#man I gotta draw mw again I miss it..

[kenzieam]

Not Happening, Doll - Chapter One (Bucky X Levi)

Rating: M (language, violence, eventual smut, angst)

Genre: Drama/Angst

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I KNOW, I KNOW!!! I HAVEN’T FINISHED ALL MY PENDING STORIES AND HERE I AM STARTING A NEW ONE… I CAN’T HELP IT, LOL. COME ALONG FOR THE RIDE.

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Levi and Bucky cannot stand each other (or rather, the former Winter Soldier cannot stand to be around the Avenger’s newest member and, like the ass he is, he won’t divulge why) and of course, they get teamed up for a new mission. It’s deep cover this time and not only do they have to work together, they have to pretend they’re MARRIED.

Heaven help them….

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“No.” The declaration was so abrupt that even Tony was stunned silent. Finally, he managed a disbelieving, “No?“

Bucky nodded once; eyes stubbornly fixed to a corner of the room that nobody currently was occupying, arms crossed firmly across his massive chest.  

“What-the-fuck-why?” Tony asked, voice hardening.

Bucky shrugged, glancing up once to briefly meet the glare of the woman he was referring to. “She’s too new, too green.”

Levi snorted derisively, rolling her eyes so hard Steve worried she’d just seen her brain and he was plagued with a similar impulse.  

“She’s new to us, not this line of work.” Tony’s voice was sharp now, warning the former assassin who only shrugged again, drawing a low snarl of anger from Levi.

“What the hell is this bullshit, Barnes? I gotta bleed for you first? Gotta pass initiation?” Levi’s violet eyes were incandescent, blazing with fury and indignation and Steve wondered idly if she would simply launch herself over the table at Bucky. This wasn’t the first time Bucky had questioned Levi’s abilities in front of the team, but it was the boldest.

“I’m not babysitting-”

“Oh, fuck you Barnes! Who the fuck kicked your amnesiac ass just yesterday in training, huh? Me!” Levi slammed her fist down on the table for emphasis then abruptly turned her attention back to Tony. “I’m not going to work with someone who doesn’t trust me.”

Tony sighed. “I need you to. Nat’s cover might be compromised and I can’t pull Wanda; unless Frosty and Steve are willing to play a gay couple, it’s on you.”  

Levi’s full lip curled and she fixed her blazing glare back on Bucky. “I’ll go, but send me with someone else who’s not a peckerhead.”

Steve had to disguise his sudden snort of laughter with a cough, rolling his chair away to face Clint and Nat. Nat was still disgusted at being grounded, her arms crossed over her chest, while Clint snort fresh coffee out his nose and proceeded to howl like he’d just been hit with an electric cattle prod, prompting Sam to laugh so hard he started choking and needed Steve to whack him on the back. Bucky just glowered; his expression a mix of begrudging amusement and boredom.

Tony shook his head faintly, glancing upwards to implore for strength. “It has to be him; he’s got the most experience with this type of infiltration work. We need absolute secrecy and camouflage to be successful.”

“And we have to pose as a married couple?” Levi clarified. At Tony’s nod, she rolled her eyes again and shot finger guns at Bucky. “There’s no way Captain Siberia can pull that off, affection? Shit, we’ll be blown inside a day.”

Anger joined the boredom in Bucky’s eyes, and something else Steve couldn’t immediately identify. His mouth opened in rebuttal but Steve didn’t wait to hear what came out.

“Stop it.” He commanded. He glared for emphasize at both Bucky and Levi, but let his gaze soften with her. It was no secret that Bucky had made Levi’s transition into this team as rocky as possible and this was finally going too far, even for the benefit of the doubt Steve often seemed to extend his oldest friend’s way. “This is the way it has to be. Bucky, you’re the most experienced in this; Levi, you are more than capable. I know you haven’t had too many opportunities to prove yourself with us yet, but I’ve read your jacket, you can handle this assignment all day.”

Bucky’s face went hard, his eyes darkening. Abruptly he stood and stormed from the room.

“Briefing in an hour! Wheel’s up in three!” Tony bellowed at his retreating back. The slamming door was his only answer.

Steve exhaled and forced a smile as Levi turned to look at him. She raised a brow.

“He’ll come around.” Steve offered weakly and Levi snorted, pushing sharply at the table to spin her chair away.

