Elevated

Nora spent an hour touring Bucky through musical artists she thought Sam was crazy for having missed.

The man definitely had an ear for historically formative music, but he hadn’t spent any time on recent pop culture hits. Nora started very seriously with big names and artists that had sold out the Garden. Then she let her choices get steadily more ridiculous. By the time she played Call Me Maybe, Bucky had clearly had enough. He rolled his eyes and turned to pin her flat-backed on the couch.

The music continued to play, but Nora didn’t register a single song with his mouth on her neck.

She only realized she needed to get dressed when her phone rang, a call from Jane she completely missed, and which was followed by a text asking her to bring a giant bowl. She left Bucky growling on the couch to find one, then locked herself in the bathroom to get ready.

She did her makeup and curled her hair into soft waves. She didn't know how to recreate what Darcy had done weeks ago, but she managed something similar with a couple small braids and a claw clip. She wouldn’t be able to sit back against a couch all night, but her hair looked good.

She spent a long time staring at the hickey Bucky had left on her chest just under her collarbone. She’d never had one before and understood looking in the mirror why he’d kept going back to trace his fingers across it. Her shirt covered it, but she knew it was there. And he did. She wondered if it had anything at all to do with their earlier conversation about jealousy.

She managed to pull on her stockings without getting a run and tugged on her skirt. The whole outfit was similar to something she’d worn before. And very different. Bucky was sitting in the kitchen when she finished, metal fingers tapping against the counter. The tapping stopped when he looked at her.

“I can’t believe you gave me a hickey.” She told him seriously. His eyes had stopped to linger dangerously at her thigh but flicked immediately up to her chest.

He pushed himself up, tongue flicking across his lip as he stalked toward her. His expression was predatory. “I like it.”

“I bet you do. I’ve never had one before.”

“I like that,” He muttered, taking a lock of her hair and twisting it around his finger, “You’re beautiful.”

Nora blushed at the compliment. His hand in her hair was extremely distracting but his words were interesting. Nora had been getting braver with the things she said to him, “Why do you like it?”

“You’re my girl,” he answered. He wound his fingers a little tighter in her hair, tipping her head back.

It was an old-fashioned phrase, the kind he threw at her sometimes that took a second. In another context Nora might have been annoyed by it. Found it sexist. But from Bucky’s lips it just felt loving. Possessive, yes, but not in a way she minded.

Nora hummed and he bent to kiss her, gently, like he was trying not to smudge her lipstick. Then he set his lips to her neck and wasn’t half as mild. Nora felt the heat of it all over. “I bet you’d like to know then,” his mouth stilled at the junction of her shoulder, “That nobody else has made me come with their mouth either.” Nora thought he did like knowing that. Could tell from the way he bit hard at her skin and then licked away the sting and sucked. Like he was going to put another hickey right where everyone could see it.

Her phone rang where she’d left it on the counter and Nora jumped, “Shoot.” She glanced at the clock with difficulty. Bucky didn’t seem inclined to let her go, “I’m supposed to be at Jane’s in five minutes, I have to go.”

Bucky made a furious growl that turned into words, “Fuck, sweetheart, don’t.” He kissed her neck again, drew a line upwards to the hollow under her ear, “Stay with me.” His left hand, the one he never touched her with, slid down her hip to hook under the hem of her skirt. He hitched up the leather, the width of his hand settling across her thigh. It was cool but her skin was on fire all the same.

Nora didn’t want to go. Not when he was practically begging her to stay. “I have to, it’s Darcy’s birthday.” She was breathless, the words came out quiet but Bucky heard and stopped anyway. His hands stilled and his tongue stopped its glide against her skin. “You could come with me?”

He made a noise she couldn’t quite figure out. A growl that was maybe upset, or maybe not. Slowly his hand slid back down off her thigh. He gave her neck one last lingering kiss and pulled away. “Okay.” He muttered. He tugged gently at the hem of her skirt, righting it the same way he sometimes did her collar.

