Saying goodbye to the Howlies was sad but with each hug and pat on the back he gave, he also gave promises that it wouldn't be a year before he contacted them again. He caught Steve's smile from where he was leaning against the kitchen counter sipping on a coffee. They'd only been home for a few hours but all his friends had to leave already. Lives to get back to.
The wink his new husband sent him was a reminder that they had a life too, and one that was going to be filled with a lot of naked Steve for the next few days. That was enough to diffuse some of the sadness of his boys leaving.
When the door closed behind the last of them, he spun and stalked towards his husband.
"J, lockdown." He called out before he reached Steve.
"As you wish, sir."
"Strip baby." He tugged on his own shirt as Steve unbuckled his belt.
"It's my forfeit Buck, you gettin naked too?" Steve asked as he dropped his shirt onto the lump his jeans had left on the floor. He stood there in his Hawkeye briefs and a smirk and Bucky figured he should start believing in God again, just so he could thank him for the gift that a nearly naked, amused Steven Rogers was.
"Well sweetheart, I'm thinking we both need to be naked in order to christen the kitchen. And the living room. And probably the bathroom."
"Oh baby, you have the best ideas." Steve hoisted him onto the counter and Bucky accepted the praise because he did have damn good ideas.
An hour later they were drying off from a quick shower and then with a shit eating grin Bucky stole Steve’s towel and ran for it. He knew he couldn’t really outrun his husband, but the chase was fun. And it was fun when Steve tackled him over the back of the couch and they landed in a heap of still wet skin. Their play fighting devolved into yet more newly married sex, and that of course lead to another shower. Bucky wasn’t mad at all.
They finally called a pause on the sex-a-thon to find some food. They hadn’t had a full food delivery done since they were leaving on Wednesday for their honeymoon, so they made quick sandwiches and ate at the counter. Bucky had to continuously hold back a laugh at the image of Steve Rogers, legendary Captain America, eating a turkey sandwich in the buff. He seriously considered taking a picture for blackmail just in case, but he let that thought go in favor of just appreciating all that naked skin.
“Hey, I’m gonna start packing for Ireland. While we’re taking a break on christening the entire floor.” Steve finished his juice and blew Bucky a kiss before putting his dishes in the sink. Then he turned toward the bedroom and Bucky was left watching that perfect ass walking away. It wasn't his fault he ended up following it. He landed on the bed, propped up on one elbow and watching Steve sort his clothes. It was like a particularly odd fantasy, and Bucky had no shame in being unbelievably turned on. He got to watch the muscles ripple as Steve moved through their bedroom. He figured anyone would get turned on.
“Babe. I’m gonna need you to put down the socks and come over here. Yeah, that’s right, right here.” As soon as Steve was in grabbing range, Bucky had him yanked down on the bed.
“Hey baby. You’re unbelievably sexy, you know that?”
“Yeah, me sorting my socks gets you hot, huh Buck?” There was laughter in voice and Bucky was so damn lucky.
“Everything you do makes me hot baby. Now come kiss me a bit and then we’ll sort socks together. Hell, we can get punchy and sort our t-shirts too!” He was laughing when Steve leaned down to kiss him and then they lost time rolling around on the big bed. They were interrupted by Alpine mewling from the doorway.
“Oh, someone else needs attention too. Buck, you take care of her, I’m not really sure I want to mess with her and get attacked while naked.”
“Sure thing babe” Bucky slid out from under him and went to feed his cats. Calling out to Steve as he did. “Hey babe, we gotta make sure we get one of those sweaters while we’re in Ireland. I think you’d look super studly.”
“Do I want to look studlyy Buck?” He was leaning against the door, as nonchalant as he could be while completely nude. “I think I'd rather go for handsome, or dashing maybe.”
“Oh, you are both of them. And sexy. And hot. And gorgeous. But I think we can pull off studly too.” He pushed himself up into Steve’s space so he had to uncross his arms to hug Bucky close. “My goal is to make you feel so good about yourself that your confidence in daily life matches your confidence in that damn blue suit, and then let you loose in public so I can be there to tell everyone to back off, cause you’re mine.” He leaned in to kiss Steve softly, unbelievably proud of that look that he put in his husband’s eye.
“That sound good to you?”
“Yeah, baby. That sounds good.” Steve’s voice had gone all rough and it did things to Bucky. But before he could act on them, the front door was opening and Jarvis was interrupting them.
“I’m sorry sirs, he overrode me.”
Stove dove for the hallway, but not fast enough.
“My eyes!” Tony screamed out.
“We were under lockdown for a reason, Stark. So why the hell are you here?” Bucky ground out.
“I came to talk to Steve about Fury, because something came up. Why is he naked?” Tony’s voice got shriller the more he spoke. But then there was that metaphorical lightbulb and he whispered out, “forfeit.”
Bucky groaned and Tony’s eyes got huge. “Wait til I tell--”
“No one.” Bucky interrupted and stalked over to him quickly. “You're telling no one because that would be rude and inconsiderate, not to mention a gross violation of his privacy, and mine since we specifically asked Jarivs to put our floor under lockdown and you overrode that for something that was not an Avengers emergency.”
“I did tell you sir that since this was not an emergency, you should wait for them to take down lockdown.” Jarvis sounded like a disappointed father and Bucly was about to say that, but then Steve came out in sweats and a t-shirt and looking embarrassed as hell.
