6683/When in Rome... or the Triskelion.

When in Rome... or the Triskelion.
Date of Scene:	27 February 2019
Location:	Triskelion, New York City
Synopsis:	Janet in sneaks into the Triskelion to confront her main contender for Steve's attention: The Winter Soldier.
Cast of Characters:	Winter Soldier, Wasp (van Dyne)

---

Winter Soldier has posed:
His metabolism would let him exist on garbage, like a 'possum, or the kind of diet that'd give an ordinary human a coronary. That doesn't mean that Buck doesn't try to eat relatively healthy, though. So he's chewing his way methodically through a veggie burger, with a book open in front of him. 'Treasure Island', in fact. Close by him, a beautiful German Shepherd is crunching kibble from a paper bowl, though she's clearly keeping an eye out for passers-by.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Mr. Barnes?"

Most of the time, people leave Bucky /alone/. Sure, he's one of the greatest resources America has into understanding Russian and ex-Soviet operations on a global scale. But it's not the sort of thing people just 'bring up' casually around him.

The woman that approaches Bucky's table comes up on the side opposite his dog, leaning over the table to peer at him through large-lensed glasses. "Hi. I'm Agent Engleton," she says, and offers Bucky a polite, surprisingly gentle handshake. She's on the petite side, barely five-four and rather skinny. "I'm sorry to bother you during dinner. I'm working on a research project for Archives. Do you have a few minutes you can spare me?" She moves to seat herself opposite Bucky without waiting for an invitation. One hand unbuttons the single clasp of her neatly fitted grey suit, revealing a loosely buttoned silk blouse under the curves of the jacket. She sets a yellow legal pad and pen in front of her. "I promise this won't take long," she assures him. "It's a research project we're doing for the Smithsonian's 'Heroes of War' exhibit," she explains. An expensive pen is produced and uncapped.

Winter Soldier has posed:
He's got sufficient manners to rise and shake her hand - with the human one, no less. His hand's got a gunman's calluses, and his handshake's surprisingly gentle. James's face, however, is almost empty in its utter neutrality, and the pale blue eyes are very wary. "Agent," he says, rather flatly. "What kind of project?" A Steve-related project, no doubt, since she used the word 'hero'. Not that he hasn't been answering questions about the Boy Scout for decades. The dog, however, is apparently intended as his emissary to the rest of the human race, for she sits up and smiles and wags her tail. Hello!

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet blinks and leans sideways at the ragged thumpity thump of a tail on the ground. "Oh, you have your ... dog with you," she says, with a stiff sort of cheer. "How wonderful. Hello, doggy," she says, and pets at the big canine with the awkward motion of someone not used to being around large furry animals.

"Oh, uh... let's see. Well," she hems, going back to her notes. She shifts her knees away from Bucky's puppy, trying to fend it off without getting dog hair on her designer suit. "Really we're trying to write about 'the man' behind the man," she clarifies. "Make our heroes more human to the audience. I'm wondering, you know, if you've got any anecdotes about life before St-- Captain Rogers went in for 'the big chill'. Places he liked to eat, friends he had, uh, relationships, that kind of thing," she says, readying her pen over the pencil. It's a fine-tipped gel pen with inlaid wood and pearl worked into the cap and grip. Definitely not something grabbed from the local office supply closet. "Wherever you really feel like the story 'begins'. I guess. Like... how did you two meet?"

Winter Soldier has posed:
Oh, gosh, yes. The Shepherd lays her head on Janet's knee, looks up with big, soft brown eyes, thumps her tail. "That's Lili, she likes you," Bucky informs Janet with the air of a doctor informing someone they have a terminal disease. Congratulations, lady, you have GSDs.

That question has a little furrow of puzzlement graving itself between his brows. "We were kids," he says, simply. "This....this stuff is all on record." How many interviews did he give Stars and Stripes or LIFE, or whatever newspaper managed to boot a correspondent to the part of the front they were fighting on? (His favorites being Pyle and Grossman.) Something here is wrong enough to raise his antennae, even if he's not sure what.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet stiffens when Bucky's doggo lays her chin on Janet's knee. She is very clearly Not A Dog Person, and it shows. She scritches the dog's ear a few times, then pats her nose awkwardly. "Yes, you're a very good girl," Janet stammers.