******************************************************************************************

“You proud of yourself?” Steve demanded, poking his head into Bucky’s room. He only grunted in answer, shoving supplies into a tactical duffel.  

“What is your problem with her, Buck? Levi’s got this-”

“Just drop it; punk.”

“No, I’m curious.” Steve strode past Bucky and flopped down onto his bed, resting his folded arms behind his head; crossing his feet at his ankles he fixed his oldest friend with a baleful eye. “Enlighten me. What is it about Levi that rubs you the wrong way?”

Bucky only sneered, disappearing into his bathroom.  

“She’s enhanced too.” Steve began. “Is that the problem? She’s the last experiment tied to Howard Stark, is that it? She’s new to us but not to this line of work. Fury trusts her; hell, we all do, why don’t you?”

“Why do you?” Bucky shot back; reappearing from the bathroom. “Who knows what SHIELD had her do, all her files were destroyed, why?”

“What about you?!” Steve demanded and was immediately ashamed when Bucky flinched at his words. “We going to start judging people based on their past now? Where does that leave you?” He snapped his mouth shut, already hating himself for going there. “All I mean is, you’re better than your past, and nobody holds it against you; why can’t you give her the same courtesy?”

Bucky fixed Steve with a dark, heavy, hateful glare. “Glass houses, right?” He spat, his voice dripping venom and pain.

“Buck, c’mon-”

“Whatever.” The former assassin stormed out; jaw clenched.  

The briefing was tense. Bucky glowered at nobody and nothing while Levi listened with a grave intensity, flicking occasional glances at Bucky before returning her attention to the information. The mission, while simple, was delicate. Bucky and Levi were going deep undercover, posing as a married couple, to infiltrate and observe a curious abnormality in a small industrial community. It was the type of place where a large corporation had moved in and all but bought the town; most of the residents were employed in the corporation itself, while the rest depended on the worker’s business to survive. The company had been going on a hiring spree in recent months, enlarging its work base to almost double and deep digging had discovered suspicious ties to murky industries overseas, blank parent companies with flowery bullshit names that, if you dug even further, stunk of HYDRA.  

Bucky, to his flat curiosity, was to play a stay-at-home husband, a man who worked from home on computers (children’s book illustration, to Sam’s intense amusement) and rarely left the house while Levi would be the one to actually begin working at the company. While Levi worked to burrow her way into the dealings at the corporation, Bucky would spend his days sneaking around like a thief, planting bugs and wire-taps in the neighborhood that he would then be able to monitor in real time from almost directly on top of.  

The corporation was too legally backed and too savvy to be taken down by anything resembling a government or law enforcement tied investigation and so the here they were, ready to dive in, the old-school way.

“Your backgrounds have been sent to your tablets, memorize them; we’ve got everything up to and including how much the tooth fairy gave you as a kid. Your entire life is there if someone gets suspicious and starts digging.” Tony explained, rubbing his forehead wearily.  

“Did I miss something? Why is nobody asking why we’re sending a former HYDRA agent directly into a suspected snake pit?” Levi broke in suddenly, her voice hard. “I mean, the guy’s a cyborg, it kinda makes you stand out in a crowd.”

Ashamed anger flared in Bucky’s eyes and his lip curled involuntarily. Tony shifted uneasily in his chair, clearly wishing that Levi hadn’t brought up such a sticky point. Steve tensed, ready to intercept if things suddenly turned violent, dimly noting that the rest of the team was doing the same around him. Levi continued to stare levelly at Bucky, one brow raised and Steve admired her balls, they definitely clanged.  

“We don’t really have a choice. We can’t risk an in and out type surveillance, that’s why we gotta go old school. We need someone with the most experience at deep cover and Barnes here has made a living, involuntary as it may have been, at being invisible. He’s also got the real-time experience to evaluate and make determinations on what he picks up, without having to send out communications that might get detected or intercepted. And you’re new enough to the team that no one tied to HYDRA should recognize you. It’s a definite risk but one we need to take.” He paused then and winced as he continued. “Which is also why you have to cut your hair and dye it before you go, Barnes.”

“WHAT?!” Bucky exploded, leaping to his feet.

“Well, Lev’s got a point. Your arm you can hide, that shaggy, greasy mess you call hair, right out there to see.”

“When were you going to tell me this?!”

