Warning for AOU spoilers ahead, which everybody should be used to by now lol, but just in case - you are warned :p Also, a heads-up for what I'm gonna call comedic slash things. Nothing major, of course. Just a friendly heads up :)

As mornings in the tower went, this one was pretty routine. Summer was sitting at the table, next to David and Bucky, and all of the various other Avengers that lived there were going about their morning, all business as usual. Steve and Tony were bickering over something, Natasha was quietly chatting with Sam over coffee, and Thor was happily listening to Darcy regale him with tales of drunken adventures on her college campus.

Then Bucky's hand was on her knee, and she looked over at him and shared a warm smile before suddenly lightning struck outside and the whole floor went dark. She jumped with surprise, looking around wildly and feeling David all but throw himself on her with his own sudden fear.

Then, the room only lit by the sparse outside light coming in through the windows, a dark figure suddenly emerged from the shadows, near the refrigerator. It had an intimidating silhouette and was cloaked in all black, a mask that hid all but his mouth and chin, and a pointy-eared cowl that gave way to an cape that draped down over his back.

It was... Batman?

Stepping towards Steve and Tony, he spoke then in a deep, gravelly voice and said, "I got your invitation. But I already have my own super secret boy band. It's called the Justice League. And we're better than you."

Tony held up a hand and said, "Now hold on, there, Bat-boy -"

"Batman," he growled in such a ferocious way that made Summer's eyes widen. "My name is Batman. And I'm not interested. Goodbye."

The figure then slunk back into the shadows, but not before adding absentmindedly to Tony, "By the way, I'm richer than you."

Then he was gone, and the lights in the tower came back on. Summer blinked, looking around and wondering where the heck Batman had even gone, but then Steve putting his hands on his hips and huffing stole her attention.

"This is your fault, Tony."

"My fault? How is this my fault? You heard the man... bat. He's got his own posse."

"I knew I shouldn't have left the recruiting up to you. He could have been a real asset."

Tony followed Steve out of the kitchen, and then they both paused in front of the table as Tony replied, "Oh, I'm sorry - do tell me how the Great and Powerful Steve would have gone about recruiting him differently than I did."

"Well for one, I wouldn't have offered him money, because whoever he is, he's obviously already got plenty of it."

"Oh, please, it's obvious who that guy is. Are you really telling me you haven't figured it out yet?"

Steve shrugged. "I don't care who he is. What I cared about was having him on the team."

"Honestly, though, why would we need him?" Tony asked. "Isn't one billionaire enough? Do you just want a raise, because if you do, I could think about maybe throwing you an extra fifty or seventy five cents per -"

"Dammit, Tony, can you ever just take a conversation seriously for once?" Steve asked, exasperated.

"Whoa." Tony's eyes widened in mock outrage. "Language, Rogers."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Talking to you never gets me anywhere. I don't know why I even try."

"I don't either. Honestly I'm sick of talking. Remember how that first time on the helicarrier I told you to put on the suit and go a few rounds? Never happened, did it? Maybe we should do it now and get it over with."

Steve scoffed. "Drop it, Tony."

"No," Tony said stepping up closer to him. "I think action's exactly what we need, since words aren't doing it for you. Go ahead, put on the suit."

"Like I actually need my suit to take you on?" Steve raised an eyebrow.

"It's only fair," Tony shrugged. "Come on, old man. I'm waiting."

"Old man, huh," Steve replied, now getting closer to Tony as well, and they were basically in each other's faces now.

Enraptured with the scene, Summer couldn't help but get the feeling that this was getting... weird.

"Prove me wrong," Tony challenged, looking him in the eye.

"Why should I?"

"Well, I haven't had a good laugh yet today, so there's one good reason."

"You've got a real mouth on you, Stark."

"I know," Tony grinned. "You should see what I can do with it besides talking."

Summer froze because Steve suddenly froze. Everybody in the entire room was silent, watching and waiting for one of them to throw a punch or push the other or do something, but for a long, tense moment, all they did was stare at each other challengingly and... weirdly.

"... Prove me wrong?" Tony then suggested with feigned innocence. Then Steve grabbed him with both hands by the front of his shirt, and with a very loud crash, turned him around and threw him down on the table, right in front of Summer, and she jumped nearly ten feet into the air and let her jaw drop to the floor because now Steve was on top of the man and kissing him almost violently.

Then he pulled back some, and Tony looked up at him in seeming equal shock to Summer's. She watched with comically wide eyes and placed her hand over her mouth to cover up an embarrassing gasp when Tony pulled Steve back down, and suddenly they were rather passionately making out in front of a fully engaged audience, right on top of the table.

Bucky stared in pure confusion. Natasha looked stunned and incredibly interested, and Sam appeared merely amused. Darcy was videoing with her phone, and Thor was choking on his coffee. David, carrying on his traditional reactions to seeing anyone kiss, made a face and aggressively ignored what was happening before deciding to simply just leave the room entirely.

Meanwhile, Summer continued to stare, vaguely wondering what Pepper would think of the fact that she was literally watching Steve's tongue insistently work its way into Tony's mouth, and they were both sort of not-so-quietly moaning in the process and feeling each other up like they were alone and like it all actually made sense and this had been building up forever.

Then they broke apart for air, and Tony looked up at Steve and half-gasped, "Holy fu-"

But before he could finish the word, Steve grabbed him by the hair on top of his head and pulled it, knocking his head against the table - which just made the man moan again - and with his other hand, he tore Tony's shirt open at the same time while growling, "Watch your fucking language, Stark."

Then, Summer actually fell out of her chair. In real life, she almost fell off the bed she had been dreaming the whole thing in, but luckily, Bucky was there to catch her before she broke her leg all over again.

"Whoa, whoa," Bucky said, his arms around her securely as he pulled her back into the bed while she gasped and flailed from waking up in the middle of apparently trying to fall off and kill herself. "Calm down."

Breathing heavily and heart pounding, she looked up at him and nodded, bringing her hand to her face and looking down at her leg in its brace to make sure that it was okay, which it was. Then Bucky chuckled quietly and said, "That must have been some dream."

She widened her eyes at him as she settled back into the bed and said, "Steve wanted Batman to join the Avengers but Batman said no, so he got pissed at Tony but they ended up hardcore making out on the kitchen table while we all watched."

Bucky's expression went from confused to disturbed rather quickly. "For God's sake, Summer..."

"I know," she sighed. "That's what I get for taking my pills in the middle of the night." She paused, then peeked up at him. "Although it was kinda..."

"If you say 'kinda hot', Summer, I swear..."

She laughed. "Well, I mean, I gotta be honest, so..."

"No you don't," he assured her. "You really don't."

She laughed again, quieter this time. "Hey, I'm sure you've had some weird dreams too. I can't be the only one, even if mine are drug-induced."

Settling next to her with his elbow propped up on his pillow, head leaning on his hand, he shrugged and said, "Not like that."

"Well, if you were dreaming about Steve and Tony, that might be weird," she smiled. "Hey, what time is it?"

He glanced at the clock on her bedside table and said, "Barely 7:30."

"Oh. That's early. I'm starving though. Can you help me get up? David can stay in here and sleep."

