I Don't Need New Friends

3. Nerd Alert

"So, gentlemen, what are your plans while you're in town?" Zoe asked as she grabbed the men some beers from the fridge. "Other than your super secret spy shit, of course..."

Sam grabbed one of the beers from her and gave that famously gorgeous Sam Wilson smile. "For the record, neither one of us are spies. Other than my thing at Cal Tech, we've got no plans, really. Just wanted to spend some time with my best girl, eat all the street tacos, and maybe take the cyborg to Disneyland?"

Bucky's head shot up when he heard Sam say "best girl." He knew what that meant and smirked to himself that he was right about how Sam felt about her. To be honest, even after just meeting her, he couldn't blame his friend. She had what he would have called "moxie" back in his day. "Not sure if I'm theme park material, Sam..."

"What? How many times have I listened to you and Steve talk about Coney Island? You love that shit, don't even try it!" Sam quipped.

"Correction, used to love that shit." Bucky took a swig of his beer. "A lifetime of jumping out of planes cured that, thanks."

"Thank fucking god..." Zoe sighed in relief. "Disney is the absolute worst if you're there with famous people like you. It's a feeding frenzy of screaming kids and their parents trying to get pictures and autographs."

"And how would you know that?" Sam interrupted, eyebrow raised.

"I made the mistake of going with Pepper and Morgan once. Never again, my dude. I don't care how much I adore your ass. You feel like subjecting yourselves, be my guest, but I'll stay home, thanks." Zoe reported. "Next idea?"

"Well, what's good? Or more to the point, what is 'little miss too cool for school' willing to do?" Sam laughed. "And before you even ask, no, I cannot take you with me to Cal Tech, you giant nerd!"

"First of all, fuck off. Second, is this the same man who pretended not to know me when I took his ass to see Beyoncé for his birthday back in the day? Don't listen to this guy about being too cool, James. Also, you've been here plenty, Samuel, what are you interested in doing? And third, what does my new friend want to do or see in the greater Los Angeles area? What kinds of things do you like to do?" Zoe turned to look at Bucky.

"Uh, I'm just here for backup. I'm not exactly sure what there is to do around here. Don't worry about me." Bucky nervously looked back at his hostess, trying not to impose. He also could not imagine this edgy-looking woman at a Beyoncé concert, with or without Sam. Yes, even he knew who Beyoncé was...She was already full of surprises. What else was she hiding, he wondered. Then he caught himself and remembered what Sam had just referred to her as. She's his "best girl", that means eyes up, no funny business, no matter what.

"Seriously, what do you like to do? You know, when you're not saving the world or helping to rebuild Sam's family fishing boat?" Zoe asked, genuinely interested. She wanted to hear more about the somewhat enigmatic addition to her best friend's life. So far, he was nothing like what she'd heard about all these years. Not disappointing, just not the larger than life figure she had expected. She was actually pleasantly surprised at how polite he was, though she knew enough to know he might also be on "company behavior" for Sam. He definitely was more nervous around her than she'd thought he would be, it was probably social anxiety from years of hell...she was already thinking too hard about it.

Before he could answer, Sam replied "Bucky is the most boring man in the world. Whatever we do is going to be more fun than he'll know what to do with."

"Wanna go to my favorite place in this entire town?" Zoe smiled at Sam, then looked at Bucky again. "It's this observatory, built in the 30's, right near the Hollywood sign, so Sam can get his mandatory Instagram shots, but it's really cool. The building, the views, the planetarium. Any interest?"

Bucky's eyes lit up. He secretly loved science, especially space. "Sounds great, actually. I like the planetarium...uh, if that's something you guys want to do, I mean..."

"Nerd alert!" Sam laughed. "See? I knew you two would get along! Alright, I'm in, let's go to Griffith's for the billionth time, nerds."

"Griffith Observatory, opened in 1935..." the tour guide started.

Sam was still outside taking pictures, as it took less than 2 minutes before he was recognized by fans, and was immediately swarmed.

Zoe took the opportunity to drag Bucky into the building before anyone noticed him. He was surprised she protected him, even more so, that she grabbed his left hand to lead him into the building. For a guy who routinely walked into fire fights and jumped out of planes, he was extremely nervous in public. At this point, he was trying not to panic at the commotion. But this stranger somehow knew, and even more, was trying to help him?

"Shit, I'm sorry! Did I overstep?" Zoe gasped, dropping his gloved left hand noticing he looked bewildered by what was happening.

"No, it's okay!" Bucky blurted out. "More than fine. In fact, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?" He joked, trying not to make eye contact. He didn't want her to see how relieved he was that she had saved him from a potential anxiety attack.

"Did you just Han Solo me, James?!" Zoe squinted at him, pleasantly surprised. "You know Star Wars?!"

"You know Star Wars?" He laughed a little, finally calming down. "I didn't know girls liked Star Wars. The Spiderkid, I mean, Peter, made me watch those movies. Gotta admit, they're pretty great..."

"For your information, James, girls fucking love Star Wars. If you're lucky, maybe I'll even show you my original action figures I saved from when I was a kid when we get home. It's not the 40's anymore, Grandpa, women can enjoy anything we want, whether men like it or not." Zoe stuck her tongue out at him and dragged him further into the display to listen to the tour guide.

She was having fun wandering around the exhibit halls like she usually did, but she was also enjoying her new friend look like a big kid taking in the sights. She tried not to laugh when he hit his head on a hanging display because he was too busy reading the wall text to notice it. She did laugh out loud when he had a hard time navigating around a group of school kids who ran into the room with the scale model of the solar system and he had to hastily back into an alcove to avoid being trampled. "Come on, tough guy, let's go get to our seats in the planetarium. Hopefully Sam has posed for enough selfies so he can join us." She consciously grabbed Bucky's right hand this time to lead him down the hallway.

He looked down at their hands and raised an eyebrow at the woman he just met walking with him like they were old friends. He usually didn't like to be touched. "Tough guy?" He smirked.

"I'm sorry, do you prefer murderbot?" Zoe smirked right the fuck back.

"Not really." He chuckled. She was a funny little thing. He liked funny...

"FYI, you're much less intimidating when you laugh. Your whole face softens, it's actually quite handsome, you know, for a centenarian." Zoe said matter-of-factly, surprising herself at her boldness. She could tell at ten paces this was not someone who was used to getting compliments anymore, so why not help the guy out?

Bucky tried not to blush, suddenly feeling a bit too warm. How could Steve have a problem with this woman? She seemed great so far...then again, she also seemed like the type to put his old friend in his place if he needed to have some sense knocked into him, which he knew Steve might have had an issue with.

Sam was already sitting in the planetarium when they got there. "What the hell, man?! You just left me alone out there! Some partner!"

"Whatever, you love your adoring public, New Cap." Zoe rolled her eyes and laughed. "It's not his fault that he's smart enough to step away from all the excitement."

"Plus, I wouldn't want to take away from you getting your ego stroked, partner." Bucky snarked.

"Shut up and watch the show, Robocop." Sam huffed and crossed his arms.

Zoe and Bucky had to stifle their snickering as the lights went down. He was having fun already.