“Okay?” She asked. He nodded. He didn’t look overly happy about it. Nora couldn’t blame him; she had been seriously reconsidering going herself. She managed to be thrilled, a wide smile breaking out over her face, “Does that mean you’re going to dress up for me?” She was joking. She didn’t think he owned anything that wasn’t a black t-shirt and jeans.

“Alright,” he answered. His lips twitched up. If he could see her surprise he wasn’t annoyed about it. He tugged his hands free of her hair and, with an obvious difficulty that made her warm, turned down the hallway to his room.

Nora watched him go and went to check her phone. Jane, again, telling her to never mind about the bowl. Nora was furious they’d been interrupted for something so dumb, and glad because she definitely wouldn’t have made it out of the apartment. It wasn’t fair. The way he lit fires all over her body, so easily. Every time he called her sweetheart, she thought she’d explode.

Bucky emerged from the hall. It had taken him no time at all to change and she was a little jealous, even as she was struck dumb. The entire outfit was still black. Instead of jeans he was wearing slim cut slacks of some kind. The shirt was a button up with long sleeves that he had rolled a couple times so she could see both the muscle of his forearm and smooth black metal.

“You’re beautiful,” she told him, stepping back across the room to run her fingers over his wrists, “I like this outfit.” A thought occurred to her, “Did you buy any of these clothes?”

“No,” he answered. He didn’t seem bothered about it. He watched her trace the veins of his arm, grinning. “We gotta go.”

“Hold on,” Nora bit her lip, “I’m changing my mind.”

Bucky laughed, the low dangerous one that made her shiver, “Can’t.” He gripped her hand and pulled her towards the door.

Nora frowned, “Alright. I don’t know how I’m supposed to play any games when you look like that, but I’ll try.”

The elevator ride was only one floor, but he found the time to press her against the wall and get her all wound up again. She was sure when the doors slid open that he’d done it on purpose but couldn’t for the life of her figure out why. He must’ve enjoyed the blush that lit up on her cheeks and refused to go away as they walked down the hall. He certainly wasn’t shy about touching her in public, but he was careful to be polite about it too. She wondered where the line was.

She knocked, then threw the door open at Darcy’s yell. Bucky was still looking at her like he was a predator, and she was something he wanted to eat, and she was having a hard time getting her face to cooperate and stop being so hot.

“It’s a party Nora, you don’t have to knock.” Darcy admonished from the kitchen. If she noticed Nora’s red face, she didn’t let on.

Nora squeezed Bucky’s hand once, then went to hug her, “I don’t want to be the kind of person that doesn’t knock.” Sam was greeting Bucky from the couch where he was sitting with Steve, Thor and Natasha. She gave him an acidic look that he didn’t notice at all, but Natasha did. She raised one perfect eyebrow. “Anyway, happy birthday.”

She tried not to watch as Bucky rounded the couch to sit in an armchair that put his back to the tower window but allowed him to follow her with his still dark eyes. He never sat with his back to a window and that he was choosing to do it now coiled something hot in her stomach. She did her best to ignore it, turning her body away and asking Darcy, “What’re you doing?”

“Mixing drinks.”

Nora thought that was pretty obvious. There was a huge array of bottles strewn across the counter, some of which she was sure were stolen from the bar downstairs. Darcy was pouring from several of them, into small plastic shot glasses on a tray. “I can see that, but how are you supposed to know which is which?”

“You aren’t.” Darcy answered, “Actually, you can’t be over here. Go away.”

“Why?” Nora asked. She was sure that if Darcy kicked her out of the kitchen and she went to sit anywhere near Bucky she’d start blushing again.

“It’s for the game! If you lose, you take a drink, but they have to be random.” Darcy set down the bottle of gin in her hand and turned to shove Nora towards the living room.

