[oom] an indentation in the shape of you

[from_the_outside]

Her room is closer. If he had to get up to take care of the goats, she'd walk them back down to the little hut by the lake, but K'Senge will still come by in the morning, and her room is closer.

"Follow me," she says, and steps back to take his hand in hers, then walks with him through the quiet halls of the Citadel until they reach her door. She unlocks it and draws him inside, then closes it firmly behind them again. 

Her heart is racing, anticipation chasing sweet fire through her veins as she puts her arms back around his neck. "Welcome to my humble abode," she murmurs, smiling, and kisses him.

Comments

[nerves_of_ice]

He kisses her back, lingering over the taste of her mouth, his hand warm at the base of her spine, just over her hip.

"Thanks," he teases. "I like what you've done with the place."

He hasn't bothered to look anywhere but at her.

[from_the_outside]

She breathes a laugh, giddy on his touch and how he's here and he's free, free, free. "You're a goof," she tells him, deeply affectionate.

She loves it. His cheeseball charm that's so different from any kind of polished pick-up line. He teases her and she teases him back like they're kids, like he's tugging on her braid just to get her attention.

It's adorable, and she adores him.

[nerves_of_ice]

"You noticed," he tells her, and kisses her again. He loves the sound of her laughter, loves the ways her eyes sparkle when she's teasing or being teased, loves the feel of her in the curve of his arm.

He doesn't know when or how or why he got so lucky, to have a friend like Steve, to have people like T'Challa and Shuri and the rest, to have Sharon in his life. He'll never be worth it, any of it, but all he can do is try.

[from_the_outside]

"I usually get there in the end."

She kisses him back, swaying slowly in his arm, enjoying the feel of his hand on her hip, how his palm and fingers skate over the silky material of this dress.

All of the bad choices she's made in her life. If he's the only good one, it'll all have been worth it.

[nerves_of_ice]

He laughs at that, very softly, feeling light and easy and free, all those things that he hasn't been for years.

Slowly, he traces his fingers up her back, along the long, beautiful line of her.

[from_the_outside]

She shivers as he draws his touch up along her spine, sinks a hand into his hair as she kisses him again with slow, lazy presses of her mouth to his, savoring the taste and feel of him, the shape of his lips, the slight scratchy brush of stubble against hers.

Her other hand drifts down along the slope of his left shoulder and over the curve of what remains before tracking down to spread her fingers over his ribs, feeling him breathe into her palm. "You are," she tells him, soft, "the most beautiful thing in the world."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Looked in a mirror lately?" he asks, as a thrill runs through him at the feeling of her touch, at the press of her against him.

[from_the_outside]

"My point stands," she teases, and kisses him again.

If she was better with words, she might have words for it. How part of it is, yes, his face and his eyes and his smile and his body, but most of it is just him. His goodness. His compassion. How hard he keeps trying. How he's never given up, even when all he could do was slog through the mud and mist and hope the direction he was moving was forward.

How he is with the kids. How he is with her. How he makes her feel cherished, protected, supported.

But she doesn't know how to say all that, so she just kisses him and hopes some of it comes through.

[nerves_of_ice]

He makes a quiet sound of disagreement with that particular conclusion, even as he threads his fingers through her hair at the nape of her neck and tilts her head to deepen their kiss.

[from_the_outside]

He can disagree all he wants; she just makes an amused sound and relaxes against him to kiss him back as she lifts her hands away from him to reach back behind herself and find the tab of her zipper.

Except he drops his hand to catch her fingers, and she pulls away just enough to look a question at him. "No?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Let me," Bucky murmurs, something dark and heated in his glance as he slips his hand under hers and presses his palm flat against her back. "I want to undress you."

[from_the_outside]

Just that look in his eye makes her shiver, and she nods, brings her hands back to his sides. "Okay," she tells him, warm and low.

"I'm all yours."

[nerves_of_ice]

He leaves his hand flat against her back as he lowers his head and trails a long, slow string of kisses along the neckline of her dress, from one shoulder down to the v-shaped point, back up to her other shoulder. He takes his time, noticing every small shift and movement she makes, enjoying the feel of her skin against his mouth.

Only once he reaches her shoulders again does he move, circling around behind her, kissing his way to the nape of her neck as he lifts his hand to pull her hair aside.

