"Hey!" Steph wiggled for a bit when Bucky just picked her up, caught by surprise that he did so. Then she started laughing. Normally she hated being treated like a helpless little girl, but now that she was his girl, it was actually kind of sweet.
"Who needs a stepstool when I can just climb you?" she retorted as she grabbed some plates, grinning to herself because she also meant that in another way. It was nice to be able to do that now, instead of having to worry that he might notice her staring or shoot her down and break her heart.
Chuckling, Bucky pressed a kiss to Steph's cheek before he set her back on the floor. "As much as I like that thought, I'll get some stools for the apartment anyway. At some point, you'll probably want a glass of water or something when I'm in the shower." Or if he was just gone somewhere, but he would be happy to stay home with her most of the time.
"I just ordered family-sized portions instead of individual plates," Bucky began as he looked over the spread of boxes. "I have to eat a lot more now than I did before the serum. But I got the roast beef, mashed potatoes, extra gravy, and some green beans. It's all still hot, too."
As he let Steph handle making their plates, he took the lava cakes and, thankful that they had been sent in something oven-safe, slid them into the oven before selecting the warm option. From the picture, they definitely looked like something that should stay warm until it was time to eat them.
Steph didn't have time to gawk at Bucky's newfound appetite as she was too busy shoving food into her own mouth (though she kept filling his plate when he was close to clearing it). She hadn't realized how hungry she actually was, but most of all, the food was incredible. There was so much flavor! It really was like Christmas came early.
Then they had the lava cakes and she made a sound like she'd just had an orgasm. (Or close enough. That would be for Bucky to make the comparison later.) "I gotta have this recipe," she said, licking chocolate off her fingers. "This is so good. So good."
Force of habit had her clearing the dishes as soon as she was done with her food, taking them to the sink so she could start washing them. "Hey, do you know if she has any booze?"
Bucky smiled as he watched Steph enjoy the food so much. The food they had grown up with had been mostly bland; they weren't seasoned the way they were in 2023, then chuckled at Steph wanting the recipe for the lava cake.
He couldn't blame her though; it was amazing.
"I'll teach you how to look things up on the Google later. You can look everything else up, so I bet you can look up recipes, too." Bucky himself was forever looking things up on the Google when he didn't understand something people were talking about.
"Uh... She might? I'll check." Bucky followed Steph into the kitchen and started checking cabinets before finding a bottle of vodka in the freezer. "Will this do?" he asked, holding it up with a perked brow. He knew that small Steph didn't have much tolerance for liquor at all.
"How to what on the what now?" Steph asked, as she did not only not know what Google was, 'looking up' meant plainly looking up back in her day. She was going to be in for a ride once Bucky taught her all that he knew about the Internet.
For now, though, she had other ideas. "Yeah, I just thought we should have a toast." She smiled sheepishly at that. "You know, celebrate the good things." She didn't expect him to get over Cap leaving so soon, but she was here now, wasn't she? And she wanted to believe that Cap would succeed and that the Bucky of her past would find happiness too. He deserved that. Not a life of pain and being used by others for their nefarious goals. It wasn't fair.
"Don't worry, I'll teach you. And you'll love it." Bucky did, at least. It was so useful being to learn about anything he could possibly want without having to find an expert or take a trek to the library.
Bucky grabbed a couple short glasses from the cabinet and poured maybe a finger of vodka in each. Not much. Then, upon thinking about it, grabbed an orange cream soda from the fridge to pour into the glasses as well, masking the vodka taste a good bit, filling the glass about half way. "This good enough?" he asked as he picked up the two glasses and held one out to Steph.
"Yeah, thanks." Steph wasn't particularly fond of alcohol and could barely tolerate it, but thought the occasion called for at least a little bit. She raised her glass and grinned at Bucky, though her expression softened into something more fond when their eyes met. She didn't make a fancy speech, just clinked the top of her glass to his with a small, "Cheers."
She thought of Cap as she drank. How she believed she was doing the right thing, how she wasn't letting herself stop and just be... happy. Instead she was probably running around Europe right now (time travel was weird like that) and fighting Nazis all over again. Steph would do it too, if that was what made Bucky happy. But apparently it wasn't. He would rather give up an arm than move on without her. What a dumbass.
God, she loved him so much.
She finished the vodka, coughing from the burn that last drink gave her throat, then said, almost urgently, "Can we get back to what we were doing before the food arrived?"
