Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, in the living room of the thirty-sixth floor of Stark Tower, all was quiet for a few moments. Pepper had showed up an hour before to drag away the passed-out drunk Tony, and Sam was also knocked out on the floor, leaving Steve, Natasha, and Thor as the last ones left standing. Alcohol could only do so much to the two men in question, and Natasha sometimes preferred to watch the idiotic drunken antics of others while maintaining only a buzz herself. Thus, the three Avengers were quite awake and sober enough to awkwardly stare at each other while the sounds of a couple in the throes of passion travelled out from the hallway and lingered for them to hear.
Well, Steve and Thor stared awkwardly. Natasha was endlessly amused.
She checked her watch and said, "Sounds like round three has begun."
"Can you not count?" Steve half-begged.
"What? I'm just curious if he breaks your record, that's all."
Steve sighed and then glanced at Thor, who appeared mildly uncomfortable listening to the sounds coming from two people he didn't know very well.
"Besides, I doubt somehow that this is the first time you've had to listen to his..." She squinted, looking up and analyzing the sounds she was hearing before saying, "It's like a mix between a moan and a... growl..."
"That's beside the point," Steve muttered. "And trust me, hearing things wasn't the worst of it."
"What, did you walk in on something?" She grinned.
"Yes, twice," he said in slight irritation. Then a small crash was heard, followed by a feminine laugh that became a moan, and Steve sighed while Thor laughed.
"And?" Natasha prompted.
"And nothing, drop it," Steve replied.
"Oh come on," she protested. "It can't be that bad."
While Steve remained stubbornly quiet, Thor piped up, "Ah, I remember once when my brother burst into my quarters at the wrong time. Actually, I did the same, several times, though I have tried very hard to forget."
"I don't even want to know what kind of bizarre things Loki's into," Natasha replied. "Probably dungeons and masks and gags made of bones."
"Actually, no," Thor shrugged. "Though I did once find him entertaining a lady with three other copies of himself. But that wasn't nearly as surprising as when I found him bound naked to his bed, by magic that even he could not undo, by the only lady that ever truly matched him."
Steve's brows instantly furrowed, likely due to the unwanted mental image, but Natasha straightened a bit in her seat and looked suddenly intrigued. "Oh. Well that's interesting."
Thor nodded and smiled as he said, "Yes, it was very funny. He was so angry I thought his head may explode."
"What kind of lady was this?" Natasha asked. "I picture an Asgardian version of Maleficent or something... not that you know who that is, but..."
"If you mean an evil sorceress," Thor guessed, "no, quite the opposite, actually. She is one of the most remarkable ladies I have ever known. Strong and kind, gifted in many ways. She is one of the most well-known young singers in Asgard, and she was trained by my mother as both a warrior and sorceress."
"... And - no offense - but she was interested in your brother?" Natasha asked, eyebrow raised.
"Far more than interested," Thor smiled. "They were devoted to one another. But you see, Loki was not always as he was when you met him. Far from it. He could have turned out much different had I not been such a fool for so long."
"I find it hard to believe that you of all people could be the one to blame for Loki's insanity," Natasha replied.
But Thor shook his head a bit sadly and said, "No, not I alone, but you did not know me before I was cast out. I was a different man then, arrogant and unable to see past myself and my own pride long enough to see what was happening to my own brother."
"I know what it's like to blame yourself," Steve said quietly. "But some things are out of our control. No matter how much we'd do anything to change that."
Thor nodded, then looked down before replying, "I am glad that your friend is recovering. If only I had been able to reach Loki as you were able to reach him, perhaps Loki's fate would have been different."
Steve, now unfortunately able to understand what it was like to have to battle a man you had grown up with and considered a brother regardless of blood, nodded and stayed silent. After a few seconds of silence, Natasha sighed and said, "Okay, let's change the subject before it gets even more depressing. So Thor found his brother doing weird things with copies of himself and tied up magically to his bed naked - your stories can't be nearly as awkward as that, Steve."
Steve sighed, obviously wishing that the conversation had not ended up back here once again. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?"
"I could resort to interrogation," she shrugged. Then she added with a grin, "You like it when I interrogate you."
Thor understood there to be some subtext to that line when Steve blushed a little, then covered it up by muttering, "Fine, fine. The first time, I was fifteen, he was sixteen, and his parents weren't home when I came over to his house, so I let myself in and figured he was in his room. He was. And his girlfriend was in there too, and I had no idea what I was looking at when I opened the door."
"You didn't know what sex was?" Natasha asked with sudden concern. Even Thor looked a bit confused.
"No, yeah, I knew what it was, but I didn't know all the different kinds of it."
"Oh," Natasha chuckled. "You poor thing."
He grimaced a little and then added, "And the second time it was actually in my house, which was why I didn't think to knock first, since I wasn't expecting that."
"In your bed?" she laughed.
"No, my bathroom," he cringed. "Now can we please change the subject? Thor's not the only one who wouldn't mind forgetting."
"You're both babies," Natasha rolled her eyes. "So since they didn't have sex-ed back then, is it safe to assume that you learned everything from him?"
Steve nodded and said, "He said I needed to know so that I was 'prepared' when the day came."
"That's a good friend," she grinned. "And it only took ninety five years for that day to come."
Thor laughed heartily at that while Steve sighed and smiled at her good-naturedly. "And yet I didn't hear you complaining."
"No, you did not," she smirked back.
"I must admit," Thor said, "I first thought it strange that the two of you were courting, but now it would be strange if you were not. How long do mortal courtships usually last before marriage comes?"
"Whoa, slow down there, Thunder-god," Natasha instantly replied while Steve nodded almost frantically.
"Yeah, we definitely don't have any plans for that sort of thing."
"'Courtships' here are different from what you're used to," she added.
Looking back and forth between the two of them, Thor nodded and then laughed again. "Ah, I see! But there is a limited window of time where children are possible, yes?"
Nearly choking, Steve said, "I don't... uh... I don't think we -"
"- Haven't really talked about it yet," Natasha finished for him. "And Steve, calm down before you hurt yourself."
Steve forced a smile and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
Before Thor could comment on any of that, another series of moans were heard, and Steve rolled his eyes and slumped back against the couch. "This is getting ridiculous now."
Checking her watch again, Natasha wondered aloud, "Is this part of round three or the start of four?"
"I thought mortals were limited in this... area," Thor said.