Bucky nodded, and thus started her second day back home. The routine stayed much the same as it had in the hospital, with him helping her to the bathroom and assisting with whatever she needed, which thankfully these days wasn't as much as before. She was still just as relieved to be home as she was the day before, and knowing that her normal food and coffee awaited out in the kitchen made her more excited than she thought was normal.

Still in pajamas and maneuvering down the hallway on her crutches, she and Bucky headed towards the kitchen, which was usually empty this early in the morning. Today, however, it wasn't, and Summer was surprised to see one of the tower's newest occupants quietly trying to find something edible for breakfast.

"Hi," Summer said quietly to Wanda, who was standing over a bowl of fruit on the island and, by the look on her face, hadn't wanted to run into anyone while venturing out of her room.

She looked from Summer to Bucky, the latter of which looked decidedly more neutral and less overtly friendly than the former. She glanced for the briefest of moments at his left arm and then muttered a quiet hello before looking away.

"Sorry about the food situation," Summer said, getting out of the way as Bucky looked away from the other woman and headed towards the coffee machine. "Normally I make breakfast for everybody but... yeah, can't really do that at the moment."

Wanda looked back up at her, and Summer had the impression that she was surprised that Summer was still speaking to her. But she then quietly replied, "Thank you, for last night. I opened the door and saw you leaving. You didn't have to do that."

Bucky glanced behind him at Summer, not knowing what they were taking about, and Summer shrugged as best as she could on top of crutches. "It was no problem. I mean, you've gotta eat too, and I remember how weird it was to first move here myself. Not that it was under nearly as bad circumstances as you, but -" Wanda looked down then, and Summer cringed and rambled, "I'm sorry. Steve told me what happened, so... I'm really sorry. When I came here it was because HYDRA blew up my house, which sucked but was definitely not as bad. Obviously."

Wanda then looked at her, expression puzzled, and glanced down at her leg before asking, "HYDRA? Are you... an agent, like the other Avengers?"

She laughed. "Oh, me, no. Definitely not. I'm not an Avenger. I just live with them. It's a long story. But hey, why don't you come sit down at the table with me, and we can talk? Talking helps."

Wanda looked like she wanted to say no, but then Summer limped off towards the table, and apparently it was hard to say no to a girl on crutches who had personally delivered dinner to one's door the previous night.

Summer managed to get somewhat comfortable at the table, leg propped up on another chair, and Wanda sat down quietly across from her, having only brought a banana with her from the kitchen. She looked down at it like it was fascinating, and it didn't look like an act, either.

"... Do you not like bananas, or..."

"I don't know," she replied. "I have never had one. We didn't have them back home."

"Oh," Summer nodded. "Right. That makes sense."

"Sometimes we had banana flavored things," she added. "Cheap cookies and candy, but not the real thing. My brother liked them but I didn't. He always wanted to try a real one."

"I'm sorry," Summer said quietly. Wanda then blinked and shook her head slightly, like she wished she hadn't said anything, and Summer said, "Steve said he died a hero."

Wanda nodded, looking down at the fruit and now fighting tears, and Summer wished she had steered the conversation somewhere else. Her first time talking to the girl, and all she had managed to do was remind her of her brother, who had died barely a week ago.

"Well, since you've never had bananas before, I'll make you something with them. Banana bread or something," Summer said, trying to lighten the mood. "Well, I won't make it, but I can direct somebody else how to do it."

Wanda then glanced at her and said, "You don't have to be so nice to me."

"Yeah, he used to try to say that, too," Summer shrugged, pointing to Bucky in the kitchen with her thumb. "But that's my thing. I can't be stopped."

Then Summer smiled, and Wanda glanced at the kitchen and asked, "Is he an agent?"

Her lack of knowledge as to who Bucky was was all the proof Summer needed to know that Wanda really had known nothing of HYDRA's true inner workings. "He's the Winter Soldier. So... yeah, kinda. He passed out in front of my house when he was on the run, and I let him stay with me. Things kind of went from there."

A bit of recognition passed through the other woman's eyes. "Winter Soldier?"

Bucky was listening carefully from the kitchen but pretending not to. Summer nodded. "Yeah. Heard of him?"

"I heard Strucker speak of him," she replied. "Only once. Something about..." she furrowed her brows in thought. "An old asset turning against HYDRA, I think."

"Sounds about right," Summer nodded. "They tried to kill him twice while he was with me. Almost killed my son the first time, and the second time they blew up my house. He barely got us out in time."

After Summer finished, Bucky walked to the table and set down a cup of coffee and a giant muffin in front of her. She thanked him, then watched in surprise as he set down a second cup in front of Wanda, who looked up at him in equal surprise before thanking him. He nodded and then sat down next to Summer, and Wanda shifted a little in her seat as she took her cup in hand.

"My brother - Pietro," she said quietly, "he wanted to volunteer before I did. I had my doubts and he did too, but they convinced us both. They used Captain America as an example of what they could do. Said they could take us and turn us into powerful defenders of our country, like him during World War II. I never thought they were good, but..."

Summer glanced at Bucky, who remained stoic upon this new information, but at least didn't seem as against Wanda as he had been the day before. She then said, "They told Bucky similar things." She glanced at him again to make sure he wasn't opposed to her telling part of his story, and he didn't seem like he was. "Like that he was saving the world and bringing freedom to it by assassinating people."

Wanda listened to her, then looked at Bucky before asking quietly, "Did you volunteer, too?"

He took a calm drink of his coffee before replying, "No, I died. Then they found me and put this," he looked down at his arm briefly, "on me and fried my brain until I did what they wanted."

Wanda paled a little bit. "Oh."

"He's also like 99 years old," Summer supplied helpfully. "Cryogenic preservation crap."

Wanda stared for a moment then before looking back down at her drink and saying, "I never knew what they really were. They made themselves seem like saviors until they put us in cages. And even then, they..."

When she faltered, unable to find the right words, Bucky took a guess and finished, "Made you believe it was for your own good?"

She nodded, seemingly surprised that he understood. "Yes."

He didn't say anything else, and Summer looked at Wanda and asked after a moment's pause, "What exactly can you do? Steve explained it but it sounds... impossible."

When the other woman hesitated, Summer opened her mouth to say never mind, but before she could get a word out, Wanda looked down and one of her hands started glowing dark red. Summer then watched with her mouth hanging open as Wanda levitated the cup of coffee in front of her. It floated lazily up into the air, and her hand moved to keep it steady and not let a single drop spill from it as it hovered there.

"... Wow," Summer marveled. "I know HYDRA's evil and all, but that's really cool."

Wanda then let the cup float down, back to the table, and it landed with a barely audible, gentle thud. "That's only part of it," she said quietly. "I don't know the real scope of it yet."

Before Summer could reply, the elevator doors across the room opened unexpectedly, and Clint and Natasha came walking in. Summer blinked in surprise, thinking they must have all gotten up to do who knows what before the sun had even risen, but the first thing she noticed was how Wanda visibly relaxed a little when she saw Clint walk into the room.

"Glad you're up," Natasha said to Bucky and Summer, heading towards the table. "I've got news on the driver that hit you."

They both suddenly straightened up a little, and Nat went on, "He woke up from his coma yesterday. But, according to my contact, he doesn't remember enough of the accident to give a detailed description of his attacker."

All within less than a minute, Summer went from having a panic attack to sagging her shoulders with relief. Bucky relaxed too, but only minutely compared to her.

