Tony at least hadn't noticed his absence because he'd been busy. Doing stuff.

And then prepping on the chopper ride to MIT for this silly guest lecture. Why had he agreed to this again? Oh, right. Pepper. He walked into the lecture hall with his normal flair and swagger and started off class with a couple jokes, grinning. Well maybe this would be fun.

And worth that damn pirate certificate.

Bucky froze when he saw the guest speaker. Of all the rotten luck... He hunched down in his seat a bit, keeping his head down and making himself as unnoticeable as possible. Thankfully, he was wearing long sleeves, so he was able to shove his metal hand into his pocket and be reasonably certain that the lights in the lecture hall wouldn't reflect off of it.

Tony got through the actual lecture without noticing Bucky because he was busy and distracted and not actually perfect all the time, okay? But during the little section for questions, he spotted Bucky and paused.

"Barnes? Since when are you at MIT?"

Bucky froze for a moment as people in the lecture hall started to look around and turn towards him. God damn it, this was exactly what he didn't want.

"Aren't we the ones supposed to be asking questions?" he managed to snipe back.

Tony snorted at that. "Fair enough," he allowed. "Right, you, in the green, you've been on the edge of your seat this whole time, Fife away." Tony grinned as he shifted attention back to himself. He was good at that.

Bucky sunk back into his seat. So much for being anonymous. He would have snuck out of the lecture right then, but there were still people stealing glances at him from all over the room.

Tony managed to divert attention back to himself fairly successfully, answering questions and staying past the time allotted.

As soon as people started to filter out at the end of the lecture, Bucky did what he could to disappear into the crowd and slip outside. He wasn't as inconspicuous as he wanted to be, but he did a fairly good job of getting out of the lecture hall without drawing attention to himself. He wasn't sure if he wanted to hang around for Tony or not, but he suspected he wasn't going to have a choice in the matter.

He had a head start, so it took Tony a few minutes to find him. And then he settled in to walk next to him, dressed down a bit from the lecture.

"So, didn't know you were taking classes, when did this start?" Tony asked conversationally, sticking his hands in his pockets.

Bucky glanced at him, metal hand still crammed into his pocket.

"Not long," he muttered. "Maybe a year."

"Mm." Tony was quiet for a few moments. "MIT? Choice or following in my footsteps?" He waggled his eyebrows. He knew that wasn't the case, but Barnes needed to loosen up a bit, and maybe this would work.

Bucky shrugged.

"Heard it was good," he said. "Didn't realize you came here too till I saw the building named after you."

Tony snorted quietly. "You mean you don't have my life story memorized yet? I'm shocked and offended, Barnes, truly." He grinned, though.

Bucky snorted as well.

"Wasn't yours I had to learn," he pointed out. "Surprised you didn't get the pirate certificate, though. Seems right up your alley, Stark."

Tony sighed. "They started that after I left," he grumbled. "And I'm missing one damn class, they should just give me the thing. But no, I have to do guest lectures first." He made a face.

"Come summer, I'll finish that program off," Bucky admitted. "I'm good with the bow, rifle, and saber, but I can't sail yet." He made a bit of a face. "Guess they didn't think it was a useful enough skill to program in."

Tony shrugged. "Not many people really know how to sail," he said. "Probably they never thought it would come up." Then he grinned. "So, did you show up the rest of the class for the other three?"

"On the first day," Bucky said, nodding. He smirked. "Tested out of them after that."

Tony snorted. "That doesn't surprise me," he said with a grin. "Bet you could have shown up the teachers, too. That would be amusing."

"Some of us are actually modest," Bucky said dryly. "And don't want to piss off the professors."

"Eh." Tony shrugged. "Modest isn't my shtick, it's more Cap's. And yours, I guess. No fun in being modest, though."

"Some of us prefer not to be in the spotlight," Bucky pointed out. He shifted his bag on his shoulder a bit.