Who Am I? » [Stucky]

46. The Journey

Steve woke up the next morning to an empty bed, there was no precious body cradled in his arms. He shot up and was at the door in a flash. He threw it open-

"Morning, gorgeous..."

Bucky beamed at him proudly from the hob, the pan scraping metallically against the blackened frame as he jerked it energetically back and forth; attempting to fry the bacon more thoroughly. The flame roared and flickered beneath the pan and the sound of hissing and popping filled the flat, and the aroma of fried bacon overtook the space, hanging in the air like a dense fog.

His expression fell when he saw Steve's large perturbed eyes.

"What?" Bucky's brow furrowed with concern and his smile dropped off his face.

Steve broke down into a giggling fit. His nerves had spiralled out of control, and now he was fine. "Nothing, nothing..."

Bucky let it pass. "I made breakfast..." He gestured to the stuffed plates, full of fantastic food with an even more fantastic smell.

"I can see that..." Steve relished in the treat prepared for the two of them, and eyed up that plate. He was salivating like a dog and his stomach complained to him as he waited for the meal to be served.

Steve wandered over whilst Bucky was cooking and wound his arms around his waist, loosely hugging him from and pressed his tired face into the curve of Bucky's neck; still half asleep and sharing in Bucky's heat.

"Tired?" Bucky questioned, his voicebox pressed up against Steve's ear; making his deep voice sound even more reverberate.

"Mm... Hm..." Steve droned his reply, standing as close to Bucky as he possibly could, practically trying to bury himself in the other man.

"You're Captain Asleep, today..." Bucky joked.

Steve laughed baritonely onto his shoulder, his chuckle deep and throaty in his fuzzy morning haze.

"And you're the Woken Soldier..." Steve goaded with a froggy voice, his throat dry and sore.

"You slept well though?" Bucky checked, always concerned about Steve.

"Yeah... Best night I've had in ages. I don't think I've slept a full 12 hours since I got out of the ice."

Bucky smiled to himself; he'd been responsible.

He slipped the last of the food onto the plates and they got down to eating.

"I've had an idea..." Steve started over breakfast.

Bucky raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah?"

"How about I take you out for dinner this evening?" Steve suggested, a small hint of anxiety in his voice.

"That sounds good to me," Bucky agreed, smiling from across the other side of the table, sawing through a bit of his egg.

~

After breakfast Steve made a phone call.

"Hi, Nat."

"Steve... To what do I owe this pleasure?" Natasha's sarcastic tone echoed down the phone.

"I just fancied a chat..."

"Skip the bullshit, Rogers and cut straight to the chase," Natasha prompted, trying not to be too aggressive; it was just painfully obvious that Steve had called to ask something - his arduously slow and sickly sweet voice gave it away.

"Uh... Okay." There was no subtle way of asking it that wouldn't raise questions. "Do you happen to know any nice places in New York that I could go for dinner? By nice, I mean 5 star... Candles, classical music, the whole shebang."