"You’re tellin’ me." Bucky lays out his agreement in a whisky-charred laugh that husks somewhere between sigh and groan. He twists his glass up from the clammy bar top and spills out another swallow onto his tongue. It smokes and burns like cheap liquor does, spinning down his throat and landing hot in his belly. Breath chasing out too sweet for sobriety, he plunks the drained tumbler back in its place with a hollow landing. "Had enough experience with that to last me a lifetime or three."
A pause hangs in the dank air.
"Literally."
Hoisting himself off the bar stool to land on weaving feet, Bucky shucks a couple of dollars free from his wallet and lays them beneath his empty drink. By the time he turns, the money is already swelling with spilled beer and sogging back to stick at wood long bleached by the hazards of a public house.
"Bucky Barnes," he offers in an outstretch of his hand. "Trust that you’ll do the same if we find ourselves in a pickle."
Long, lanky steps take him back to the door. His hip skims a billiards table, foot leaping over a beer bottle rolling across the floor.
"So, Mr. Blaze, how are you with a rifle?"
On cue he slipped off the stool and took a step forward to grasp Bucky’s hand. “We have ourselves a deal.” The words came out easier than he was comfortable with and had a weird feeling about them, but the firm grip the other man reciprocated was more than enough to convince Johnny that he could rest easy at least for a while.
His shoulders slouched as he snaked his hands into his jacket pockets and mindlessly trailed Bucky out of the pub. Johnny twisted around to cast a final glance at the door- which was surprisingly still mounted on the crooked doorframe that encased it- and staggered forward once he decided that no one was paying more attention than they had the right to be.
“Truthfully? I haven’t used one since the carnival as a kid. Only thing I’ve handled recently is a shotgun,” Johnny admitted, taking to mind to keep his voice low. “I’m more of a close-range kinda guy. I hope it doesn’t fuck over your plans too badly, but I swear that I can hold my own. I'm way sturdier than I look.”








