Grade A American Beef

All the baby books in the world could never really prepare a man for the raising of two daughters. Paul Lewis could attest to this. He and his wife started out on the journey of parenthood with all the dew-eyed hope that was expected of a young couple deciding they were ready for a family. Hah, as if deciding to do something actually had any relevance to being prepared for it.  

When it came to his girls, though, Paul was sure they went above and beyond what could be expected when having children. They were both brighter than he could have ever hoped for, being not particularly a studious man himself, but they had inherited his penchant for mischief. Their intelligence and impishness combined rather potently and he found himself constantly confronted with predicaments that required him to step in and discipline them as children. Which was a Herculean task when a man was trying his damndest not to bust into red-faced hysterics at their hijinks.

His girls certainly kept him laughing and always on his toes. Yep, the curveballs started early and they just kept coming. He certainly never expected his little Darcy to bring home a stray superhero and ex-brainwashed assassin. He was absolutely positive that none of the baby books mentioned anything like that. Paul briefly considered writing one that contained his own personal parenting experiences. If anything, it would at least be a good laugh.

As far as curveballs go, Barnes had turned out to be a decent sort. Maybe a little skittish, but Paul had encountered very few young men that didn't get like that around his girls at first. They could be...overwhelming, but in the most spectacular way.

Packing up his suitcase into the back of his old Camry (it wasn't the best looking car, but the gas mileage was much gentler on his wallet), he took a moment to gather up his thoughts, tucking them away into his heart to examine later when he was back home. He hated having to leave, but time, tide, and car repair waited for no man. That time of year was particularly busy for him due to the regular collisions caused by the inclement weather, so he would have to miss ringing in the new year that night with his family.

He took a moment pull his daughters and granddaughter into a fierce hug, pressing kisses to three heads of soft curls, breathing in the scent of them. Despite being grown now, his babies still smelled like they did when they'd crawled into his lap to take a nap, or share a snack, or to seek comfort for a childhood hurt. He didn’t even try to stop the tear that slowly leaked down his cheek.

Letting go of his girls, he turned and said his goodbyes to Rob, pulling the taller man into his own tight hug. He loved the boy like he was his own, loved how tenderly he cared for his eldest daughter. A good man and a good fit for his Angie.

Lastly, Paul turned to Sergeant Barnes. It was a very strange thing to meet your childhood idol. It was even stranger that Paul looked like he was 30 years Barnes’ senior and that the man stared at his daughter in a way that made Paul think he should start airing out his father-of-the-bride tux. Fortunately, he had learned to embrace the strange years ago when Angie had gone through her reptile phase as a toddler and started collecting various snakes and lizards from their yard.

Bucky stuck his hand out, intending to send Paul off with a respectful shake. Hah, not in this family, Paul thought to himself. He used Bucky's hand to lever himself onto his toes and reach the taller man’s shoulders and then pulled Barnes into a hug. He smacked Bucky on the back a few times in masculinity-affirming affection and then pulled back to kiss him full on the mouth for good measure. The shock on Bucky's face was completely worth it.

Bucky was still standing there at the curb shell-shocked when Paul Lewis’ little grey Camry rolled off down the street and around the corner. The women made a quick escape to the warmth of the house, chuckling all the way up the walkway, so Rob was left to deal with the poor man.

Rob reached over to him and took his arm in a show of solidarity. “They are an incredibly affectionate family. You get used to it...eventually,” he said, pulling Bucky around to start the trek back up to the house. He was sympathetic but he wasn't going to stand out there freezing his ass off forever. Not all men were pumped up on cold-defying superjuice.

“He do the same to you when you first met?”

“Yep. Angie calls it the ‘Kiss of Approval’ and it is a hard won prize. Welcome to the club, Bucky. Lucky us, eh?”

Bucky chuckled, his blue eyes sparkling in the crisp December air. “Yeah, lucky us.”

***

“Are these necessary, doll? Your sister insisted.”

Darcy glanced up from the pot of chili she was stirring, only to completely lose her shit at the sight of Barnes in one of those kitschy pairs of sunglasses that people wore to New Year's Eve festivities. This particular pair was a vibrant blue with blinking LED lights along the edges and in the style of the infamous Kanye shutter glasses. Barnes looked beyond ridiculous and still dead sexy at the same time. A man of many talents.

