Bad Company Blues - Bucky BarnesxOC

Part 4: Devil Town

A/N: A little of Bucky's POV and then it switches to Eden's.

This is new, he thinks. The guilt. He's been wrestling with it for the majority of the night. He used the idea of talking strategy about how to capture Rumlow to his advantage. What he really wants to do is apologize to her, but apologizing has never been his strong suit. Neither has communication. He's man enough to admit that... to an extent.

But never to Eden.

It's one of the main reasons why his relationship with Natasha began to fall apart. That, and the fact that she's a sociopath who will do anything and everything to take a man's money and run with it. She was never in it for love, but Bucky was.

Big mistake.

They drive in silence, but the regret ringing through his bones like a bell is loud enough for him. The second Loki brought up the idea of putting Eden in the pot, Bucky felt sick to his stomach. He didn't know he had any remnants of a conscience left, but life is full of surprises. He should have said no -- more than that, actually. He should have just put a bullet in Loki and Scott's chests, grabbed the chips, and ran. But then he'd have Pierce on his ass for killing two of his best hitmen. The last thing he needs is to go into hiding in the middle of an assignment. So, he agreed.

Sometimes these games need to be played carefully.

Eden looks out the window, her knees turned away from him and pressed against the car door as she smokes incessantly. She's pissed. Once they get to a stoplight, his eyes drag up her bare thigh, taking in the fabric that's been bunched up from her sitting and adjusting her position. He can see the holster strapped to her leg, and the glint of metal from her pistol as the light bounces off of it. When he first saw Eden, he had to admit he was incredibly attracted to her. She's cute, but over the course of a year, that attraction has turned to disdain, but he kind of likes it that way. Some of the insults she comes up with make him laugh, but he has to hide it with a frown and a glare.

He still checks out her ass when she storms away from him.

He also has to admit that when she was kissing him and biting down on his jawline during the poker game, he definitely didn't hate it. He had to rack his brain and think of baseball stats just to keep himself from getting hard.

That's what pissed him off so much.

Bucky doesn't really understand this push-pull attraction when it comes to her. One minute he can't stand her, the next minute, he's thinking about what she would look like if he took her right over his desk in the bullpen, listening to her scream his name while he marked her as his. Sometimes he wonders what she would sound like moaning his name or keening in her ear while he made her come.

And he would make her come. Over and over again while she begged him for more.

Those thoughts piss him off too.

Maybe it's just animal lust. Maybe it'll go away, but those thoughts seem to be getting more frequent now that he knows they're stuck together until they find Rumlow. Bucky has done his best to stay away from her, and he knows Eden has done the same. He doubts she would ever reciprocate a fraction of what he's feeling. Most of the time, she looks like she wants to punch his lights out.

Bucky keeps trying to think of something to say - something that's funny, profound, and makes her like him after a year of mutual hatred.

He doesn't know why he cares about that last part.

He mostly just misses their bickering. It's comfortable, even if she infuriates him to the point where he fantasizes about running the car off of the road and killing them both.