James Bucky Barnes, the former soldier, doesn't think he's got any gentleness left in him. But Grace Juniper Cunningham, the former child prodigy, strongly disagrees.
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"𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯."
"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴�...
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Luckily, I didn't meet anyone in the hallway when I slipped back into Natasha's apartment. I changed into a dress with a higher collar and left my hair down to go to lunch.
"What are you gonna do with your time off?" Bucky asked. He was in the passenger's seat of my Subaru again.
I tapped the fingers of my right hand in sets of four against the steering wheel as I thought, but laid them flat when I realized what I was doing.
He must've noticed, because he took my hand in his metal one and brought it to his lips, pressing a light kiss to my palm. He guided it back carefully, right where it had been.
"Thanks," I said. I didn't know what I was thanking him for. Hadn't my heart broken for him when he'd thanked me for touching him last week? Now I was the one doing it?
"Your time off?" He reminded me of the question.
"No idea. I was thinking I'd see if Nat would train me to fight. And I don't know what else. Lay around in pain after she beats me up, probably."
"You know you could ask me to train you? And I wouldn't hurt you?"
I laughed exaggeratedly, not replying.
"What?" he asked. "Why's that funny?"
"There's no way you could focus on training me. You get hard if I look at you for too long."
"That's just not true."
"I'd give it 2 minutes before you'd try to rail me in the middle of the training room."
"Now you're just being full of yourself."
"I'm just forming a hypothesis based on existing data."
He shook his head. "I'd be way more patient with you than anyone else would."
"That's so backhanded!"
"Sorry. Nobody likes training people with no experience. I wouldn't be patient training anyone but you like that."
"That's what I'm saying. You'd just use it as an excuse to fuck me."
"That's not what I mean," he said. "I just mean I'm gonna think all the annoying shit you'll do is cute."
"Backhanded again, oh my god!"
"Everyone is annoying at first. It annoys me when people don't know how to throw a punch. That's just an annoying trait to me."
"I don't know how to throw a punch! Sometimes people just don't learn that!"
"See, that's adorable. Come on. I thought it was endearing when I found out you bit someone."
"I'm gonna bite you if you keep patronizing me."
"Try it later. See what happens."
I blinked, ignoring the rush that sent through me. "This is what I mean. You're already trying to fuck me."
