When
Steve felt a wave of heat wash over his features. How had he ended up in this position? Had he rolled into James again? He had a few options open to him: He could try to free himself and pretend that nothing had happened, or stay like that and hope that James thought nothing of it. The metal arm was heavy though, and an assassin's senses were well trained. He couldn't be sure that James remain asleep if he moved, so he stayed like that for a while, as his heart beat faster, and he started to become more aware of James by the second. He could feel warm breath skim over his hair, teasing at his forehead. Steve wanted the ground to swallow him up. He had never been in such a compromising position before, and with Bucky?
James yawned, startling Steve, and his eyes slowly blinked open. He looked disoriented for a moment, but Steve could not see his face, as he had chosen the 'pretend to be asleep' option. He could feel James move slightly, finally lifting his arm a little, reducing the weight. A moment later, James rolled over onto his back. Phew. Then he pulled Steve with him. Wait what?
Steve had let himself go limp in his attempt to pretend he was asleep, so when James rolled him over, he found himself half on top of the soldier. His hand was now further down James's muscular chest, and his head rested under James's chin now. He felt a human arm around his waist this time, and could hear James returning to sleep. Steve was neither uncomfortable nor particularly wakeful, but he did not know how to behave in this situation. Intimacy was foreign to him, so he lay there in James's arms for a while longer, before finally deciding he should get up.
Steve carefully wrapped his hand around the assassin's wrist, then gently lifted his arm, and placed it to the side. He exhaled, pulled the duvet to the side, then tried to sit up. A strong hand gingerly grabbed his shoulder,
"I was enjoying that. Do you have to be somewhere?" James chuckled as Steve turned to face him, "You should see the look on your face. It's comfortable, and you make a great cushion." Steve's jaw dropped, and he picked up a pillow, hitting his friend with it, "Something I said?" James picked up the other pillow, and whacked it straight into Steve's face,
"Seriously? We're having a pillow fight?" Steve was struggling not to laugh. This was so childish, and Steve was fairly certain his face was still red, but he was distracted by the second pillow assault coming from his left,
"Pillow fights make for excellent training. You never know when or where an enemy might strike." James teased. Had he been sleeping with girls while he was the winter soldier? Steve knew that times had changed, but James had seemed so cold as an assassin. Not the kind of guy he thought girls would want to hop into bed with. But here he was, only a day after they'd started talking, and they were playing around like teenagers.
There was something surreal about seeing something so fluffy and soft in James's metal hand. Steve drove his pillow into James's chest as if it were his shield, and he fell over backward against the headboard, feigning defeat in battle.
"Too bad, Buck. You almost had me." Steve smiled, taking heavy, fast breaths.
"I shall be avenged." James replied, breathing just as fast. "The Black Widow will come for you in the night." He grinned,
"Haha, yeah Natasha would certainly have me cornered." Steve put his pillow back in it's place,
"Natasha…" James repeated, trailing off. "She was with you on the bridge. How do you know her?"
"Huh? We worked together for S.H.I.E.L.D, up until we realised it was compromised that is… I remember her telling me something about you… It had something to do with bikinis."
"I shot her. She wasn't too happy about it. Kinda ruined our date. Long story." Steve's eyes widened,
"That was your cover?"
"Oh no, she knew I was the Winter Soldier, she just didn't know I'd been hired to assassinate the nuclear engineer she was escorting."
"Wait… You were already going out before that?" Steve felt his grasp of the situation slipping,
"You could say that. It was five years ago now, so my memory is a little hazy on the subject. I've been wiped over a dozen times since then, so I'm not exactly a reliable authority on this." James propped up his pillow behind him,
"I'd ask Natasha, but I doubt she wants to reminisce about the good old days." Steve was having a hard time coming to grips with this. Natasha and Bucky? Images of the two of them entangled and naked came rushing into his mind. He lost control of his thoughts for a moment, and he could not understand why the image felt so wrong to him. Some people did anything to ensure the success of a mission, but there are some things that Steve would never do. He was not sure how he felt about the idea of James betraying Natasha either. It was in the past now, but he had only just learned of these events.