"Of course, this could change, but... for now, you're safe," Natasha concluded.

Bucky nodded. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"They say he's got a lot of physical therapy in his future, but they expect him to recover eventually."

Summer didn't miss the look of relief on Bucky's face. It was more substantial than the relief that had been there when Natasha had said that the kid didn't remember anything.

"Thank you," Bucky said quietly, and Natasha nodded before turning towards Wanda and smiling at her and Clint, who had been talking to her.

"Ready?" Natasha asked them, and Wanda nodded, standing up from the table while looking back to Summer and mustering up a small but determined smile.

"Thank you for... talking," Wanda said, and Summer smiled back and nodded.

"Yeah, no problem. And I mean it about the banana bread."

"Wait, who's making banana bread?" Clint asked, suddenly interested.

"You don't even say hi and yet I mention food and now I exist," Summer teased, feigning offense.

"Oh, hell," Clint groaned, then ambled over to her side of the table and surprised her by giving her an actual hug, her first from him. "Sorry. I've had a hell of a week."

"I heard," Summer said, patting his back as he pulled away. "You getting back to the farm soon?"

"Yeah, in awhile," Clint replied. "First I'm helping Nat get Wanda settled in. Gonna get her out of the tower for awhile and get her some stuff she needs."

Summer nodded, then said, "Okay. Well, don't head back to the farm without saying goodbye first."

"I won't." He glanced at Bucky then and asked, "How you liking my piano?"

"Haven't gotten a chance to play it yet," Bucky shrugged.

Clint then pointed at him and said in mock-seriousness, "Hey - don't slack off on your therapy, man. Two or three times a week. Don't make me tell Connor on you. When was the last time you even talked to him?"

Bucky paused and muttered, "... Few weeks."

"I'll kick your ass," Clint said. "Seriously. The minute you don't think you need therapy anymore is usually the moment you need it most."

"Okay, okay," Bucky held up his hands in surrender. "I got it."

"Good," Clint replied. "All right. See you guys later."

As Clint and the others left, Summer looked at Bucky and asked, "Have you really not seen your doctor in weeks?"

He shifted slightly uncomfortably. "It's not a big deal. I went twice after your accident. I just didn't have time with David."

"Okay, well... don't make me worry," she said. "And me and David will give you some time with the piano later. We'll get out of your hair for awhile."

"You're not in my hair," he smiled. "I don't mind helping. You know that."

"Yes, but you've been taking care of us, so consider this me taking care of you," she smiled, and he nodded understandingly. Then she leaned her head on his shoulder, and that was when the elevator dinged again, and this time, Steve and Tony stepped off of it.

She watched them a little more closely than usual, suddenly reminded of her very vivid dream starring the two of them, and appropriately enough, they wandered towards the fridge while bickering at each other.

"I don't know. I like it the way it is. But with Fury's help..."

"We're talking basically about a new SHIELD," Steve said, opening the fridge door. "And that's great, but the public already doesn't trust anyone associated with that name. And isn't Fury still technically dead?"

"Well, to be fair, I think all of us were legally dead at some point," Tony shrugged.

"I know, but I'm just wondering how this is gonna work. Reinventing SHIELD and calling it Avengers Headquarters or whatever you said - that's gonna require a lot of transparency. Can't be led by a dead guy."

"No, but you can't lead everything, either."

Steve paused halfway through a sip of orange juice. "Did I say I wanted to lead it?"

"You want to lead everything," Tony pointed out. "If a political party wooed you to run for president, you wouldn't be able to resist. If you had been able to lift Thor's hammer, you'd be King of Asgard now."

Steve scoffed. "I'm not a big fan of capes."

"Or delegating." At Steve's half-glare, Tony shrugged. "Just an observation. I'm curious, though - the whole leader thing. Does that apply to your relationships too? I don't see Nat as much of a submissive type."

"No, she's not. But you don't seem to have a problem following my orders most of the time," Steve noted casually, strolling out of the kitchen towards the table.

Summer straightened up and watched carefully, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu.

"... I'm not following," Tony said, following the other man.

"You asked me if I'm dominant in my relationships," Steve replied. "I'd say I am in ours."

Tony opened his mouth to dispute this, then paused and stared off at the wall. "Damn it. How did this happen? Pepper's the only one I'm supposed to let boss me around."

Steve shrugged. "Maybe you secretly like it."

Tony shrugged back. "Maybe."

Her hands slightly out and pretending to smush the two of them together, Summer then accidentally said out loud, "Now kiss!"

They immediately stopped and looked her way, confusion etched on their faces. She stared at them blankly, hands in midair, feeling like an idiot and wondering how she was going to explain this one.

"Now what?" Steve asked, genuinely confused.

"Um..."

"Have you been spending too much time on the Internet, kid?" Tony asked. "Should I have a look at your browser history?"

She then smiled nervously and shrugged. "Nope. Not at all. Ignore me."

Then Bucky decided to be a traitor and said, "She dreamed that you two hooked up on the table in front of everybody."

She turned towards Bucky and stared in outrage while he merely shrugged in innocence. Steve's eyebrows shot up into his hair and he looked even more confused now, but Tony grinned and slapped a hand on his shoulder.

"That's great. Maybe she's on to something. What do you think, Cap? Is our constant arguing just a sign of something much deeper simmering under the surface?"

Steve maneuvered away from his hand and replied, "I genuinely hope not. Good God."

"Hey, I'm just saying," Tony said, following Steve and thoroughly enjoying this. "Pepper probably wouldn't mind, as long as she could watch." At Steve's even more horrified look, he added, "For that matter, I bet Nat wouldn't mind either. We could invite them both and just see what happens. No harm, right? We'll call it a team-building exercise."

"You need help," Steve said, doggedly trying to make his way to the hallway. Summer could barely contain her giggles.

"I know. Wanna give me some?" Tony waggled his eyebrows.

Steve made a face and, not watching where he was going, walked straight into a wall. The wall cracked slightly and he stumbled back a little bit from the sheer surprise of actually walking into a wall, and Tony doubled over laughing at his expense.

Steve tried to shake it off, then looked at Summer and said, "This is your fault, Summer."

She held up her hands and laughed. "Yeah, guilty. Sorry!"

Steve then examined the crack in the wall and said, "Well... damn. Guess I'll pay for this one."

Tony couldn't resist. "I can think of several ways you can pay for it."

Steve then sighed and looked at Tony wearily. "You're never going to stop now, are you?"

He grinned and shook his head. "Never."

"Wonderful," Steve muttered before heading down the hallway towards his room, resigning himself to a lifetime of inescapable innuendoes from Tony Stark.

Once he was gone, Tony turned towards Summer, still gleefully smiling, and said, "Thank you. You have truly given me a gift. I guess now we're even."

She smiled back, then asked, "Even?"

"Yeah. You know, for accidentally turning your boyfriend's arm into a custom made sex toy."

She sputtered a little and wished that her stupid face would give her a break and stop turning red at every freaking opportunity. "Oh right. That. Yup. Okay. Even."

Tony then suddenly looked at her with an eyebrow raised and asked, "Hey, want to help me with something?"

"Uh... sure?"

The next thing Summer knew, Tony had pulled up the seat next to hers and then all three of them were peering at her phone as she typed in search terms on her browser according to Tony's rather questionable instructions.

