Wild Horses

[morethan084]

[Daisy enters the cafe on the lower east side at 9:08 am, approximately 15 minutes after Bucky Barnes. It's unsurprisingly busy, given the time of day, but Daisy spots him at a table near one of the windows. Hands in her pockets, Daisy enters the line to order a simple black coffee. Once she has it, she grabs three packets of sugar and stirs into her coffee, only glancing once over in his direction before she tosses the empty packets into the garbage.

Her job was simple, keep an eye on Bucky Barnes. Make sure he's not getting into any trouble.]

Hey.

[Daisy speaks up, a smile on her face as she comes to the table he's sitting at.]

This seat taken?

[They've never met before, but she's been watching him for a few weeks now. Learning his routine. Which she's noticed he's a stickler for. Maybe it was better for him to have some kind of schedule. It sure as hell made her job easier.]

Comments

[restoral]

Bucky. I'm... new around here.

[ There's an awkwardness in his face, muscles that can't quite remember how to smile. She's being friendly and he likes it, or he wants to, but it feels so off from anything he's used to. ]

I was living overseas for a while.

[ He turns his head away, trying to hide the almost-wince at his own stupid words. Is this one of those times when people would pull out their phones to fiddle with because they feel awkward?

He pulls out his flip phone, opens it and then scrolls through the 7 contacts over and over again slowly.

Smooth. ]

[morethan084]

[Daisy smiles when he introduces himself, even when his own is painfully awkward.]

Really? Where at?

[Daisy asks, looking to the screen instead of keeping eye contact with him. Gotta keep it casual, right? Totally not a spy sent to keep an eye on him.

She does, however, briefly look at the phone in his hand. She can only assume it's a burner. Definitely makes it harder to tracked on.]

[restoral]

A few places around Europe. Mostly Russia.

[ It should be a casual question and an easy conversation. He's trying, but there's a strain that he can't quite shake because of everything tied up in that answer. Years of being frozen and unfrozen, missions he'd rather forget, faces and names and languages and bullets and blood.

A small wince and then he forces the smile back into place. ]

Not as exciting as it sounds. There's no place like home.

[ Even though he's not sure that he is. Home might not exist for him anymore. Bucharest hadn't been home, but neither had Wakanda. Fighting next to Steve had felt more like home than anything since the War, but that's behind him now, too. What the hell is home for a man whose last home is decades lost? ]

[morethan084]

I don't know, that sounds pretty exciting to me.

[Daisy briefly looks up at Bucky, smiling politely. She's surprised he even brings up Russia, considering she knows how his time there was spent. It definitely felt a little wrong, knowing so much about him, but it was the job she had been set up to do.]

What brought you back to the States?

[She asks as she brings her gaze back to her screen, typing away.]

[restoral]

Time to come home, I guess.

[ What made him come home? It just seemed like he should with the pardon on offer and after everything. Wakanda had been good, but he'd been hiding there and he'd already taken so much from them. ]

[morethan084]

Well, welcome to New York.

[As if he doesn't know that he's a native New Yorker.]

How are you liking it here?

[During this whole casual conversation, there's a part of Daisy that is nervous that he'd catch on. So far, however, he doesn't seem to notice and that's at least a little bit of a relief.]