It's Forbidden

Pleasure

Five days after Aspen's surgery, Bucky was able to convince Bruce to let her complete her bed rest in her own bed. She was healing a lot quicker than normal because of the serum and her incision sight almost completely healed. She hated having to stay in Bruce's lab. She felt like a lab rat. So Bucky made it work.

He hated that she felt that way and would do anything to change that. She had already had to be there for five days. That was enough. Her numbers were great and she felt a lot better. And Bruce was a call away. So she was perfectly fine being able to be in her own room in her own bed. With Bucky right next to her of course.

He refused to leave her side and she wouldn't have it any other way. As soon as they got back into her room, Bucky got onto the bed and pulled her on his lap, his back to the wall, against the pillows at the head of the bed. Aspen smiled at him and ran her fingers over his features. He looked up at her, running his fingers through her hair with out hand and the other was drawing patterns on her hip. "How're you feeling?" He asks her.

"I'm better." She tells him. "The serum is making me heal faster." Aspen tells him. Bucky looks over her face, trying to read her expression. Make sure she really is okay. And she was. She looked fine. She looked great considering. He could tell she felt a lot better. He took his thumb and traced her bottom lip with it.

"We've had a lot happen this past week." Bucky tells her. She nods her head and smiles at him. She didn't care about anything else going on right now. She just wanted to be in the moment with Bucky. He gets a sad look in his eyes and looks down taking a deep breath, before looking back up at Aspen.

"I was worried about you." He tells her. "I knew you would be okay but I still worry." Bucky says. Aspen moves her hand from his cheek to the strings on his sweatshirt, playing with the sweatshirt strings. Bucky looks down at her hands intently, watching her tiny little fingers play with his hoodie.

"I felt the same." Aspen tells him. "I'm okay though. Ny stitches are almost fully healed." She says. "Thank you Hydra." She teases with a smirk and a little laugh, looking back up at Bucky. "You're not funny." He says with a straight face. She was just trying to lighten the mood, and he knew that but he didn't like what she was joking about. But she was just trying to make him smile. He loved that she tried to make light of bad situations.

"I'm trying to lighten the mood. You look like somebody just died." Aspen tells him. She takes her right hand up and holds his jaw in her hand, making him look at her, really look at her. She wanted to look into his steel blue eyes and tell him everything was going to be okay because she knew he was scared.

"You could have." Bucky tells her sensitively. She could hear the pain and fear in his voice. She wanted to take that all away. "You could have to Jamie." She tells him. She had been scared too. Scared for him. Scared she would lose him. "And Steve knows." Bucky tells her. "And he's okay with it." He adds, smiling at her.

It was a fight they had finally won. They had lost so many for so many years, it could've been argued that since they had gotten out of Hydra, they won, but they lost a part of themselves that they would never get back. Aspen looks at his smile, he was smiling through his eyes too. He looked happy, for the first time in so long, he didn't look stressed out or afraid. He looked like the old Bucky. The Bucky she met so long ago. Her Bucky. He would always be her Bucky. Her Jamie.

He looks at her for a moment. Searching her face. Admiring the beautiful woman in front of him. He smiles at her. And he looks at her like she's the only person in the entire world. "Asp," He starts, "I'm happier than I've ever been." He tells her. And it was true. He had her, he had Steve. His best friend was back.He was happy. He wants to make sure she was too. "Are you?" He asks.