"Well yeah, I mean, that's what, uh, that's what we're doing here," she clarifies for Bucky. "Everyone talks about you guys tearing across Germany and saving the world, but the personal stuff-- that was ninety years ago. We want to, uh, show Americans that heroes come from all walks of life. For example," she prefaces, "I understand that S-- Captain Rogers had to help you get all the dates with the girls," she says, cagily. "Would you characterize that statement as accurate or inaccurate? In your own words, please," she adds, encouraging Bucky with a wave of her hand.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Yes! Yes, you understand! I am best girl! Lili grins a big doggy grin, and continues to try and insinuate her head under Janet's free hand. Buck is, by that little flicker in his eyes, trying not to laugh a bit at her discomfiture. "The personal stuff is on record, too," he insists, still quietly. "We talked a lot to correspondents at the time, when they could catch up with us. Honestly, if you track down Pyle's pieces from '43 and '44, they're the most thorough and the best. They'll tell you what you're asking me for."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"But that was then," Janet says. She's struggling to maintain her aplomb as Lili-- like all pets ever-- can sense when someone is allergic, is not a pet lover, or is wearing something that *really* shouldn't be shed on. Janet tries to push a palm onto Lili's forehead to stop her. With absolutely zero effect.

"-t-this is more recent. We're using the, uh, window of modern social experiences. Getting a sense of how modern audiences might react to the life of two of America's greatest icons. So I'll just go ahead and confirm that Steve was the 'lady-killer'," she says, scritching steel pen nib to paper. "He also mentioned that you used to get in a lot of fights and he had to save you ... ?"

Winter Soldier has posed:
"You really haven't done any research, have you," Faint disapproval in his tone, a narrowing of those pale eyes. "Engleton, was it? C'mon. I may've been born when Wilson was in office, but even I know how to use Google, let alone a public library. You can't tell me you don't. I don't know who you've been talking to, but it certainly wasn't Steve."

Lili takes that as a caress, and waves her tail eagerly. You've got the right idea! Keep going! She encourages Janet by slapping a pink tongue all over that hand.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Y-yes I have!" Janet splutters at Bucky. She tries to palm Lili away, which only results in Lili getting more enthusiastic (of course). In a panic she takes one of Bucky's vegemite-covered carrots and drops it in front of Lili. "Go get it!" she encourages the German Shepherd.

"I've been talking to him for, like, days. Weeks," she clarifies. "But, uh, you know Steve, he's so... modest," she says, desperately. "And he never wants to talk about his personal life or the details of Brooklyn pre-war. There's this great big gap in his story right up until '42 and the draft when they gave him the, uh.. four... foxes... fail stamp," she reminds Bucky. "And then the whole thing with the *serum* and he-- you can't tell me he wasn't a different man after the serum, right? I'm sure he had ladies lining up, especially all those... leggy chorus girls," she says, teeth gritted through a Perfectly Pleasant smile.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Now he tilts his head at her, looking at her from under his lashes. It's inadvertantly predatory, like watching a hawk line up on an unsuspecting sparrow...and a reminder that she's across the table from one of the CIA's worst nightmares, that near-mythical boogeyman of the Cold War. "Really," he says, in a tone of patent disbelief. "You've been talking to Steve for weeks. And yet he's never mentioned you. Interesting."

Then he sits back in his chair, laces his fingers lazily across his belly. The left is ungloved, and the fine plates gleam like liquid silver in the room's light. "I don't know," he says, bluntly. "I wasn't there. I was in North Africa, getting shot at. They wouldn't let our letters to each other through, so....honestly, I was worried he was dead. No one in our neighborhood knew where he'd gone." Yes, he's deliberately being difficult.

