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[semi_stable]

In his time in Darrow, Bucky has settled into something of a routine. It's a little similar to the one he had in New York, but this one is a little different. There is no blip, or reverse blip, to navigate. No news of the Avengers and all their allies and foes to track, no therapy appointments, no amends to make.

Now, he has a dog. A lot of his day seems to revolve around Bopp, but he doesn't think that it's a bad thing. She helps him stick to a routine, which he finds comfort in. A routine implies stability, and after so long of nothing but chaos, that's what he needs.

As he's finishing taking her on her nightly walk, dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans despite the chill lingering in the air, he spots Dani heading for the door of their building. He hurries a bit to get out and front of her and open with the door, and Bopp perks up at the sight of her, tongue lolling out as she pants.

"Hey," Bucky says as he holds the door open, smiling at her. "Long night?"

Comments

[semi_stable]

"Don't worry about it. My invite, my treat," Bucky says absently, half-distracted as he adds tacos and churros to his cart, because he was already planning on ordering a lot of food. Adding a few things for Dani isn't going to change that much. Belatedly, he realizes that some of the things that he was taught were gentlemanly aren't really seen as such anymore, and he doesn't want her thinking that he expects anything, so he looks over at her with an easy smile. "You can get it next time."

He places the order and as it processes, Bopp trots back into the living room and does a quick pass, sniffing at their knees before biting into a stuffed toy in the corner. Once she has it in her mouth, she leaves again, most likely heading for her bed by the window.

"Shit. It says it'll be here in an hour," he says once he looks at his phone again. Once he realizes what he's said, he can't help but to let out a small laugh and lean in towards her a bit, tipping the phone out so she can see the screen. "I've gotten too used to this tech. If you'd shown me this back in Brooklyn, my brain would have melted."

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"Alright, deal," Dani says, smiling lopsidedly as she pockets her phone again. She tries not to read into either his offer to pay for it or the mention of next time. They're friends and neighbors; there's really no reason at all to believe that they might not hang out like this again. Still, it's unexpected and it's nice, and she has every intention of following through and being the one to cover any food they get next time they spend time together.

Unexpected, too, is how she feels sitting here, somehow both at ease, comfortable in a way she is with few people, and aware of being out of place, like she's just barged into someone else's life. Stupid, really, when he's the one who invited her over, but then, it's not as if it's unusual. She tends to feel like that just about anywhere.

Pushing those thoughts aside as best she can, she exhales a soft laugh as she glances at the phone screen with its estimated delivery time, the sort of thing she's long since come to take for granted. "It's crazy when you really stop and think about it, isn't it?" she asks by way of agreement. "Definitely saved my ass more than a few times when I was in Brooklyn and had no groceries but a ton of homework."

[semi_stable]

The information is a little unexpected, and Bucky turns his head to look at her, realizing only then how much they seemed to have slumped and shifted together on the sofa. It's nice to be able to relax in the company of another person, but then again, she seems to have that effect on him. He isn't sure why. Maybe it's just because she seems to understand what it's like to be other, and he doesn't feel such a need to try and prove that he's normal.

"You know Brooklyn?" Bucky asks, eyes lighting up a bit as the corners of his mouths lift into a small smile. She isn't the first person that he's met here that's been to Brooklyn, he's sure, but mentioning New York doesn't seem to have the same effect here as it did back home. "Is that where you were going to school? That's where I'm from. Small world."

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"It is, yeah," Dani confirms, her own expression instinctively brightening a little as his does. "Well, I was going to NYU, but I was living in Brooklyn. Not a chance Manhattan rent would ever have been affordable." She doesn't think she would have wanted to live there anyway, preferring her Brooklyn neighborhood to anywhere packed with tourists and undergrads. That apartment felt like a home, at least until it didn't because nowhere did anymore. "I didn't realize you were from there. With all the different places people here come from, it really is a small world."

It's nice, actually, that one little piece of familiarity. Before, considering all the people who live there, it wouldn't have meant much at all, but here, the odds of it seem incredibly slim. It feels good to know they have that in common; in a strange way, it makes her feel more grounded, more real, though she wouldn't be able to explain how or why.

[semi_stable]

“Some things never change,” he replies with a chuckle, because Manhattan was always expensive. So much so, that it sometimes felt like another world entirely. “But yeah, I was born there. Lived there until I was drafted. It’s always gonna be home.”

By the time that he finally made it back, the Brooklyn that he knew and loved was gone. Generations had passed and the neighborhood had changed, taken over by decline and then inevitable gentrification. But it was still home.

“It looks like we have some time to kill,” Bucky says before she can ask any questions about what he’s just revealed. He doesn’t want to talk about war, so decides that it can stay under the same rug that they’ve temporarily swept Dani’s schoolwork under.

