(no subject)

[semi_stable]

The modern technological era comes with its fair share of problems, but Bucky will give it one thing: learning stuff is a whole hell of a lot easier. When he decides that he wants to build a small pen off the side of his outbuilding, all he really needs to do is watch a few videos on the internet. He doesn't even have to talk to anyone, and that's just another bonus.

After checking on the new arrivals out in the workshop, Bucky loads Bopp up in the truck and heads to the hardware store, loading up a flatbed cart with wood and nails and whatever tools he needs that he doesn't already have. Luckily, the store also has the basics that he'll need to go inside the pen, including a trough and bags of hay and feed, so he doesn't even need to make a second stop.

Once they're back home, Bucky opens the back door to let Alpine out. She winds around his feet and headbutts Bopp, and both animals trot after him as he heads toward the workshop. He wants to get started right away, kind of needs to, so he gets right to it, determined to finish by the end of the day.

By the time afternoon rolls around and the sun is high in the sky, Bucky's stripped down to a white tank and worn jeans. He uses the elastic around his wrist to pull his hair back into a small loop at the back of his head, grateful that it's long enough now to get it up and off his neck.

He cuts the wood by hand, working the saw back and forth at each mark he's made, and then takes a short break to wipe sweat from his forehead with the back of his wrist.

"Bopp," he says to his dog, who is laying in the shade and chewing on a bone while Alpine snoozes on a tree brunch above her. She lifts her head and looks at him. "Why don't you go get me a beer?"

He isn't actually expecting her to do anything, and he smiles a little to himself when her head tilts at the question. "Is that a no?"

Comments

[the_variant]

There are countless things about Darrow and mortal life Sylvie still doesn't understand the point of and unless providing her with something to enjoy looking at is the purpose here, she doesn't get this either. Bucky is building a small fence, from what she can tell, hardly enough to keep out any sort of predator.

He seems to like physical labour. Sylvie has spent most of her life taking care of herself, on the run, but she was still raised as a princess for a certain length of time and some of her preferences speak to that. She's not above work when it's necessary, but she'd also much rather lounge.

So she does. She drops into a chair on the porch, sprawled in a way that's somehow both comfortable and casual. Bucky is shining with sweat, curled bits of hair sticking to the back of his neck, and Sylvie's head tilts as she watches the shift and flex of the muscles beneath his shirt.

[thewrongpath]

"Don't let him overwork you, madam," Loki said to the dog as he strolled around the side of the house and into the backyard. While he was seemingly unaffected by the heat, he had opted not to wear all black, for once. Instead, he wore skinny jeans and a loose, slightly billowing button-up in a pale, sage green. He was barefoot, and when the dog bounded over to greet him, he dropped into a graceful crouch and gave her all the scratches she deserved.

"Fetching beer certainly isn't in her job description."

With a flicker of green, a can (swiped from Bucky's fridge with the aid of magic) appeared in his hand. He lobbed it at Bucky with a smirk.

[semi_stable]

When Bucky first hears the crunch of gravel signaling someone's approach, he goes a little tense, pausing where he's on all fours to hold the base of a board in place. Bopp is facing whoever it is and she lifts her head sleepily, tail wagging from her place in the shade. Not a stranger, then.

Bucky goes back to what he was doing, but he focuses on the foot falls, light and nimble, and then the creak of the chair on the small patio looking out into the backyard. She doesn't say anything, which isn't all that surprising. If anything, she's probably wondering why he's crawling around in the dirt.

"Are you enjoying the show?" Bucky calls out after he uses his metal thumb to drive a nail home rather than reach for the hammer. He rocks back up onto his haunches and twists to look at her, lifting the hem of his tank to wipe the sweat from his face. Alpine hops gracefully down from the tree branch and takes a meandering path toward Sylvie, like she wouldn't want anyone thinking she's making the trip just for her. With a soft trill, Alpine hops up onto the arm of the chair and folds herself into a loaf, purring loud enough for Bucky to hear from where he sits.

[semi_stable]

At the sound of Loki's familiar voice, Bucky sets the saw down and turns around to watch his approach and feels his brows lift in slight surprise. Loki is dressed casually, collar of his pale shirt unbuttoned a little to reveal the hollow of his throat, dark hair soft and curled around his ears. Bucky immediately wants to touch him, but he hangs back while Bopp runs up to him with all the eagerness that Bucky feels.

"Yeah, she's got it pretty rough," he says, cracking a laugh as Loki tosses one of Bucky's own beers at his head. He catches it with a soft clang of metal against metal and holds it against his temple for a moment. "Look at you, being so helpful."

[the_variant]

"Well, I can't imagine any other reason you would feasibly be working so hard, if not to be providing a show and I didn't want your efforts to go to waste," she answers, crossing one leg over the other. It's warm and she doesn't especially like it, but the only indication the heat bothers her in any way is that she's drawn her wavy hair back into a messy bun at the base of her neck. Otherwise she looks as she usually does; boots and jeans and a loose t-shirt, no makeup, impossibly comfortable.