Lili looks attentively at the carrot, looks up at Janet....and being a service dog, assumes this falls under the 'pick up what the human has dropped and give it to them' category of orders. So, delicately, she picks it up between her front teeth and deposits it on the leg of Janet's pants.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
That alone might be the biggest clue that the 'agent' isn't who she says she is-- there isn't that nascent, deep-seated fear of one of the most enigmatic and *dangerous* double agents/assassins in history seated across from her. She seems much more concerned with her notes and fussy neatness. And responds to Lili's 'gift' with a look of absolute horror. "My... p-pants," she grates. The fashionista picks up a napkin and tries to salvage the mess as best she can, but it's a losing battle. "God I'm going to have to have this dry cleaned," she complains. Not wails. Most agents would be apopletic with rage over a three thousand dollar suit being stained. Or they'd be smart enough to wear something more off-the-rack.

"Okay so going back /before/ the serum," she says, struggling vainly to haul the conversation back on track. "I'm just-- we're trying to get a sense of what the dating scene was like back in the day. It was so different ninety years ago," she tries, again. "Before the war, even, I'm sure. Did he ever talk about, uh, plans besides the war? School, or college? Maybe something besides joining the military?"

"Uh... settling down, getting married? Wife and kids?" she ventures, timidly.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Which is when Buck slowly levers himself up from his chair and leans over the table, having set aside the remains of his meal. Plants those hands on its worn surface, all the better to get much closer to face to face with her. "What agency did you say you worked for?" he wonders, apparently casual. Nevermind that gauging look in his eyes. "Because there is exactly *no* federal agency in America that pays its agents well enough to afford an outfit like that."

Which is when the metal hand flashes out to snag her wrist, pin it to the table. "Use your other hand and show me your ID. Please."

Lili's a good reader of people, and senses that she's apparently misunderstood her orders. She tucks her head and pins her ears back, looking away. What did I do wrong?

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Eep!"

Janet winces when Bucky grabs her wrist. Her reflex is to try and pry away those curling digits. It's impossible, even with a practiced judo wrist-break evasion. Bucky's simply too *strong*.

"Fine, fine! I have it right... here!" She taps a button on her cell phone.

The lights overhead flicker wildly. Speakers crackle with indistinct audio. It's enough to buy a moment of privacy as the electronics near Janet tweak out of control. She slams her other palm down on Bucky's wrist with something in her fingers.

Abruptly the world starts spinning out of control. Perspectives warp and shift. For a person uninitiated it's the worst combination of all the bloating and motion sickness from too long at the street carnivals and too many trips on the Tilt-A-Whirl with a full belly of greasy nachos and stale cola.

Janet flips, twists, and disengages herself from Buck's iron grip. Wings sprout from her back and she hovers over a few football-sized blocks of translucent crystal, about fifteen relative feet away. "That hurt!" she scolds Bucky. Fingers curl around her wrist, massaging the joint. "Didn't anyone ever teach you about not hitting a lady? /Rude/," she rebukes him.

Bucky might recognize the outlines of the cafeteria-- rendered into blurry distance at the extreme edges of human perception. A cliff of uneven yellow slabs is behind Janet's shoulder and Bucky's retreat is cut off by the immense ledge of a plastic cafeteria tray towering beyond reach overhead. Even the spilled grains of salt look weirdly unnatural with the shift in scale.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Human? Human? Where? Lili looks around for Bucky and Janet, who seem to both've just vanished, from her perspective. This isn't good. She barks to call attention to herself.

God, it's like riding the Cyclone as a kid on a dare from Steve. He doesn't lose the meal he just consumed, but he does end up on his knees, clutching his head. "Jesus, lady, what are you?" he asks, pale and sweating. "What did you do to me?" What he's looking at....he hasn't parsed it. This is all some fantasmagoria, for the moment.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"I, uh..." Janet balks, and tries to summon some theatricality by channeling glowing green light to her hands. It casts her into crackling relief as viridian energy coalesces around her fingers. "I am the spirit of Your Conscience, Bucky Barnes!" she threatens. It's hard to loom as a petite woman. The size changing helps put her and Bucky on parity for scale and it doesn't hurt that she's flying and channeling crackling green energy around her fists, casting her into a blazing relief that's marginally more visible than a green laser pointer to the rest of the cafeteria.

