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softbiker · 4 years

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Born to Run - Chapter 13

Warnings: language, zero editing

Word count: 1.5k

A/N: Sorry I’m late! Hopefully this chapter is worth it :) I love you all! Thanks for reading this series!

This shouldn’t be so difficult.

She was absolutely overthinking.

She continued to fuss with her blouse, tug at the waistband of her jeans, both of which refused to settle in the effortless way she imagined. Other uncooperative articles of clothing lay on the floor and on the bed, where she’d flung them in punishment for refusing to go along with her fashion concepts. She didn’t even have that many clothes here at the clubhouse anyway, so her options were extremely limited. But so far, nothing was right.

It’s just a date, she told herself. You’ve been on a million of them. It’s not worth this much stress.

And yet.

It had only been a couple of days since Bucky finally - officially - asked her out. Point blank. Face to face. They had already kissed for Christ’s sake, why the hell was she so nervous about a date?

She peeled off the blouse and tossed it on the floor with the rest. Next option.

**********

Across the clubhouse, Bucky tugged his leather jacket over his shoulders, looking at his reflection in the long bathroom mirror. He frowned, adjusting the collar a bit, before taking the jacket off. Nervous fingers re-tucked his button-down shirt and picked at the cuffs, pondering a wardrobe change. It’s not like he had much that was nicer, but...well, he wanted to look like he tried.

His hair was slicked back into a neat bun, and he turned his head in profile, making sure the stray hairs were tucked in. Maybe he should have shaved…

A glance at his watch, and he huffed, hands on his hips. Time to stop preening.

He shuffled the jacket on again, patted down his pockets - phone, wallet, keys. Glanced at the mirror one more time. Took a deep breath.

Gotta go see about a girl.

**********

“So...are you gonna tell me where we’re going?” Y/N wondered aloud. They’ve been on the road for several minutes, in a truck - borrowed from Clint - and driving away from town.

“Don’t you like surprises?” he teased - one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the console. An offer, but she hadn’t taken it.

“Honestly? Not so much,” she smiled. “At least, not lately.”

“Well this is a good surprise,” he looked over at her for a moment, his smile sweet and soft. “Trust me.”

She narrowed her eyes at him playfully but sat back in her seat, watching the headlights cut through the dark over the road.

Trust me.

Barely realizing it, her hand lifted up and rested on top of his.

Too late.

**********

The cars along the interstate speed past, the headlights and taillights forming a blinking red and white trail in the distance. Ward watches them on the bridge, cigarette sticking out of the corner of his mouth. The cherry burns bright red as he puffs, sitting by himself this time. He readjusts his position on his bike, and glances at the time on his watch. Should be any minute now.

He wasn’t too attached to Brock Rumlow - can’t ever be too friendly with a sonuvabitch like that - but dammit if he didn’t miss the man a bit now. There were some things Ward preferred not to know about the business, things he was happy to be ignorant of, things that went blissfully over his head. He was never an ambitious man - perfectly content to play the muscle, the henchman. Now, with Rumlow gone, he’d gotten a promotion, of sorts.

If it was all the same, he’d just as soon go back to running errands for the bosses.

He checked his watch again - on cue, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

“Hello?”

The voice on the phone barely waited for him to speak.

“Ward - you got what I asked for?”

“Yeah. Just waiting on the money to come through.”

“You’ll get the fuckin’ money, Jesus - okay, now listen up - here’s what I need you to do next…”

**********

“Wow...I didn’t know they even made these anymore,” she stared at the sign as the car pulled into the lot.

“Yeah, this one’s been around since the 70’s I think - and it got refurbished last year,” Bucky offered eagerly. “Retro is in, ya know?”

They pulled up to the box and he paid for their tickets to the drive-in, taking the little card of instructions from the kid in the booth. He pulled the car around the rows of other viewers, looking for a good spot. On the screen above them, the projector was already playing vintage movie cartoons - little animated popcorns and sodas and candies singing about buying snacks.

Bucky parked the car in the third row, where their view was unobstructed by larger trucks or SUVs; backing into the space, he made sure the bed of the truck was in view of the movie screen.

In the passenger seat, Y/N tried to hide her smile; this was...completely unexpected, and surprisingly sweet. She’d never been to a drive-in before, but they always seemed like a fun idea. Looking over her shoulder, she now noticed there was a pile of blankets and pillows stuffed into the truck bed, as well as a cooler.

Bucky turned off the ignition but left the key in, tuning the radio dial to the correct station on the instruction card. Both of them were quiet, her watching his hands on the dial, listening to the faint jingle of the concessions ad over the speakers.

His smile was nervous when he looked up at her.

“C’mon, doll - let’s get this show on the road.”

He hopped out of the cab and made his way around behind the truck, lowering the tailgate and jumping up. Y/N swung her own door open and jumped down from her seat, walking around the other side. With a look of determination on his face, Bucky unfolded layers and layers of blankets, an egg crate mattress topper underneath them all, fluffing up the comforters and pillows and then topping it off with a few throw blankets to cover up. He put his hands on his hips, lower lip caught between his teeth, and turned to face her.

He cleared his throat.