“Yes. Those are absolutely necessary. Angie made the right call.” She bit back on the grin that was trying to break free.

Bucky pushed the glasses to the top of his head so he could level the full wrath of his glare upon her. “I look like a goddamn idiot.”

“I haven’t a clue what you mean, dear. You look positively stunning in those glasses,” Darcy replied, using her best Tim Gunn impression.

“Oh yeah?” Bucky challenged, strolling over to her with deliberate swagger and stopping just close enough to rest a hand on her hip. With the other, he reached up to flip the glasses back down over his eyes. “Tell me doll,” he said, flicking his tongue across his lips, “do they make me look pretty?” He blinked his deep blue eyes at her, his dark lashes falling and rising heavily behind the blue glare of the glasses.

“Mmm, so pretty,” she breathed, eyes flitting between the absurd glasses and the full pout of his mouth. So close, so stinking close. Why wouldn’t he kiss her already, she thought, with not a small amount of desperation. Seriously, she was only human, how much patience was she required to have in this situation? Maybe she was being punished. Yeah, this was definitely punishment for some sin in a past life or something. She suddenly felt a striking kinship to Tantalus, the poor schmuck

Taking a slow, steadying breath through her nose, she turned back to her pot of chili, sweeping the wooden spoon through a few more times, trying to ignore the fact that Bucky still had his hand low on her back and was steadily moving closer. “Wanna taste?” she asked, lifting the spoon and blowing lightly on the contents.

As she turned to present Barnes with the spoon, she thought she heard him mumble, “God, yes.” There was a fleeting glimpse of confusion when she lifted the spoon up towards him, followed by understanding. “Oh, the chili.”

Darcy quirked an eyebrow up in smug recognition of the same tortured gleam in his eyes that she’d been sporting for days. “Yes, Jamie, the chili. Unless you see anything else in this kitchen that needs to be tasted?”

Darcy watched mercilessly as Bucky stumbled and stuttered his words for a minute. Checkmate, Barnes. She pushed the spoon into his hand. “Here. You taste and give the pot a few more stirs. Add any seasoning you think it needs. I trust your judgment. I’m gonna go get my party attire on.” She gave him a gentle pat on the cheek and sashayed out of the kitchen, sliding her sock-covered feet across the tile as she went.

She really did need to get ready, anyway. They were all invited to a New Year’s party at the home of one of Angie’s colleagues. It was a potluck, hence Darcy’s chili recipe being dusted off, and casual, but a shower and a cute blouse were still necessary before they could head over.

Bucky made protests earlier that day about his invitation, worried that being around that many strangers would trigger him into a murder spree or panic attack. Angie had assured him that it would be a smallish gathering, and they were bringing Violet so they’d have a built in excuse to leave early. Rob had promised him that they’d only stay an hour, tops. Bucky had reluctantly agreed when Darcy had slipped her hand in his, assuring him she’d stay with him the whole time.

She had decided the guy needed to live a little. He couldn’t avoid strangers for the rest of his life. There were 7 billion people on the planet and he knew only the tiniest percentage of them. The odds were against him if he thought he could avoid new people forever.

***

The party had gone...well, not spectacular, but nobody had died and Bucky hadn’t had a panic attack, so it was technically a successful venture. Except for the fact that Darcy had spent most of the time fending off overly interested grad students from Bucky, or Brandon, as they had decided to keep his true identity on the D.L. The name change and the Kanye glasses had gone a long way in hiding his identity, but there wasn’t any way of hiding the fact that Bucky had a body like Adonis and the kind of bone structure worth weeping over.

And, by god, those liquored up grad students had it out for him. There was one in particular that Darcy thought she was going to have to beat away with a baseball bat. She might have fantasized about it a bit, the vision of smacking the willowy redhead across her perfect teeth playing on loop.

