Soft fingers caressed Bucky's lips, slowly back and forth eventually traveling down to his jaw where he knew they would run into the stubble from his beard he had been too lazy to shave off last night. But in that moment Bucky couldn't find it in himself to care because being touched so intimately was pure heaven.
As his mind was being slowly pulled from the fog of sleep he remembered where he had ended up last night so he allowed his eyes to sluggishly open. As the sleep fell away from his eyes he found himself staring back at Madison's beautiful hazel eyes. But something felt off as Bucky allowed himself to completely awaken from this most pleasant experience.
Bucky looked around the room. Everything seemed as it was when he fell asleep, except…his arm was vibranium again. Madison had the monitoring pads stuck to the back of her hand and the oxygen monitor on her finger was blinking red. In the dream state these things weren't there. The perfect setting would have been ruined with reminders of Madison being sick, so Bucky was confused why they would be back now.
Madison's smile began to fall as she realized Bucky was beginning to panic. "Hey, hey, stay calm. It's okay. Shhh," she said brushing the hair that had fallen loose from his ponytail back behind his ear. "Focus on me." Leaning forward, Madison pressed her forehead against Bucky's before she kissed the side of his mouth as she had done several times before to try to refocus his attention.
Bucky breathed a deep sigh at the feeling of Madison's warmth against him. Slipping his right hand slowly up Madison's bare arm to the back of her neck, cupping her head gently he pulled her back to finish the teasing kiss she had just given him. This time however he wasn't going to let it end so quickly as he pressed his lips against hers, opening his mouth only slightly to allow the tip of his tongue to taste her lips. Her soft gasp in surprise was all Bucky needed to slip his tongue slowly into Madison's mouth to taste her.
"Good morning," Bucky whispered to Madison. "Definitely," came Madison's response as Bucky slid his leg closer to hers to bring their bodies together.
"Are we awake," Bucky asked, running his fingers slowly through the soft strands of Madison's hair.
"Yes," Madison whispered back, loving the feeling of Bucky's fingers touching her.
"How did I get in bed with you?" Bucky asked, looking down between the two of them, both under the covers.
"I moved you." Madison answered, her eyes suddenly fascinated with Bucky's shirt as she touched his chest through its cool material.
Bucky gently lifted Madison's chin with his finger so that she had to look at him, "You moved me?"
"It couldn't have been very long after we drifted off in the dream state that I woke up here. You were slumped over in the chair," Madison pointed behind her to the chair Bucky had sat in when he first came in the room last night. "I just couldn't leave you like that, it looked so uncomfortable. So I…" she motioned to the bed beside her where Bucky currently was lying.
"But how? I'm at least twice your size," Bucky asked, perplexed as to how someone so small could move him without waking him on top of the other factors to consider.
"I think I did it with my mind," Madison mumbled, afraid of saying out loud something that sounded so stupid to even her own ears as an excuse.
Madison was expecting Bucky to laugh at her idea of how he happened to move from one location to the next, but instead he just said, "Makes sense."
Now she really was confused, "Makes sense? How exactly?"
"Bruce was saying earlier that he thinks part of what was happening to you was that you somehow copied Wanda's powers. Wanda can move things with her mind. So that would go to reason that if she can do it, then perhaps so can you." Bucky explained things so matter-of-factly that he didn't leave room for doubt. As he continued to twirl a piece of Madison's hair between his fingers, he found he didn't want to talk much about reality right now. Part of him didn't want to share Madison with everyone else just yet. How could someone you knew for such a short amount of time feel like they fit so perfectly in your life?
"We should probably get up soon I guess," Madison offered, not making an effort to move from the position she was currently in. "Someone I'm sure will come to check on me once they notice my vitals show I'm awake."
"Damnit," Bucky muttered to himself as he rolled onto his back, "I was supposed to go running with Sam and Steve this morning," looking at the watch on his right wrist, "about an hour ago."
"I'm sorry," Madison offered as an apology for messing up his morning.
Bucky rolled back towards Madison and wrapped his arm around her pulling their bodies closer together, "Don't be, sweetheart. This is much better than sweating my ass off with those two so early in the morning," he said, giving Madison a big smile and a peck on the nose. The warmth from Madison's body felt amazing to Bucky as he snuggled closer to her. He was very comfortable right where he was.
The smile Bucky gave Madison did something to her heart. If she wasn't careful she was going to fall in love with this man and fall hard.
