S.H.I.E.L.D ACADEMY

26. You look...

You chose to rush in to the meet up space, to make sure that you were able to physically get there. You were not about to be late to your own meeting. Instead, you were 30 minutes early. Your legs, your whole body were hurting. The only thing you concentrated on was holding yourself up. You slandered the bag on the high table as you rested your body on to the table.

"You look..." you suddenly heard an old man say, popping out from the corner. You jumped by the sound of his voice.

"Don't finish that sentence, Bucky!" You said pointing a finger at him.

Bucky laughed low as he walked over to you, standing across from the table. Oh, you had defiantly not looked at yourself in the mirror this morning. It was the first time he had seen you without makeup. You looked adorable. Whatever made him blink an extra eye, was what he saw right underneath your beautiful face. It was huge bite marks, multiple, running from your upper neck, to at least as far as your shirt covered. Someone must've had fun. You must be neck deep in worries, because you hadn't even yelled at him for being here, when you had clearly told him to stay at home. Bucky began to laugh.

"What?" You said, waving your hand at him. You wished so badly it was chairs here.

"How do you feel this morning?" Bucky smirked,

"I'm feeling okay-I'm fine, why?" You said unsure, resting your hand on the table.

"Ahaaa, ahaa, would you mind coming having a look at my arm, I think it's something wrong with the connection," Bucky lied. He had seen how you had walked in, he wanted to know your excuse for that one.

"Uhm, uhm, okay," You mumbled, as you pushed yourself gently from the table. You took one step, fuck your legs were even stiffer after standing still for a minute. You tried to take another one, before you gave up, forming your hand to a fist on the table. You forced up a smile on your face as you looked back up at Bucky.

"Want me to come over to you?" He asked, tilting his head.

You nodded.

"Why not?" You said and waved him over.

Bucky laughed low as he slowly walked over to you. What a tease you were. Bucky liked it. Like a good game, he could play along with. Bucky came over, standing right in front of you. He noticed how you still rested your arms, your whole body on the table. It was silly. It was incredible how you tried to hide yourself. You were too short for Bucky to reach his arm. You looked around confused, a bit unsure about what to do. Bucky saw the confusion, he carefully grabbed your hips, lifting you up on the table. You looked up at Bucky, thankful for his little assistance. Bucky stood beside you, reaching out his hand. Of course, it was nothing wrong, he just wanted an excuse to talk to you up close. He rarely saw you without seeing Steve, and well with Steve, all the focus was on him. You carefully took his hand and tried to look through the connections. You tried to move yourself closer to see it at the right angle. Bucky saw you struggle, and stepped Infront of you, but your legs were closed off together. He laughed low, were your legs hurting? Is that why you moved so awkwardly?

"Why are you laughing?" You couldn't stop yourself from laughing, as you rested your hands on your thighs.

Bucky's eyes followed your hands to your thighs. Ah, what he would do to be brush his hands through your thighs. Bucky bet the inside of his chin, before he looked up at you with a smile.

"Your legs hurt," he noted.

"Uhm, they-they-they don't, old man" You huffed out.

Bucky nodded big, sure.

Bucky let his hand rest on your knees. He was feeling risqué. He knew that Steve wouldn't exactly approve of his next moves. Bucky let his hands trail up from your knees, up your thighs, before he carefully slowly opened your legs, innocently taking a step closer to you, closing the gap in between you, to the sound of you groaning. Bucky laughed low as he looked up at your embarrassed face.

"Okay, so they-they are hurting a little bit," you said, you could feel your cheeks burn.

Did you just groan in pain in front of Bucky because of your legs were hurt? Yes, yes you did, and you were ashamed. It felt horrible. You were normally the brave one of you and Bucky. The sassy one, and now you were the one seeking to hide. Not only seeking it, but your hands also waved over your face, covering you in shame. Bucky laughed low.

"For the same reason you got these lovely bruises?" Bucky teased, hinting at your love bites.

"I don't have bruises, you have just lost sight," you said, wanting to punch your hands into your eyes.

Bucky hummed as he caught your hands, moving them away from your face, still holding into them as he pointed with your hands at the bruises on your neck. You looked down, when you realized that he hadn't lost sight at all, he was correct. Your eyes popped out as you tried to cover your neck with your hands. Fuck, you had been too stressed this morning, you hadn't even processed your looks before you walked out the door. Bucky laughed low and looked over your shoulder. He didn't even blink an eye before he took off his sweater and gave it to you.

"Take it," Bucky said.

You looked up at him surprised. Was Bucky being nice to you? Was he being genuine? You didn't want to risqué a second before the others came and pulled the sweater over you. It did cover more of your neck, but not enough. You took your hair out, and let your hair be loose. Bucky took in the sight of you in his sweater. It was massive, too big on your tiny body. He smiled weakly, you looked good. Bucky held your head as he brushed away some hair strays that fell in front of your face.

"You look good," Bucky said, looking into your beautiful eyes.

You didn't know what to say. Bucky knew you were dating Grant, why did he do this? Was he trying to confuse you? Why did he make you so quiet? You didn't like that he suddenly had the upper hand on you. He made you speechless. The door opened, and both you and Bucky moved two meters from each other in shock, causing you to groan in pain. Fuck, your body hurt.

"How are you guys doing?" Steve said, a bit surprised to see Bucky standing here, only a couple of meters away from you.

"Good-" you began,

"Very good," Bucky finished.

Steve nodded as he walked into the room. He scanned your body. You were wearing something different. You didn't have this massive sweater on when he left you. It looked familiar. He had seen the sweater before. His eyes glanced over at Bucky. Why was he here? Of course, he was always glad to see his best friend, but he was deliberately told to stay back, and now he was here. It wasn't like Bucky. He looked back at you, when it finally clicked. You were wearing Bucky's sweater.

"Are you wearing Bu-" more couldn't Steve say before Simmons, Fatima James and Grant walked in. Bucky smiled low, what a relief.

"I'm here instead of Sam, family emergency," Bucky said, totally ignoring Steve's question.

You jumped of the table. Your body was not working. You couldn't just shake it off either. It was painful, too painful. You had to change tactics. You pulled up the screen and looked at the optics. Fuck, this whole mission had to change for this to work. Grant walked over to you, laying a hand on your shoulder. You looked up at him with a soft smile.

"You, okay? You look worried..." Grant whispered, not wanting the others to hear you over your small talk.

"I'm fine, just making some changes, let's-let's go through it," you said, trying to stand confident as you brushed his hands off.

The thought of having Grant's hands over your body right now, made you feel like you wanted to vomit. You looked up at Steve. It still felt too fresh. You know you had showered, but it felt like you needed ten more showers to get rid of it. At the same time, you weren't sure if you wanted to get rid of his touch. You couldn't stop staring at him. You were angry you were mad at the same time those butterflies... those sick butterflies, they were not gone. You needed them gone. Steve took a step toward you, when you broke out of your bubble.

"Uhm, so everyone, I have made some changes!" You said loud, grasping everyone's attention.

They gathered around the tech table.

"I'm not going to go out in the field, Bucky, Grant, James and Fatima are," you said, people looked confused at your decision, but they had learned their lesson not to question it when you make an order.

"Simmons, Mr. Rogers and I will stay back on coms," you said, looking up at them, as you set up everything.

"Now go, everyone knows what to do," you said, clapping your hands.