"You know that you're Steve's only hope for happiness! But you've squandered your time with him in the last year! Only YOU can help him find contentment with the right woman!" She points a dramatic finger at Bucky. "And yet you hoarde him for yourself, instead of giving him better advice! Like ... telling him to just ... uh, sweep her off her feet! DID you tell him that?" she demands of Bucky, with a suspicious and querulous voice. "No-you-did-not!" she answers for him. "And he might never know true contentment if you don't give him some advice on girls!"

Winter Soldier has posed:
"What you are is full of it," he says, suddenly furious. "I don't know what the hell kind of joke this is, but it isn't fucking funny. What'd you do with my dog? Where is this?" Still not getting it.

He was, for a wonder, unarmed. And he's got no way to reach her up there. That'll teach him to trust to SHIELD's security. "Only hope for happiness? What have you been *smoking*? Hoard him for myself - are you another of those people who's convinced we're both queer?" This line of questioning has him utterly taken aback. "Lady, I gave him advice about girls for years, it never took. He was in love with one woman during the war and....." He trails off, sighs, sits down.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Goddamnnit, this *never* works like it does in the movies," Janet mumbles petulantly.

She doesn't chortle at Bucky's plaintive, irritated question. Clearly it's a contingency that concerns her. When Bucky starts talking about 'one woman' though, Janet *freezes*. Her wings stop beating. This causes her to drop a (relative) six feet, face going a little pale. The insect wings buzz with furious effort and she flutters over to near where Bucky sits. Someone dropped a crumb the size of a boulder and she alights rather daintily upon it, palms supporting her weight and knees aimed to the side.

"Well... I mean, there are a lot of *stories* about you two," she says, shifting uncomfortably. Making the Winter Soldier cry is one of those things that'll probably give Janet some sleepless nights and she looks very concerned that she might have really upset Bucky's feelings. "And y'know, I mean, the way Steve talks about you, it's so glowingly ... glowing. He thinks the world of you. Talks about you a lot."

She licks her upper lip in a nervous betrayal of her uncertainty. "Um.... I mean, what about this one woman, was she like a friend, or were you and her competing for him, or what?"

Winter Soldier has posed:
"You're a crappy Jiminy Cricket," he tells her, bluntly. He gives her an annoyed look, but it lacks that earlier force. Now he just looks weary. "Steve and me....we're from an age when people didn't worry so damn much about touching their friends. It's hard to be shy of somebody when you've spent nights in a frozen foxhole with him. No one's homophobic in the Ardennes in winter with fifty Germans a hundred yards away, lemme tell ya."

Cry, no, not quite. Look grim....oh, yes. "Her name was Peggy Carter. She founded SHIELD. And if Steve hadn't ended up frozen, there'd be a lot of little Rogerses running around New York asking Grandpa what he did in World War 2." A shake of his head. "No competition. I liked her and respected her, but she never had eyes for anyone but Steve."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"O-oh," Janet says. Weakly. Yeah, she knows who Peggy Carter is. Every woman in America with a corner office does. Peggy blew apart the glass ceiling as one of the toughest, most badass *spies* of all time. Female or not. James Bond was a drunken, male-dominated, pale echo of her exploits.

And she did it all in heels.

"So Steve and Peggy, they were, ah, uh.. .a thing," she gets out. "They must have been pretty intense, then, if they were talking about kids and life after the war, and stuff. D'you--" She swallows, trying to make it look nonchalant despite her mouth being dry. "D'you think he's still hung up on her? It's been like, seventy years by now."

Winter Soldier has posed:
There's a shrug from him, a rasp of the plates in the metal shoulder. Tin man needs the oil can. "Yeah, probably," he says, offhandedly. "Lotta girls threw themselves after him. Still do. Never seemed to register with him. They don't make ladies like that anymore. Hell, they didn't make many of 'em back in the day."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet touches fingers to her cheek and brushes at an invisible speck of something glimmering in the corner of her eye. Bucky's words, delivered so laconically, hit like knives upthrust into her heart.

