More than a gift

Welcome home, James

The next two days passed fairly normally for Elena and Steve. During the day he trained new SHIELD recruits and Elena trained with Natasha or whoever was in the gym honing her skills. At night they alternated between making love slowly and frantically taking each other until they passed out from exhaustion. By the time her birthday had arrived they intimately knew every inch of each other's body's. Every spot that elicited a primal erotic response from the other and sent the other over the edge in moments. Elena now knew Steve's body as well as Bucky's or her own.

They were both excited to have Bucky home knowing what would happen on her birthday, but both were more than a little sad that their time alone was ending. Neither wanted to jeopardize their friendship or their relationship with Bucky, so neither told each other how they felt. Not wanting to ruin what little time they had left together they just enjoyed each other.

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Early morning hours of Elena's birthday

It had been a long three weeks and an even longer past couple of days. The mission was a success thankfully. To Bucky's happiness it was over sooner than expected. Having spent so long away from his family Bucky dropped Clint off at his farm before heading back to the Compound. SHIELD protocol called for them both to report back to do their in-person report, but Barton missed his family and Bucky understood that.

Clint had made sure his mission report was fully filled out and sent in via email before they'd gotten half way home. At most he'd get a slap on the wrist for not showing up, but the archer didn't mind. Buck didn't care either way. All he wanted was to get back to his girl and get some sleep, but first he had to report to Fury.

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Fury had been annoyed that Barton wasn't with Barnes, but he understood why even if he didn't outwardly show it. Once the mission report was finished Nick sent Barnes on his way knowing Elena was all that was on the former assassin's mind.

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Closing the door to their apartment he made sure to set his bag down by there so he could take care of it later when he woke up. He also took off his dirty boots so he didn't track dirt on the floor. The added benefit was that it let him move even more silently. Hydra had taught him to move like a ghost which made sneaking around silently second nature to him. Not that he was sneaking into his own apartment, Bucky just didn't want to wake Elena and if she'd taken his message seriously, Steve.

Their bedroom door was slightly ajar making it even easier to come in undetected. As Bucky made his way across the darkened room he could make out two bodies on the bed. The much larger shape of his best friend wrapped around Elena's much smaller frame let him know that they had taken him up on his offer. All he could see of his girl was her beautiful long dark hair flung out over Steve's arm and across the pillows. Bucky stood there for a while just taking in the sight. Elena was so beautiful inside and out.

She called him on his bullshit. Took care of him when his guilt and his past caught up with him. Loved him when he thought no woman ever would. Not after doing the things he'd done. Elena had shown him that he was deserving of love and happiness.

Bucky remembered the day he met her and the feeling of hope he'd had when he heard her laugh for the first time.

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A little over 2 years ago

Bucky and Steve had just arrived at the Avengers Compound in upstate New York from Wakanda. His mind was still a little groggy even though he'd been defrosted for a little over six months. Steve had told him he understood he needed time to process everything and that they would take things one day at a time for which he was more than grateful for.