“So...what do you think?” he asked, a hint of nerves creeping through. Her heart swelled, pressing up tight against her ribs.

“It’s perfect, Buck.”

His smile lit up the lot.

**********

The drive-in was playing a double feature that night - two new films, a romantic comedy and a superhero movie. Bucky’s cooler was pre-packed with a few beers and some candy, and he bought pizza for the two of them from the little concession stand across from the ticket booth. Cuddled into the back of the truck, she watched his face in the glow of the movie screen, trying not to be too obvious. His eyes tracked the characters, chuckling at their mishaps and antics, smiling at the tender moments. He must have sensed her watching him - about halfway through the first film, he tilted his head down to look at her, smile growing as he found her eyes already on him.

“Hi,” he whispered.

“Hi.”

“You like the movie?”

“It’s pretty good - the characters are kinda dumb.”

Bucky laughed under his breath.

“If they were smarter, there wouldn’t be a movie.” He booped her nose, the arm around her shoulder tightening just a little. She tried not to notice how close his lips were.

“Hm. What a shame.” She couldn’t think of anything else clever to say, her eyes roaming from that sweet little dimple on his chin, shadowed by stubble, to the soft curve of his lips, only inches away from hers.

Bucky held his breath as she leaned half an inch, half a breath closer - his heart was stuttering, but she tilted up her chin and he felt himself drawn forward, his eyes fluttering closed.

So much better than their first kiss, so much sweeter. Softer. Now everything was alright, now they had the time - to taste, to tease, to savor. His arm around her shoulder lowered slightly, a palm to the center of her shoulder blades to press her closer as his lips brushed across hers again and again. Neither slipped their tongue, not yet; neither of them dared to interrupt the tenderness of the moment. Afraid that if they pushed too hard, their bubble would burst.

Her hands crept up along his jaw and into his hair, ruining the bun he had carefully combed his hair into. She could feel the smile edging up the corner of his mouth, and a giggle bubbled up in her, involuntarily. He pulled back with an answering grin, squeezing her tight before diving back in, his kisses firmer but no less sweet, his other hand coming up to cup her face.

They didn’t catch a single minute of the second movie.

**********

Alone in her room at the clubhouse, Natasha stared at her phone. She had gotten email confirmation from Ross earlier - arrangements were being made for Y/N’s extraction, as well as her own. Money was on hold for approval, but she knew she could get it. She just had to talk some sense into her first; she’d convince her. It was time to get out.

The phone rang, right on schedule.

“Romanoff.”

“Natasha. You got a green light?”

Her free hand curled into a fist.

“Almost.”

#bucky x reader #bucky x y/n #bucky x you #bucky x reader fic #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes imagine #biker!bucky #avengers #avengers fic #marvel #marvel fic

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argocitycosplay · 4 years

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I’ll say this for Great Lakes Comic Con, I never fail to have a good time there – it’s always been a good show all the way back to that first year that Maddie and I discovered it when we were looking for an alternative to Wizard World Cleveland. I skipped this one last year mostly because there were no guests that I was interested in and as such, it fell prey to the streamlining of my schedule. This time around however, not only were they bringing in the actors from the old Shazam series, but they were also bringing in one of my bucket list writers – Jim Starlin. His run on Batman is transformative, and the combination of him, Mike DeCarlo and Jim Aparo are my definitive creative team for that book.

Nevertheless, I woke up that morning with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. It was an early departure, primarily because Starlin had capped his signing line to 25 people per hour, due to a hand injury. I know from experience that means you better get over to that table and grab a line ticket as soon as the show opens or you may not get to meet the guest – I’ve been burned on Bruce Campbell this way and almost lost my opportunity to get George Perez to sign my stuff. On the other hand, I would’ve preferred to have shown up around Noon and wasn’t sure if I’d have enough to d all day. Still, I have faith in Great Lakes and so I drug myself out of bed and made the long, arduous journey to Deee-troit!

I was pleased to discover that the line wasn’t as long as it had been on my previous trip, and I managed to make it over to Jim’s table just after 10:30. I was able to secure a place in line between 2 o’clock and 3 o’clock – that was going to make things difficult with the costume, I’d probably have to get in and out of it a couple of times but at least I was going to get my books signed! Ticket secured, I made my way over to the Shazam booth where the guys were friendly and happy to see me. Bringing in superheroes from these old 70s shows reminds me a lot of Akron Comicon’s old philosophy and I’ve always enjoyed the selection that Great Lakes brings in. Across the sprawling, massive dealers room floor I found some fun blind boxes of Ghostbuster stuff as well as one dealer unloading a ton of Walking Dead swag for a buck apiece. I grabbed Lucille pens for Amy and Lydia, as well as a pack of Pokémon cards for Maddie. At the door, the freebie station was set up and people were handing out promotional items for the Harley Quinn movie – tiny hammer and bat keychains as well as posters and enamel pins. I’m not proud. I loaded up. Lydia would be delighted with the tiny Harley hammer that I brought her home. Right near the entrance I spied a vendor selling Spider-man Essentials volumes for two dollars apiece and picked up two of the huge trades and headed back to the car. It was time for a swag dump and a change of outfit.

