Among The Waves, My Heart Belongs Part 4
A week goes by like this, you cook for them, they watch you do it, they try new things and find what they like and don’t like. The clothes you ordered for them come within that time via shipping stark drone and when you show them what you got them, they seem oddly….pleased. Maybe not at the clothes per say, (they like being naked that much is very clear) but at the fact that you got them something, spent money on them, it seems to...please them...even Bucky who still can be standoffish at times.
It’s another few days when the storm rolls in, all thunder and lightning, rain pouring down from the sky heavily. You actually love storms, the way the dark sky at night lights up with streaks of lightning, bright and beautiful.
It’s the middle of the night and the very loud snores from the room next door fill the house with a weirdly calm sound as you pull on a light robe and tip toe outside to the porch, where you proceed to watch the storm curled up in your favorite patio chair.
From the room next door, both the mer men watch you from where they lay in bed cuddled close, their window wide open to the salty sea breeze blowing in.
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That morning brings in a seagull covered in oil and you don’t know how it was possible for the thing to be flying with a good deal of it’s feathers covered in that stuff, but when you found it out on the sand you gently grabbed it and brought it inside to the sink used for this sort for thing.
Now you have the bird calm in the sink as you use dawn soap to gently clean it all off, at some point Steve and Bucky had come out to see what the noise was all about, looking sleepy and fuzzy. You focus on the bird before you, both the men looked much to good half asleep in flannel sleep pants riding low, chest bare.
They do watch you though, they watch you work, cause this is your work. You might not get paid for it, but this was your job...your calling. To look after animals in need. You hum softly under your breath as you work, making sure to get all the oil off the birds feathers.
“You’re good with him.” Steve finally says softly, drinking what has to be his third cup of coffee, black as can be, no sugar, lots of cream, boy was already addicted after only being here for over a week.
You smile up at him, “I’ve always got along better with animals then people.”
Bucky laughs softly at that drinking his own cup of coffee, lots of sugar, lots of cream, “I can agree to that, animals, mammals, ocean life all much better than humans.”
You nod agreeing as you look back down at the seagull and start to rinse him off, when he’s all rinsed off, you start to dry him off with a small towel, his white feathers standing out all clean and bright. It makes you smile more. Once that’s done, you wrap the gull in the towel and start walking back outside, the mer men behind you.
Once you get back to the shoreline, you open the towel for the seagull to fly free, which he does after only a moment or two. You watch him fly away, happy smile on your face, when you turn around Steve is smiling at you proudly, “I want to make us lunch.”
His request surprises you because it’s the first time he’s offered and you’re still not sure he fully understands how cooking works, but if he wants to try, you smile more, “Ok.”
Bucky looks shy all of a sudden, but nods following behind you guys.
For all the times you have cooked for them, which anytime you used a knife Bucky watched you like a dam hawk, eyes narrowing, to which by this point you would just roll your eyes, they had never offered to try and cook anything really and that didn’t bother you any. You loved to cook.
What would bother you is if they burn down your kitchen. Steve wont Bucky help him, so that just leaves you and Bucky sitting next to each other on the bar stools, arms resting on the counter watching Steve actually get the hang of making pasta.
The merman is closer than he’s ever been, but the silence isn’t bad, it’s not uncomfortable, just...neutral. He keeps looking at the various rings on your fingers as he has done since coming here, but he never says anything about them like it looks like he wants too.
“You can ask about them you know.” You say softly, turning in your stool so you're facing him more.
His eyes glance towards yours, grey eyes studying you, the flecks of blue in them like hidden seashells in the ocean water, “Why do you wear so many?”
You smirk, looking down at the rings you have worn for so long now, “Don’t know, just..always liked wearing a part of the ocean on me I guess.”
His eyes glance down to the rings again studying them, “They came from the ocean?”
“Yeah, used to be seashells, I just smoothed them out and attached them to the part that wraps around my finger.”
His eyes widen at that, “Oh that’s why they look familiar.”
You look back to him, before wordlessly taking off the blue one you have had the longest and hold it out to him, “Wanna try it on?” You tease.
His eyes go from your eyes to the ring before he gently takes it and puts it on his middle finger on his right hand, “Huh….reminds me of Steve’s eyes.”
At that you glance to Steve who is watching you both with a tiny pleased smile on his face, looking so very pleased at you two getting along, “Yeah it sure does.” You say never looking away from Steve who blushes a pretty pink color at your words and you laugh softly, as Bucky finally looks up from the ring to Steve and then you.
“Did I miss something?” He grumbles.
Both you and Steve giggle at his expression.
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What Steve ends up making you both is….pretty good pasta, all things considered, it’s a tad burned in places but over all good. He looks so pleased when you say you like it, that you just chew through the burned parts with a smile.
Bucky in this seems to share the same feeling, he doesn’t wanna hurt his mates feelings so he eats it.
“What do you eat under the water?” You finally ask once finished.
“Eels, octopus, any fish we can catch.” Steve offers out around his last bite of food.
“Oh I like octopus.” You comment thinking back on the time you tried some at the sushi place many years back and liked it.
This seems to delight Steve who suddenly looks excited and Bucky when you glance over to him, is just narrowing his eyes at you, brow furrowed like he doesn’t believe you. You shrug at him, “Catch me some and i’ll eat it….raw.”
It’s the first time you see Bucky smirk, “We’ll see.”
The next day when he swims back out into the water and catches you a small octopus, but very much alive and uncooked, once he kills it for you, he changes his tail for legs once more and hands it over to you.
You gulp looking at it, but you said you would eat it and you’re not a liar, so with that thought in mind, you grip it in both hands and bite down into it, pulling part of a tentacle off, you chew it slowly, eyes never leaving Bucky’s wide eyes.
You smirk as you proceed to eat the whole thing and Bucky for the first time actually looks delighted as he watches you do it and Steve just watches in wonder.
Your body kind of complains over you eating it a few hours later, but a few tums seem to calm your stomach down enough to your liking. Which is good because when there's a knock at your front door, you frown looking at it. There should be no one visiting you unless….it’s those men again.
You know both the mers are in the library right now, so deciding to see who it is, you walk softly over to the thing and look through the peephole, only to see the very men you had been fearing two weeks back.
Lifting your chin high and straightening your back, you open the door.
