Author's Note: little side story I was inspired to write while listening to Wintry, Cozy Cabin with Bucky Barnes by Kaila Falcon on YT, a soothing ASMR video. It eventually evolved into an old-timey (since I don't know if people still write them today) blanket scenario I've read a lot as a kid in the 90's/early 2000s. Enjoy.
Somewhere in Appalachia in the dead of winter
Phoenix grunted a bit as she half-carried, half-supported Bucky through the snow. The White Wolf had wanted to show her the mountains of his country after she gave him a geography lesson about the Five Ranges. It was winter now but nothing they couldn't handle. At least until they came up to a frozen river and thought they could safely cross it. However, Bucky fell through the ice and Phoenix had to act quickly to fish him out. His enhancements kept him alive but he needed to get warm and fast. "Nix…," Bucky rasped as a sudden wind picked up. Flinching a bit even though she was withstanding the cold a bit better, the shifted chimera looked at him and then in the direction he was pointing. She spotted the cabin and nodded wordlessly.
She could sense a blizzard coming but her main concern was getting Bucky out of the elements. Though superhuman, he had his limits and they had been out in the cold for a long time since the river. His clothes were frozen and he was in some pain. Reaching the door, Phoenix used magic to unlock it and got him inside. She shut the door and helped him to the living room. She paid her surroundings no mind and with some instruction from her companion, managed to arrange some firewood in the fireplace and lit it up. "Get those clothes off, Bucky. I'll find some blankets," she instructed. In spite of himself, Bucky threw a look at her retreating back before sighing. "She's not human, Barnes. I doubt she'd be shy about anything," he reminded himself. With some effort, he pulled his coat and shirt off and was working on his belt when Phoenix came back with several blankets.
"Good thing this place was here," she said, plopping them down by him and taking his shirt and coat. She placed them by the fire as Bucky wriggled out of the rest of his clothes while her back was turned. He then burrowed under several blankets. He was very comfortable with himself but despite Phoenix being nonhuman, he felt it wasn't right to openly flaunt himself. Some lines just shouldn't be crossed. His mind just reconciled her human form with human social conventions out of habit in spite of the fact that she only followed them for his own sake. Bucky had once asked why her own clothes looked like something one would find in an Earthbound store. Her only explanation was that the magic that allowed humanshifting gave her some control over what her clothes looked like. Her clothes were just her fur given a new form. She once showed him how her clothes appeared in All World and he noted with interest that they almost looked like Ancient Greek women's clothes. At the moment, her form was wrapped in a long-sleeved shirt and pants, all in silver. No coat, though, so it seemed her magic was limited on how much of her fur translated into clothing.
Bucky started to shiver a bit. Concerned, Phoenix knelt down in front of him and placed the back of her hand to his forehead. "You're burning a little," she noted. "I may be enhanced but my limits are being pushed," he muttered. The chimera looked around. Sadly, the cabin was a bit too small for her to be in her natural state comfortably. "So what can I do for you?" she asked, her concern starting to sneak into her voice. Bucky looked her in the face a bit, weighing his suggestion in his mind. She wasn't human so she had no reason to be embarrassed but it still felt so wrong. "Please don't get mad...but the best way to deal with this is skin-to-skin contact," he said. Phoenix understood exactly what he meant. She looked down at herself and took hold of her shirt between two fingers, rubbing it a bit. "Are you okay with that, Bucky? You humans are a bit...I don't know, dodgy when it comes to this," she said.
"We don't have much of a choice," he responded. Phoenix contemplated the fire for a moment before taking a deep breath. Without another word, she took hold of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Bucky was struck dumb a bit. He never expected her to just go for it so easily. While some women were pretty forward, Phoenix was being entirely clinical. There wasn't a trace of human modesty in anything she did. "She really isn't human at all," he thought. Bucky tried not to stare. She had a good figure. Nothing anyone would call a knockout body but still good. Deciding to forget about it, the White Wolf lied down completely on the floor and turned his back. It was less about preserving Phoenix's nonexistent modesty and more about him watching the door to make sure they didn't get any surprise visitors.
Phoenix finished folding her clothes and looked at Bucky. She crawled under the pile of blankets with him but paused for a second. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" she asked. "Yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry about it," he said, with a grin in his voice. Phoenix scooted closer and wrapped her arms around him from behind, her chest pressed to his back. The White Wolf felt a bit tense but he started to relax a bit as he got used to the situation. "You're really hot, Nix. I mean...you feel like a furnace," he fumbled through his words. Phoenix laughed a little. "I'm about 101.5 degrees. I understand that's a bit hot for humans but it's normal for something like me. Plus, you fell into freezing water so I probably feel even hotter," she responded. She looked up at the back of his head before her eyes slid over to his vibranium arm.