Bucky clinked his glass against Steph's and downed it with no issue. Unlike her, the vodka would do nothing to him. He could chug the whole bottle and, aside from how awful his throat would feel for a few minutes, it would have no effect. Hell, he wasn't even entirely sure why she had it in her freezer in the first place since it wouldn't do anything to her, either. Maybe she cooked with it.
She had been wrong with the way she just assumed she could make his life better. Bucky felt bad for that other version of himself, knowing that as long as he thought Steph was missing or dead, he would never really be happy, even if he never had to go through the torture Bucky had been through.
But that wasn't the point then, just something for him to dwell on later.
Instead, he took Steph's empty glass and set it, along with his own, in the sink before turning back to Steph with a grin. "Yeah?" he began before stepping close to her and picking her up again, letting her wrap her legs around his waist as he started to carry her back to the living room. "You wanna remind me?"
Steph squealed when Bucky picked her up again; she was going to have to get used to that. It wasn't one of protest though, clear in how eagerly she wrapped her legs around his waist. Though she was tiny, she was kinda long-limbed, so a lot of skin was exposed when her makeshift dress slid higher up her thighs.
She would laugh once she'd learn Cap had a reputation for being the good girl. Bucky was about to learn that Steph wasn't all pure and innocent, despite never having been with anyone before.
At his urging, she took his face into her hands and kissed him. This time she was first to swipe her tongue across his lip and into his mouth when he groaned.
She probably would need to get used to Bucky just scooping her up. He was over a foot taller than she was, and she was light as anything, so it was just easier for him to lift her into his arms.
Plus, that little squeal? Bucky liked it.
Bucky took a couple of steps, coming to a stop when he had Steph's back pressed against the wall, kissing her back deeply. It was the first real taste he'd ever gotten of her, and it was like tasting heaven. He shifted his hands so he was holding her up by the backs of her bare thighs instead of around her middle.
Eventually, he broke the kiss with a half-whispered, "Fuck, Steph," before kissing across her cheek and down the side of her neck.
Steph felt the cold, hard wall on her back and Bucky's warm, soft (at least compared to the wall) body pressing into her from the front, and a shiver of delight ran right through her. Then he gripped her thighs, and for a second she thought she might lose her mind. His hands on her bare skin, so close to where she burned the fiercest, was a dream come true. She'd sketched them in this position so many times, in various states of undress. Yet not even that had prepared her for the real thing, and they still even had clothes on.
(She would have to redraw those. This Bucky was a whole new level of hot. She didn't even realize she was into this sort of physique until she saw him. But maybe because it was him, and she loved and craved for him in whatever form.)
"Buck," she whimpered, legs tightening around his waist as her hips shifted restlessly. Then he was nuzzling the side of her neck and, moaning, she tilted her head back until the crown of it rested on the wall. Her right hand slipped to the back of his head, fisting his hair, while the other gripped his shoulder, fingertips digging into his flesh.
At the feeling of Steph's hips shifting--almost grinding--against him, Bucky groaned again, his hands tightening slightly on her thighs. If she had been taller, she would probably have been able to feel the way he was hardening in his pants. How could he not be, with the woman he'd loved since he was a kid in his arms, moaning and rubbing against him?
He bit gently at the curve of Steph's neck before sucking a mark onto it, the caveman part of his brain wanting to lay claim to her in a way he'd pictured many times as a teenager. So often he had thought about how easy it would have been to cover her pale neck with hickeys, but at least he only left the one instead of a half dozen.
Kissing back up to her ear, he whispered a soft, "I love you," into it before nipping at the lobe. He just wanted his mouth on her, dammit.
Bucky's hands tightening on her thighs only made Steph rub against him again. She had it so bad for him — and had been holding it in for so long — that he wouldn't have to do much to make her wet. He certainly had, unknowingly, on many occasions. If he realized he had that much power over her was anyone's guess, but she honestly wouldn't be upset if he decided to use it.
"I love you too," she returned with a ragged breath. God, she loved having his mouth on her. "Tellement, espèce d'idiot," she added in French, remembering what he said about knowing more languages now and thinking it would be kind of cute.
Chuckling softly at that, Bucky pulled back just far enough to look at her. His face was a bit red, his eyes were blown with lust, and he looked happy for once. Because why wouldn't he be? Steph was in his arms, enjoying his hands and mouth on her. It was something he'd only ever imagined. A lot.
"I'm still shit at French, sweetheart," he began, leaning in to brush the tip of his nose against hers. "But I'm pretty sure you just called me an idiot." That was one of those words that was similar in a surprising number of languages, not even just romance languages.
