Harmless (Bucky Barnes)

(xvii)

a/n: honest to god i keep forgetting i put this story here and i have to update

"Alright, let's keep this short," Tony instructs, his fingers clenched into a fist. "Barnes, you're covering Rogers. If you see him, you take him down on sight."

"Copy that."

Sam points to the right side of the floor plan. "That's our blindspot. We need someone stationed there."

"I'll do it," Nat volunteers, feet kicked back onto another chair, easy and confident. "Should be easy enough. It's dark, they won't see us there."

"If you see Barton, you shoot. No favouritism." Tony's eyes are unforgiving- they don't have a lot of time to prepare.

Luckily, her answer comes back smoothly. "He's going down first."

"Is Vision on our side?" Bucky glances up at the team huddled around the round table, hair pulled back into a low bun and away from his face to eliminate as many distractions as possible. The low hum of the air conditioner, however, he can't escape.

"He is, but I don't think he's really invested."

"Why?" Nat asks, leaning forward on her elbows, gaze strong. "Is it because Wanda's on Steve's side?"

"Says he doesn't want to harm anyone."

Sam doesn't look too happy with the revelation. "Does he understand the concept of laser tag?"

"He does, but the guy's worried his actual laser eyes are gonna act up if he gets too excited." Tony gives a long drawn exhale. "I don't wanna pay for the damages to the arena again."

The bi-annual laser tag night tended to get... intense.

Tony's had to pay to remodel the place a few times over already; the only reason they're not banned so far. For all the complaining he did, no one knows why he was the one who fervently kept the tradition going then.

"You can put him in the corner or something," Sam suggests. "Like a Christmas Tree. He's got the colours for it too."

"Vision moves to the corner." Tony drags the Top Hat piece from the shared Monopoly board to the corner of the chart. "Barnes, you should flirt with the guy at the front desk, get him to disable their guns for a while."

"I did that last time."

"And it worked like a charm," Tony says, fingers entwined with each other as he looks at him expectantly. "Do it again."

"No." For the record, Bucky thought the guy was really cute. Hell, they even went out for dinner once after Clint managed to create a human-sized hole in one of the arena walls. "He's in a relationship now."

"Fine, then we need a new strategy." The blueprint of the arena had a bunch of scribbles on it of possible vantage points, a few Monopoly pieces to represent team members. Bucky's been stuck as the thimble for the last one hour and he fucking hates it.

The Tower cafeteria was more or less empty, providing them a good meeting spot for their strategic sessions. Steve's team took up the common room like the hoarders that they were, establishing their rule over the room as early as four in the morning. It's not like they were planning the entire day; it was pure pettiness and spite, forcing everyone else to find another place to meet.

But Steve's team probably didn't track down the contractor and bribe them to get the floorplan of the building. Steve's stupid team was probably drinking tea and watching Jeopardy like the old fucks that they were.