[oom] all those times we looked up at the sky

[from_the_outside]

Karli's on the move; she'll strike soon. Bucky and Sam have been in long, tense conversations with each other and with Torres, and she herself has been keeping an obsessive eye on the tracker blip that is Batroc.

It's a lot. The air in the apartment is tense. But she still has to laugh at the sight that greets her when she walks into the living room: Bucky crouched down, his phone out as he takes a photo of Alpine, who is lounging in lazy grandeur, soaking up a puddle of sunshine.

"That'll be a good one," she approves. "Baby, I've been wondering – what happened to your nice camera? You didn't leave it in Wakanda, did you?"

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[nerves_of_ice]

He raises up enough to let her pull his shirt off, then immediately returns to kissing her shoulder, then her throat, then back up to her mouth as he eases her bra straps from her shoulders and undoes its fastening.

"Tell me what you want tonight," he asks. "Let me give it to you." A quick smile. "If you don't, I'll just try to figure it out on my own, you know."

[from_the_outside]

She tips her head this way and that and back as he kisses her shoulder and her throat, trying to give him as much of her skin as he wants access too, shivering at his dedicated attention to the spot at the curve of her neck and shoulder. "You're pretty good at figuring out what I want," she points out, and blinks languid eyelashes at him, her eyes blown dark with desire, only a thin rim of brown around the black of her pupil.

"I want you," she reiterates, and leans up to kiss his smile. "I want slow, until you drive me so crazy I can't take it anymore. I want every touch to prove how much I cherish you."

She runs her hands lightly down along the sweet curve of his back, then over the rise of muscle below his hips. "I want to feel you in me, as close as we can get."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Yes," he promises, and kisses her back, lingering over the taste of her mouth with lazy, unhurried kisses. Bucky strips her of her bra and tosses it aside, then runs his right hand along her upper arm to her shoulder and down again to her wrist, tracing her skin with his fingertips.

"We have all the time we want."

[from_the_outside]

"We have forever," she reminds him, and shivers as he caresses her; kisses him deep and drowning. Sharon runs the fingers of her right hand up into his hair and grips gently the way she knows he loves.

And right now, it really does feel like they have forever, like a perfect bubble has settled over the bedroom of their apartment. No Karli, no grief, no loss, no worries. Just them, losing themselves in each other. "Love me."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I do," he murmurs, a shiver of his own running through him at the feel of her fingers in his hair. He kisses her again, then kisses her cheek and trails a slow line of kisses along her jawline to her neck and begins to work his way down with infinite care.

As he does, Bucky settles both hands at her hips, running his thumbs gently back and forth over her skin at the edge of her waistband, but deliberately not moving further than that, not yet.

[from_the_outside]

She tips her head back in a quiet whisper as her hair brushes against the pillow, lets her eyes fall half-closed as he works his way carefully down along her throat, enjoying the feel of his hands on her skin, his weight at her side and over her.

One hand strokes through his hair, the other traces over the back of his neck and shoulder, lazy and lingering.

[nerves_of_ice]

Her skin is soft and warm under his mouth. Not unmarked, no; here there’s a scratch, there a small scar, little signs of the life she’s lived. He cherishes each one, covering her with light, loving kisses until he reaches her heart. He presses a lingering kiss there, then turns his head to the side and listens to its beat.

Alive. Alive, and here, with him.

[from_the_outside]

If all he wanted to do was rest here, holding her close as he listens to her steady heartbeat, that would be enough. More than enough. Everything about him is enough for her, and more than she ever dreamed possible.

Sharon breathes slow and deep, running her hand gently over his hair as his head rises and falls with her chest. "I was afraid I'd never be able to feel this connected to you again," she murmurs, low. "When you came back."

When she was so broken. And she still is -- all jagged, bleeding edges just starting to heal over -- but it no longer feels like all she is is the shattered, scattered remains of herself. "You make me feel whole again."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I remember you tried to talk me into leaving." He doesn't move his head, but he curves his left hand over her hip, fingers behind her back and thumb tracing back and forth lightly over the bone.

"You must have been really scared."

[from_the_outside]

"I didn't see how there was anything left of me that you would want."

Her voice is almost a whisper as she strokes her hand lightly over his hair. That girl is dead, she remembers snapping at him. Go home, Bucky. "I knew you'd hate what I turned into."

[nerves_of_ice]

He lifts his head just enough to press another lingering kiss over her heart.

"I could never hate you," he tells her, a promise breathed into her skin loud enough for her to hear. "Never."

[from_the_outside]

She nods. "But I was," she murmurs. "Scared."

And angry. And lost, and hurt. "I was always terrified there."

[nerves_of_ice]

Now he does move, shifting to gather her in his arms as he comes back up to kiss her mouth, sheltering her beneath his weight with his own body, cradling her close and safe.

"I know," he murmurs. "I know, baby."

[from_the_outside]

None of that last day had been an act, not really. She'd just slipped the leash on all the paranoia and fear and stress that had been building up every day for six years.

"Thank you for not giving up," she murmurs, and kisses him back, relaxing as he pulls her close, as his weight grounds her. "Even though I tried so hard to make you."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'm kind of stubborn," he says, blandly. "You may not have noticed."

[from_the_outside]

She huffs a soft breath of laughter and gives him an amused look, her head pressing back into the pillow.

"Funnily enough, I kind of picked that up."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, good," he teases. "I'd hate for it to be a total surprise."

Bucky leans down and kisses her, then kisses her again, then again.

[from_the_outside]

"You can't slip anything past me, Sergeant," she tells him, amused, and nibbles on his bottom lip before soothing it with a kiss.

"Not Agent 13."

[nerves_of_ice]

Agent 13. He hasn't heard her call herself that for years, not since before everything went wrong in Vienna and Berlin, not since before she was named an enemy of the state--

The next kiss likely leaves her breathless, as passionate as it is. He kisses her back into the pillow, overwhelmed with everything he's feeling.

[from_the_outside]

"Mmph -- "

She can't giggle without air, and there's no air to be had as Bucky kisses her, hard and passionate, bearing her down into the pillow like this is the first time he's seen her in six years, like they haven't had all these weeks together already.

Her fingers thread up through his hair and her arm goes around his neck, drawing him down, even closer, as close as he can get to her.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I love you," he murmurs, between kisses. She'd said she wants slow, and he makes himself draw back, exercising true restraint to do so, and smiles down at her.

"So much."

[from_the_outside]

"I love you, too."

Seven years and that smile still does things to her, still ties her stomach up in knots and lifts her heart. She can't help but smile back at him, sweet and warm as sunrise. "Don't stop."

Whether she means don't stop kissing me or don't stop loving me is irrelevant; she means them both.

[nerves_of_ice]

He kisses her again, gentle and lingering, then kisses her chin, the hollow of her throat, her chest and her heart as he works his way in a line down her body. He presses gentle kisses to her belly above the waistband of her pants as he slowly unfastens them and pushes them down over her hips.

[from_the_outside]

Sharon shifts and arches beneath him, making small, soft sounds as he makes his way down along her body, lighting nerves with each gentle kiss as he goes. Slow, she'd asked for, and he's clearly taken it to heart, after that sudden storm of breathless desire.

She toys with the idea of telling him she's changed her mind, but he's so patient and so careful and caring and gentle that all she wants to do is luxuriate in him like she would in a hot bath.

[nerves_of_ice]

He draws her clothes down her legs with deliberate care, bestowing kisses along the way. One to her knee, another to her calf, then to her ankle before he drops her clothes to the floor and rids himself of his own.

For a moment, then, he just stays still, looking at her.