[ Plausible deniability is easy when everyone's on board the same train of thought. Dance around the truth, tap, and pirouette around what you're actually saying but never lay it outright, move on to the next stop.
Of course, Bucky decides in the middle of a relatively public hallway to pull the break and send the whole damn thing off the rails.
He doesn't stop, he can't stop moving forward (it's metaphorical, it's literal, the future is right there as long as he keeps walking toward it) but there's a stutter in the stride, a moment's blatant hesitance as he swings his gaze around to meet Bucky's eyes, lips pressed thin because-
Honesty is rare and precious and dangerous.
Trust Buck to be too tired and too worn down to give a single solitary fuck about it.
It's a click and a grimace, nails drumming against his own chest as he gestures Bucky into his office- clean, spartan now that most of the notes are piled up in relatively orderly files, the high pitched burr of noise to deter audio surveillance only as good as long as Steven Strange doesn't start poking around minds. Still.
Honesty for honesty. ]
It's inefficient. Ineffective. Insufficient. I'd do more but- [ Rules, regulations, a delicate balancing act that has never been on his neck alone- everyone that worked for him, everyone he's slowly pulling in through tech and promises to lift up when he makes that final step-
And now Natasha who needs him to not fuck up so badly he really can't risk...anything. ] My hands are tied. And not even in the fun sexy way. If you weren't someone else's- [ Pet? Chew toy? Employee? ] Favorite, it'd be less complicated.
no subject
Of course, Bucky decides in the middle of a relatively public hallway to pull the break and send the whole damn thing off the rails.
He doesn't stop, he can't stop moving forward (it's metaphorical, it's literal, the future is right there as long as he keeps walking toward it) but there's a stutter in the stride, a moment's blatant hesitance as he swings his gaze around to meet Bucky's eyes, lips pressed thin because-
Honesty is rare and precious and dangerous.
Trust Buck to be too tired and too worn down to give a single solitary fuck about it.
It's a click and a grimace, nails drumming against his own chest as he gestures Bucky into his office- clean, spartan now that most of the notes are piled up in relatively orderly files, the high pitched burr of noise to deter audio surveillance only as good as long as Steven Strange doesn't start poking around minds. Still.
Honesty for honesty. ]
It's inefficient. Ineffective. Insufficient. I'd do more but- [ Rules, regulations, a delicate balancing act that has never been on his neck alone- everyone that worked for him, everyone he's slowly pulling in through tech and promises to lift up when he makes that final step-
And now Natasha who needs him to not fuck up so badly he really can't risk...anything. ] My hands are tied. And not even in the fun sexy way. If you weren't someone else's- [ Pet? Chew toy? Employee? ] Favorite, it'd be less complicated.