"But as long as you know I'm your idiot, it's fine." He kissed across her jaw again, then whispered in her ear, "Te las să mă numești cum vrei."
[Romanian *I'll let you call me anything you want.]
"What? No way," Steph said with an incredulous laugh. Guess some things never change. Like being in love with your best friend, and Bucky being shit at French.
He looked happy now though. And he hadn't been earlier, not with Cap's shocking departure. Steph was glad to see it. She would do anything to make him happy — now including, apparently, protecting him from herself.
"I don't know what that means, but holy shit, say it again." And here she thought he couldn't get any sexier. He could definitely make her wet just by whispering into her ear like that.
"No French, no Italian, no Spanish," Bucky shrugged. Two of those languages would have been useful in 2023 New York, but, oh well. He could communicate with more people than most.
Using a combination of the wall and his metal hand to hold her up, he looked at her again. His natural hand came up to run through her hair as his eyes locked on hers. "Cu sau fără ser, ești cea mai frumoasă femeie pe care am văzut-o vreodată." She might not be able to understand him, but there was a very good chance she would be able to tell that he meant whatever it was he said.
[*With or without the serum, you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.]
Steph considered that Bucky might be shitting her, just saying anything since she didn't understand a single word anyway, but it didn't matter. He could recite the colors of the rainbow in German or whatever and she would still melt into a helpless puddle. Who wouldn't, with the way he was looking at her? There was an extra intensity in his gaze now too, something she wasn't sure the Bucky back in '43 had... yet.
"And here you said you didn't have it in you anymore, old man," she teased. He was being very charming right now. If she didn't already have her legs around him, or if she wasn't already pinned to the wall, she'd have gone right to it. So she just touched her fingers to his lips and said, "I think you've outdone yourself."
Chuckling softly, Bucky pressed a soft kiss to the pads of Steph's fingers. "You must bring it out of me," he told her simply. "It's either that, or the fact that I'm actually allowed to tell you how I feel about you now." No one had more practice with bottling things up than he did. Not even Steph, considering she'd only been alive for a whole 25 years.
"I gotta make sure your eyes stay on me, though. The other Steph's got some interesting friends that are gonna want to meet you," he said, perking a brow at her. "The one I know best is a king. Hell, another one of her friends is an actual Norse God." If anyone could turn Steph's head, it would probably be Thor. Bucky didn't actually know him, had never spoken to him, but he'd seen him on the news enough to know he could probably turn anyone's head.
He was looking... a bit rough at Stark's funeral, though.
Okay, that Cap was friends with kings and gods was impressive. Who would've thought the likes of plain little Stephanie Rogers would become a living legend and all that? But that was irrelevant to Steph's relationship with Bucky.
"Don't be stupid," she said almost immediately. "I don't care about any of that. I only care about you." She knew that with utmost certainty. Cap would not have done what she did if her interests had been swayed. And Steph was here, pinned to a wall with no plans of leaving.
She let her hand slide back into his hair and leaned in to kiss him again. "I'll only ever be yours, darling," she promised, not even breaking the kiss to make it. When she did, it was to ask, "You know I'm still a virgin right?" The flush of color on her face darkened at that. "You left for the war without telling me anything and I still haven't looked at anyone else. They could be a god or a king, but they're not you."
Bucky smiled into the kiss as Steph made her promise, then at her statement, his own face went a bit darker as well. "That makes two of us then, sweetheart, cause I've never been with anyone either." Not by choice. But that part could be left out, potentially forever. They didn't count.
"You're the only girl I've ever wanted to be with." Sure, he had dates when he was younger, but none of those were serious. He'd kissed some of them only because they initiated it, but not once had he ever done anything more than that. He'd never wanted to, and a couple of girls had tried to get him to. Every one of them got shot down.
Bucky Barnes had been waiting his whole, very long life to be with Stephanie Rogers, and no one else would do.
"Really? I thought you and, what's her name..." Steph found herself still feigning ignorance about the women Bucky had dated, when in fact she knew about each one, and she'd gone to bed angry and crying every single time. Force of habit; it had been easier to contain her heartache and resentment that way. And for her, it had only been a few years.
Traces of those past hurts resurfaced in her eyes then, a consequence of the reminder. Stephanie Rogers might have blazing confidence and righteous fury when it came to defending others, but she'd always been plagued by her insecurities. She thought now of Cap, who had been made perfect in every way, and doubted if she could ever compare.
