Grade A American Beef

The shift in their relationship after that night by the fire was...subtle and still somehow earthshaking. Maybe it was earthshaking just because Bucky was suddenly, after being untouched and unable to be aroused for sixty years, finding himself in a near constant state of being touched and aroused courtesy of one truly spectacular brunette with some kind of vendetta to get him off as frequently as possible.

“Darcy,” he gasped out as his heart rate began to slow again. “I think that’s the best wake up call I’ve ever gotten.”

A cheshire cat grin lit up her face as she kissed a line back up along his hip, crawling up his body to settle into his side. She pulled the blankets back up around them, snuggling into his warmth, to ward off the chill of early morning that permeated the bedroom.

That was another shift in their relationship, it seemed. Since that night by the fire, he’d slept next to her in the bedroom, keeping her toasty warm and frequently satisfied. Reclaiming his body and sexuality for himself seemed to be doing a world of good for his anxiety. That and all the blow jobs, probably.

He was more open with her now, physically speaking, letting her touch him whenever and wherever she desired, and had taken to wearing significantly less clothing when they were indoors. Self defense training had gotten quite distracting now that he seemed to be in the habit of sparring with her while shirtless.

Of course, she had eventually been forced to even out the playing field, stripping down to her sports bra and compression shorts during their matches. She got in so many more hits on him after she made that call. So many more hits.

Darcy ran her foot along his calf, smiling into his shoulder. “You’re welcome. I aim to please.”

Bucky hummed softly in agreement. He was very pleased. They snuggled quietly together for a while, long enough for him to notice the way her breathing was starting to slow. The hand that lay across her hip gripped her tighter and shook her a little. “Hey, no going back to sleep. Just because you just blew my mind doesn’t mean you get to slack on your running. Up and at ‘em, Lewis. Get dressed,” he said with a smack to her rear.

Darcy groaned and rolled away from him, begrudgingly sticking one leg out from underneath the covers into the cold air. “You’re the worst,” she muttered, but made her way to the dresser to pull out her running clothes.

Bucky folded his arms behind his head, smirking up at the ceiling for a few seconds until he let out an “oof” when his pair of running shoes landed heavily on his stomach. Darcy stood with her hands on her hips, brow raised expectantly and foot tapping the floor impatiently. He rolled his eyes and hopped out of bed to dress and join her for breakfast and their morning run.

Their days fell into a similar pattern, starting with a three mile run now that Darcy’s body was adjusted to the increase in cardio. This was generally followed by sparring and a communal shower which Bucky very much enjoyed. He particularly enjoyed having her scrub him clean from head to toe. Something about the intimacy of being handled so tenderly warmed the cockles of his grumpy old man heart.

Their afternoons were generally spent honing her weaponry skills and then pursuing whatever form of entertainment the two could come up with out in the middle of nowhere. The radio helped, as did Bucky’s newfound comfort with nudity. They hadn’t quite worked up to full blown sex, but they were still quite good at providing a pleasant distraction for the other person.

They’d also stumbled upon another form of entertainment when the last of the firewood had run out and Bucky had gone to chop down a whole tree to replenish it. Apparently, Darcy had a thing for the way he swung an axe and made a habit of following him out into the woods to watch as he lumberjacked his way into her panties. They had quite the stockpile of firewood stacked against the side of the cabin now...and yet Darcy was adamant that he add to the woodpile on a regular basis. Imagine that.

“You’ll thank me when we get hit by the next blizzard,” she told him around the apple she’d just bitten into, her eyes tracking the bunching muscles in his bare back while she leaned against a neighboring tree.

Bucky paused in his swing of the axe, settling it on the stump he’d been splitting wood on and leaning against the handle. “You really think we’ll get hit with another blizzard? In the middle of March?” He wiped at the bead of sweat that was rolling down his forehead. In the midday sun, the temperature was probably hovering in the low fifties. They hadn’t even built a fire in the last three days, and yet here he was, busting his ass chopping wood for this woman. Again. It’s a good thing she usually followed these woodchopping excursions with various rewards. Naked rewards.

“Hey, you never know. There could be a freak cold front. And then you’ll be super glad I made you chop all this wood.”

“You know, you could help me with this. Swinging an axe is great for building upper body strength.”

Darcy straightened away from the tree she’d been leaning on. “Oh, would you look at the time,” she said, glancing down at her bare wrist. “Gotta go see a man about a horse, Barnes,” she called over her shoulder, making a hasty retreat back towards the cabin.