Nora really couldn’t see the evening going well for her if that was the rule. There were at least two kinds of tequila on the counter and Nora didn’t consider herself a drinker. Reluctantly she surveyed the living room. Natasha was cutting a sidelong glance at her. Her face was unreadable but she definitely knew Nora was being weird. Behind Nat, Bucky was also looking at her. He was sitting forward, his elbows on his knees and his hands curled together. The left shifted, pointing straight down at the floor between his feet.

Nora found it a little hard to breathe all of a sudden. What had gotten into him? He’d marked up her chest, called her his, gotten her all wound up, and now he was giving her silent orders in the middle of their friends living room? She wanted to sit with him and knew it was a terrible idea. If he so much as nudged her, she’d break into a blush and everyone would see it. As it was Natasha turned to look at Bucky, but there was nothing to see. He was looking at Thor, who was telling a story about some gnomish realm, his hands carefully loose.

Usually, Nora would do whatever she could to make him comfortable. She sat beside him at the Spruce and the diner, because he seemed to prefer it. She rearranged her dining table so that he could sit and see the entire apartment and the big bank of windows. But she would not be sitting between his knees. She was positive it wasn’t comfort he was looking for. It was something else.

She took a seat on the couch next to Steve instead.

“Hey Nora,” He greeted. He shot a confused sort of look from her to Bucky, whose face was as unreadable as ever, but whose metal fist curled just a little bit tighter.

“Nora!” Sam chirped, “Tell me you know how to play this game Darcy’s been going on about.”

Nora nodded, “Sort of. I’ve played it before, just not with Darcy’s party rules.”

“So you’re gonna win.” Sam joked. He had a beer in his hand which Nora knew was a mistake, looking at the kitchen where Darcy was still pouring.

“Probably not. I’m pretty bad at it. Do superhero skills translate well to video games?”

“Not even a little,” Clint shot from the door. He hadn’t knocked, just let himself in with Jane and Bruce on his heels. Nora could forgive him for it since Jane actually lived there.

“Hi,” Nora chimed along with the chorus of greetings from the rest of the living room. Thor shot up to greet Jane with a kiss, “I might do okay then. I can’t imagine Thor will be very good, and Bucky and Steve can’t have played much.”

Steve shook his head, “I’ve never tried.”

Clint flipped over the back of the couch to land beside Natasha. He surveyed her as Bruce rounded it like a normal person and took a seat in the empty place Thor had left on Nora’s other side, “Nice outfit.”

“Thanks,” Nora said. She was reminded of a conversation they’d once had in an elevator. Except during that conversation, Bucky had been entirely unreadable, standing like a stone. This time, he shifted. Nora thought they might be playing a different kind of game just the two of them, and that sitting on the couch had been a misstep. She caught the frown Steve shot at Bucky and knew he’d noticed the movement.

“Leather seems a little hardcore for you.” Clint teased, entirely unaware of the effect his words were having.

“Well, I’m a hardcore person now. I’ve blown up two different labs.” Nora thought she’d better figure out fast how to get across the room without being weird, because Bucky had started tapping the fingers of his good hand against his metal wrist. She glanced towards the kitchen, “What did you need the bowl for Jane?”

“We were going to have a mystery punch bowl, but Darcy thought shots were better.” Jane had removed herself from Thor and grabbed one of the trays to carry into the living room. She set it on the, for once, empty coffee table. Nora wondered where Thor’s hammer had ended up.

Darcy followed with another tray, setting it beside the first and announcing, “Listen up folks! The name of the game is Mario Party. Teams of three will be randomly assigned. You will select the player to compete in each mini-game, and if you lose you do a shot.”

Bruce frowned, “I don’t-”

Darcy waved a hand, “Or you pick a teammate to do it for you.” He nodded, appeased, “Okay, teams-”

Nora thought there were high odds that however the teams shook out, it wasn’t going to stop the tapping fingers of Bucky’s hand. That wasn’t good. Then it was worse, because the door flew open and Tony strode in, “Are you starting without me?”

Nora rolled her eyes. Darcy did too, “Show up on time and I wouldn’t have to.”

