[for Spud]

[onlyapassenger]

It's almost quaint, Bucky thinks. Here he is, sitting across from a fellow vet, armed with a cup of tea sweetened with honey and a combat knife strapped on his thigh. He opted to shower first, as much for Spud's benefit as his own, and it makes for a surprisingly nice way to unwind after a long night's work, the pair of them sitting on Bucky's porch.

"Told you I did tea," he says, spooning more honey into his cup.

Comments

[sorrydearie]

Laurie paused for a time, tea halted just at his lips, and looked incredulously at Bucky over the rim of the cup. "I hardly think I'm qualified to say. There is an underwater city beneath my feet, there are dinosaurs on the other side of the fence, and I'm surrounded by time travellers. This isn't the future. This is a poorly plotted science fiction story." He took his delayed sip, thought a moment more, then continued with a shrug.

"If we were somewhere a little less fantastic perhaps it would be easier to separate the future from the impossible."

[onlyapassenger]

"I don't know, seems a lot like the future to me," says Bucky, shrugging a little. Spud might as well have described home, though Bucky's taken care to avoid mention of the more complicated parts of his personal history.

"Anything's possible. If that's not the takeaway from this place, I'm not sure what is."

[sorrydearie]

The disbelieving look on Laurie's face went nowhere, though it was now mixed with the faintest hint of a smile. Clearly Bucky was having a bit of a joke at his expense. The future surely couldn't be remotely like the oddities that surrounded him. "Some things maybe, but don't tell me dinosaurs have become the done thing in the year 2013."

[onlyapassenger]

Bucky thinks it over for a second, then says, "...well, actually..."

His version of the future likely isn't the same as what Spud would experience, though. Maybe in his world, dinosaurs don't occasionally find their way to the streets of New York.

He shakes his head a little and adds, "...you know, uh. I've seen it. The future, I mean. Or mine, at least. And not in some dream or trick this place pulled, the real thing."

[sorrydearie]

"How? You were in the war." That much was obvious. Laurie was positive that Bucky would never have lied about that. But how could he have seen the future when he barely looked older than Laurie did? If it was still some sort of joke, it wasn't a very funny one. "And you look ... You couldn't have been very far into it."

[onlyapassenger]

"I look good for my age," says Bucky, a wry smile quirking his lips. He sighs, sitting back in his chair. It's easy around Spud, ignoring all the things that came after his death, but it's disingenuous to an extent, to pretend that nothing did.

"Know what you were saying before, about a poorly plotted science fiction story?"

[sorrydearie]

"Oh God. Is this the part where you bring forth the hidden flying saucer or time machine, or reveal that it was all a Martian plot?" Amongst his normal diet of adventure books, Laurie had read more than his fair share of science fiction as a boy, ranging from the decent to the inexcusably terrible. His brain was more than capable of supplying wildly varying possible explanations for Bucky's claims.

[onlyapassenger]

Bucky snorts, though there's not much humor to it.

"Anything in your stories about being frozen?"

[sorrydearie]

He did, as a matter of fact, dimly remember reading about bodies frozen and reawakened in the distant future, but Laurie shook his head, a gesture that spoke more of disbelief than of any actual willingness to completely disagree with Bucky. He simply couldn't picture the man in front of him stuck in some sort of ice box, waiting to be thawed out. "You're pulling my leg now."

[onlyapassenger]

"Wish I was," he replies, meaning it. "I was born in '25 and died in '45, but I didn't stay dead for very long. The Soviets pulled me out of the English Channel a couple months later, and things just got worse from there."

He pauses a moment and looks down. "It's a long story. Figured it'd just weird you out so I haven't said anything."

[sorrydearie]

"Yes. Yes, I suppose it is the sort of thing that would... weird you out." He tried his hardest not to gape like an idiot, but what Bucky was saying was incredible. How was one meant to respond to that?

"It's all just ... Now don't take this personally, but, well, it's a bit difficult to believe really."

[onlyapassenger]

"What if I told you I had proof on me?" he asks, glancing up at Spud. He taps on his left arm, the one that looks, for all appearances, as real and warm as his right, thanks to a very sophisticated hologram.

"This is a fake."

