"Fuck you," Steph shot back with a laugh as she left the room. Okay, she had to agree it was terrible. But swearing at Bucky would never not be funny now, because she would fuck him. Like, a lot. Certainly after they had some food, since they needed to pick up where they left off.
She thanked him for the washcloth and cleaned herself up as she followed him into the kitchen. She'd clean up more thoroughly in the bathroom in a minute, but she didn't want him to do all the preparations. None of it was new, really. Whenever he stayed over at her place when they were younger, he helped with the chores and cleaned up after his own mess. At times he was over so much it was almost like he lived there. She just hadn't wanted him to ruin his prospects for marriage and a better life, not realizing there were already rumors about them secretly cohabitating anyway.
She'd ordered Chinese and twice the serving of everything; the restaurant was owned by immigrants who knew who Steph was but had an unspoken understanding with her to keep quiet about it. It probably helped that she ordered regularly and tipped well. Captain America, supporter of small businesses owned by marginalized folks.
"Not as much of a thrill as you got from seeing what's beneath it," she teased as she stole a piece of spring roll from the plate he was preparing and ate it.
Bucky had had time enough to familiarize himself with the layout of Steph's kitchen (and the rest of the apartment) in the hours between when he woke up and when she did, so it was with ease that they moved around each other, getting their meals and drinks ready to eat. It almost took him back to when they were young and moved around each other just as easily in Steph's small apartment.
Not wanting to just stand and eat, Bucky leaned across the counter to put the plates where he knew the barstools were, then turned and caught Steph around her waist as she passed him, pulling her close. "Hey," he started, grinning at her. "Don't make it past tense like that. I'm never gonna stop getting a thrill out of seeing you naked." Leaning in, he gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "I waited too long to see it in the first place to get tired of it."
Steph really liked how handsy and affectionate Bucky was now that they were officially together. She hadn't realized just how badly she craved being touched, and it didn't even have to be in a sexual manner. Grinning right back, she leaned into him for a minute. "Is this what we're trading the stupid for then?" She wasn't complaining if so.
Despite messing with him by stealing food from his plate and drinking from his glass, she would be quick to refill what she'd taken, or just in general. She thought about how, when they were young and eating together, he would give her extra because he felt she needed it more, and how she could never repay his kindness enough. Now she could. She could buy him whatever he needed, give him whatever he wanted. She was happy to. He deserved it.
She burped embarrassingly loudly, but he didn't seem to mind. Neither did he care that she'd demolished her share of everything. It was nice to be with someone who understood.
She grabbed the plate of little cake slices she got for their dessert. "Wanna have these in the living room while we put something on?"
Bucky had been fairly touchy with Steph when they were young, but back then he still had to keep it within reason, trying to keep it to what buddies would do. Nothing that would give away how he really felt about her. But now that he'd told her about his feelings, and it turned out she felt the same, there was really no reason to hold himself back from touching her any more. At least not while his mood was high and he wasn't fighting off that darkness and depression that was always lurking in him since he escaped.
But he was going to try to hold that back as long as possible.
Chuckling at the sheer volume of Steph's burp, he picked up the plates once they were done and carried them to the kitchen. "Sounds good," he said about eating the cake in the living room before giving the dishes a rinse and then sticking them in the dishwasher.
Once he was done with that, he followed her to the living room and sat beside her on the couch, his arm wrapping around her shoulders. "We can watch whatever you want," he told her simply. "I still don't know shit about movies or TV since the 40s."
Steph perked up. "I gotta you show this film." She extracted herself from Bucky's arms to set up the DVD player (she still had one) and put on one of her animated favorites, Treasure Planet.
They were probably making out after the first 20 minutes, but he was one of the few people she was comfortable enough to yap about her interests, and who would humor her and actually listen. "So this is Treasure Island, but animated and set in space." He used to read her that book, among many other classics. "It uses both hand-drawn and computer animation," she continued, spouting more facts about art and animation while shoving spoonfuls of cake into her mouth, though she offered every other spoonful to him.
"I was taking animation classes that time I lived in D.C.," she told him, sounding wistful. "I thought I was done fighting then. But Fury had me where he wanted me, even had Sharon pretend to be my neighbor." She shook her head. "Then HYDRA... well, you know what happened after that."
Bucky smiled as he listened to Steph ramble about art and animation, and gladly took each bite of cake when it was offered. He wasn't sure there was ever a time when he got tired of listening to her explain her interests to him, and he usually asked clarifying or encouraging questions. Pretty much everything he knew about art was because of her.
