Elevated

Nora was starting to understand Jane’s thing about Thor being gone making her bad at math. Bucky’s kiss had entirely robbed her of her focus two days before. Then she found out he was hurt and ran out of the lab altogether.

Nora refused to be bad at her job. No matter how much of her mind was occupied by how it had felt when he’d bitten her lip. She got to work the next day horrifically early. It was easy, she hadn’t slept a whole lot. She yanked on her headphones, the big ones with the noise canceling, and got to work. She said hello when she saw Bruce walk by towards the kettle, disregarded his confused look, and continued to work. By four she wasn’t sure if she’d ever gotten more work done in a single day.

She might’ve been inclined to stay late. She was in the middle of a section and she hated to leave them unfinished as a rule, but she’d already told Bucky she’d visit after work and she wasn’t going to make him wait.

“Bruce?” She stood and grabbed her bag but left her headphones on the desk. She could see needing them again.

Bruce looked up from his own screen, “Yeah?” He’d been shooting her searching looks all day. Probably because she’d swung from being a complete disaster to Jane’s particular brand of manic focus.

“I’m really sorry about yesterday. And the day before. I was pretty stressed but I swore I was going to be the best assistant you’ve ever had and I’m gonna stick to that.”

He smiled at her, “Nora you didn’t quit after the Hulk destroyed the lab. You are the best assistant I’ve ever had. I know you’re friends with Bucky, you don’t need to apologize for being worried.”

Of course, Bruce must’ve forgotten how weird she’d been before their mission too. That was probably for the best. She didn’t correct him on it, but said, “The Hulk didn’t destroy the lab Bruce. Jeeze, you’re as bad as that news lady with the big hair.” She scooped up her bag and Luna’s leash, grinning at his choked laugh, and tried not to run to the elevator.

Nora knocked on Bucky’s door because she refused to be the sort of person that didn’t knock and then was momentarily stressed about it. She didn’t want to make him cross his apartment to let her in. He knew she was coming, should she just walk in? Steve saved her from the spiral. She was grateful for half a second and then immediately annoyed he was there.

“Hey Nora.”

“Hi Steve,” she let go of Luna so the dog could run to the couch and say hi to Bucky where she could see his left hand hooked on the arm of the couch. “Hi Bucky.” It was a good thing Steve moved because she was coming in anyways. She dumped her bag on the island and rifled through it for her tablet, “Are you feeling any better?”

“Yes,” he sounded about the same as usual. He sat up and pet Luna, turning as he did to look at her. His ice-blue eyes were the same, but the way they warmed her to her core wasn’t.

“Sam said you heal really fast, but it doesn’t seem like fast enough,” she mostly ignored Steve where he’d taken a spot leaning on the island and was watching them with interest. She went to sit on the couch on Bucky’s left, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her to his right instead, wrapping his hand around her thigh the second she sank onto the cushions. He patted the cushion on his left and Luna hopped up so she could press against him too.

“Check it out, I made a map.” She held up her tablet for him to see, “It’s got all the restaurants within ten blocks and a randomizer. When it picks,” she hit the button and let it spin for a second, “you can cycle it again and it’ll choose menu options. Tony made fun of me for being slow at coding, but it only took me half a lunch break. Pretty cool, huh? I don’t know why I never thought to do this before, I always want to try new stuff and then chicken out.”

Bucky looked from the tablet to her. His mouth twitched, “Yes,” then he turned to look over his shoulder at Steve, pointed at the door, and said firmly, “Get out.”

Steve looked stunned, “Alright, Buck.” He raised his hands in a don’t shoot sort of gesture and started for the door.

Nora started to laugh at the look on Steve’s face and then kept laughing at the look on Bucky’s. His mouth was twisted almost like he was trying to smother a smile. Nora laughed until Steve had shut the door behind him and Bucky reached over to wrap a hand around the back of her neck and smother the sound with his lips. The thrill was the same as it had been the day before but this time there was no glide of his tongue or sting of teeth. Instead, he let her go and smiled.

If the earth cracked open and swallowed her, Nora didn’t think she would notice. It was the first time he’d smiled at her like that, a real smile, not a bare twist of his lips. She thought it might not look the same as it had all the way before the things that had taken it away, this was a hesitant hitch up at one side of his mouth, but she didn’t care. It was beautiful. It warmed her all the way through.

