Retrograde▸bucky barnes

7. The Morgan

"You are a terrible driver, I don't know why I keep endangering myself by riding with you," Lena commented, swinging her leg over the back of Bucky's motorcycle.

"I am not," Bucky argued, his voice slightly muffled by his helmet.

"I feel like I've almost died a hundred times in the past three months."

"You haven't even ridden with me that many times," he said, starting the bike.

"Proving my point exactly," Lena said louder to be heard over the engine, "let's just conclude that at very least, you're reckless."
"Thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment."

"You ready?" he asked and she could hear the humor in his voice.

Lena carefully folded her arms around his waist, still feeling a bit unsettled by holding on to him the whole time.

The past couple months had been a whirlwind of returning to normalcy, or at least what consisted of normal as the world continued to settle after the Blip. Lena could feel tensions rising in the city, and knew that tensions around the world continued to play wildly. But she was currently just far enough distanced from them she chose not to engage. Selfish she knew, irresponsible frankly, but after a century on this planet, she had to pick her battles.

In her return to normalcy, Lena had found herself spending more than just the Tuesday afternoon outings alongside Bucky. There were short coffee meetups and little snippets of phone conversations. There were haphazard adventures through parks and attending live music. She was not sure what the basis of their friendship rested on, but they got on well, and it was refreshing to have someone who did not know her past to engage with.

Finally they arrived at their presumed destination. Lena shook out her hair after removing her helmet gazing up at the museum's entrance.

"You're going to love this one," Bucky said.

"Why couldn't you tell me what it was before we got here?"

"Because I didn't want you to look it up and see pictures before you saw it in person."

Lena shook her head and followed Bucky silently through the museum, initially seeing nothing of particular note that would warrant secrecy beforehand. Eventually they reached what was seemingly the far corner of the museum.

The entrance to the room labeled it "the Rotunda" and as they stepped in, additional lights flicked on at their presence. A high marbled ceiling reached above them and Lena stood gazing in awe at the ceiling above..

"It's like St. Peter's Basilica, but in New York," Lena said smiling.

Bucky chuckled and moved around the room with her until finally motioning to follow toward one of the other exits.

"Why are you so excited about this?"

"Because I know you'll love it."

She followed and the passageway opened up into a warmly lit room, filled floor to ceiling with several levels of books. Lena gasped as she looked up, feeling like she had stepped into a movie.

"Welcome to Mr. Morgan's Library," Bucky whispered from behind her, his breath tickling her skin.

Lena slowly turned about, taking in the large expanse of books. "You were right, I do love it."

As they concluded the rest of the tour through the library and the Study, they returned to the well lit, modern part of the museum.

"Lunch?" Bucky asked, "Last time I was here they had the best caramelized onions I've ever had.".