Slow Dancing & Apple Pie

Twelve

Trying your hardest to ignore Bucky's presence next to you, you looked up at Bruce. "So, you can bring him back though, right?"

Bruce held up his hands. "Theoretically, yes. We should be able to bring him back."

"Theoretically?" Bucky repeated. "What good is theoretically? You fucked it up so you should bring him back.

"Hey," Bruce stabbed a finger at Bucky's face. "I didn't screw anything up. And I'd thank you to stop acting like this is all my fault."

"Well, you were the damn scientist who was running the damn machine weren't you?" Bucky demanded; voice harsh.

"We won't know exactly what happened until we bring him back. And I'm not going to be able to do that with you here getting into my face about this."

"Well, then why don't you stop standing around here and go fucking do that."

Bruce rolled his eyes and turned away, mumbling under his breath as he started to type something into the computer connected to the machine. Bucky whirled around, his eyes landing on you. You wrapped your arms around your stomach, eyes skittering away from him as you shuffled away. Frustrated with everything, Bucky stalked to the other side of the clearing and leaned against a tree.

Sam sidled up to him, a wide smile on his face as he watched Bucky scowling at his feet. "You're pretty grumpy for someone who just got laid."

Bucky didn't bother looking up. "I didn't just get laid."

"Right. You just had a sleepy woman in your bed at 3 in the morning to have some tea."

"I didn't have a woman in my bed." No, he had one on the goddamn couch....

And not just any woman either. Bucky's eyes flicked over to where you were standing in conversation with Scott and Hope. An image of you gloriously naked and sprawled across his chest popped into his head. Frustrated, he shoved the image away.

The one thing that he didn't need to do right now was focus on the memory of what it had been like to fuck you. Of how wet and responsive you'd been. Of the way you sounded and smelled. Bucky growled and yanked his gaze away from you.

"Come on man, tell me who she was. I thought you swung towards dudes."

"Jesus fucking Christ, leave me alone Sam." Bucky snarled and stalked away.

Sam's eyes narrowed as he watched Bucky move away. There was something going on, because Bucky was even more crotchety than normal. His eyebrows shot up when he watched you look over, wrap your arms around your stomach and move as far away from Bucky as possible while still staying near Scott and Hope.

"All right, let's get this going and see if it works." Bruce called out getting everyone's attention so that people moved over to where the platform stood.

"Okay, here we go. And returning in five...four..." As Bruce started counting down, Bucky blinked in surprise and looked down to find you pressing yourself into his side, stress evident in your scent. As Bruce reached 'one' there seemed to be a collective intake of breath as the platform lit up and hummed.

~*~*~*~

"One minute, I was in that weird colorful–"

"The quantum zone." Scott interrupted Steve.

Steve glanced over at him and nodded. "Right, so, I was on my way back and then suddenly I got spit back out in 1949."

The group had gathered in one of the finished conference rooms in the half-finished new compound building. You were curled in Steve's lap, your head tucked against his chest while he stroked a hand up and down your leg. Being apart from you had been rough but judging by the way you were acting it had been harder for you.