"Choose Your Topping"
Contrary to public perception, the Avengers rarely ate an entirely meal together; it was an honest accident if it happened. Post-major-battle meals didn't count, because they were freak occurrences, and meant takeout at some weird hour. But ever since the Avengers grew from the original six to more than double that, their handler had insisted on an occasional shared meal which took actual preparation time, in the actual kitchen on the shared floor.
Bucky… well, he was still getting used to choice. If pushed to, he'd make something in the kitchen while no one else was around, or eat whatever Steve put in front of him, but he didn't offer any opinions otherwise. Admittedly, when it was all of them getting takeout they'd buy heaps due to the high metabolism of several Avengers, his included, but he viewed food as fuel, not something to be savoured.
Tonight was Pizza Night. Several batches of dough had been made, rolled out, and now Phil was taking orders. The others were all happy to detail which toppings they wanted; when it came to Bucky, however, he wanted to bang his head against the wall.
"Okay," he said mildly. Steve, rightly, looked terrified. "Does he have allergies?"
"No."
"Strong dislikes? Fruit? Nuts? Spicy foods?"
"Uh… he didn't used to, but then it's not like we had any choice. We'd eat what we could get. The most we had in the way of luxury was bar food."
"Great," Phil muttered. "Alright. I'll make him a… yes, I know what I'll do. Thank you for informing me, Captain Rogers."
Steve winced. Maybe it wasn't fair to use title plus surname – it was no one's fault, least of all Steve's – but Phil hated undertaking missions with next to no information.
At dinner-time, Bucky was nervous when Phil brought him into the kitchen.
"You really don't know what you want on your pizza?" Phil asked without preamble.
"Anything's fine with me," Bucky said.
"Anything is not fine," Phil said. "You deserve better than just 'anything'." Bucky fidgeted, unsure how to answer that. "So I came up with a solution." He tilted his head, awaiting clarification. "I've made you a plain cheese pizza."
"…Oh?"
Phil showed him to the large pizza, separate to all the rest, which literally just had tomato paste and melted cheese. But Bucky noticed something he wasn't expecting: numerous silver bowls around it, with heaps of different things. Meats, vegetables, herbs, all sorts of toppings, all cooked. Other sauces to drizzle on top.
"Everyone's just going to dig in as soon as they have their pizza in front of them," Phil said. "Take your time. Try everything. The plate's sitting on a heating element, so the pizza won't go cold. Just make sure you don't burn yourself. The toppings are already cooked and still hot, so the pizza doesn't have to go back in the oven."
"You… did you do this just for me?" Bucky said. Phil frowned at him.
"Of course I did," he said. "You're one of my people."
In a fit of compulsion, Bucky leaned across and kissed him. He took his time when Phil didn't immediately shove him away. When he finally drew back, he licked his lips, taking in the blush on Phil's face.
"If I could put that on my pizza, I wouldn't ever need anything else," he murmured, and he smiled slowly at Phil.
"Uh… I've gotta… the others…" Cheeks turning even redder, Phil hurried to the pizzas on the other counter and started to take them out.
With a smirk, Bucky turned his attention to making up his pizza.
For Cheese Pizza Day! Please review, folks! I was original going to make some inappropriate joke about 'topping' (in the bedroom), but it didn't fit.