After a moment to gauge where he’s supposed to sit (and maybe flicking a glance to cheat and see what Stark’s doing), the Soldier lowers - or, more accurately, he squelches - his dripping body down onto the floor so that he’s close to the coffee table straining underneath what seems like too much food for two men. Well, maybe it would be too much food for two average men. But there’s Stark, with too much intelligence and not enough common sense, and there’s a super soldier with the accelerated metabolism to match, and even from here he’s getting a little dizzy with the olfactory assault wafting up from the takeout containers spread between them.
His mouth’s feeling thick with saliva all of a sudden. HYDRA never gave him this much food and what was there, it definitely didn’t smell like this.
At least he vaguely remembers to cross his legs so he doesn’t risk kicking Stark underneath the coffee table. Friday’s last order had been to assist the man: kicking him in his crotch or his just-bandaged thigh seems counterproductive to those orders.
Stark tells him to dig in, like he knows what he’s looking at. The Asset can’t place the scents or the scrawl in black permanent marker on the containers, so he just does what he did in the shower: he picks the closest one. They eat in silence, which is surprising in that he would’ve expected Stark to run his mouth off like he usually does. But he doesn’t, splitting his attention between food and his phone, and the quiet is almost…the Winter Soldier wouldn’t say it’s a relief but he can focus on prodding the food with his chopsticks, on how it’s all kinds of different colors and textures and smells. He doesn’t speak until he’s spoken to. When he is, the Asset glances up, his mouth full of some kind of marinated meat and flat noodle slippery with grease and if he first finishes chewing and swallowing, it’s not out of politeness but because it’s just hard to speak clearly with his mouth occupied.
“There’s a limited amount of maintenance I can do on it,” the Soldier, which is true. He wasn’t supposed to fuss with it, was supposed to sit there and stare straight ahead or at the floor while techs handled all that busy work. “It’s not malfunctioning yet.”
The Winter Soldier lets slip that “yet” without thinking about it. The food’s a more pressing distraction than if the cybernetic prosthetic starts acting up again, which it will because it eventually always does, and by now he’s already demolished his way through several takeout containers. Pulling another toward him, he peeks inside, and he’ll dig in without thinking to offer Tony some before he polishes that off too.
no subject
His mouth’s feeling thick with saliva all of a sudden. HYDRA never gave him this much food and what was there, it definitely didn’t smell like this.
At least he vaguely remembers to cross his legs so he doesn’t risk kicking Stark underneath the coffee table. Friday’s last order had been to assist the man: kicking him in his crotch or his just-bandaged thigh seems counterproductive to those orders.
Stark tells him to dig in, like he knows what he’s looking at. The Asset can’t place the scents or the scrawl in black permanent marker on the containers, so he just does what he did in the shower: he picks the closest one. They eat in silence, which is surprising in that he would’ve expected Stark to run his mouth off like he usually does. But he doesn’t, splitting his attention between food and his phone, and the quiet is almost…the Winter Soldier wouldn’t say it’s a relief but he can focus on prodding the food with his chopsticks, on how it’s all kinds of different colors and textures and smells.
He doesn’t speak until he’s spoken to. When he is, the Asset glances up, his mouth full of some kind of marinated meat and flat noodle slippery with grease and if he first finishes chewing and swallowing, it’s not out of politeness but because it’s just hard to speak clearly with his mouth occupied.
“There’s a limited amount of maintenance I can do on it,” the Soldier, which is true. He wasn’t supposed to fuss with it, was supposed to sit there and stare straight ahead or at the floor while techs handled all that busy work. “It’s not malfunctioning yet.”
The Winter Soldier lets slip that “yet” without thinking about it. The food’s a more pressing distraction than if the cybernetic prosthetic starts acting up again, which it will because it eventually always does, and by now he’s already demolished his way through several takeout containers. Pulling another toward him, he peeks inside, and he’ll dig in without thinking to offer Tony some before he polishes that off too.