In actual fact, Natasha caught two pigs. The crew assigned to fish also had an exceptionally good haul. They cooked everything over the fire, and left one of the pigs and a load of fish aside to treat later to bring back onto the ship.

Steve and Natasha had untied Bucky and moved him closer to the fire as the night chill began to creep in. they had tied his wrists together in front of him and had also tied his ankles together as a precautionary measure.

Bucky's stomach rumbled at the smell of the roasting meat. The crew ate their fill – drank it too – while Bucky tried to prevent himself from drooling over the sumptuous smell. As the crew began to break into song and danced rather badly around the fire, Steve approached cautiously, looking back repetitively to ensure Natasha was too preoccupied being drunkenly serenaded by Tony.

He sank to his knees in the sand in front of the restrained man and glanced furtively back at his first mate again. He reminded Bucky of a naughty child sneaking behind his mother's back.

"Here. Couldn't let you starve." Steve smiled wryly, holding out a chunk of roasted pork. Bucky looked pointedly down at his bound wrists and the short length of rope that joined them to his ankles.

He raised an eyebrow cockily at the well-meaning captain. Steve – much to Bucky's delight – immediately flushed red and became flustered.

"I-sorry-uhm…"

Bucky gave him a filthy grin. "You gonna feed me, Stevie?"

The captain gasped sharply at the suggestion, a tentative smile slowly crawling onto his face.

"Sure." He held the hunk of meat just out of Bucky's reach, forcing him to lean forwards to take a bite.

He let out what can only be described as a pornographic moan as the flavour exploded in his mouth. It had been the best thing he had eaten in months.

-XOX-

The ship stayed anchored in the bay for just under a month. The crew hunted daily, preserving their catches so that they wouldn't rot when they eventually set sail.

After the thirty days had passed with not even a hint of payment, Bucky was given a choice: to join the crew or to get off at the next port. He had looked around him at the men and women whom he had grown fond of and made his decision.

At sunset they set sail, the crew more rowdy than usual and glad to be back where they belonged. In the galley below decks the crew got drunk on some concoction that had been fermenting while they were on the shore. For the first time, Bucky was joining them instead of merely watching.

When most of the crew were almost inebriated – if not snoring on the tables, benches and floor of the galley – Bucky scampered up the stairs to the main deck. He breathed in the sharp air, never having felt more alive than he did in that moment.

His attention was drawn away from the stars by the almost inaudible sound of a breathless sigh. He stumbled up the steps and over to the railing at the very back of the platform over the officers' quarters. He wasn't quite sure of its proper name. He was tempted to spin the wheel as he passed but decided against it. He stood next to the sighing man watching the water pass by in bubbles and whirls. He flung an arm casually about his shoulders and pulled him in for an awkward side-hug.

"Why the sighs, Stevie?" He murmured in his ear.

Had he been more sober he would never have been so forward. Steve turned his head and gave Bucky a long, searching look. If he had been about to say something, he never got the chance to. Bucky carefully pressed his chapped lips against the smaller mans, and was distantly surprised when they began to move against his own. After a moment, Steve pulled away and looked down quickly.

"Buck…" he began carefully, "I don' wanna be accused of taking liberties."

"'M not your prisoner anymore."

"No, but I am still your captain."

Bucky let his arm flop off of Steve's shoulders. He took a step back, shaking his head, "That's a lonely way to live." He turned and stalked off with far more grace than someone that drunk should have been able to possess.

-XOX-

Bucky settled into the hard work with ease. Muscles erupted from places he didn't know they could within the first month. He sometimes felt the scalding gaze of the captain on him while he worked, but he paid it no heed. If the man was moral to the point of denying himself the so be it.

What was perhaps the most surprising occurrence in the history of the ship was the fact that Tony had slowly, hesitatingly began to leave the hull more often and even – on one notable occasion – hijacked someone's hammock in order to sleep next to Bruce. The doctor slash berserker apparently intrigued the hermit and Bruce himself encouraged the friendship, which was not something he usually did. Nobody else understood what they were talking about most of the time.

As for Bucky however, he had gotten fairly friendly with the first ate, and also had faint suspicions that she wanted to invite him to her cabin one night. For Bucky it wasn't even an option, women just didn't do it for him. She found that out eventually though, on his first visit to a port Tony had affectionately named 'whoresville'.

He had fallen asleep in the brothel after using their services and when Natasha went looking, found him curled up in bed with another man. A pretty, feminine man but a man nonetheless. She didn't take it too badly, just raised an eyebrow at him and warned that if he wasn't back on the ship within the hour they would sail without him.

That night over dinner, Natasha leant over the table and spoke in a teasing voice that couldn't be heard over the din made by the others. "During your captivity did Tony ever break into your cell to relieve your urges?"

Bucky pretended to gag on his food and to his embarrassment Natasha's cackling drew the attention of most of the occupants of the galley.