Recipe for Romance: A Bucky Barnes Story

21: Red Velvet, Red Chalk

A/N: Sorry about the wait on this one! I did some rewriting to make it a bit more interesting. I actually never had any thought to publish this story so it was written more for my own entertainment so I never worried about a lot of important things when I first got it down on paper. Hopefully this chapter is good: I didn't really proofread! Wanted to get it out to y'all sooner rather than later :)

Thanks so much for reading!

Lots of love,

Winnie

One quick internet search and you'll get thousands—no, millions—of articles, documentaries, and books about the lives of the Avengers. None of these results will quite accurately describe what it's like to live in the tower with the lot of them. And most certainly none of the NY Times posts or Washington Post pieces will provide the experience that I'm in now: squeezed on a bean bag chair in an overheated TV room and stuffed between Captain America's and Falcon's sweaty bodies while we wait for Iron Man to get the goddamn movie started.

"Come on, Stark!"

"Hey!" Tony yelps in response to Pietro's impatience. "You try unjamming a DVD player in the dark and see how easy it is."

"How can you manage to lead the world's most successful technology corporation but somehow still get flustered by an outdated Blu-Ray player?" I question around a mouthful of popcorn. Steve snorts happily beside me.

"Shut up, shorty. No one asked you." Tony points to me with the end of a remote.

I shrug.

The door at the back of the theater room can be heard creaking open. There's only three Avengers not present now—Thor and Peter being two of them, and they're both at their respective homes—so I know it's got to be my man who comes ambling in.

"Did I miss anything?"

Sam shakes his head at Bucky's voiced question. "Nah, just a bit of an Iron Man breakdown in response to a shoddy DVD player." He snatches a handful of my popcorn to reward himself for the clever comment.

Bucky easily maneuvers his way around everyone's bean bag chairs. Wanda and Vision sit near the back in theirs while Pietro and Clint take turns bothering each other from their neighboring spots. Nat and Bruce lounge on their stomachs near the center of the room. Pepper's even here, too. She's saving Tony's spot but looks as if she's planning to get up and help him before he starts a temper tantrum.

Bucky comes to stand over me. I smile up at him—the glare from the low lights nearly blinding me through my glasses, but I know he still looks good. Bucky chuckles firstly then huffs—not sounding very pleased.

"Will you two assholes move? You haven't left me any room."

Wilson shrugs but doesn't make an effort to scoot. Steve doesn't either. "Sorry, man. Maybe you should sit somewhere else."

Bucky's frown deepens. "She's my girlfriend, Wilson. And you're looking too damn cozy for my liking." Well, Bucky's not too far from the truth. Sam's gotten pretty close to me in the last few minutes. He's even got an arm strung up behind the back of my bean bag.

"Maybe we can share her?" Sam jokes with a chuckle. I laugh along—only finding it funnier as Bucky gets madder. His fists clench.

"Come on, babe," I giggle and reach up to grab Bucky's wrist. His metal fingers instantly relax at my touch. I coax him closer to the floor. "There's plenty of room." I nudge Sam away with my bare foot and shimmy around so that Steve's forced to wiggle aside. "See?" I smile at Bucky.

Bucky only huffs. His nostrils flare. Instead of taking the spot between me and Sam like I assume he'll do, he grabs me by the waist. Easily I'm lifted onto his awaiting lap. His strong arms lock me down into his embrace—my back flush to his washboard-ab chest. Even with the back of my head facing him I don't miss the short glare he shoots at Sam.