Before she hit the search button, she looked at Tony and asked nervously, "Do I really want to be looking this up?"

"You do," he assured her. "But I'm not responsible for any other dreams the things you're about to see may trigger."

She hesitated and looked to her other side, at Bucky, who shrugged and said, "Just as long as you don't fall off the bed again."

She then sighed and looked back to her phone and, biting the bullet, hit the search button.

And she then promptly felt her jaw hit the floor.

Bucky made a groaning sound and looked away, covering his eyes with his hand, and Tony slapped the table and started laughing, but all Summer could do was stare open-mouthed at the many images on her phone screen.

"... I thought you were kidding," she said, scrolling down and feeling her face turn even redder than it already was.

"Would I kid about something as serious as the legions of people who draw me in various sexual situations with one of my closest colleagues?" Tony retorted. "Lemme see that."

She handed him the phone, then looked at Bucky, who had his elbow on the table and was leaning his head on it with a vaguely tortured look on his face, and she was about to laugh, but then Tony whooped loudly and nudged her shoulder.

"Look at this one. Saving it for sure."

Bracing herself, she looked, then squeaked and covered her face with her hands. "Oh my God!"

"We're on a table and everything. Is that what you dreamed?"

She peeked through her fingers and then nodded. "That's basically exactly what I dreamed." Then she dropped her hands and looked a little closer. "... That's actually very good art. Like whoa. It looks just like you two."

"Hey, I'm not knocking this stuff," Tony replied. "These are obviously created by very talented people with very good taste in men."

She stifled a laugh, then froze when Tony started pushing buttons on her phone. "What are you -"

"He'll expect it coming from me, but not you. Just wait until he sees the ten or so texts I just sent him from your phone."

Grinning wickedly, Tony then handed her phone back to her, and she looked at the aforementioned ten texts and felt her eyes almost fall out of her head. He'd sent the artistically best ones, but half of them were... well... quite explicit, to say the least. One was, in fact, so incredibly detailed that she clicked it and then showed it to Bucky, saying, "Look at this - this is like whoa, man."

Bucky looked for half a second before flinching and looking away. "God, Summer, what the - I did not need to see that."

"Yes you did! I saw it, so you have to see it too."

"No."

"Yes. And look at the detail and how big Steve's -"

Suddenly, Steve burst into the room from the hallway, wearing a traumatized expression and holding out his phone as evidence as he asked, "Summer why?!"

"It wasn't me!" she squeaked and then pointed at Tony. "It was him!"

Tony then smiled dazzlingly at Steve and said, "Yes, dear?"

Steve then narrowed his eyes and, phone still in hand, said, "I'm gonna find a way to get you back for this."

"Bring it on, Capsicle."

Steve then looked from Summer to Bucky, whose face still looked quite pinched, and Steve guessed, "You've seen it too?"

Bucky nodded. "I'll never not see it now."

Steve sighed, then turned to head back down the hallway. Once he disappeared from their sight, he yelled, "And for the record - those were all wrong anyway. I'd be on top!"

Then his door shut, and Summer burst out laughing again, right along with Tony.

"Okay," Tony laughed, "Note to self - find more Top Steve pics to send. But see, I was right. Always gotta be the damn leader, even in hypothetical relationships with other dudes."

"Well, he is Captain America, so..." Summer shrugged. Then she wondered aloud, "You think that with him and Nat it's like a constant power struggle but in a really good way and they just like destroy each other every night?"

"No," Tony shook his head. "Because if he's the one person I'm okay with taking orders from - most of the time - then she's probably the one person he's like that with. She probably issues commands in Russian and he eats it up." He paused. "No pun intended."

"Well, being bossed around in Russian is pretty... fun." She then blushed and looked away, feeling rather than seeing Bucky's faint grin, but then her phone rang and finally saved her from this entire awkward but hilarious situation. "Oh, that's my brother! Bucky, can you help me back to my room?"

He nodded, and as he helped her up from the table, she answered her phone and said, "Thank God you called. I'm pretty sure I was about to embarrass myself even more than I already have today."

"It's only like nine in the morning your time - are we starting the humiliation early today?"

"Oh yeah," she confirmed, balancing the phone on her shoulder as she headed down the hallway. "You don't even want to know. So what's up?"

"A lot, actually. I have news."

She paused. "If you already knocked Sarah up again..."

"No no, not that. Though not for lack of trying."

She grimaced. "Ugh, Paul..."

"Sorry. But anyway. So. Yeah, I've got news. You ready?"

Bucky opened her door for her and she headed inside, smiling, "Yeah, I'm waiting."

"I got a new research fellowship. It's a pretty big deal. Great for my career, and a raise too. And guess where it is?"

"Um... maybe LA, or..."

"Nope. Guess again."

She sighed, checking on David who was squirming in the bed a little as he slowly woke up. "Uh... San Francisco. Sacramento. San Diego. Another city there that starts with an S."

"Nope. Think two words. First one starts with an N. Last one ends with a K."

She paused on her crutches and suddenly froze, staring into space as she said, "If you're saying what I think you are..."

"I am. We're moving to New York."

Her jaw dropped and, maybe because Bucky could hear Paul through the phone at her ear, he helpfully assisted her in sitting down on the bed before she fell over in shock. "If you're lying to me, I swear to God, I will find you and I will kill you."

"I'm not. It's a two year fellowship, and we've already found some renters for our house, so we're gonna lease it out and then find a place out there in New York. We're actually gonna be there next week to look at some rentals, because I gotta be there for the job in a month."

"A month?!" she repeated, looking up at Bucky with a stupid smile on her face. "I can't believe this! But Sarah's got family in California, and..."

"Yeah, I know. We talked about it and she'll fly out a lot to see her parents, but she agreed that I needed to be close to my family too. Especially with you being in a long recovery now."

Summer smiled and felt silly at the tears suddenly behind her eyes, but this was the sort of news she had given hope of hearing a long time ago. It was incredibly surreal. "I don't even know what to say. How long have you known?"

"About ten minutes," he laughed. "I just got off the phone with the new job. I called Sarah first and then I called you."

"When did you apply for it? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I applied before your accident," Paul replied. "But when that happened it just convinced me even more that I needed to be there with you. It's been too long since we've lived in the same state."

"Yeah it has. Oh my God. I'm still in shock. I would jump up and down and scream but then my doctor would hunt me down."

"Yeah, don't do that. But I'm glad I could brighten your day some."

She beamed. "Consider my day as bright as your hair."

"... That's pretty bright, not gonna lie. But hey, I only had a minute to call you and I gotta get back to work, but I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay!" she replied happily. "Gah. I still can't believe this."

"Me either. Who would have thought we'd end up in New York together? But anyway, I really gotta go."

"Okay, bye," she laughed, and when Paul hung up, she set her phone down and then looked at Bucky with a stubborn smile on her face. It was infectious apparently, because he grinned back at her.

"He got the job?"

"Yeah, he... wait. Did you know about it? How?"

"He told me was trying to get a job here while he was here visiting you," Bucky explained, sitting next to her.

"Oh," she said, surprised. Then she joked, "Well, geez. Way to keep me in the loop."

"I don't think he wanted to get your hopes up in case he didn't get it," Bucky said.

She smiled and then said, "And I guess you didn't either." He shook his head, and she was still smiling like an idiot when she said, "Man. Having this crap leg sucks and all, but with this and the... kid not remembering you... things are starting to look pretty good again."

