A/N: Hello all! Happy New Year! I hope y'all are having a wonderful new year so far and had a great holiday season!

I've had this part mostly done for a while now, but the next part is... not done lol. But I've gotten lots of inspiration for it lately, so it should be done before too long. The part after that is also mostly done, just need to edit it. So you shouldn't have to wait too long between 14 and 15. But sorry in advance for the little bit of a cliffhanger I'm going to leave Part 14 on.

Also I know it's been a while, so this chapter takes place after their first time together. And this one is kinda short, but... yeah.

Anyway! I hope you guys enjoy, and thank you so much for the continued love! ❤︎

REVIEWS

wedontkilltheliving: Thank you so much! ❤︎ ❤︎

Fear the Pretty People: I think Paige is a really good representation of all of us when Bucky gets shirtless, especially for when we first see them. And, well, every other time, because I sure know I had a reaction to Seb Stan's Men's Health photoshoot lol. And thank you! I hope your holidays were wonderful!

Tyj49: Trust me, Paige got plenty of revenge afterwards. They both get revenge frequently after "torturing" each other. Because where's the fun in a relationship with no teasing?

Late August, One Week Later

"I'm very sorry to interrupt you two but..."

A startled gasp, and their lips were disconnected, much to Bucky's dismay.

"What?!" He and Paige were in the middle of a very nice make-out session before F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s disembodied voice so rudely interrupted. "This had better be important," he grumbled.

"Unfortunately, it is. You have a visitor."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "Well, tell whoever it is that I have much more important business to attend to than whatever they want." He grinned and pulled Paige even closer to him. She giggled as their lips pressed back together.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. didn't exactly sound happy. "Sergeant Barnes, it's Secretary Ross."

They paused again briefly enough for Bucky to order, "Make him go away. Pretend I'm not here. Do something."

"He knows you're here."

That was not good news. Paige gasped again and pulled away even further. Bucky saw the same wide-eyed, panicked expression on her face that he was sure he was wearing himself. "Does he know I—"

"No, Miss Halcomb," F.R.I.D.A.Y. assured. "He only knows Sergeant Barnes is home, and only because that was out of my immediate control."

Paige breathed a sigh of relief. Bucky's thumbs caressed her cheeks, saying, "Good. Just tell him he can catch me after training tomorrow. He's the last person I wanna see right now. Or ever. But especially right now."

For a few blissful moments, the only noises in the room were Paige's giggles when Bucky's lips found a particularly ticklish spot on her throat. Then...

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting it's urgent. He won't leave."

Bucky suppressed a growl of sheer frustration as he buried his face in the crook of Paige's neck. "Fuck. God. Okay. Just… Gimme a minute. Or five."

Paige's sigh resembled how Bucky felt. "Buck, you better go get it over with. That way he's gone faster. And..." She let her fingers dance lightly over his metal arm, "we can get back to our very nice afternoon."

He grinned and showered her face with quick, light kisses. "I'm so sorry about this interruption, baby. Just, stay here and I'll be back soon. I promise. Gotta take out the trash, apparently."

She kissed his nose and slid off his lap. Heaving a rueful sigh at the sudden emptiness, he stood up and pulled his shirt back down over his abdomen, all without taking his eyes off her. He knew the intense eye contact never failed to make her blush. Right now was no exception. She looked like a mess, and he loved it. Her hair was mussed up from where he'd been running his hands through it. She'd also done the same thing to him before she'd snuck her fingers under his shirt. He'd been too distracted to pull it completely off, but that didn't matter now. It'd wind up on the floor after he'd got rid of the unwanted guests, anyway. The rest of their clothes would probably follow suit, too.

One more quick kiss, then he shut the door behind him. But not before fixing his hair so that he didn't look like a total wreck.

She'd taken the day off spontaneously after sneaking into the apartment the night before, citing that she simply didn't feel like going in and she had a few vacation days to burn, but she'd answer the phone and deal with anything immediate F.R.I.D.A.Y. brought to her attention. However, she was not leaving Bucky's apartment. That was perfectly fine with him. It was Wednesday, which meant that as soon as he and Sam were done with their session, he could come home and nobody would suspect anything.

