Holding On| Stucky

Chapter Seven

Steve fell back onto the bed, letting out a long sigh of relief. He felt more exhausted than he remembered ever feeling with the Avengers. Bucky approached the door frame of their bedroom, he leaned against it.

"Tired?" He smiled and crossed his arms. He walked closer to the bed and sat on the edge, his weight pushing it down. Steve turned his head and yawned in response. He turned his entire body so that he was on his side.

"That's just the beginning of it, I have paint in places that I can't even reach." He rubbed his eyes, his hand reached out and resting on the bed between them.

"Work was that rough?" Bucky took Steve's hand in his, he rubbed the top of Steve's hand with his thumb. Steve nodded slowly his head pushing the pillow it laid on.

"A few weeks of doing nothing did not prepare me to teach art to mutants." He was just lucky that he had a flashback on the way there, if he hadn't he wouldn't have known how to explain to Bucky why he couldn't do his own job. "I was an idiot. I didn't even have a lesson plan I just wung the entire thing."

"Steve Rogers? Not planning ahead? I must really be doing a number on you." Bucky teased, he leaned down and kissed Steve's cheek. Steve tilted his head to smile at him.

"You must be. Of all the time not to have a plan, working with mutants shouldn't have been one of them." Bucky adjusted so he was sitting completely on the bed. He pressed his back against the headboard and shifted Steve's head on his lap.

"Was it hectic?" Bucky asked sarcastically. Steve scoffed and nuzzled into his lap.

"Hectic? It was like a paint bomb exploded in there. Actually, some kid really did explode paint in there. This boy, Kreg I think, tripped and the paint can he was holding flew into the air. There was this other girl, she could do something with time but I don't know exactly what."

"Did she stop the paint bucket from falling or something?"

"Yeah, but it was unstable so the bucket just ended up exploding." He grimaced but Bucky began chuckling. "I'm glad you find it funny, but it got yellow paint everywhere." Despite his previous mood, his frown was losing its edge as Bucky continued laughing,

"I'm sorry Stevie, but I can just imagine your face covered with paint. That adorable surprised look you always get when you're in complete disbelief. I would have loved to be there." He smiled and rubbed Steve's recently washed hair. Steve smiled at that and pushed farther into Buck's lap.

"It's okay, it was kind of funny." It certainly helped that most of the kids looked mortified and apologetic.

"But was all of it bad?" Steve thought back for a moment and felt guilty for not talking about a single good thing.

"No, of course not. I was just grumpy about the paint thing. But honestly they were real sweethearts, they acted so nicely. I think they really felt bad about nearly scaring me away." Steve's flashback had revealed nearly being tortured by some of the orphans every time he went to teach the art class. Xavier had personally apologized to him and gave him a winter vacation, asking him to consider before quitting.

"Oh don't be dramatic. You're Steven Grant Rogers, you're weren't going anywhere anytime soon. You would have taught those kids art until you were physically removed from the room." Bucky poked the tip of his nose, Steve tilted his head back more so that they could make eye contact.

"Fine, maybe you're right but they were still unpleasant." He adjusted his head back, his fingers began drawing small shapes into the side of Bucky's foot. "I'm just glad they chose today to be really good. We didn't exactly do anything productive, but I'm sure it was fun for them. Tonight I'll make a lesson plan."