Bucky nodded, smiling a little though the subject of the driver sobered his expression some. She smiled back, knowing that the kid could still remember and make things difficult for them, but for the moment, she chose to look on the positive side and enjoy the fact that things were, for now, starting to be okay again.

Later that day, at Summer's insistence, Bucky closed himself in his room with the intent to finally get started on the hobby that was replacing dancing until Summer got back on her feet. It wasn't that he didn't want to get started on it. He just wasn't sure if it would quite work the way he had first hoped it would.

He glanced at the piano in the corner and then ignored it for the time being, opting instead for trying to clear his head first. The truth was, he hadn't been truly alone since before Summer's accident. He'd had David acting as his second shadow, and while it had been an adjustment, he didn't mind it or resent it. It simply made now being alone within the four walls of his own room feel considerably stranger than it would have before the accident had changed everything.

He ended up throwing an album on the record player that Steve technically owned but let Bucky keep in his room, and then he sat on the side of his bed and pulled out his box of letters and other items from his past.

He'd read through more than half the letters by now, but he hadn't a chance to read much more of them as of late. He could have binged and read them all on the birthday he'd received them on, but he had decided on taking it slow in the hopes of being able to focus on each piece of paper and the individual memories they might jog. So far, he had remembered quite a bit thanks to the letters, from Vivian's struggle to accept his decision to run back into the war with Steve after his first stint as a prisoner of war, to his sister's tales of life at home while he was gone, and his mother's bittersweet hopes for his safe homecoming. Each letter was a piece, however tiny, of the puzzle that was his old life, and the piano sitting in his room was a result of that.

He found the letter where his mother had spoken of teaching him to play as a boy, and he reread it carefully, with enough concentration to almost burn a hole into the weathered paper. The first time he had read it, he'd had the briefest flash of sitting next to her in front of a piano, his much smaller hands being gently guided by her. But the problem with those flashes was that they went as soon as they came, and he had spent so long trying to recapture those images in his head that now he could barely see them at all.

He clenched his jaw slightly and folded the letter back up, putting it back into the box and then running his hand over his face as he let his head fall back against the wall behind him. He listened to the slow, pleasant melody of the old song playing softly through the room, and eventually, after a few more minutes spent in quiet inaction, he got up from the bed.

He turned off the record player, then exhaled heavily as he finally made his way to the piano. He decided to hope for the best as he pulled out the narrow bench in front of it and then sat down. The first thing he did was look down at his hands and wonder if he even could play half-decently with a metal hand.

Dr. Connor had approved of the piano idea for several reasons, one of which being the idea that it would help dexterity and normal function of his very abnormal left hand. It would help teach him to use it as delicately as he did his right, to apply the same pressure and care with the metal fingers and not accidentally crush the keys due to a moment's forgetfulness. And that was definitely an incentive for a man who was still fearful of accidentally hurting the woman he loved with that hand.

But still... would it work? He had his doubts, but there was only one way of finding out.

Taking a breath, he reached his right hand towards the keys and, replaying the melody of the last song in his head, took his time before pressing down on any of the keys. When he finally did, pushing one down and hearing the soft sound that resulted, he opened his eyes and stared at the keys. Then, still hearing the melody in his head, he played around with the other keys, testing his memory and ability to figure it out.

After a few moments, he started mumbling lyrics quietly under his breath, trying to match them to the tentative rhythm he had managed to string together. Then, he looked at his left hand and brought it to the left side of the keys, again testing the waters. It took a lot of fumbling with the wrong pitches and much trial and error to get to anything sounding even slightly right, but he kept at it, determined to get somewhere.

The decreased sensitivity of his left hand made pressing the keys feel strange, but the metal fingers fit the space the same way his others did. He was used to consciously making sure to use equal force and gentleness with that hand as to his right, so it was good further practice in that sense. It took some more moments of trial and error to get it right, but in the end, he was playing something that sounded like the the original music, if imperfect and slower. But perfection wasn't the goal.

The smallest of smiles appeared on his face then, as he repeated the notes over and over, trying to get them just right. He had been doubtful that it would really come back to him, thinking that maybe getting the piano at all was a silly idea, but it felt familiar. It didn't bring a sudden wave of memories rushing back, but the familiarity alone was enough to have made it worthwhile. It was another piece of him, a piece of who he used to be, and it was calming. Before he knew it, an hour had passed by, and a text from Summer asking for his help whenever he was done signaled the end of the pleasant time to himself.

Feeling considerably better than he had when he had first come to his room, he left the piano and headed for his door. He'd have to thank Clint later for having what he was pretty sure now had been a very good idea.

Summer had never seen Thor so excited in all her relatively brief time of knowing him. He was all but bouncing on his feet, even while sitting down on the same couch that she and David were on, and she looked from him to the "synthetic human" sitting on the opposite couch, who held a mug in his hands.

"What did you say this drink is called?" Vision asked, looking into the cup curiously.

"It is coffee," Thor smiled. "And it is most delicious. Try it!"

Vision, apparently very trusting of the man, then gamely took a drink, and Thor eagerly awaited his reaction while Summer just worked on keeping her millions of questions inside of her head. David kept an eye on the newcomer in their midst while also playing on his tablet, and all eyes were on Vision as he contemplated the sip of coffee that he had just taken.

"It is... pleasant," Vision decided. "Bitter, but... bold and... quite flavorful."

"You should totally write the descriptions that come on the package," Summer said, unable to help herself.

"I told you it is delicious! It is one of my favorite things that I have tried on Earth. I may bring some with me when I go home, to see if we can grow it there."

Summer's eyes widened. "Asgardian coffee? Holy crap. Actually - what do you drink there?"

"Many of the same things you do here - tea, juices, wine, liquor, even milk. Though they all are different and the liquor more potent, of course."

Her eyes got even bigger and she chuckled. "Oh wow. I'd probably get drunk just from sniffing the wine, then."

"Possibly. It is certainly not meant for small mortal women."

"Yeah, I bet..." She paused and then furrowed her brows. "Hey, wait, I'm not small!"

"Well," Thor amended, "compared to the average Asgardian female, you are relatively small."

She was about to scoff when something large, black, and shiny scuttling along the floor near the foot of her good leg caught her peripheral vision, and her scoff turned into a high pitched squeak of terror as her leg shot up to the couch and she screeched, "Roach! Roach! Giant roach!"

David, in his similar instant terror, let his tablet fall to the floor and leapt on top of the back of the couch for safety from the bug, and Thor jumped to his feet in pure confusion. "What is happening? What is a roach?"

She pointed at the floor where the thing was running towards the other couch and yelled, "That! That is a roach! Huge evil bug! Kill it!"

Then suddenly Thor's hammer was in his hand, and he nodded to Summer, saying, "Ah, I understand. Stay calm, I shall slay the beast."

"I'll be calm after you slay it," she said, feeling distinctly vulnerable in her immobile state. The bug could come crawling up the couch and she would have literally nowhere to run, because she couldn't run.

"Slay what?" she heard Bucky ask, suddenly appearing behind her as he walked into the living room.

"That!" she said, pointing to the floor where Thor was about to actually smack the hammer down on top of the roach. But before it could make contact with the floor and likely damage it, the roach then suddenly flew up into the air, and Summer half-screamed, "Oh God, it's a flying one!"

