Summary: The clue is in the title. Bucky's soft gooey center gets the better of him.
Warnings: fluff, a smidge of angst, mentions of animal neglect (not described), more fluff,
Notes: This is a follow on of sorts to Lone Wolf but can be read as a stand-alone fic.
The apartment Bucky shared with Tori wasn't big but it was enough for the two of them, and he loved every square inch of it because it was theirs. They'd been living together - just the two of them - for three months. It had taken some getting used to, learning each other's habits and quirks, but they set some ground rules early on and it had been smooth sailing from there on in.
But today, he paced the length of the hallway nervously. He had technically broken one of the rules. He'd made a decision that affected them both, without first discussing it with her. She had warned him that his soft gooey center would get the better of him but he'd brushed off the comment without further thought.
Today proved she'd been right. His soft gooey center had, in fact, taken the reins and now he was nervously pacing his apartment waiting for Tori to get home. He planned to intercept her arrival and butter her up as best he could before she discovered his rule-breaking on her own.
He heard her keys jingle outside the door and he rushed to open it before she could insert it into the lock.
"Wooooo," Tori said, smirking at his abrupt appearance, "where's the fire?"
"No fire," he confirmed, ushering her inside.
She eyed him suspiciously but crossed the threshold and placed a kiss on his lips. "You look nervous."
He shrugged but didn't comment further as he closed the door. He rushed to pass her as she removed her jacket and toed off her shoes. "How was your day?" he asked when he heard her follow him toward the kitchen.
"Busy and frustrating," she sighed, taking a seat on a high stool at the breakfast bar.
"The GRC still making life difficult?" he asked, pouring a glass of her favorite wine (that he'd purposely picked up on the way home.)
She took the glass from him and took a small sip while she nodded. "Enough about my day, your's was way more important," Tori said, perking up. "Did it all go through?"
"Without a hitch," Bucky smiled broadly, taking a seat beside her.
After his official pardon, Bucky hadn't been ready to jump back into avenging or being a soldier or whatever he was. He needed to figure out who he was when there was no fight that needed to be fought. He was putting in the work with Doctor Raynor and she'd suggested he do some volunteer work.
Tori had the idea that he could help out at the local animal shelter. He'd been amazing at helping Socks, the injured wolf, and Bucky was strong enough to literally do any heavy lifting and help subdue larger dogs if required. He'd been volunteering three days a week for a month and a half and he loved it. He found it to be fulfilling and for every case of neglect there was always a case of hope to counteract it. And today he'd played a role in getting a senior dog adopted.
"Congratulations. I'm so proud of you, your first official adoption." She beamed just as brightly as him, clinking her glass to his.
While they drank, he opened his legs wide and dragged her stool closer to him to better lean in for a kiss.
He let the kiss escalate. Perhaps she'd be more receptive if she were in a post-orgasmic haze. Once she'd clumsily set her glass on the countertop her hands roamed his torso. He gripped her thighs and she slipped off her stool to stand between his legs.
Every time he kissed her, his stomach fluttered, like a giddy teenager, falling in love for the first time. He felt ridiculous but adored every second of it too. He was in love with her, had known for a while, but he hadn't been brave enough to say it aloud. Their relationship was still relatively new, he worried telling her how deeply she affected him may scare her off.
He pondered for a moment that telling her how he felt could help his current situation. Or would that be manipulative? Perhaps making his feelings known would make her see that he hadn't made the decision on a whim. Though to anyone on the outside looking in it would probably seem that way.
He understood the responsibility he was taking on, knew that what he was asking of Tori was not a small matter. However, after helping him with Socks, the injured wolf, she had made a point of showing him she meant every word she'd said. She didn't care how deep his wounds were, or how long it would take him to open up about his past and his trepidation for the future, she had been by his side. Maybe his fears were unwarranted after all. Even if she hadn't said she loved him either, she had shown him in a million different ways.
Distracted from his thoughts, he moaned as Tori raked her nails down his abs. As if on cue a pitiful cry emitted from the bedroom and he only hoped he had been loud enough to drown it out.
She pulled back and eyed him suspiciously, "did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" he feigned innocence and buried his head in her neck, placing gentle kisses on her throat.