[sorrydearie]

"If it is a fake, it's a damn good one. It looks more real than one of my own arms." A substantial part of Laurie continued to hope that it was all still an elaborate prank. It was easier to accept than the possibility that Bucky might be something other than just a fellow soldier.

[onlyapassenger]

"Welcome to the future," he replies with a one-shouldered shrug.

He eyes Spud more carefully, and then decides, "You're freaked out."

[sorrydearie]

He drank some more tea, his hands and motions steady as a rock, just to show how unaffected he was. "I am not freaked out. I'm merely trying to take it all in, that's all."

[onlyapassenger]

"I'm still a soldier," Bucky says, wondering if it wasn't a mistake to tell him anything, "who fought in the same war you did. That part's the same, promise. I just saw a little more of the aftermath, is all."

[sorrydearie]

"Oh, I believe you. It doesn't change any of that." Laurie frowned, his brow furrowing. Trying to make sense of everything that Bucky had said was giving him a headache. "I'm just trying to make sense of it still, that's all. You've got to admit it sounds incredible."

[onlyapassenger]

"I'm not the most unbiased judge," Bucky points out, holding his cup between his hands and tilting it , absently, from side to side. "It's just my life, you know? I've heard more incredible things."

He's quick to add, "Which I'll keep to myself so I don't give you an aneurysm."

[sorrydearie]

"Thanks." Laurie threw a somewhat wry look in Bucky's direction. He was struck by a sudden, childish urge to demand the other man prove it all, like one schoolboy refusing to believe another's story until a suitably convincing souvenir was produced. Naturally, he couldn't and didn't say anything of the kind, but the thread of disbelief was still there, woven through everything he thought and said.

"You know, you've made my own life look dreadfully dull by comparison."

[onlyapassenger]

"That really wasn't my intention," Bucky replies, blinking up at Spud. "Just..." He pushes out a breath and leans back in his chair. "You're a friend. Seemed a weird thing to keep lying about, even just through omission."

There are other secrets he isn't so eager to share. That he worked for the Soviets, that he was brainwashed, all the terrible things he'd done as one of the world's most deadliest and efficient assassins... Telling Spud that he saw the future seemed the most harmless. His fingers itched over the button that controls the hologram on his arm, but Bucky doesn't press it.

"Would showing you help or are you gonna keep looking at me like I'm a liar?"

[sorrydearie]

"It couldn't hurt." Laurie shrugged, finishing the last of his tea, but not putting down the cup. Holding it wasn't much, but at least it gave him something to occupy his hands with. "Though it's not because I think you're a liar. Honestly, it's not."

[onlyapassenger]

Bucky sighs, dubious, but after another moment's hesitation, he presses the button. Flesh and muscle seems to melt away, leaving gleaming metal in its place, a white star encased in a blue circle outlined in red marking his shoulder. He holds out his arm, palm flat, and flexes his fingers into a fist.

"Not a liar."

[sorrydearie]

"I didn't say you were," Laurie said after a long pause. His hand twitched for a quick moment as though he was seriously contemplating touching it, then drew back. "Christ, that's bloody impressive."

[onlyapassenger]

"You can touch it," Bucky replies, rolling his eyes a little. "Not that I'll feel it. The hologram -- what hides it -- simulates the look and feel of flesh when I need to pass for normal, but it's for everyone else's benefit, not mine."

[sorrydearie]

So this was the future. Laurie brushed his fingers hesitantly over Bucky's arm, somehow still half expecting to meet flesh instead of the shock of cold metal. It was enough to occasion a low, impressed whistle. He had seen more than his share of artificial limbs, but none that had come anywhere near as complex and functional as that. "I know chaps at home who'd have done just about anything for one like that."

[onlyapassenger]

"The original model was Soviet tech built in '45," Bucky explains, slowly flexing his fingers so Spud can see the machinery at work. "Didn't have all the bells and whistles like this one, but it did its job. Still... Not so far off as all that."

[sorrydearie]

"I am well and truly impressed, Mr. Barnes," Laurie said, settling back in his chair, but still watching the other man move his mechanical hand. He could only imagine what life might be like if they had amputated his leg, if he had been able to get something like that to replace it.

"Well and truly impressed. Upon my honor, I shall never doubt you again. Even when it comes to dinosaurs."