Cupid
Ships: Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Bucky Barnes/Jemma Simmons
Prompt: afieldofcosmos asked for Bucky/Jemma with Natasha as matchmaker
It's one of those nights where Natasha wants it slow and sweaty, and by the time she lets him come he's a quivering mess. She rolls off him and they lie in the darkness of the bedroom, sucking in air as the sweat cools slowly on their skin.
Natasha pulls the sheet up to her stomach. "So how's that cute little biochemist doing?"
Just the thought of Jemma makes Bucky's stomach flutter.
There's motive behind Nat's words, but no malice. She's not the jealous type, and keeping this arrangement of theirs strictly casual had been her idea in the first place.
"She asked me to the movies," Bucky answers between breaths. "I turned her down."
Damn Nat for starting conversations like this when he's all post-coital and defenceless. He's always too honest straight after sex and she knows it. Serves him right for sleeping with a spy, though, he supposes.
It's three days since he brushed off Jemma's attempt at a first date, and he still feels shitty about it.
Nat shifts so she's facing him, head propped on her hand. How a woman can look so composed with sex-mussed hair he'll never know. "Why did you turn her down?" she asks.
Bucky casually throws an arm over his eyes. "She's too innocent for someone like me." Though Nat being Nat, she hears what he means and not just what he says. I'm too much of a mess for someone like her.
"Just because she's young and sweet doesn't mean she's innocent. You and I had both seen untold horrors by the time we were her age, and she's had her fair share, too, this past year on Coulson's team."
He concedes to her logic with a grunt.
She plucks the arm off his face and turns his head towards her with a thumb and forefinger on his chin. "She forgives you for things you did when you weren't you, things you won't forgive yourself for. That doesn't make her naive, that makes her good for you."
She releases his chin. "How much do you like her?"
Bucky presses the heels of both hands into his eyes. "So fucking much, Nat."
She regards him silently for a moment, then slips gracefully out of the bed. "I'm cutting you off," she says as she starts putting on her clothes. "No more sex. Go buy that girl a bunch of flowers, tell her you're an idiot, then take her to bed. And make sure you do that thing with your tongue."
The next night, after dinner, a movie, a first kiss that turns his knees to jelly and oral that leaves Jemma gasping his name, Bucky sends a quick text to Natasha.
Tell Hawkeye to lend you a bow and some arrows, Cupid. You've got a talent for this matchmaking business.