“What’s up with Fury, Stark?” Bucky wasn’t sure if that was a purposeful hit but he saw Tony flinch, which meant it landed whether Steve meant it or not.
“Am I back to Stark again Captain?” Tony’s voice went hard and Bucky could not see this ending well.
“Are you back to ignoring people’s privacy again? Because I thought we had gotten past this. I thought you had finally learned boundaries.” Bucky moved closer to Steve, because he was getting visibly upset and Bucky had to nip this in the bud before they actually fought. No one wanted that.
“Hey, let’s just calm down. Was the Fury information time sensitive Tony? If it is, tell us. If not, maybe we could meet in the conference room, or even in the common floor living room.” Bucky could hear his own voice mirroring the way his mother had always defused fights between him and Bex and he knew he’d have to take time later to digest the fact that he was clearly turning into her.
“Not time sensitive no.” Tony finally said. He was fidgeting with his hands and didn’t look either of them in the eye before he turned to leave. “I am sorry, yeah. Just tell Jarvis when you are ready to talk.”
Tony left and it was like strings getting cut, Steve slumped into Bucky’s shoulder. He maneuvered them over to the couch and let Steve slump even further, so he could wrap his arms around the bigger man.
“You don’t have to tell me now, but at some point, I think we should talk about why that upset you so much, because yeah, invasion of privacy, I can see that upsetting you and being embarrassed to be caught naked, I understand that. But that seemed more than that.” He didn’t push but he really hoped that Steve would confide in him. He was starting to think that his admission that he hadn’t been okay before was just a small version of the truth and if that was it, then Bucky was going to make sure his man got the help he needed.
“It just...” Steve stopped, his breath too fast.
“Take your time. Seriously. One word at a time if you have to. That’s what my therapist told me when I got back.”
“Reminded me of when I first got here.” He got out and Bucky took a moment to figure out what he meant.
“You mean, before you were friends? Did he do that a lot?”
“All the time. Just barge in.” Steve sat up, running his hands through his hair. It was sweet, but Bucky didn’t care how disheveled he was, if he was talking. “He poked and he prodded until he got a reaction. Took a long time for us to be actual friends and not just teammates.”
“That happens. Big personalities clash. I saw it all the time in the army.” He was rubbing up and down Steve’s arm and he was still too tense.
“I used to think he liked pissing me off, but he really just doesn’t understand proper social cues. And this, I thought we were past this and it just brought me right back to when I was so sad and angry all the time. I don’t want to be like that again. I’m happy, so happy with you. I just...I just want that to be in the past.”
“Okay. Thank you for telling me. And we can work on this.” He pulled Steve close again. “First, I think you should probably talk to a therapist. And I know you might not like that, but there is obviously some stuff that is pretty triggering for you, and you’ve been through so much, so I think talking to someone will help. I did that when I got home and it really did help so...”
“Okay. If you think so. They had me talking to a doc when I defrosted, but he ended up being Hydra, so, I guess, bad association.”
“Well yeah. Okay, I can get you in touch with the guy I used through the VA. Or talk to Sam, or hell, Morita if you wanted to.”
“Yeah, I can do that. I’m sure Sam knows someone good. And Pepper or Nat could make sure they’re vetted for my clearances. Thanks Buck.” He leaned down to kiss Steve’s head.
“Okay, and secondly. Now don’t get mad at me for this.” He waited but Steve just looked up at him with way too much trust. “Jarvis, will you please show Tony the footage of what Steve just said. Just the bit after Steve mentioned how it reminded him of when he first woke up, until he was done talking. Thanks.”
“As you wish sir. And I am sorry for the part I played in this incident.”
“Not your fault J. But, while we’re talking. What can we do to make it so Tony can’t do that again. I know he writes your protocols, is there a work around?”
“If you or Captain Rogers were to make a specific lockdown password that only the two of you knew, and asked me to not let anyone override your lockdown unless they had your specific password, that might work. At least for a little bit. Sir might take it as a challenge, but I can make him work quite hard to break that.”
“Thanks Jarvis.” Steve added. He was still watching Bucky like he was a god or something, and while normally he didn’t feel that special. He could understand that Steve appreciated this right now.
“Yeah Thank J.” He dropped another kiss at Steve, this time making it a sharp kiss to his lips. “Now, we can think of something so absurd that Tony can never figure it out. That work?”
“Yeah, you’re really smart, you know that. Thanks for helping me through this.”
“Anytime baby. We’re a team now.” He leaned down for a real kiss, something to smooth away the still tense edges, but Jarvis did his throat clearing thing.
“Sirs, sir would like to tell you that he and the spy twins can handle the Fury problem and you two are under orders to not bother with anything until you return from your honeymoon.”
“Okay. Thanks J and tell Tony we said thanks too.” Steve replied, his smile finally back.
“Now, I’m not gonna suggest you fulfil the forfeit, I think that ship has sailed. But I do think we can go back to working on christening the entire floor.” He waggled his eyebrows to make Steve laugh. It was a definite win when Steve stood, scooping him from the couch to head to the office.
“Good thing we got that couch delivered for the office, then, huh?”
“Yeah baby. Good thing. Let’s do this stud!” Steve laughed so hard he almost dropped him, but it was totally worth it.