Elevated

Nora didn’t fall asleep until sometime after three. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d stayed awake so late but Bucky had insisted on returning the favour with his mouth between her thighs and then fucked her incredibly slowly into the mattress.

She was glad that he’d come over.

She woke up at seven and did her best impression of Bucky’s annoyed growl when he got out of bed. He kissed her and muttered, “We’ll be fast.” It confused her for a minute before she realized he was taking Luna for a walk. She loved that he liked her dog, and was glad that he was willing to walk her in the morning and let Nora sleep in. She did not love that it meant he was out of her bed.

She dozed and when he came back, she woke just long enough to pull him back into bed. She dozed a little more with her head on his chest. He’d apparently decided four hours was enough sleep and tapped at a crossword on his phone with one hand, letting the cool knuckles of the other trace circles on her back. She made happy little humming noises whenever she woke up enough to notice.

When she woke for real at ten, she sat up at his side to survey his work. Bucky’s crossword knowledge was all over the map. A lot of contemporary trivia went by him, but she could see Sam’s influence in his shocking knowledge of musical artists. Prompts about the city or from the world in general before the war finished, he always got. Everything in between was a crapshoot.

He could name a handful of French models from the seventies, but not the cereal brand with a tiger mascot. He knew the name of a famous Berlin rave, but not the military TV show featuring Alan Alda. He had once made an extremely upset noise when she asked if he knew the name of the assassinated Turkish politician from the nineties, before typing it into her phone. She wondered if he’d been involved, and decided it was best not to ask. They spent twenty minutes finishing it together. Nora was passable with contemporary, and excellent with scientific or geographic trivia. She had never managed to finish a puzzle completely on her own and liked that he filled in the gaps.

It was almost noon by the time Nora managed to roll out of bed, “Cereal?” She asked, reaching for the shirt she’d discarded the day before. Bucky made an irritated noise and she reconsidered her plan, “Okay. Diner?” She swiveled and told him, “But if we go today, you’re on the hook for my hangover breakfast tomorrow.”

Bucky nodded his agreement, his eyes pinned appreciatively on her bare chest.

“I have to shower before we go. And pack a bag.” She stood and frowned towards her closet, “I don’t know what the heck to wear to this party.”

“The skirt.” Bucky said immediately, “The black one.”

Nora felt her face get hot. She knew exactly the skirt he was talking about. He’d called her beautiful when she’d worn it the last time. She could wear the black skirt. Or- “I think I’ve got something else you might like.” She yanked on her shirt, grinning at the growl that came out of him, and went to her closet. It only took her a second to find.

It was, all things considered, very similar to the one he liked. A little shorter maybe. The difference was that unlike the one he’d seen which was cotton, this skirt was leather. Nora wasn’t really sure what had possessed her to buy it in the first place. She didn't think of herself as the type of person to wear leather. But Bucky wore leather. She was extremely glad for her lapse in judgement, at the sight of the expression on his face.

He followed her to the shower.

Nora put on jeans and a sweater to go to the diner because she had a sneaking suspicion if she put on the skirt, they wouldn’t make it out of the apartment. She’d recruited her neighbour to take care of Luna for the night and knocked on her door before they left to say thanks. They had a short conversation during which the young woman didn’t look at her once. Nora couldn’t really blame her. Not with Bucky standing over her shoulder looking the way he did.

She didn’t remember until they hit the sidewalk that he’d driven a motorbike to her apartment. Nora stalled. Bucky watched her fidget from where he stood next to it.

“Alright, Nora?”

“No.” She answered immediately, “I don’t think I can ride that thing.”

His lips twitched. She couldn’t tell if he was upset or thought it was funny, “Scared?”

“Yes.”

He reached for her and she took two reluctant steps to take his hand, “I’ve got you.”

Nora frowned at the bike. She believed him. The traffic was minimal near the tower on a Saturday and he had superhuman reflexes. She still didn’t like it, though she thought she might like watching him ride the bike by himself. “Okay,” she muttered, “But if I don’t like it, I’m walking from the diner.”

Bucky nodded and swung his leg over the bike. Nora fidgeted for a long minute. She knew her doorman was watching her and probably judging them both. She kicked her leg over the seat and wrapped her arms firmly around Bucky. He patted her hands gently.