"Bucky's got something similar to what I have, so he's not..." Steve trailed off due to an even louder moan, and he quickly sat up and said, "All right. I'm going to bed."
"Oh, good. Listening to them is starting to get to me," Natasha said, standing up to follow him.
Steve looked at her and said, "That's kinda weird."
"Oh please," she rolled her eyes, walking past him and heading towards his room with renewed purpose.
Steve glanced at Thor and then shifted on his feet a bit as he said, "If you need some earplugs or something..."
"Oh, do not worry! I will be fine. Enjoy the rest of your night."
Steve nodded stiffly and then turned to head out of the room, cringing one last time at the sounds still flowing freely from down the hall before he turned and walked the other hall, vowing to tease the heck out of his friend in the morning. Thor trudged off to his own guest room, ever fascinated and mildly confused by the courting and mating rituals of modern Midgard.
When daylight came and gently pulled Summer's eyelids open, her first instinct was to shut them tightly and burrow further into the cocoon of warmth that she was in, so that was exactly what she did. In fact, it was so warm that it was almost too warm, and she was confused for half a moment until she felt an arm tighten around her middle and a hard but familiar body shift behind her. Her eyes opened again, and her memory kicked into gear as warm breath tickled her neck and lips brushed just under her ear.
She couldn't stop the smile that spread lazily across her face, and it suddenly didn't matter that she'd barely slept all night. She remembered dozing a few times, only to be awakened by kisses on her neck or a hand sliding somewhere that made her gasp awake. Then the cycle would repeat itself, and now it was morning, and she was the best kind of exhausted.
A kiss to her shoulder proved that Bucky was now awake as well, but she kept silent and still for a bit so that she could take a moment to think it all over. She stretched her legs under the sheets and was immediately met with a dull sort of ache that radiated in places that had never had a proper workout until the night before. That particular ache brought back a dizzying flash of images in her head, one of which involved what she thought was maybe the third time, when Bucky had pulled her on top of him and asked her with a slightly hoarse voice to ride him. Remembering it made her blush as deeply as she had when it had happened, but remembering how he'd watched her grant his request with what looked like reverence in his eyes made her heart throb almost painfully.
How many times had it happened after that first perfect, albeit incredibly short, time? She counted in her head, concluding that the answer was four. But the night had been quite full of variety, she thought as she yawned softly. The yawn brought her attention to another ache, this one in her jaw, and it also made her mind flood with images, just as the first one had. This time, though, all the pictures crystallized into one, and her eyes fluttered shut as her cheeks heated up yet again.
She remembered him lying there on his back, metal hand fisted tightly in her hair while his other gripped his own hair, ragged moans leaving his open mouth as hers worked to earn the next's morning's ache within it. She had looked up to watch him arch his back and tighten his grips as he gave in to the pleasure she was bringing him, and it may have been both the sexiest and most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.
It was all almost too good to be real. To feel the kind of ecstasy that she had felt - over and over, thanks to his determination to make up for the first time - and then to be able to give it back to him and know by his moans and the shudders of his body how much he was enjoying it... now she understood everything.
It had taken her almost 26 years, but she finally got it. This was how it was supposed to be. This was what thousands and thousands of novels had been written about, what she had always wanted but never really understood because she'd never had it. This was love, real love, and the physical manifestation of it. And it was like breathing for the first time.
In fact, she loved him so much, her heart may just explode inside of her chest.
Then there was his voice, gravelly and husky with sleepiness as his lips brushed against her ear, rousing her from her overwhelming thoughts. "Morning, sunshine."
She smiled, biting her lip as she covered his hand on her belly with her own and settled back against him. "Morning... did you get any sleep?"
"A little," he replied, kissing her neck and breathing her in as she closed her eyes.
His metal arm was under the pillow that her head was laying on, and the gentle clicks and mechanical sounds had been her soundtrack to sleep to, just as it had been every night that she'd fallen asleep with him. It was equally comforting now as his flesh hand roamed to her side and slowly down over her hip, while his lazy kisses trailed up towards her jaw.
This, she knew, was what contentedness felt like. This was as close to perfection as she was ever gonna get, and it was pretty damn close.
"I can die happy now," she sighed, her words causing him to still in his movements and raise his head to look down at her.
"What?" he asked quietly as she shifted on her back to look up at him.
She smiled. "If I died tomorrow, I'd die happy. Not that I want to die, because I don't, but now when I do, it'll suck a little less because of you."
He stared at her for a moment before he grinned slightly in understanding, looking her over like she was the best thing he'd ever woken up to. "You're incredible."
Her smile lingered as he kissed her lips softly then. She was glad that he thought she was so great, though she felt like she'd just been trying to hang on and keep up throughout all of last night. He was the one with experience, who knew what he was doing, whereas she was learning on the job while doubting that she could really measured up to what he had before, at least in terms of skill. Then again, he'd sure acted like she had. And it had definitely sounded like it.
"I still can't believe it didn't hurt," she said quietly as he ran his fingers through her terribly knotted hair. It had been wet at the start of the night and uncombed after her shower, and detangling it today was going to be a nightmare.
"It isn't supposed to," he replied, his fingers trailing from her hair to her cheek, then tracing her bottom lip.
"Yeah, but I still thought it would hurt at least a little at first," she said, kissing his fingertip as it left her lips. "But instead it was just... perfect." He grinned again and kissed the corner of her mouth, and then she added, "Even if I might need a wheelchair to get around today."
That made him chuckle against her lips. Then he began slowly pulling his sheet away from her as he replied, "You can stay in my bed all day. I won't mind."
"I would, but I have a kid who'll be waking up in an hour," she said, trying not to feel a sudden but faint nervousness at being bare before him under the harsher glare of daylight. It felt silly, but she chalked it up to her years of celibacy. One couldn't get over their innate shyness in a single night, even if said night was the best one ever.
"I can work with an hour," he murmured, eyes darkening as he looked her over, helping to do away with her brief moment of anxiety. Then he was kissing her, first on her mouth and then her cheek, then her still-stiff jaw, and on down to her neck where he continued his downward path as she squirmed with already-blooming anticipation. She could feel how much he wanted her again, both in his touch and in how he was pressed against her, and by the time his lips reached her lower stomach, her fingers were already buried in his hair and tightening as she waited, holding her breath.
"Ow," she hissed in mild but surprising pain when he gently eased one of her legs over his shoulder. He looked up at her in concern, but she quickly brushed it off and smiled, "Good pain. I'm fine. Just sore."