"It flies?!" Thor exclaimed, chasing after the roach as it flew across the room.

"Wait, wait," came Darcy's voice, who had apparently heard the chaos from the kitchen, where she had been. She was armed with a bottle of window cleaner as she stormed into the living room. "I've got this. I've lived in some really questionable apartments and have a lot of experience in roach killing."

Summer watched as Darcy sprayed the bug in mid-air, but the roach only got angry at the assault and then dive-bombed her. She screeched and ran away, smacking into Sam in the process, who was next on the scene, armed with a shoe.

"Everybody calm down," Sam said evenly, eyes following the roach's path as it flew up towards the ceiling. "I'm an Avenger now. I can handle a roach."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Thor said gravely. "This is a determined creature. Ah, it just landed!"

It landed on the wall across the room, and Sam smacked it with the shoe with a resounding thud. However, the roach survived and flew away, this time towards Summer, who squeaked and covered her head with both arms and tried not to weep in sheer terror.

It ended up landing on the coffee table in front of her instead, and Bucky came around the couch and punched it with his metal fist. It flew away in time to save itself, unfortunately, so he ended up succeeding only in punching a hole into the corner of the table.

"Okay, it can't be this hard to kill a damn roach," Sam muttered, watching the thing fly around the room.

"Since when do these things fly?" Bucky wondered aloud, ready to demolish something else to kill the thing, just as Thor also was.

"It's flying days are numbered," Thor announced, but before he could knock it out of flight with his hammer, suddenly Vision was there, in the middle of the three men, floating and calmly, gently, trapping the roach in his hand.

Everyone in the room fell silent then, including Summer, who watched with wide eyes as Vision then touched his feet back to the floor and quietly walked over to a window. He pushed it up, then released the roach into the night, and after closing the window and turning to find everybody staring at him, he explained, "I do not like killing if it can be avoided. It was an innocent being."

Nobody seemed to be able to find anything to possibly refute that with, though Summer took issue with a giant flying roach being deemed "innocent", since it was actually pure evil personified. Still, Thor frowned and sat down, appearing to be in sudden debate of his own morality, and Sam and Bucky both were staring at Vision with a mixture of quiet fascination and lingering confusion over the fact that he existed in the first place. Then Vision made his way back to the couch, sat down, and finished drinking his coffee.

After Bucky sat down next to her, Summer looked at him and said quietly, "Man, this place is getting weird. Not a bad weird. Just... dang."

He nodded his agreement. Then the night got considerably weirder.

Natasha came home soon after the roach battle, but Clint and Wanda were still out. Steve emerged from his room and met Nat in the kitchen, where they were talking quietly, and Summer didn't mean to eavesdrop from the couch. But she did.

"Just do what I told you," Natasha said lightly.

"I will, I just... hope I'm actually convincing. Otherwise I'll just be embarrassing myself."

"You're a pretty determined guy... you'll do fine. I'm looking forward to this, actually."

"Looking forward to seeing me make an idiot of myself?"

"No... just looking forward to see how far you'll go. How committed to this you are."

"Well, I'm not gonna kiss him, if that's what you're thinking."

Summer widened her eyes and tried to listened more closely. Which guy was Steve not gonna kiss? What were they even talking about?

Before she could eavesdrop more, the elevator dinged and the conversation ended. Tony then strolled into the room with a man that she hadn't formally met as of yet, but she knew from media coverage that he was the guy otherwise known as War Machine. He glanced into the living room, looking first at Vision, then her, and at David who was still perched on top of the back of the couch, and she translated the look on his face to be something along the lines of man, this place is getting weird.

She still didn't get introduced, instead watching from over the back of the couch as Tony wandered into the kitchen and said happily, "Honey, I'm home! Honey being you, Cap."

Steve shared one very brief glance with Natasha before smiling pleasantly at Tony as a response.

"Next time, I expect you to have a martini in your hand and high heels on to welcome me home," Tony shrugged, heading for the liquor cabinet. Apparently the flirting and innuendoes from earlier were still happening. "Just saying."

"Right." Steve nodded. "Sorry about that. Just was so distracted waiting for you to get back."

"Yeah, that's a common problem," Tony said over his shoulder. "Right, Rhodey?"

"I honestly have no idea how I'm supposed to answer that," he said. "I'm gonna go talk to Thor. You're getting a little too weird, even for me."

"Yeah, yeah, have fun." Summer then watched as Tony grabbed a drink for himself and one for Steve also, offering it to him as he leaned against the counter next to him. "So, about those high heels..."

"Red and gold, right?" Steve quipped. "Not a big fan of gold but I can deal with the red."

Tony raised an eyebrow and said, "You know, if you think you're gonna put me off by going along with my creepy flirting, you're very wrong. It's gonna backfire."

Steve took a sip while Natasha kept a non-obvious eye on them from the table. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Mhmm. So. Have I told you lately how much I want to spangle your stars?"

Summer stifled a laugh with her hand over her mouth. She glanced over and found Bucky watching as well, growing confusion on his face.

Surprisingly, Steve didn't miss a beat. "No, but you can tell me now. I figured you were into dirty talk."

"Well, who isn't?" Tony asked "I bet even you have a dirty mouth from time to time."

"You got me," Steve replied. "Filthy mouth. Just filthy."

"You should show me sometime," Tony winked.

"Your room or mine?" Steve asked, not the slightest hint of a laugh or waver in his voice.

"Who needs a room?" Tony retorted. "Let's just kick these other people out and go to town right here."

At this point, everybody with the exception of David and Vision were staring at the whole spectacle, and Steve set his drink down with a thud before standing closer to Tony, apparently taking his suggestion quite seriously. "What are you waiting for?"

Summer's eyes were as huge as they'd been in her dream as she watched them stare each other down, dwindling space between them as Tony said, "Waiting on you, old man."

This was getting almost creepily similar to her dream, she noted as Steve then chuckled darkly and leaned in closer. "We'll see about that."

With both of them very slowly leaning in as if for a kiss, Tony said, "Is this Gay Chicken? If this is Gay Chicken, you should know that I'm the king of this. Just ask Rhodey."

Rhodey looked around at the eyes suddenly on him and shrugged.

"How about you shut up?" Steve said, still inching closer, and Summer was positively dying to know who would break and turn away first. Steve seemed pretty darn determined, though, and whatever ended up happening, Darcy was recording it all on her phone so that the moment would live on forever.

Next to her, Bucky muttered, "Are they actually gonna..."

The question on everybody's mind was answered when neither man broke away, both being very determined to reach their respective goals and thus ending up accidentally kissing for one very short fraction of a second. Once the actual contact had happened, Tony jumped back and yelled, "Whoa! Okay. Wow. I thought you'd pull away. Wasn't expecting that."

Victorious, Steve clapped his hands once and exclaimed, "I win! Told you I'd get you back."

Tony held up a hand and nodded. "Yeah, okay, okay. You win this one. Just don't kiss me again."

Steve laughed and then turned around with a jubilant expression on his face that instantly fell when he was faced with the confused face of Wanda and the raised eyebrows of Clint. Both had walked in just time to see most of the ordeal unfold, and Steve's face turned an embarrassed red as he attempted to act normal.

"Uh... hi."