“Alright, Nora?”

“No. I mean yes. I just- you’re- sorry. I like when you smile.” The smile lingered but there was something else on his face too. Nora could have looked at him all day, but it seemed a little like her work problem and she’d never get anything done, “Do you know what you want to eat?” He shook his head so Nora hit the button on her tablet, “Hey, I wasn’t useless at work today. I didn’t lose a single pen.”

Nora had the forethought this time to bring Luna’s dinner. They ordered sushi and ended up with half a dozen different rolls. Nora liked most of them, but Bucky liked all of them. She found it intensely interesting and asked him a half dozen questions about foods he’d tried and whether he’d eaten them when he was young. He didn’t seem to mind her asking about his life before the war.

She slouched back against the arm of his couch and he surveyed her, frowning, for a long time before she tugged his hand and he took the invitation to stretch out alongside her. He hooked his right hand around her thigh and held it. She had FRIDAY put on Stardust and watched him almost as much as the film.

He almost had her convinced he was okay. That his injury wasn’t bothering him. But there was something about the set of his shoulders. She didn’t think he could not be in pain with half his body still bandaged (though he was more dressed today and she couldn’t see them all).

“Bucky?”

He didn’t turn, he was frowning at the witch on the screen, but he hummed softly.

“Are you in a lot of pain?”

His eyes snapped towards her. He opened his mouth to answer, then paused, like he had an answer and was reconsidering it, “Some,” he answered finally.

Nora frowned. She wondered if he’d been about to say no and how often that might be his answer when it wasn’t true, “Can I help somehow?”

“You are,” he answered.

Bucky wasn’t entirely healed, but he was sick of lying in his apartment.

He hadn’t thought about it in a while, whether he was making progress or not. It felt like progress that he wanted to be out. He was sure a couple of months ago Steve and Sam would have had to drag him back out into the tower, but by Friday he wandered down to the gym in the morning on his own.

It would’ve been different, he thought, if Nora didn’t have to work. She’d visited him every day after with Luna. They’d order something to eat and watch a movie and she’d lie pressed against him and not care if it was his metal arm she was leaning on. He got to touch her and kiss her and hear all the things she had to say about her day.

As much as he could’ve murdered Steve and Sam a few days before, the irritation had morphed into a reluctant kind of gratitude. He would have begged Nora to stay. He would’ve taken whatever she’d give him and he hadn’t managed to take her on a date yet. He hadn’t even managed to say more than two words to her that day.

He slumped on a bench, grateful his burns had stopped being so tender, and rolled his water bottle over in his hands. He watched Steve and Sam spar and considered the problem.

He wasn’t sure he could manage to go anywhere and be okay. He’d made it to the diner, he might be able to again, but he didn’t really want to leave in the middle if he started slipping. He could take Natasha’s advice, and do something in the tower, but he wasn’t sure how to make that work either. He tried to remember what dates used to look like and couldn’t really. He had vague memories of dancing but he’d never put that much thought into it. Maybe Steve was right about the way he’d dated before.

The doors at the end of the gym flew open and Clint stalked in, a scowl on his face. Bucky eyed him. He’d continued to sulk about his flailing crush and had bothered Bucky about what he’d said to Nora all the way up until he landed in Medical. Sam and Steve stopped what they were doing when Clint kicked an exercise ball and sent it sailing clear across the room.

“What’s your problem?” Sam asked, eyebrows furrowed.

Bucky thought he could probably fucking guess.

“I went to see Nora.” Clint announced, shooting a venomous look at Bucky, “I thought she could tell me what the fuck Bucky said. Guess what she told me!”

Bucky could feel it. The slow curl of the smile on his face. He knew exactly what Nora had said.

“Fucking nothing!” Clint cried, throwing his arms up, “Blushed bright red but this asshole didn’t say shit apparently,” He gestured to Bucky then froze at his expression. He looked dumbfounded.

Steve caught Bucky’s smile and grinned. Sam snapped his fingers, “I got it. He didn’t say anything. You’re asking the wrong question.”

Clint squinted at him, “Did you kiss Nora in her kitchen?”

“No.”

Clint threw his arms up again, “I don’t get it!”