It's a Howard Hawks flick. He did a bunch of stuff, both action movies and comedies, like Bringing Up Baby, the original Scarface — it's weird, how many movies got remade? — and he also adapted The Big Sleep, although that came out after—
[ After he went into the ravine. ]
Anyway. It's about a star newspaper reporter whose editor is her ex-husband, and she's about to quit her job and go get remarried to an insurance salesman. And her ex dangles a hot new scoop under her nose and tries to do everything possible to delay her trip and try to win her back. [ The corner of his mouth quirks. ] It's a lot of fun, I promise.
[ Then he glances over. Daisy's practically falling off the edge of the bed herself in trying to be polite, the popcorn bowl wedged between them, and Bucky finally just sighs. Takes the bowl and props it up on his chest and waves her over to get closer, even when it makes his nerves turn over in his throat. ]
[Daisy’s eyebrows shoot up as he lists of different movie by this director. She enjoyed movies, but he’s clearly got a lot more knowledge on them.
Finding the movie, Daisy brings it up but doesn’t hit play just yet.]
It sounds like it’ll be good.
[Daisy feels the popcorn bowl that was digging into her side move, and that’s when she finally looks at him again. It’s like she’s never been this close to a guy before as her mine suddenly backfires. Has it really been that long for her that she doesn’t know how to do this without making a fool out of herself?
Okay, maybe it has been a minute...]
If I get any closer I’ll be on top of you.
[As soon as she says it the regret is evident on her face. Laughing out of embarrassment, Daisy reaches for some of the popcorn as a way to get herself to stop talking. She hits play, but as it starts all she’s doing is replaying what she just said in her head.
[ A beat, a moment of his own embarrassment upon realising he'd just said something that basically amounted to yes, please do. ]
As in, I mean. There's space. We'll just have to, uh. Get a little cozy. If you don't mind that.
[ Each one of his words comes out haltingly, tripping over his tongue like a sputtering machine. Bucky clears his throat and tries to make himself look away from her, focusing back on the screen, where the movie's starting to play. He's normally so good at compartmentalising, honing all of his attention on the thing in front of him and nothing else; but now he's distracted, again, by Daisy's weight on the mattress beside him, the sound of her laughter, the huff of her breath.
Fuck.
This might be a problem. He'd toyed around with online dating, mostly egged into it by his teammates, but always skittered away from committing to an actual date. Always inevitably dropped the conversation, the text messages, the rigmarole, the dancing in circles. It felt like speaking a language he wasn't fluent in any longer, one where he'd forgotten all the vocabulary — and didn't have the energy, besides, to lie through his teeth for an entire evening and another and another.
But he doesn't have to lie to Daisy, and she gets it, and she has such a goddamn great sense of humour and a beautiful laugh, and this might be a problem. ]
[Eyes widening, Daisy looks over at Bucky as he starts rambling. A smile spreads across her lips when he ends up tripping over his words, it was oddly comforting that he seemed to be just as bad at this as she was.
Her smile fades a little when she realizes what she’s about to do. As if she’s no longer in control of what her body tells her to do, she leans down and brushes her fingers across his cheek. She looks into his eyes, giving him an out but if he doesn’t stop her she closes the distance between them to kiss him.]
[ Bucky goes still and quiet at first: not pulling away or stopping her, but he's a deer in the headlights, frozen, ready to bolt. In a way, he's still waiting to see if he'll bolt. It still takes a few seconds after Daisy's lips meet his, a moment of hesitation, before he seems to react and kisses her back, long-dormant instincts finally humming back to life after eighty years (eighty years) gone to rust. He leans in and curls his right arm around her where she's finally closed the distance; tries to remember how his mouth works; worries for a second that he literally won't know how to do it; but then he eventually realises that it is, in fact, like riding a bike, and he does remember how to balance this delicate pressure of lips and tongues and teeth and his mouth against hers.
...And his elbow jolts, accidentally knocking over the bowl and spraying popcorn all over both of them, breaking the kiss. ]
Ah, shit—
[ He curses, looks embarrassed, brushes a few pieces of popcorn out of her hair; but then a laugh finally breaks through and his face lights up, and Bucky leans in and kisses her again, and again, movie forgotten. ]
[Relieved that he didn’t reject her, Daisy smiles against his lips on the verge of almost laughing before he even knocks over the popcorn. First kisses can be awkward, and she can’t help but think that she’s kissing someone who is way older than her.
