Thunder Wolf [B.Barnes]

Chapter 14

"Hey, Tony," Fern poked her head into the lab.

"What's up, kid?" He turned to look at her over his shoulder for a second before going back to his work.

"Is everyone back at the compound by now?" Fern sheepishly asked.

"Should be. What's up?" Tony turned his full attention to her noticing the look on her face. "Is everything okay? You look flustered."

"I just need to talk to Nat," Fern awkwardly smiled.

"'Boy trouble' got it." Tony laughed. "Yeah, they should be back now. Just have Friday give her a call. You know, if you need someone to talk to, I'm here. I might be an old guy, but I am a genius. I've been told I'm an okay listener."

"I'll remember that; thank you, Tony. If it wasn't for Clint, maybe you could take the father I never got to have the title." Fern smiled at Tony leaving the lab before he was able to reply. Fern stopped on the way to her room, glancing into the gym watching Bucky attack a punching bag. She was amazed at how fluent he looked; his attacks were graceful yet powerful. She ran when he turned around, possibly catching her watching him.

"Friday, please call Natasha," Fern said, running into her room, making sure to lock the door behind her.

"Right away," Friday replied. Fern sat on her bed anxiously waiting for Natasha to answer.

"I told you to call me, but I wasn't expecting it to be this soon," Natasha laughed.

"Are you alone?" Fern asked.

"No, we're in the lounge talking; what's wrong?" Fern could picture Natasha sitting forward and a concern covering her face.

"Nothing's exactly wrong; grab Wanda and go somewhere that no one is going to hear you please," Fern sighed, running a hand through her hair, shuffling sounded from the other end of the call. Natasha and Wanda's muffled voices followed, and a door closed soon after.

"Okay, you're on speakerphone; what's going on?" Natasha asked.

"How exactly do you flirt? Or, well, do anything like that? I've been alone out here for a long time, and the closest I've gotten to talk to a guy in that time has been Clint." Fern groaned, falling back on her bed in frustration.

"What happened? Because wow," Wanda giggled.

"Not even five minutes after you guys left, Bucky and I were in the kitchen after talking to Tony, and he just– I don't even know. His voice was so deep, his eyes; I was drowning in his eyes. He walked me into a wall, and we were so close that I could almost feel our lips touching. HELP." Fern gushed, shoving a pillow onto her head, and yelled into it for a moment.

"I wasn't expecting it to get to this stage so fast. I figured Bucky would use that man of the '40s charm on you until we at least came back," Nat chuckled. Fern groaned at the sound of Nat and Wanda laughing at her. She was hopeless, completely hopeless.

"I'm going to lock myself in my room and die. I can't face him again. I can't." Fern mumbled into the pillow.

"No, you aren't. So we're going to give you a few tricks to get you by until we can have a better conversation in person." Wanda announced.

"First off, I know this is going to be hard, but don't freeze up. If you freeze up, he's going to have you wrapped around his finger; we want it the other way around. You need him wrapped around your finger, and it isn't going to be hard," Nat explained. "Call him by his first name; I bet it will drive him crazy or by a nickname. Handsome, babe, honey, anything like that, they melt at that stuff."

"Be careful, but tease him, show off that body of yours a little. Sway your hips, lean into him, grab or touch damn near any part of his body, just because," Wanda shared. "Anything that you do is going to drive him crazy. Bat your eyes at him, wink, basic things that you wouldn't think of."

"Those are your basics. If you want to push it and get a little more intimate, bite your lip, lick your lips," Natasha finished.

"I swear I'm going to fail at all of that," Fern groaned.

"You read, right? Find a good book and cram it. Don't skip any of it; it will help." Wanda noted.

"What exactly started the conversation for all of this to happen?" Natasha asked.

"Tony asked if he could make me a suit in case of emergencies, I guess. Then he said that Bucky could train me again. After Tony left, Bucky talked about how he wouldn't mind training me; he wanted to see how much I remember. So I told him that if I could take down a fully grown elk that was charging at me, I could take down an old man with a metal arm." Fern sighed, laying on her side.

"That's something, though there's no way that's what got you so flustered."

"He called me doll and told me that he'd take me down right there if he didn't want to hurt my pretty little face in an intense voice. He backed me into the wall, and well yeah," Fern smiled to herself, remembering the encounter. It was pleasant, but she was still very flustered by it.

"Oh, well, that would do it. Good luck with him; you're going to need it." Fern was sure that the girls were staring at each other, knowing that somehow this would end in one of two ways, poorly or wonderfully. None of them were convinced of which yet.

"Thanks, girls, really. The confidence is growing by the second," Sarcasm dripped from Fern.

"You'll be fine. Don't overthink it; that's all you have to do," Fern could hear the fake smile in Wanda's voice. "Call us tomorrow and let us know how the rest of the night and the morning goes. We'll be waiting." The pair was gone before Fern could beg them for more advice.

A knock rang through her room; Fern prayed for it to be Tony, "Doll, I was wondering if you'd like to join me for a snack in the kitchen," Bucky's voice echoed into her room.

Fern bit the inside of her cheek, debating on what her answer was going to be, "Uh, sure. I'll be right there." Fern started silently screamed at herself for that answer. "What the fuck did you just do, Fern?" She whispered.

"Okay, I'll see you in a minute." Once she knew Bucky was gone, Fern began to scream into a pillow, debating on slamming her head into the wall as well.

"Okay, you've got this. Show off a little; let's start there." Fern took a deep breath in her closet; she found a nice pair of leggings and a loose low-cut tee shirt. That should do. She changed quickly, looking at herself in her mirror, brushing out her hair before exiting her room and making her way to the kitchen.

"Buck," She smirked, taking a seat at the island as he scooped ice cream into bowls.

"Doll," He replied, placing a bowl of ice cream in front of her.

He's onto me. He has to be. She thought to herself. Fern froze for a second, noticing that Bucky was shirtless; his hair and chest were wet from a shower after his time in the gym. Fuck. Don't freeze. Act normal. "Did you have a good workout?" She asked, taking a bite from the ice cream letting the spoon rest on her tongue for a minute to stop herself from saying anything else.

"Mhmm, I need to have Steve send a few punching bags on the next jet; I think that one's about ready to break," Bucky moved to sit next to her. "I noticed that I was being watched, and I don't think it was Tony."

"Oh, I only stopped for a second when I noticed you there," Fern smiled.

"I see. So who were you talking to?"

"Nat and Wanda, I wanted to make sure Tony's system was working and ask them how their flight was. Since you know, last time the Thunderbird shot them down. They made it just fine," Fern nodded, knowing this was a losing game. Bucky was winning, and Fern was losing by a mile.

"That's good." Bucky nodded back, poking at the ice cream in his bowl.

"I was thinking; maybe it would be okay for you to train me. Who better to than you," Fern turned to him, batting her eyes at him with a sweet smile. She touched his bicep, watching him tense as she did. Now she was catching up.

"Why don't we start tomorrow morning?" Bucky asked, his eyes glancing down at her hand, her fingers delicately dancing around on his skin.

"Sounds great," Fern smirked, standing from her seat. "See you in the morning, James." Fern skipped off to her room, jumping onto her bed in excitement and screaming into her pillow once again. She won, for now.