(Well, almost perfect; Cap's plan was still a shitty one, and she was a dumbass for never having said a word to Bucky about her feelings.)
Bucky perked a brow at her as he shook his head. "I don't even know which girl you're talking about, but I can promise I never did anything with her. Couple of 'em kissed me, but nothing more than that. I wouldn't even fool around with any girls when I was on leave in the army, no matter how my buddies teased me for waiting for you."
Grinning, he leaned in to kiss her again for a moment. "But you, dove, I've been holding you up against a wall, your legs around my waist, a love bite on your neck, and, you're a little too high up to be able to tell yourself, but you've got me hard as a rock. I've officially done more with you than anyone else." Bucky Barnes, over a century old, had been waiting for the right woman all along.
"Kissed you," Steph couldn't help teasing, grinning as well when Bucky leaned in to kiss her. Of course women kissed him. About half of the girls in their class, through the years, had been interested in him, and even some of the boys.
(The gays, at least, didn't go out of their way to be mean to Steph, and she'd gladly chewed out those who gave them trouble for being queer. The women were particularly nasty though. Not that Steph understood why they hated her so much... until now.)
Bucky verbally recounting what they were in the middle of made Steph blush all the way to her neck, unused to such things being said out loud. She appreciated the reminder though. He'd always known how to pull her head out of her ass, including the times she was disappointed in herself.
"Sorry. I just... I was always so jealous," she admitted quietly. She would either be in a foul mood the day after his dates, or secretly delighted when he dropped by her apartment after calling it a night with what's her name. "And I felt so stupid for hoping that one day things would change, that one day you'd... see me."
"Hey, they initiated it, and I never felt anything special when they did it. Not like when you kiss me. Or I kiss you." When Bucky kissed Steph, it felt right. Important. Almost magic. When those girls kissed him, it felt awkward and wrong, and he couldn't wait to pull away.
"You had nothing to be jealous of, sweetheart," Bucky said, his voice soft as he watched her. "I only ever wanted you, but I thought you only saw me as a friend. Or worse, a brother type. I was biding my time until you, I don't know. Started looking at me different or something." But she never looked at him any differently. Turned out, that was probably because she had always been looking at him like she wanted to be with him, just like he did with her. "Some of my dates even snapped at me that I shoulda been on a date with you instead of them. I think everyone but us knew."
"God, we really were idiots," Steph remarked with a laugh. Because she had thought the same, that Bucky only saw her as a friend, or worse, a sister, when they had been pining for each other like dumbasses all along. "I hope she took all the stupid with her. If she didn't, we gotta let it go, Buck. Find it a new home."
That they were talking about their feelings was a step in the right direction, at least. "No more secrets now," she said, more solemnly. "You don't gotta tell me everything you went through during the war," she clarified, "but no more secrets like, I love you and I wanna fuck you, Stephanie. Okay?"
She had some idea of the horrors of war from the stories of those who'd lived through the first one. He was entitled to keep those ghosts to himself, but she would share in his burden if he would let her. It would be his call to make though. She was just going to be there, taking care of him, loving him.
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"Who needs a stepstool when I can just climb you?" she retorted as she grabbed some plates, grinning to herself because she also meant that in another way. It was nice to be able to do that now, instead of having to worry that he might notice her staring or shoot her down and break her heart.
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"I just ordered family-sized portions instead of individual plates," Bucky began as he looked over the spread of boxes. "I have to eat a lot more now than I did before the serum. But I got the roast beef, mashed potatoes, extra gravy, and some green beans. It's all still hot, too."
As he let Steph handle making their plates, he took the lava cakes and, thankful that they had been sent in something oven-safe, slid them into the oven before selecting the warm option. From the picture, they definitely looked like something that should stay warm until it was time to eat them.
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Then they had the lava cakes and she made a sound like she'd just had an orgasm. (Or close enough. That would be for Bucky to make the comparison later.) "I gotta have this recipe," she said, licking chocolate off her fingers. "This is so good. So good."
Force of habit had her clearing the dishes as soon as she was done with her food, taking them to the sink so she could start washing them. "Hey, do you know if she has any booze?"
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He couldn't blame her though; it was amazing.
"I'll teach you how to look things up on the Google later. You can look everything else up, so I bet you can look up recipes, too." Bucky himself was forever looking things up on the Google when he didn't understand something people were talking about.