They’ve both turned in towards each other a little, heads resting against the back of the sofa, and Bucky can’t help the way that his gaze briefly dips to Dani’s mouth. One way to pass the time occurs to him and he licks his bottom lip, biting at it as he looks up at her eyes again. “Any suggestions?”

[feelheld]

His response immediately leaves Dani with several questions. It isn't the first time — hell, it isn't even the first time in this conversation — he's made a reference to something that sounds like it's from an earlier time, and between his awe at ordering via touchscreen and his apparently having been drafted, there's little doubt in her mind now that he was in Brooklyn long before she was. As curious as it makes her, though, wanting to know more about when that was, it's easy to let herself get distracted by the way his gaze drops, a slight hitch in her breath when she sees it. They may have kissed before, and done more than that, for that matter, but there's still something about being looked at like that that gets under her skin.

"I think we can probably come up with something," she replies, her voice a little quieter now. They're close already, but only because he's given a fairly clear signal and they've done this before, she lets herself lean in a little more, the tip of her nose brushing against his. "Seems kinda like you might have something in mind, actually."

[semi_stable]

While this wasn’t the reason that he invited Dani here, Bucky would be lying if he said that a part of him hadn’t been hoping for it. His tone was flirty and a little suggestive, but he waited for Dani’s reaction, watching her face closely. If she didn’t seem entirely into it, he’d sit up and change the subject, and that would be that.

Luckily, that isn’t what happens. Dani leans in close enough that their noses brush and Bucky wrinkles his as he pretends to think, humming as he purses his lips against the corner of her mouth.

“I think that I might,” he says, leaning forward to take her by the waist and lift her easily into his lap, hands on her hips as he grins up at her. “I have a couple of ideas, actually.”

[feelheld]

It catches her off-guard less than it did that night on the beach when he pulls her to him, but Dani still draws in an audible breath, settling easily on his lap. Even if the gesture itself isn't wholly surprising, the sentiment behind it kind of is. They were both a mess that night, both haunted by something and, she thinks, in desperate need of some sort of connection, a way to feel good for a little while. To be wanted now, with the mood decidedly lighter, is something very different. And yet there's no mistaking his interest, from his expression to that brief kiss, one she returns a moment later.

When she came over here, she had nothing in mind besides getting some food and unwinding from a long day of studying. She supposes that is still what she's doing, in a way, though that's hardly all that's motivating her now.

"Yeah?" she asks, close against his mouth, her hands moving to his shoulders. "Care to elaborate?"

[semi_stable]

They're both such complicated people, but they fall together easily and it's decidedly not complicated. They can come together in these moments, distract each other from the tangled web of their own minds and have something good. Maybe they don't have to talk about it. Maybe it doesn't have to be anything other than this. They're making a deliberate choice and being rewarded for it, and that sits perfectly well with him.

"Well," Bucky begins quietly, smiling against her mouth as he keeps his metal hand on her hip and puts the other at the small of her back, sliding it up under her shirt. It feels to him like he can be a little more assertive in the way that he touches her this time, because they've done it before. That isn't to say that means that he always has the right to do it again, but because there has been some level of trust built there. She knows that he won't take liberties and he knows that she'll tell him if he does something that she doesn't like. That in itself is a comforting thing.

Before he can say anything else, he presses his mouth to hers more deliberately now, kissing her deeply as his fingertips slide up under the clasp of her bra. He makes no move to undo it, waiting for a sign from her that it would be okay.

"I was thinking about you, actually," Bucky murmurs against her jaw, letting his accent loosen into the Brooklyn drawl from his youth as he pulls back enough to look at her face. "I was thinking about the sounds you made when we kissed and how much I'd enjoy making you make more of them, if I'm being honest."

[feelheld]

Just what he says is enough to send a shiver through Dani, her breath catching. That first night on the beach, it was good and she enjoyed herself, but it was easy to tell herself after the fact that it was probably just a strange fluke, the result of the late night and loneliness. She was there, a warm body, an anchor. In truth, she's never seen herself as particularly desirable; no one has ever treated her like she was, even when it seemed like all Christian was interested in was sex. The quiet intensity of this is something else entirely, and while there's a certain self-consciousness that comes with hearing him talk about sounds she made, it's not an unpleasant feeling. He doesn't say it like it's any sort of bad thing, after all.

Strange, how the prospect of being really, genuinely wanted can make her want in turn.

"Hard not to," she murmurs in response, trying to ignore the inherent awkwardness she feels in doing so. She's not good at this, has never been good at this. All she can do is try to push past the too familiar instinct to overthink everything. It is, in fact, one of the best things about this that she doesn't have to think too much. With his hands sturdy at her hip and warm on her back, she can hold everything else at bay a little better and just feel good for a while. With a tiny nod of encouragement, meant to give him permission to unclasp her bra, she leans in close. "With the way you touch me."