“Pussy!” Bucky shouted after her.

“Yep. I’ve got one. And if you make me chop wood, you’ll never see it again!” She didn’t even look back at him, just kept her swift pace back up the worn forest trail.

Bucky shook his head and chuckled before turning back to the wood stump and swinging the axe into it, lodging it firmly in the stump until the next time Darcy got a hankering to see him doing manual labor.

He stomped up the front porch of the cabin, knocking the mud from his boots before unlacing them and setting them by the front door and stepping inside. Darcy was leaning against the kitchen sink and staring out the window. He sidled up next to her to wash his hands at the sink, drying them on the front of his tac pants when he’d finished. Darcy’s eyes followed the motions of his hands, chewing thoughtfully on her apple.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked, tossing her apple core into the trash can in the cabinet under the sink.

Bucky raised a brow. “Sure, about what?”

“Why do you wear your pants like that?”

He glanced down at himself, forehead wrinkling. “Like what?”

“Like... that.” She waved her hand over his abdomen where the waistband of his pants rested. “Like waaay high. Above your belly button.”

He stared at her, not sure how to respond. “Because...that’s how pants are worn?” Surely she knew this?

“Uh, maybe back during the war, Grandpa, but nowadays men wear their pants lower. Like, a lot lower.”

Bucky’s eyes widened in dawning comprehension. “Really?! You mean I’ve been suffocating my nads for years now for nothing??”

“Dude. You didn’t know?” Darcy bit back on a grin.

“No, I didn’t know. I just assumed that the new style was to have the inseam run higher. I didn’t realize they’d just droppedthe waistline! I thought all the young people just stopped caring about having room for their balls to breathe! Stop laughing, Darcy, it’s not funny! Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“Well to be honest,” she gasped out between giggles, “I didn’t realize it until you started going around shirtless all the time...but then it was kind of hard to miss.”

Bucky dropped his face into his hands with a groan. “I am an idiot.”

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, pretty much every guy over the age of fifty is right there with you in the Moose Knuckle Club. Including Steve.”

“Moose knuckle?” he asked, lifting his face to eye her in confusion.

“Uh, here,” she muttered, placing her hands on his shoulder and guiding him to sit at the kitchen table. She stuck out the knuckles of her index and middle fingers to gesture at his crotch. “Moose knuckle.”

He glanced down to see what she was referring to. “Oh my god,” he groaned when he caught her implication, blushing up to his hairline. He dropped his head to moan miserably into his hands until a thought occurred to him and his head popped back up.

“Wait a minute, how long have you been eyeballing Steve’s...moose knuckle?” He narrowed his eyes at her.

Darcy scoffed and smacked the back of his head. “It’s not like that, asshole. He’s tall and I’m short. Sometimes my eyes just kind of settle at crotch level when I’m not paying attention and then when I tune back in, I’ve got an eyeful of supersoldier crotch. It’s actually kind of an embarrassing thing to happen. You should feel bad for me.”

Bucky rose from his seat, arms crossing over his chest and moving into her space to glare playfully down at her. “You sure that’s all it is? I did witness you finessing him into getting buck naked for you within the first ten minutes of meeting you for the first time.”

“Oooh, Bucky. Sounds like somebody is jealous.” She crossed her own arms, grinning up at him with the devil in her eyes.

“Can’t be jealous of something that already belongs to you, sweetheart,” he replied with an answering smirk.

“Oh really? That’s how it is? You think you own my ass now?”

Bucky stepped in closer to her with a low growl at the back of his throat and unfolded his arms to grab her rear with both hands, pulling her up hard against his body. “Yes,” he breathed and then he was kissing her for all he was worth.

Darcy met him with enthusiasm, her hands sliding up to tangle in his hair and pressing her breasts tightly against his bare chest. His fingertips kneaded at the muscles of her ass as he began to trail open-mouthed kisses along her throat and across the top of her breasts.

Some wicked, shit-stirring part of her brain prompted her to take that moment to moan obscenely, tightening her fingers in his hair and then whimpering, “Oh, Steve!” into the top of Bucky’s head.

He froze against her, head coming up slowly to lock eyes with her. “Woman. Don’t trifle with me. Am I going to have to show you who you belong to?” he threatened, the growl of his voice sending her stomach flip-flopping and her core throbbing.