"Uh... She might? I'll check." Bucky followed Steph into the kitchen and started checking cabinets before finding a bottle of vodka in the freezer. "Will this do?" he asked, holding it up with a perked brow. He knew that small Steph didn't have much tolerance for liquor at all.
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For now, though, she had other ideas. "Yeah, I just thought we should have a toast." She smiled sheepishly at that. "You know, celebrate the good things." She didn't expect him to get over Cap leaving so soon, but she was here now, wasn't she? And she wanted to believe that Cap would succeed and that the Bucky of her past would find happiness too. He deserved that. Not a life of pain and being used by others for their nefarious goals. It wasn't fair.
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Bucky grabbed a couple short glasses from the cabinet and poured maybe a finger of vodka in each. Not much. Then, upon thinking about it, grabbed an orange cream soda from the fridge to pour into the glasses as well, masking the vodka taste a good bit, filling the glass about half way. "This good enough?" he asked as he picked up the two glasses and held one out to Steph.
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She thought of Cap as she drank. How she believed she was doing the right thing, how she wasn't letting herself stop and just be... happy. Instead she was probably running around Europe right now (time travel was weird like that) and fighting Nazis all over again. Steph would do it too, if that was what made Bucky happy. But apparently it wasn't. He would rather give up an arm than move on without her. What a dumbass.
God, she loved him so much.
She finished the vodka, coughing from the burn that last drink gave her throat, then said, almost urgently, "Can we get back to what we were doing before the food arrived?"
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She had been wrong with the way she just assumed she could make his life better. Bucky felt bad for that other version of himself, knowing that as long as he thought Steph was missing or dead, he would never really be happy, even if he never had to go through the torture Bucky had been through.
But that wasn't the point then, just something for him to dwell on later.
Instead, he took Steph's empty glass and set it, along with his own, in the sink before turning back to Steph with a grin. "Yeah?" he began before stepping close to her and picking her up again, letting her wrap her legs around his waist as he started to carry her back to the living room. "You wanna remind me?"
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She would laugh once she'd learn Cap had a reputation for being the good girl. Bucky was about to learn that Steph wasn't all pure and innocent, despite never having been with anyone before.
At his urging, she took his face into her hands and kissed him. This time she was first to swipe her tongue across his lip and into his mouth when he groaned.
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Plus, that little squeal? Bucky liked it.
Bucky took a couple of steps, coming to a stop when he had Steph's back pressed against the wall, kissing her back deeply. It was the first real taste he'd ever gotten of her, and it was like tasting heaven. He shifted his hands so he was holding her up by the backs of her bare thighs instead of around her middle.
Eventually, he broke the kiss with a half-whispered, "Fuck, Steph," before kissing across her cheek and down the side of her neck.
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(She would have to redraw those. This Bucky was a whole new level of hot. She didn't even realize she was into this sort of physique until she saw him. But maybe because it was him, and she loved and craved for him in whatever form.)
"Buck," she whimpered, legs tightening around his waist as her hips shifted restlessly. Then he was nuzzling the side of her neck and, moaning, she tilted her head back until the crown of it rested on the wall. Her right hand slipped to the back of his head, fisting his hair, while the other gripped his shoulder, fingertips digging into his flesh.
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He bit gently at the curve of Steph's neck before sucking a mark onto it, the caveman part of his brain wanting to lay claim to her in a way he'd pictured many times as a teenager. So often he had thought about how easy it would have been to cover her pale neck with hickeys, but at least he only left the one instead of a half dozen.
Kissing back up to her ear, he whispered a soft, "I love you," into it before nipping at the lobe. He just wanted his mouth on her, dammit.
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"I love you too," she returned with a ragged breath. God, she loved having his mouth on her. "Tellement, espèce d'idiot," she added in French, remembering what he said about knowing more languages now and thinking it would be kind of cute.
[ *So much, you dumbass. ]
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"I'm still shit at French, sweetheart," he began, leaning in to brush the tip of his nose against hers. "But I'm pretty sure you just called me an idiot." That was one of those words that was similar in a surprising number of languages, not even just romance languages.
"But as long as you know I'm your idiot, it's fine." He kissed across her jaw again, then whispered in her ear, "Te las să mă numești cum vrei."
[Romanian *I'll let you call me anything you want.]
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He looked happy now though. And he hadn't been earlier, not with Cap's shocking departure. Steph was glad to see it. She would do anything to make him happy — now including, apparently, protecting him from herself.