But the idea of Treasure Island in space definitely intrigued him.
"Have you thought about picking those classes up again?" he asked eventually, once the cake was gone and they were lying together on the couch. At some point, Bucky had stretched out, and Steph had settled in, lying on top of him with his arms wrapped around her. "You'd be good at it. Plus, you've always been a damn good artist anyway."
He, on the other hand, could barely draw a stick figure.
"I didn't exactly have the time," Steph answered, "and when I did, I didn't have... well, you."
She tilted her head to peer up at him. "When I first took those classes, I thought it was a good way to, I dunno, make you proud. You've always believed in me, and a life doing art seemed better than a life of fighting. When you were gone, again..." She laughed, but it was hollow, and she turned to face the TV again. "I mostly sketched or painted while I was drunk. Pretty good shit, just too painful to look at."
Somewhere in that guest bedroom where some of those paintings, covered and tucked away and collecting dust. "I did some portraits of you, but I never finished them. It felt like letting go to do so, and I didn't want to let go."
"What about now, though?" he asked, his hand drifting up and down the soft material at the back of her housecoat. With a grin, he lifted his head enough to press a kiss to her forehead before letting it fall back down to the pillow on the couch. "Or, January, I guess it would be. Next semester. I'm back, and I'm not going anywhere, so what's stopping you now?"
Bucky would always believe in her. That would never change. "And if not that, and you don't have to keep fighting, what else would you want to do?" It was a genuine question. Bucky knew there was a hell of a lot more different kinds of options in the world now than there were when they were young and first talking about their futures. "Something else with art?" God, he would love to see her stop fighting and make some kind of career in art instead. She was so good at it, and she loved it so much.
"You mean I can't just be a stay at home wife and have sex with you all the time?" Steph joked with a laugh.
She supposed now was a good time as any to think about it. She would be restless soon enough after she'd hang up the shield. "I still got some loose ends to take care of, so if I do it, it won't be by January. Probably the semester after that. Besides, maybe we could travel for a bit, see the world without having to be deployed to a battlefield?"
"Hey, if that's what you want to do, don't let me stop you," Bucky smiled. He let his eyes close as he lay there, relaxed under the weight of her as they talked about their future.
"Anything you want to do, I'm gonna support you, sweetheart," he started simply. "Anything you need help with, I'm here to help with, and anywhere you want to go I'm right behind you." Steph was genuinely stuck with him, after all. She was the one who agreed to marry him.
Plus, Bucky himself had no real direction to work towards, so he would be happy to help Steph with whatever direction she wanted to go in.
"I think we earned at least a year of playing house and doing nothing else." Steph had enough money squirreled away by now to live comfortably for a while, and she did want to spoil Bucky for a change, since it was something she could never afford back in the day. "Then I'll think about going back to school."
She closed her eyes and snuggled into him some more. "You know I'm here for you too, right? Anything you want. Anything you need. If you wanna raise goats then we'll find someplace where you can do that." Well, they wouldn't be themselves if they didn't throw in some good old-fashioned ribbing.
"Sounds like a plan to me," he said, chuckling softly.
But then, he sighed. "I know," he began, a frown forming on his face as he opened his eyes to stare up at the ceiling. "I don't really have goals though. Hell, Steph, we don't even know what's gonna happen with this trial, aside from both of us knowing it's coming eventually." Staying a free man felt... unlikely, to him. They could lock him away and throw away the key, or hell, depending on what state the trial was held in, for all he knew they could put him on death row. Logically, he knew that all those murders hadn't been him, or his choice, or anything else like that. Guilt didn't feel that way, though, and convincing some sort of judge and jury of that might be even harder.
"I'm gonna try my damnedest to stay with you, though."
Steph shifted to look up at Bucky's face and vowed, "They're not taking you away from me," in that same tone she used whenever she was facing impossible odds but she'd decided she was fighting anyway.
For probably the first time ever though, she had running as an option. She would rather live a fugitive than lose him again. So Madripoor was in the cards; no extradition treaty. Plus the art black market was something she could learn to dabble in and use to their advantage.
And then there was her last resort: time travel. Their discussion had been brief, but the surviving Avengers who had been involved in the heist had unanimously agreed that she return the Stones. What if she took him with her, and they just... didn't come back?
"I actually need your help with something." Might as well get him on board already, even if only for a backup plan. "Think you're up for one last mission?"