“You would have known this if you’d read the jacket earlier but you chose to storm out like a toddler.” Tony snapped and Steve groaned quietly. This was falling to shit awfully fast. Bucky was already chafing on a number of points, chiefly being working with Levi, followed closely with being stuck as the mole, burrowing around in the background like vermin and demanding he cut his hair was probably going to be the proverbial straw.

“Your wardrobes are being sent ahead with the ‘moving company’ to the house, you need to fit the preppy style chosen for you.”

“Preppy?!” He thundered, nearly apoplectic now. “I gotta be-” he paused, then spat the word. “A millennial?”

At this, Tony finally had the grace to look temporarily sheepish. “Starbucks chic.” He shrugged, cockiness returning.  

Tony had a death wish, that was the only explanation. Salvation, however, came from an unlikely source.

“Save your energy, Barnes. We gotta get going.” Levi cut in; her voice surprisingly soft. She ran a hand regretfully through her own auburn mane, and looked over at where Bucky stood, chest heaving, fists on hips. “I have to dye my hair too, and wear ‘vegan leather’ or some shit.” She stood then with a heavy sigh, gathering the tablet and folder of information in front of her, holding them to her chest. She met Bucky’s glare again, but surprise had drifted into his eyes now, his lips slightly parted. “C’mon, husband. Escort your wife to the beauty salon.” She turned to address Steve. “Meet us in the hanger in an hour?”

Steve nodded, surprise making him dizzy as Bucky seemed to cave, heaving an almighty sigh before gathering his own materials and storming after Levi, pausing only long enough at the door to whirl and give Tony the bird.  

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An hour later, a Seattle metrosexual and his vegan-leather clad wife marched into the hanger, walking close enough to fool a layman into thinking they were friendly with each other, as long as you ignored the sparks of banked anger and resentment flashing in their eyes every time they happened to meet.  

Bucky was now blond, sporting the uber trendy slicked-back undercut and clearly uncomfortable in fitted khakis and a body-hugging long-sleeved, navy blue sweater. Levi was only slightly less uncomfortable with a harsh geometric bob in unrelieved black, skin-tight jeans and white, deep-v necked, button-down men’s shirt, the sleeves rolled up and left unbuttoned half-way down to her navel.  

Steve bit his lip to keep from laughing. They had an hour and a half quinjet flight, followed by a two-hour drive with Steve to a safe house, then another hour and a half drive without him further to their new ‘neighborhood’ to get comfortable and learn all the shit on their tablets. And to eighty-six this distance between them, not even trendy hipster couples practiced this level of ‘anti-love’.

Bucky glared daggers at Steve, correctly reading his amusement and stormed up the ramp. Without a word he threw himself into the rear-row seat; Levi watched him mildly before looking at Steve and offering a faint smile.  

“Think we have a chance?” She asked.

Steve fought a grimace. “I’m not worried about you, I mean, I am… but you can take care of yourself…. I’ve never seen Buck this wound up though.”

“He really doesn’t like me, does he?” There was a definite edge of sadness in her voice and Steve reached over, slinging an arm over her shoulders and pulling her close, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead.  

“I don’t know what his problem is. He won’t tell me, and I’m worried what I said to him made it worse.”

“I doubt that, he respects you too much.” She paused, a little uncomfortably, then added. “We should get going.”

Steve nodded and turned, pulling Levi with him up the ramp and depositing her gently in a seat across from Bucky, to her faint amusement. Her smile however, faded when she slipped into the seat and remembered her ‘husband’ glowering at them both. Pulling out her tablet from a trendy over-sized tote, she smiled gamely at Steve while he strode further to the cockpit then turned her attention to reading her fictional past.  

With an aggravated sigh, Bucky yanked his out and began to do the same, glaring smoking holes into the screen.  

Steve barely held himself back from an only semi-ironic Hail Mary before beginning throwing the magic switch.

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Levi stayed valiantly in her seat, despite the storm cloud next to her, and continued to memorize her story during the remainder of the flight. At times she’d feel Steve’s eyes on her and would glance up, grinning when they made eye contact, usually looking away in chagrin when a low growl from beside her would remind her that she wasn’t alone with the blond man.  

“Should be on this mission with him.” Bucky grumbled irritably. “Punk already looks metro.”