Laughing with him as he pulls the popcorn out of her hair, she pushes the bowl out of the way when he leans back in.
So much for the movie.
It’s easily been a few minutes when there’s an abrupt knock on the door before Jemma’s voice breaks through, asking how they’re doing.]
Shit.
[She hisses out, pulling away from Bucky and rolling away from him. Okay, so maybe things had escalated, sue her. It’s been a while.]
Uh—
[Daisy looks over at Bucky, her face flushed as she quickly fixes her shirt, making sure he looks decent before she answers]
By the time the doctor is peering skeptically down at them, Bucky's swiveled away from Daisy. Although his right arm is still pinned beneath her and she's caught in the crook of his arm, using him as a human pillow by now, the two of them half-cuddling just out of sheer proximity in order to fit on the bed. They're both a little rumpled, and there's popcorn debris scattered on both of them. ]
Yeah, uh, just watching a movie.
[ Even though his attention's completely gone away from it. And as he glances back up at the monitor, he catches the black-and-white screen and a heap of newspapermen milling around an office. The embarrassment of someone looking in on them is mortifying, and yet also— refreshingly banal and normal, like he's rewound time, and they're just two teenagers being caught together. It's a nice low-stakes thing to worry about, compared to his usual life. Compared to dodging HYDRA's dregs earlier. ]
Promise I'm not straining the bandages, [ he says, with a flash of a radiant smile at Jemma, which is Bucky Barnes trying to be his Most Charming™ with a medical authority. ]
[Daisy struggles not to laugh, again, when it's pretty clear Jemma doesn't believe them. Sitting up straighter, Daisy grabs her bottle of water from its place on the floor next to the bed.]
I'll just leave you two to your movie.
[Daisy isn't worried that she would go in snitch, because really, it's not some big secret. When the door slides shut again, Daisy looks over at Bucky. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a little anxious now that they've gotten over that hurdle.
She's got a bad habit of not thinking before doing something.]
So that was--
[She wants to say how she feels about it, but she's afraid he won't feel the same way.]
[ He's still sprawled in her bed, and she's still far too close for his heartbeat to be anything but normal, and now Bucky's just looking at her. His expression a little wry, a little fond. He wonders what word she was about to say there before she cut herself off, and he can't help but have that instinctive little flicker of self-doubt — maybe he's a horrible kisser now! it's been long enough that he's not entirely sure! maybe she'll think it was a huge mistake!
But then again, she'd been the one to cross that line first, so maybe he really shouldn't question it this much. Instead: ]
That was nice, [ he says, filling in the blank. ] I'll even forgive you for not paying enough attention to one of my favourite movies.
[ But there's a quirk at the corner of his mouth — he's teasing — and he leans in just close enough to press another kiss to her jaw. ]
[Eyes lighting up when he agrees with her, Daisy shoves lightly at his shoulder when he teases her.]
Well someone was distracting me--
[She trails off when he leans in and kisses her jaw, inhaling sharply at the contact. Does he really expect her to be able to pay attention when he's doing something like that? Eyes closing again, Daisy tilts her head to give him more access because that felt nice.]
There's no way this is your first time kissing someone in--
Thanks. I mean, I swear it is, but I'm realising it's kind of like riding a bike.
[ Barnes had, once upon a time, been a ladies' man. The dashing flirtatious skirt-chaser of a sergeant, with a friendly wink and a smile for pretty much anyone. That particular version of him is long-gone, buried and dead — but sometimes echoes of it stir back up and he can almost remember what it was like, like some ancient muscle-memory in his fingertips. A moment too late, though, he realises what that sounded like. ]
Not that... you're... the bike.
[ He winces, his nose scrunching, and he leans his face against Daisy's shoulder instead. ]
[And while he’s probably regretting everything he just said, Daisy is giggling. He makes her laugh, a lot. Even if at times it’s at his own expense. She hasn’t felt this at ease with someone in a long time, and he makes it easy for her to forget how messed up her life is.]
I think it’s cute.
[Daisy looks down at the side of his face since it’s mostly hidden.]
You’re making me feel less like inept with it comes to romance-y stuff, so, there’s that.
[Her smile only grows when she basically calls him an idiot.]