There was a soft, almost sad, smile on Bucky's face when he looked back at Steph then. "Hey, don't worry. I'm not giving up or anything," he told her honestly. "We'll figure something out." Maybe he could offer to be put in the custody of Captain America. Can't be more than 30 feet away from her or something. Whatever was decided, he was going to do whatever possible to stay by her side. They'd been separated enough.
But his brow perked when she asked that. "With you? I guess I can put off being a house husband for a while longer. What do you need?" Bucky had no way to know Steph had already discussed any other missions or anything. It must have been before he came back, since he'd been glued to her since the fight ended.
"Someone has to return the Stones. Job kinda fell on me." Steph recounted how they'd gathered the Stones and brought everyone back, and how the Stones had to be returned from the times and places they had been taken. "It would be nice to have someone watching my back though."
That, and a part of her actually wanted Bucky around in case something did go wrong. What if she got stranded somewhere in time? They would at least be together.
"But it probably won't be for a while. Not until after Tony's funeral, at least. Your trial might be underway by then." She wasn't outright suggesting they bail, because she knew he felt he had to atone for the Soldier's sins, and the trial might help him find closure somehow. But she sure as hell wasn't letting the government lock him up, or worse.
Bucky had to blink at Steph for a moment. "So... you're asking me to time travel with you?" He had to ask, just to make sure he was following properly. "Also, you didn't think I'd say no to that, right? Steph, sweetheart, I love you, but you are probably the most reckless person I've ever met. No way would I let you do that by yourself."
Knowing Steph, if she went on her own, she'd probably get herself killed, or get some kinda wild idea to go save Bucky from his future or something stupid like that. Or even just get lost somehow. He wasn't about to risk losing her like that.
"If the trial is going when you need to go, we'll figure out some way for me to be with you for it. Don't worry."
"Yeah, time travel. And space travel. Some of the Stones were housed in other planets. I'll let you pilot the ship."
Steph couldn't even be mad at Bucky calling her reckless and implying that she was going to do something stupid without him around. She was now excited at the thought of him living his science fiction dreams. He never got his flying car, but hey, he could pilot a spaceship for this one. They could even visit other planets while they were at it.
"If the trial is going when we need to go, we can be back before anyone notices we're gone. Time travel. Have you seen Back to the Future yet?"
There was no helping the laugh that bubbled up in Bucky at that point. "So, you're telling me," the smile on his face was a hell of a lot happier than it had been just a couple of minutes ago, "that not only am I getting to marry my dream girl, but I get to time travel and go to space." If someone told him he would have the opportunity to do all that when he was in his teens or twenties, he would have thought they had absolutely lost it. Back then, he would have had a hard enough time believing his feelings for Steph were returned, let alone the rest of it.
The question about whatever Back to the Future was made him roll his eyes, though. "I went from escaping, to being on the run, trying to figure out who I was, to being in cryo, to raising goats. If it's some kinda movie or TV show, then no, I haven't seen it," he answered, chuckling. "I'd say most of my experience with TV was just me standing on a sidewalk watching a store display through the window. Or this movie." With the last bit he gestured towards where Treasure Planet was playing on the wall.
"Welcome to the Avengers, Sarge," Steph teased with a laugh, then pushed herself up enough to give Bucky a kiss. It made her happy to see him happy, and she was going to do everything in her power to keep it that way. He deserved so much better than the shitty life the universe had given him the past several decades. "We'll have time to plan the op after the wedding. And get you some flying lessons with Rocket." Had she mentioned he was a talking alien raccoon?
It was also nice to get to talk about mundane things like movies, instead of missions and battles. "That's alright, that's more date night ideas for us." They could still go to the movies like the old days, or stay in with takeout. Whatever he liked or was comfortable with. She was partial with the latter, but there was also the appeal of finally doing the sneaky, incident things some couples did in cinemas.
"I don't know if I'd go that far. I'm joining you, not... everyone." His voice was teasing when he said it, but he didn't really think he was Avenger material. And probably wouldn't be wanted by most of them, anyway, considering his past. "And, hey, I already know how to fly planes and helicopters. Is it that much different?"
Bucky let his eyes close again, comfortable and content and grinning softly. "There's lots of places for date nights. Movies, dinner, museums, Coney Island..." Not only were they in New York City, where there were a million options, but they could also just have evenings where they walked around exploring how much places they knew in the past had changed in the years since then. "Hope you don't care that I'm going to want to stay in most nights though."