[semi_stable]

It’s obvious to Bucky that she’s self-conscious. Everyone is for the most part when it comes to this, but hers has a peculiar edge that Bucky suspects was put there by someone else. He can’t undo all that damage in one night, but he can try. Because Bucky is self-conscious about many things, but being good at this isn’t one of them.

He lets out an appreciative hum as she speaks and unhooks her bra, sliding his hand up the warm expanse of her back and then down again to grab the hem of her shirt and give it a questioning tug upward. Dani’s arms go up and Bucky pulls the shirt over her head and then slides the bra down her arms, tossing both garments aside. With his metal hand on her hip, he slides the other up to cup one of her breasts, feeling the weight of it before giving her nipple a gentle little tug.

“Beautiful,” he tells her, not because he’s trying to butter her up for something but because it’s true, and it costs him nothing to say so.

He lets go of her only long enough to pull off his own shirt and then tugs her in close again, kissing her with a hungry sort of purpose, licking into her mouth with another satisfied groan. His mouth then moves across her jaw and down the side of her throat, lower still until his face is between her breasts. He breathes in the scent of her, warm and feminine, and turns his head to mouth at the side of her breast, tongue flicking across her nipple. All the while, she makes these wonderful little sounds, and all of them sound like praise to Bucky’s ears.

“And what if I touched you here?” He asks as he kisses her chin, sliding his good hand down between her legs to lightly touch his fingertips to the core of her, so warm even through her clothing. He drags them upward to her waistband and then pauses to pull back and look her in the eye, waiting for permission as he smiles. It’s a confident smile without being cocky, and he licks his bottom lip as he dips the tip of his finger under the stretchy fabric of her leggings. “Should we find out?”

[feelheld]

It isn't that Dani would consider herself inexperienced, exactly. It's just that most of her experience has been, well, underwhelming. In the five years she was with Christian, they had plenty of sex, if not as much as he clearly would have preferred. She never cared that much. He never touched her like this, slow and steady and confident, making sure this is what she wants at every turn. At his prompting, she lifts her arms up, lets him pull both her shirt and bra off, trying not to shiver when he does. This time, they're not outside on a cold night, at least, but that also means he'll have a better view. In her own opinion, she's alright-looking, but unremarkable. He calls her beautiful, though, like he can read her mind, like he believes it, and that's enough to temper her self-consciousness for now. She can't come close to matching the easy self-assurance of his demeanor, but she likes that about him all the same.

Her breath catches when his tongue grazes her nipple, her head falling back slightly for a moment. With one hand resting over his metal one where it sits against her hip, she nods again, further approval to keep going, though she doesn't want to just leave it at that, either. "I think we definitely should," she says, her voice a little hoarse, a little breathy, but certain. She very much does want to keep going, to see what happens when they don't have weather and sand and the fact of being in a public place to worry about. To emphasize that, she leans in to kiss him again, hips rolling forward, encouraging.

[semi_stable]

The answer makes Bucky grin, and he wastes no time in resting his palm against her stomach, fingers sliding down past the waistband of her leggings and into her underwear. His metal hand rests in the middle of her back, warmed by her body, and Bucky watches her face as his fingers slide lower still, down to the core of her. He's always liked this. There's something amazing about being able to bring a woman off with just his fingers, and he wants so badly to see her face when she comes.

He slides his fingers along the soft folds of her cunt, letting out a pleased hum at how wet she is. His middle finger presses in to find her clit, rubbing slow circles around it and leaning in to kiss her chin, and then her lower lip, licking into her mouth as he shifts his middle finger down to press it inside of her. He goes slowly, breath hitching as he sinks into the tight clench of her body.

After moving his finger in and out a few times, he replaces one with two and presses his thumb to her clit as he pumps them in and out, watching her face for any signs that it's too much. Seeing her react to him thrills him, stokes a part of him that grows warm at doing something good, something pleasing and positive.

"Does that feel good?" He asks in a low rumble, leaning in to kiss the side of her neck again, down her chest until he can pull her nipple between his lips again. He sucks at it, grazing his teeth along it before letting it fall from his mouth so he can look at her face again. "Because I think you feel amazing, doll."

[feelheld]

Good hardly seems like the right word, too mild and too vague for a sensation that's pure electricity. Far from inexperienced as she might be, the focus and the intent in the way he touches her make it feel like something new, a matter of moments enough to have her flushed and breathless, hands anchored on his shoulders to keep herself steady. Dani doesn't understand it, really. Sex is something about which she's largely been indifferent — enjoyable enough from time to time, but nothing she has ever really been all that inclined to go out of her way to seek. She might have, though, if she knew it would be like this, his voice low and rough in her ear, making it seem like he actually means what he says.

"Yeah," she answers, the word nothing more than an exhale between them. Being any sort of coherent right now is increasingly difficult, actually, when all of her focus is on the physical — the way his fingers press into her, the trail of his mouth down her neck and breast, her hips keeping slight but instinctive rhythm with the motion of his hand. "That's, fuck, so good."

