fossilised | It's AU time

"Thanks," he said, eyes warm as he scooted over just a little with his knees against Bucky's outer thigh. "I actually want to do comics-- I know. That's the new buzzword, right? I just want to tell stories but I'm not a writer."

Steve ended up stretching out with his feet crossed on the coffee table and a plate of tots and nuggets in his lap. He leaned against Bucky and lightly touched his thigh from time to time as he spoke about his characters until Becca groaned and threw up her hands.

"Okay, okay, you can totally marry my brother. You're awesome. I'm gonna swap you out for him!"

Steve immediately colored, flashing red. "You should give us a few months before we start wedding planning," he choked.

Bucky snorted, half at Rebecca's blunt assessment of Steve and half at Steve being red as a tomato. It was good that they were getting along, if he had to try and deal with his family back in his life, then he wanted them to like Steve. The man was very important to him now.

"He's a better deal than me, Becca," he said, trying to join in on the joke but finding it fell kind of flat when he actually believed that. "He's so all-American, you have no idea. His birthday is July 4th, he has a sweater with an eagle on it, and he bakes apple pies."

Sorry, Steve, time to sell him down the river for teasing to cover up his own issues.

Now it was Becca's turn to laugh. "You're kidding, right? Is that true, Steve, are you secretly the most patriotic person ever?"

"I mean I'm pretty patriotic," Steve said, nibbling the breeding off of the chicken around the edges. "I think any American is, even if we don't agree with what's going on politically. But I didn't buy that eagle sweater and I don't have the Starspangled Banner or America the Beautiful as a ringtone either. So I think that I am secretly an averagely patriotic American, thank you very much!"

Despite the whole initial chase and the rocky chatter, things were going pretty well now. Steve couldn't be more pleased even if all of this was at his expense.

And let it be! He found it all to be amusing.

"I do have a really killer apple pie recipe though," he admitted, making the siblings laugh uproariously. Steve tried to keep a straight face for as long as he could before he was laughing too.

This wasn't how he imagined Christmas to be, but it was a damned fine one anyway.

Bucky actually almost found himself enjoying the evening after a while. He wasn't sure why the usually forthright and determined Rebecca wasn't interrogating him with questions, having no idea that Steve had basically made her promise to have this time just be about relaxation, but it was good... it was nice.

But as time wore on towards night, he began to get tense again. He knew with the upsets and strain of the day that it wouldn't be a good night. He never managed to have a night without nightmares after a day with a lot of social stuff going on, and he didn't want to have one around either Steve or Becca. What if he hurt either one of them?

Eventually he got to his feet with an exaggerated stretch.

"I should be heading upstairs to bed, are you guys going to be okay down here together?"

"Don't you guys--"

Steve cut her off. "We only just started dating," he reminded her in order to keep her from asking questions. Bucky wanted to sleep alone and while Steve wanted more of him, he understood the reasons why and he respected them too. He wasn't going to make a scene for an excuse to snuggle. "Make yourself at home. I'll be right back."

"I could just stay with my older brother...? Or don't you have a couch?" Becca frowned skeptically.

"You don't want to be up there. It's a mess," Steve teased and watched Becca try to decide if she should hug her brother or not. Luckily, she opted for the not and Steve was able to get Bucky into the hall and the door shut for a little extra kissing before he left him go upstairs. "Text me if you need me. Or crawl into bed with me if you want later. You still have the extra key?"

Bucky couldn't help but look a little shame faced, as if Becca knew he was only trying to run away, but he didn't back down and was grateful when Steve came to his rescue to make excuses and usher him out. He wound his arm around his boyfriend's slender hips and pulled him in close for a tender kiss.

"Yeah, you sure you don't mind me having that?"

He wasn't going to come down tonight. He'd miss Steve, which was stupid considering how new their whole relationship was, but he had a lot more nights in the future to end up tangled together with him. He could go one without in the interest of safety.

"Don't let Becca bully you, okay? Text me when you're up in the morning and I'll come down."

He'd be awake, he probably wouldn't get a whole lot of sleep that night.

There was a lot of talking to be done that night but Steve did his best to respect Bucky's boundaries. It wasn't his place to tell his sister anything so he kept it to them-specific stories and he got to hear about what Buck was like as a kid and how Becca and her mother were coping. They ended up face timing her for a little while and Becca filled her in on her drive up and how nice Steve was and how good Bucky looked considering.

"I hope I can visit next time," their mother said and Steve humbly said that he hoped she could too, even for just a little awhile.