[ He rolls his eyes in return, but she can see him biting back another smile. ]
Oh, great. So you just keep me around because my total ineptitude makes you feel better.
[ Bucky hasn't been good at humour or playfulness lately (beyond the occasional petty mockery between him and Sam), but Daisy makes it easier; makes it feel like she's excavating a long-forgotten side of him, stoking it back to life. Which is why what comes next is so lightheartedly, childishly silly. He really should be more careful about staying still and resting and not risking jostling the gauze on his abdomen, but he wriggles his right hand anyway and pokes her gently in the ribs, a jabbing tickle in revenge. ]
She is so cruel to feeble senior citizens who can't control what they say.
[Letting out a squeal, Daisy brings her elbow down to try and block him from continuing to tickle her side. There isn’t much room for her to be able to back away from him, but she does try to wriggle away from him.]
Wait.
[She makes herself look like she’s about to ask a serious question, even going as far as to act like she’s mulling it over.]
Does dating you mean I get to take advantage of your senior discount at McDonalds?
Please. You say that as if they even let me use it. And it's not really much of a discount anyway, it's insane how much a cup of coffee costs these days—
[ Somehow, thanks to her always prodding at it, Bucky's age has become less something he's sore about and more something he can laugh over; and he can let himself settle into that crotchety 'back in my day...' mentality without being self-conscious about it. It's comfortable, and it's almost terrifying how comfortable it is. It's been months since he lost his last main tether to this world, to other people.
It would be so easy to lean in and get lost in her again, get carried away and see where that particular road led — he'd be lying if he said he wasn't thinking about it — but they're in a small bunk in what equates to a semi-public dormitory, and someone's already checked in on them once. Probably there's a line. Probably they shouldn't cross it.
(As much as, he's realising, he would like to.)
He stops tickling her, but he does flop back against the pillow at the head of the bed, and nudges Daisy's knee with his. Tries to consider what he wants to say, and in the end he can't express all of it, but he does settle for: ]
[Daisy has so many questions she'd love to ask him about what it was like growing up in his time, but she's not sure if it would just make him sad or not. She's definitely thinking along the same lines as him, but her head is increasingly hurting and one or both of them might end up accidentally hurting the other. She'd rather that not be how their first time goes.]
Dragging you? I'm pretty sure you went willingly.
[Daisy teases, grabbing some of the popcorn that didn't manage to spill out of the bowl and flopping down on the bed next to him. She really doesn't want to be lame and go to sleep, but, it's been A Day. Her smile fades a little as she turns her head to look at him, it's clear she had been scared about what could've happened if they hadn't been on the phone when it all went down. Frowning, Daisy looks down at his hand and laces her fingers through his. Giving it a small squeeze as she locks eyes with him again.]
I'm just glad you're okay.
[It scares her how much she already cares for him. It's never ended well for her, caring for someone.]
[ He's still half-grinning from their joking around, but when her expression shifts and turns more serious, his own mirrors hers. Daisy just holding his hand — even the human one — somehow feels more intimate and close than her mouth on his, his tongue against hers. Bucky glances down at where their hands are linked; she can feel the callouses on his knuckles from trigger guards, the nicks of ancient scars on his palms and the backs of his hands. His fingers curl carefully around hers. ]
Hey, I would've taken care of it eventually.
[ I had him on the ropes. ]
Anyway. Give your eyes a rest. I like to think I'm a pretty good human pillow.
[ The crook of his shoulder will be comfortable to curl up against, to just settle into that hollow and let herself drift off. Old movies were good for that, too. Just the murmuring of voices fading into a hum, the patter of dialogue, not much by way of loud music or action or explosions to jolt awake again. ]
[He shouldn’t have to still be dealing with HYDRA after all of these years, and she’s very tempted to have some words with the people who let this happen. He should be more protected than this.
Smiling when he offers up his shoulder for her to prop her head on, Daisy would be lying if she said she could stay awake much longer.]
I should probably warn you, I drool.
[She hasn’t slept next to someone in a long time, but somehow this doesn’t feel as weird as much as she imagined it would. Her hair was still damp as she moves to rest her head on his shoulder.]
We’ll watch that movie at some point.
[Daisy mumbles, eyes already closing not even a minute into settling down next to him.]