He hesitated before accepting that answer, and when he did, his lips went to her inner thigh and her eyes closed as shivers erupted at the simple touch. His hands held her in place and she gave in to what she knew was coming, what she knew he could do and what he could make her feel, and it was worth every bit of lingering pain and soreness that she'd be dealing with later.
Even if she'd only been half-kidding about the wheelchair.
For the first time since arriving at Stark Tower a few months ago, Bucky did not drag himself down the hallway or angrily stomp his way to the kitchen with the single-minded goal of inhaling enough caffeine to wake up a horse following his usual dismal night of sleep. He didn't scowl or frown, nor did he even really think about coffee at all. And he definitely wasn't stomping or dragging his feet.
No. Instead of that, he was quite possibly strutting his way down the hall, freshly showered and for once ready to take on the day and possibly the very universe.
Unaware of this fact and also unaware of the unprecedented lack of a scowl on his pre-coffee self's face, he strolled lightly into the kitchen, nodded at Steve who was washing a plate in the sink, said an almost cheerful "Morning" as opposed to his usual lack of any greeting, and then began his routine with the coffee maker.
Steve, despite knowing full well the reason for Bucky's spectacular mood because he'd had to listen to it all night, muttered back a surprised "Good morning" and stared at his friend in slight disbelief for a moment. Then he grinned a little bit and turned back to the plate he was rinsing. "You look like you're in a good mood this morning."
Filling up the coffeepot with water, Bucky shrugged nonchalantly and turned around to pour it in. "I guess."
Drying the plate with a dish towel, Steve leaned against the counter and asked, "Get much sleep?"
"Not really," he replied honestly, switching on the "on" button and then looking at Steve, who had a terrible poker face.
"I figured. Since you sounded pretty busy." When Bucky remained expressionless at this, Steve added, "Basically, the whole floor could hear you guys. Natasha was keeping count of how many times you..."
Bucky's eyebrows furrowed. "Hear us?"
"You're as loud as you were when you were twenty," Steve shrugged.
Bucky wasn't sure what that comment was referring to, though he had a few ideas, but he made a mental note to ask later. "I figured the walls were... thick enough."
Steve shook his head. "Not even close."
Bucky started laughing before he could help it. He couldn't even apologize for having apparently provided the night's entertainment - it was too funny. Although Summer might not find it as hilarious as he did.
Steve just shook his head and gave his shoulder a pat. "You should have seen Thor's face. And I had to stop Stark from recording it all on his phone."
As the coffee dripped slowly into the pot, Bucky's grin lingered on his face as he watched it, fairly sure that he'd be grinning like this for at least the next week.
"I take it the conversation went well," Steve said.
"Yeah," Bucky replied, thinking back to how the night started and how he still would have been perfectly happy had it ended there, with Summer's sweet confession of her love for him. Everything else had been an enormous amount of icing on the cake. "Yeah, it did. I was worried for nothing."
"Good. I'm happy for you."
By the time the coffee was done and a comfortable silence had fallen upon the two men, Bucky had already downed one cup and was working on his second when Steve said, "So, do you want to talk about it?"
"... Talk about it?"
"Used to be a tradition, back when things were... normal," Steve shrugged. "You told me things I didn't really want to know, in almost disgusting detail, and got a kick out of watching me cringe and turn red."
Now that Steve mentioned it, that did seem pretty familiar. "Oh, yeah."
Steve stood there a minute before gesturing across the room and sighing, "Let's get it over with. Probably best to sit outside so nobody secretly records us or something."
Thinking it slightly weird but willing to do anything it took to get more back to the way things had once been, Bucky followed Steve out to a terrace and sat down quietly next to him. It felt more than a little awkward, especially since he had no idea where to start or what kind of details were too much. On second thought, maybe this tradition was better left in the past.
But it was too late now. Fidgeting slightly, Steve said, "So..."
"... Where am I supposed to start?"
"The... beginning, I guess," Steve muttered.
"... Okay. Um..." he trailed off, deciding to just ignore the weirdness and persevere. "Well, it started out pretty good. Perfect, actually. Except it was over in about two minutes."
Steve laughed, and Bucky shot him a half-hearted glare. Then Steve held his hands up and said, "I'm not laughing at you. It's just funny."
"Yeah, well I doubt you did much better after ninety five years," Bucky muttered.
"... Yeah, not really. Two minutes isn't that bad. I don't think I made it to one. Actually, I was lucky that I managed to... make it at all." After Bucky looked at him strangely, Steve shrugged and said, "Anyway, go on."
Clearing his throat, Bucky brushed off the thoughts of that overwhelming but not-ideal first go and started mentally shuffling through his memories from what came after. There was so much, and definitely some things he planned on keeping to himself no matter what, but after a moment he grinned and glanced out towards the city as he said, "She was sexy as hell. It was basically her first time and it didn't even matter, she was just..."
"Her first time?" Steve asked in slight confusion. "She's got a kid, though."
"... Long story," Bucky shrugged, not wanting to give any details of her history that she might not want him to. "But her kid came from the only time."
"Oh. Okay. Wow. Seems like most people her age these days are a lot different from that."
Based on what he'd seen on the trash TV he'd encountered a few times, Bucky would agree, but it was all beside the point. He was staring out into space slightly as he said somewhat dreamily, "I always thought she'd be quiet because of how easily embarrassed she is, but..."
"... That is obviously not the case," Steve concluded.
Bucky shook his head in agreement. "No. And I didn't know how flexible she is either. She said she did gymnastics for a few years in high school."
"That's... uh... yeah, that's good," Steve said. "Nat, you know her and her... skills. She can bend pretty much any way imaginable, and this one time I took her leg and managed to get it all the way around -"
"Steve."
"Sorry."
This was weird. But he was determined to make it not weird, and pressing along seemed to be the best way to do that. He just wasn't prepared for the mental image he'd just gotten.
"We heard a crashing sound some time around 3 in the morning," Steve said, changing the subject slightly.
He grinned a little as he recalled the cause of that. "She's clumsy. We fell off the bed and broke a lamp." Then he leaned his head back a bit, expression shifting from amused to thoughtful as he added more quietly, "The thing is, I remember a lot of the times that I was with Viv, the first time and... I'm pretty sure the last time... and it was great, you know, it really was. But this was different. It was... I can't even say."
"Well, you did wait a long time," Steve pointed out. "And like I've said before, I know you pretty well. And I've never seen you with anyone the way you are with her."