"Bucky."
"Uh-huh."
"How many dogs are in the bedroom?"
Bucky admitted defeat and straightened up to look her in the eye. "One."
"Didn't we agree that you wouldn't bring any of them home?" she asked, stepping away from him to make her way to the bedroom.
"Wait," Bucky said, quickly grabbing her wrist before she could get too far. "Let me go first."
She nodded and allowed him to lead her down the short corridor. He stopped outside their bedroom and turned to face her. "Don't go falling in love with him," he smirked, "we're just fostering him."
She rolled her eyes. "Okay, Mr Soft Gooey Center, just open the door."
He opened the door slowly and Tori followed him inside. A fluffy, brown and white ball of fur, with a red collar, was pressed tightly between the nightstand and the wall. Bucky gently lowered himself to the floor directly across from him and Tori followed his lead.
The puppy whimpered and tried shrinking further back against the wall. "It's okay buddy," Bucky whispered, "you just take your time."
"What's his story?" Tori whispered just as Bucky had.
"He's only a pup, a husky mix of some kind, we think about nine months old," Bucky explained, keeping his voice quiet. "He was found on the street. He was so scared in the shelter, T, worse than he is now, he just cowered in the corner, shaking so hard I thought he was going to have a heart attack."
She exhaled sadly and Bucky knew she felt the same deep empathy for the animal that he did. Bucky rested his head on the wall behind him and watched the young dog but Tori turned only her head to look at him. "Should we leave him alone?" she asked and he heard the control it took to keep her voice from breaking.
He softly shook his head. "I'd made some progress before you came home, he'd come over to sniff my boots and he walked around the room, checking some stuff out. But now he doesn't exist in this room again, he's lost someplace else, in a void of fear. He needs to know we're here, that we're nothing to fear. I know he needs to hear our voices to talk him back into existence."
"How?" she questioned, slipping her hand into his. "How do you know that's what he needs?"
"Cause that's what I needed," he said, turning the upper half of his body to better look in her eyes. "After everybody came back, I was lost in that same void. Fear of who I was, the things I'd done, who I was supposed to become, scared of what would happen to me now. I didn't exist, I was just existing. Then you followed me that morning to help Socks. Everything you said...everything you've done since then," he paused to find the right words. "I didn't know it at the time, but I needed to hear that... to hear you talk me back in existence." He caressed her cheek and drew her mouth to his to kiss her softly. Resting his forehead against hers he confirmed, "That's how I know."
There was a heartbeat of silence before her whispered confession danced over his lips, "I love you."
As soon as the last syllable left her mouth he felt her tense under his hand that still rested on her cheek. He pulled back slightly to see her eyes squeezed shut and her biting her bottom lip. A jolt of panic shot through him and his heart clenched that perhaps the expression she wore was one of regret, that she hadn't meant it, that it had been a slip of the tongue.
She kept her eyes practically glued shut. "You don't have to say it back and I don't want you to feel like you have to. I'm sorry, this wasn't…"
He kissed her, firmly, and it succeeded in shutting her up. "Tori, look at me," he coaxed and waited until she granted his wish. "I love you too."
Before he could kiss her again movement caught his eyes and he cautiously turned his head to see the puppy sniffing his outstretched leg. Tori gasped and then quickly held her breath to not scare him away again.
"So what do you say?" Bucky asked, watching the dog gradually move to sniff Tori's leg. "Can we foster him?"
She let a small laugh out, "I think it might be time to look for a bigger place for the three of us and whoever else your soft gooey center can't resist."
The smile that spread across his face actually hurt his cheeks but he shrugged nonchalantly. "Hey, at least you won your bet with Sam."
Sam had bet Tori fifty bucks that Bucky would take home a dog he felt sorry for in his first month of volunteering. As part of his master plan to win, Sam hadn't been very subtle in encouraging Bucky to adopt one. It took Bucky all of five seconds of listening to Sam's 'reasoning' to figure it out.
"What? You knew about that?"
Bucky's forehead crinkled as if it were obvious. "Why do you think I waited an extra two weeks?"
End.