[ Bucky notices when Daisy falls asleep, her breathing settling into the deep evenness of unconsciousness, while he stays awake and still half-watching the movie. He thumbs the sound even lower on the remote, lets it lull her off, and he watches for a bit longer before he finally dozes off too.
He hadn't exactly meant to spend the night here, but it's hard to get off the Bus; he's exhausted just at the idea of wandering down the halls and finding someone who looked authoritative and awkwardly asking, So hey, can you put me down somewhere in Manhattan? So instead, he's just accepted that he's here for the evening.
He's worried about waking her up in the middle of the night with his nightmares, but something about having another warm body beside him means that Bucky sleeps— easier. Not perfectly, but easier. There's a moment somewhere around 4am where he stirs, his face buried in Daisy's hair, the room dark, the screen having put itself to sleep; there's the unwelcome jolt of finding himself in an unfamiliar place, his heart thudding sharply in his chest, before he takes a deep breath and manages to make himself calm down again. As far as restless nights go, this is actually one of his better ones.
Back to sleep, then, only to wake up at dawn a couple hours later. They're both sprawled on top of the covers, still dressed in their clothes, and he feels slightly grimy and rumpled, but it's at least warm and comfortable. There's still that background hum around them. Maybe living on a plane isn't the worst thing ever.
Daisy is stirring, and somewhere in the night he had flipped over onto his stomach; right arm tangled under the pillow, left arm between them. A wince of self-consciousness. Thank god he hadn't actually slung it over her body; forty pounds would've driven the breath out of her lungs. He withdraws even further, rolling half onto his side. ]
[Daisy had woken up once in the middle of the night to take some advil for her pounding headache, which apparently had done much because she had woken up feeling just as shitty. Inhaling deeply, Daisy whined when the sun hit her eyes, having forgotten to close the blind last night. For a moment, she completely forgot Bucky was even there until her arm hit something hard. Pulling her hand back she opened her eyes only to relax when she saw Bucky only inches from her face.]
Hey.
[She croaked out, running a hand over her face before reaching over to pull down the blind. Flopping back down on the bed, she closed her eyes for what felt like minutes but in reality was maybe a minute before it fully sunk in that Bucky had actually spent the night, in her bed.
Act. Natural.
It's not like anything happened.
Eyes still closed, Daisy shifted so she was on her back, arm resting across her eyes.]
How're you feeling?
[She's not a person before she has coffee, but she's trying.]
[ And he does feel fine, in fact. Bucky actually looks fresher than she does: the cuts and nicks on his skin have healed, and the conspicuous beginning to a bruise that should've worsened today has faded instead. That accelerated healing putting in the work overnight, his body already starting to laboriously piece itself back together while he rested. He won't be regrowing limbs anytime soon, but like how his metabolism is annoyingly sped-up, so is his recovery time.
He's half-burrowed into her spare pillow. Facing her, Bucky finds one last surviving piece of popcorn between them, and he smirks and tosses it out of the bed. There's something so oddly domestic about this whole scene, so there should probably be a riotous panic behind his ribcage at the fact that he'd spent the night with someone for the first time in— ages— but he just feels a kind of queasy happiness instead. Nerves fluttering in his chest, where they haven't taken root in so long. ]
How about you? Sorry if I kicked you in the night or anything.
[She can feel him staring at her, even with her eyes closed and a tiny smile tugs at her lips in spite of herself. She can't remember the last time she spent the night in the same bed with something where nothing happened, but Daisy is honestly glad they hadn't taken it too far last night. As much as she wanted to at the time, it wouldn't have been the best time to do anything else.]
Like I got punched in the head, and that I need coffee.
[Smile growing, Daisy finally moves her arm to look at him tiredly. Squinting in the dimness she can see that scrapes on his face are gone and the confusion sets in on her face.]
You--?
I knew you could heal faster but that's just unfair.
[ That smirk grows into a proper shit-eating grin — his favourite kind, honestly — as Daisy points that out. For a moment, she can see a glimmer of the mouthy soldier he'd once been, all the playful attitude he'd once wielded in comfort around Steve. ]
Told you so.
[ And she's mentioned coffee, and at the thought of it, Bucky realises he could also really do with a cup. He could lie here for a while with her, but that nervous energy needs somewhere to go, and he's usually so sleep-deprived that he needs that kick of caffeine in the morning too.