After a pause, Bucky said, "I don't know if it's just how much I love her or what HYDRA did to me, but it was like I couldn't stop. I kept expecting to run out of steam after awhile but I didn't, and then this morning I could barely let her out of bed... and then when I did I just followed her to the shower and -"
"Bucky."
Right. He drew a breath and shut up. Then he glanced at Steve's mildly flustered face and could suddenly remember having done this before, but with a lot more graphic details, and some of the weirdness fell away in favor of the never-old amusement of watching Steve cringe.
Now that he could remember doing this before, he could surely do even better.
"She doesn't have much of a gag reflex, either."
Steve groaned. "I did not need to know that."
Chuckling, Bucky replied, "You asked for details."
"Well, I wanted the tradition, not so much the actual details that are unfortunately a part of it," Steve explained. Then, after a brief silence, he added, "Natasha has literally no gag reflex at all. I didn't know that was even possible."
After a long moment of silence, Bucky said, "It doesn't feel right hearing these things from you."
Steve chuckled. "Trust me, I'm still in shock sometimes too."
On a whim of curiosity, Bucky asked, "Is she as serious about you as you are about her?"
Steve hesitated before answering. "I don't know. I hope so. It's... complicated. It took a lot of convincing to keep her from running for the hills. It still does sometimes."
"... Sounds like the sort of thing you'd get yourself into," Bucky noted. "Never do anything the easy way."
"Nope."
A moment or two later, Bucky said, "Summer... being with her... feels easy. Nothing else feels easy. But she does, she always has. And I keep expecting that to change, I know it has to eventually."
"Maybe it doesn't," Steve shrugged. "I think you've earned having one part of your life come easily."
And the thing was, after the previous night, he could believe that. It came so naturally with her, and he didn't even know why, but it did, and if he let himself think too long, he might start subconsciously sabotaging it by inventing problems where there was none. His therapist called it a "self-fulfilling prophecy".
So he decided not to think about what may or may not happen, and focused instead on what was.
And as it stood, things weren't so bad. He still couldn't sleep at night, flashbacks might always be an issue, and there was still a lot of unresolved anger and memories to get back. But he had a lot of positives to combat the negatives, more than he deserved, and more than he could have dreamed possible only a matter of months ago.
He was starting to believe that old quack doctor, that the sense of foreshadowing, impending doom on the horizon was just a product of what repeated, systemic torture did to a person. There would always be dangers, but doom wasn't always imminent. And for once, things were okay.
And maybe being openly, unashamedly in love had helped him to see this.
"Anything else you want to torture me with before we go back inside?" Steve asked, rousing Bucky from his suddenly introspective thoughts.
He tossed a few ideas around in his head before deciding that he really didn't want to share anything else. Instead, he glanced at Steve and said, "How about I give you the chance to have some revenge?"
"Revenge?"
Bucky shrugged. "Seems fair, after years of me supposedly defiling your virgin ears."
Steve chuckled and then looked forward, apparently deep in thought for a long moment before he replied, "Okay. So Nat likes being on top, naturally. And this one time she started singing The Star-Spangled Banner right when I was about to -"
"Never mind," Bucky interrupted, standing up and heading for the door while Steve laughed. "Forget I said anything."
Summer couldn't say that she was walking on air, because she was in fact walking on two legs that were sore nearly everywhere above the ankles, and yet sitting down wasn't that great of an option either. Basically, there was no escaping it, so she ignored it, humming cheerfully to herself as she zipped around the empty kitchen to fix herself and her son breakfast.
There was an idiotic smile plastered to her face that never left but merely varied in intensity as she simultaneously replayed the previous night's events and managed not to completely ruin the food that she was making. She did, however, almost burn a couple of eggs when she recalled what had already happened that morning.
It was easy to drift off, spatula in hand, as she remembered how just about half an hour ago, she'd been introduced to the joys of morning sex only to then get dragged into the shower only to end up getting a crash course in shower sex as well. The shower itself seemed to be redundant, as she left it feeling less clean than when she'd been carried into it, but there was no way that she would even consider complaining. She'd been waiting a long time to have problems as awesome as these.
It was as she rummaged around in the fridge looking for juice that she began to wonder if she was going to have issues keeping up with Bucky. She'd been joking about the super-stamina thing but it had turned out to be extremely real. She was considering starting up a new workout regimen to build up her endurance when she successfully located the orange juice and then closed the fridge door, only to then find herself face to face with a man she'd never seen before.
He was not especially tall and not entirely friendly looking either as he stood there looking at her very seriously, casually tossing an apple into the air and catching it as he asked, "Who are you?"
She blinked and narrowed her gaze a little bit, since this guy had come out of nowhere but seemed to think that he totally belonged there and that she didn't. Was she supposed to know who he was?
"Well... who are you?" she shot back, glancing at David as he sat at the table and suddenly wishing she had her taser on her.
"I asked first," he said, taking a bite of the apple.
She hesitated, unsure of how to proceed, though she had the feeling that this guy wasn't dangerous - surely this floor of the tower was even more secure than the rest of it, right?
"That's our resident groupie," Natasha, appearing from out of nowhere, informed the man as she leaned against the island that divided the kitchen from the rest of the room. Summer did a double take - had she been there all along? Also, groupie?! "Just kidding," Natasha added, gesturing to Summer. "Clint, this is Summer. Summer, Clint Barton."
The name rang a bell, but it took Summer a moment to figure out exactly who he was.
"Doesn't answer my question, though," Clint said, taking another bite.
"HYDRA blew up her house trying to take out Barnes," Natasha explained. "She's been staying with us ever since."
His eyes darting to David, Clint said, "I take it the kid's yours."
"Yeah," Summer replied, still trying to figure out exactly who she was talking to.
"Well, I didn't know 'Avengers tower'", he used air quotes, "is supposed to be a family affair now."
With that, the bells rang in her head, and Summer nearly exclaimed, "Oh! Now I know who you are! You're the arrow guy. Yeah! On the news they called you the 'Robin Hood Avenger' because they didn't know your name."
While Clint's deadpan expression managed to become even more blank, Summer grinned and then started mock-singing, "We're men... we're men in tights..."
As Clint rolled his eyes and gave the distinct impression that he had heard enough Robin Hood remarks to last several lifetimes, Natasha smirked and chuckled, which made Summer nearly die from shock and Clint glare at her like she'd just committed mutiny. But Natasha merely shrugged and said, "Oh, come on. It was funny." Then she glanced at Summer and said, "By the way, you're pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed for someone who spent all last night screaming instead of sleeping."
