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Tweak says, "Spare some change, please!!!"

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winterly) wrote in

avengers_logs,
@ 2020-07-03 11:32:00

Who: Bucky & Nebula
What: Midnight Summer Swing, an outdoor dance party
When: Imma say like, July 2nd?
Where: Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center
Warnings: A Steamy Kiss™
Status: Complete

Bucky never thought he’d see the day when he’d actually want to attend an outdoor dance party. And yet here he was.

It was crowded, sure. But that was a bonus - because it meant he just blended in here with everyone else who desired to twirl under the stars, which resembled silver sequins and pearls. It meant he wasn’t The Winter Soldier, former brainwashed HYDRA puppet, wanted by the authorities with a list of crimes that extended for miles and miles. He was just Bucky, and that was someone whom he’d been trying to get back to.

He was trying tonight, attending a party at the park, during the infamous New York summer which - did not usually smell good in general. Mostly due to the piling up of garbage, loads of it taken across the Hudson to be incinerated in New Jersey (which was its own sort of garbage place) - and strong winds carried the smell back sometimes too, on particularly steamy days. Diesel trucks, the putrid stench wafting up from subway grates, food carts, heat and bacteria - it was great, wasn't it? But all that aside, the summer season meant Midsummer Night Swing, which was exactly what it said on the tin - an hours long dance party, with live music and not just swing offered, but salsa and ballroom and other types of dance too. It was just that swing music tended to bring him back to the days when he’d actually used to bring dates to dance halls and do this for fun.

He was having fun now. A song he knew began playing, and he easily picked up on the melody and the words; the moves tumbled back into his mind fluidly like water over ice, playing in and out. “The trick is to just keep moving,” he said, extending his hands to Nebula. “As long as you keep moving, you’re fine.”

Nebula took in the crowd dancing with varying degrees of accuracy using a number of moves that seemed to be variations on a theme. Lots of hand holding, moving together and apart. Travelling in little steps while holding hands and waving the free hand to the rhythm of the music. Some females were being tossed about by their partners and having a wonderful time, apparently. It reminded her a little of a fight, only with music and no weapons and a whole lot of smiling.

She regarded his extended hands then lifted her eyes to his. He looked less like a wanted man tonight, which was a nice change. She hadn’t known what to wear, but had settled on a short, sleeveless dress with a lot of material in the skirt portion and matching undergarments. The Internet search indicated that would be a good call for this style of dance. She wore a pair of Converse, her long red hair was up in a high ponytail and she had applied some lip gloss. All these people would see was an illusion, so she’d made some effort to fit in. Her clothing, shoes included, was a rich shade of red.

Accepting his hands, Nebula hoped she spoke loud enough to be heard. “I will try.”

Bucky heard it - he smiled, tugging Nebula closer before spinning her right back out, and he couldn’t help giving a little croon a try (since they were here and everything). “Sing, sing, sing, sing, everybody start to sing...” The lyrics he hoped didn't sound terrible; Bucky hadn’t sung in a while and he recalled suddenly that he might very possibly not have been any good at it at all.

Then again, it was so loud out here, who even cared.

He spun closer to her, sliding his arm around her waist. “You're doing great," he complimented then. "So don't worry, I won't drop you." There was a promise to those words that went beyond the dance, but it was something he'd examine some other time. Later.

She wasn’t sure what he was trying to do at first, but then she witnessed another couple performing a similar move, this spin-in-and-out thing, and was more prepared and less awkward the second time. Then he was holding her at the waist and seemed to think she was doing well. Having an excellent sense of balance probably helped, so she wasn’t likely to become dizzy if the spinning continued.

Barnes seemed… happy. And he was singing along with the music. Perhaps this was something he used to do, back in ‘the day’, as the saying went, in a time when this music was popular, approximately seventy-five years ago. Nebula smiled a little in return. She couldn’t recall the last time anyone had held her like this, however briefly. The most recent person would be Gamora, who had hugged her, it seemed like a lifetime ago - years - before she had launched herself toward Thanos with the intention to end his life. That hadn’t worked out very well.

This, however, wasn’t quite the same as a sisterly embrace. She wasn’t sure how to describe it.

The grin didn't falter, as he settled his hands on her hips. The good mood was obvious; that smile brightened his face to mini-sun levels. “Your swing ain't bad. Now, there’s this one move,” he started, in the midst of still dancing. “The girl faces away from the guy, and he sort of picks the girl up by her hands, and she kicks up real high, gets her feet and backside about his neck level, and while she’s kicking, so does he. Kinda reckless, but I always liked it the best.”