At first, Bucky was disconcerted by all the sudden attention, but when he noticed the way Darcy’s smile held a gleam of menace to it and her normally lax posture was stiff, he instantly relaxed as he recognized the signs of female jealousy. It became a very entertaining evening after that. There was definitely a possessive edge to the way she touched him whenever any of the overly attentive party goers would get too close. At one point, there was a redhead that he thought was going to be disemboweled by the iciness in Darcy’s eyes alone.

The woman really couldn’t take a hint, flaunting cleavage that was too large for her slender frame and too firm to be anything but store bought. She also had some of the grabbiest hands he’d ever seen, finding excuses to touch his shoulders and chest frequently, even though Darcy was quite obviously tucked into his other side, his arm draped over her shoulder and hers gripped possessively around his hips.

With each offending touch, he could see the blush of anger rising up Darcy’s pale throat, the outrage clear in her wide blue eyes. While he enjoyed seeing Darcy’s bit of a jealous streak, this woman was getting dangerously close to turning his girl into a murderer, so he stepped in and did the honorable thing: lied through his teeth.

“Well, it was nice to meet you, ma’am, but I think I should go get my lovely wifea drink now.”

The redhead’s face had pinched in disdain and she briefly glanced at their ringless fingers. “Your wife? I don’t see any rings,” she directed at Bucky, continuing her pattern of ignoring Darcy’s existence.

“No time to buy any,” Darcy interjected through gritted teeth. “We eloped. One of those things where the sex is so maddeningly passionate that you just know they’re The One. Anyway, if you’ll excuse us, it’s getting a little warm in here so I’m going to need my husband to take me out to the car now and help me out of these clothes. With his teeth. Have a nice night, Pamela.”

“It’s Stacey.”

“Okay,” Darcy replied, infusing as much bitchiness as she could muster into her plastic smile.

She dropped her grip on Bucky’s hips to slip her hand into his back pocket, grabbing his ass and using it to lead him over to where Rob and Angie were showing off their infant daughter to anyone who wandered close enough. Bucky flinched at the way her fingers dug into his ass through the denim in a rage-fueled death grip, but thought it best not to comment on it.

Angie glanced away from her daughter in time to notice their approach, both brows lifting in concern at Darcy's expression. “Time to go?” she asked.

“Yep,” was Darcy's terse response.

“Ooooookay,” Angie said, turning to their hosts. “Thanks so much for inviting us, we had a great time, but we ought to get this little one to bed.”

With some hugs and a few waves at various members of the party from across the room, they made a quick escape to the car. Rob and Angie occupied the front seats, while Bucky and Darcy sat in the back with Violet strapped into her car seat between them. Angie knew better than to comment on her sister's foul mood, and instead turned on the radio to something soothing and bland to fill the tense silence of the car.

Bucky crossed his arms over his chest, smiling in the dark of the car. He waited maybe five minutes to allow Darcy to cool off a bit before turning to her with a cheeky grin. “With my teeth, huh?”

“Shut your pretty mouth, Barnes, or, so help me, I will make you walk the rest of the way home.”

Bucky's full-throated laughter was his only response.

***

It was three minutes to midnight and he and Darcy were the only two people in the house still awake. Violet had been asleep in Darcy's arms for nearly half an hour while her sleep-deprived parents had passed out in an exhausted pile on the couch two hours earlier.

The two of them sat on the floor with their backs leaned against the bottom of the loveseat, watching the televised festivities in Times Square. It certainly had changed since he'd been a young man, the chaos of the event ratcheting up to a level he would never have even dreamed of. Even the ball that was going to drop was a chaotic swirl of color, the advanced technology of this decade making the iron and wood ball he'd seen lit as a boy look like a relic.

It technically was a relic, though, he supposed. As was he, for that matter. Glancing at Darcy in the darkened room, he watched as the shifting colors of the tv screen reflected entrancingly off her pale skin. For once, he didn't mind being a relic so much. He felt like maybe he appreciated the benefits of this decade far more than someone who was born to it. Everything was more intense, every experience held more promise. It was a good feeling.

Angie let out a soft snore, catching the attention of her younger sister who snorted and rolled her eyes. “Pathetic, they couldn't even make it to 10. They're gonna miss out on their midnight kiss.”

“People still do that?” Bucky asked, eyes roving her face with curiosity.

