the team doctor || bucky barnes

20.

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱᴏɴɢ: ɪᴛ ᴛᴀᴋᴇꜱ ᴛᴡᴏ - ꜰɪᴊɪ ʙʟᴜᴇ

~

VALERIE MEANT WHAT SHE SAID. 

She really did. She swore she did. However, it was proving to be more complicated than she anticipated. The next day, Tony announced the team would have a break from missions for a week. Just her luck. 

"I'm serious," Sam laughed. "She's glowing!" 

Valerie blushed as Cody patted her leg. They were sitting with Sam in the common area, the boys playing each other in Mario Kart. From across the room, Bucky bit back a smirk. 

"Whatever you're doing, keep it up, Valerie," Wanda called. 

Her stomach twisted in knots. She was a terrible person, truly. She tried to remind herself that she and Cody weren't exclusive. And, it wouldn't happen again. Valerie felt her team device buzz softly in her cardigan pocket. She picked it up, reading the new message. 

You heard her. 

She glared at Bucky, who was sitting with Steve with the smuggest look on his face. 

Didn't know you knew how to text. She wrote back. 

"Barnes and Harris," Tony entered the room, pulling both of them out of their nonverbal battle. 

"Yes?" She asked, deleting the text and standing up. 

"Fury is on his way, he wants to see the two of you." 

Her skin went cold as she followed Tony into the hallway. Ever since that night, she felt paranoid that someone would find out. She wasn't sure how they even would, but she wouldn't put it past Tony. 

"What about?" Bucky asked as he joined them. 

"Your experiments?" Tony rose a brow. "What else?" 

Valerie let out a breath. "Of course. I'll go grab my research notes and meet him in the conference room." 

She walked down the hallway quickly, silently praying to any higher power that this meant it was coming to a conclusion. Her research lab was a mess due to the ongoing product she was creating for the team, but she found her notes on Bucky in their designated folder. 

She turned to leave, gasping when she found Bucky close behind her. 

"Stop doing that." She snapped. 

"You really gonna pretend that idiot is the reason you're, what did Maximoff say," He drawled. "Glowing?" 

Her breath hitched in her throat as he stared at her intensely. "I had a great time last night." 

"And an even better one afterward." 

"Hmm," She hummed. "Hard to compare the two,"

"Really? Because it sounds like one of them involved maybe dinner and drinks, and the other involved you almost coming on your kitchen counter." 

Heat pooled in her stomach at his sultry words and the memory of what had taken place. He lifted her chin with a single finger to meet his eyes and she frowned. 

"Tell me he makes you feel what I do." 

She scrunched her nose in anger, knowing he had her backed into a corner. Figuratively and literally.

"Is this a game to you?" She swatted his hand away. 

"No." 

"Because Cody actually likes me," She said, exasperated. "He tells me so. He doesn't just come and go as he pleases, leaving once he got what he wanted."