"Hi," Clint replied, deadpan. Then he turned to Wanda and said, "So yeah, you live with a bunch of weirdos now. If it ever gets to be too weird, feel free to come visit me on my farm."

"... Okay," she replied, looking at Steve and Tony suspiciously.

"I was... getting him back for something," Steve attempted to explain.

"You know that makes it sound even weirder," Clint pointed out.

Steve then opened his mouth and then seemed to think better of it and clamped it shut, giving Wanda an overly friendly smile before walking past them.

As he passed the couch, Bucky observed dryly, "I think you might have been a little too committed there, Steve."

"Thanks," Steve muttered back, plopping down on the couch next to Thor, who looked at him strangely until Steve asked, "What?"

"Are you confused, Captain? I thought you and Lady Natasha were..."

He sighed. "We are. He just... never mind." He then paused and muttered, "I still win."

"I knew you could do it," Natasha grinned from the table. "Such determination."

"Remind me not to ever prank you if you try to make out with every dude that does," Sam chimed in, which made Steve groan and roll his eyes.

Then the room fell quiet for a moment, and Summer looked around at everybody, wondering how the mere mention of her odd dream had somehow caused the event to actually happen, and deciding that she was probably going to be giggling about this forever.

After a few long moments of everyone sitting there quietly, Summer then broke the silence by painting a smile on her face and chirping cheerfully, "Who wants banana bread? Me and Darcy made some. Well, I gave her directions and she made it."

"Hell yes I did," Darcy piped up.

"I want some," Rhodey answered first. "Though I'm not sure I've met you yet, so I'm rude."

"I'm Summer," she smiled. "And my superpower is dreaming things into reality, apparently."

"That's terrifying," he replied. "I'm -"

"Please say War Machine and not Iron Patriot," she interrupted before she could help it.

"Oh, hell no. Iron Patriot's so 2013."

Summer laughed, then realized that she had officially met every single living Avenger now, aside from a very large green one who she wasn't going to get to meet anytime soon, if what she had overheard about Bruce Banner was true. Hopefully he was okay wherever he was, but for now, she had her hands quite full with the semi-zoo that the place was becoming with all the new faces and very interesting personalities.

She wouldn't have changed a thing, though, because somehow the huge skyscraper was starting to feel like home. For someone who had been alone for quite a long time, getting to feed a quiet, thoughtful, newborn being and a grieving twin from across the globe their first pieces of banana bread wasn't the small, insignificant thing it would have seemed like to anyone else. Every last occupant of the tower was just another lost soul - some more than others, some less - and she was one of them. But, when they were all together like this, it was nearly impossible to feel alone, and that may have been the single best part of living there.

Later that night, after they both put David to bed as per the new routine, Summer had insisted that Bucky take her to his room and let her cut his hair. First he had tried to brush her off, but when he pushed his hair out of his face three times in the course of uttering one sentence, she had given him no choice.

And so, a short time later, she found herself sitting on the side of Bucky's bed with her good leg dangling off the edge and her injured one propped up and out of the way, scissors and electric clippers at the ready, one towel spread out on the floor and one on the bed to catch falling hair. It wasn't the most ideal setup and she was pretty sure there would be a mess no matter what, but she was determined to keep up her tradition of being his personal hair groomer. If nothing else, it was good exercise for her woefully weakened arms.

It was just hard to concentrate when he walked out of the bathroom with his hair wet, as she had requested, and most damningly, just in his underwear, like he was trying to make this as difficult as possible.

"... Are you kidding me?" she blurted, narrowing her eyes when he merely grinned at her. She watched as he turned around and then sat in front of her, his back to her, and she shifted a little to get closer and in a better position to reach his hair. "You're such a jerk."

"I'm just multitasking," he shrugged as she ran a comb through his hair. "Figured I may as well get ready for bed."

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, trying to focus on actually cutting his hair and not licking him anywhere she could reach, like she wanted to. "Not distracting at all."

"Didn't think so," he said, and she could see the slight grin on his face though she could only see the very edge of his cheekbones from her angle.

She sighed and, despite her other wishes, got down to business. There was more hair to cut than usual, because it really had been a long time since she'd last done this, so it was going to take awhile. Once she was done, then she'd let herself attack him.

"So, how'd the piano go?" she asked, snipping away the first piece of hair, just above his neck.

"It went well, actually," he replied. "It came back to me some once I got started."

"Good," she smiled. "When do I get to hear you play?"

"Not any time soon," he replied without hesitation. "I'll need a lot more practice before that happens."

She couldn't pester him on the issue, knowing how hard it was to share her writing with him when she didn't think it was good enough, so she wouldn't bother him to share something of his own that he felt the same way about. Instead, she kept cutting and said, "Okay. I look forward to hearing you, though."

He didn't answer, but he did move his right hand to her leg and gently hold it, occasionally moving it up and down the bare skin. It was entirely innocent but incredibly distracting, and it was in the middle of cleaning up the sides of his hair that she realized how the prior day's experience in the shower had only made the sudden return of her normal physical desires so much worse.

And at that point, it was only going to get worse, because she needed to do the front of his hair. "Turn around."

He obeyed quickly, turning around and getting on his knees from his previous sitting position and looking at her innocently as she tried to just keep breathing. Ignoring him as best as she could, which wasn't a lot, she shifted closer to him and worked on cutting the front pieces of hair and not letting his hands resting on either side of her hips on the bed distract her. It was like the shower all over again, except she was holding sharp objects and had to actually concentrate so she didn't accidentally stab him or make his hair look horrible.

"You're blushing," he observed, a touch of a grin on his lips.

"You don't say?" she retorted, turning him by the chin to inspect her work. Then she grabbed the clippers and said, "You should totally be a detective in your spare time."

His grin widened. "What spare time?"

She sighed, finishing up the front of his hair and then directing him, "Turn back around. Gotta make sure everything's even."

His gaze then dropped to her lips, but he didn't act on it before doing as she said and turning around. Probably still holding back, she figured. With him sitting in front of her once more, she exhaled and thanked God that she was almost done.

After a few more moments of quiet tidying and evening things up, she decided that she was done and set her instruments aside on his bedside table. "Done," she said lightly, brushing off his shoulders and then moving her fingers to his hair, running through the shorter strands as a matter of routine and checking it one last time.

Then she felt his hand on her leg again, and without turning to look at her, he said quietly, "Thank you."

She'd done this many times now, and while it was routine now, he never forgot to thank her each time. She smiled and moved her hands back to his shoulders, running over them lightly as she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss behind his ear. "You're welcome."

His hand on her leg tightened just barely, and rather than pull away from him, she kept her hands where they were for the moment and then inched her lips lower, kissing him softly and slowly on his neck before placing several more kisses down the line of his neck. He leaned just slightly to the side, encouraging her touch, and she took that small gesture and ran with it. Her hands slid down from his shoulders to his chest, taking her time in feeling him in a way that she hadn't been able to the day before or for about six weeks, all while she found the spot on his neck that would make him groan with the right mixture of her lips and tongue. When she heard the sound, she left the spot and kissed up to jaw, then brought one of her hands up to guide his face towards hers. When her eyes met his, they were instantly drawn down to the sight of him biting his lip, and then his hand was no longer on her leg but on the back of her head, drawing her down for a kiss.