It was one op, but Steph figured they might be able to use it for Bucky's trial anyway. She knew a thing or two about public perception, after all. Between Bucky becoming an Avenger, Captain America marrying the Winter Soldier, and the pool of evidence of HYDRA's atrocities, he should be able to walk free, unless the plan all along was to use him as a scapegoat for the government's failures.
"What's mine is yours once we're married, remember?" That wasn't how it worked, but it also wasn't like there was an official membership process or anything. "Look, it's one mission and we're out. I just want us to be together in the history books again," she teased some more.
After a while their conversation shifted to flying a ship and Steph's first trip to space. "Fucking worst. Worse than the Cyclone," she swore. The view of Earth from space was really something though, and she wanted him to see it.
Then the topic moved back to date nights. "Roadtrip," she added to the list. On their bikes would be fun, but they could also just rent a car. "But hey, I'd rather stay in most nights too. We could play board games, or read, or slow dance in the kitchen." Having sex was a given after their dates, so she didn't list it anymore.
"Just say when and where, and I'll be right there with you. You don't have to convince me." And it wasn't just for the sake of getting to live some of his sci-fi dreams, either. But that was definitely a bonus.
Bucky laughed softly as Steph listed various things they could do. "We used to do two of those things all the time," he said, grinning. The board games and reading passed the time when they were hanging out, even though they didn't have many games. Just a couple, but it was better than nothing. The dancing would be... not new, but they didn't do it very often.
One night, when he had danced with her on the Boardwalk on her birthday, while badly singing Cheek to Cheek actually came to mind often.
"You know, I used to wish those nights were actual dates."
"Me too," Steph agreed wistfully. "Especially the one when I turned 17. The dancing, not the Cyclone. Do you remember that at all?" Having made peace with their feelings, her doubt was now because of what HYDRA did to his head, not because she didn't think he'd have considered the moment important. "I wanted so badly to kiss you."
Everything would've changed if she did, she knew now. They'd have made plans to marry the following year.
No use dwelling on what-could-have-beens though. Still, it was nice to think about how much they wanted each other.
"I think about that night a lot," Bucky admitted, smiling softly as he held her. "It was one of the first really clear memories I got back." It might have been because it was also one of the memories Bucky tried to hold onto so tightly when HYDRA was trying to erase who he was in the first place. Most of the memories he tried to hang onto during that time were of Steph.
"But, hey, we got here eventually." Hell, he was just a couple days away from marrying her. "And now we get to have all the date nights we want."
He still couldn't believe what massive idiots they'd been, especially with just how long they'd known each other, but there was genuinely no one else he'd rather spend his nights with, and there never had been.
"Not just nights, though I don't think we're morning persons anymore." Steph still went on runs in the morning, but only after being up for most of the night. She hadn't really been sleeping well since the war; before that she at least had those nights where she wasn't too sick or tired and Bucky was over for her to curl into. Maybe things would be better now that they had that as a permanent arrangement. Hell, she didn't think she remembered sleeping as soundly as she did the past two days.
"I still get nightmares of the train, or of being trapped in the ice, or of you crumbling into dust," she admitted. "Most nights I just stay up to draw, then the next thing I know it's dawn, and I go outside to run."
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She thanked him for the washcloth and cleaned herself up as she followed him into the kitchen. She'd clean up more thoroughly in the bathroom in a minute, but she didn't want him to do all the preparations. None of it was new, really. Whenever he stayed over at her place when they were younger, he helped with the chores and cleaned up after his own mess. At times he was over so much it was almost like he lived there. She just hadn't wanted him to ruin his prospects for marriage and a better life, not realizing there were already rumors about them secretly cohabitating anyway.
She'd ordered Chinese and twice the serving of everything; the restaurant was owned by immigrants who knew who Steph was but had an unspoken understanding with her to keep quiet about it. It probably helped that she ordered regularly and tipped well. Captain America, supporter of small businesses owned by marginalized folks.
"Not as much of a thrill as you got from seeing what's beneath it," she teased as she stole a piece of spring roll from the plate he was preparing and ate it.
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Not wanting to just stand and eat, Bucky leaned across the counter to put the plates where he knew the barstools were, then turned and caught Steph around her waist as she passed him, pulling her close. "Hey," he started, grinning at her. "Don't make it past tense like that. I'm never gonna stop getting a thrill out of seeing you naked." Leaning in, he gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "I waited too long to see it in the first place to get tired of it."
