bakerstreet | Denny's

Matt. Right. That bleeding heart Catholic who could probably - annoyingly - beat Bucky in a staring contest. There had been a lot of 'um thanks but no thanks' but Matt can't seem to take no for an answer.

"I appreciate it, Harvey." That's usually how most 'thanks but no thanks' conversations start. "I've been pardoned, for some..." Murder, war crimes, Nazi terroristing, you know. The usual. Bucky tilts his head and narrows his eyes, trying to summarise the last eighty years without scaring away the man he's just helped who is supposed to be helping him. "...international incidents. I've been going to court-mandated therapy and... just dealing with some other international incidents on the side right now."

Bucky has his hash brown with an unhealthy amount of ketchup, lightly seasoned. Because nothing says classy big kid like a touch of freshly cracked black pepper.

"I'm going to need to miss a few sessions. Can you get my therapist off my back?"

"That..."

Getting a therapist to back off doesn't sound like something you'd need an old college buddy from out of town for. Matt could easily do that by being his stubborn obnoxious self. Harvey knows that. Matt knows Harvey knows. So.

"How many times have you told Matt 'no' by now?"

"Um... around... seven? Maybe eight. Does 'I'm-- in a regicidal terrorist's safehouse, come back later' count?" At least he was honest about keeping Zemo's company. He might not have said anything last time, but. He's getting better and better at talking. That's progress, right?

"He broke himself out. Before you ask anything." Bucky averts his gaze and then makes eye contact again, then promptly lowers his gaze to continue working away at his pancakes. Which he's only rubbing a healthy amount of butter on, because, you know. It's the butter that's making his thighs look fat in those jeans, not consuming a week's worth of calories in a single meal.

How does he keep ending up in the blind boy's relationship drama? Harvey isn't a bad person. Surely, he doesn't deserve this?

"Oh, it counts." With the Catholic boy every little 'no' counts. The Irish remember. Reaching out, Harvey snags a piece of bacon from the plate and munches on it dejectedly.

"You know life could be easier if you just let him help you." Not, absolutely not asking about the incidents or terrorists. "He is pretty good at what he does. Well, professionally he's good."

What relationship drama?

"You know him unprofessionally?" Bucky asks casually. He's not meaning to bring up 'relationship drama' between them either. He's just curious about what the persistent lawyer might be like with different company. Sam would definitely tell Harvey something a lot different about Bucky than Matt. Or Steve.

Bucky's not as much of a stonewalling asshole as he purportedly is, for starters. It just takes too long for people to grow on him enough to scale those walls.

"It's New York. Everyone's got a negative opinion. And everyone's got an agenda. Even unassuming blind lawyers." And almost-mugged visitors from Gotham.

Now that may have come out wrong. Maybe he does have a concussion after all.

"We went to law school together. Formative years, I suppose, for avocados to be." Harv was never the best friend, that spot was always Foggy's. But the Gothamite was good for late night study sessions, cheap take-away, and the occasional benefit thrown into their friendship.

"He's not like that." Mild indignation at the insinuation Matt might be just another New Yorker. This shithole doesn't deserve him. "He cares about people, about you, even if he has a funny way of showing it sometimes." Like dragging innocent bystanders in.

"I guess I can talk to someone at the DA's office but it might come back and bite you in the ass later on, depending on what you're involved in."

"The DA's office?" Just who is this guy? Bucky eyes Harvey warily for a few seconds, but then purses his lips and shrugs. He's not sure what he's at liberty to say or not, even if he is talking to one of Matt's lawyer friends. It's not like Harvey is his own lawyer.

"I don't think what I'm doing is currently legal." He's operating on foreign soil, there's definitely some snooping going on, some vigilanting. Vigilanteying. Whatever. Maybe the laws aren't the same in Eastern Europe, but. Assault, grievous bodily harm, public-- whatever destruction something. It should all be fairly universal.

"But. I think it's intentional, that we're not with any government agency. And I don't want to make things messy for you. Or Matt. You-- could just pretend you don't know me. The both of you could."

"Yeah, I know a few people there." He is a lowly ADA who's determined to save his home city from corruption and crime and make everything better. In short: an idiot. One with a few friends in high enough places to placate a furious blind lawyer and maybe help out his... whatever Bucky is to Matt.

"I know a few government agencies which aren't strictly legal so let's pretend you didn't say any of that to me." Shoving the bunch of used tissues into his pocket, Harvey grabs another wad before he cuts off a piece of those buttered pancakes and shoves them into his mouth.

"I don't think it's going to be messy for me. I'll just fuck back off to Gotham, but Matt isn't the type to let things go, and I'd rather not get yelled at every couple of weeks because you two are bad at words. More importantly, is getting your therapist off your back going to cause more damage than good and should somebody perhaps look into that 'court-mandated therapy'? Where's your lawyer who got you that deal?"

Somehow this wining and dining and greasing lawyers up pulling favours and god knows what doesn't seem very lawyerly. But it's probably what they do and the whole thing is about a big of a joke as ~Captain America~.

"You can't be a lawyer if you're bad at words," Bucky points out. He polishes what's left on his plate and moves on almost methodically to the next one. He's paying attention, even though his eyes are only mostly on Harvey. He wanted to sit by a window and have a clear line of sight to the door for a reason. Maybe a bad one, but. It depends on if there's any other excitement to be had for the night.

"Why would it cause more damage? Do I look like I need therapy?" And just in case Harvey feels the need to answer that rhetorical question. "I'm fine." He's eating. He's presumably sleeping. He-- doesn't have a conventional job to hold down but he doesn't spend most of his days lying on the floor refusing to get up. That's just some bad days. Everyone has bad days. Bad dreams. Bad-- whatever.

