Fair Play
It was Hell on Earth.
People were screaming everywhere, but it was nothing compared to the loud squeaking noise of the machines and the reeking, hot scent of butter and sugar. The fair…, you shivered.
Families and groups of friends were happily running around, making you feel dizzy as you tried to find your target. You wanted to push everyone out of your way, but instead you dodged between them. You stopped to have a good look around at your surroundings, turning on yourself in the crowd.
Soon people started to raise eyebrows as they walked past you, their eyes scanned you from head to toe. You rolled your eyes, choosing to focus on your mission rather than their sly smirks.
Yes, you were wearing a tight spandex black suit, so what? It was your battle outfit and it made you feel confident and strong. The kind of feelings that make saving the world a bit less stressful.
“I lost him, he was heading for the wheel,” Natasha said through the com, she was obviously running.
The wheel was at the other end of the fair, where Steve was supposed to be. “Cap?” you called out twice.
“Kinda distracted at the moment,” he replied, talking over the uproar of people cheering in the background. “You know what happens when a man dressed as a flag enters a fair?” he asked sarcastically and before you could reply Tony interrupted.
“Is it the same thing that happens when a guy walks into a fair wearing a gold titanium alloy? ‘Cause I might have a slight idea,” he remarked in the same tone.
“Enough with selfies, we have work to do!” Sam grumbled and you saw him fly above your head, heading straight to the wheel.
You could have sworn that Tony muttered a he’s just jealous and you would have said something, but the dangerous criminal was standing in front of you. You immediately ran after him.
“I have eyes on the target.” Your voice was breathless. “He’s- oh, shit!” you gasped out loud, scaring your fellow teammates.
“Talk to me! What’s going on?” Steve shouted.
“He’s just entered a fucking corn maze,” you explained, following the man with apprehension.
Your teammates asked you to be careful, Sam mentioned he was on his way. You mentally cursed yourself for following without backup.
You turned at a corner, your gun raised high. Your eyes quickly scanned your surroundings, but no one was there. It was nerve-racking. Your hands were shaking with concentration and fear. A corn grazed your shoulder making you jump out of your skin, your index finger tickling the trigger.
“Sam, I saw four birds fly over me. Where the hell are you?” you muttered under your breath, slapping the facetious corn out of your way.
“Wings are down,” he replied out of breath. He must have flown into something.
You realised that you were now on your own and swallowed nervously before you continued to walk deeper into the maze. The day was waning, the sun was setting and the dusk cast ominous shadows over the corn maze. Slowly, you moved forward when a man holding a chainsaw came out of nowhere.
You closed your eyes shut and screamed, the sound echoing around the maze. The man covered with fake blood shouted louder until he noticed your gun and backed off, tripping over his own feet in his haste.
“Don-don’t hurt me!” He discarded the chainsaw and put his hands up in surrender.
You had been about a hair away from pulling the trigger and sighed forcefully when you understood he was just an employee.
“I could have killed you!” You didn’t notice that the earpiece that maintained contact with the other Avengers had fallen to the ground. “Go!” You waved your gun towards the corner and he ran away.
You were shaking with fear and anger. Soon it would be too dark to see anything and you were alone, looking for a dangerous criminal while also avoiding the employees covered in fake blood.
A muffled sound reached your ears, you vaguely recognised your name but thought that it was just a trick of the wind. You thought it was weird that you haven’t heard from your teammates in a while. You put your hand to your ear and sighed when you couldn’t feel the earpiece.
“Of course… Okay, so this is how I die.” You accepted what seemed to be your fate. “Alone and scared in a corn maze. This is some serious horror movie plot,” you talked to yourself.
You kept your gun high and turned yet another corner when you ended up face-to-face with a man who was pointing his rifle barrel at you. It took you a second to recognise him and when it finally clicked, he had already lowered his weapon and was walking towards you.
Bucky took your face between his hands and studied your features, searching for any sign of pain. When he only found confusion and fear, he pulled you into a tight hug. You were stiff in his arms, partly because your mind was still focused on the mission, but mostly because Bucky had never shown this kind of affection to anyone before.
He cradled the back of your head with his metal hand as he whispered into your ear. “I thought you were dead.” He stroked your hair, pressing your closer to his chest. You hugged him back and he pulled himself together, releasing you abruptly.
“I-I’m not,” you stuttered, unsure of what just happened or how to react.