"Yeah, she was, uh..." Janet clears her throat. "I read about her. In college. Everyone says she was pretty remarkable. I guess..." She looks down at tightly interlaced fingers in her palms, her expression moody. "I guess that explains why Steve doesn't date people. He's still hung up on Peggy. I guess that's understandable," she murmurs. "I guess so-someone like that, you don't just get over," she exhales, her voice wearily quiet and full of a surprisingly heartfelt pain.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Now she's treated to his scowl, as he looks at her. "Is that what this is about? You seriously came in here and did....." A wave of the metal hand takes in the weird landscape, "Whatever this is, to me, because you've got a crush on Steven Rogers?" He shakes his head in irritated disbelief, and heaves a sigh. "We done? Or you got something else you wanna ask?" The Brooklyn accent is stronger than ever.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet bristles at Bucky's dismissive tone and flickers towards him. Even for his superior reflexes, at *this* scale, Janet's moving fast. And she moves with utter self-assurance despite the changes in size and leverage and everything else going on around them. She moves through the tiny world as effortlessly as a fish slices through fast waters.

"Okay /buster/, let's get some things straight here." Her wings buzz like a thousand angry wasps as she hovers in front of Bucky, six feet off the ground. Or .06", to be more precise. "I don't 'do' crushes, all right. Steve showed up being all ... like.. that goofball sad sack golden retriever that can't find his favorite tennis ball and his playmate's not around anymore," she bristles. "And for being his -best friend- you *really* set him up to fail." Accusations' flung at Bucky's shoulders. "I have been giving him the sort of signals reserved for jumbo jets make a blind fog landing into La Guardia and he acts like a frickin' monk. Any /wonder/ everyone thinks you two are hooking up on the d/l?" she demands of Bucky. "All he talks about is you! 'Bucky said this', 'Bucky says that', 'Bucky Bucky Bucky'." Her head bobbles in cruel mimicry of Jan Brady.

"So like, this wasn't even the plan, I just wanted to pick your brain about Steve and maybe, I don't know, figure out where he likes to eat, or what sort of stuff he did for fun before the war. I'd have /loved/ to find out he was single and ready to mingle. Now at BEST he's, what, a-a-a- lovesick bisexual virgin fixated on a woman who's been dead for how many years? It would explain how bad that kiss was!"

She folds her arms across her slender chest with an angry huff. "God, you'd think he'd never properly kissed a woman before!"

Winter Soldier has posed:
Bisexual. He mouthes the word soundlessly. "You could have asked ... instead of trying to bullshit me," he says, very quietly. "Because I can tell you one thing about Steven Rogers: he doesn't have a lot of use for liars."

He runs his hands through his hair in frustration. "Steve is all I've got, and he does his best to take care of me, like I used to take care of him. Jesus Christ - things might be easier on both of us if we had just been queer for each other to begin with." Then something sinks in, and he cocks his head at her again, puzzled. "Did you kiss him? It was that bad?"

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet doesn't quite make eye contact with Bucky. "I didn't /lie/, I practiced some selective omissions," she mutters. "And it's your fault as much as anyone's for being so evasive. I could have been home hours ago."

She lands on a salt block and rubs her temples. Wings go still, flapping lazily behind her with an iridescent sheen. Ankles twist and splay apart, knees pressed together to give her elbows something to rest on.

"I /finally/ got him to kiss me," she explains, face screwed up in weary exasperation. "And I am not kidding you, I did everything but rip my clothes off and throw myself at him. I /considered/ it but I thought that'd give him an aneurysm. It wasn't that it was. ... bad," She says, ears pinking. "But he's so scared of girls he didn't put any, uh, y'know, 'oomph' into it. It was like watching a high school production of Romeo and Juliet and the principles don't want to admit they've got crushes on each other in front of everyone." She drags her palms down her face and rolls her eyes skywards, seeking desperate reassurances from on high. "So like, yeah, fine, I might have freaked out a bit," she confesses. Palms skate along her arms, rubbing her triceps as if she's cold. "It's, y'know, it's a fun challenge to seduce boys who like boys. But I don't wa--..." She trails off, turning a remarkable shade of embarassed pink, and uncomfortably avoids eye contact with Bucky.