Levi rolled her eyes, taking a deep breath and praying to the fates for strength. Jesus Christ. “You are far from my dream partner too, Barnes. You think I want to spend the next how many months stuck with you? Pretending to…” she swallowed and while she didn’t really mean it this way, it looked like in revulsion, “love you? Dream on. The biggest asshole in the Compound and he’s all for me? How did I get so lucky?” Without waiting for a snarled reply, Levi deliberately pulled her knees up to her chest and turned her body away from Bucky, pointedly looking away and concentrating solely on her tablet.

Ears burning, Bucky chanced a glance up at the cockpit, fought a kneejerk sneer when he saw Steve’s disapproving frown. With his enhanced ears, Steve had just heard every word and Bucky was suddenly ashamed at the disappointment in his friend’s gaze. Gritting his teeth, he returned to his reading.  

Although he would have liked the company, Steve was proud that Levi stuck it out and stayed near Bucky, seeming to have completely erased him from her radar after her last burn. She hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true, unfortunately; since the Accords and Wakanda, Bucky had been struggling. He was the black sheep of the team, rejecting most social contact and glowering from the sidelines petulantly when forced to interact. The movie nights that Steve admittedly loved with the team were always made slightly tense when the Winter Soldier was made to attend. Nat was braver than most, dragging the man out of his self-imposed cave and demanding he stay and watch with them, but Bucky rarely relaxed enough to make it worth the trouble. Most of the team just gave him a wide berth now, a courteous acknowledgement when they passed in the hallways and little else.

He was a valued member of the team, no doubt; strong and capable on missions, but he just couldn’t seem to relax and the charming, charismatic man Steve had known before the war rarely volunteered conversation anymore, or even a smile. It hurt Steve’s heart, to see him struggle like this, but he was running out of ideas on how to help. Time didn’t seem to be doing anything but make Bucky more entrenched in his self-imposed isolation and, if he was being completely honest, Steve would have preferred to sit Buck out of this mission entirely. Maybe he needed to go back to Wakanda, maybe they shouldn’t have asked for him to return to the team after Thano’s defeat.

But he was the only man on the team fluent in enough languages, and familiar with HYDRA activities; he was the only one who could watch and evaluate what he was seeing and draw on his seventy-plus years of bitter experience to act accordingly. It sucked, frankly and Steve was infinitely sorry that Levi was going to have to suffer too. The woman was smart and capable and Steve’s mind and body hadn’t decided yet if the emotions and impulses he felt near her were brotherly or something far more intimate.

A small ping from the control panel reminded him that they were close to their destination and he yelled back to his flight mates about it, smiling in delighted surprise when Levi appeared and sat in the copilot’s chair, strapping herself in.  

Bucky watched her leave, watched her give Steve the smile she never gave him, feeling an unfamiliar pang deep in his chest.

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“Okay, what high school did I graduate from?” Levi asked, glancing over her shoulder, quizzing her fictional husband.

“Thomas Jefferson High, Denver Colorado, home of the Spartans.” Bucky intoned, bored from the back seat.  

“My first dog?”  

“Mutt named Harvey, ran over when you were seven.” Bucky sighed dramatically.

“My apologies, your Highness.” Levi snarked. “Just making sure you read your homework.”

Bucky leaned forwards suddenly, poking his head between Levi and Steve’s shoulders. They’d been driving for less than an hour, but it seemed like forever. “Your full name is Madison Elise Jaeger-Harper, born June 2, 1994. Your mother was a whore who left the family when you were seven. Your step-monster was okay but definitely favored her own kids over the steps. You worked your sweet little ass off and graduated high-school early, which is the reason you’re so young and packing two majors-”

“And then I married a pompous, grouchy asshat and that’s how we ended up here!” Levi snapped, then whirled suddenly and grabbed at Bucky’s collar. Steve wasn’t sure if she was just that fast, to catch the Winter Soldier unaware, or if the man had let her, but it hardly mattered at this point. Levi yanked Bucky closer, their foreheads nearly touching and hissed, her voice so low and venomous that even Steve felt a cold finger trail down his spine.

“Listen here, Barnes.” Levi spat, nearly vibrating in fury. “This is not my dream assignment either, but if it somehow keeps HYDRA from infiltrating our world further, then I’ll do pretty much anything, even work in close proximity with you. But this is it, this is where this stops. Spit out whatever it that you hate so much about me and then get THE FUCK OVER IT. So help me, we are not going to blow this assignment because we can’t be professional!” Her eyes bored into his, her breathing heavy. “Well? Say it?!” Bucky only glared in return, fists clenched, his breathing just as labored. For the briefest moment, his eyes flicked down to Levi’s lips then back to meet hers, narrowing with anger.