"Your son isn't great with talking. But he's opening up slowly and-- it's just going to be a slow process."

"He should marry you. You're such a good boy, Steve. A good young man. He's lucky to have you."

Steve went to bed with Bucky's family adoring him. It was such an odd place to be considering how fast this was going and how inexperienced he was as a whole.

He woke up to fifteen texts from Nat and two from Becca before he rolled over to text Bucky he was awake. He'd deal with his couch surfer and bestie later.

Bucky had no idea that Steve had suddenly become an adopted son of his family. If he had known then he would have been a little amused, a little proud, and most weirded out. Partially because they really had just started dating and that seemed like a lot of pressure very fast, but mostly because his family had never been ones to attach themselves like that to any of his past boyfriends. Maybe it was because Steve was being so accommodating in helping them get connected to Bucky again, or maybe it was just that Steve was the nicest guy he had ever gone out with.

As expected, he hadn't slept much. He had got an hour or so before he woke up with a choked scream at the back of his throat, just managing to swallow it down before he woke up the whole building. He spent much of the rest of the night prowling from room to room checking the place for bugs, just something to ease his mind. But at least he hadn't hurt anyone, that was what was important.

He had showered and dressed in fresh clothes well before the text came through, so it was only a minute or two later that he was letting himself in quietly in case Becca was still asleep on the couch, to seek out Steve.

Thankfully, Becca had given up on Steve a little while ago and had fallen back to sleep after raiding his fridge. That meant that Bucky was able to sneak in and climb into bed with his sleep-warmed boyfriend, who very happily snuggled up against him, arm tight around him.

He told Bucky everything, including the conversation with his mother but minus that second wish for marriage. "Bec said she'll be driving back this morning," he whispered softly. "I think your mother would like you to call once every few weeks if that's all right with you. She just wants to know how you're doing."

She wanted to visit too, but Steve just hoped that she wasn't too serious about that for the moment. Bucky was so much better with kid gloves.

"How'd you sleep?"

Bucky wasn't too happy about the idea that Steve had almost negotiated for him to keep in contact with his family, and it probably showed in the way he was tense against Steve's body. He ignored the question and instead just rested his nose atop a blond haired head, trying not to be mad with his boyfriend. Steve was a good guy, he was only trying to do what was best.

"I wish you wouldn't have let her stay," he said in the end. "Or talked to my Ma. I don't want to get involved, and now they've got their hopes up and they won't give up trying."

Maybe in a few months time when he had a job and a stable life (because he was still deluding himself that it would be that easy and he didn't need any therapy or help), then he would be able to handle them on his life.

"I just want you."

Steve was the good point in his life right now, Steve was calming and not stressful, was it so bad to just want to cling to that for a while?

"I didn't want your sister to drive all the way home in the dark for six hours Christmas night," Steve murmured. "I would have preferred she didn't stay either. I had a lot of plans," he said in an attempt to smooth things over. "It wasn't my choice to talk to your mom either but think about it this way. You won't have anyone just showing up anymore. They just want to hear your voice sometimes."

Hopefully Bucky would understand that. Steve didn't want to lose him over this and he knew he had probably overstepped here but Bucky put him in a hard place by rushing off upstairs.

He couldn't just ignore someone. It wasn't in his nature. As unfortunate as that probably was.

It also didn't help that he liked Becca. And that he thought that Bucky was better off with his family. He just wasn't going to say that out loud.

It was really hard to be annoyed at Steve when he was so logical and right and good, but Bucky still managed it a little bit. He didn't want Becca to drive back that far at night either, not when she'd already driven six hours that day, but he really didn't want to pressure of knowing he had to call every few weeks.

"Just maybe don't get too involved with them yet, okay?"

He had a feeling that even if Becca and his Mom obeyed the rule to not come around and to let him call, they'd probably still text Steve a lot and try to get to Bucky through him. To find out updates and generally be involved.

"Only for a while. I'm gonna get a job soon, get on my feet, and then it'll be okay."

"They're your family. I'm-- I'm sorry if it seems like-- I'm just sorry, Bucky. I'm trying to make the best out of a bad situation. I got you really involved in this whole mess to begin with because you called--"

He needed to keep his big mouth to himself.

There was some movement out in the other room and so Steve elected to be the one to keep Becca company until she was ready to leave. He could be persuasive about that if he tried. He might be a nice guy but he didn't let people walk all over him.

"You can stay here. She probably will understand if you don't say goodbye."