This was the first time she had seen him without a shirt on and now she saw exactly how his arm was attached to the rest of his body. She ran a finger on the seam between flesh and metal. The anchor for the arm covered more of his back than she had realized. "Did it hurt?" she asked in a quiet voice. The mechanisms in his arm whirred as he sighed and brought his hand up to look at it. "I was put under for the installations of both arms. But HYDRA didn't even wait long enough for me to go to sleep before they were sawing away at the remains of my flesh arm. So yeah...it hurt like hell before I went under," he responded. Phoenix just hummed before tightening her grip on him a bit. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you," she said in a quiet voice.
Bucky raised his hand to rest on one of hers. He had long accepted the fact that Phoenix was always going to carry that regret with her, even though she knew she had no fault to be absolved of. She was just that kind. "So how does Wakandan tech compare to Byakko's? You told me he does things like this as a side job," he said, switching the topic a bit. "I would have to say it's roughly the same. The technology is different, of course, but the replacement limbs I've seen are pretty sophisticated," she responded. "Do you know someone with a replacement?" Bucky asked. "Just Kemet. He's a dragon who inherited the title of Judge and the Lonely Peak from the previous Judge, the dragon Krakatau. Like you, his replacement limb goes up to the shoulder. I'm not privy to the entire process but his arm can withstand a lot of wear and tear. Byakko also adds a spell that allows such limbs to shift with the rest of the body," she explained.
Silence fell between them. Phoenix ran her finger along the seam in his back. She then leaned her forehead to his back, sighing. "You okay?" Bucky asked. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about it," she said. Holding him the way she was, Phoenix finally took notice of his height. "You're pretty tall, Bucky," she said. A short barking laugh issued from him before Bucky looked over his shoulder at her. "You're only now just noticing I'm six feet tall?" he teased. A playful scowl dashed across her face before she slapped his back a bit. "Oh hush, you," she said. Bucky twisted around in her arms so they faced each other, her hands to his chest. "You're what? Five-foot four?" he asked.
Phoenix rolled her eyes. He knew damn well how tall her human form was. Equines were measured to the shoulder. She stood at 16hh which translated to five foot four inches as a human from head to toe. She was about to snark when she met his eyes and she paused. He was giving her a soft, yet resigned look. Phoenix inhaled a breath before smiling a little. "Still wishing?" she asked. Bucky just grinned, looking down a bit. "I'm just an idiot, Nix. You know that. I mean, look at our current situation. I damn near froze to death but now I find myself curled up in a pile of blankets and cuddling with the most beautiful woman in the world. Only she's not human and I have no chance with her for several reasons aside from that," he said.
In spite of herself, Phoenix felt her face warm up. They've had a conversation of this nature before but this time, Bucky had all but outright confessed. She had admitted in the past there was a small part of her that had feelings for him in kind but they were inert and didn't come close to what she felt for her pair-bond. Bucky's words still relayed the fact he didn't see her as fully human and his feelings were still aimed at the idea of her. He was allowed to fantasize and she was very flattered all the same. Growing up in a world where others either looked at her with scorn or pity made any and all positive interactions that much more special for her. Phoenix pondered the idea that perhaps she was spending too much time in her false form but she perished the thought since he didn't seem that distracted by her. Wishful thinking was a human trait, pure and simple.
She could see where he was coming from, though. Both of them were in a vulnerable position at the moment, him more than her because he was human, so defenses were down a little. Bucky loved her in his own way and he wasn't sure how to convey that without crossing some line he conjured on his own. Unicorns weren't strictly monogamous the way dragons were but many chose to be. The Royals historically had no choice because they were following the lead of the First Queen. After Macedon, the first King, died in the early period of the First Epoch, the First Queen never took another King. Instead, she threw her energy into training their son, Prince Visigoth, to be the best King he could be. Then there was the whole situation with the Enemy trying to turn her Nation against the Weaver through her. But all that aside, it had been decided long ago that the best way to avoid succession crises and the like, the Royals would only have a single foal between them and only them. It made things simpler.
Phoenix was brought out of her thoughts when Bucky's hand closed on one of her wrists and he pulled it up. He kissed the pulse there several times before sighing. "Are you warm now?" she asked. "Yeah...but if you don't mind...I want to stay like this for a while longer," he said in a quiet voice. She rested the hand he had on his face. "Fine by me. Just let me know if you start getting too hot," she said. Bucky nodded and silence fell. He pulled a pillow off the couch and rested his head before he started running his fingers through her hair. She sighed contently, remembering simpler times both at home and on Earth.