Fortunately for me, Michigan was having a mild winter so it wasn’t too terrible as I lugged the Skeksis costume in, wearing only the sweatpants and shirt that went underneath it. I geared up and took a look at the clock – I’d have to get back into civvies in two hours, but that would allow me plenty of time to make a couple of rounds through the floor.

In the week between Zip Con and Great Lakes, I had completely reworked the left arm so that it now held a staff. The hand, staff, and arm were all one piece, repainted and sculpted out of Great Stuff and PVC but this would be my first time walking around with it. I’d also drilled a hole in the neck connector so that I could drop a nail through the joint, securing the head to keep it from falling off again. There in the front hall, I had people coming up to me for photos before I had even completely suited up. After my experience at Zip Con and with the addition of the staff I was feeling much better about this costume and was happy to see how well received it was at the show. One young man in his twenties came up to me and told me he recognized it – not from the new Netflix series, but because his parents used to play the movie for him all the time on VHS! Another person confided in me that The Dark Crystal was one of the few films that genuinely scared him as a kid and gave him nightmares. I smiled and told him I was glad to have contributed to his psychosis.

As I made my way to the back of the convention floor, the people over at Guy Gilchrist’s table spotted me. Gilchrist is a Henson alumni, and bills himself as Jim Henson’s cartoonist. His assistant jabbed at his arm, drawing his attention up and away from the piece he was working on. His eyes widened in amazement and he exhaled deeply in wonder. He invited me over to get photos and showed me a photo of him with Jim Henson “This was taken right around the time he was creating you!”. It meant a lot to hear how impressed he was with the costume, he insisted on signing a Dark Crystal print for me and told me to come pick it up once I was out of costume.

I checked the time, Tom DeFalco‘s panel was about to start and I figured I’d be able to make it through about half of it at least before I have to shuffle out of the suit. Some of the con staff were nice enough to open the door to the panel room for me and I slipped into the back corner. DeFalco was just beginning his talk and had been handing out notes. He grabbed the moderator and handed a stack f papers to him and then pointed to the back.

“…and let’s get one of these over to the… Creature… In the back.”

I enjoyed DeFalco’s talk about his approach to creating comics. This is another one of those things that great Lakes does really well, and I remember having a similar reaction when they brought Jim Shooter in for a talk much like this. I was disappointed when I had to slip out, but time is ticking away and I wanted to be in normal clothes to meet Jim Starlin.

I carried my bundle out to the car and decided it would be too much trouble to get the lizard feet off (they are the hardest part of the costume, and it always takes me forever to wriggle out of them. I usually don’t take them off until I get home actually) and decided to just put my jeans back on over top of them. It had warmed up enough that I left my leather jacket in the car and just wore my sweater, topping it off with a hat to cover my hair, mussed from the costume.

Starlin himself was warm and congenial.

“Batman was always my hero,” he told me. “ I mean back then, it was either superman Batman or wonder woman – and then maybe a little bit later the fly or the Jaguar, but it was really mostly Superman Batman and Wonder Woman”

He looked at my copy of Death in the Family as he was signing it.

“It was a shame, after we killed off Robin, somebody in merchandising realized it was a problem, and all of a sudden I was kind of persona non grata at DC. Work just dried up. Fortunately, there were some openings over at Marvel and I ended up working on a little thing call the Infinity Gauntlet – so I can’t complain too much!”

Before I got back into the costume, where I would stay for the remainder of the show, I managed to swing through and do a bit more shopping. No quarter bins, but plenty of 50 Cent bins and I managed to score some Punisher and Green Hornet. I was shocked when I discovered a bunch of Hulk and Star Trek issues in one those 50 Cent bins, all signed by writer Peter David. David is one of my favorite writers and I actually go out of my way to meet him at Hall of Fame Comicon a couple of years ago. I can’t for the life of me understand why these are in the discount boxes, but I wasn’t complaining. I grabbed as many as I could find and came home with a stack of new stuff to read.

I spent the last two hours of the show back in the Skeksis outfit. I hadn’t realized how much muscle it would take to carry around the staff. It’s not that it was heavy, just that used muscles in my forearm that I’m not used to flexing all the time! About an hour before the costume contest, I saw a familiar costume style walk in, a cosplayer I’d seen around Michigan a few times – he’d spent most of the day in a diffrent costume, but now was in his new hydra suit which managed to place during the costume contest. Backstage and waiting for the contest to proceed, I had fun fooling around with some of the other contestants – hypnotizing one of them with my staff and joking with some of the others. This time with the other cosplayers is consistently my favorite part about doing costume contests – it’s not about whether you win or lose, it’s about who you get to know!

As the show drew to a close, I slunk out quickly and quietly- exhausted and ready to hit the nearest McDonald’s for some hydration on the way home. Still, despite my fatigue, I had fun and can’t wait to come back.

Great Lakes Comic Con 2020 I’ll say this for Great Lakes Comic Con, I never fail to have a good time there – it’s always been a good show all the way back to…

#Great lakes Comic Con #Jim Starlin #Skeksi #Skeksis #Skeksis cosplay

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