Choking on nothing, Summer's eyebrows shot up her forehead and pure, unbridled horror ran through her veins as her jaw dropped. "Uh... I, uh... what?"
"Not I blame you. That stamina's something else."
While Summer turned the color of the red apple that Clint had been chewing, a look of distaste came over the archer's face and he asked Natasha, "Are you still not over your defiling-a-national-treasure phase yet?"
Natasha just answered with a smirk and said, "Are you still not over your moment of jealousy yet?"
"Way over it, but it's still weird," Clint shrugged. Even Summer, in her turmoil, noticed how his eyes flashed to Natasha's arrow necklace before looking away just as quickly. "It's taking the goody-two-shoes goes for the bad boy thing to a whole new level, and reversed."
"Trust me, Steve's not as innocent as he looks."
Dying of her own embarrassment still, Summer groaned and all but ran to the table with her food to exit the conversation and suffer in peace. Everybody had been out there last night - including the guy who owned the whole building and was technically her boss - and the idea that they'd all heard her... was she really that loud? She had thought that she stayed relatively quiet compared to Bucky, whose loudness from the very start had irrevocably melted her brain, but that was apparently not the case.
She stared at her eggs and toast while inside, she died a thousand deaths. Leave it to her, she thought, to do something that managed to take all of those good feelings and then turn them on their heads and instead spend the morning mired in mortification.
Actually, on second thought...
Sitting up straight, she resolutely crammed a forkful of food into her mouth and squared her shoulders, deciding instead to shake it off and not let one embarrassing thing ruin the sheer awesomeness of everything else. She was too happy and way too determined to let that happen. And if she had to fake it and just pretend to get over her embarrassment, then so be it. She'd catch up eventually. Hopefully. Maybe not. But still.
She just hoped that poor David hadn't woken up and heard anything. That would be a whole other level of horrible.
So focused she was on her food and on convincing herself that she could get over this latest round of humiliation that she almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a kiss on the top of her head. She whipped around in her seat, surprised to see Bucky standing there and equally surprised that he'd just showed affection to her in front of other people. "Oh, sorry, I just..."
"Did I scare you?" he asked, sounding a bit amused and slightly concerned as he stood there, looking somehow different than he normally did, though she wasn't yet sure how.
"Little bit, I was just... thinking and I got really..." Groaning, she grabbed him by the collar of his t-shirt and pulled him down so she could hiss in his ear, "Everybody heard me last night. Everybody!"
Shifting a bit to look up at her, he stifled a grin and replied, "Yeah, Steve told me."
"It's horrible!" she whisper-yelled, turning red all over again, looking at him with wide eyes. "What am I supposed to do?"
He stared at her for a moment before his expression became a bit more serious, and he said, "Look, I didn't know... that would happen. I never want you to be embarrassed."
"I don't know how not to be," she admitted through slightly gritted teeth.
He seemed to think for a moment, and then he leaned in closer - ignoring how David glared at him a little when he did - and his lips brushed along her ear as he said, "You were absolutely amazing and... perfect last night. Don't be embarrassed for it. If anyone should be embarrassed, it's her," he gestured subtly to Natasha in the kitchen. "She sings the Star Bangled Banner when her and Steve are in the middle of -"
Summer burst out laughing before he could finish that sentence, and as she covered her mouth to stifle the giggles, she looked up at him in disbelief. "You're joking."
He shook his head. "Steve told me. So... you have nothing to be embarrassed about."
Still laughing a little bit, Summer smiled at him and then leaned up to kiss his cheek. She had to admit, she did feel a little bit better somehow now. "Thanks for that."
He grinned at her, then glanced across the room and asked, "Who's that?"
"Robin Hood," Summer replied.
While Bucky looked at her in mild confusion, Steve finally made his way back in from outside and then looked a little surprised at the unexpected company. "Clint! I didn't know you were planning a visit."
The visitor in question turned from his conversation with Natasha to look at Steve blankly as he approached. "Yeah, everyone forgot to invite me to the party."
Steve smiled a little uneasily, eyes darting to Natasha and then back to Clint before saying, "I didn't even know where you've been all this time. How've you been?"
"Haven't gotten my brains scrambled lately, so pretty good."
Steve nodded, then asked, "You planning on staying awhile?"
"Hell no," Clint scoffed. "I know a circus when I see one. I've got my own place."
"How are the chickens?" Natasha asked casually.
"Pretty good. You'd be shocked how much money you can make selling certain breeds of chicks."
Steve's brows furrowed. "... Chickens?"
"Yeah, Clint's been spending his downtime pretty interestingly," Natasha nodded. Then she glanced across the room and nudged Steve. "Steve, don't be rude. Introduce your long lost best friend."
Having been shamelessly eavesdropping, Summer glanced at Bucky and saw him almost roll his eyes but get up anyway, trudging across the room to get it over with.
"Right," Steve said, "Clint, this is -"
"Yeah, I know who he is. I get CNN," Clint said, still quite deadpan, mirroring Bucky's own expression. He held out his hand anyway and said, "So, you do exist."
Glancing down at the offered hand, Bucky hesitated before shaking it. "Looks like it."
"You see that quack shrink, too?" Clint asked.
"Connor, yeah."
Clint nodded. "Has no idea what he's talking about."
Bucky nodded in agreement. "He's an idiot."
"And yet you both keep going back to him," Natasha pointed out.
"Beside the point," Clint said. "What hobby did he suggest for you? Knitting? Volunteering at an animal shelter?"
"... Dancing, most recently," Bucky replied.
"Figures. My farm is still better."
Steve's eyes widened. "You have an actual farm?"
"You're not invited," Clint replied, and Steve paused before glancing at Natasha and appearing to grow slightly uneasy. Summer wished she had some popcorn - there was clearly some underlying tension regarding the three people, and she had a feeling the necklace factored in somewhere. Then Clint grinned and added, "Don't take it personal. None of you are invited."
"I'm always invited," Natasha pointed out.
"Besides you," Clint amended. Then he looked Summer's way and asked Bucky, "That your kid?"
"No."
"Didn't think so."
"What happened to you?" Bucky asked, curiosity taking precedence over tact.
"Thor's brother brainwashed me into his personal minion for awhile," Clint replied casually. "Took some time off to deal with it."