The teams, it turned out, were phenomenally unfair and extremely strange. Darcy, Thor and Wanda, who turned up a few minutes late with a wrapped gift for Darcy that she ripped into immediately. It was a novel and she was thrilled. Nora didn’t know whether Wanda played video games, but Darcy did, and Thor as far as Nora knew could drink as much as he wanted and feel nothing.

Clint, Natasha and Jane seemed fine. Nora expected Clint was capable, and probably Natasha too.

Sam, Steve and Bucky were a wildly unfair grouping. Two out of three were super-soldiers and would be entirely unaffected by the shots, but she supposed Sam was the only one likely to be good at the game.

Nora was stuck with Tony, who was deeply irritating, and Bruce who didn’t drink. That meant that whenever he played and lost, she or Tony would have to take his shot.

At least with the game being four players at a time, she was free to leap the back of the couch and go to the kitchen under the pretense of getting a snack from the counter. She felt Bucky’s eyes on her.

“Which character?” Tony asked Bruce, who shrugged.

“Yoshi!” Nora yelled at him, immediately regretting what had seemed like a strategic move letting him start.

“The fucking dinosaur? No, that's dumb.” He picked Wario, like that wasn’t even dumber.

Nora threw a balled-up napkin at the back of his head, “I guess that’s fitting. You and Wario have a lot in common. You’re both massively annoying.”

“Say that to my face, Silver.” He didn’t turn from the TV. Steve was shooting worried glances between them.

“Okay,” Nora rounded the couch, glad for the pretense as she lowered herself to the rug with a hand on Bucky’s knee. When she had her legs neatly folded under her and leant back against his shins, his fingers stopped tapping. “You’re massively annoying. Hey, I haven’t seen you in a minute, where do you get off letting the Spider-guy run around fighting crimes?”

Tony’s jaw dropped open. He cut a sharp look towards Darcy, who was entirely preoccupied with the fact she’d landed on a red space. Natasha’s eyebrows were raised. Steve looked nervous.

“Did you think I wouldn’t figure it out? You’ve seen me work, I’m not an idiot.”

“Listen-“ He started, and then she was saved from his reply by the minigame. Someone had skipped the practice and it started to a great deal of annoyed shouting.

Nora failed to pay too much attention. Bucky slid his knuckles up her spine, then wrapped his arm across her collar bone and gripped her shoulder. He muttered in her ear, “You avoidin’ me?”

“Yes.” Nora answered.

He hummed, “How’re you gonna make it up?”

And holy shit, Nora could feel herself burning but it wasn’t in her face. She regretted ever leaving his apartment. What the hell had gotten into him? He was giving her full sentences in that growling tone in the middle of a room full of people. She twisted to look at him and he tilted his head. From his expression, one would never know what he was doing. His mouth was a flat line, his expression unreadable, “Why’re you-“

He dipped his head, turned a little to put his mouth right at her ear, “You’re my girl.” He said for the second time, “Right?”

Oh, this definitely had to do with their earlier conversation, Nora thought. But who was he trying to show? Her or everybody else? Because she already knew, “Yes.”

“Okay, gross.” Tony announced, “Get your head in the game, Silver.”

He tossed the controller at her the second she turned her head and she was glad for Bucky’s arm on her chest because he caught the device easily. She hadn’t been watching but Clint must’ve won because everyone else was taking a shot.

Nora huffed. She really didn’t think she had it in her to manage whatever was happening with Bucky and win at the game. It was a good thing she and Tony were on the same team because Nora wasn’t competitive, but she would rather have died than lose to him. She did manage to win her minigame and was a little distraught about it. She explained the controls very rapidly to Bucky when it was his turn and then volunteered to take Bruce’s shot when he lost. It turned out not really to help, and her face still got hot when she felt Bucky’s fingers twisting a lock of her hair.

Nora looked at the tray of shots. It wouldn’t be enough. Not for three shots a turn in a thirty-turn game. At least a few of them were dummies. She’d seen Darcy filling some with water.

