "Hi, it's nice to meet you."
T'challa said he was taking us all out to dinner while he was here, so we met everybody else at 6:30.
"This is Peter Parker." Tony pointed to the boy at his side. "Peter, this is T'challa and his sister Shuri, and Bucky's fiancée Rose."
"I'm not his fiancée." I said as I smiled at Peter. "It's nice to meet you."
"You too, Mrs. Rose—I mean Mrs. Haywood—I mean Ms. Haywood." Peter shook my hand enthusiastically.
"Just Rose'll be fine." I smiled.
"Ms. Rose." He nodded.
"You don't have to call me Ms."
Peter bowed at T'challa. "Hi, Mr. King. Your Majesty, sir."
T'challa smiled, amused. "Any friend of Tony's is a friend of mine. Simply call me T'challa."
"We aren't really friends, Mr. T'challa. He's more like a father—"
"I'm not old." Tony told him. "Just call him T'challa kid."
"Okay, Mr. Stark."
T'challa put his hand on his sister's shoulder. "This is Shuri. I have a feeling the two of you will have a lot in common."
"Hi, Your Highness."
"Shuri." The girl said.
"I can't talk to girls. I'm sorry." He moved to stand on the other side of Tony, his eyes to his feet.
Bucky and I looked at Steve with a smirk.
"Shut up." Steve said. "I landed Peggy, didn't I?"
"And her niece." Bucky grinned.
"Her niece?" Tony asked.
"I know. He's a dog." Bucky nodded.
"Sharon?" Tony kept staring at Steve.
"I'm going to the other side of the table." Steve said, and walked away.
"Who knew it was that easy to get rid of him?" I laughed.
"Not me." Tony shrugged.
"Should've done that in '39." Bucky agreed. "Would've saved him a lot of trouble."
"Then he wouldn't've been able to save your ass all those times." I said.
"Then I'd have to save his ass a lot more, since he couldn't stay out of alleys." Bucky raised his voice enough for Steve to hear.
"That's true."
"I can hear you." Steve said.
"You were supposed to." Bucky smiled cheekily.
I turned to Tony with a smile. "So, where's Pepper?"
"She wasn't able to come, but I was supposed to tell you something. I can't remember what it was, though."
"Well, that's useful." I smiled.
"Yeah. I'll let you know."
"All right. How are the wedding plans coming?"
Tony shrugged. "I don't have the slightest clue. Pepper's doing it all."
"All of it?" I raised my eyebrows.
"Yeah. She asked my opinion on colors and I said red but apparently that doesn't match the season or something." He shrugged. "I also asked why we needed to have a church when we could just do it in Stark Tower. I really thought she was gonna start throwing stuff at me. Anyways. Long story short and a couple of bad decisions later and I'm not allowed to make any more decisions."
"That works?" Bucky asked suddenly. Usually he didn't talk around Tony.
"Oh, yeah. Like a charm."
"It's not gonna work." I patted his arm. It probably would work, really, but I didn't want him to try. Either way, though, now that circumstances are changed, did we really need a big enough wedding to require a lot of planning?
"It works." Tony nodded. "I highly recommend it."
Bucky shrugged and put his arm around the back of my chair. He didn't say anything else for the rest of dinner.
"What's on your mind, Barnes?" Sam asked him when we were leaving.
"Nothing to concern you, bird-man."
"Everything concerns me, old man."
"Well, keep telling yourself that, if you want."
"Oh, I will. Tell me, now, did you really get turned down on your proposal?" He grinned, amused.
"Apparently I have to actually propose." Bucky smiled. "She laughed when I asked her out, I guess I should've expected it."
"I've seen your love letters in the Smithsonian, I think you can figure something out."
Tony handed him a box. "Speaking of which, here's this. I figured that since you weren't, you know, dead, you probably didn't want everyone in the world reading them."
"You... got them?" Bucky asked, looking at the box but not touching it.
"Yeah." Tony said.
"They're... hers."
Tony handed them to me.
"Thanks." I tried not to smile too much.
"How'd you do that?" Steve raised his eyebrows.
"Called in some favors. No big deal."
Bucky looked at him weird. "Thanks."
Tony shrugged. "No problem. Can we get past all this? It's painfully awkward. I mean, I'm not your biggest fan but we can be friends and all. I've moved past it, you can too." Tony offered his hand.
"I killed your parents." Bucky said, looking at Tony's hand.
"Yeah, no. HYDRA killed them. If you don't make a move in a couple second, I'm gonna have to move my hand, and it's just gonna be really awkward, so just shake it."
Steve nudged Bucky, so he shook Tony's hand. "I'm sorry."
"Yeah, and don't say that every time you see me. Deal?"
"We'll see." Bucky said, but he smiled.
"Hey, I'll take it."