I wanted to tell you that I loved, loved, loved Lessons in Normality. How'd you come up with the idea?
I’m not sure how I came up with the idea. I love identity porn, and I think I was brainstorming shrunkyclunks identity porn ideas (as I do sometimes).
I WILL SAY that the first time I had the idea was in the summer of 2017 and I wrote a bit of it then. I ended up scrapping it, but I managed to find it on my hard drive, so this is what my honeypot au started as:
Concept:
Shrunkyclunks fic where Bucky isa modern assassin for hire who is hired to extract info from steve and hedecides to go for seduction instead of torture. Steve, in all of Bucky’s research, is very difficult to seduce, so Buckygoes into the plan with contingencies. Then he’s a bit hooked at how easy itwas to lure Steve into a dark corner and whisper filthy things into his earwhile jerking him off.
Basically: an ode tohow pretty and soft Bucky can look while being the deadliest person in theroom. Also how easy Steve is for him.
Scene brainstorming:
Steve Rogers was a staid andproper man, every inch of someone raised during the great depression, trainedby the army, and embodying every stereotype of power and authority thatrepresented. Bucky had met his type, thetype of man who didn't give in to torture, and couldn't be easily swayed by apretty face. It was the kind of man whocouldn't be seduced, and who was nefarious because it seemed to be a personalitytrait, something embodied and practiced, when it reality it was a case of notoffering the right things. and he snorted internally as he watched the man'sback straighten as a lovely female brushed against him deliberately. Stark's parties were always a tight fit,going beyond the legal firecode for any building, but it wasn't tight enoughthat the move hadn't been deliberate.
Bucky watched as Rogers helpedthe woman across the floor in front of him and deposit her safely at the barbefore gently extracting himself and walking away without a backwards glance.
Courteous. Old fashioned.
No wonder seduction techniqueshadn't worked on him. Steve Rogershadn't even noticed the first woman sent to seduce him. He hadn't noticed the first man, either.
Bucky adjusted parametersagain. Torture wouldn't work. Seductionwouldn't work, but there were different forms of seduction, and from the wayRogers looked out of place, uneasy with his back to a pillar and an eye on thedoor, Bucky thought maybe he could use a friend.
He considered that as heapproached. Then Rogers noticed him, hiseyes on Bucky's face for long enough that he wondered if he'd been made beforethey dropped and looked him over with interest that wasn't subtle, but it wasgenuine and heated and surprising. Buckyopened his mouth in surprise and for a moment forgot what he was going tosay. "Hi," he ended up with,licking his lips to test the theory out.
"Hello," Rogersresponded, his focus on Bucky's mouth. As gratifying as the attention was, Bucky also recognized it's worth.
"I know of a private balconynot far from here," he said, taking a risk on the line. "You look like you could use some freshair.
It turned out Steve Rogers couldbe seduced. And easily.
_____
"I'm the most dangerous man in the room, Steve," Bucky said in a serious tone but with a lazy smile as his back curved over the arm of the chair and he stared up at Steve. He was wearing a hoodie that had been washed so often it was faded and soft-looking, sagging off Bucky's shoulders because he hadn't bothered unzipping it all the way. It was riding up his waist, showing off the tight t-shirt Bucky was wearing beneath it in a way that made Steve think about how the skin there felt against his hands, smooth and covering taut muscles that Steve had watched Bucky work hard to maintain. There were kitten socks on his feet, thick and warm, and terrifyingly adorable considering the way Bucky was running his toes up the inseam of his calf and looking at Steve like he knew exactly what he was thinking.
"I believe it," Steve told him, low and shaken with the need to touch. He remembered that he could allow himself that. Hell, Bucky was the most dangerous person in any room, if only to Steve Rogers. "You're fucking gorgeous."
There was sincerity there that made a slight flush stand out on Bucky's cheeks. "I like hearing you say it."
He'd seen Bucky deflect or take compliments with ease, so watching him accept Steve's like it mattered made Steve's heart swell.
____
Steve opened his door, his jacketin one hand as he checked the GPS on his phone. He had a meeting with an informant in less than an hour and a torrentialdownpour had left his pants soaked over the thighs where it had run off hisjacket. He tossed his jacket over one ofthe hooks in the entryway and kicked the shoe mat out from beneath it so itwouldn’t drip all over it.
Then he considered kicking itback, because wasn’t it THERE to protect the floor from water?