With surprising strength, but not really surprising, Steve reminded himself, Levi was enhanced with almost the same serum as he was, Levi pushed Bucky away from her, the sound his back made when it hit the seat a loud crack. Both parties continued to glare at each other before Levi growled and broke the staring contest, turning around to glower out the windshield.

“Okay, that’s it.” Steve declared. He pulled the vehicle sharply over to the side of the road and threw it into park, whirling in his seat to face sideways. He leveled a stare at both teammates, until they looked away, cheeks reddening.  

“We need this to work.” He snapped. “We need to find out just how deep HYDRA goes in this town. I fought Tony on this to send someone, anyone else but you two, but I lost. So you both need to get this out and dealt with-”

Suddenly, Levi threw open her door and stormed out, marching angrily away. The whole car vibrated with the slam. They’d managed to pull over near some type of rest stop and Levi climbed onto a weathered picnic table a couple dozen feet away, in profile to the two men. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she rested her chin on top and stared forwards into the trees beyond the rest area, chest still heaving. Tears poured freely from her eyes now, even as fury continued to blaze from them.

Steve stared at her for a long moment, then flicked his eyes up to the rearview mirror. There were too many emotions on Bucky’s face right now to name all of them, but predominant in his eyes was discomfort and shame. Finally, when Levi had finally broke and cried, it had finally reached him.  

“Fix this.” Steve snapped.  

His oldest friend’s eyes flicked to his in the mirror for the briefest instant, then down and away. Bucky heaved a deep sigh, not in irritation, but seemingly to get up his courage. He nodded once, silently, then exited the vehicle, walking slowly towards Levi, his hands jammed into his pockets.  

Steve watched silently as Bucky approached, saw Levi remain silent and unmoving as Bucky paused and called her name quietly. After a pause, he stepped closer and leaned against the picnic table, a safe distance from Levi, and crossed his arms over his chest, staring out at the trees with her.

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“Levi… I’m sorry.” Bucky murmured, when a few minutes had passed and she still hadn’t acknowledged his presence.  

She remained silent and Bucky continued, shame making it hard for him to breathe. He hated to see someone else cry, to know he was the cause.  

“I… I can’t tell you right now what bothers me so much, I’m not even sure myself but… you’re right, Steve’s right. We need to do this; we need to be professional.” He exhaled and uncrossed his arms, grimacing as he rubbed the back of his head and felt freshly-shaved hair.  

Levi stared forwards for so long that Bucky was tempted to move his hand in front of her eyes, to see if she hadn’t fallen into some kind of catatonic state but he held back, biting his bottom lip, his arms crossed again, not it anger, but in defense, to ward off the chill that Levi’s emotions seemed to super-charge the air around them with. His shoulders hunched and he began to worry that he truly had broken something in her this time, that she would never willingly communicate with him again-

Levi turned her head soundlessly and fixed him with her amethyst gaze. “I’m doing this for the team, not for you.” Her voice was flat. “I’ve done deep cover before too, with SHIELD. I can play the part, can you?” There was a chilling lack of emotion in her voice that struck somewhere deep in Bucky, in a way he didn’t understand fully. She waited until he swallowed and nodded in return before pushing off the table and standing in front of him.  

She held out her hand to him, but the smile on her lips didn’t reach her eyes. “Hold my hand, husband?” There was an edge and a challenge in her tone and whereas before Bucky might have felt a need to bite back, the genuine sorrow she’d let him glimpse softened his reaction. He took her outstretched hand, gave it an experimental squeeze. Levi tensed only briefly before returning the action and Bucky laced his fingers with hers, an involuntary move that made him hesitate a beat, as he waited for Levi to reject it.

Her smile softened a bit, but still didn’t reach her eyes. She moved soundlessly beside Bucky as he guided her back to the vehicle and opened the door for her. Steve waited, reaching over to rest his hand on Levi’s shoulder, searching her eyes when she looked at him. His eyes tracked Bucky as he slid into the back seat, then moved back to Levi’s, asking a silent question of her with a raised brow.

Levi nodded in return and the smile she gave Steve did reach her eyes. “Let’s go.” She murmured, then reached for her tablet. “Okay Barnes,” she called back as Steve shifted into drive. “Test me now.”