"Likd I said, professionally he's very good." Everything else depends on how the stars align or if a frog has jumped over a caterpillar on a starless night.

"No, no, that's not what I meant." Who in their right mind would even consider answering a question about needing therapy? Harvey's from Gotham where everyone is stuck in a nightmare where their white knight is a bat.

"I meant whether it's going to harm your case," vague handwave, "if I get involved as well. Then again, I guess I owe you one so... It's really up to you."

He asks and gets more coffee, hot and bitter in that cheap way his dad used to call the taste of poverty.

"Are you expecting someone else?"

"No." This is all for him. Although the question has him second-guessing why Harvey might ask that. Bucky glances around the table, then the seat, then the table again.

"They-- just gave me. A bucket of cutlery. It comes with. Multiple forks." His eyebrows furrow and then he looks up at Harvey again. That's obviously the reason he thinks he's expecting someone else, right?

"You've got. Heroes or vigilantes or whatever over there, right?" Bucky asks, changing the subject as he nibbles on a crumb-coated chicken bite. When did he order that and from which quadrant of the table did he pick that up from, he couldn't say himself.

"Do they get in trouble?" With the law, he means. Obviously they get into trouble punching goons and stopping muggings at night.

"I see."

No, it's really the way Bucky appears to be focused on Harvey a little too hard. Like those detectives he works with who enter a room and already know all the exits, and know what colour tie everyone's wearing and always want to keep the exits and windows in sight. But too much cutlery, ok, sure.

"Well, we have..." Should he be talking about it? What Gotham has is nowhere near as heroic or glamorous as NYC where they can afford micromanaging devils and stupidly handsome hammer-wielding alien gods. Though, they do have their own stupidly handsome alien who drops in to visit-

"The Bat. It's not ideal and law enforcement aren't happy about being shown up by him, but he helps. It's complicated. I'm still not sure if he's doing more good than damage. Why? Are you thinking about relocating?"

"I'm sorry, you have-- a bat?" Bucky is picturing some kind of moron in a cape swinging a baseball bat around, but. Okay maybe Harvey means a bat like the animal. That's not really that weird, considering New York's got all these insects covered.

"No. Well, one day maybe, upstate. To a farm. Or Wakanda." If they'll take him back. They might - eventually. For now, he's staying put. Mostly based out of New York with the occasional need for some international terrorism here and there. Same shit under a different flag.

"I just thought maybe you didn't know what you were getting yourself into." But if they've got a bat - The Bat? - then maybe it's not all that different.

"You think I should go to therapy and maybe they won't bring, I don't know, war crime charges against me?" He's not exactly like The Bat. He doesn't fall into a neat box like a vigilante or some kind of hero.

"Yes. A Bat...man. He's... it doesn't matter." Harvey would probably agree with the 'moron in a cape' bit. Not that he doesn't appreciate everything Batman does. It's just... well, Harvey's not as much of a moron and he's got a pretty good guess at who the man behind the mask is, and the day will come when he's done being polite and will call his moron childhood friend out on his masked crusading bullshit.

He stays silent for a while, mulling Bucky's question over and over, wondering if he needs to get out more. Back home, they- No, back home is not a good benchmark. Still.

"I think if they actually could put you away for war crimes, you wouldn't think your freedom hinged on whether or not you showed up to therapy. If they really thought therapy would do you any good, they wouldn't let you wander around freely, so whatever it is they think they have against you, would turn out to be a lot less substantial if you let a good lawyer have a go at them." So perhaps Matt would be in over his head. "Would you like me to poke around a bit, see what they think they've got?"

Bucky narrows his eyes a bit. He's not really following, but, you know. That's why he's not a lawyer. He didn't think having a good or bad one would really help either way. He was happy to confess to all his war crimes. Let them lock him up and throw the key away if they thought that was what he deserved. He certainly thinks he deserves much worse. But he's got other things to deal with right now and he's finding working within the confines of the law to be challenging again. They never really cared for all this paperwork and hearings and trials when the world was ending.

"Um. Yeah. Fine." Bucky glances up at Harvey again, puts his fork down so he doesn't end up talking with all this food in his mouth. "I-- probably can't afford you though." Reformed terrorists aren't sitting on piles of money or Nazi gold bars or whatever people think he's got stashed away in his dilapidated apartment.

"Don't worry about that." The real question is: can Harvey afford prodding around in this alleged war criminal's case what with his ambitions at home? Can he afford having Matt bitching at him forever and ever if he doesn't?

"I, er, can't represent you, not officially anyway." More coffee has never done any harm, has it? "I'm with the DA's office at home so... it's going to have to be very unofficial and whatever I find, I'll let you know and we can go over it or you and Matt can. He'll handle the official part of all this, I suppose. I hear he takes payment in friendship and food these days. Or." Harvey, no. "I can ask a friend if he'll lend you one of his lawyers. He's got a whole gaggle of them."

"Okay." He's marginally more comfortable with Matt, if only because he's known the guy longer. And he seems like he genuinely wants to help. Even though that makes him really irritating to spend any extended length of time with. Bucky still needs some time to be less guarded around Harvey.

"I don't-- need that many." Who needs a gaggle of lawyers? Bucky is in some pretty serious shit and he only needs the one. Or so he believes.

"Thanks. Again." He drops his gaze and goes back to putting more food in his mouth. "You-- sure I can't get you anything?" Nevermind that Harvey must be full just looking at this smorgasbord that sprawls over their entire table.

Denny's

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he makes the best faces

it's a cute set 😆 - still think of Calvid every time I see his face

I miss those silly boys...

always happy to revisit <3

yea let's, when things die down a bit :3

<3

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