With a preemptive apology, he reaches an arm across her, and for a moment it looks like he's just going to sprawl his body over hers— but then he keeps going, a hand and a foot pressed into the covers on Daisy's other side, and he uses it to vault himself and roll neatly over her, almost falling out of the bed, but he thankfully catches himself at the last moment. They'd walked past the kitchen on this floor last night, so he remembers where it is, assumes he can probably figure out the coffee machine. He rises to his feet, instinctively rolls his shoulder again, checking the limberness of the arm after the damage it took yesterday. It's fine. ]
[Suppressing a bigger smile when he gets that shit-eating grin on his face, Daisy weakly shoves at her shoulder before looking up at the ceiling. She really should get up, but staying here also seemed like a great idea. At the very least she should grab some more pain reliever if she wanted to get through the day without her head pounding.
She’s about to get up when Bucky is suddenly on top of her, and just as quickly is he off of her before she even has time to fully process it. Daisy wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to bail now that they were awake, after how last night went...
A smile breaks out on her face this time when he offers to get her coffee. She almost tells him not to, but, it would give her a few minutes alone with her thoughts.]
Black, and there should be sugar packets next to the machine if you could bring me three?
[While he’s gone she quickly looks at her phone before tossing it to the end of the bed. Pulling her knees up, Daisy replays what happened last night in there head. Trying to think of anything she might’ve done wrong but coming up blank. Maybe it should feel awkward, but she can’t find any reason for it to be.]
[ It's not the simple glass carafe he's used to, but he finds a complicated-looking coffee machine bolted into place in the kitchen — smart, when it's a plane that might wind up dipping and turning or jolting around during turbulence — and he eventually puzzles through the buttons enough to get some piping hot black coffee out of it and into two SHIELD-branded mugs. Bucky pours in the sugar, stirs the coffee, and then makes his way back, eventually slipping into Daisy's quarters and nudging the door shut again behind him. There was a bottle of painkillers sitting on a shelf right outside (a gift from the doctor, maybe), and so he brings that with him, too.
The man settles down on the edge of Daisy's bed, his weight sinking the mattress beside her, and he gently lobs the painkillers at her, then holds out the hot mug, his metal fingers gripping the edges so he can offer her the handle without minding the burning heat. Bemused: ]
Exactly three sugar packets?
[ He's restless this morning, but there's also a fondness in his gaze when he looks at Daisy, sitting back down on that cramped bed next to her. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ After he went into the ravine. ]
Anyway. It's about a star newspaper reporter whose editor is her ex-husband, and she's about to quit her job and go get remarried to an insurance salesman. And her ex dangles a hot new scoop under her nose and tries to do everything possible to delay her trip and try to win her back. [ The corner of his mouth quirks. ] It's a lot of fun, I promise.
[ Then he glances over. Daisy's practically falling off the edge of the bed herself in trying to be polite, the popcorn bowl wedged between them, and Bucky finally just sighs. Takes the bowl and props it up on his chest and waves her over to get closer, even when it makes his nerves turn over in his throat. ]
It's your bed. I'm hogging all the space. C'mon.
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[Daisy’s eyebrows shoot up as he lists of different movie by this director. She enjoyed movies, but he’s clearly got a lot more knowledge on them.
Finding the movie, Daisy brings it up but doesn’t hit play just yet.]
It sounds like it’ll be good.
[Daisy feels the popcorn bowl that was digging into her side move, and that’s when she finally looks at him again. It’s like she’s never been this close to a guy before as her mine suddenly backfires. Has it really been that long for her that she doesn’t know how to do this without making a fool out of herself?
Okay, maybe it has been a minute...]
If I get any closer I’ll be on top of you.
[As soon as she says it the regret is evident on her face. Laughing out of embarrassment, Daisy reaches for some of the popcorn as a way to get herself to stop talking. She hits play, but as it starts all she’s doing is replaying what she just said in her head.
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[ A beat, a moment of his own embarrassment upon realising he'd just said something that basically amounted to yes, please do. ]
As in, I mean. There's space. We'll just have to, uh. Get a little cozy. If you don't mind that.
[ Each one of his words comes out haltingly, tripping over his tongue like a sputtering machine. Bucky clears his throat and tries to make himself look away from her, focusing back on the screen, where the movie's starting to play. He's normally so good at compartmentalising, honing all of his attention on the thing in front of him and nothing else; but now he's distracted, again, by Daisy's weight on the mattress beside him, the sound of her laughter, the huff of her breath.