"Don't think too hard on it?" James's eyes were pleading. When did he learn to tease again? He seemed to have recovered something in his sleep.
"Did you remember anything new over night?" Steve asked after a while.
"Yeah. Cushion forts."
The Winter Soldier crouched behind a metal crate with one knee on the ground, loading his pistol. This was a covert operation, so he only brought the small guns with silencers. He had his back to the crate, and held his gun ready, as he leaned around slowly to see if anyone was coming. They were: Three women and two men in dark suits were walking across the rain-spattered car park, each carrying a variety of weapons. Hydra agents.
Steve had spent the day in contact with Sam Wilson, tracking down potential Hydra agents, then confirming each one based on their activities since the S.H.I.E.L.D meltdown. The results of his efforts had been locating three of the suspects. Now that James saw them walking together and heavily armed, that was all he needed to know. He raised his free hand and gave Steve the signal that they were targets. He did not need to know whether Steve had seen or not, because he could take them down on his own if necessary. Steve was more equipped for non-lethal damage, but that did not mean that James did not know how to shoot to disarm.
The assassin gripped his gun tightly, and stood up. His first shot hit with no problems, straight into the wrist of one man. The second shot was a less easy task, as they were now alerted to his position. He walked to the left, aiming mainly at their feet, and instantly crippled the other man, and one of the women. He dodged to the side, as the two women still standing had their assault rifles in hand now, and had begun firing back at him. Not the easiest of firearms to dodge, but their aim was nowhere near good enough to hit him.
He rolled across the wet tarmac, then shot at the women's wrists. They moved too quickly, one dodging, and the other getting hit in the side. That would leave a mark. He rolled forward, onto his feet, and shot again at the woman, this time succeeding, as a bullet went straight into her shin. She fell hard, hitting her head, and losing consciousness. The man with his wrist out for the count was now attempting to shoot with his uninjured hand. He was clearly not ambidextrous. James took out his knee cap, causing the man to let out a wail, and collapse. His injured knee impacted with the ground, causing him to cry out again, and buckle over with pain. Four down, one to go.
The remaining woman was uninjured, moving fast, and on full alert now. This was where he had to be more careful. She'd had level six S.H.I.E.L.D access, and was very much a field agent with full combat training. She dodged his bullets easier than the others had, and was getting closer by the second. That meant she wanted a fist fight. She'll try to disarm me, then go in for a grapple. James predicted her every move, and finally shot her in the shoulder. He thought she would double over like the others, but she barely flinched. She kept closing in on him, and taken aback by her sudden recovery, he had let his guard slip for half a second. Unfortunately that half second was all it took for her to gain the upper hand, swinging her leg around and kicking him in the side.
James held his ground, but he had to keep moving. This woman was fast, and he could not shoot her at short range. He darted to the right, shoving his gun back in his belt. He pulled out a knife, and lunged at her arm. She moved just in time, blocking his forearm with hers, and punched him in the gut with her free arm. She was strong, but he was wearing his armour, and though he was knocked back a little, he maintained his balance. That was when she pulled out a knife of her own. He saw it coming, and dodged, but she scraped the side of his jaw. The sting was distracting, so he took a step back, and tried to trip her over. She came lunging toward him again with her knife, so he ducked, and lunged toward her hip, cutting a deep wound that he could feel tearing through her muscle. She screamed as blood poured out of her side, feeling the knife slice through her hip, and leapt away from him, lashing out with her knife as she moved. The wild slashing caught his right forearm, and left a gash there, causing blood to well up. It was nothing compared with the spray of red that was still coming from her hip. She clutched at it with her hand, trying to slow the bleeding, but failing miserably,
"You need first aid. Surrender and I'll patch you up." James offered. She laughed raggedly,
"You must be joking? Hydra do not give in." She hissed at him. He took that moment to charge forwards, snatching the knife from her hand, and casting it aside. He rammed her into one of the taller crates, covering her body with his, and leaned over her. It was an intimidation play,
"I want names." James tore into her with merely a look. His gaze was piercing, and she let out a nervous giggle, before biting down on something in her mouth. Damn. She started to make a gurgling sound, as her mouth throthed up, and she collapsed to the floor, dead.