“Kiss at midnight? Of course. Why, you think you might get lucky?” Darcy asked quietly so as not to disturb her niece. Despite the teasing tone of her words, her eyes glowed solemnly in the soft, shifting light of the television.

Bucky leaned into her, lifting his arm to drape over shoulders, one thumb stroking idly across her bare upper arm. Their gazes locked together in a seemingly unending moment of stillness and potential, their breathing slowing and deepening with the heat passing between them. In the background, Bucky could hear the crowds begin the ten second countdown. He smirked at her, drawing closer with each passing second.

Three

Two

One

He grinned impishly at her, his mouth bare inches from hers, but before she could tilt her chin up to meet him, he ducked down and planted a smacking kiss to the top of Violet’s sleeping head. He pulled back quickly to judge Darcy’s reaction, smirking at the dazed confusion flitting across her features. Thinking back to the night she’d robbed him of his goodnight kiss, he gave a smug tilt to his head before speaking. “Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it, doll?” he said with a wink.

Bucky had expected more teasing from Darcy, threats of bodily harm, laughter, anything other than how she actually responded.

She gave him a tight smile, jerking her head down to hide the fleeting disappointment there. “Yep. It sure is,” she said lightly. “Happy New Year to me.”

Then she was pulling away from him, her face and posture closed off and lacking the warmth that he’d grown so familiar with. She rose carefully to her feet and walked the short distance to the master bedroom. He watched her disappear into the room for a moment, before returning sans Violet. She scooped up the dirty glasses that were scattered about the living room, refusing to look at him, and made a quick retreat to the kitchen.

Oh fuck. He’d messed up. Gone too far, pushed too hard. He’d thought that she was having fun with their flirting. Thought that she wanted him….so what the hell had that been all about? Bucky sat there in the dark, brain scrambling for purchase on any idea that made sense. She’d looked so disappointed in him, like he’d personally let her down with his teasing.

Could...could the reason that she hadn’t made the first move be because….no. Surely not? She was the kind of woman that didn’t wait around for something she wanted. She went out and got it. But maybe...maybe she’d been waiting on... him?

Oh fuck.

Oh fuck.

Of course she was waiting for him to move first. This was the same woman that he’d seen rant for forty minutes on CNN about how Hydra had stripped him of his mental and physical autonomy, her outrage pouring out of those perfect lips like a soul-cleansing fire. And that was before she’d ever even met him.

With something like steel settling into his spine, Bucky rose from his place on the floor, fists clenched in determination and stomach flipping with anxiety. God, he hoped he was right or he was about to make the biggest fool of himself. Worse than the nose hair trimmer thing. Oh god.

***

When Barnes’ hulking frame suddenly filled the kitchen entryway, Darcy looked up from where she was rinsing a glass in the sink. Taking in the tension rolling off his entire body and the way his eyes were set in grim determination, Darcy thought it best to gently set the glass in the sink and turn to face Barnes head-on, because he was either about to murder her or kiss her senseless. Both scenarios called for one’s full and prompt attention.

Raising her hands in front of her in a defensive or possibly placating gesture, Darcy spoke his name in a gentle tone. That seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he’d been under that had kept him stockstill in the doorway. She wasn’t entirely sure if that was good or bad, because the next moment he was moving straight towards her, murderstrut on full and terrifyingly sexy display.

She backed up in sync with his rapid approach until her hips hit the kitchen counter. Within moments, he was directly in front of her, pressed against her from hip to knee. His hands darted into her hair, fingers curling against her scalp as he brought his forehead down to rest against hers, their eyes simultaneously closing and noses slotting next to each other. Okay, not murder then. He seemed to be going with option number two. That seemed like a stellar option. Spectacular, really. Kisses and no murder, what more could a girl ask for?

Darcy’s already labored breathing quickened with the rush of desire and adrenaline in her system. She lifted her hands from where they were trapped between their chests, running them up the long line of his neck until they settled on either side of his head, thumbs resting at the juncture of jaw and cheek. She scraped her thumbs across the stubble there, feeling him shiver under the light touch. She could feel his warm breath fanning out over her mouth in short, labored bursts that matched her own.