Fuck.
This might be a problem. He'd toyed around with online dating, mostly egged into it by his teammates, but always skittered away from committing to an actual date. Always inevitably dropped the conversation, the text messages, the rigmarole, the dancing in circles. It felt like speaking a language he wasn't fluent in any longer, one where he'd forgotten all the vocabulary — and didn't have the energy, besides, to lie through his teeth for an entire evening and another and another.
But he doesn't have to lie to Daisy, and she gets it, and she has such a goddamn great sense of humour and a beautiful laugh, and this might be a problem. ]
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Her smile fades a little when she realizes what she’s about to do. As if she’s no longer in control of what her body tells her to do, she leans down and brushes her fingers across his cheek. She looks into his eyes, giving him an out but if he doesn’t stop her she closes the distance between them to kiss him.]
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...And his elbow jolts, accidentally knocking over the bowl and spraying popcorn all over both of them, breaking the kiss. ]
Ah, shit—
[ He curses, looks embarrassed, brushes a few pieces of popcorn out of her hair; but then a laugh finally breaks through and his face lights up, and Bucky leans in and kisses her again, and again, movie forgotten. ]
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Laughing with him as he pulls the popcorn out of her hair, she pushes the bowl out of the way when he leans back in.
So much for the movie.
It’s easily been a few minutes when there’s an abrupt knock on the door before Jemma’s voice breaks through, asking how they’re doing.]
Shit.
[She hisses out, pulling away from Bucky and rolling away from him. Okay, so maybe things had escalated, sue her. It’s been a while.]
Uh—
[Daisy looks over at Bucky, her face flushed as she quickly fixes her shirt, making sure he looks decent before she answers]
We’re okay, just watching a movie.
[Please don’t open the door.]
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By the time the doctor is peering skeptically down at them, Bucky's swiveled away from Daisy. Although his right arm is still pinned beneath her and she's caught in the crook of his arm, using him as a human pillow by now, the two of them half-cuddling just out of sheer proximity in order to fit on the bed. They're both a little rumpled, and there's popcorn debris scattered on both of them. ]
Yeah, uh, just watching a movie.
[ Even though his attention's completely gone away from it. And as he glances back up at the monitor, he catches the black-and-white screen and a heap of newspapermen milling around an office. The embarrassment of someone looking in on them is mortifying, and yet also— refreshingly banal and normal, like he's rewound time, and they're just two teenagers being caught together. It's a nice low-stakes thing to worry about, compared to his usual life. Compared to dodging HYDRA's dregs earlier. ]
Promise I'm not straining the bandages, [ he says, with a flash of a radiant smile at Jemma, which is Bucky Barnes trying to be his Most Charming™ with a medical authority. ]
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I'll just leave you two to your movie.
[Daisy isn't worried that she would go in snitch, because really, it's not some big secret. When the door slides shut again, Daisy looks over at Bucky. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a little anxious now that they've gotten over that hurdle.
She's got a bad habit of not thinking before doing something.]
So that was--
[She wants to say how she feels about it, but she's afraid he won't feel the same way.]
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But then again, she'd been the one to cross that line first, so maybe he really shouldn't question it this much. Instead: ]
That was nice, [ he says, filling in the blank. ] I'll even forgive you for not paying enough attention to one of my favourite movies.
[ But there's a quirk at the corner of his mouth — he's teasing — and he leans in just close enough to press another kiss to her jaw. ]
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Well someone was distracting me--
[She trails off when he leans in and kisses her jaw, inhaling sharply at the contact. Does he really expect her to be able to pay attention when he's doing something like that? Eyes closing again, Daisy tilts her head to give him more access because that felt nice.]
There's no way this is your first time kissing someone in--
[She can't do the math right now.]
A lot of years.
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[ Barnes had, once upon a time, been a ladies' man. The dashing flirtatious skirt-chaser of a sergeant, with a friendly wink and a smile for pretty much anyone. That particular version of him is long-gone, buried and dead — but sometimes echoes of it stir back up and he can almost remember what it was like, like some ancient muscle-memory in his fingertips. A moment too late, though, he realises what that sounded like. ]
Not that... you're... the bike.
