The Sharpest Lies [Bucky x ReaderxSteve]

Twenty-four

"Well, aren't you just all dressed up with nowhere to go?"

Giggling, you tip your head back to look up at Clint. "Who says I don't have anywhere to go?"

"Well, since you're sitting here, in the dark I might add, what else am I supposed to assume?"

"Maybe I just like the dark."

"I suppose that makes sense," Clint says, coming around to flop down on the couch next to you. "You're definitely one of those women."

"Those women?"

Clint props his feet on the coffee table, stretching his arms along the back of the couch, completely at his ease. Over the past few months, you'd grown very fond of Clint and his family. Honestly, you'd grown fond of most of Bucky's inner circle.

His fingers tug on a strand of your hair. "You know, someone attracted to the danger and the shadows in men like us."

"Hm."

"Don't get me wrong, buttercup, men like us need women like you and Laura."

"Do you?" you ask, curiosity peaked. "How so?"

Clint's sigh is a little wistful. "Women like you, with your beautiful special lights, they keep us from falling too far into the dark. You remind us there is more than just violence and blood. You keep us human."

His words touch you, and you reach out to pat his leg fondly. At the sound behind you, you look over and grin at Steve. "Hey Stevie, I thought Bucky was picking me up?"

"He's meeting us there. He got tied up dealing with something."

You give Clint a quick kiss on the cheek. "Tell Laura I said hi, and I'll try to get together with her soon."

"Will do. Have fun tonight."

Following Steve out to the car, you lay a hand on his arm to stop him from opening the door. "Is it something serious that held him up?"

Reaching up, he rubs his thumb over the wrinkle between your brows. "Don't worry about that, sugar, it's not what you're thinking. It was a paperwork thing."

"Oh." You try to squash the little spurt of jealousy. A 'paperwork thing' likely meant Natasha. You didn't like her–the way she had dismissed you, the way she looked at Bucky. Bucky could insist there was nothing to worry about but it wasn't like jealousy was exactly a rational emotion.

A warm hand touches your cheek, fingers brushing lightly to get your attention. Blinking, you focus back on Steve's face, seeing that intense look on his face that he sometimes got. The same look you caught anytime he watched you and Bucky together, or those times he snapped and kissed you. And that other time.

"Where did your head go?" Steve asks. "What's wrong?"

You lay your hand over his, and give him a small smile. "It's nothing."

"Is Bucky being an ass again?" he asks you seriously.

"No, Stevie, he's not being an ass. It's not him."

"Good, because I have no problem having to hurt him for hurting you if necessary."

It makes you laugh, which is what Steve intended, but the words are also pure truth. He'd given up pretending that there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for you, even if that thing was punching his best and oldest friend in the face.

~*~*~*~

The thing you were attending with Bucky was purported to be a fundraiser for a very select type of donor. That's how it was portrayed in the media anyway. But the truth of it was that it was a gathering of the people within the world Bucky actually existed in.