Steve awoke slowly, softly slipping from sleep to wakefulness. Slices of sunlight fell in through the gaps of the curtains in front of the windows. It washed the room in a warm glow.
Howard was sitting with his back resting against the headboard closest to the edge of their bed, a blanket drawn across his legs and one of his notebooks open in his lap. From his lying position Steve could see him jotting down equations with the odd little sketch of machinery here and there.
It was unusual for the genius to be still in bed at this time of day. Usually he was up early and came to bed late.
Steve could feel Bucky lie on his other side. The man was still snoring softly.
"I know you're awake." the engineer murmured without looking up from what he was writing.
Steve smiled to himself and bridged the distance between them to nestle against Howard's side and nose his way under the edges of the book. He wrapped his arms around the engineer and rested his head against the man's stomach.
"M'glad that you're still here." Steve mumbled, pressing his face farther into the engineer's stomach and disturbing his work.
"What do you mean?" Howard asked distractedly, pulling his notebook away and resting it against Steve's bare back to resume writing.
"Usually you're already gone when the sun is that high." Bucky said sleepily from his comfortable place at Steve's back, having rolled over and following his lover as he had drawn away.
There was a pause, pen stilling against the page, before the inventor answered.
"I guess I didn't have anywhere better to be." he said. There was a small touch of wonder and surprise in his tone.
A moment later Steve felt fingers running through his hair and with a sigh he nestled closer. At his back Bucky did the same, pressing his chest against Steve's back and curling around him so that his head laid on Steve's shoulder, just touching Howard's side. One of his arms he threw across Steve's body so that it lay over Howard's legs.
This was their sanctuary, the place where they could just be together, without the outside world trying to tear them apart.