She flashed him her most devious smile. “Only if you can catch me first,” she hissed and then took off like a shot from his arms. Bucky grinned, his eyes lighting up. Nothing like a little game of tag to get the blood flowing.

He chased her around the edge of the kitchen table, dodging back and forth along the edge until she broke away to dash to the other side of the couch, with him hot on her heels. She rounded the couch, making for the front door, but Bucky cut her off, forcing her to backpedal towards the kitchen table again.

She was maybe two steps away from the table when she felt his hand come down around her wrist, using her momentum to spin her until her back collided with his chest and his arms came down around her front to secure her to him.

“Gotcha,” he smirked, nosing at the line of her jaw. “Guess that means I get to show you who's boss now.”

“And how do you expect to do that? Give me a salary and micromanage my every move?”

He huffed a laugh into the side of her throat. “No, I was thinking more along the lines of bending you over the kitchen table and fucking you until you can't remember how to say anything besides my name.”

Air rushed into Darcy's lungs with a sharp gasp. This was a very new thing. A very new, very enticing thing. She turned slowly in the cage of his arms, cocking a brow at him as she met his gaze. “Is that what you really want or are you just trying to drive me crazy?”

Bucky bit down into his lower lip, a coy little smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. “You're already crazy. But yes, that's what I want.” He leaned closer to kiss along her jaw and drag his teeth over her earlobe before whispering darkly, “that's what I really, really want.”

“Shit. Yes. Awesome,” Darcy gasped and then started removing her clothes in a manic flurry. She wasn't entirely effective in her excited state, but Bucky was gracious enough to assist her in undressing both of them while backing her towards the kitchen table.

By the time he had lifted her bare ass onto the table, they were both stripped naked and panting, a mix of excitement and nervousness tightening their muscles and heightening every sensation.

Bucky leaned into her, one hand at the back of her head pressing her firmly against his mouth and the other tucked behind her knee, pulling her core against him. He could feel the heat and slickness of her already, the way she was pressed right to him, and the sensation made him groan into her mouth, his chest vibrating against hers with the neediness of it.

“Darce, wait, we gotta…” he panted, losing his trail of thought as she swiveled her hips slowly against him. He tried again. “We need, shit, doll I need to go grab a rubber.”

“Got you covered, babe,” she murmured, kissing along his collarbone and wrapping her hand around him where he was bobbing against her belly button.

“Oh, ah, okay, great,” he muttered, too caught up in the way her hand was stroking him. “Fuck,”  he hissed when she teased him against her core, rocking her hips in a slow, excruciating rhythm. Close, he was so close to where he wanted, needed, to be. All the blood must have completely left his brain after that because he could have sworn he started hearing a ringing in his ears.

“Buck,” Darcy breathed, pausing in her torturous teasing of him.

“Yeah?”

“What's that noise?”

Bucky blinked, trying to concentrate on her words but that damn ringing was...oh fuck.

With a groan, Bucky turned his head to where the sat phone was sitting in the windowsill above the kitchen sink. Darcy followed his line of sight and then made her own low groan of discontent, a grimace falling into place over her features.

“Steven,” she growled.

“Yep,” Bucky snapped. “That cockblocking motherfu--” he cut off with a strangled noise. Pointing a finger at her nose he muttered, “You stay put,” and then stalked over to snatch up the phone, consciously having to make sure he didn't crush the plastic beneath his fingers.

He mashed the accept button and jammed the phone to his ear with a clipped “Yes?”

“Uh, Bucky? It's me, Steve.”

“Oh, I'm aware, Steven. What the hell do you want?”

“Geez, Buck, what crawled up your ass and died?”

“Nothing, punk. Why are you calling?”

“We’re stateside again. Just dropped the team off at the Tower and fueled up the quinjet. Me and Nat are headed your way. We’ll be touching down in half an hour. Grab your gear, we’re taking you back to the Tower.”

“The Hydra threat has been handled?”

“Pepper ferreted out the mole who'd been passing intel to Hydra from the Tower. SHIELD still hasn't gotten a handle on who's been spying on you. Figures. Pepper is more competent than an entire government organization. You’ll be safe enough at the Tower now that we're all back.”

Bucky scrubbed a hand over his face, relief flooding through him despite his ire at being interrupted. Not having the threat of Hydra hanging over his head would probably serve to make any sex they had in the future an even more pleasant experience.