It probably sounded more complicated than it was, but hey. More like Bucky would be picking Nebula up and flipping her to and fro and she'd just be along for the ride - but on his end, he trusted that she wouldn't snap his neck with her thighs or anything. That was more a Black Widow move anyway.

"Wanna try it?"

It was, indeed, obvious that he was enjoying himself. Nebula could hear him and his enthusiasm over the music just fine, courtesy of her augmentations, but had a bit of difficulty following what he was suggesting. It certainly sounded like an interesting maneuver and he spoke about it as if he’d done it before and, obviously, lived. Did she want to perform this aspect of the dance? Being here in the first palace was part of experiencing life on Terra, after all. She decided to confirm what she thought he was describing, keeping up with the rhythm as he did while she spoke. “Face away from you. You lift me up by my hands, over your head, to sit on your shoulders, and we both kick. How do I dismount?” That answered his question, anyway. She was willing to try it and given his strength and her agility, they might be able to pull it off, if not perfectly then in a manner that would be acceptable.

Nebula was discovering that she didn’t automatically want to break his arm when he touched her. It was a novel feeling. Barnes wasn’t going to attack her and she knew she should trust him. She wasn’t letting her guard down that much, could still break his arm if he got out of line. Or so she told herself.

“I’ll flip you back down,” Bucky assured, referring to the dismount. It wasn’t really that complex - just hard to explain, without putting it into action. But they could put it into action right now - you only lived once, right?

Or twice. Or...whatever. He’d basically died twice (once after falling from a train, another during those five years when he’d been snapped from existence when he knew nothing but the void), so maybe that wasn’t the best example.

He kept dancing though, and maneuvered his hands to try out the move - he twirled Nebula like she was a toreador’s cape, it was elegant yet wild, flipped her up, brought her back down, all the while keeping a strong grip on her so he wouldn’t drop her like he promised he wouldn’t.

It made him laugh, and everything was kind of a blur with all the motion and the lights. He almost felt high, if he had any frame of reference for that. “That was good,” he complimented breathlessly.

He was going to flip her. She was to be lifted, positioned and flipped. Nebula preferred being in control, but if she wanted to perform this move, she would have to let Barnes take the reins. It was a level of trust she didn’t normally give, but nothing was really ‘normal’ about her life in this universe.

Then he was lifting her. She kicked as high as she could before being placed behind his head and flipped back down onto her feet and it all happened so fast. That and she didn’t snap his neck with her thighs. There was barely time to acknowledge the sweat on the back of his neck. It was actually a wonderful sensation, quick, physical, a choreographed fight in close quarters without anyone being harmed. He was strong, she was safe in his arms. It was confusing and -

“Yes,” she said, focused on his eyes amid the music and laughter and random lighting in the area, the summer heat making her pleased she had worn a short, sleeveless dress. “That was good,” she echoed in her husky voice.

He liked her voice a little more than he should, Bucky had to admit to himself. Smoke and mirrors and midnight - it was a little bit like aural velvet, and he’d been thinking about it a lot since the drive-in. About Nebula in general - it was kind of strange because he’d forgotten what this whole thing was like; back in his youth, before everything went to Hell, he’d been kind of a cad. The Cad of Brooklyn, in fact, dating lots of pretty dames, trying to impress them, taking them out for things he couldn’t always afford (the freezer truck incident came to mind, him and Steve - that always made him laugh).

Those days were all long gone and today he was trying to convince himself that it was okay to have feelings for another person - it wasn’t wrong, it didn’t go against mission protocol, he was free to do whatever he chose with his own body. Still didn’t make it easy, but he was trying.

Bucky slowed to kind of a sway, just dancing there in place while the music and lights swirled around them. “Can I kiss you?” he asked in a rumble, ducking his head a bit. Bashful. Actually shy, the same machine who’d fired a bullet through Black Widow’s abdomen to get to his target. But he wasn’t the same machine, that was the point.

Barnes seemed to be considering something and when he asked for a kiss in that liquid voice of his, deep like the ocean, she was surprised and found herself a little too warm for comfort, but she’d been dancing, hadn’t she? Of course she’d feel warm. And it was summer on Terra and that was traditionally a warm season, wasn’t it?

Her hands were resting on his shoulders as they barely moved compared with the people around them and Nebula stared at this Human male who had been willing to share food and pursuits that made him happy under very serious circumstances. He did know she was really blue, hairless and augmented, didn’t he? And not Human?

“Yes,” she all but whispered. They had both experienced so much violence and been responsible for so many deaths under the influence of powerful people. Maybe it was possible to experience some joy instead.