"I don't know what that means, but holy shit, say it again." And here she thought he couldn't get any sexier. He could definitely make her wet just by whispering into her ear like that.
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Using a combination of the wall and his metal hand to hold her up, he looked at her again. His natural hand came up to run through her hair as his eyes locked on hers. "Cu sau fără ser, ești cea mai frumoasă femeie pe care am văzut-o vreodată." She might not be able to understand him, but there was a very good chance she would be able to tell that he meant whatever it was he said.
[*With or without the serum, you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.]
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"And here you said you didn't have it in you anymore, old man," she teased. He was being very charming right now. If she didn't already have her legs around him, or if she wasn't already pinned to the wall, she'd have gone right to it. So she just touched her fingers to his lips and said, "I think you've outdone yourself."
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"I gotta make sure your eyes stay on me, though. The other Steph's got some interesting friends that are gonna want to meet you," he said, perking a brow at her. "The one I know best is a king. Hell, another one of her friends is an actual Norse God." If anyone could turn Steph's head, it would probably be Thor. Bucky didn't actually know him, had never spoken to him, but he'd seen him on the news enough to know he could probably turn anyone's head.
He was looking... a bit rough at Stark's funeral, though.
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"Don't be stupid," she said almost immediately. "I don't care about any of that. I only care about you." She knew that with utmost certainty. Cap would not have done what she did if her interests had been swayed. And Steph was here, pinned to a wall with no plans of leaving.
She let her hand slide back into his hair and leaned in to kiss him again. "I'll only ever be yours, darling," she promised, not even breaking the kiss to make it. When she did, it was to ask, "You know I'm still a virgin right?" The flush of color on her face darkened at that. "You left for the war without telling me anything and I still haven't looked at anyone else. They could be a god or a king, but they're not you."
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"You're the only girl I've ever wanted to be with." Sure, he had dates when he was younger, but none of those were serious. He'd kissed some of them only because they initiated it, but not once had he ever done anything more than that. He'd never wanted to, and a couple of girls had tried to get him to. Every one of them got shot down.
Bucky Barnes had been waiting his whole, very long life to be with Stephanie Rogers, and no one else would do.
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Traces of those past hurts resurfaced in her eyes then, a consequence of the reminder. Stephanie Rogers might have blazing confidence and righteous fury when it came to defending others, but she'd always been plagued by her insecurities. She thought now of Cap, who had been made perfect in every way, and doubted if she could ever compare.
(Well, almost perfect; Cap's plan was still a shitty one, and she was a dumbass for never having said a word to Bucky about her feelings.)
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Grinning, he leaned in to kiss her again for a moment. "But you, dove, I've been holding you up against a wall, your legs around my waist, a love bite on your neck, and, you're a little too high up to be able to tell yourself, but you've got me hard as a rock. I've officially done more with you than anyone else." Bucky Barnes, over a century old, had been waiting for the right woman all along.
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(The gays, at least, didn't go out of their way to be mean to Steph, and she'd gladly chewed out those who gave them trouble for being queer. The women were particularly nasty though. Not that Steph understood why they hated her so much... until now.)
Bucky verbally recounting what they were in the middle of made Steph blush all the way to her neck, unused to such things being said out loud. She appreciated the reminder though. He'd always known how to pull her head out of her ass, including the times she was disappointed in herself.
"Sorry. I just... I was always so jealous," she admitted quietly. She would either be in a foul mood the day after his dates, or secretly delighted when he dropped by her apartment after calling it a night with what's her name. "And I felt so stupid for hoping that one day things would change, that one day you'd... see me."
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"You had nothing to be jealous of, sweetheart," Bucky said, his voice soft as he watched her. "I only ever wanted you, but I thought you only saw me as a friend. Or worse, a brother type. I was biding my time until you, I don't know. Started looking at me different or something." But she never looked at him any differently. Turned out, that was probably because she had always been looking at him like she wanted to be with him, just like he did with her. "Some of my dates even snapped at me that I shoulda been on a date with you instead of them. I think everyone but us knew."
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That they were talking about their feelings was a step in the right direction, at least. "No more secrets now," she said, more solemnly. "You don't gotta tell me everything you went through during the war," she clarified, "but no more secrets like, I love you and I wanna fuck you, Stephanie. Okay?"
She had some idea of the horrors of war from the stories of those who'd lived through the first one. He was entitled to keep those ghosts to himself, but she would share in his burden if he would let her. It would be his call to make though. She was just going to be there, taking care of him, loving him.
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