Bucky nodded, and Natasha glanced at Steve and said, "I had a feeling they'd bond."
Clint rolled his eyes and then wandered off into the kitchen, looking for more food, and Summer realized she'd been sitting there staring and listening the whole time. She snapped out of it, looking down at what was left of her breakfast and smiling a little at how Bucky had been asked if David was his kid. The funny thing was, he'd already spent more time with David than his actual father ever had...
As the thought faded, she played idly with her fork and then suddenly dropped it as her eyes shot wide open. Kids. Kids!
She hadn't given a sliver of a thought to pregnancy or birth control until that very moment. It had all happened so fast, and she'd been focused entirely on the shock of his "I love you" and the equal shock of finally ending their self-imposed abstinence had simply left no room in her brain for such important matters like making sure she didn't get pregnant on the first night. It was unlikely, yes, but it had happened before, which was why she really should have thought of it before last night. And this morning.
Gulping, she grabbed her phone out of her pocket and started furiously Googling the nearest women's clinic in the area. It only took a moment to locate one that took walk-ins, so she breathed a sigh of relief and then looked up to find the room suddenly empty. She looked around, confirming that everyone had apparently left, and she decided that worked well enough for her.
After getting up and telling David that they needed to get dressed and leave soon, she was almost to the hallway when she heard Natasha's voice come out of nowhere and stop her. "Hey."
Where had she even come from? How did she keep doing this? "Uh, yeah?"
"Sorry if I embarrassed you earlier," the highly-feared ex-assassin said, flying in the face of Summer's expectations.
"Oh, um... well, you did, but... it's fine," Summer shrugged. "I mean, I kinda did it to myself, right?"
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, you know," Natasha said as David became quickly bored and headed off to his room. "Besides, it sounded like you were able to keep up with him, which is something to be proud of. I would know. It's not always easy keeping up with a super soldier, and that's coming someone with my abilities."
"Really?" Summer asked. "I mean... really?"
"I haven't been injected with any experimental serums, so yes, really."
"Oh. Well, that's... comforting," Summer chuckled. "I think I should start working out, though, because I probably need to build some some, uh... endurance."
"Well, after awhile you'll figure out how to do things more... efficiently," Natasha said. "You'll learn more about what he likes and how to get things done without such a strenuous effort. Except for when that's what you want."
"Oh," she said a little dumbly. "Yeah, that makes sense."
Grinning, Natasha asked, "You haven't had much experience with men, have you?"
"Basically none," Summer admitted. "There was only the one time, which was when I got pregnant, and it was... well, horrific, so..."
"Well, since he was louder than you, I can assume that you're doing fine," Natasha replied, and Summer blushed a new shade of pink. "But if you ever need tips or have questions, feel free to ask me."
"Really?"
"Yeah," she shrugged. "I don't get a lot of chances for girl talk, and since we're both in very unique situations, it only makes sense."
"Okay," Summer nodded. "Yeah, that would be awesome, because I am definitely full of questions, now that you mention it, but I have to get going because I am idiot and totally forgot about being safe so now I have to go get pills or a shot or something before he jumps me again."
"Go for something other than pills," Natasha said. "Too easy to forget or skip. And don't bother with condoms. They won't work."
"They won't... work?"
"They aren't made for super soldiers," Natasha smirked. "Trust me."
Staring for a moment before blinking suddenly, Summer nodded and said, "Okay. Thanks. Uh... I should go now, but I really do want to have that talk, so..."
"I'll be around."
"Okay," Summer said, telling the woman goodbye as she turned and finally headed for her room. Her head was spinning a bit, both from lingering disbelief that she'd totally forgotten about birth control the night before and from how nice Natasha was being. And now she had someone to talk to about stuff - top secret stuff - who wasn't a guy or her brother? Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Everything was awesome. She just had to go get shot up with hormones so that everything could stay awesome.
When Bucky had returned to the thirty-sixth floor to find Summer apparently gone, he'd nearly panicked when Natasha told him that she'd made a trip to a doctor's clinic. His first thought being that he'd caused her some kind of actual damage beyond that of some lingering soreness, Natasha had then laughed at his expense before informing him that it was no big deal, just a visit to the clinic to make sure that no little Buckys would be running around any time soon. Which then led to his feeling like a giant idiot for having not thought of that when it would have mattered, but then again, he had next to no clue about the modern ways of preventing such things, which also led to him being confused as to why she'd had to go to a clinic. Natasha, however, was kind enough to enlighten him, and he was immensely relieved that she wasn't seeking medical attention for a... injury of some kind.
He spent some of the day quietly listening as the Clint guy that he'd just met chatted with the others about the finer points of farm life and about their past antics as a group, but then Stark showed up and the familiar feeling of being an outsider started to set in. It wasn't that anyone was unkind or weird to him, because they weren't, but it was difficult to find a place within a large group that had been bonded by the sort of events that he'd been on the wrong side of.
He was in his room reading through his nearly-full notebook of dreams and memories that he'd been keeping since Summer had suggested it since his first week staying with her when the sound of David screeching and struggling began to fill the hallway outside of his door. Putting the mostly-depressing notebook aside and looking towards the door, he got up and walked towards it as the sound got closer, and when he opened the door, he saw Summer half-carrying and half-dragging her son towards her own room a ways down.
Their eyes briefly met as she struggled, but she stayed focused on her nearly-hysterical son and on begging him to stop fighting her. It wasn't the first time he'd seen this happen, but something seemed worse this time, and that was confirmed when Summer lost her grip on the boy and he started hitting her anywhere he could reach with his flailing limbs.
Bucky watched her struggle and try to grab his arms to restrain him, and with some time he knew that she would have - but that was irrelevant. One look at the slight despair and utter frustration on her face, and he only had a few seconds to hesitate slightly on what to do - it wasn't his kid and it wasn't his place to do anything, and she wasn't asking him for help, but it turned out that he couldn't stand there and watch for very long at all.
He stepped out into the hallway and walked up behind David, who was still screaming and halfway to the floor but still kicking and trying to hit out at anything he could. Bucky reached down and grabbed the boy's wrists with one hand, then picked him up with his other arm and held him still. He looked up at Summer and then moved closer to her, and with a bit of careful maneuvering, got David into her arms in a position that she could hold him somewhat still in.
"Thank you," she breathed gratefully before hurrying to her room, and he nodded back to her before quietly following when he saw that she didn't close her door behind her.