The cat likes her. Sylvie doesn't entirely understand why, but she appreciates a cat's personality. Alpine does things in her own time and Sylvie strokes her ears when she settles on the arm of the chair.

"What are you doing?" she asks. "And why?"

[thewrongpath]

"I aim to please," Loki said wryly, rising to his feet and crossing the distance between them. "What's all this, then?" He arched a brow. "I can't imagine you're expecting to confine Bopp to a quarter so woefully below her standards?"

He cut a look to the dog, and for a moment, it might have appeared as if they'd exchanged some secret between the two of them.

[semi_stable]

"We can't all wiggle our fingers and get what we want," Bucky teases in a fond voice, because he's well aware that it isn't so simple. He smiles as Sylvie pets Alpine, amused by how taken the cat seems to be with her, but it makes sense to him. If Sylvie were an animal, she'd definitely be a cat.

When she asks the question, Bucky feels a bit sheepish, cheeks flushing a bit as he huffs out an embarrassed laugh. She's going to tease him. Both of them will, but Bucky couldn't help it. He'd seen the ad and he felt homesick for Wakanda, even though it was never really his home at all. He had enjoyed being there, and the chance to recreate a small part of it seemed so appealing to him.

"Uh, well--" At that moment, a loud bleating comes from the workshop, young and impatient sounding, and Bucky smiles. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I'm a bit soft when it comes to animals."

[semi_stable]

As Loki approaches, Bucky straightens up from his crouch and shifts the can to the side of his neck before letting it drop to his side. At the question, and the shared look between them, Bucky lets out a genuine bark of laughter and shakes his head.

"No, definitely not," Bucky tells him, stepping forward to give Loki a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth before pulling back. He's sweaty and dirty, so he keeps his hands to himself.

"Well," he begins, brows lifting as he gives Loki a too-innocent smile. "You like Bopp, right? And you like Alpine?"

[the_variant]

"Hadn't noticed, no," Sylvie answers innocently, still stroking Alpine's head. The cat's eyes are closed, her purr deep and rumbling in a narrow chest, and Sylvie recalls when Bucky had first found her, the way she had immediatly assumed he would be taking her home.

And look, she had been right.

The bleating makes her brows draw together and she looks in that direction, then back at Bucky. "Did you buy a sheep? Are you going to become a wool farmer?"

[thewrongpath]

A crease settled between his brows and he let out a grumble of protest at that brief kiss, but the smile on Bucky's face was enough of a distraction.

Oh, yes. That smile was trouble.

"Why do I feel like this is a trick question?"

[semi_stable]

“You’re the tricky one, not me,” Bucky protests, feeling charmed when Loki’s lips stay pursed for a brief second after Bucky pulls away, like he was expecting more.

“I’m just asking if you’re fond of my animals, but it’s okay. I already know the answer,” he says with a knowing smirk. Bopp has Loki wrapped around her little paw, as evidenced by all the toys and the extravagant bed that seem to all just have appeared in Bucky’s house. “You like those animals, so I’m hoping you’ll like these, too.”

He goes over to open the door of the workshop, and two baby goats, one black and one white, immediately come tumbling out, bleating as they get to their feet. Bucky looks down at them and then over at Loki, holding his hands out to present the pair with a hopeful smile on his face. “I have goats now.”

[thewrongpath]

The two little goats hopped jauntily in his direction, knocking clumsily into one another and screaming their tiny heads off.

Loki tried, and failed, not to smile.

"So, you're populating a petting zoo? I suppose everyone needs a vocation."

[semi_stable]

Bucky can tell that he's trying to fight it, but Loki smiles and Bucky grins in return, laughing as he follows the goats toward Loki. Bopp trots over to sniff curiously at the goats while Alpine snoozes on a tree branch, seemingly entirely unconcerned.

"I took care of goats in Wakanda," Bucky explains, stepping quickly in front of the black goat when it tries to wander off. "They gave me the job to help me feel useful, I think. But I really enjoyed it. It helped me."

Some days, when he was at his lowest, the goats were the only thing that would drag him out of his tent. He couldn't lie there in a depression, wallowing over his life, because that meant that the goats wouldn't eat, and that wouldn't be fair to them.

"There was an ad in the pet supply store about these two needing to be rehomed, and I have the space now," Bucky says with a sheepish shrug, sliding his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. "It seemed like a no brainer."

[thewrongpath]

"Oh, yes, truly. Not a brain in sight," Loki teased him, and dropped into a crouch to get a better look little beasts, who immediately began attempting to hop atop his shoulders, despite still being a bit small for such feats.

"It's a shame you don't have room for horses."

[semi_stable]

"Har har," Bucky replies, crossing his arms over his chest and smirking as Loki warms to the goats. One of them headbutts him in the thigh while the other tries to jump in his lap, and Bucky wishes more than anything that he had his phone.

"Not unless I expand." He glances curiously toward the untouched land next to his property, feeling some impulse to buy it and build a stable just because it might make Loki happy. "They have stables here. If you ever want to go riding."

[semi_stable]

"I didn't buy a sheep, but being a wool farmer sounds relaxing," Bucky says with a smirk, shrugging innocently. "I don't want to rule it out entirely."