She took advantage of their positioning, continuing her hands' journey down his chest and controlling the kiss, something she didn't always get the chance to do. Mostly, she was fine with giving him the control and letting things take their natural course, but sometimes, when she could feel him holding back - like now - she would happily reverse their usual roles. She had been playing close attention all these months, and she knew how to kiss him, where to touch and how to tease him in a way that would make him forget what he was holding back for.

When she broke for air, she pulled away and then smiled a little at the flushed quality of his face, the way that he looked up at her with heavy-lidded eyes and grinned slightly back at her before turning in her arms and getting back up to his knees, like when she had been cutting the front of his hair. This time his hands went to her waist and he kissed her the way she had wanted him to then.

Just like she knew she would, she had nudged him out of his slight hesitation and back into his normal behavior, and when she smiled against his lips, he paused and pulled away, looking down at her smile and then back up to her eyes. "What?"

"Nothing," she shrugged. "I just love that you're still this into me after all of the crap we've been through." His eyes grew softer then, and he smiled at her with the sort of affection that he usually did right before he would say something incredibly sweet. Before he could make good on that tradition, she sighed and ruined the moment by frowning and muttering, "I just wish you could be in me..."

He laughed quietly, and she smiled with him even though she was serious about how that part sucked. But then he licked his lips and looked down at the shirt she was wearing, which was actually one of his, and as he reached down to pull it over her head, he replied, "I'm pretty good at making up for that."

Letting him pull the shirt off and toss it away, she then held on to his arms as he gently lifted her up and moved her up to the top of the bed. He was almost lightning fast about getting some pillows under her bad leg to get it up and the most comfortable that it was capable of being, and then he was back at her side, letting her pull him back in and kiss him for what felt like a long and desperately needed eternity.

For a long time it was nothing but kissing and relatively innocent touching, time spent doing what they hadn't yet had time to do until that night. The shower had been quick and she had been too tired the night before to do anything but pass out, but now she felt very awake and less weak than she had then, allowing the perfect opportunity to be lazy and sweet rather than rushed. Not that there was anything wrong with quick and efficient, but it had its own time and place, as did slow and languid.

She sighed when his lips moved from slowly devouring hers to moving equally slowly down her neck, her fingers making their restless way through his hair, down the back of his neck and shoulders, then his back, anywhere she could reach. She could feel when the lazy pace wasn't quite enough for him anymore, when his hands held her a little tighter and he kissed her a little harder, almost imperceptibly but not quite. She was ready to give his arms or hair a tug and drag him back up from his current position of worshipping at the breasts that he had apparently missed a lot, but a glance downward caught sight of one of his hands disappearing between them, and as it quickly became clear, it was not to go to anywhere on her.

But he wasn't going to get away with that again.

"Bucky," she said, his name sounding more like a whine than she had intended as she grabbed the top of his hair and pulled gently. His mouth left her with a faint pop and he looked up at her, appearing slightly dazed as she beckoned him to come up to her level. Once he got there, hovering over her, she pushed him down to lay at her side and said, "As much as I like watching that, it's not happening again."

"But -"

"Yeah, I get tired fast now," she shrugged. "Whatever. I'll deal with it."

When the look on his face betrayed how much he wanted to argue, she kissed him again, softly at first and then more deeply, letting it linger until she felt his fingers go to her hair and scratch there gently. Then she pulled away and said breathlessly, "I know you can't say no to me."

He swallowed and shook his head. "No I can't. I don't want to."

She grinned. "Good. Then don't. I'll let you know if I need your help."

He nodded, then kissed her with a new, perfectly imperfect sloppiness that gave away how much he preferred what was happening next. From there, it was an effortless falling back into a treasured routine, even with her leg in the way and preventing some things. It didn't matter at that point, because all that mattered was being close and giving each other what they could. And if she felt like she was at a disadvantage for just having a perfectly normal and now-easily winded human hand while he had an utterly sinful and strong metal one, she didn't let on one bit.

Instead, when the time came and she finally was able to return the pleasure he'd given her the day before, she kept her eyes on his face and soaked in the way that his eyes rolled closed and he leaned his forehead against hers, heavy breaths turning into short pants against her cheek. He stayed quiet at first, at least until she got into the groove of things and drew on her well of knowledge regarding what would make his breaths turn into long, shaky moans. The first time one escaped his throat, he opened his eyes and then was suddenly looking at her almost ravenously and kissing her equally ferociously, just as his metal hand made its way to her and made her let out a moan of her own into his mouth.

Their lazy pace continued on to the very end, which was all the sweeter for how long they had built it up and let it drag on. He never could manage to keep his moans inside and that time was no exception, and she stayed coherent herself just long enough to watch him gasp into their kiss and then moan out his end against her lips. She would have told him how beautiful she thought he was, had she been capable of words in that moment, or the next several that followed.

When it was all over and she was a useless pile of mostly non-broken limbs in his bed, she laid there in disbelief of how intense such simple things could be and barely noticed when he disappeared for a moment. By the time she found the strength to barely raise her head up to look around, he was already back and sliding under the sheets to lay next to her. He covered her up as well, then pulled her as close as he could while keeping her leg up and comfortable, kissing her forehead as she settled against him.

"Now I'm tired," she said, yawning a little, and he smiled into her hair.

"Me too," he replied quietly. "That was..."

"Really good for technically not being much," she finished for him, closing her eyes. "Yeah. Good workout for me, too. Maybe it'll be part of my physical therapy."

He laughed at that one, a real one that rumbled into her ear and made her smile. "Let me know what the doctor says when you ask."

"Of course," she sighed, yawning again. Then her brain started wandering. "Today was weird. Good but weird. Really weird."

"Yeah. Steve kissed Tony."

She then snorted and laughed at the same time, producing a wholly unattractive sound, and she didn't even care. "I totally dreamed that into reality. I don't care what anyone says. I just wonder what I can dream up next."

"As long as I'm not kissing either one of them, I'll be fine with whatever," he replied.

She giggled a little, then said, "If I was going to dream about you kissing a dude, it wouldn't be either of them. Steve would be gross and Tony would be... eh. No. Weird."

"... Who would it be?" he asked.

She cracked her eye open and thought for a moment. "... Not answering that one."

"Why not?"

"It's nobody you know," she said, yawning a third time. "I think they're technically dead, actually. Now goodnight. I've got work to do dreaming more stuff."

"Be careful," he teased. "You've got a real dangerous power in your hands."

"I did a minute ago." She then cracked up into sleepy, silly giggles, and Bucky rolled his eyes before kissing her goodnight one more time. She drifted off to sleep soon after, happy and content despite their lingering troubles. Life might have been weird with problems and surprises lurking around every corner, but nights like those, it was easy to believe that the peace could last.

Only time would tell if it would.

A/N: ... I don't even know what this chapter is lol. It started out in my head one way and then ended up as THIS but I regret nothing because I think the story needed some comic relief, right? Riiiiiiight? :D Anywho... we'll get back to the more hard-hitting, actual plot relevant things next week, I promise lol. Thank you all for reading, reviewing, following, and being amazing :D also thanks to midnightwings96 for helping with this chapter and especially with the piano section, which I would have had zero clue how to go about without her help, so yay! :D She just got another chapter of Ruin up this last week, so go and check it out if you're a reader of that story :D Thank you all again, until next week!