[from_the_outside]

She puts her left hand on his arm and her right on his shoulder to balance herself as she leans back, eyes sliding nearly shut as she watches him through dark lashes.

"I'm glad you like this dress," she murmurs, her right hand sliding to his neck and back to his shoulder again, warm and just slightly trembling with holding herself back. "Glad I finally got a chance to wear one for you."

[nerves_of_ice]

"The way you look in it..." He breaks off there and presses another kiss to her skin, then nips very gently at the nape of her neck as he slides his hand around to her front, pulling her back against him. He runs his palm over the silken material, deliberately shaping it to each curve from breast to hip and back again.

[from_the_outside]

She sighs and leans back against him, her temple against his hair, a warm flush following the track of his hand over her body. "Baby," she murmurs, luxuriating in the feel of him.

Embarrassing how often she'd dreamed about him. How much she'd craved him.

It might just be brain chemicals going haywire, but it feels like so much more.

[nerves_of_ice]

He kisses her shoulder, then the side of her throat, as he slowly draws his hand back over her hip and up between them to the top of the zipper. He catches the tab between finger and thumb and pulls downward with deliberate slowness, letting the fabric fall open with a soft whisper.

[from_the_outside]

Fabric slackens against her skin in stages, starting at her shoulders and following the track of the zipper until the once-beautifully fitted dress drapes in loose folds and she can feel his chest against her bare back.

Remembering his request, she doesn't move to slip it all the way off, just shivers under his kisses and waits for whatever it is he wants to do next.

[nerves_of_ice]

"This dress is pretty," he murmurs, resting his hand at her shoulder. "But you're beautiful."

With that, he slips it off first one shoulder, then the other, then pulls her back against him as it falls to the floor. Bucky puts his hand under her chin and turns her face towards him so that he can kiss her again.

[from_the_outside]

"I like that you think I'm beautiful," she tells him, soft as the dress falls away and she steps carefully out of it.

She leans back against him and turns her head willingly, dressed now only in bra and underwear and those strappy gold heels, and it's clear she's put more thought into what she wore tonight than just the dress itself because the lingerie, too, is something new and a little different, beautifully constructed of blush pink satin and lace. Nothing too frothy, but a marked change from her usual cotton underthings.

[nerves_of_ice]

She's a vision standing right there in the curve of his arm, golden and bright and gorgeous, as if she were truly an angel descended to earth, and he can feel the rush of desire try to hammer him to his knees.

"God, baby," he murmurs, drawing his fingers slowly down the front of her body, worshiping her with his eyes, "you're a dream come true."

[from_the_outside]

"Hey," she murmurs, smiling a little as she rolls her head back against his. "That's my line."

A literal dream come true, in some cases. She thinks about how frustrated she'd been with him after Leipzig, and then how hard he'd tried to keep her at arm's length when she first got here, and wonders how the hell she managed to convince him otherwise.

[nerves_of_ice]

He wraps his arm around her waist and coaxes her around to face him as he kisses her again, and then again, and again.

"I'm feeling a little overdressed here," he murmurs, eventually, a hint of laughter in his voice. "Want to do something about that?"

[from_the_outside]

"Someone should," she agrees, her tone serious even though her eyes and lips are smiling. "And it may as well be me. I'm right here, after all."

She runs her palms from his shoulders down over his chest and stomach and takes a long, lingering moment just slipping her hands up beneath his shirt to run them over soft, warm skin before tugging gently at the hem and pulling it up and over his head. He's all creamy tan skin and lean muscle and she absolutely stands by her previous assessment of him as the most beautiful thing in the world.

Tucking the fingers of one hand into the waistband of his pants, she runs her other palm back over his chest and leans in to kiss him again as she rubs the pad of her thumb gently over one nipple, then reaches down to undo the fastening of his pants. "Your shoes might get in the way, though."

[nerves_of_ice]

He shivers as she touches him, at the caress of her hands and the light pressure of her fingers, and takes a long moment to kiss her back before he lifts his head enough to say,

"You're right. Let me take care of it."

Bucky goes down on one knee, then the other, pulling the laces free and kicking off his boots. Once done, he cups his hand around her calf and slowly begins to slide his fingers upward, kissing along the inside of her knee, then her thigh, as he does.