James let go of her, and turned around to find Steve putting handcuffs on the other agents,
"Oh great, let the assassin do his thing while Captain America just arrests people." James teased him.
"Har har. I had a fight of my own, Buck." Steve pointed to a cut on his shoulder. "There were more of them up by where I was standing. I saw your signal just as they spotted me. You seemed to have it covered down here, so I took care of them first."
"Oh don't mind the assassin. He'll be fine." James laughed, "And I suppose by 'took care of' you mean knocked out with your bare fists and handcuffed?"
"Most of 'em yeah. One got away. I'm still riled up about that." Steve looked concerned,
"Bucky one, Cap zero." James slapped him on the back. Steve winced, "It's okay, we'll find them with the next lot. We're just getting started."
"I know. I just wish you hadn't got that one up on me. I thought you said the Black Widow would take me out." Steve smiled at last.
Flirting with women at the barracks
Dancing with pretty girls
Watching Steve walk away
Seeing the photo in Steve's pocket watch
After calling the police, the two men waited around in the shadows as the officials moved onto the scene. Steve had left a note stating that these were Hydra agents, signed 'Captain America'. Seeing that they had the situation under control, Steve and James left to head back to the apartment.
Once they were indoors, Steve noticed the deep cut in Bucky's forearm. The bloodstains barely showed up on his black combat gear, so Steve insisted that he took a look at the wound. He went to fetch a first aid kit from the bathroom cabinet, while Bucky unfastened all the straps, and pulled off the kevlar vest. After removing several layers of clothing from the upper half of his body, he could finally see the cut properly. It was deeper than he had realised,
"Woops." James commented,
"You'll need to soak that before I can bandage you up, Buck. It looks pretty bad." James nodded, heading for the sink. He washed off the blood that had made its way down his arm, trying not to agitate the wound, before returning to find that Steve had pulled up two chairs, and sat down on one of them. James took the seat opposite. He usually patched himself up with a needle and thread, but he wouldn't say no to something more comfortable.
Steve took the bandages out of the first aid kit, as James held out his arm. Steve gripped James's wrist, holding it steady with one hand, while using the other to start wrapping the bandage around the cut. James helped to hold it in place, until Steve had wrapped it around enough times. He cut the bandage with a pair of scissors, then tied off the ends. That was when he realised how close they were to each other.
Steve was struggling to understand why he was becoming so aware of James's presence, and why his closeness affected him like this. Was it because of how he had woken up that morning? The memory brought back the red tint to his cheeks, and he noticed that the soldier was looking up at him. His eyes were like hot liquid, casting a gold shimmer amongst the blue pools of his irises,
"Something wrong, Steve?"
"Uhh… I uh… can't remember the last time I did this." Steve gestured to the bandage,
"You're still holding my wrist." James pointed out offhandedly, "If anything I'd say you didn't want to let go." Steve flustered at that last remark. Feeling his face turn an even deeper shade of scarlet. He let go of James's wrist, but the tease was not going to let things slide that easily. James caught Steve's face in his hands, and kissed him.
"Wha- Bucky?" Steve breathed. He froze, but James was pulling him closer. He kissed him again, pressing their mouths together, Steve felt James' warm breath on his skin, and found himself losing control. He closed his eyes as James took his lips in his, teasing them open. Steve felt something break loose inside him, like a dam collapsing, allowing the river to flow. He wrapped his arms around James's back, standing up, pulling James with him, and began returning his kisses. He gripped him by the jaw, and pressed his lips down James's warm neck, moving down, and taking his skin between his teeth. James moaned loudly.