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Despite messing with him by stealing food from his plate and drinking from his glass, she would be quick to refill what she'd taken, or just in general. She thought about how, when they were young and eating together, he would give her extra because he felt she needed it more, and how she could never repay his kindness enough. Now she could. She could buy him whatever he needed, give him whatever he wanted. She was happy to. He deserved it.
She burped embarrassingly loudly, but he didn't seem to mind. Neither did he care that she'd demolished her share of everything. It was nice to be with someone who understood.
She grabbed the plate of little cake slices she got for their dessert. "Wanna have these in the living room while we put something on?"
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But he was going to try to hold that back as long as possible.
Chuckling at the sheer volume of Steph's burp, he picked up the plates once they were done and carried them to the kitchen. "Sounds good," he said about eating the cake in the living room before giving the dishes a rinse and then sticking them in the dishwasher.
Once he was done with that, he followed her to the living room and sat beside her on the couch, his arm wrapping around her shoulders. "We can watch whatever you want," he told her simply. "I still don't know shit about movies or TV since the 40s."
i had to now
They were probably making out after the first 20 minutes, but he was one of the few people she was comfortable enough to yap about her interests, and who would humor her and actually listen. "So this is Treasure Island, but animated and set in space." He used to read her that book, among many other classics. "It uses both hand-drawn and computer animation," she continued, spouting more facts about art and animation while shoving spoonfuls of cake into her mouth, though she offered every other spoonful to him.
"I was taking animation classes that time I lived in D.C.," she told him, sounding wistful. "I thought I was done fighting then. But Fury had me where he wanted me, even had Sharon pretend to be my neighbor." She shook her head. "Then HYDRA... well, you know what happened after that."
yesssss
But the idea of Treasure Island in space definitely intrigued him.
"Have you thought about picking those classes up again?" he asked eventually, once the cake was gone and they were lying together on the couch. At some point, Bucky had stretched out, and Steph had settled in, lying on top of him with his arms wrapped around her. "You'd be good at it. Plus, you've always been a damn good artist anyway."
He, on the other hand, could barely draw a stick figure.
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She tilted her head to peer up at him. "When I first took those classes, I thought it was a good way to, I dunno, make you proud. You've always believed in me, and a life doing art seemed better than a life of fighting. When you were gone, again..." She laughed, but it was hollow, and she turned to face the TV again. "I mostly sketched or painted while I was drunk. Pretty good shit, just too painful to look at."
Somewhere in that guest bedroom where some of those paintings, covered and tucked away and collecting dust. "I did some portraits of you, but I never finished them. It felt like letting go to do so, and I didn't want to let go."
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Bucky would always believe in her. That would never change. "And if not that, and you don't have to keep fighting, what else would you want to do?" It was a genuine question. Bucky knew there was a hell of a lot more different kinds of options in the world now than there were when they were young and first talking about their futures. "Something else with art?" God, he would love to see her stop fighting and make some kind of career in art instead. She was so good at it, and she loved it so much.
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She supposed now was a good time as any to think about it. She would be restless soon enough after she'd hang up the shield. "I still got some loose ends to take care of, so if I do it, it won't be by January. Probably the semester after that. Besides, maybe we could travel for a bit, see the world without having to be deployed to a battlefield?"
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"Anything you want to do, I'm gonna support you, sweetheart," he started simply. "Anything you need help with, I'm here to help with, and anywhere you want to go I'm right behind you." Steph was genuinely stuck with him, after all. She was the one who agreed to marry him.
Plus, Bucky himself had no real direction to work towards, so he would be happy to help Steph with whatever direction she wanted to go in.
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She closed her eyes and snuggled into him some more. "You know I'm here for you too, right? Anything you want. Anything you need. If you wanna raise goats then we'll find someplace where you can do that." Well, they wouldn't be themselves if they didn't throw in some good old-fashioned ribbing.
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But then, he sighed. "I know," he began, a frown forming on his face as he opened his eyes to stare up at the ceiling. "I don't really have goals though. Hell, Steph, we don't even know what's gonna happen with this trial, aside from both of us knowing it's coming eventually." Staying a free man felt... unlikely, to him. They could lock him away and throw away the key, or hell, depending on what state the trial was held in, for all he knew they could put him on death row. Logically, he knew that all those murders hadn't been him, or his choice, or anything else like that. Guilt didn't feel that way, though, and convincing some sort of judge and jury of that might be even harder.
"I'm gonna try my damnedest to stay with you, though."
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For probably the first time ever though, she had running as an option. She would rather live a fugitive than lose him again. So Madripoor was in the cards; no extradition treaty. Plus the art black market was something she could learn to dabble in and use to their advantage.
