It's all coming back to me now (Spot and Bucky)

[brooklynishere]

When the Hydra facility had been raided, the last thing anybody expected to find was a 16 year old kid on ice, and yet there he'd been. Steve had been the one to stop the Hydra scientist from shutting down the life support, but they hadn't got there in time to prevent the destruction of a good half the facility's records - including the ones about who the kid was or why he was there.

So what choice did they have but to wake him up and find out?

He was uncooperative at first, refused to give them any details other than the name 'Spot' and kept threatening to fight anybody that came close, though they managed to work out pretty easily that he was from Brooklyn and he'd been on the ice almost as long as Steve had. It's when he overhears a comment about Bucky that he seems to change his tune.

"Bucky Barnes?" he asks, and while he still seems wary, for the first time since he woke up he says something actually helpful "I'll talk to him. Tell him the name's Sean Conlon."

Comments

[brooklynishere]

Spot nods, heading to bed.

He tries to sleep, but after a while gives up and goes back downstairs, he sneaks out into the yard for a cigarette and then picks out another movie, curling up on the sofa with the TV on low.

He drifts off eventually in front of the TV, and he's tired enough that he doesn't wake up and go to bed.

Which is why when Bucky comes downstairs in the morning he'll not only find Spot sprawled out on the couch fast asleep, but an open cigarette packet and lighter sitting on the coffee table.

[not_a_commie]

Bucky comes down the stairs still in steve's sweats, hair wild from sleeping with it a little damp and tied up. He sees the cigarettes and lets out a less than amused huff, he doesn't wake the kid, but he picks up the smokes and lighter and slips them into the pocket of the sweats.

He sets to making them an actual breakfast more than just the weekday cereal and fruit. He settles on making french toast and bacon.

[brooklynishere]

The sound of Bucky in the kitchen filters through his consciousness and he stretches the kinks out from sleeping on the couch, blinking awake.

He sits up, gaze falling to the coffee table... where he remembers leaving his cigarettes the night before. Swearing under his breath he checks the floor around in case they've fallen off, but nope. He falls back against the couch with a sigh, realising he's probably in for some kind of lecture.

[not_a_commie]

Bucky pokes his head around the corner to look at Sean, "Mornin' sunshine." Bucky says lips twitching a little. "OH? Are you looking for something?" He asks giving Spot a shit-eating grin.

"Come on breakfasts ready." He says putting two plates on the table, and the bottle of syrup. "Before you eat tho," He says setting the iPad next to Spot's plate, "Google smoker's lung." He says lips twitching, setting the pack down next to the iPad.

[brooklynishere]

Spot just sighs even deeper, knowing he's rumbled and that Bucky is enjoying this far too much.

He drags himself off the couch and over to the table. At least he's getting a good breakfast...

With a frown, he googles as instructed, pulling a face at the pictures it brings up.

"You tryin' to put me off my breakfast?" he asks.

[not_a_commie]

"Maybe," Bucky smirks, leaning over and clicking images, then clicking one of them, and using his fingers, to zoom in. "Oh look how good smoking is for your lungs," Bucky says lips twitching again.

He goes back and taps to an info page, "their gonna give you cancer." He says flopping down to eat his breakfast.

[brooklynishere]

Given that cigarettes were still being billed as good for you when Spot was growing up, it's taking some time for these ideas to sink in - he's heard it in vague terms before now, but this is the first time he's actually looked at the evidence. It was kind of gross.

"Is that really what it does to you? Really? Like how much of it makes them like that?" he wasn't just thinking about himself, his mind drifting to Race and his cigars.

[not_a_commie]

Bucky thinks for a minute tucking into his breakfast, "No one knows how long it take, or how much it takes, but they know if you start young, your lungs don't really grow like they should." He says honestly. "They used to give Steve 'asthma cigarettes..." he snorts shaking his head, "I had to stop smoking the normal ones, every time I'd light one up, Steve had an asthma attack. " He chuckles softly. "But these motherfuckers can cause all kinds ..." He huffs at himself for cursing, "Can cause all kinds of problems so you gotta start trying to stop, bud."

While they eating breakfast Bucky's phone beeps, and he looks at it and smiles, "Your mom wants to know if we'd like to meet her for lunch."

[brooklynishere]

Spot puts the ipad down and turns to his breakfast, his appetite not actually diminished by the awful pictures. He eats quietly for a moment, just listening to Bucky's explanation. Weirdly, it's the cursing that tips the scales - the fact that Bucky feels so strongly about it that he'll curse in front of Spot when he normally tries to hard not to, he ends up nodding after a few more moments of consideration.

"I'll try." he agrees. He doesn't smoke that often, so it should be easy... right?

He turns his attention back to his breakfast and he's nearly done when Bucky speaks again - which is good, because as soon as he says that he suddenly isn't sure he can eat another bite. He swallows the mouthful he already has and stares down at his plate for a second.

"Sure." he says, his voice sounding hollow and nervous even to him "That... sounds good."

[not_a_commie]

Bucky gives Spot that look, the look that says are you sure. He's quiet for a minute "you know, you can say no." He points out, "If you're not ready." He says, "I'll text her back and say you're not ready if that's what you need. Or we rip the bandaid off and she buys us lunch, and you talk." He gives Sean a reassuring smile. "It'll probably be someplace good, she made a name for herself as a writer." He adds.

[brooklynishere]

"No, it's fine, I... I wanna see her today." it's rushed and awkward and nerve-wracking but at the same time that's not going to get any better, and there's a tiny part of him that's scared the opportunity might slip away. He still doesn't know how this is going to go, but he's always been a rip-the-bandaid-off kind of person. He liked action over words.