Winter Soldier has posed:
She has not excused herself, in Buck's eyes. His expression's cold. "Yeah?" he says. "Lady, that's crummy. Is this some kind of trophy thing for you? Getting Steve to kiss you, I mean. Because if you actually like him, you're going about this really badly. But if it's just, I dunno, counting coup so you can brag to your friends...." He shakes his head. "Steve isn't queer. Gay. Whatever. He doesn't like guys like that. Nor do I, not that it matters....or is any of your business. You're damn lucky we aren't, in fact."

Bucky scratches at an eyebrow with a metal thumbnail. "Because telling an assassin you're trying to seduce his boyfriend....that...that's not smart."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"No you frickin' Brooklyn putz!" Janet snaps at Bucky with a sudden vituperation, outraged by his assertion. Her cultured Martha's Vinyard accent goes a bit sideways with her cursing, taking on the tones of someone who learned how to curse properly somewhere in the Bronx. "That's the whole fucking point!"

Agitated, she flitters to a hover again, and paces in midair (for lack of a better descriptor). "Anyone else, yeah fine, whatever, we'd maybe go to the club, pop some Ecstasy, end up back in some SoHo loft with the beautiful people and watch him and his boyfriend have a public meltdown on Snapchat DMs the night morning," she explains, tersely. "I... I mean, okay, I thought about just going for it with Steve, but I..." She twists her fingers into claws of consternation, wringing her hands. "I didn't want to do that to him. He's a /friend/ and I didn't want to break up whatever--" fingers wiggle at Bucky. "/This/ was. He's been a friend for a long time and I was like 'well okay, so he'll just be my cute gay buddy and that'll be fine'," she explains.

Her voice gets crumbly around the edges and it's hard not to see the dampness in her eyes again. "And then he started like... flirting back at me-- /so awkwardly/ but he was /trying/-- and we talked and spent time together and he gave me dance lessons and... and I don't know, all right?" she declares, visibly weeping. "Then I-I-I don't know, I realized you two might not be... like *that* and then holy shit what does that mean for me, for *us* if he actually /likes/ me, and then he kissed me and THIS SHIT COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF YOU'D JUST HELPED HIM GET LAID ONCE, FER CHRISSAKES!"

She nearly bowls Bucky over as she turns and rushes at him in midair, voice raising to a cracking boom of frustration and anger.

And just like that, her furious mien collapses and Janet turns away from Bucky and finds a salt cube to collapse onto, back to the assassin and weeping into her folded forearms.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Once upon a time I was good with women. I was. Sergeant Barnes was a lady-killer. Buck's face gets longer and longer, as he looks back across the gulf of years

He flinches back from her rush. "I'm tired and I want to go to my room and sleep for a while. Also, I'm sure you're scaring my dog. Can we undo this?" Suddenly, he's just infinitely weary, anger and annoyance fading into that dull background. People in this century are crazy about love and sex and he can no longer help Steve with any of it.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Huh?" Janet looks over her shoulder at Bucky. "Oh. Yeah, that's easy," she says, sniffling, and gets to her feet. With a moldy, sad shuffle she scrapes towards him. "I'm just a little love crazy, all right? I'm not some petty high schooler who's gonna make you live out your life at the sub-millimeter scale."

She digs in her pocket for a glimmering disc inlaid with a red crystal, perhaps the size of a silver dollar.

She walks up to Bucky and makes a beckoning gesture for his hand. "It helps to hold your breath," she mumbles, and arms the device to press into his palm.

The fashionista looks up at Bucky, her expression ... sad. Resigned even. "I guess I blew it, didn't I," she says, wearily. "Now I'm just another crazy bitch stalking Steve. From the sound of it, I'm not anyone special at all."

Winter Soldier has posed:
IT's not so much tact as a genuine fear that she will just leave him like that for good that keeps him silent. At least for a beat or two.

