[Avengers: Drabble] "How Things Change" [Bucky/Rhodey, G]
Title: How Things Change
Prompt: writerverse challenge 28 December table of doom, prompt 8 ‘never the same’
Word Count: 364
Original/Fandom: Avengers (MCU/movie ‘verse)
Pairings: James “Bucky” Barnes/James “Rhodey” Rhodes
Setting: part of my happy verse
Summary: The future is not quite as Bucky imagined it.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
How Things Change
“Okay,” said Rhodey. “What is it?”
Bucky frowned. “I don’t know if I can explain.”
“Ah.”
“No,” he said quickly. “It’s just… complicated. And weird.”
“Because complicated and weird is something I have no experience with,” Rhodey said, dryly.
Bucky snorted a laugh. “Yeah, okay. But how can I expect you to understand something that I don’t understand myself?”
“Maybe I don’t need to understand, then. Maybe I just need to listen.”
“Well, you are good at that.”
“Damn straight,” said Rhodey. “Now, what’s bothering you?”
“I thought things would be better,” said Bucky, in a rush. “The future was supposed to be better - and some things are! Some things I’d never even thought of, but it seems like some things are so much worse.”
“Like what?” asked Rhodey.
“I grew up during the Great Depression, you know. When the war broke out, everyone always promised it’d be better after. That we’d lick the Germans and win the war and no American would ever go hungry again.”
“We did win the war,” Rhodey pointed out.
“Sure,” Bucky agreed. “But when I was a kid, people were always willing to help out. There were soup kitchens and the Works Program. Now, it seems like… I mean, there were rich jerks back then, but now they’re richer and jerkier. And the poor are poorer.”
“Maybe. The eighties were a bad time for responsible economics.”
Bucky nodded. “When we were kids, Steve used to read these cheap science-fiction novels. They were always set in, like, two-thousand-three - don’t laugh, this was in the nineteen-thirties - and the world was always better. Flying cars, universal peace…”
“Yeah, Tony used to read crap like that, too,” agreed Rhodey. “But some things have got to be better than they were, better than the sci-fi?”
The other man thought for a moment. “You,” Bucky said, softly. “The fact that we can be together, plan a life together. Because this, you and me, this would have been super illegal in my day.”
Rhodey laughed. “See, with you, I always wonder if I’m robbing the cradle, or dating someone old enough to be my grandfather.”
“Both,” said Bucky, smiling, and tugged him closer. “Definitely both.”
THE END
Current Mood:
clean
Prompt: writerverse challenge 28 December table of doom, prompt 8 ‘never the same’
Word Count: 364
Original/Fandom: Avengers (MCU/movie ‘verse)
Pairings: James “Bucky” Barnes/James “Rhodey” Rhodes
Setting: part of my happy verse
Summary: The future is not quite as Bucky imagined it.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
How Things Change
“Okay,” said Rhodey. “What is it?”
Bucky frowned. “I don’t know if I can explain.”
“Ah.”
“No,” he said quickly. “It’s just… complicated. And weird.”
“Because complicated and weird is something I have no experience with,” Rhodey said, dryly.
Bucky snorted a laugh. “Yeah, okay. But how can I expect you to understand something that I don’t understand myself?”
“Maybe I don’t need to understand, then. Maybe I just need to listen.”
“Well, you are good at that.”
“Damn straight,” said Rhodey. “Now, what’s bothering you?”
“I thought things would be better,” said Bucky, in a rush. “The future was supposed to be better - and some things are! Some things I’d never even thought of, but it seems like some things are so much worse.”
“Like what?” asked Rhodey.
“I grew up during the Great Depression, you know. When the war broke out, everyone always promised it’d be better after. That we’d lick the Germans and win the war and no American would ever go hungry again.”
“We did win the war,” Rhodey pointed out.
“Sure,” Bucky agreed. “But when I was a kid, people were always willing to help out. There were soup kitchens and the Works Program. Now, it seems like… I mean, there were rich jerks back then, but now they’re richer and jerkier. And the poor are poorer.”
“Maybe. The eighties were a bad time for responsible economics.”
Bucky nodded. “When we were kids, Steve used to read these cheap science-fiction novels. They were always set in, like, two-thousand-three - don’t laugh, this was in the nineteen-thirties - and the world was always better. Flying cars, universal peace…”
“Yeah, Tony used to read crap like that, too,” agreed Rhodey. “But some things have got to be better than they were, better than the sci-fi?”
The other man thought for a moment. “You,” Bucky said, softly. “The fact that we can be together, plan a life together. Because this, you and me, this would have been super illegal in my day.”
Rhodey laughed. “See, with you, I always wonder if I’m robbing the cradle, or dating someone old enough to be my grandfather.”
“Both,” said Bucky, smiling, and tugged him closer. “Definitely both.”
THE END
Current Mood:
clean