The night descended into chaos.

It was extremely rare that Bucky was called upon to use any sort of subterfuge.

He was a good actor and had been an effective spy. Those skills tended to be forgotten, because he’d been an even more effective assassin.

He was enjoying using them for something benign. Or mostly benign. As Nora drank she also got increasingly more fidgety every time he touched her. After three drinks, the blush on her face stuck and refused to budge. Steve and Natasha kept shooting him searching looks, but while they could see Nora’s reactions, he knew they couldn’t see what he was doing to elicit them.

It was barely anything really. A finger twined around her hair. The brush of his hands across her shoulders. The tap of his thumb on the hickey hidden under her shirt when he drew his hand back. Then she stood with a hand on his knee and disappeared down the hallway and he saw an opportunity.

The game was still going, but with a wave of swaying interest that had dipped as food was delivered. He expected that with Steve already surveying the spread with interest and Natasha locked in a conversation with Bruce, he had at least three minutes. Natasha would surely notice before that, but she wouldn’t be able to extricate herself immediately. Bucky could do a lot with three minutes. He waited until the general focus of the room was away from him and slipped down the hall. He leant against the wall, until the bathroom door opened.

Nora stopped dead. Her cheeks were a shade of pink that almost matched her lipstick. He took the two steps across the hall and she backed up to let him in. He didn’t close the door behind him. He needed to hear if someone came down the hall. He backed her into the counter and rested both hands on the marble at either side of her hips.

“Bucky,” She muttered, “What’re you doing?” He shrugged, bent a little so he could be almost level with her, “Someone’s gonna notice.”

“No.” He said, because they weren’t. Nobody was going to see shit. Not from him, “Want me to stop?” He wasn’t touching her. Hadn’t really since they left his apartment. He hadn’t ever tried to wind her up in public before. He’d kiss her in the elevator, yes, but not the way he had tonight. He wanted to prove the statement. That she was his. That he could kiss her and touch her the way that he wanted to, and it would be okay.

Nora didn’t hesitate, “No.”

He kissed her. Gently. Slid his tongue over her lip. She tasted like cheap vodka and expensive whiskey. He let his left hand slide down, tracing the line at her thigh where her skirt stopped.

“Bucky,” she muttered when he pulled away to fix his lips to her neck, “Is this about earlier? The jealousy thing?”

He hummed. It was a little bit. Because he wasn’t jealous anymore. He didn’t need to be. He had her. She’d said so. He gripped her hip and spun her to face the counter. He liked the gasp that wrenched from her lips, felt it all the way to his core. He had an idea, suddenly, of what he wanted to be doing. Instead, when Natasha stepped into the doorway, he was fixing the clip in Nora’s hair.

Nora’s poker face was awful. She let him finish and slipped past Natasha to scamper down the hall. Natasha watched her go and surveyed him, “What are you doing?”

He shrugged, “Nothin’.”

They sized each other up until Clint wandered down the hall. He gave them each a strange look, “What the fuck are you guys doing?”

Natasha made a noncommittal noise. Bucky shrugged. Then he shoved past both of them and returned to the living room where the game had commenced again to a series of shouting. The noise usually bothered him. Made it hard to focus on the space. It had almost made him miss Natasha; he’d felt her approach more than heard it. But he was finding increasingly that he didn’t mind. Not when it was his team that was causing all the noise.

He had a new goal. He wanted to get Nora back to his apartment and deal with that fucking skirt of hers properly. But she’d had a few drinks and he didn’t like that. They were only halfway through Darcy’s game, and with Bruce continuing to lose she was bound to have a few more. Well, Bucky’d had a few drinks too. A few drinks that had absolutely no effect on his sobriety. He sank into the couch beside Nora and watched her compete with Sam and Jane. When she lost, he took the shot glass from her hand and downed it.

Nora watched the movement with confusion. Then she blushed an even prettier pink.