He straightens up and heads over to the door of the workshop, and Bopp jumps up to join him. When he opens the door, out come two baby goats, one black and one white. They're young enough that they're still knobby-kneed and wobbly, tripping over each other and bleating.

"More of a hobbyist than a farmer," he says with a soft laugh. "It's only two goats."

[thewrongpath]

"If you plan to tag along, I wouldn't say no," Loki said, something wistful in his smirk. "I haven't ridden a horse since accompanying my brother and his warriors on their many foolish adventures."

Scooping up one of the goats and holding it against his chest, Loki stood, ignoring the creature as it began placidly chewing his shirt.

[the_variant]

"You're much too wholesome for me," she says in a voice that isn't entirely easy to place. There'd fondness in her tone, of course, but more than a hint of self-deprecation and possibly, beneath it all, genuine worry that he may just be too good for her. That, eventually, he and Loki will realize all the broken parts of her that make this impossible.

She strokes Alpine's head again, then rises and moves toward Bucky and the goats. The white one spots her first, bleats, then runs at her shins, hopping and kicking its little back legs, as if excited or aggressive -- in a silly goat manner -- or both.

[semi_stable]

"Is that how they'd describe them?" Bucky teases, but his smile is soft and fond and his gaze lingers on the curve of Loki's mouth. He knows that, even with his current new project, he'll be calling the stables before the day is through. "Of course I'd go with you. I'm no Asgardian warrior, but I can stay up on a horse."

He's a little surprised when Loki plucks one of the goats up from the ground, holding it close and getting dirt on his pristine clothes, and Bucky thinks that he might fall a little harder right then and there. The other goat bleats impatiently, jealous ofthe attention, so Bucky lifts it up with his metal arm to hold it close. "You should help me name them."

[semi_stable]

It isn't the reaction that Bucky is expecting, and his brows furrow slightly for a moment before he shakes his head and smiles at her. They have both had very rough lives, and they've both done terrible things. Sylvie was made to live in chaos by forces stronger than her, and Bucky knows what that's like. He knows how hard it is to fight your way back from that. Sylvie is rough around the edges, maybe a little cold at times, but she's not a bad person.

"I'm not," Bucky assures her, smiling wider as she steps down off of the porch to approach the goats. The white one runs after her while the black one allows itself to be sniffed by Bopp, who seems pleased by the new arrivals. Alpine stares from her place on the chair, unconvinced. "I took care of a small herd of goats while I was in Wakanda. It was-- peaceful, I suppose. They gave me purpose for a while."

[thewrongpath]

"Should I?" Loki said, brow arched in playful skepticism. The goat in his arms stretched its little neck out to try and get its mouth around his hair, and screamed when it found that it couldn't.

"Well, they need names befitting the monstrous little beasts they are, don't you think?"

[the_variant]

"Are you lacking purpose here?"

Sylvie drops into a crouch, her long legs coming up on either side of her arms as she looks at the white goat. It bleats at her again and she lifts one hand to stroke its soft nose, between the tiny nubs of its horns that haven't yet grown.

She can see why Bucky likes them.

The question is a genuine one, her tone curious and interested. She's not judging him if he feels like he lacks purpose in Darrow, especially when she feels the same. She can love him, love Loki, and feel content, and yet still feel there should be something more she's doing.

[semi_stable]

"Leave it to me and I'll just call them Night and Day," Bucky says with a slightly bashful shrug. "I'm not the most creative."

The goat in Loki's arms wriggles and yells, and Bucky laughs softly and he steps up to Loki, reaching out to tuck Loki's hair behind his ear and out of reach. "Sorry, little one, but you can't have that."

With his fingers still stroking the side of Loki's neck, Bucky gives him an amused, almost playful smile. "It's a very big responsibility, naming kids together."

[semi_stable]

The question makes Bucky frown thoughtfully, because he hasn't really thought about that. Or, more precisely, he's tried hard not to think about it.

He takes a moment to do so now, expression softening as he watches Sylvie interact with the goats. He knows implicitly that if he were to say that he felt that he was lacking purpose, she wouldn't take it personally, nor would Loki. He's more than content with their relationship, but it can't be his whole life. They wouldn't want that, and neither would he.

"It's complicated," he says as he sits down in the grass, sticking his legs out straight on either side of the goat to keep it a little penned in. "Most of my life was about some grander purpose, and I had no say in any of it, really. There are times when it feels like I've served my purpose and I'm just living in overtime. I think-- I think right now I just want my purpose to be living my life on my own terms." He smirks and lets out a bemused huff, gesturing vaguely around them. "As much as I can while trapped in an alternate dimension, anyway."

[the_variant]

"And your terms include baby goats," she says, looking at him from across said baby goat. It has its little head turned up as she strokes its nose and seems relaxed, though just as suddenly loses interest in Sylvie and hops over to the other goat.

They're playful, clearly learning how to move about, and Sylvie sits down as well while the goats run off together.

"As long as they're your terms, I think that's an admirable goal," she admits. "You shouldn't have to do things any other way."