It'd been a really good day all around, which is why Bucky was more agitated than usual when he laid eyes on Secretary Ross.

The man never failed to piss Bucky off. And here he was, with the gall to come to his apartment, interrupting his very good day, with what Bucky doubted was actually urgent news.

Why the fuck hadn't he just called? Bucky wouldn't have actually picked up, but that was beside the point.

"Good afternoon, Sergeant Barnes," Ross greeted once he'd been allowed inside, voice robotically professional as usual.

"Secretary Ross," Bucky replied curtly, making no attempt to hide his irritation. He crossed his arms and eyed Ross' assistants from where he stood in the living room. They would have fooled most others, but Bucky was no idiot. The "assistants" were his guards, each secretly armed enough to at least slow Bucky down. "What do you want?"

Ross stopped briefly in his examination of the apartment. "I guess we can dispense with the formalities. Why weren't you at the meeting I called today?"

Bucky raised his eyebrows. "I wasn't told there was one." It must not have been labeled mandatory enough for F.R.I.D.A.Y. to warrant disturbing him beforehand.

It was Ross' turn to look surprised. "This AI," he waved his hand in the air, "should have told all of the Avengers." He sounded like he still didn't consider Bucky a true Avenger. Bucky didn't give a shit what he thought or what he wanted; Ross had lost that battle over his official status a long time ago.

"Well, I must have missed the message."

Ross was in the kitchen now. Bucky grew more tense the closer he got to the bedroom door. "Shame. You missed a very important one this time." He looked thoughtful for a moment before adding, "Miss Halcomb missed the meeting too. Very unlike her. You two are friends. She tell you anything?"

Bucky stole another glance at the guards. "Yeah. She texted me and said she didn't feel good today. We were supposed to go over something, but I guess I have that to look forward to tomorrow." It was noncommittal enough.

"I guess I'll just schedule a meeting with her tomorrow."

What does he expect me to say?

"I had something I specifically wanted to ask you."

Trying to keep his expression neutral, Bucky turned more toward Ross. Ultimately, it was futile, as he visibly bristled when Ross stopped in front of his room and pondered the closed door. "What?" Bucky couldn't keep the sharp edge out of his voice. Even if Paige hadn't been in there, that was still his bedroom. His personal space. And Ross sure as shit wasn't ever going to be allowed in there.

Ross's head tilted curiously and reached for the doorknob, explaining, "We've been discussing—"

Ross wouldn't have been able to open the door anyhow. F.R.I.D.A.Y. already locked it, and Paige had been listening in and clamped her hand over the knob in case someone attempted to open it. But Bucky didn't know any of this, so in a split second, he crossed the room and knocked away Ross' hand, planting himself firmly and menacingly in front of the door. "That's my room, thank you." A low, dark warning through gritted teeth.

The Secretary of State was stunned (and terrified, Bucky gleefully noticed), but only momentarily. He took a step backwards, away from the dangerous fire in Bucky's eyes. "Fine." He held his hands up, both for Bucky's benefit and for his guards, who lowered their weapons hesitantly. "You are entitled to your privacy."

"Get on with your point," Bucky spat.

Ross had regained his composure. "An agreement has been reached between the governments of Earth and the Guardians, and any other planets those… ruffians have an alliance with. We'll be building a base that's going into orbit next year. There have been some discussions, and many people have decided that you'd be a good candidate to lead troops up there. You don't go out on many of our assignments anyway, so we're not losing much down here. It's time Earth had a planetary defense force. Everyone else in the galaxy seems to have one."

An Avengers base. In space. Space. Holy shit?

Bucky's shoulders relaxed ever so slightly. He was still pissed as hell, but he couldn't deny that he was intrigued. This was big news, which caused an ever so slight twinge of guilt for missing the meeting. It went away entirely as the expression on Ross' face became clear. Though he likely hadn't recommended him for this position personally, Ross couldn't deny that having Bucky off planet benefited him greatly.