He walked into his living room tofind Bucky on the couch, one of his long legs draped over the arm of the couch,swinging back and forth in a way that had Steve focus on Bucky’s thigh muscles,devastatingly dressed in tight black denim, and the inviting gap between hislegs. Then his gaze went higher and henoticed the gun.
“Hi baby,” Bucky said, amusementaround his mouth, wicked and deadly, as he gestured for Steve to sit in thechair. “You got distracted for a moment,there.”
“What…” Steve questioned, quicklyraising his palms to show he was unarmed as he mentally calculated his chancesof reaching Bucky before he was shot. Even if Bucky had horrible aim, at this distance there wasn’t muchchance of Steve not being hit.
Of course, it wasn’t as much of adeterrent for him as it was for other people. “Oh,” Bucky answered him, like he was just as surprised by the gun inhis hand as Steve was, which wasn’t fucking possible and was such a little shitmove that Steve didn’t know whether to laugh or use it to reinforce hismounting anger. “I figure it’s time wehad a real talk.”
“We had a real talk last night,”Steve pointed out, gritting his teeth, because he’d told Bucky things that hedidn’t think he’d ever be able to tell anyone, and Bucky had looked at himsoftly and kissed him, and then he’d molded his body around Steve’s so sweetlyhe’d almost cried.
Steve was definitely gettingfurious, now.
“We did,” Bucky agreed, “andthat’s why we’re having a real talk again today. My codename is Winter Soldier – you’ve heardof me? Good. That makes it easier. I was hired to extract certain informationfrom Captain America to support an ongoing investigation for corruption.”
That made Steve’s brain stutterto a halt. “I… I don’t… I would never.”
“That’s why we’re having thisconversation. You’re not going to meetyour meeting because it’s a trap. They’ve hired one of the world’s deadliest assassins to kill you.”
Steve narrowed his eyes. “They hired you.”
“They did,” Bucky agreed, thatplayful grin on his lips again. Stevewanted to bite it off, and he wasn’t sure all of it was in anger. “That’s why you’re going to miss it.”
__
“It was supposed to be hard,”Bucky told him, and Steve could tell he was looking at him from the corner ofhis eye, despite the sunglasses.
“What was?” Steve asked, to playalong. There was annoyance buzzingthrough his system, almost as potent as the arousal he was experiencing at theease Bucky had helped him disappear from the city, like the moment they emergedfrom Steve's apartment, they where ghosts.
“Seducing you,” Bucky said, andturned his head slightly to level Steve with a smirk. “I wasn’t the first one they sent to try thatroute, you know. I was probably thefinal resort. Usually, my talents lieelsewhere."
"I find that hard tobelieve," Steve answered in an even tone that Bucky liked to call hisdeadliest level of sass.
Bucky's mouth twitched. "I deserve that considering I justcalled you easy."
"I was easy," Steveagreed. "For you."
"Keep talking like that andyou're going to distract me from the point I'm trying to make..."
"Besides pointing out howeasily I was seduced?"
"You were fucking hard toseduce and you know it," Bucky told him. "Just not for me. They sentme in to do what needed to be done, honeytrap included but intended to fail,and you just... Christ, I always knew it was me is what I'm trying to say. So I'm relying on that a little when I say this doesn't change muchbetween us if you don't want to let it."
"That's delusional. You think nothing is going to change?"
"No," Bucky told him ina confident tone. "I think youwillingly came with me even though I told you I was hired to kill you. Do you know I was offered 2 million dollarsfor completing this hit? That's a lot oftrust to put in someone."
Steve felt a chill at that,because in a way Bucky was shaking him to the core again by pointing out thathe'd had his world turned over and Steve had still been blind with trust.
___
Steve paused to stare at Bucky,his mouth opened slightly with the shock of seeing him, but also that potentpunch to the solar plexus he usually felt at seeing Bucky. He had his hair pulled back, emphasizing hisdelicate face and strong chin, the mouth that made Steve stop and catch hisbreath every time Bucky scraped his teeth over his bottom lip, and the dark,almost dangerous glint to his eyes that Steve had always been drawn to.
Bucky looked over at him andgrinned in a knowing way, like he could feel Steve noticing him.
He looked beautiful and innocuousin a room full of beautiful people in tuxedos and evening gowns. He stood out, to Steve, and it wasn't becauseSteve knew that he was the most dangerous person in the room. He'd stood out to Steve long before he'dknown that. There was something aboutBucky Barnes.