You’d be lying if you said you never fantasized about the long haired soldier on more than one occasion. Never in your wildest dream would you have imagined that Bucky shared your affection, but perhaps you were wrong.
“Heard you scream and then I found this.” He gave you the earpiece without looking at you.
“Thank you.” You were bent over at the waist, with your hands braced on your knees. You took a few deep breaths to calm yourself.
“You okay?” He kept his distance but raised a concern brow.
“Yeah.” You dismissed his worries with a wave of your hand before straightening up. “Just promise me we won’t die in a fucking maze.”
“Promise,” he chuckled with a slight shake of his head when you raised your left hand, pinky finger in the air. He took a step forward and wrapped his pinky finger around yours.
You smiled at each other for a moment. You had to fight the urge to lean forward and kiss him, even though his curved bottom lip begged to be sucked.
“If you guys are done, you could catch the dude we’ve been chasing for over an hour.” Sam’s bitter voice came through the earpiece. “But that’s just a suggestion,” he taunted.
You and Bucky looked up to see Redwing flying above the maze. Bucky raised his rifle and aimed at the little device Sam cherished. You quickly covered his hand with yours, stopping him before he could pull the trigger.
“If you do that, we’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Yeah, Barnes! Listen to your girlfriend.” Bucky’s jaw clenched at Sam’s words, but he lowered his gun. “That being said, if you turn right at the next corner you’ll find the target.”
Thanks to Redwing, you found and neutralised the target. Bucky punched him in the face with his metal fist before he threw the unconscious man over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“A little help, Sam?” You were trying to make your way back to the entrance of the maze.
“Sorry, but Barnes was about to shoot my Redwing so you guys are on your own.”
“Nothing happened to your precious bird, Sam. Stop being a child.”
“Tough luck!” he cackled before the com went silent.
You went around in circles with Bucky and the unconscious villain still slung over Bucky’s shoulder. You were completely lost. The moon light cast a soft glow across the corn maze as the wind brought the distant screams and loud music.
“Left or right?” you asked Bucky once you reached a crossroads.
“Right.” A tired voice rose.
“No one asked you.” You punched the criminal in the face, knocking him down.
“Left,” you and Bucky said at the same time, chuckling softly as you continued to look for the exit.
You noticed that Bucky kept glancing at you and bit your bottom lip to hide your smile. Bucky tried to put his feelings into words, it had been a very long time since he had been even remotely attracted to someone.
“I like you,” he finally blurted out, making you stop mid-step. He turned around with the man still over his shoulder and faced you. “When I heard you scream-” He cut himself off and cleared his throat to hide the emotion in his voice. “I thought I lost you. You mean the world to me, and I think it’s about damn time you should know that.” He looked straight into your eyes.
“I like you too,” you chuckled when he looked visibly relieved. He took a step forward to kiss you, but you pressed a hand on his broad chest to stop him and nodded towards the unconscious man. “Can you…”
He understood before you could finish your sentence and with a tight chuckle Bucky dropped the man to the ground.
Bucky cupped your face with both hands and leaned slowly giving you a way out, but you only closed your eyes and waited. Your legs turned to jelly the moment his lips touched yours. He kept you close to his chest as he deepened the kiss.
You kissed him back with the same eagerness, his velvet tongue thrusting past your lips as your fingers weaved into his hair, sending chills down his spine. You caught his bottom lip between your teeth and tugged. He made a sound halfway between a moan and a growl. You loved the way his hips jerked forward as you sucked his plump, swollen lower lip.
“God, I wanted to do that for a while,” you chuckled breathlessly.
“Tell me about it, dollface.” He brushed the pad of his thumb across your bottom lip.
Reluctantly you had to pull away and find the exit. When you were finally out of the corn maze, the team was waiting for you. Steve and Tony were taking pictures with civilians while the others were eating candies from the fair.
“About damn time,” Sam sneered when you stared daggers at him. Bucky dropped the criminal at their feet. “What happened, you stopped on the way to make out?” he teased.
“They totally did.” The broken voice of the criminal rose from the ground.
Everyone stared at him, then at you and Bucky. Bucky’s red, bitten lips and your shifty eyes betrayed you, prompting gasps from your friends.
“Shut up! No one asked you.” Bucky knocked the man out again before he took your hand and led you into the fair. You didn’t even try to hide the big smile on your face as you followed Bucky.