Steve was a good guy and he wanted to do the right thing, that was a really excellent character trait to have, but Bucky was just starting to see that it could be a detrimental one too. He didn't know when to back down, and if he saw a situation that he could try and make better, it seemed like he couldn't stop himself from wading in and giving it his all.

Then again, that was one of the reasons he had fallen for him.

"No, I need to talk to her. Maybe I can make her persuade Ma to give me some more time, just to get sorted."

He finally relaxed enough to press a kiss into Steve's hair.

"Don't beat yourself up, I know you just wanted to help."

It was hard to do right by Bucky because there were some parts of him that were just really fragile and the last thing Steve wanted to do was hurt him. He rolled them both over, in his loose white tank and looser blue pajama pants, and climbed on top of Bucky to give him a proper kiss before it occurred to him that he had a terrible morning breath situation going on here. He bounded out of bed the way that only someone of his stature could before he flopped towards the door and into the bathroom.

Becca would be up and dressed by the time that Steve returned, shoes on and hair in a messy bun. "Didn't want to just leave without a goodbye. Thanks. Seriously. Just knowing he's okay and has someone is going to go a long way with me and mom."

She gave Steve a hug, maybe too long and too tightly.

"Just take care of him will you?"

Steve didn't even have to promise. She knew he would.

Bucky emerged out of Steve's bedroom in his fresh clothes, looking slightly rumpled for having flopped into bed with Steve, and said goodbye to his sister. He asked her to please just give him a couple of months to get properly set up, he had some jobs in the works and needed to concentrate on maybe getting one of them, and then he'd see about calling.

She looked sad in the way that said she knew he was lying, but she didn't contradict him, she just told him to call any time and reminded him that she loved him, and then left for the long drive back home.

Bucky reached out for Steve almost as soon as she was gone, pulling him in close for a kiss that was half relief and half affection.

"When do you go back to work and school?" he asked, as if Becca hadn't even been there. It was his way of silently asking Steve to just let it all go for now, and let him work it out for himself. "Because I think I promised not to let you out of bed for a week, or something similar."

Steve was pretty sure that he wouldn't bring up the whole Becca and Mom thing ever again. Bucky Barnes would be in charge of curating all of that. Steve would just be filler conversation when and if it happened. So happy was he to switch topics after the door was shut and they heard the buzzer on the door downstairs. "You actually said that you'd make it so I couldn't sit for a week," he clarified. "I'm off until the first week of January from school. Still have work tonight but it's only for three hours. I have a client appointment."

He wished Bucky could come to work with him but he understood why that would be a bad idea.

"Oh. Hey. Speaking of jobs. How are you are tracing and keeping a steady hand?" All tattoo artists had to do was trace what was drawn. Well. No. There was more to it than that but it was a good basic. "Because Mickey teaches classes. You might get that gun hand a new sort of work."

He'd never once seen Bucky's hand tremble and he'd wondered several times now if he used to be a marksman.

Bucky looked up at Steve in startled surprise, he had never even considered something like tattoo work. But it was true, his hands were steady, he used to be the best sniper in his unit. Hell, one of the best in the army at all, he was just a natural with marksmanship. Or he had been.

"You're kidding, right? I thought a tattoo artist had to be able to draw too, and don't you need two hands to operate the gun and shit?"

He wasn't saying no, it just took him completely by surprise.

"Besides, I don't know if I could bring myself to ink a terrible Pikachu onto some four hundred pound girl's ass."

"You'd be surprised what money will make you say yes to," Steve chuckled. "But no. Just the one hand for the gun. The other mostly steadies everything but I've seen you do that one handed too," Steve grinned. "About half of the people we employ can't draw or shade or anything," Steve shrugged. "Mickey wants her tattooists to look pretty and have crazy things to talk about without being threatening. Why do you think I have a job?"

He shrugged as if that was an explanation.

"I sit in the back, I make the art. They trace it with the ink gun." He wasn't bad on the eyes either and seated, he didn't seem so short and scrawny. "You have the look. I told you that I thought you were an aspiring actor-- you're gorgeous."

There was no exaggeration there.

Bucky certainly had passed enough mirrors not to be shocked by the revelation either.

Bucky raised an eyebrow as if he wasn't quite sure of that, but something about the way Mickey did business didn't sit that right with him. "Surely the artist should be tattooing too, I mean-- you're the one that should get all the credit for the art, not some monkey with an ink gun."

He knew that in some places it was the tattooist that got a following, and if they didn't do their own art then that was highly unfair. Just because they had a pretty face, and hell, who had a prettier face than Steve? Literally nobody.

