▽ Running your hand between their thighs, and splitting their legs apart.
meme: acts of affection (holy crap 3 years later)
A year was a long time to spend apart, no matter who you were. A year apart from the man that she would probably tear apart time and space for? Unthinkable. And yet, as when the end of the world was nigh, they trusted each other to do what was right, to fight for what they believe in, and to survive.
Thank every deity under the sun that he survived.
Their reunion was nothing short of ecstatic, with Bucky very nearly throwing himself into Natasha’s arms, much to their friends’ amusement. To be fair, if he hadn’t, she would have done the same to him. But when the chaos subsided, they were quiet by each other’s side, gently leaning into each other to find the solid and comforting reminder that they were alive and together once more.
The day faded, and people slowly retreated to their rooms, their homes, their individual lives. Nat found herself pulling Bucky away to their apartment, welcoming the idea of sleeping in his embrace again.
It wasn’t actually clear when it had become their apartment. It had been Nat’s third flat, a sort of go-between safe-house that had been open to Bucky’s use. Over time, things had accumulated there — at first it was equipment, spare clothes, an extra set of weapons — and then notes, in careful hand and a code only the two of them knew.
[Bandages are missing. Hope you’re okay.] [I’m fine. My dress from the last gala is pleated. What did you do to it?] [I miss you, this is taking too long. I won’t ask where you are.] [Asking you to wait for me is selfish even for me, but…] [Please come home soon.]
And so memories gathered with materials, even though time there was almost never spent together, and at some point Natasha couldn’t help but think of it as theirs instead of just hers. Certainly she’d never given anyone else leave to use that particular location, though ones nearby had been open to other friends. This was private. This was home.
Home they went, walking side by side with their hands brushing occasionally. Outside the protections of the tower, they rarely clung to each other, ready to pull a gun or scramble to an escape route at any moment. Once they were safely barricaded inside, they could finally drop their guard. The walls were custom made, and unless a bomb fell on the building or some superpowered villain broke through the bulletproof windows, little could hurt them.
“We made it,” Nat murmured, and she wasn’t just talking about them arriving. They’d been through so much, made worse by not being able to support each other except at a distance, and the upwelling of emotions in her caused her to suddenly turn and grab his face. She pulled him in for a kiss, slow and deep, and then breathed a sigh of relief.
Home. Whole. Who would have thought?
Bucky seemed to have a similar reaction, melting into her. He embraced her tightly, and they stood like that for several minutes, simply soaking each other in.
“I love you,” he whispered, kissing her again, and she laughed. “I know.” “Really? Pulling a Han Solo on me?” “Hardly,” she smirked. “He didn’t follow up with this.”
She surged forward, shoving him into a wall and kissing him hard. She didn’t let him go until he was breathless, eyes blown wide. It had been a loooooong time, and holy fuck was she good at this. He was tempted to ask if she’d been keeping in practice, but suppressed it. There was a time and place for that kind of sass, and this wasn’t it.
“I love you too.” Natasha beamed at him. “Come on, let’s get you out of those clothes.”
Well he couldn’t complain there. He grinned back at her, following her to the bedroom, eyes traveling from to the curl of her hair to the curve of her waist. Along the way, he stripped out of his shirt and toed off his shoes. Nat would yell at him later to put them away, but not today. Socks followed, then belt and trousers. By the time Natasha, still wearing everything except her heels, sat on the bed, he was down to his briefs and nothing else. She grinned, enjoying the view.
“Your turn.” He knelt at the foot of the bed in front of her feet, looking up at her reverently, before working her silky socks down her feet. With those out of the way, he could pull away her skirt, leaving it puddled on the floor next to him. He glanced up again only to barely avoid being smacked in the face by her shirt. She was laughing, and the sound of it made him feel so whole that he could barely breathe.
He dropped his head again, pressing kisses to the tops of her feet, then dragging his lips up to her knees. The laughter vanished in a huff, Natasha’s hand coming down to softly run through his hair. Gently, he ran his thumbs down the seam of her inner thighs, pulling them apart as he lay kisses along the way, and Nat only pulled him away to graze another kiss to his forehead. He was so utterly loved, probably more than he ever knew. She was only too grateful that it was mutual.
She let her legs fall to each side as he moved in again, sighing in pleasure as his warm breath ghosted across her skin. The first tentative flick of the tongue against her panties made her tighten her grasp into his hair, and it took a surprising amount of self control not to simply buck into it. It has been ages, after all, and nobody knew her body as well as Bucky did. On top of that, he’d always been such an immensely generous lover that even if she’d ever entertained the idea of dragging someone into bed for a romp, it simply wouldn’t have compared. Besides, it was hard to want anyone she didn’t love anymore. Bucky was it for her, that’s all there was to it. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
Gentleness soon faded, the metal arm gripping finger-bruise tight on her thigh (she didn’t mind, had told him so a thousand times until he stopped feeling guilty about it), and Natasha quaked and quivered under the assault of his mouth. Undergarments were stripped away, and eventually Nat dragged him up onto the bed so they could entwine themselves properly, rutting and anxious and full of pent-up passion.
It felt like being complete.
In the afterglow, with sweat cooling on her skin, Natasha considered getting up and taking a shower, despite how sore and wobbly she felt after so many rounds of sex. The shift in the line of tension within her body must have triggered something bone-deep in Bucky though, because he pulled her close, almost too tight.
“Stay,” he murmured, even though he knew full well she wouldn’t have gone far.
For tonight, she’d let it slide. “Okay, love,” she replied, kissing the tip of his nose. “Okay. I’m here. I’ll stay.” Forever, if you’ll have me. Until the very end of time itself, I’ll stay.