Locked, Loaded, Loved ✔️ COMPLETE | UNDER EDITS

Chapter 6.1--Natasha

Over the next month, things around the compound were pretty much how they'd always been. During the day, I swam, trained, and worked with Bucky to go over his memory files. Shuri and Peter assisted Tony in the recreation of the device Alexei had used on me. We'd found a connection between the tracker and the face manipulator based on a sequence of super complicated mechanics that only Tony knew how to work. Kristina Sokolov was still MIA—we hadn't found an exact location for her yet ever since the first mention of her name. The intel we'd had disappeared, leaving a blinking alias not found in our database. So, Kristina Sokolov was no longer listed as last seen in San Francisco and all we could do at this point was wait until there was another sighting of either her or Alexei. Plans were in the works to draw him out, but nothing was finalized yet.

In the evenings, I alternated gossiping with Emery and nights in with Steve. Due to the serum, Steve was recovering nicely from his bruised ribs. Sam had cleared him for simplified training and some other activities he'd put on hold.

I was still working occasionally at the diner, so I woke up early three days a week, leaving Steve still asleep in my room whenever he stayed over. Bucky still didn't know about my relationship with Steve, so we kept things very lowkey.

"So, I've been thinking," I said one night as I layed in bed next to Steve. I laced our fingers together as he slung an arm over my shoulder.

"That's dangerous," Steve teased. "What are you thinking?"

"I want to tell Bucky about us. I think it's about time he knew."

"You sure, Nat?"

I nodded. "We've kept him in the dark long enough. Plus...well, I just think it's better if he knew."

Steve kissed my cheek as I tunneled into his chest. "We'll tell him. Still on your terms, I promise."

"Ok." I closed my eyes and listened to the cadence of our breaths together. After some time had passed, Steve started to kiss my neck. I flipped so I could straddle him and make things a bit easier. We moved together in unison like we had all the times before, but this time was different. We took the time to explore each other like we hadn't before. Steve traced his thumbs against my stomach, but we kept our clothes on. Ever since Emery had walked in on us when we got back together, we had been more careful when we were fooling around. And any time we got far enough that something almost happened, we'd been interrupted. Like the universe was trying to tell us to wait. Or we just had really sucky timing.

Today was timing.

We were teasing each other, lips hovering above ticklish spots, fingers traveling slowly down each other's bodies. It was all foreplay. But that's as far as it went.

There was a bang at the door followed by two sets of laughter. A jiggle of the door handle followed by, "wait, let me get my key!"

Steve had just enough time to slip into the closet before the door burst open and Emery stumbled in with...

"Bucky?" I asked, sitting up straighter.

Bucky looked at me, panic evident on his face. "Nat, I—we didn't realize you'd be up here."

"I thought you were watching a movie with Steve," Emery chimed in, signaling me with her eyes.

"I am. He had to step out for a minute," I said.

"So you two are gonna be up here?" Emery asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. But he can stay with me if you two are gonna...be long."

"We'll leave you to it," Bucky said, nodding at me.

"Have fun!" I called after him and Emery as they stumbled back out of the room, laughing together.