Venus | James B. Barnes✔️

lxi. 𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚜

BUCKY TOSSED the food over the fence with his arm, rolling his eyes playfully when he heard the small giggles from his wife behind him. Turning, he rose a brow as if to question why the hell she was laughing. She smirked and bit back her laugh as she pointed to the goats, and Bucky turned to see what she was talking about.

The goat had walked over to him, grabbing at the bottom of his shawl. He rolled his eyes, yanking the garmet free.

"Not funny," he told her.

She shrugged. "Kinda funny."

Bucky said nothing else as he jumped over the fence carefully. Evelyn walked back to their small home, groaning quietly at the sound of the phone she owned dinging. She searched around for the noisy thing before finding it underneath a pile of blankets.

She furrowed her eyes at the name on the device before answering it.

"Hello?"

"Is that my favorite aunt I hear?"

"It's your only aunt."

"Well, don't ruin all the fun," Tony teased. "I was wondering if you'd like to stir up some trouble?"

"What kind of trouble?"

Tony's voice held a grin as he said, "I miss you, sue me. I want to get lunch, but we'll have to be in and out before Ross tries to have you arrested. What do you say?"

So, Evelyn found herself in a Burger King on Manhattan wearing the first familiar outfit she had worn in almost six months of being in Wakanda with Bucky. She had her signature Stark sunglasses on her face as her heel-clad foot bounced every so often.

Tony walked inside of Burger King looking like the King he was, a smirk on his lips as he let his sunglasses fall ever so slightly. Pepper was latched on his arm, the rock on her finger blinding all the way from over at the table where she sat. They looked like movie stars walking toward her.

Evelyn stood up, pulling off her glasses and immediately bringing Pepper to her in a warm embrace. "Congratulations," she whispered in the woman's ear.

"Thanks," Pepper said back. "Wow, you look tan... your hair looks lighter. Have you been living in the sun?"

Evelyn laughed as she pulled Tony to her next. She held him close, savoring the moment with him as she replied, "I have, actually. Very good for the stress levels, you know?" She backed away, cupping Tony's face after ripping off his sunglasses to see his eyes better. "Hey," she told him. "How've you been?"

He smiled at her. "Good. Great, even. We should get some cheeseburgers."

Evelyn laughed, letting him go order for the three as she and Pepper sat back in the booth. Pepper reached over, grabbing Evelyn's hand and twisting the wedding ring she had seen for so long. While Tony was gone, she said, "How is he?" Evelyn bit her lip. "You can tell me, Evelyn. I know what your husband did was wrong, but he was not in his own mind... Tony's slowly coming to accept it."

"They got the Winter Soldier out of him," she said, not explaining who they were. "He's free. He's happy. No arm on his left, but he's all right. We've never felt such peace, Pep."

Pepper smiled. "And you both deserve it. I can't even imagine..." she trailed off, squeezing Evelyn's hand again. "I'm glad to hear he's okay now."

They both became quiet when Tony returned with a tray full of burgers and fries. Behind him, a worker brought three drinks. Tony gave him a hundred dollar bill before shooing him off. "So," Tony began as they began to eat. "What's been new with the criminals?"

Evelyn snorted. "So far? They are moving from place to place. Not sure where they are at the moment."

Tony hummed. "Did you hear about my little protégé?"

Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows before she let a deadpanned look move onto her face. "If you say it's the Aggravating Spider-thing, I'm going to throw my wrapper at your face."

Pepper and Tony both chuckled at her name for him. Pepper took the liberty of moving Evelyn's wrappers from the woman as Tony nodded. "Spider-Man. Peter Parker," he whispered the kid's name. "Don't tell anyone, but I can see him taking over one day. Super smart. Even better with his little suit I made for him. He totally kicked your ass, by the way. Told me all about it."

"You know what, Tone?" she said with a scowl before shrugging and throwing a fry down. "Ah, whatever. He did kick our asses. He seemed sweet, at least. Not a douche."

"Correcto," Tony said. "He's got a good heart." It was quiet chatter about their lives and how Pepper and Tony were going to be moving soon before the wedding. Tony promised he would find a way to get Evelyn there, wanting her to be there since his parents could not be and because he loved her enough. When they heard sirens, Tony sighed. "You know, I'm so glad you decided to come. I missed you."

"I didn't think you'd risk this," Pepper admitted with a laugh before adding, "but then I remembered you're a Stark before anything. You like to bend the rules to your will."

Evelyn bit back a smile as she hugged them tightly. They walked outside, and they could hear the sirens growing louder. "Call me sometime. I'm always available nowadays. Comes with being a wanted criminal."

"Be careful, Auntie," Tony called out to her as she placed her sunglasses back on her face. She turned, seeing his hand reaching out a piece of equipment. Her eyes widened as she grabbed her old headpiece with Friday hooked inside of it.

"Always, Tony. Thank you." She placed it on her head, watching the hologram expand in front of her eyes.

Evelyn lifted her foot, pressing the button on the shoe that was hidden. Tony and Pepper watched her heels become running shoes. She grabbed the jacket next to her, throwing it over her head as she pulled the hood up to cover her waves of brunette hair. She leaned over to show her eyes, winking at her family members before taking off. They watched her jump onto the nearest building—the serum kicking in as she grabbed a railing of a balcony and swung her body up. When her shadow disappeared, that was when the cops showed up.

Tony was helping his fiancée into his expensive car when he shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno where she went, Blue Balls," he said after reading the man's last name to be 'Balls.' He left quickly, a Stark smirk on his face.

Jumping over buildings, Evelyn wore the same smirk. She could hear her phone begin to ring, so she called out, "Friday? Who is it?"

The woman she had not heard in years spoke, "Hello, Mrs. Barnes. It is Captain Rogers." Evelyn's heart clenched that Tony had made sure her name stayed programmed as Bucky's last name.

"Answer it."

Evelyn waited a moment before she heard, "Next building, jump as high as you can."

Evelyn's eyes became excited as she pushed herself harder. With all of her strength, she pushed her legs up into the sky. She thought she was going up just to fall to the ground far below, but soon, she saw a hand reach out of nowhere to grab her. As she was pulled inside of the jet, she realized it was cloaked... making it impossible to see. When she pushed her hood off and tilted her head downward, she saw the smiling faces of Steve, Sam, and Natasha.

"Well, that was one way to escape," she huffed out, breaths still short.

"Escape?" Sam asked. "Nah, nah. You were taking your evening stroll at that pace, right?" he teased.

She rolled her eyes while a laugh bubbled out of her throat. "God, I missed you guys."