Outside MCA #4, Tuesday Evening

[shapethecentury]

Bucky was getting pretty okay about maneuvering his daily life with just the one arm, and yet situations could still very much catch him off-guard with how much easier they would've been to get through with two.

Like, say, right now: he had a six pack of generic beer in a bag that was hanging off the crook of his elbow, and he was balancing a family size pizza box with his hand. So far so good, he'd made it from town all the way to Jesse's door without dropping anything, or sending the pizza careening all around in its box.

Just, now that he was at Jesse's door, what was he supposed to knock or ring the door bell with? Without setting any of this crap down, that was.

"Jesse?"

He didn't have faith that calling for her through the door would work, but he was still gonna see if he got lucky. Less of a hassle if he did.

[ooc: For the lady with the two hands, natch.]

Comments

[shapethecentury]

"Before or during?" Bucky asked in return, setting his beer aside to reach for a slice of his own. "War, I mean. Because those were two very different beasts."

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse chewed on that question.

"Before," she said finally. "I don't think you've told me much about that."

[shapethecentury]

No, he had not.

Bucky's expression immediately went a little wry. He was quiet for a moment, mulling it over. Like he was taking the question seriously.

"Back then... I have to say dates." Yeah. Yeah, he found that hard to reconcile with his present self, too. "And dancing, 'cause that was big back then. Dancing on dates, too. Didn't really get sauced at all for those, either."

[weirderthanthou]

"Is it bad if I say I have a hard time picturing you dancing on dates?" Jesse wondered. She took a sip of her beer. "I mean. Of course you probably got plenty of dates. But you know what I mean."

[shapethecentury]

Bucky gestured vaguely in the general area of his face and the tired unkemptness of it, with his pizza slice.

"Probably picturing the wrong one."

[weirderthanthou]

"Wrong one?"

[shapethecentury]

"I wasn't... this, then."

Rude of you to put so much on a simple 'this', Buck.

[weirderthanthou]

"Well, you were definitely younger," Jesse said, her mouth shifting briefly into a wry, lopsided smile.

[shapethecentury]

Bucky nodded. "By a lot." In more ways than one, too. He gave a little sigh, shook his head, then asked, "Did you happen to see any of the pictures from the Smithsonian exhibit, when you were... looking for me?"

Absurd thing, seeing yourself in a museum.

"I know they float around online."

(Absurd thing, seeing yourself on the internet.)

[weirderthanthou]

"I did," Jesse said. She lifted her pizza slice again. "But I didn't dig too far into them. They didn't seem like they'd help my case, and it felt--"

Well.

"Private. Even if they were in the Smithsonian."

[shapethecentury]

Bucky still felt so removed from that time that the best he could do was a little shrug, a little tilt of his head like there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Still, he managed to drag out something of a joke: "Well, means you still know I was a looker."

[weirderthanthou]

Rude, James, making Jesse snort like that when she was trying to chew on some pizza.

[shapethecentury]

Bucky raised his eyebrows a little.

"Rude, but fair."

He sounded amused, if still with that wry tone to it.

[weirderthanthou]

"Oh, no," Jesse said, letting out a little laugh now that she'd swallowed. "I bet all the girls thought you were very pretty."

[shapethecentury]

"My dance card was pretty full, I'll have you know," Bucky replied, in mostly deadpan, and finally bit properly into his slice.

[weirderthanthou]

"Mhm," Jesse said. "Am I arguing?"

No, but she was poking fun.

[shapethecentury]

"You think you're being funny."

She was being funny.

[weirderthanthou]

"No, I am very funny," Jesse said primly.

[shapethecentury]

"Cocky," Bucky noted.

It was a good look on her.

He wasn't going to tell her that.

[weirderthanthou]

A rare one, too. Jesse didn't often feel this confident when she wasn't flinging her powers around.

It felt nice.

"Realistic," she said, bringing her beer up for another sip. "So how bad were you at dancing?"

[shapethecentury]

"Why's it supposed to be bad?" Bucky asked, mustering up a very faint bit of feigned offense. "I was good."

He'd been good at most things he'd decided to pursue, once upon a time.

[weirderthanthou]

"Uh huh," Jesse said, taking another sip. "Sure."

[shapethecentury]

"What, you don't believe me, you can ask Steve." Surely either of them would just love questions on this topic. "Either about my dancing, or what it could to your social standing if that wasn't your bag."

[weirderthanthou]

"Oh, so you were suffering for the sake of your social standing," Jesse said, nodding. "I get it."

She took a merry bite of her pizza.

[shapethecentury]

"No one said anything about suffering," Bucky said, but with the kind of resigned tone that suggested he knew she was just going to find a way to continue being a brat about it.