Bucky leaned forward and lightly kissed Madison's lips again before saying, "But I do need to get up. We should get some food in you. You've not eaten since yesterday morning and that didn't stay in your stomach long I don't think." With the suggestion of food, Madison's stomach decided to make itself known with a loud grumble causing both of them to laugh.
Flipping back the covers, Bucky swung his legs over the side of the bed before making any effort to get up.
Madison wasn't a child. She had made some very grown up decisions in her short life, some that she wasn't so proud of, but getting closer to Bucky Barnes just didn't feel like a decision she would come to regret.
She had to fight the urge to run her fingers down the contours of his strong back that his t-shirt did nothing to hide. It wouldn't look very ladylike to suddenly jump the man from behind, but she had to confess that she wasn't experiencing the most pure thoughts right now.
This caused Madison's cheeks to flush as she thought about what it would feel like to touch Bucky without his shirt on. Thoughts that she really should have saved for another time when she wasn't connected to a heart monitor because suddenly the unit beside the bed began to alarm causing both of them to jump at the intrusive noise.
Bucky raced around the bed to the machine looking for the off switch to shut the racket down before it woke the dead. Finally after presses half a dozen buttons the alarm ended leaving both Madison and Bucky laughing at the situation. "And just what brought on the sudden spike in heartrate there, miss?" Bucky teased, which only caused Madison to blush harder.
She dove down under the sheets, pulling them over her head as she refused to face Bucky.
Bucky continued to laugh as he made his way to the door, opening it to leave. He was met with the flustered face of Bruce Banner who had apparently raced from wherever he had been in the compound when the alarm sounded. Bruce just stood there with a very confused and perplexed look on his face at what he was seeing. Bucky just patted his shoulder before telling Madison he would be back with breakfast.
Bucky padded down the corridor towards the kitchen smelling the delicious smells of breakfast being cooked. Normally the team took turns getting breakfast together for the whole group. Whenever it was one of the girls turn, it was always a hearty one with all of Bucky's favorites. This morning was no different.
As he walked into the kitchen Nat and Wanda were talking and giggling like school girls to one another. This actually made him smile for a change. "Morning ladies," he offered them in greeting as he took a seat at the island.
"Someone got a good night's sleep last night I see," Wanda teased her friend to which Bucky smiled, pushing his hair back behind his ears.
"I did actually. No nightmares." Wanda's teasing smile faltered slightly. She knew how big of a deal that really was for James. Of course she was happy for him, but also sad that that needed to be pointed out at all.
"Plus," Bucky said, looking down at his watch again, "I apparently got to sleep in." He snagged a piece of bacon from the plate that had been sat down before Nat could smack his hand away.
"Madison's awake," Bucky announced to the room. Both women turned to look at him expecting more details than just that. "Bruce is in with her now. I figured I'd take her some breakfast so she could stay in bed and rest a little more," he said, reaching for a plate.
"No need for that," came the voice of Bruce who was slowly leading Madison down the hallway towards the kitchen table.
Seeing Madison on her feet caused Bucky to jump to his and race to her side. "What are you doing up, I told you I'd bring you something to eat."
Madison was going to answer but Bruce did it for her, "I told her it would be best to get her on her feet as soon as possible. We need to see what kind of lasting effects yesterday may have on her if any and simple tasks are the best evaluators."
Madison just smiled up at Bucky who had come and wrapped his arm around her waist to offer support as she slowly walked forward. Bruce seeing he was no longer needed pulled out a chair for Madison at the table where Bucky helped her sit.
"Why am I so stiff feeling," Madison asked Banner.
"Your body has been going through some significant changes over the past twenty-four hours. I would have been more surprised if you weren't sluggish feeling when you woke." Banner reached for Madison's wrist to manually check her pulse rate again as she rested at the table.
Bucky and the girls brought over all of the food to the table along with the plates, cups and utensils about the same time everyone else in the household began to show up for breakfast.
"I swear the smell of food cooking is better than a public service announcement to get everyone's attention," Nat quipped laughing at her own joke.
One-by-one the team members settled into their respective places around the table. Banner moved from the spot he had been occupying for Wanda and Bucky took up his seat next to Madison.
He began to pile item after item of food onto the plate. Pancakes, fruit, bacon, eggs, toast with butter and a muffin all before Madison spoke up laughing, "Is that for me or the defensive line of a football team?"
