Flickers | Bucky Barnes

Vigilance

"Oh god, my thighs are sweating all over your face!" Karina panted as her thighs were securely and tightly wrapped around James' head and god she didn't want to think about the sweat that was clinging to his brown hair that had escaped his reluctant man bun.

James had decided it was in her best interest to learn some self-defense especially considering she only knew cheap shots and relied on a Taser or her Aluminum Louisville Slugger. She would have laughed at James' facial expression when she told him about her lack of athletic skills, as he looked personally offended, but she felt the phantom burn of her scars as she remembered how she got them and she kept her lips sealed tight and agreed. Besides she was going to be receiving training from The Winter Soldier, it was the equivalent of learning martial arts from Bruce Lee.

Even though she was highly appreciative of him training her, as she was gaining a little muscle mass, she couldn't help be curious as to what led him wanting to have her known how to defend herself so vigilantly.

The only thing that had her on edge, or more so was overkill, was him wanting to rearrange her own apartment and make the furniture conductive to impeding an looming attack or somehow a makeshift weapon. It wasn't until then that she realized he had his own apartment arranged in that way. Despite his vehement wishes, her apartment was not an open square like his and she possessed way more items than him and his way would make it cluttered. Instead, it somehow morphed into him insisting she kept one of his knives on her.

But the only thing that was really troubling was what exactly led to this attentive behavior. She followed the news faithfully and nothing really popped out. The only thing that she knew could trigger something in him was The Avengers were more frequently in the news taking down Hydra bases in Europe, Africa, South America, and North America. She understood why something like that would make him antsy. But she was tracking their movements and they were nowhere near Romania. She honestly didn't think Hydra and its leftovers were near their current home. But that could have been her being optimistic thinking nothing of their past would catch up with them. Maybe he was acting this overprotective because her paranoia had been slowly dissipating with his constant presence. Before she could dissect what that exactly meant, James' voice broke her concentration.

"Don't worry about the sweat. Worry about your next move."

Karina deliberately ignored the feeling of his breath on her inner thigh as he spoke as she felt his hands move from holding her up on her lower back. He was moving them until she felt her back hit a cool surface, which was his dining table, his metal hand hissed as the plates shifted as it pinned her down by her neck.

As much as the lessons were helpful, she knew he was holding back in strength and somewhat speed. She knew if he exerted too much weight behind his ghost punches and pins she would easily bruise or worse get a fractured bone. However, she knew he could put in a little more ump as an enemy's punch wasn't going to feel like getting smacked with a feather.

Pulling his punches weren't going to be helpful in the long run.

With her legs still around his neck stimulating she would try to choke a man with her thighs – talk about a crime of passion – his blue eyes were boring down on hers, heavy with concentration as he waited for her next move. Her immediate action out of reflex was to grip his cool wrist, but that wouldn't solve anything.

"Well considering I would probably break my elbow trying to weaken the slack on your arm," she murmured and her hands went to gauge his eyes despite him being too far to even reach his face, but his free hand was already moving to grab her wrists and taking advantage the distraction she kicked him back.

But with speed she couldn't even comprehend, as soon as her sweaty back was free from the cool metal of the table, she was once again on her back as he latched onto her ankle bringing her down pinning her as he sat on her being mindful of his weight and her wrists locked by the side of her head from his hands.