Somewhere in the back of her head, it occurs to her that she should probably be embarrassed about how little it's taken for him to get so under her skin. She doesn't have the presence of mind, though, to dwell on it, and there's considerable relief in that — an escape from overthinking everything, a chance just to be, and feeling so wanted on top of that.

[semi_stable]

In his own humble opinion, Bucky has always been a generous lover. Maybe not so much in his encounters with men, but every one of those has been bare bones, scratching some primal itch before parting ways. With women, though, it's different. Half the fun is in seeing them react to all the different ways he can touch them, and Dani is no different.

She seems to give herself over to the pleasure immediately, not bothering to try and hide how eager she is for more, so Bucky decides that he'll do the same. Now that they've started this, Bucky wants. He's well aware that part of it is a distraction from how awful he can feel at any other given time, and he doesn't have to feel guilty about that because he knows that it's the same for her. They're using each other, but it's okay because they both want the same thing, and they're on the same page.

She rocks down against his hand as he tries to press his fingers deeper into her cunt, but the angle isn't right so he pulls his hand out of her pants only long enough to grab the waistband and tug them down along with her underwear until the material is bunched around her thighs. He reaches between her legs and smoothly presses two fingers back into her body, groaning at how tight and warm and wet she is as he begins to pump them in and out of her.

His metal hand slides up her back until her can pull her in by the back of her neck and give her another kiss, feeling her pant against his lips as he changes the angle of his fingers a bit, searching out that amazing little button that all women seem to have inside of them. He's willing to bet that whoever Dani was with didn't press it all that much, which makes Bucky all the more happy to do so.

It's obvious once he's found it, and he grins against Dani's cheek as he presses his fingertips against it over and over again, keeping his other hand at the base of her neck, holding her upright as he fucks her with his fingers.

"And how's that feel?" He asks against her cheek, confident without being cocky, pressing his fingers in against that spot again as he returns the pad of his thumb to her clit, alternating strokes just on either side of it.

[feelheld]

Forget probably — she should definitely be embarrassed, she thinks, approximately two-thirds undressed in his lap, pants and underwear tugged down around her thighs, two of his fingers inside her. Coherent thought is quickly falling by the wayside, though. In the small fragment of it that remains is the awareness that he started this, anyway, that he wanted it, wants her. Something about that feels different. Christian always seemed to want sex more often than she was interested in providing it, but it always seemed somehow impersonal, like it wasn't about her, just about him having somewhere to put his dick. She was a convenience when they were in bed, and inconvenience, well, just about every time else, never really anything more than that one way or the other.

This is different. And that's ridiculous, when Bucky is a friend she's hooked up with twice now and Christian was someone she gave five years of her life to, but a matter of moments is still more than enough to make that wildly, unmistakably clear. She never thought she even liked sex that much. She thinks instead that maybe she was just missing out. As his fingers thrust into her, she rocks against his hand, still steadying herself against his shoulders, clear enough as it is that he won't let her lose her balance. The cool metal of his prosthetic hand against the back of her neck is somewhat grounding, actually, which seems like a good thing when this has all been such a whirlwind. He seems to be really fucking good at that, making her lose her head in seconds. She isn't about to object in the slightest.

She's about to kiss him again when the angle of his fingers changes, eliciting a sharp gasp from her, sweet tension coiling up her spine. "Fuck," she breathes, eyes heavy-lidded, and though the thought occurs to her that they should move so he can get something out of this too, she can't bring herself to pull away. It feels too good for that; he seems too focused, as if he's enjoying making this all about her before they do anything else. "You — you really know how to get under a girl's skin."

[semi_stable]

Dani is a bit of a wonder. She responds so beautifully to Bucky's touch, seemingly startled by it, but she doesn't seem inexperienced, either. It isn't much of a leap to assume that her ex was bad in bed, or maybe just selfish. Bucky doesn't get that at all. He's always loved getting girls off with his fingers and his mouth and getting rock hard while he was at it.

What a waste, he thinks, to have such a beautiful woman in your bed and not try to figure out all the ways that her body works. It may be entirely imagined, this slight, but Bucky feels determined to make up for it, in a way. It isn't out of pity, but something he genuinely finds himself craving. He can do this for her. He can make it amazing, and maybe show her that she should settle for nothing less from now on.

"Yeah?" Bucky chuckles warmly and shifts his metal arm to slide it instead under one of her thighs, hooking her knee over his bicep as he spreads her legs wider and lifts her a little bit. He watches his fingers sink into her again, thumbing at her clit, and then draws his fingers free. With his metal hand bracing the small of her back, he lifts her to his face as if she weighs nothing at all and drags his tongue up through the core of her, lips buzzing against her clit as he lets out a pleased hum from low in his throat.