What indeed. I'll see you shortly. That 'shortly' proves to be under an hour and Bucky's honestly not questioning how or why or anything he probably should be considering — just as he hadn't questioned it in the bar when Loki had slid into the space next to him, all audacity and attitude and honestly? Bucky kind of needs this, needs a night to get out of his own head. And yes, it's a bad idea for entirely too many reasons but right now? Right now Bucky just doesn't care.
And the door is unlocked as promised which means Bucky's strolling through it with the swagger that's half compensation for the weight of his arm and half memory of the old Bucky Barnes still lingering in his bones. Last night had been about blending in, about layers to hide his shape, about having a few rounds and knowing it'd do nothing for him, about the anonymity of being just another drifter in just another bar. Loki doesn't need that charade, would likely see through it anyway. So the layers are abandoned, the scruff is abandoned for the cool efficiency that's ready for a fight as much as anything else, the attitude that says for as much of Bucky Barnes as he's recovered, a part of him will always still be the Winter Soldier.
"Loki." His expression is half a smile, half a smirk and full of everything he wasn't going to give up in the bar last night.
It's funny the things you pick up when you've spent centuries looking for the threads other people don't know how to see. Bucky Barnes hadn't been any sort of target for him, hadn't been any kind of goal, but Loki knows of him. About him. Knows he's build of more questions than he has answers for, that he's clever and dangerous and resourcefully lethal, that he's feral and vicious when cornered in ways Loki is intimately acquainted with. There's a hunger in him, this soldier, this weapon. There's a wildness in him that has been branded bone deep and, Loki thinks, he must loathe it for the way he does his level best to appear as anything but the fine edge of a well sharpened knife when he attempts to blend into unsuspecting crowds.
Loki knows, too, where Steve Rogers had once fit into the question of Bucky's past. It's leverage if he wants it to be, if pulls that string just right, but--
It's nothing more than an afterthought for the moment. One can never know when something may become useful in the future.
And certainly if his intention had been to cause nothing but unkind, unruly waves it wouldn't appear like this-- Loki coaxing danger to his den to share a drink, his invitation underpinned by brazen flirtations that been half to see how Bucky would react and half genuine offer. He isn't under any illusions that Bucky isn't well aware of who he is and at least something of what he's capable of; New York, after all, isn't likely to be forgotten any time regardless of how small a ripple in time it occurred. Humans, he's been reminded, are remarkably good at clinging to their own disasters as if they don't damage each other far worse than outside forces damage them.
But it puts them on something of an even footing, if one could ever exist--two dangerous creatures who don't belong here, in this time, in this realm, coming together in the most inexplicable way. "Barnes."
He looks good like this, better than he had at the bar last night when Loki decided to test those waters in sliding up next to him as if he owned the space at Bucky's side. More settled, more confident, and Loki answering smirk is a slow thing as he takes the other man in before he resumes pouring them each a measure of mead. "And here I thought you'd keep me waiting simply because you thought you could."
This probably should feel a little more akin to walking into the lion's den than it actually is. Bucky doesn't truly know Loki personally, not as much as Steve does — if Steve can even be said to know him. Steve's had more contact with him of course, and that does lend a validity to his words about the man. But even so there's a risk in coming here, a risk in walking into Loki's space at Loki's invitation.
Then again, Bucky is more of a predator than anything else anymore; his mind might be his own but the Soldier is still there, infused so completely in his skin and bones. And maybe with Loki, he doesn't have to hide that fact. It's an interesting enough possibility to entertain.
"It's Bucky."
Not that the use of his surname bothers Bucky in the slightest; he prefers it to his given name. But it's also testing the limits of Loki's indulgence, trying out the shape of whatever this encounter might prove to be. There's no doubt to at least a little bit of what Loki wants, at least judging by the flirting he'd done the night before and earlier over text, but Bucky doesn't know that it's the entirety of Loki's interest. It seems too simple from a man labeled as the Trickster.
Still, he's not opposed to it; not here, where they have some privacy.
"There's no challenge in doing something I know I could do." It's a bold statement of course, as bold as the way Bucky slides right into Loki's space in a mirror of what Loki had done to him the night before. "And if there's no challenge, where's the fun?"
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rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-17 06:19 pm (UTC)That 'shortly' proves to be under an hour and Bucky's honestly not questioning how or why or anything he probably should be considering — just as he hadn't questioned it in the bar when Loki had slid into the space next to him, all audacity and attitude and honestly? Bucky kind of needs this, needs a night to get out of his own head. And yes, it's a bad idea for entirely too many reasons but right now? Right now Bucky just doesn't care.
And the door is unlocked as promised which means Bucky's strolling through it with the swagger that's half compensation for the weight of his arm and half memory of the old Bucky Barnes still lingering in his bones. Last night had been about blending in, about layers to hide his shape, about having a few rounds and knowing it'd do nothing for him, about the anonymity of being just another drifter in just another bar. Loki doesn't need that charade, would likely see through it anyway. So the layers are abandoned, the scruff is abandoned for the cool efficiency that's ready for a fight as much as anything else, the attitude that says for as much of Bucky Barnes as he's recovered, a part of him will always still be the Winter Soldier.
"Loki." His expression is half a smile, half a smirk and full of everything he wasn't going to give up in the bar last night.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-20 05:08 pm (UTC)Loki knows, too, where Steve Rogers had once fit into the question of Bucky's past. It's leverage if he wants it to be, if pulls that string just right, but--
It's nothing more than an afterthought for the moment. One can never know when something may become useful in the future.
And certainly if his intention had been to cause nothing but unkind, unruly waves it wouldn't appear like this-- Loki coaxing danger to his den to share a drink, his invitation underpinned by brazen flirtations that been half to see how Bucky would react and half genuine offer. He isn't under any illusions that Bucky isn't well aware of who he is and at least something of what he's capable of; New York, after all, isn't likely to be forgotten any time regardless of how small a ripple in time it occurred. Humans, he's been reminded, are remarkably good at clinging to their own disasters as if they don't damage each other far worse than outside forces damage them.
But it puts them on something of an even footing, if one could ever exist--two dangerous creatures who don't belong here, in this time, in this realm, coming together in the most inexplicable way. "Barnes."
He looks good like this, better than he had at the bar last night when Loki decided to test those waters in sliding up next to him as if he owned the space at Bucky's side. More settled, more confident, and Loki answering smirk is a slow thing as he takes the other man in before he resumes pouring them each a measure of mead. "And here I thought you'd keep me waiting simply because you thought you could."
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-20 10:06 pm (UTC)Then again, Bucky is more of a predator than anything else anymore; his mind might be his own but the Soldier is still there, infused so completely in his skin and bones. And maybe with Loki, he doesn't have to hide that fact. It's an interesting enough possibility to entertain.
"It's Bucky."
Not that the use of his surname bothers Bucky in the slightest; he prefers it to his given name. But it's also testing the limits of Loki's indulgence, trying out the shape of whatever this encounter might prove to be. There's no doubt to at least a little bit of what Loki wants, at least judging by the flirting he'd done the night before and earlier over text, but Bucky doesn't know that it's the entirety of Loki's interest. It seems too simple from a man labeled as the Trickster.
Still, he's not opposed to it; not here, where they have some privacy.
"There's no challenge in doing something I know I could do." It's a bold statement of course, as bold as the way Bucky slides right into Loki's space in a mirror of what Loki had done to him the night before. "And if there's no challenge, where's the fun?"