James Bucky Barnes, the former soldier, doesn't think he's got any gentleness left in him. But Grace Juniper Cunningham, the former child prodigy, strongly disagrees.
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"𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯."
"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴�...
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"I wasn't going to avoid you forever," Tony said as we sat down, coffee in front of us. Neither of us actually felt much like eating. "That's the thing. I was only going to avoid you until you remembered whether you wanted to see me or not. I was trying to respect your feelings, or whatever. Nobody but me thought that was a good move."
"Why would I not want to see you?"
"Because I'm the reason this happened to you?" he suggested.
"I'm sure that's not true."
He thought for a second and added, "I also did a very tasteless job of your eulogy. I thought word of that might get back to you. You'd definitely be justified if you were mad at me for that."
"My eulogy? What?"
"You're still not concerned about the...whole getting you kidnapped thing? Okay, sure," he said. "I went pretty off script for your eulogy. I actually crumpled up the script and threw it at Cap while he was speaking at the beginning of the service."
"Why?"
"He was a very boring officiant."
"What did you actually say that was so bad?" I asked.
"I kept apologizing for being the reason you were dead. I think I said 'my bad' and 'oops' a lot. Maybe a 'whoopsie.' I don't really remember."
"You don't remember?"
"I was drunk."
"Tony!" I surprised myself when I said his name like that, half disappointed, half shocked. There was a familiarity to it. I thought I probably did it a lot.
"In my defense, I thought being drunk would get me out of doing it," he said.
"That's a terrible defense."
"You'll get another eulogy."
"You better not mess up the next one!"
"No. You're outliving me this time. I'm not doing that again."
"Was my whole funeral a mess like that?" I asked, a little hurt.
"Steve and Pepper put together a lovely ceremony."
"Oh, that's nice of them."
"The god of dramatic entrances knocked over about half the flower arrangements when he blasted in late, but still."
"Who?"
"Thor. He—never mind. If I described him to you, you'd think I was making shit up."
"Wanda said Bucky didn't go," I said hesitantly, wanting more information, but unsure whether Tony was the best person to provide it.
"Do you care? Last I heard, you were stomping his cold, cybernetic heart into the hospital floor."