He knew. Bucky knew the way Nebula portrayed herself was an illusion, a disguise like the one he’d been offered - but he didn’t care. It was a shame she had to at all, that those on Earth would balk at someone from another planet, but it just didn’t matter to him. What mattered was how he felt, how they both felt, and he was attracted to that aspect. How he felt in her presence, and not necessarily what she looked like.

Though sure, her illusion was attractive. He was sure she was attractive when she was her real self too - how you felt about someone definitely played into that.

She said he could kiss her and he did - he wouldn’t waste any more time. His eyes had gone dark and stormy, turbulent seas, but not in the way that they went all blank and hollow when he was the Winter Soldier. They were filled with life now, passion perhaps, and he held onto her - angling his head so his lips could touch hers. It was a heated kiss, it took hold of him, but he didn’t mind - as long as it didn’t stop, this kiss could have anything it wanted. Including his supply of oxygen.

They were close in height and it felt very comfortable when he pressed his lips against hers. She responded in kind, as if a switch had been flicked on and she realized this might be the only opportunity she would have to be kissed, properly, by someone who didn’t care that she was a daughter of Thanos. That it was by a Human male out of time with blood on his hands in a universe where so many things had changed - well, that made it even more interesting.

One of her hands slid from his shoulder to the back of his neck, fingers spreading to press into his hair. Barnes smelled of sweat, felt like bottled energy and her senses blotted out everything else to make room for him and him alone. She pressed her body against his and gave as good as she got when it came to that kiss. It was a good thing she could survive without taking another breath for a while, as he was taking all that remained of hers.

It did help that they were about the same height - Bucky only had an inch or two on Nebula, and the fact that he didn’t have to stoop much made everything so much easier. Stone cracked, and he kissed her with all he had. Like a man going off to war, someone who had already been denied and would be denied again. Like a criminal on parole who just shot the sheriff, like someone taking their very last breath; he wanted to make it count.

A hungry sound rumbled in his throat, because she was dangerous to those whom she hunted, for the kill, but for him it was danger in a whole different way. Despite that, he pulled her even closer still, his flesh-and-bone hand scrunching material at the small of her back even if he desired skin. His fingers splayed there before his touch navigated north over the curve of one hip and up her spine, tip of his fingers dragging over each notch.

Then he broke for air. Reluctantly.

“Wow,” was all he could say. His brain malfunctioned, give him a minute.

He touched her during the kiss, deliberately, tugging on the dress before sliding his hand to her hip and then each and every vertebra received attention. She tightened her hand in his hair, possibly pulling a little, she wasn’t sure. The sensations she was experiencing were wonderful and it took her a few seconds to realize the moaning sound she could hear was coming from her. She wasn’t desperate; she was starved.
When the kiss ended, she didn’t want to wait long for another and another. They both needed to breathe and maybe, just maybe, take a moment to orient themselves. He said one word, his breath on her skin hot, but all she could do was swallow thickly and nod in agreement. Speaking seemed to be an issue, technical difficulties she wasn’t used to encountering. Barnes had touched her because he had wanted to touch her, and that in itself was so rare as to be a distant memory. When had anyone last applied such affection and attention to her?

She didn’t know.

They were both starving - starving for touch that wasn’t meant to cause hurt or pain, touch that was actually affectionate. Bucky couldn’t remember ever experiencing a kiss like that before - and he definitely wanted more. Felt like opening Pandora’s box though. If he went for another kiss, would he ever want to stop?

“Do you want to keep dancing?” he asked, his arms sliding around Nebula, fingers clasping and lacing together on the small of her back.

She definitely had dancing in mind, though not necessarily the swing style. She had to be careful. Her friendship and attraction to Barnes had started harmlessly enough, and now, they were in one another’s arms after a kiss that could possibly shake both of their futures. It was a lot to happen in one brief moment yet had the potential to mean so much. And it was dangerous. Like the dance, it had happened very quickly. Like the dance, it had left her slightly disoriented.

“Yes,” she said, her eyes on his and a small but relaxed smile on her lips. “Just for a little longer. I want to learn more of your moves.” And that was definitely flirting.

He smiled at that, and it crinkled those bluejay eyes at the corners. “A little longer, then,” Bucky agreed, moving to twirl Nebula again - the best part was, people continued dancing around them, minding their own. No one stopped to question him about wanting to kiss her right here in public - it just happened. Everyone was in their own world, just enjoying the live music and the lights and the stars and the way everything seemed to glow beneath them.

Yeah, including this world-weary and battered soldier. But things were looking up, and he’d just see where it went from here. For once, he had a good feeling about something.

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