Then, "I don't think any woman's really seen him for who he is since Peggy, and she knew him when he was still a ricketty little idiot, instead of a big blond idiot," Utterly matter of fact, that tone. Doctor Barnes's diagnoses may be accurate, but he has no bedside manner at all.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet looks up at Bucky and then laughs. It's an abortive hiccoughing laugh, but it's a laugh nonetheless. "He /is/ an idiot," she agrees. But it's more an expression of fond tolerance than aloof disdain. "A big dumb blind idiot and I am insanely infatuated with him." She sighs, touching a knucklebone to her eyes, and gives Bucky an expectant up and down. "Don't you have a hanky or something I can use?"

"Anyway." She puts the device in his palm and mimes a thumb-pressing gesture. "It's a one-time use. Poof, no more Wonderland." She steps back out of arm's reach and hugs herself as if gripped by a chill. "We've got dinner plans tonight," she tells Winter, speaking quietly. "I found a place I thought he'd like. It's an old Italian restaurant. Bamonte's. If you're gonna wave him off, can you ..." She sighs. "Can you at least do it after tonight? So we get just one decent date out of this disaster?" she requests, looking at him pleadingly.

Winter Soldier has posed:
It turns out he does. He pulls a plain pale blue handkerchief out of his pocket and hands it over, mutely. Considering her all the while, with that empty lack of expression.

"I know it," he says. "Been around a while. I remember it." Which very few things can claim the distinction of - being around in the era before the war and during. "All right. But think hard about what you're doing," he says, softly. "Steve's my best friend. I take a very, very dim few of people hurting or using him."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet carefully dabs the corner of her eyes with the handkerchief, giving Bucky a grateful and embarassed smile for his aid. Always careful not to smudge her immculate makeup. When Bucky concedes (grudgingly or not) to her plaintive request, she looks up at him with an expression of hopeful surprise. Her chin's wagging agreement before he's done speaking. "O-oh, Sergeant Barnes, I-- thank you," she says. Her eyes water a little. Tears of emotion or dramatic effect? "I know how much Steve means to you. He... he's come to mean a lot to me too," Janet promises. She rests a hand on his metal arm, an impulsive attempt to reassure him. "I'm a good person. I mean, I try to be. I just get a little... I don't know. Stupid sometimes."

She gives him a coy look. "I mean, c'mon, you gonna tell me a handsome fellah like you never did something stupid to get a girl's attention?" she adds, with her most winsome smile.

Winter Soldier has posed:
"No, you really don't," he says, flatly. The only thing that can beat a native New Yorker at looking unimpressed is a purebred cat.....and Buck's giving the Persians a run for their money. "You don't need to turn on the waterworks," he adds, drily. He withdraws the metal arm - gently, at least, more an unthinking reaction than a conscious gesture.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Need, no," Janet agrees. "You can't fault a girl for trying," she tells him. The tears don't simply evaporate, though, indicating at least a little of the emotions must be sincere. She lifts her palm apologetically and hugs her stomach. It's an unconscious expression of defensive fear given Buckys prickly demeanour.

"...I know I'm kinda pushing my luck," she hedges. "But, uh... aside from aspiring to sanity. Um... is there any...advice you could give me? About Steve?" she asks, timorously.

Winter Soldier has posed:
His lips move, as if he were about to shape a very waspish reply. But old manners or the ghost of Steve's reproachful expression if Bucky were to be mean to a girl is restraint enough, and he visibly stops himself. The shoulders, metal and flesh, droop. "No," he says. "Just....be honest."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet makes a face. "That's... gonna be a struggle for me. But..." She takes a deep breath. "I'll try. I promise," she tells Bucky. "Really. I don't know how things will end up but I'm, like... hopeful. For the first time in a really long time. I don't know if that means much to you but it means a lot, believe me."

She steps back and flashes a quick smile. "Okay. Better get unshrunkified before the constabulary panics. You can tell them I did it if you have to, it's been a while since I tweaked anyone's nose at SHIELD anyway."

Winter Soldier has posed:
"I intend to," he says. Not yielding an inch. "But all right." Then he's taking the little token she gave him, and presses the button.