“Alright, Steve. See you in half an hour.”

“See ya soon, Buck. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Yeah. No kidding.

The men hung up and Bucky turned back to the beautifully naked woman still perched on the kitchen table.

“I take it sexy time is going to be postponed.”

“Yep. Unless you're comfortable with Steve and Natalia getting first row seats to me pounding you into the table.”

Darcy tilted her head in silent contemplation and then shook it in the negative. “No, better not. The first time should be a bit more private, I think. We can do some of the more exhibition-y stuff after we’ve firmly established our sexual relationship.”

“Glad to see we’re on the same page,” he deadpanned, kissing her cheek and helping her off the table to retrieve their discarded clothing.

All in all, they had very few belongings with them so it didn't take much time to pack everything up in Bucky’s bag and hike to the only clearing large enough to hold the quinjet. And then it was just standing in a field waiting, leaving ample time for Bucky's brain to start fucking with him.

Being trapped in their little bubble of isolation had allowed their relationship to flourish quite nicely, if he said so himself, but now they were being thrust back into the real world. The real world that was populated with other people. And their opinions.

He wanted Darcy, wanted to be with her, date her, and he was becoming more and more confident in his ability to be a good match for her with each passing day….but he wasn't sure the rest of the team would agree. He hadn't seen them in so long, and he felt like he'd changed so much since then. He just hoped they could see that and wouldn't try to intervene in his relationship.

He wasn't particularly worried about Steve finding out. The kid would probably be ecstatic and maybe a bit suffocating in his encouragement of his and Darcy's new relationship. Steve could be a handful like that when he was happy about something.

The rest of the team were nice enough, but not overly trustful of him with the exceptions of Thor and Sam. Sam had spent enough time with him in therapy and hanging out being assholes to one another to build trust, and Thor just seemed to instantly trust and like everyone. Bucky guessed Thor could afford that kind of freely given friendship when he knew he could flatten anyone that betrayed it with one hand tied behind his back.

Natalia still watched him with wary eyes. There was too much history there. She'd seen firsthand what the soldier could do and she was unlikely to ever completely forget it.

Tony was the same, though for different reasons, but Bucky understood. Coming clean to Tony about the hit on Howard and Maria had been an ugly affair, but he deserved it and Tony deserved the answers only Bucky could give him. There weren't any hard feelings between them now per se, but there was a distinct frigidity to any of their interactions. He didn't blame Tony though. The kid had every right to hate him, even just a little bit.

Bruce didn't seem to have an opinion on him one way or another. He mostly kept to himself anyway. Clint was...well Clint was fucking crazy, but a helluva good time to be around. They didn't have a strong bond of trust between them, but there was a level of understanding. Mind controlled marksmen kindred spirits and all that.

Darcy had relationships with all of them however, and they all adored her to varying degrees. He didn't see it being very likely that everyone would be 100% peachy keen with his involvement with her. Of course, he didn't give two shits what they might have to say about it, he was hers until she decided she didn't want it that way, but strife between teammates did not make for a cohesive battle unit.

He chewed at his bottom lip, worry lines furrowing his brow and flexing his cybernetic hand with nervous energy as they continued to wait.

Darcy reached out, clasping the metal between both of her hands. “Hey, you okay?”

Bucky swallowed and glanced away from her. “Yeah. Just not sure how well received certain, ah developments will be with the team,” he replied, gesturing between their bodies in emphasis.

She patted the back of his hand, clicking her tongue at him in sympathy. “It’ll be alright. Steve’s probably going to do that pain-in-the-ass, excited-puppy thing. And I can handle Nat. Once we get those two on our side, ain't nobody gonna be talking shit about us.” She winked at him, leaning up on her toes to pop a kiss on his cheek.

He gave her a wan smile, hoping she was right.

The roar of engines sounded overhead, signaling the arrival of the quinjet. They both tilted their heads back, watching as it lowered to the ground twenty yards in front of them, the wind buffeting their bodies as it landed.

The loading ramp began to lower and he felt Darcy's hands tighten around his when Steve appeared, stomping his way down the ramp on weary legs.

Steve, not one to miss the details, locked eyes on the point of connection between their hands before meeting Bucky's eyes, an inquisitive tilt to one of his blond brows.

Well, Bucky thought, here goes nothing, and then he stepped forward, leading Darcy to greet his oldest pal and whatever else the future held for them.