[ He winces, his nose scrunching, and he leans his face against Daisy's shoulder instead. ]
Yeah. See. Foot in mouth.
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I think it’s cute.
[Daisy looks down at the side of his face since it’s mostly hidden.]
You’re making me feel less like inept with it comes to romance-y stuff, so, there’s that.
[Her smile only grows when she basically calls him an idiot.]
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Oh, great. So you just keep me around because my total ineptitude makes you feel better.
[ Bucky hasn't been good at humour or playfulness lately (beyond the occasional petty mockery between him and Sam), but Daisy makes it easier; makes it feel like she's excavating a long-forgotten side of him, stoking it back to life. Which is why what comes next is so lightheartedly, childishly silly. He really should be more careful about staying still and resting and not risking jostling the gauze on his abdomen, but he wriggles his right hand anyway and pokes her gently in the ribs, a jabbing tickle in revenge. ]
She is so cruel to feeble senior citizens who can't control what they say.
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[Letting out a squeal, Daisy brings her elbow down to try and block him from continuing to tickle her side. There isn’t much room for her to be able to back away from him, but she does try to wriggle away from him.]
Wait.
[She makes herself look like she’s about to ask a serious question, even going as far as to act like she’s mulling it over.]
Does dating you mean I get to take advantage of your senior discount at McDonalds?
[She’s a little shit and she knows it.]
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[ Somehow, thanks to her always prodding at it, Bucky's age has become less something he's sore about and more something he can laugh over; and he can let himself settle into that crotchety 'back in my day...' mentality without being self-conscious about it. It's comfortable, and it's almost terrifying how comfortable it is. It's been months since he lost his last main tether to this world, to other people.
It would be so easy to lean in and get lost in her again, get carried away and see where that particular road led — he'd be lying if he said he wasn't thinking about it — but they're in a small bunk in what equates to a semi-public dormitory, and someone's already checked in on them once. Probably there's a line. Probably they shouldn't cross it.
(As much as, he's realising, he would like to.)
He stops tickling her, but he does flop back against the pillow at the head of the bed, and nudges Daisy's knee with his. Tries to consider what he wants to say, and in the end he can't express all of it, but he does settle for: ]
Thanks for dragging me onto a plane.
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Dragging you? I'm pretty sure you went willingly.
[Daisy teases, grabbing some of the popcorn that didn't manage to spill out of the bowl and flopping down on the bed next to him. She really doesn't want to be lame and go to sleep, but, it's been A Day. Her smile fades a little as she turns her head to look at him, it's clear she had been scared about what could've happened if they hadn't been on the phone when it all went down. Frowning, Daisy looks down at his hand and laces her fingers through his. Giving it a small squeeze as she locks eyes with him again.]
I'm just glad you're okay.
[It scares her how much she already cares for him. It's never ended well for her, caring for someone.]
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Hey, I would've taken care of it eventually.
[ I had him on the ropes. ]
Anyway. Give your eyes a rest. I like to think I'm a pretty good human pillow.
[ The crook of his shoulder will be comfortable to curl up against, to just settle into that hollow and let herself drift off. Old movies were good for that, too. Just the murmuring of voices fading into a hum, the patter of dialogue, not much by way of loud music or action or explosions to jolt awake again. ]
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[He shouldn’t have to still be dealing with HYDRA after all of these years, and she’s very tempted to have some words with the people who let this happen. He should be more protected than this.
Smiling when he offers up his shoulder for her to prop her head on, Daisy would be lying if she said she could stay awake much longer.]
I should probably warn you, I drool.
[She hasn’t slept next to someone in a long time, but somehow this doesn’t feel as weird as much as she imagined it would. Her hair was still damp as she moves to rest her head on his shoulder.]
We’ll watch that movie at some point.
[Daisy mumbles, eyes already closing not even a minute into settling down next to him.]
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He hadn't exactly meant to spend the night here, but it's hard to get off the Bus; he's exhausted just at the idea of wandering down the halls and finding someone who looked authoritative and awkwardly asking, So hey, can you put me down somewhere in Manhattan? So instead, he's just accepted that he's here for the evening.
He's worried about waking her up in the middle of the night with his nightmares, but something about having another warm body beside him means that Bucky sleeps— easier. Not perfectly, but easier. There's a moment somewhere around 4am where he stirs, his face buried in Daisy's hair, the room dark, the screen having put itself to sleep; there's the unwelcome jolt of finding himself in an unfamiliar place, his heart thudding sharply in his chest, before he takes a deep breath and manages to make himself calm down again. As far as restless nights go, this is actually one of his better ones.