"But if you really think I could maybe learn, then I could look into it. I'll need a job first to pay for the classes. But after that, sure."

He just had to stop wallowing and pull himself together. Get back out there, get a job, be normal. No problem.

"I could get you the friends and family discount," Steve said, without any real comment on the business model for the shop. Steve was paid very well for the clients he designed for. He just didn't have the stamina in his arm to hold the gun, his hand was not steady enough, and if he had an attach during the session-- he didn't mind ruining his art. But ruining skin? That might haunt him.

Working with Bucky could be really rewarding though. A collaboration. Steve was already having lots of thoughts he shouldn't about the future. This was just another. He needed to stop rushing everything. He knew that. But Bucky made it easy.

"We can talk about it later-- I have a few hours before I really need to get ready for work. So..."

Yes. That was an eyebrow waggle.

"Care to make good on some promises."

"Damn right."

Bucky's voice became a low growl and he practically tackled Steve back into the couch. No bed this time, he wanted to christen every room in the apartment and make sure that Steve always though of him even when he wasn't there. Who would have thought this guy had been a blushing virgin only a couple of days ago?

It wasn't hard to see just how much Bucky really did find Steve attractive, fingers splayed over pale skin as he stripped Steve carefully but insistently. He wanted to get the man in his mouth as soon as possible, and then either take or be taken. Hopefully several times in the few hours.

He really did want Steve to be walking funny when he went to work.

Bucky would get his wish, and would get to watch Steve limp a little as he walked down the street passed beneath the window to the subway. Natasha had not been wrong when she said that the start of a sexual relationship was wonderful and intense. All Steve wanted to do was get back into bed with Bucky. And eat ice cream.

He had a small attack at work from the cold air but otherwise spent the next three hours hard at work in design. He did a killer unicorn for one of his best clients (her sleeve and back piece were all his work) and left just before Mickey herself started work on the design after making her promise to send him photos on Instagram.

He may even have been whistling as he headed down into the subway to pay his fare and slip through the turnstile. Standing by the doors to let a woman and her baby have his seat, Steve counted the stops back to Brooklyn when the lights went out and the train screeched to a stop when it lost power.

All of Manhattan was engulfed in darkness as the objects appears in the sky. Across the river in Brooklyn, if Bucky or Natasha or Loren and Tony had the news on, they would see something out of a science fiction movie, swarming crafts zipping across the dark sky, barely visible.

Steve would be unreachable. Communication with the island was down.

What the hell was going on?

Bucky had spent the last few hours basically in a coma after so much sex, sleeping naked and contented in Steve's bed with no nightmares for once. He only woke up when he started to get cold and realised that Steve should have been back well before now. A quick attempt to call him said that cell reception was down, or Steve's phone was damaged, or-- God, what if he had been hit by a car? Or got in an accident or something?

That was when he turned on the news and just sort of... stared.

Seriously, what was this? Were they under attack from another country? Jesus, it looked like something out of an old B-Movie, were these aliens or something? No. No, that was insane. But whatever was going on, Steve was out there in it. He had no idea where, he didn't know if Steve had been in the tattoo shop, on the train, on the street... just that he was out there.

He didn't even think about what a dumb idea it was, Bucky just fled Steve's apartment, took a quick trip up to his own apartment where he had one or two illegal things (like his unregistered service gun), and then out into the night. Stupid, it was a three hour walk from Brooklyn to Manhattan, but apparently he was determined anyway. Adrenaline and fear gave him the energy to run, and just keep running, his phone on in his hand to try and catch live news updates as to what the fuck was going on and occasionally keep trying to call Steve.

The city was not quiet, but neither was it the typical, ordered chaos that it usually was. The streets were jammed with cars, most of which were no longer occupied as their passengers and drivers headed for shelter. The ferry wasn’t working and all of the trains had stopped. Given that the only ways off of Manhattan were now, currently, by foot through the tunnels or over the bridges, Bucky would find it more difficult to reach the island itself with the sea of people moving in the direction opposite the way that he was traveling. There were riots. Looting happened all up and down the streets. The police were not really managing the wide scale panic occurring.

Even Brooklyn had become a warzone.

“Hey!” He was three hours into the journey, none of the creatures from the sky attacking, but humanity’s chaos below them doing a better job of invading than they ever could, when someone literally pulled at the neck of his jacket. Tony Stark, bundled up against the cold on the day after Christmas, maneuvered his bike through the thinning crowd. “Get on, Barnes!”

Hopefully Bucky wouldn’t panic and shoot. Hopefully his mind was still his own. The situation was extremely triggery.

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