It's Forbidden

Aye Aye Captain

Bucky and Aspen went in side shortly after that. They went into Aspen's room and stayed the night together. They spent the night kissing and talking, holding each other close and soaking up each other's presence. They felt asleep holding each other and didn't let go throughout the night. And for the first time since either of them could remember, neither one of them had nightmares that night. Both slept peacefully. No memories of hydra or dreams of impossible situations.

They slept soundly. And when they woke up in the morning still holding each other, they still didn't want to let go. They said good morning to each other. Neither one able to fully wrap their mind around the fact that they were laying in bed together, that they were holding one another the way they were, or that they were able to simply just lean in and kiss one another and not have to worry about if they other wanted it or not because they knew they did.

Bucky kissed Aspen for probably the thousandth time that morning. She kept laughing as he kissed her because neither of them could get enough of the other. A small kiss led to another. To a deeper kiss. To a kiss that consumed them. And neither of them wanted to pull away but Aspen had to eventually, she had to go talk to Steve. She had thought about it last night. The only thing her and Steve had really done since she got back, was fight. And she hated it. She kissed her big brother.

Bucky kissed her again and she pulled away slowly after kissing him back briefly. "Buck I have to go talk to Steve." Aspen whispers to him. He kisses her again. He knew she had to talk to Steve but he wanted a few more minutes with her. "As much as I like this I gotta go talk to him. I miss my brother. I want normal Steve back." Aspen tells Bucky. He sighs and lays his head in her shoulder. After a moment he picks his head back up and looks at her. "Okay. Come back when you're done doll." He says. He leans in and gives her one more kiss. "I will." She tells him, and she leaves to go find Steve.

She walks into Steve's room and he's standing at his bathroom doorway when he sees her come in. His hands in his pockets, he leans against the door frame. "Aspen." He says. "Hey Stevie." She says. She tries to start a normal conversation, but Steve jumps right into the seriousness of it all. Like he always did recently. Something had happened, obviously losing Aspen and Bucky and being frozen for seventy years had an effect, but something else happened to him, or around him, because Aspen barely recognized her brother anymore.

"What was that last night?" Steve asks Aspen. Wasting no time whatsoever. Aspen can see the anger in him, she knew there was no way she could tell him anything. Not now. She felt that if she came clean instead of hiding it, he would hate her. Not just for breaking her promise, but for her practically stealing his best friend. Someone who was always there for him, who helped him get through some of the roughest parts of his life in the forties, and sometimes stop even now, she took Bucky from Steve. That's how she felt Steve would see the situation.

"It was a dare." She says. "Nothing more." Steve shakes his head and slowly takes his weight off the door frame. He stands up straight and takes a few steps towards Aspen. They were still far enough that it seemed like they were all the way across the room from one another. "Yea?" Steve asks her. He took another step forward. Aspen knew now that he was trying to intimidate her. And it was working.

Especially after hydra, Aspen had a problem with men, men in authority, when she was trying to be intimidated, most of the time it worked because she was already scared of anything and everything. She felt like everything could hurt her. Even Steve. Even though she knew deep down he wouldn't. The only thing, the only person, she knew would never hurt her, no matter what, was Bucky. Because he felt her pain.

"Then where did you two go after?" Steve asks Aspen. He was grilling her. She was on trial. He didn't meet her eyes yet. He was waiting until the right moment to try and break her. She didn't stutter, she just stayed silent for a moment. And that's when he looked up to meet her eyes. To force an answer out of her. Hopefully the truth. "I went to my room. I don't know where he went." She told him.

"Aspen you and I both know you're lying." Steve says. "He wasn't in his room." Steve says. Aspen stood her ground. She wouldn't let Steve bully her into telling him anything. Especially when it was really none of his business and didn't really concern him. "Okay." She said. "And?" She asked. "I don't know where he went. I was in my room." She tells him. "I don't have a tracker in him." She adds. "Do you honestly think I'm that stupid to believe you?" Steve asks raising his voice.

"Obviously you are some sort of stupid." Aspen raises her voice back. "Are you even listening to yourself?" She yells. "Why does it even matter if we were together? Because I promised you seventy years ago I wouldn't sleep with him?" She asks him. Trying to find the reason as to why he was so fixated on keeping them apart. "I didn't." She says. "I just kissed him."

Steve shakes his head and the room is silent for several moments. The level of toxicity in the room was astronomical. Steve looked to the floor and took a deep breath before looking back up at Aspen. "Fine." He says. "Just don't do it again." Aspen laughs out loud at this. As if she's going to listen to Steve.

Like he can tell her what to do. She stops laughing and gets extremely serious for a moment. "Aye Aye Captain." She says obviously being sarcastic. And she pretends to solute him. He looks at her with disappointment and hurt before she rolls her eyes at him and left the room. Leaving off worse than they had been when she came there.