Bucky realized he went a little overboard but he also knew Madison needed to eat, so with a big smile he said, "How will you ever grow up to be big and strong if you don't eat your breakfast in the morning?"
""No self-respectin' Southerner uses instant grits. I take pride in my grits," Madison said, laughing at her own inside joke.
"You got twenty minutes to spend on fixing grits or does water boil faster in your kitchen than it does in everyone else's," Bucky said, turning to look Madison straight in the face deadly serious.
She couldn't take it, Madison burst out laughing. Bucky Barnes knew My Cousin Vinny and could actually quote it.
Everyone else at the table just thought that both Bucky and Madison had lost their minds. "What is a…grit…" Vision asked, perplexed. This caused both Madison and Bucky to laugh harder.
As everyone settled down, filling their plates Steve and Sam came running into the house. "I beat you man, admit it. I finally beat Captain America running."
Sam breathed hard as he leaned forward with his hands on his knees trying to stop his heart from jumping out of his chest. Gasping and panting, he pushed Steve to admit it. Finally, he had won.
Steve looked barely winded as he patted his physically exhausted friend on the back, "Sure man. Whatever you say," he laughed as Sam lay down on the floor, exhausted and ready to pass out.
As though it were a normal occurrence Clint leaned over and placed a plate of food beside Sam's head on the floor and went back to eating.
Steve sat in his chair across from Madison and waited while she took a few small bites of egg and then muffin before sipping gingerly at her juice. It had been a very long time since he had last been sick but he did remember that throwing up always left you worried about doing it again. Food was best eaten slowly to avoid reoccurrence.
He ate bites from his own plate of food, watching as Bucky moved a napkin closer for Maddie to use, then leaning over to whisper something to her which made her smile behind her glass thinking no one would see. Watching his best friend and daughter coming closer together probably should have bothered him, but this was no normal situation that was for certain.
"So, kid…," Tony stated, bringing everyone's attention from their meal to a standstill, all except Peter who was happily munching away at his Lucky Charms, "I wish that I could give you more time to get back into the swing of everything, but I don't know that we have the time or luxury of that."
Pepper poked Tony in the ribs trying to get him to stop talking before arguing that, "surely it could wait at least until after breakfast is over when she's had time to also shower and change?" Pepper's smile of apology at her husband's abrupt behavior didn't stop Tony from pressing on.
Slapping away Pepper's hand from her continued poking at his side, Tony powered on, "Well I'm sorry Pepper that I don't have a better grasp on the timeline of events here. The TVA agent and Fury weren't exactly full of details on when we were supposed to expect Thanos, only that he was going to attempt to wipe out, oh I don't know, half of all living beings in the universe!" Pepper stood and walked to the kitchen island, grabbing the strawberry jam for her toast. "So forgive me if I'm in a little bit of a rush to get more details so that I could possibly have some say in maybe, just maybe stopping this from happening."
Tony was really upset now, it was no longer playful ribbing from his wife but now he was having a full-blown panic attack. "My left arm is starting to feel numb and I'm having trouble breathing…is that normal?"
Pepper rushed to Tony's side trying to comfort him, to calm him in some way, but nothing seemed to be working.
"So how much do you know already about Thanos," Madison said, directing her question to Tony. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing. Even Sam sat upright from his spot on the kitchen floor. Peter pushed aside the last of his cereal and everyone's attention was directed at Madison.
"Who's Thanos?" Peter asked timidly.
The kitchen table was typically the one place in the compound where Tony didn't allow work to be discussed, but for this issue he was willing to make an exception. Madison broke down every detail she could tell the group from her own experience in her own universe's timeline that she could remember. Several things so far had already occurred to some degree that couldn't be changed but there were still plenty that could be. The key to it all was that Madison had to have direct influence over those events or they would remain the same.
"So where do you suggest we start?" Steve asked Maddie.
"Has anyone been able to reach Thor or Loki yet?" Maddie asked.
"We've got calls out, but it's not exactly like using AT&T, we can't just reach out and touch someone," Tony's sarcasm meter was off the charts this morning. That was typically how he handled stressful situations and this definitely qualified.
"Well you won't be able to reach him on Asgard," Madison announced sadly.
"Why?" Nat asked, concern could be heard easily in her voice.
Madison thought it through before speaking. The TVA agents warning blared loudly in the back of her mind, 'you can't tell them anything about their futures as it could change their actions'. "It would have been destroyed by now."