Archive of Our Own ^beta

After a struggle Tony manages to cinch the last tie that straps the giant inflatable swan to the roof of the car while Bucky keeps it from sliding off. Victorious, Tony lets himself catch his breath for just a few seconds before he tosses the foot powered inflator onto the back seat.

He checks the info sheet again. “OK, so we’ve just got to take down one inflatable and get to base 2 with the swan intact for the next leg. Got the gun?”

Bucky grunts as he finishes shaking his damp hair loose from the elastic that had held it out of his face. He slips it onto his wrist and then opens the trunk and locates the semi automatic BB rifle and pellets in the event bag they’d been given. Tony watches him load the magazine and put everything together in just a few seconds, like he’d been born doing that, and finds it extremely attractive. Pretty much like he finds everything about Bucky extremely attractive. Even his grumpiness.

“This is stupid,” Bucky says as he gets into the passenger seat and rolls the manual window down.

“Sure it is but it’s also fun. Even gun puppets need to have fun once in a while to remind them they’re human,” Tony says, getting behind the wheel and buckling up.

Bucky glares at him and without breaking his gaze, pulls out a pen knife from somewhere, like he keeps a knife holster in his swim trunks, and viciously stabs at the colourful water wings on his left arm.

They deflate, just like Tony’s conscience. Needling people is his thing but Bucky didn’t deserve that. “Sorry. That was shitty.”

Bucky dematerializes the knife and turns to stare at the road in front of them from behind his curtain of hair. He says, “it’s ok.” Then he says, “not like it isn’t true.”

Tony drums his fingers on the steering wheel in the ensuing silence for a while before starting the car and pulling out, keeping the lights off. “You know I love you just the way you are Buckaroo. But I’ve seen you crack a smile once or twice and while it was kind of terrifying, it did things to me. Soft and squishy things happened,” Tony paused to loosely gesture at his heart area, “inside me but that could have been indigestion. It was terrible but I kind of want it to happen again.”

Bucky snorts and Tony sees the corner of his mouth curl up as he lifts the gun onto the door and gets comfortable, finger on the trigger.

He rolls the car forward slowly as they pass empty and dimly lit streets and alleys in silence except for the occasional patch of gravel or debris crunching under the wheels. Tony looks down briefly to check the map he’d put on his lap when it all goes to shit.

“11:00 o’clock!” Bucky barks just before the sound of pellets hitting the car shocks Tony into action.

Up ahead, he sees the silhouette of a car with a giant inflatable flamingo on top pull onto the street from an alley and accelerate towards them. “They’re out of range – no way they should’ve been able to hit us!” Tony yells before turning sharply to the right and gunning it down a dark street as Bucky leans out the window to get off a few shots as the flamingo car pursues them.

Pellets hit the back of the car before Bucky ducks in. “Gotta get behind ‘em – our gun doesn’t have the same range. ‘Least their aim seems to be shit.”

Tony agrees to the plan with a sharp nod. “Swan still good?”

Bucky lifts himself back out for a peek at the roof and confirms.

From studying the map earlier, Tony aims for the tight grid of alleys he’d seen in the warehouse district. They can’t hide with a giant swan on their roof so the best bet would be to lose their tail in the alleys and then double back with the aim to come up on them by surprise.

“Ok, hold on Buckster. Let’s see what this baby’s got!”

Tony brakes and pulls hard on the wheel, turning left and accelerating through the skid before gunning it down a tight and dark side street. They’re up to 60 mph when they burst out into a well-lit plaza, Flamingo still behind them but dropping back now. In front of them in the center of the plaza are two cars, one with a giant inflatable unicorn on top and one with a pineapple, engaged in a shoot out as they perform some kind of intricate donut dance around each other to the sound of squealing tires and pellet gun fire. As they rev past, Tony sees Natasha at the wheel of the unicorn car which means Clint is the shooter. With their skills, they should be ok and he gives them a series of encouraging honks and whoops.

Bucky leans out of the window and takes a shot at the pineapple to help them out but he’s shaking his head as he drops back in. “Fuckin’ range.”

On the other side of the plaza is the network of alleys and Tony has to turn the lights on and hope they don’t meet anyone else as they speed in and start making turns. Hard left, hard right, left, left, straight, and left again as stacks of construction debris and pallets streak past before he turns the lights off and slows down to a crawl. He’s thankful these old cars don’t have running lights so they have a chance at the element of surprise without having to turn off the engine.

Only a few seconds go by before Tony hears a car he hopes is Flamingo, and it doesn’t sound like it’s behind them anymore.

“There,” Bucky says quietly, pointing through a wall to 2 o’clock. “Coming this way, s’perfect. Get in range, c’mon c’mon.”

Tony grins at Bucky’s impatience as he rolls closer to the mouth of the alley. Not too close. A few seconds later a long hood comes into view before Bucky gets a perfect shot at the inflatable flamingo and they both get a good look at the driver.

“Rumlow! And Rollins! I fuckin’ hate those guys,” Bucky swears.

Flamingo takes off and Tony hits the gas, fishtailing wildly as they make the tight turn in pursuit.

Tony frowns; he doesn’t like them either but it’s always been more a gut feeling than for a specific reason. Until now. “Suddenly makes sense about the modified gun. Cheaters.”

“I hit that flamingo dead on!” Bucky yells, frustrated. “It shoulda gone down.”

Up ahead, the flamingo bobs along wildly as the body lists to one side – it’s definitely sagging. “Multiple chambers,” Tony says. “Ours has three. Drags it out a bit?” he guesses. “You definitely crippled it though.”

Bucky practically growls. “Get closer!”

Up ahead, Rollins leans out the passenger side window and they’re hit by a new volley of pellets moments later. Tony watches as Bucky pulls himself up to sit on the door, all sleek metal arm, straining muscles and flowing hair, bare legs and competence and Tony thinks he might crash the car if he can’t get himself together. Bucky returns fire before he drops the gun into the passenger foot well when it runs out of ammo. He then reaches into his swim shorts and pulls out his pen knife and flicking the blade open he lobs it with aim that is straight and true. It must burst the last air chamber because the flamingo deflates quickly after that. Tony takes in the pink vinyl, flapping in the wind and thinks he must be in love. He brakes quickly and adjusts their course towards base, leaving Rumlow and Rollins behind and out of the game.

They make it to base with their swan still standing.

“Yeah! Tony shouts, slapping his palms on the steering wheel for emphasis after he puts the car in park. “That’s some good shooting partner,” he says with a grin, looking to Bucky expectantly. He’s hoping Bucky isn’t still hating this but he’s ready to call it if he is. That’d been the most fun he’d had in a while.

Bucky gives him a nod and briefly looks at Tony through the hair that’s fallen in his face. He graces him with a small smile before he runs his hand through it to pull it back and tie a pony tail with the elastic on his wrist. “Pretty good driving yourself,” he says.

Tony savours the compliment for a little bit, enjoying it even though he feels that it’s an understatement, but whatever. “So, you in for the next leg? Even if it’s just as stupid?”

Bucky huffs and turns to Tony again but this time he grins, wide and bright and heart stoppingly beautiful before leaning over to nudge Tony’s shoulder with his own. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s do this. You and me, let’s go win this.”

And they do.