She didn’t like riding the bike, it turned out, but she knew when they got off at the diner that she would get back on when they were done eating. It was a little scary, but she knew she was safe with Bucky, and she didn’t really want to leave him and walk. It was also, she was forced to admit, pretty hot. Bucky was entirely confident in what he was doing and drove with an ease he didn’t often have. It reminded her of the way he was in her bedroom. Entirely unwound and self-assured.

Doris wasn’t working. Instead, a lanky young man with reddish hair poured their coffee and handed them menus that Nora didn’t particularly want to open. She’d decided she liked Clint’s method. Bucky ordered a waffle and Nora ordered French toast.

The lanky server, who had introduced himself as Ben, checked on them half a dozen times and didn’t look at Nora once. When they stepped out of the diner and back into the afternoon sun, Nora said, “You’re popular today.”

She’d noticed it before. The looks he tended to get when they were out. It made perfect sense to Nora. He was beautiful. Why wouldn’t people stare? She certainly had the first time she’d seen him in gym. Although his shirt had been soaking wet and clinging to his abs at the time.

Bucky glanced at her, frowned, then looked back through the diner window at Ben who was still gazing longingly at him from behind the counter. His lips twitched into a little grin, “Not my type.”

“No? Too tall?” Nora asked. She was a little relieved at his smile. He had spent his formative years Catholic during the Great Depression, after all.

“Yes.” He answered with seriousness.

Nora blinked. She really couldn’t tell if he was joking. She had to ask, “Have you dated men before?”

Bucky chewed on the question. The set of his spine changed. Straightened just a little. “Not dated.”

“Huh.” It wasn’t the answer she was expecting and it seemed fraught with all kinds of historical implications. She wanted to ask him a slew of questions about his previous relationships and didn’t think she could manage it.

“Nora?” He prompted.

Nora clicked her tongue, “I have questions, but I don’t think I can ask them. I’ll get jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“Yeah.” Nora remembered they were supposed to be heading back to the tower. She took his hand and started up the sidewalk toward Steve’s bike, “I mean obviously you’ve been with other people, I just don’t like to think about them too much.”

Bucky inclined his head back towards the diner, “He make you jealous?”

“No.” Nora answered, “You weren’t touching his thigh.”

Bucky’s grin was wolfish.

Bucky didn’t realize he might’ve made a mistake until Nora asked the second question.

If he was back in the time he was meant to live in, it definitely would have been. He was just so used to answering Nora’s questions. Was getting used to laughing with her. He answered the first without thinking.

He had so much to be ashamed of, things he’d done that were awful, that it didn’t even occur to him that maybe he was supposed to be ashamed of things that weren’t. He wasn’t, but his priest when he was fifteen sure tried to convince him he should be. But of course, Nora didn’t mind. Nothing she learned about him ever seemed to bother her. Except maybe the pizza thing. He still couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

It was interesting to him that she thought she’d be jealous. Why should Nora be jealous? He’d been with other people, but he’d never considered asking any of them to run away with him. He thought about asking Nora every other week. The notion was entirely ridiculous. Not to be compared at all to his own jealousy. The hot wave of it that hit him when people touched her. Or stood a little too close to her. Or texted her. The overwhelming stab of it when she’d gone on a date.

He felt poorly for it even as he knew the feeling had helped push him steadily closer to Nora. First for coffee with her, then to get a phone, and to tell her finally that she was beautiful like he hadn’t been thinking it since the first time he saw her in her lab and knew she wasn’t afraid of him.

He was sure he was right to be jealous. Nora was good to everyone. Fucking gorgeous and sweet and smart and at some point he was sure she would realize that he was still broken and not remotely good enough for her. Then she would find someone else and be gone, and Bucky would be alone because if he couldn’t be with Nora he didn’t want to be with anyone at all.

He thought in the elevator up to his floor, Nora’s hand in his and listening to her hum a tune he didn’t know, that maybe he should tell her properly.

“Hey, has Sam had you listen to Taylor Swift?”

“No.” He answered automatically. The name was familiar, he knew she was a singer but couldn’t bring a single song to mind.

“Oh man, what a gap.” Nora said, “You’re either really gonna love her, or really hate her.” She gasped and turned to face him, “What about Adele?”

“No.”

“Well, you’re for sure gonna like her! Oh dang, and then we’ll have to start watching James Bond movies! They’re about spies but like, not the real kind.”

He listened to her jump through a series of seemingly unrelated suggestions, nodding along because he would do anything if she told him he should. He wasn’t quite ready. If his fear was right, he wanted a little more time with her before he proved it.