It was the perfect moment for him to tilt his chin that last little bit to bring their lips together, but Darcy counted her rapid heartbeats as they slipped past without any further movement from him. It was then that she noticed he was trembling from head to toe.

“Hey Bucky, honey, whatcha doing?” she asked without breaking from her position against him, her eyes still tightly closed. Her tone was lighthearted, meant to set him at ease. It had the desired effect, causing a light chuckle to escape from his lips and brush across hers.

“I was thinkin’ about kissing you, sweetheart.” His cocky tone couldn't quite cover the gentle tremor in his voice.

“Hmm, you know I generally encourage thoughtfulness, but in this situation I think action would be preferred.”

He hummed his agreement, but still seemed to be frozen to the spot, shaking even harder than he was a moment before.

“Um, Bucky, I can’t help but notice that you are shaking like a leaf. Is everything ok, buddy?”

She felt his fingers curl tighter into her hair and he nodded against her. “Yeah...just, just a little scared.”

His admission had Darcy's eyes popping open in surprise and pulling away from him to look at him properly. “Scared? Of what?” she asked in mild alarm.

Bucky shrugged his shoulders self-consciously, eyes still tightly closed and brow wrinkled slightly in shame. “Dunno. Scared you don’t...don’t want me.” His blues eyes finally opened, the painful insecurity shining in them causing Darcy’s breath to catch in her chest.

She gave him an encouraging smile and tugged playfully at the short hairs at the nape of his neck. “Of course I want you, Bucky.”

“Really?” His shy smile had her stomach doing gold-medal worthy acrobatics.

“Uh, yes, really. For godssake man, have you seen yourself in a freaking mirror lately?” she teased.

His metal hand twitched in her hair and the smile slipped a bit from his face. “Ah no, not lately. Not without a full blown panic attack, anyway.” He pulled her closer to him, burying his face into the soft skin of her neck, not quite ready to see her reaction to his confession.

Darcy’s eyes widened in shock and dismay, but then fluttered closed at the sensation of his eyelashes brushing the sensitive skin of her throat. “Um, okay, we’re...we’re going to put a...thing, a pin, that’s the word I’m looking for, a pin in that heartbreaking revelation and come back to deal with that at a later time because, oh my god that’s awful. ” She felt him nod in agreement against her, but he didn’t say anything further.

“So, just to be clear, I do want you, James Buchanan Barnes, very very much. Okay?” Again she felt him nod against her and his shaking had stilled for the most part but still… “Okay, why aren’t we kissing already?” she asked bluntly, her patience having finally run out.

Bucky groaned and pulled out of her warmth, releasing her completely to run his hands through his hair. “Because...because, I can’t remember the last time I kissed anyone. Literally. I know that I probably kissed a bunch of dames back before I was the Soldier, but I can’t fucking remember them or how I did it!” His eyes darted around the kitchen, an edge of desperation seeping into his voice. “Hell, I feel like some 14 year old kid again that’s never even held hands with a girl, let alone kissed one. What if...what if,” his voice dropped off to a whisper, eyes wide with unchecked horror, “What if I’m bad at it?”

Well shit, that was both sad and adorable at the same time. Darcy reached up to gently untangle his hands from his hair, smoothing out the wild strands before placing her hands on either side of his face as they had been earlier. He kept his eyes to the floor, his cheeks coloring slightly with embarrassment.

“Bucky. Look at me, sweetheart.” She waited for him to lift his eyes to hers before continuing. “It’s okay. It’s all gonna be okay. You’re not gonna be bad at it, I promise. And even if you are, I am an excellent teacher and you are a notoriously quick study. Plus, I’m counting on that whole muscle memory thing to kick in at some point.” She waggled her eyebrows lasciviously at him, followed by a saucy wink.

He smiled meekly at her in return. “You make a good point,” he replied, bringing his forehead to rest against hers once more.

“I usually do,” she murmured, and then she was pushing up onto her toes and pressing into the softness of his mouth.