Darkness was starting to fall outside. Phoenix got up once in a while to stoke the fire and add some more wood before rejoining Bucky under the covers. The man himself was dozing here and there. The blizzard she had sensed hours ago was now raging outside. After a bit, she got up again to check the fire and the state of Bucky's clothes. They were now completely dry so she took the time to fold them up and placed them next to her own. She occasionally checked on her companion to make sure he was still dozing. She felt nothing about her current state of undress but she wasn't about to just disregard the elephant in the room known as Bucky's humanity. It was one of the lessons Seiryu taught her when she was first transformed against her will and came into his care.
Burrowing under the covers again, Phoenix looked up at Bucky's face to see his eyes were open a bit. The soft look from before was back on his face and she just smiled. Cool metal came to rest on her face and the White Wolf swallowed. His soulful eyes held all the questions. He just wanted to throw reality away for a while and was asking permission. Phoenix just nodded wordlessly. Without any words spoken, Bucky closed the distance and kissed her slowly. She responded, her hand running up his chest to rest on his neck. His vibranium arm reached over the blankets and rested it on her waist. Phoenix could feel his heart racing a bit. Her own was still going at its normal clip but she would be lying to herself if she said she didn't feel her gut pleasantly drop a little.
After another moment, Bucky broke the kiss before going for her neck. Phoenix instinctively clung to him, her arm coming up under his to grasp at his shoulder blade. The White Wolf pushed her to her back but he didn't get on top of her completely. He could feel her heart rate starting to pick up a bit and her nails were starting to bite into his skin a bit. He couldn't afford to go overboard or push too far so he backed off a bit while showering her with his affection. Phoenix was very responsive but she was holding back as well. That was good. Compromise where they could but always mindful of the true order of things. The chimera could never be completely human but she was human enough to be a natural. She was letting him take the lead, something Bucky figured came from her herd mentality. She had said once that she wasn't a leader in any capacity. Even her own Nation wasn't led by her.
Phoenix pulled Bucky's face back to her own and locked lips with him again. When his tongue came calling, she let him in. His hands were a combination of heat and cold on her skin. She kept her body pressed to his. For the briefest of times, she completely forgot what she was. The knowledge of her true self fell completely by the wayside and the part of her that was human deep down came to the fore. The world around her ceased to be as all she could focus on was this beautiful man holding her close. Bucky broke the kiss after a bit and lifted himself up onto his forearm. Before she could get a word out, he leaned into the crook of her neck. Phoenix's heart almost stopped before it started racing when he bit down. Unnoticed to both of them, her eyes started to glow violet a bit as she clung to him, trying to figure out what she was feeling deep in her gut. She had never felt this way before.
Bucky let go and fell to his side. The haze was clearing a bit and he sighed to himself. He watched Phoenix twitch a bit, her arms to her chest. He caught a glimpse of the glow in her eyes but it eventually faded as they closed. Her neck was discoloring a bit from his love bite but it wasn't too noticeable. He didn't know what possessed him to do that. For all intents and purposes, it wouldn't be a surprise if Phoenix took it as him laying claim to her. It wasn't his intention. It just felt right at the time. On the other hand, everything that had happened just now made the reality of it that more plain. There was tension between them they had never thought to act on until circumstances led them here to this cabin in the middle of a snowstorm.
It annoyed Bucky that it seemed Zemo had unknowingly hit the nail on the head and he had to wonder how long this had been building between him and this girl. Still, in the end, this was all an aberration. It would never happen again. Bucky was okay with that. It was just life. Sighing, he nudged Phoenix's shoulder a bit until she cracked an eye open. "You okay?" he asked. "I'm okay, Bucky. Though I will say I'm starting to understand your perspective a bit better. I can see why you feel the way you do. I think the small part of me that wishes things were different grew a little bigger. I've never felt this way before," she replied.
"Did we go too far?" came the next question. Phoenix just shook her head in the negative. "No. Even if we had gone all the way, it still wouldn't be too far. I don't have the humanity necessary to know what that means," she responded. She felt Bucky trace a finger along her arm but she just closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Can we not talk about it? What we have is special but my inhumanity is always going to make this a difficult road to navigate because, no matter how hard I try, I simply can't see things the way a human does," she said. Bucky placed a hand under her chin and made her meet his eyes. "I'll drop it if you answer a question for me first. Do you think I took advantage of you just now? From what little you've told me about your mother's circumstances, you shifters are human enough to have concepts of consent and the like," he said.