[not_a_commie]

Bucky nods and squeezes the kid's shoulder as he steps out of the kitchen to call Molly and set up lunch. He comes back a few minutes later, "We'll be meeting her at 12:30." he says sitting back down next to Spot and taking a sip of his coffee. "You sure you're okay?"

[brooklynishere]

"Yea I'm fine." Spot eyes the cigarette packet longingly, but then his gaze flicks back to the ipad and his shoulders sag.

"I'm done eating, just gonna go get dressed." what he really needs is a distraction, so he glances at the clock thoughtfully for a second and then back to his dad.

"Remember how you said I could get a camera? Could... could we go looking for one before we go meet mom?"

[not_a_commie]

"Yeah go get dressed, and we can head out and find you one." He smiles, "You want film or digital?" He asks arching a brow, "Just so I can figure out where we should go." He smiles. "Gotta get dressed my self." He smiles, "Nothing to fancy for lunch." He ruffles Spot's sleep floofed hair.

[brooklynishere]

Spot pauses to consider it. There's a part of him that wants to say film, it's more familiar - in concept if not in practice - and he sort of likes the idea of something more old school. But then part of the reason he wants the camera is to capture moments and keep them forever, and while it's a weird mental shift to consider digital objects lasting longer than physical ones, he's also learnt enough about technology to know all the ways digital images can be stored.

And it's not like he can't still print out copies.

"Digital." he decides eventually, before heading off to get changed.

[not_a_commie]

Bucky nods, and heads upstairs, he took two showers last night, he doesn't need one this morning. He pulls on a pair of fitted black jeans and clean black hightops and pairs it with a fitted gray long sleeve and a blue flannel.

He brushes through his hair puts it in what barton would call a man bun, but Steve always liked the way he looked when he dressed like this.

He heads back downstairs for more coffee and to wait for Spot figuring the kid will be fussing with his appearance for awhile.

[brooklynishere]

Spot throws on jeans and a t-shirt before remembering that they're not just going to buy a camera and then changes his mind a few times about what he's going to wear.

Eventually he sticks with the jeans and tee combo, but also throws on a soft cotton button-up with greyish purple checks that reminds him a lot of one of his old favourite shirts. He rolls up the sleeves and styles his hair the way he used to and comes back downstairs ready to go.

[not_a_commie]

Bucky laughs a little when he sees how similar they are dressed. "Getting better at not plastering your hair to your head." He teases but there is so much affection. He grabs the keys to the jeep and his black leather jacket it's finally getting deep enough into fall where there is a slight chill in the air.

It's about 20 minutes before they get to the camera store, it sells new digital cameras, new and vintage film camera. "Did you research what you might want, or are you just gonna look around and ask questions?" He asks as they enter shoving his hands into his pockets.

[brooklynishere]

Spot kind of likes it, it's like he's managed to form a link between the two sides of his life, dressing in something that reminds him of the old days on one hand, but also kind of matches his father on the other, it's a nice sort of balance that makes him feel a little better about today.

"I looked up some stuff," he admits "But I was hoping to ask some questions..." the number of cameras on show was a little overwhelming, and while he'd tried to figure out the stuff online there'd been so many numbers and letters involved he didn't know where to start.

So he figured he'd just ask one of the sales people what they recommended for what he wanted to do.

[not_a_commie]

Bucky gives Spot a reasonable budget for a nice starter camera, nothing crazy. He watches the kid walk around and talk to one of the assistances. He trusts the kid not to let himself get upsold.

When he sees Sean looking between the two he seems to have narrowed it down to, "You got an idea of what you want?" He asks easily.

[brooklynishere]

"Yea," Spot nods vaguely. The salesperson he spoke to was actually super helpful, they explained a lot of things that Spot hadn't been able to figure out from his own research, and helped him understand what he was looking for. Now he's narrowed it down to two that will both pretty much do the job, he just can't decide between their fairly similar specs.

"I just can't pick between these two."

[not_a_commie]

Bucky looks at the and the specs, he picks up the canon after looking at the information. "This one will take great pictures during the day, but has better low light and nighttime speeds than the other one." He says, "We have plenty of time before lunch too, so whichever one you get if the batteries charged out of the box, we can go use it for a bit, " He says handing it to Spot.

"Should take photography as your next elective at school, since you're almost caught up, on the academic stuff." He bumps Spot's shoulder a little.

[brooklynishere]

"Yea that's a good point," Spot agrees, thinking of the views across the Brooklyn bridge in the evening and how much he'd like to capture them. "Okay, this one."

Getting some practice with the camera before lunch sounds perfect, and he readily agrees to it - it'll keep him occupied until then, if his mind is on the photos he can't worry about lunch.

"Yea.. yea I think I will." he nods, the idea of studying photography at school is kind of wild compared to what he's used to, but there were so many subjects he could take now that he never would have been able to before.

[not_a_commie]

Bucky gets Sean a memory card, and a case, if he sticks with it, he'll get the kid another lens for Christmas or some shit.

It takes them a bit but they find parking near the restaurant, and head into Central Park to walk around and let Sean test his camera for a bit.

"We've got about an hour." He says as they walk.

[brooklynishere]

Spot happily distracts himself for an hour, playing with the settings on the camera, taking shots of scenery and more experimental things, close up shots of flowers, pictures of Bucky, generally just messing around testing things out. He gets a few pictures he likes the look of, but mostly he's just learning his way around the camera and what works.

It's nearly time for lunch but he hasn't even noticed, busy trying to get a shot of a squirrel that's paused on a bench.