[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?"

Comments

[from_the_outside]

She makes a soft sound, then a surprised one as Alpine starts struggling in her arm. "Alpine," she says, reproachful, when the kiss has to break so she can lean back.

He miaows and wriggles out of her arms to leap lightly onto the back of the couch, where he settles and leans down to start grooming Bucky's hair.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'm not a cat, Al," he protests, but holds still for it all the same.

[from_the_outside]

"I'm not sure he can tell that," she says, sitting back and watching, amused.

Alpine's expression says not a cat who knows how to groom himself, no.

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky makes a face at her.

"Sure he can. He's a smart little guy, aren't you, Alpine?"

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cat doesn't answer him.

[from_the_outside]

"Smart enough to know when you need grooming, I guess," Sharon laughs, before lifting her phone and snapping a photo of her own.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, is that how it goes?" Bucky reaches out and catches at her hand, trying to draw her closer.

[from_the_outside]

"I'm afraid so," she says, with no hint of apology or regret at all in her grin. She sets her phone down and lets him take her hand, leaning in close as he coaxes her near.

"This is exactly how it goes."

[nerves_of_ice]

His smile is slow and contented as he draws her close to kiss her again.

"Works for me."

[from_the_outside]

She kisses him back, sweetly, then has to giggle against his mouth.

"Sorry," she says, though she sounds far from apologetic. "But it's hard to take you seriously when you're getting groomed by the cat."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, yeah?"

Bucky twists to look over his shoulder. "Sorry, buddy," he says, and scoops Sharon up in his arms as he stands up, ignoring the meow of protest from the affronted Alpine.

He kisses her again, holding her easily, and starts down the hall, leaving both camera and cat behind.

[from_the_outside]

Her laughter peals out, following them like a bell ringing, as he carries her off down the hall. Alpine gives them a confused look, then hops off the couch and onto the table by the window. Her last view of him before Bucky brings her through the bedroom door is of him settling down for a little bird-watching.

"I think he'll get over it," she promises, and leans down to kiss him back.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'll give him extra treats later or something."

Bucky kicks the bedroom door shut behind them, just in case, and kisses her yet again.

[from_the_outside]

She bites lightly at his bottom lip, then reaches down for the hem of her shirt to skin it up over her head, tossing it who cares where. It hasn't even hit the ground before she's kissing him again, her mouth warm and sweet against his.

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky groans aloud. "You're so beautiful, Sharon, god--"

Words fail him and he kisses her again, sliding his right hand into her hair to tilt her head back so he can start trailing kisses along her throat as he carries her to the bed.

[from_the_outside]

She gasps as he traces fire along her throat, as her heart skips and starts pounding in her chest. Threading her fingers into his hair, she clings to him as he walks with her.

"Please," she murmurs. "Bucky, please. I want you."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Forever," he reminds her, and nips lightly at the spot she likes so well at the join of her neck and shoulder before he draws on it with a deep kiss.

Bucky braces one knee on the bed and lowers her down, kissing her over and over.

[from_the_outside]

"Forever," she agrees, and strokes her hands down his sides until she gets to the hem of his shirt, then runs her palms up beneath it, firm and warm against his skin.

"You're everything to me."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Everything," he murmurs, echo and affirmation both as he shapes his hands along her body in long, slow caresses, cherishing each curve. "Everything. Love me, Sharon. Let me love you."

[from_the_outside]

"I do," she promises. "I will."

Her hands travel over his back, warm skin and firm muscle and the join of vibranium to his flesh at his shoulder, then slide back down the curve of his spine to grip his shirt and tug, coaxing him to let her take it off. "I don't ever stop falling in love with you, Bucky."

[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.