He had a point. Phoenix thought of Allianna. Highly regarded as one of the Nation's best Queens, she had suffered greatly when Thanatos took her. Kelpies were an accursed race and the world was better off with them all destroyed. Because of him, Allianna had to live with the shame of nearly being the reason the kelpies came back from the brink of total extinction as well as the shame of knowing the First House ended with her. The Queen was strong but she would forever be haunted by her experiences and feeling as if she had failed her most ancient ancestor, the First Queen. But she had gained many blessings in spite of it all. She loved Phoenix as her own because she was her own. Phoenix may have been an alchemical experiment to see if a living vessel could incubate a chimeric embryo implanted in it but it had been Allianna's egg used in the experiment and it had been her body that had carried the resulting foal to term. Her Majesty was of the firm belief that her tragedy had yielded some of the most rewarding things in her life.
The shifter met Bucky's eyes. He was still waiting for an answer. "Do I think you took advantage? No. I don't believe so. I think this was a long time coming, to be honest. Much as I hate to say it but Zemo was probably onto something with his teasing in Berlin. All that aside, I went along with everything willingly. You'd know if I didn't because you'd be peeling yourself off the wall," she said. The White Wolf couldn't help himself. He started laughing at how she delivered that zinger. She was absolutely right. Bucky was under no delusions that she'd just let things happen to her and she was more than capable of killing him without breaking a sweat. He gave her a tight hug and rubbed her head. "You're the best, Nix. Never stop being you," he said. Phoenix's face broke out into a smile and she settled against him again.
The following morning as the sun was starting to break over the mountains, Bucky stirred and woke up. He and Phoenix had turned into a tangle of limbs during the night as the fire died out but somehow, the blankets managed to keep them separated where it mattered. His arm was around her shoulders while her own was draped across his waist. Despite how cold the cabin had gotten, Phoenix's higher temperature had kept him very cozy. Slowly extraditing himself from her and the blankets, Bucky reached over her to snag his clothes. He inwardly groaned at how cold they were going to be but he sucked it up and started pulling them on. Phoenix was still dead to the world by the time he finished so he decided to start a new fire so she didn't have to wake up to a cold room. He piled the blankets on her before getting to work on the fire.
Phoenix slowly came back to awareness and sleepily stretched out. She came awake a bit faster when she realized Bucky was no longer next to her. She heard wood crackling and she looked over to see him tending a fire. He was completely clothed and his posture was relaxed as he pondered the flames. "Bucky?" she called, drowsily. He looked over to see her rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Sleep well, Nix?" he asked. She nodded with a yawn before shuddering. "Weaver, it's cold," she cursed, burrowing deeper into the blankets. She heard her friend laugh before he walked over to crouch down by her. Phoenix looked up at him. "You run hotter than me and you're cold?" he teased. "Oh shut up," she pouted. Bucky rubbed her head before taking hold of her clothes. He walked back over to the fireplace and set them close by.
Phoenix sat up, keeping herself under wraps while she waited for her clothes. Bucky eventually tossed them to her and she grinned at how warm they were. She dropped the blankets and started pulling them on. Bucky was resolutely keeping his eyes on the fire. Didn't bother her either way. She got to her feet and stretched. She started folding the blankets up while Bucky joined her and helped. The blizzard had blown itself out during the night and the sun was now flooding the valley. After putting the blankets away, Bucky scrounged around the cabin looking for food but there was nothing to be had. He came to the conclusion it was likely a summer cabin and with winter in full swing, the owners hadn't been back there in months. So when he and Phoenix decided to move on and get back to the Appalachian Trail, he took the time to kill the fire and clean out the ash. Phoenix, meanwhile, put all the blankets back where she had found them.
They headed outside, the chimera using magic to relock the door. She then jumped back into her natural form and shook her body out. True to form, her silver coat was shaggy, providing insulation from the cold. Bucky had to chuckle because her scales created noticeable voids in her coat. He looked worriedly at her tail. As cold as it was, it was possible it would freeze and fall off. "You going to be okay?" he asked. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about my tail. I'd be more worried about it if I was able to feel pain through it but I can't. If it falls off, it falls off. It'll always regenerate," she assured him. Bucky shrugged and looked around. "We're not far from where we left the Trail. Let's get moving. We're probably about six hours from our destination in Damascus," he said, taking the lead. Phoenix followed, her hooves crunching the snow in an even cadence.
"Hey, Bucky?" she said, coming to walk beside him. "Yeah, doll?" he responded. "Thank you. I gained a bit more humanity last night and that's rarely a bad thing. I also understand you better and I want you to know that I'm fortunate to be loved," she said. Bucky looked at her with a smile before patting the plane of her neck with a gloved hand. They walked for a bit before she insisted on carrying him to the Trail. The blizzard had dropped a lot of snow and she was better able to handle it than he was. She didn't want him exhausting himself, his enhancements aside. It took a little back and forth but eventually, Bucky hauled himself onto and settled on her back. A companionable silence only broken by her hoof-falls filled the space as they thought about the previous night. Despite how charged it had gotten, their confidence in their bond had not only withstood it but also got stronger because of it.