And then there was her last resort: time travel. Their discussion had been brief, but the surviving Avengers who had been involved in the heist had unanimously agreed that she return the Stones. What if she took him with her, and they just... didn't come back?
"I actually need your help with something." Might as well get him on board already, even if only for a backup plan. "Think you're up for one last mission?"
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But his brow perked when she asked that. "With you? I guess I can put off being a house husband for a while longer. What do you need?" Bucky had no way to know Steph had already discussed any other missions or anything. It must have been before he came back, since he'd been glued to her since the fight ended.
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That, and a part of her actually wanted Bucky around in case something did go wrong. What if she got stranded somewhere in time? They would at least be together.
"But it probably won't be for a while. Not until after Tony's funeral, at least. Your trial might be underway by then." She wasn't outright suggesting they bail, because she knew he felt he had to atone for the Soldier's sins, and the trial might help him find closure somehow. But she sure as hell wasn't letting the government lock him up, or worse.
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Knowing Steph, if she went on her own, she'd probably get herself killed, or get some kinda wild idea to go save Bucky from his future or something stupid like that. Or even just get lost somehow. He wasn't about to risk losing her like that.
"If the trial is going when you need to go, we'll figure out some way for me to be with you for it. Don't worry."
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Steph couldn't even be mad at Bucky calling her reckless and implying that she was going to do something stupid without him around. She was now excited at the thought of him living his science fiction dreams. He never got his flying car, but hey, he could pilot a spaceship for this one. They could even visit other planets while they were at it.
"If the trial is going when we need to go, we can be back before anyone notices we're gone. Time travel. Have you seen Back to the Future yet?"
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The question about whatever Back to the Future was made him roll his eyes, though. "I went from escaping, to being on the run, trying to figure out who I was, to being in cryo, to raising goats. If it's some kinda movie or TV show, then no, I haven't seen it," he answered, chuckling. "I'd say most of my experience with TV was just me standing on a sidewalk watching a store display through the window. Or this movie." With the last bit he gestured towards where Treasure Planet was playing on the wall.
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It was also nice to get to talk about mundane things like movies, instead of missions and battles. "That's alright, that's more date night ideas for us." They could still go to the movies like the old days, or stay in with takeout. Whatever he liked or was comfortable with. She was partial with the latter, but there was also the appeal of finally doing the sneaky, incident things some couples did in cinemas.
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Bucky let his eyes close again, comfortable and content and grinning softly. "There's lots of places for date nights. Movies, dinner, museums, Coney Island..." Not only were they in New York City, where there were a million options, but they could also just have evenings where they walked around exploring how much places they knew in the past had changed in the years since then. "Hope you don't care that I'm going to want to stay in most nights though."
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"What's mine is yours once we're married, remember?" That wasn't how it worked, but it also wasn't like there was an official membership process or anything. "Look, it's one mission and we're out. I just want us to be together in the history books again," she teased some more.
After a while their conversation shifted to flying a ship and Steph's first trip to space. "Fucking worst. Worse than the Cyclone," she swore. The view of Earth from space was really something though, and she wanted him to see it.
Then the topic moved back to date nights. "Roadtrip," she added to the list. On their bikes would be fun, but they could also just rent a car. "But hey, I'd rather stay in most nights too. We could play board games, or read, or slow dance in the kitchen." Having sex was a given after their dates, so she didn't list it anymore.
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Bucky laughed softly as Steph listed various things they could do. "We used to do two of those things all the time," he said, grinning. The board games and reading passed the time when they were hanging out, even though they didn't have many games. Just a couple, but it was better than nothing. The dancing would be... not new, but they didn't do it very often.
One night, when he had danced with her on the Boardwalk on her birthday, while badly singing Cheek to Cheek actually came to mind often.
"You know, I used to wish those nights were actual dates."
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Everything would've changed if she did, she knew now. They'd have made plans to marry the following year.
No use dwelling on what-could-have-beens though. Still, it was nice to think about how much they wanted each other.
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"But, hey, we got here eventually." Hell, he was just a couple days away from marrying her. "And now we get to have all the date nights we want."
He still couldn't believe what massive idiots they'd been, especially with just how long they'd known each other, but there was genuinely no one else he'd rather spend his nights with, and there never had been.
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"I still get nightmares of the train, or of being trapped in the ice, or of you crumbling into dust," she admitted. "Most nights I just stay up to draw, then the next thing I know it's dawn, and I go outside to run."
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