Being that far away from this prick sounded really nice on the surface. However...

"I appreciate the offer, but I think I'm good here."

If Ross was surprised, he didn't show it. Only an incline of the head, followed by, "Don't rush into a decision. Think it over. And maybe think about looking at the details I left with Stark's AI."

"I'll think about it." Just go the fuck away so I can think about more than just wringing your neck or breaking your arm.

Ross nodded, and a few moments later, all three intruders were gone.

Bucky released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He waited a few beats, willing himself to physically relax, before turning the knob and going back into the room. Paige's expression wasn't exactly what he'd expected; she was excited. And rambling. And pacing around the room as she scrolled through something on her phone.

"I heard everything. I can't believe I missed the notification! We're building a space station? Like, holy shit, Bucky! Why'd you turn it down? That's an incredible opportunity! I mean, I know why because he was intruding in your home uninvited but still! This is an excellent idea, oh my god."

Well, obviously she wasn't as upset by the prospect of Bucky being gone as he thought she'd be. "You're… You'd be okay with that?"

Ah. That made her brain slow down a bit. She stopped pacing and looked up at him. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Before Bucky could answer, she registered what he meant and began moving again. "Oh! It's not like we don't know that warp speed travel is a reality for everyone except us primitive earthlings. We could talk the Guardians or Carol or even Thor into getting us a ship to get back and forth. Or designing one here on Earth. I think Tony will shit his pants if he gets to build a working spaceship. Like, one that would get you to the station in a matter of like... a normal daily commute, you know? It could probably be like just living in one state with your family but working in another. There's still weekends! Which is like normal for us now, so."

"Hey, hey, slow down! You're going just a bit too fast," Bucky laughed. He thought about pulling her in for a hug, but she was gesturing wildly, and he really didn't want to get accidentally smacked in the face. "I thought I was the space nerd."

"Sorry, sorry!" She took a deep breath and continued. "Okay, so, I think we need to really go over all of this and you need to talk to everyone. I don't think you should brush this off just because Ross is the one who presented it. And I need to make sure this doesn't get out before the press conference. Ugh, fuck. Tomorrow's gonna be one bitch of a day." At least she'd stopped pacing.

"Yeah, I think it is."

"But, that's a problem for tomorrow."

Somehow he'd missed her mutter, too lost in his own thoughts. "And because apparently so many people recommended me for this, I'm gonna have a lot of people on my ass about missing this meeting."

A distracted silence settled between them for a few seconds before she began wrapping her arms around his middle. "I don't blame them though. It is a really nice ass. I should know." She squeezed it pointedly, which caused a half-gasp, half-laugh from Bucky, again too lost in thought to really notice what she was doing.

Bucky knew she wanted to get back to their afternoon festivities. He did, too. But he couldn't shake a certain thought. "What if… they didn't allow me weekends? If they made me stay up there for months at a time?"

She lifted her chin and rested it on his chest. "Then… I'd miss you. A fuck ton. But I don't want you to say no just because of me. That's selfish. Also not a sign of a healthy relationship. I want you to do this because you want to. Besides, I can do long distance relationships."

"What did I do to deserve you?" he asked softly, taking her chin between his thumb and index finger.

Her eyes were so full of love that Bucky thought he was going to implode. "That's… the fact that you're thinking like that… Bucky, anyone who doesn't want you to think for yourself and make the choices you want isn't worth another second of your time."

"I know, I know," he muttered. "This is just… a lot to take in right now."

"It is. But, again, don't let me stand in the way of doing what you think is right and what you want to do."

"Well, there's still a lot of questions I have. So we should do more research before I make any final decisions."

"True, true. But after we make out, maybe?"

"Glad we're on the same page." He lifted her into the air so that he wouldn't have to bend to kiss her. A moment after they'd locked lips, he realized exactly what he said and started laughing.

"What?"

"On the same page… Paige? Get it?"

The way she said his name that time was nothing short of disdainful.