[AU] protector and patron

[from_the_outside]

I'm going to protect you, no matter what.

That's what she'd said to Bucky just before they left Virginia for the Avengers compound, forced into compliance by Tony Stark. She can still see his wry smile, can hear the way he'd called her his guardian angel.

Well, she'd meant it. She'd meant every damn word, including the ones she'd spat at Tony in the form of qualifications. If I think for even a second that you mean to harm him, we leave, she'd said. And there's absolutely no question in her mind that Tony does intend harm.

Maybe not the physical kind. But if he's been edging his way into the room's security, up to and including searching it, then that is pretty fucking harmful and she's got a signed contract, negotiated between the Avengers and their representatives and the United Nations Joint Terrorism Task Force, that says she can make good on the verbal agreement they'd made what already feels like a lifetime ago.

God, she hopes he argues. She would love to have the chance to throw the Task Force lawyers in his face.

It's actually a closer to eight hours after Nat's call that the Quinjet settles on a landing pad outside, but Sharon is no less furious about the whole situation for having another hundred and twenty minutes or so to stew over it. 

"Morning," she says to a gaping Happy Hogan as she breezes through the entranceway. "Please tell your boss I'd like to see him at his earliest convenience. I'll be in the apartment, dismantling the incursions he's been making into my security system. Sound good? Great."

She doesn't break stride for even a second.

Comments

[from_the_outside]

Sharon makes a soft sound of acknowledgment and nods, but still asks,

"Any particular reason why not?"

There are plenty, probably. But whatever he says might give her better insight into what he's thinking.

[nerves_of_ice]

“They’ll wonder why you asked. Why you’re letting me see. It’s a vulnerability. A risk.”

[from_the_outside]

She wants to tell him to let her worry about all that, but she thinks of the way he'd said I won't risk you and swallows it.

"I can make some arguments for it, if it would help. But if you think it'll do more harm than good, let's forget about it. Find something else to help instead."

[nerves_of_ice]

He shakes his head again and flattens both hands against the countertop. After a moment, he starts to turn around, slowly enough to let her adapt.

[from_the_outside]

Sharon relaxes her hold on him and steps back enough to let him turn around in the loose circle of her arms, but doesn't let go, not unless it seems like he wants to break free.

"Okay," she murmurs, then tips her face up to him, eyes soft and heavy-lidded, hands warm on his back as she lifts up to kiss him gently. "Come here, sweetheart."

[nerves_of_ice]

He lets himself be drawn, pulling her a little closer as he kisses her back, slow and lingering over the feel of her mouth, the sweetness of her.

[from_the_outside]

When this kiss breaks, she kisses him again, relaxes against him, warm and inviting.

It hasn't been that long, but it's felt like a million years. And they don't have long, so she's going to savor every sweet second they manage to steal.

[nerves_of_ice]

He turns his face into her hair and holds her close. An occasional shiver runs through him, but he doesn’t otherwise move.

[from_the_outside]

Sharon sets her head against his shoulder and holds on, focusing on his slow, steady breath.

"How about a hike?" she asks. "Or we could go down to the river for a swim. There's plenty of time left in the day. We don't have to be cooped up in here."

[nerves_of_ice]

“I need to hide the program manual first,” he tells her. “I don’t know what else Tony would have been looking for, and I don’t trust him not to show up.”

[from_the_outside]

"Okay."

She pulls away, slipping her thumbs into her back pockets, and looks around. "Inside or outside?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“Somewhere naturally resistant to scanning technology, but protected from the elements.”

He shrugs. “I hid it inside a hearthstone there but did a rush job pulling it out. If he figures it out, I can’t use that trick again.”

[from_the_outside]

"Well, there are plenty of natural rock formations around here," she tells him. "We can wrap it up in plastic and hide it there, or maybe in the basement."

[nerves_of_ice]

“Basement for now,” he suggests, and walks out into the hall to pull it from his pack.

[from_the_outside]

It's not that her parents' house has an old bootlegger's hidey-hole or anything – that would have been helpful – but they at least find an old metal fishing tackle box that they can wedge into a hidden corner.

Not perfect. But good enough for the moment.

Sharon makes a face at the spiders that scuttle their way up the concrete walls and disappear into the shadows, then tips her head at the stairs. "Good for now?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“Yes. Thanks.” Bucky glances around the room and back at her.

“Want to get out of here?”

[from_the_outside]

"Out of the basement, definitely," she says.

"Out of the house, sure. Let me just put some sneakers on."

[nerves_of_ice]

He trails her up the stairs to the main level again, feeling vaguely like a lost puppy. The comparison makes him frown at himself.

“Where’s your favorite place around here?”

[from_the_outside]

"The river."

Sharon shucks out of her overshirt, stripping down to her white tank-top, and switches out her stylish ankle boots for a pair of beat-up old sneakers that she dug out of the hall closet. She ties her hair up into a ponytail that swings at the back of her neck and tugs on a baseball cap, then smiles at him.

"There's a really nice spot down there. I found it myself, back when I was a kid."

She holds her hand back out to him again, inviting. "Want to check it out?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Charmed, utterly enchanted, he laces his fingers with hers and steps close. “Lead on.”

He can’t resist, and doesn’t try. Bucky tugs at the bill of her cap and grins at her, small but real.

“Cute.”

[from_the_outside]

"Go Nats," she says, in reference to the stylized W on the cap, and grins back.

She's got CIA and SHIELD caps, too, but this one – slightly faded, broken-in, veteran of a dozen or more games at the stadium – is her favorite. "Come on."

Sharon draws him out the door and locks it behind them, then tugs at his hand, eyes bright beneath the bill of her cap. "This way."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Someday I'd love to go to a game with you," he murmurs, and follows her along the path toward the river, leaving the house behind.

[from_the_outside]

"Now that would be fun."

Her pace is relaxed and easy; she lets their linked hands swing between them as they walk. "Hot dogs, cold beer, baseball? Sign me up."

The path they're following is a little overgrown but still reasonably clear, the air beneath the trees dappled and cool. "I haven't gotten to go to a game in a long time."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Especially if they're Nathan's dogs." As they walk, he scans the forest around them for any signs of danger or threat, doing it as automatically as breathing.

"Neither have I."

[from_the_outside]

"You know what, I think they are?"

She lifts his hand to press a kiss to his knuckles. "Then we'll definitely have to do something about that, as soon as we can. "

Unlike him, she relaxes more the deeper they go into the woods. It's clear that she feels at home in them, that the trees and rocks are as familiar as her own house.

It's about a fifteen minute walk before the musical sound of streaming water comes floating through the trees, and she smiles. "Listen."