It took a bit more time and mostly leaving David alone once he calmed down to put an end to the episode. Bucky stuck around only to be there if she happened to need more help, and while she didn't, she asked him to stay the time that he'd begun to leave.
Once he'd calmed down, David only made it a few minutes lying in his bed with his tablet before he was out for a nap, the meltdown having exhausted him. Summer breathed a sigh of relief once he was asleep, then sat down heavily on the foot of her bed with her shoulders slumped.
He followed her there as she peeked up at him and said, "Sorry."
"For what?" he asked with genuine confusion.
"I don't know. Having to help me deal with that, I guess."
"That's nothing to be sorry for," Bucky said.
She stared down at her feet for a moment before saying, "He's done so amazingly good lately but he's delicate, you know, especially right now, and he was just on edge from the minute I took him out today. It was like one thing after another and then the thing that finally made him snap was a dog - he's really scared of dogs - but there was a dog that some idiot didn't have a leash on that came running up to him barking like a psycho and he just freaked out," she sighed. "And it really sucks when people are staring at you and judging you like you're the reason your kid is screaming and you're having to pick them up and drag them down the street."
"People are idiots," Bucky replied.
"Yeah," she chuckled. "Back when I first had him, I got dirty looks because even though I was twenty I still looked like a teenager, so everyone just assumed I was a sixteen year old slut who didn't know how to use a condom. Now people look at me like I'm a child abuser or something."
"Because they're idiots," he pointed out.
She chuckled again and looked up at him, and he could see a small twinge of sadness in his eyes. "He's getting so much bigger, though, and he's only gonna grow up more. One day he'll be a teenager and what I am I gonna do if he's still having fits like this? He'll probably be bigger than me and he could seriously hurt himself - or me - if he's still doing this. And if anything ever happened to me and somebody else had to take care of him..."
He stopped her then, because he could see her doing what he was learning not to do himself - overthink and imagine the worst when there was no good reason to do so. "Don't worry about any of that now. I don't know anything about him or what he has, but I know thinking like that won't help anything."
"Yeah, but... it's hard not to," she said quietly, leaning her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes for a minute.
"I could distract you," he offered as his lips brushed against her hair.
She gave a soft giggle and glanced up at him. "Why am I surprised that you'd say that?"
"I didn't mean what you're thinking," he said, though his eyes darted down to her lips and then even more quickly to the reasonably low neckline of her shirt.
"Really?" she asked skeptically. "Then what did you have in mind?"
"Thought you might want to give the dancing thing another try," he suggested. "But only if you feel like it."
"Oh. Yeah, actually... I could use something fun right now. But where?"
He thought for a moment, knowing that the living room would be busy right now and that even the gym would be as well, so he shrugged and said, "I guess my room will have to work. Record player's already in there."
"Okay... but just to put it out there, I'll probably be even worse than before because of my, er... soreness."
He grinned, pulling her to her feet with one hand in hers. "We'll make it work."
"You don't have to look so smug, you know," she chided him, though it just made his grin deepen before he turned and headed for the door.
Once he got her in his room and let go of her hand to head towards the record player that sat on top of his dresser, he glanced back once to find her eyeing the bed that he'd only half-made since they'd wrecked it. She was also fidgeting a little bit, which only amused him as he turned back to his search for a record to put on.
Once he picked one and set it up, he turned around and got her attention by taking her hand and walking her to the most open part of the room. It wasn't much, since his room was on the smaller side, so he ended up quickly shoving his bed against a wall to make extra room before returning to her and taking her in his arms.
She started smiling nervously the minute he took his first step, biting her lip and looking down to watch as she tried once more to copy him. He started slow, on purpose, to give her a bit of a refresher. She seemed almost more timid than she'd been the first time, but he could tell that she enjoyed it all the same.
"Hey," he said after spinning her out slowly once only to have her watch her feet the whole time. He pulled her all the way against his chest and said as she looked up at him, "I can hear you counting in your head. Don't try so hard. Don't even think. You said you wanted fun - just have fun."
"But I - ah!" she squealed with a giggle as he spun her again, a lot faster that time, and the smile was stuck to her face when he pulled her back. "Okay, okay!"
And it really was fun, he had to admit as the moments when on and she loosened up some and got more comfortable, more so than she had the first time. She let out a few mildly pained groans when he dipped her and apparently put too much strain on her legs, but she laughed about it and he secretly loved that she couldn't walk or do anything with her legs without a vivid reminder of what he'd done to her the night before... and that morning.
After that, he started testing her new sense of comfort, getting a little less innocent in his touches and teasing her with fleeting kisses along her neck when she was close enough just to feel her shiver against him. She made sure to squeak away each time, giving him a scolding look that he'd wipe away by taking her surprise with another move that would leave her laughing and trying to just stay on her feet.
Eventually, the urge to toss her up into the air became impossible to ignore, but given the lack of space and her beginner status, he knew he had to start small. So, just before spinning her out one time, he said, "When I pull you back in, I'm gonna grab your waist and flip you backwards."
After twirling out, she looked at him with slightly wider eyes and said, "What?"
"Just keep your legs bent and together, and hold onto my shoulder," he said before pulling her back in and then, with one very sturdy, metal arm wrapped around her middle and his other hand behind her legs, he bent down a bit and easily did exactly as he said he would. She squeaked a little when all of a sudden the world went upside down, and when her feet suddenly hit the ground, she grinned widely as he straightened up and then pulled her close with the hand still gripping hers.
"That was fun!" she exclaimed, and her smile made his own grow as he kept dancing her around the room, watching her grow more and more at ease as they went.
It only came to an end when the upbeat music eventually shifted to a slower song. A lone note from a saxophone sailed through the room before a lazy piano and upright bass joined it in a sensual tune. The lilting, enrapturing jazz rang in Bucky's ears and seemed to sink into his very skin. He closed his eyes for a bit, listening intently, before he opened his eyes to meet Summer's, who seemed fascinated by the deep love he had for this music. His lips quirking in a small smile, he pulled her into a more intimate hold, their chests pressed together, and continued to dance her about, at a pace she didn't have to work so hard to keep up with. The change seemed to fluster her, especially as the hand on her waist started making lazy trails up and down her back. She closed her eyes at the sensation and laid her head on his shoulder, letting out a soft sigh that he felt tickle the base of his neck.