It was….sweet and warm and chaste and maddening all at once, but it could not be categorized in any way as “bad.” Bucky must have agreed if the way he was practically purring against her was any indication. She smiled against his lips, feeling an answering smile form on his. She stayed still, breathing him in and letting him lead the pace, relishing in the gentle kisses he began to press along the planes of her face and down the column of her throat.

He must have been able to feel her pulse pounding furiously beneath his lips, and she gave a sharp gasp when he opened his mouth to just barely scrape his teeth across the skin there. When he darted his tongue out to take the barest taste of her, she couldn’t help the quiet moan that pushed past her lips.

Bucky froze at the sound, pulling back suddenly, his eyes roving over her flushed face. A look that was a mixture of awe and raw need flitted through his eyes and was suddenly replaced by what Darcy could only describe as pure and total self-assurance. A slow, knowing smile tilted up the corners of his soft lips.

That was the only warning Darcy had before the full force of the man who had once been Sergeant James Barnes, notorious panty-dropper and all-around stud, was unleashed on her. She congratulated herself on calling the whole muscle memory thing for maybe a millisecond before her brain blipped out of service completely in response to the way Bucky was suddenly moving against her.

His mouth crashed to hers again, graceless and heated, but oh how it made her want to curl herself around him fully. Bucky seemed to agree, reaching his hands down behind her thighs to abruptly haul her up against him. She wrapped her legs at his waist, arms scrabbling for purchase around his shoulders and in his hair as she used the new height to take control of the kiss. The taste of him on her tongue was damn near intoxicating, the slide of his teeth over her lower lip sending the nerve endings in her spine into a sparking frenzy.

He let her lead for a while, let her take and touch and pull at him in ways that he’d forgotten existed. Oh, but god did he remember them now. He remembered how to give and give to a woman until he’d wrung himself out in pursuit of her happiness. Remembered the quivering joy of a woman well-pleased.

He remembered how to take, too. Remembered how it felt to have a beautiful dame want to give to him in return. And now here he was, with this incredible woman wrapped around him and panting into his mouth and pulling at something inside of his chest that had his heart quaking with the power of it.

For a moment he was overwhelmed and needed to regain control of what was happening, needed to find that centered feeling of knowing what he was doing again. He walked forward a few inches until he was pressed to the kitchen counter. Gently, he settled Darcy onto it, tugging under her knees so she was flush against him before returning his hands to her hair. He pulled back from her searching mouth, catching her gaze and giving her the briefest smile before tilting his head back down to hers and gentling the pace that she had set.

His mouth moved slowly over hers, tongue dipping between her lips to drag teasingly against hers. This was heaven, this languid tasting and touching, engulfed by Darcy’s scent and warmth. He never wanted it to end. Jesus, he might even lo-

“So does this mean I can tell Angie that y’all are officially a thing?”

Bucky froze at the sound of Rob’s sleep thickened voice. He’d been so completely engaged in Darcy that his supersoldier senses hadn’t even tipped him off to the other man’s presence until he’d spoken from behind them in the kitchen entryway. Darcy’s eyes went wide in good humor and mild embarrassment, ducking her head to press a groan into the center of his chest.

Bucky cleared his throat, shifting his hips away from Darcy slightly, though propriety was a lost cause at this point if Rob had seen much of what they’d been up to. “Uh, yes, we are. If Darcy’ll have me?” he asked uncertainly. Darcy tilted her head back to blow him a kiss and a wink. He took that as a yes.

So did Rob. “Thank god. Angie’s been pestering me about inviting you two on a double date to some dance thingy before you leave for New York.”

Darcy peered around his shoulder, eyeing her brother-in-law with barely contained enthusiasm. “A dance thingy?”

“Yup.”

“A double date?”

“Yup.”

Darcy glanced up eagerly at Bucky, bouncing lightly atop the counter, hands folded in front of her chest in a pleading gesture. He rolled his eyes, but eventually caved and nodded his assent. She released a high-pitched squeal, tossing her arms back around his shoulders and pulling him into another kiss.

“Right. Okay, I totally get why you’re so against Angie’s penchant for P.D.A.”

Darcy smiled against Bucky’s mouth, reaching behind his back to flip her brother-in-law the bird before returning her full attention to the gorgeous man wrapped in her arms.