Back to sleep, then, only to wake up at dawn a couple hours later. They're both sprawled on top of the covers, still dressed in their clothes, and he feels slightly grimy and rumpled, but it's at least warm and comfortable. There's still that background hum around them. Maybe living on a plane isn't the worst thing ever.
Daisy is stirring, and somewhere in the night he had flipped over onto his stomach; right arm tangled under the pillow, left arm between them. A wince of self-consciousness. Thank god he hadn't actually slung it over her body; forty pounds would've driven the breath out of her lungs. He withdraws even further, rolling half onto his side. ]
Uh. Good morning.
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Hey.
[She croaked out, running a hand over her face before reaching over to pull down the blind. Flopping back down on the bed, she closed her eyes for what felt like minutes but in reality was maybe a minute before it fully sunk in that Bucky had actually spent the night, in her bed.
Act. Natural.
It's not like anything happened.
Eyes still closed, Daisy shifted so she was on her back, arm resting across her eyes.]
How're you feeling?
[She's not a person before she has coffee, but she's trying.]
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[ And he does feel fine, in fact. Bucky actually looks fresher than she does: the cuts and nicks on his skin have healed, and the conspicuous beginning to a bruise that should've worsened today has faded instead. That accelerated healing putting in the work overnight, his body already starting to laboriously piece itself back together while he rested. He won't be regrowing limbs anytime soon, but like how his metabolism is annoyingly sped-up, so is his recovery time.
He's half-burrowed into her spare pillow. Facing her, Bucky finds one last surviving piece of popcorn between them, and he smirks and tosses it out of the bed. There's something so oddly domestic about this whole scene, so there should probably be a riotous panic behind his ribcage at the fact that he'd spent the night with someone for the first time in— ages— but he just feels a kind of queasy happiness instead. Nerves fluttering in his chest, where they haven't taken root in so long. ]
How about you? Sorry if I kicked you in the night or anything.
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Like I got punched in the head, and that I need coffee.
[Smile growing, Daisy finally moves her arm to look at him tiredly. Squinting in the dimness she can see that scrapes on his face are gone and the confusion sets in on her face.]
You--?
I knew you could heal faster but that's just unfair.
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Told you so.
[ And she's mentioned coffee, and at the thought of it, Bucky realises he could also really do with a cup. He could lie here for a while with her, but that nervous energy needs somewhere to go, and he's usually so sleep-deprived that he needs that kick of caffeine in the morning too.
With a preemptive apology, he reaches an arm across her, and for a moment it looks like he's just going to sprawl his body over hers— but then he keeps going, a hand and a foot pressed into the covers on Daisy's other side, and he uses it to vault himself and roll neatly over her, almost falling out of the bed, but he thankfully catches himself at the last moment. They'd walked past the kitchen on this floor last night, so he remembers where it is, assumes he can probably figure out the coffee machine. He rises to his feet, instinctively rolls his shoulder again, checking the limberness of the arm after the damage it took yesterday. It's fine. ]
How do you take your coffee?
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She’s about to get up when Bucky is suddenly on top of her, and just as quickly is he off of her before she even has time to fully process it. Daisy wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to bail now that they were awake, after how last night went...
A smile breaks out on her face this time when he offers to get her coffee. She almost tells him not to, but, it would give her a few minutes alone with her thoughts.]
Black, and there should be sugar packets next to the machine if you could bring me three?
[While he’s gone she quickly looks at her phone before tossing it to the end of the bed. Pulling her knees up, Daisy replays what happened last night in there head. Trying to think of anything she might’ve done wrong but coming up blank. Maybe it should feel awkward, but she can’t find any reason for it to be.]
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The man settles down on the edge of Daisy's bed, his weight sinking the mattress beside her, and he gently lobs the painkillers at her, then holds out the hot mug, his metal fingers gripping the edges so he can offer her the handle without minding the burning heat. Bemused: ]
Exactly three sugar packets?
[ He's restless this morning, but there's also a fondness in his gaze when he looks at Daisy, sitting back down on that cramped bed next to her. ]
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poss a wrap? ❤️