"This reminds me of prom," she said as he laid a kiss to the top of her head. "Except you're not a loser trying to shove spiked punch at me and we aren't dancing to a bad Nickelback song."
He didn't know what a Nickelback was, and it didn't matter, because he understood what she meant. "Sorry I wasn't there to take you," he joked.
She chucked and said, "You can take me to my high school reunion to make up for it. I'd be the envy of all the girls who used to call me fat and weird."
He scoffed slightly, the arm around her middle hugging her a bit closer as he said, "I saw your old pictures on your computer. You were always beautiful."
"Yeah... no," she said, glancing up at him. "That would be you. Even when you had caveman hair and used to stare at me until I wanted to scream and jump out a window."
He eyed her strangely and wasn't sure which part of that statement to address first. But she untangled her hand from his to wrap both arms around his neck as she added, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I think I'm... reasonably pretty. But there's nothing reasonable about you. It's actually incredibly unfair."
"Reasonably..." he trailed off before shaking his head slightly and stopping the movements of his feet altogether. "What are you talking about?"
"Can I ask you a question?" she said, ignoring the one he'd just asked. When he nodded, she said, "Did you like me when you met me? And I don't mean like-like, because I know you weren't all there at first and you definitely weren't thinking about that kind of thing, but... was I... I don't know..." she sighed, visibly trying to gather her words. "I just tried really hard to help you and could never tell if I really was or not. Most of the time I just felt like an idiot, which I still do sometimes, but -"
His hands cupped her face and instantly quieted her as he said at the height of seriousness, "Summer, I would be dead or worse right now without you."
She blinked in surprise at those words and then said, "But... I really didn't do much..."
"Like you don't do much for your kid, right?" he retorted softly.
"... I don't feel like I do," she admitted. "Not enough, anyway."
He wanted to sigh and throw up his hands in frustration, but instead, he leaned in even closer to her and murmured, "Do you have any idea what you did to me the first time you kissed me?"
"Uh..." she swallowed, looking down at his lips, "maybe... got you excited for the first time in years and years?"
"You made me feel again," he said, still utterly serious, though he thought her answer was pretty funny. "And you still are."
He watched her eyes widen slightly for the fraction of a second that passed before he kissed her to the soft, romantic sounds of the old music playing behind them. How his words could be a shock to her now that she knew he loved her and had for some time, he didn't know, but then, back in those first weeks he'd spent with her, he'd barely spoken at all.
To think of how far he had come, and how far they had come together, it nearly made him dizzy, but in the most pleasant sense he'd ever felt. She broke the kiss first, pulling away to look up at him through noticeably heavier eyes as she muttered, "Yeah, same... same here, except for the 'again' part. More like first time ever for me."
And that satisfied a part of him that was more possessive than he cared to admit. It might have been unfair, but it was what it was, and as it stood, he kissed her harder as he reveled in being the only one she'd ever loved and ever given herself to willingly. He couldn't tell if he'd always been like this or if it was just how he was now, or maybe it was just with her - and he also didn't care.
Before he knew it, he was backing her up towards his bed without breaking the kiss, and she was not resisting, though his brain didn't catch up with any of it until he'd laid her down on the bed and held himself on top of her. His eyes opened and he looked down at her to find the heat in his eyes reflected in hers before she pulled him back down and kissed him herself, moaning softly into his mouth as his hands began a gentle but determined exploration and simultaneous undressing of her body.
"I knew this would happen," she said breathlessly when his mouth was at her neck and her fingers were working his shirt upwards. He broke away to take it off, and she added, "Is this what everything is gonna turn into now?"
"You complaining?" he asked, pausing in his own efforts to undress her as she began immediately shaking her head.
"No! God, no. I love it. But can we try to be quieter this time?"
As he thought over his answer, he unclasped her bra with a flick of his fingers and then tossed it to the floor on top of their shirts. After looking down at the newly exposed flesh all but begging for the attention of his mouth, he looked back up at her and admitted, "I'm not sure if I can."
"Well, can you..." she faltered when his fingers started teasing her breast and then drew a breath and went on, "can you... like... bite me instead?"
He immediately stopped what he was doing and stared at her with his mouth open slightly. "You want me to bite you?"
She blushed and smiled, "No, I mean, yes - I mean, is that a thing people do to stay quiet? I've read it and... written it... a couple times... you know... right when you're about to..."
The difference between the way this woman spoke of such things verbally as opposed to the way that she wrote them was astounding. But her words that he'd read some time ago were forever imprinted on his memory, and as nice and well-thought out and constructed as they were, he had a much bigger soft spot for the awkward girl herself, especially when she asked him such things with a deceptive but also genuine sort of innocence.
A grin on his lips, he leaned down towards hers as he said, "I can bite you if you want, but..." He kissed her softly, then took her bottom lip between his teeth and tugged gently, opening his eyes to look down at hers before releasing it, "I don't think it's gonna keep me quiet." Her breathing picked up a bit, and then he moved back to her neck, kissing her there along her most sensitive spots before gently biting there too. "And I don't think it's gonna keep you quiet, either."
She moaned out her agreement, and he raised his head as she made a small noise of frustration. "Maybe the music will drown us out."
"Probably not," he replied.
She huffed a little and then declared "Oh, screw it," before throwing caution to the wind and kissing him with everything she had, resuming their near-frantic pace of a few moments before.
"Can I still bite you?" he asked in a low tone against her lips, and the words alone made her moan again. She had no hope of being quiet, and he loved it.
"You can bite the hell out of me."
He laughed at that as she managed to turn them over and climb on top of him, and the motion knocked his notebook of troubled memories to the floor. He didn't notice, and it was where it belonged for that moment, while he focused on making new, better memories, with the woman he loved and was insane enough to love him back.
A/N: short little note today, since this fluffy little chapter doesn't require much explanation :p But, two things; first, to anyone who has read Ruin, yep, Aemilia is who Thor is referring to in the first part of the chapter. In fact, midnightwings96 and I have plans to write a crossover together of our little combined OC-verse one day, and when it happens, it's gonna be awesome :D Second, the dance scene here was once a big fat pile of crap until the aforementioned midnightwings96 took it and applied her vastly superior musical and dancing knowledge to it and re-wrote it into something actually awesome, so my huge, huge thanks to her for helping me there. Just another scene/concept that would have been horrible or not existed without her :D And finally, as always, my thanks and love to all of you who read and follow and review this story. Your feedback makes my day and I just love all of you. Until next week! :D