"Love Crazy"
Bucky Barnes slipped onto the barstool beside Phil Coulson.
"Buy you a drink?" he asked.
"I'd rather drink you," Phil murmured. Bucky looked around quickly, but this was the kind of place where he was free to be with his boyfriend.
"What, in public?" he said, blushing. "Sorry, sweetheart, but you're all mine."
Phil shuffled, and hooked his foot around Bucky's right ankle. Their elbows bumped against each other on the bar counter.
"How're Robert and Julie?" Bucky said, referring to Phil's brother and sister-in-law.
"They're good," Phil said. "Still working for the SSR."
"And you're still with…?" He trailed off. It's not like they could discuss Phil's work with military intelligence. Phil wore a reversible uniform when he was out in public. He only had to duck into an alley and invert the clothes when he had to take to the shadows. Getting a white feather would draw too much attention.
"Yes," Phil answered. "It's not exactly something I can leave."
"I guess not," Bucky said. He studied Phil's youthful, unassuming face. "Sorry. Let's get out of here, huh?"
"Not even one drink?"
"Not the drink I'm interested in right now, and that's all your fault."
Phil chuckled softly, and stroked Bucky's knee. "My closest safe house is just `round the corner. Shall we go there, soldier?"
"Sounds like the best idea I've heard in a long time," Bucky said, standing up. "I'm just gonna get a snack to go." He signalled for the bartender.
"How's Steve going?" Phil asked. "Serum doing him good?"
"I guess," Bucky said, making a face. It smoothed out when the bartender reached them, and he placed a quick order. "`Least the kid's not in danger of passing out at a moment's notice."
"Without knowing what it might have done to his system—"
"And we still don't know what HYDRA might've done to me," Bucky hissed. Phil's expression fell.
"If I'd known you beforehand," he began. Bucky shook his head.
"Nothing seems to be different," he said. "If they did anything to me, it hasn't affected me like it did Steve."
"I've seen a picture of him before… the experiment," Phil said, walking out the back door with Bucky. They couldn't walk arm in arm, but they remained close to each other on the way to the nearest intelligence hideout. "You don't need the bulking up he did."
"And yet I don't have his strength, speed, or… endurance."
"If the stories about him with the USO girls are true, I don't think I could keep up with that kind of endurance," he quipped. Bucky scowled at him.
"I can think of things I'd rather be talking about," he said.
"There's nothing I really want to say to you that's appropriate outside of the bedroom."
"That'd better be a promise, Phil."
"You know me, Bucky. When've I ever broken a promise to you?"
It was hard to keep their hands off each other when the door was finally locked behind them. The tie that Phil kept on hand at all times went around Bucky's mouth, and he shoved his lover onto the bed.
"All that walking and talking's made me thirsty," Phil said, reaching for the edge of Bucky's shirt. "And hungry. Mind if I help myself?"
Bucky said something which might have been 'Go right ahead', or possibly incoherent swearing as Phil began to strip them both.
When he was with Phil, Bucky invariably needed a gag. He didn't notice the bars of the bed-head creaking beneath his hands.
He spat out the tie at the end, and croaked, "I love you, Phil Coulson."
"I love you, too, James Barnes," Phil said, leaning over him. The affection in his eyes was so clear that Bucky's heart swelled like it never had before.
"If I could marry you," he said. "Hell, if we didn't have to hide—"
"I know. I'd risk it all if I could, but…"
"Yeah."
They fell silent, staring at each other in the fading moonlight. Phil moved to pull up the covers, but Bucky grabbed his wrist with lightning speed.
"Time for me to return the favour," he said slyly, and he flipped Phil onto his back.
Happy Valentine's Day! Told you I was on a Bucky/Phil bent.
More will be revealed as we go, but here's a bit of back story. Phil's in military intelligence in WWII, and Bucky's a Howling Commando. They met in a bar for men with 'alternative tastes', although they recognised each other from the main SSR base. They introduced each other, hooked up, and fell in love. Naturally, being the 1940s, they have to hide their relationship.
Okay! The chapters will all be named after songs Peter Allen has sung, including a bunch from The Boy from Oz. Thematic, or whatever. I don't know. Different lengths, as well. These are more like snippets of their story.
Please review! There will be drama and angst, and some bending of canon. (Duh.)