What was in that drink?

[ayeayecap]

[ooc: For msrogers, continued from here.]Bucky didn't sit down when he handed Steph the pizza. Had too much to do still, and he felt restless. He ran the water in the kitchen sink till it was icy cold, then ran a dishcloth under it. Turning off the water and squeezing out the excess that had collected in the towel, he turned to face Steph

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[msrogers]

She took a small bit of the pizza, minding the cut on her lip as Bucky shuffled around. When he came back with the cold dishcloth, she shook her head. "...my head. It's...sort of killing me. And I did okay! Or I would've been okay if I wasn't having an asthma attack!" she protested.

The blonde knew that none of this would have happened if she didn't go to the park.

[ayeayecap]

And that sent him right back into freakout mode. "You got into a fight while you were having an asthma attack? What the hell happened, anyway?" The second part was asked more softly as he placed the cloth on her forehead. "Here?"

[msrogers]

She winced when he applied the washcloth to a bruise on her forehead. "Yeah, right there. I...I ran off. I didn't want to see...that. And I ran." Which she hated. "Then I had an asthma attack and had to stop and these guys..."

[ayeayecap]

He turned away, unable to look at her. It was his fault she'd gotten hurt like this, and it was something he regretted. "Did you know 'em? What'd they do to you?" What kinds of sick bastards attacked a gal who was having an asthma attack?

[msrogers]

"Bucky, come on, they're worse off than I am." Not really. But she managed to make a big enough ruckus that someone called the police. Steph looked over at him. "Stop it. Stop beating yourself up about it."

[ayeayecap]

"I won't stop. It's my fault you got hurt, and you're not even telling me what happened." He tilted her head to look at him. "Please, tell me. What happened?"

[msrogers]

"Nothing! I wouldn't let them touch me." She hoped against hop that he wouldn't notice that her sleeve was torn. "They could try but I decked them before they could get anywhere."

[ayeayecap]

He didn't need to see her torn sleeve to put the pieces together. His heart felt like it dropped about 400 feet. And then came the rage...the desire to hurt those men like they'd hurt Steph. Only they wouldn't be able to walk out of it like she had if he got his hands on them. "Steph, I--" He wasn't entirely sure how he meant to finish that sentence, but it didn't matter, because there was nothing he could say that would make a difference.

[msrogers]

"Bucky, just quit beating yourself about it or I'll start beating you up about it," she snapped. "It already happened, okay? No different than any other fight I've been in." Except any other fight was just her being scrappy. This was actual danger.

[ayeayecap]

"Yeah? Well, maybe I'd deserve it." He looked glumly at his feet. This wasn't the same as her other fights and he knew it. He also knew that he couldn't always be there to protect her, but this was one time when he wished he had been.

[msrogers]

She nudged him. "Bucky, I'm good but I can't beat you up and eat pizza at the same time." All the same, she leaned against him for support.

[ayeayecap]

He found some comfort in that touch, and leaned against her. Were it not for the fact that she was injured, he would have wrapped his arm around her. So he appreciated what he could get, instead.

[msrogers]

It had always been just the two of them. She didn't mind Bucky's dates, really. But none of them ever lasted this long. "How long?" she asked. "Have you...thought me of that way?"

[ayeayecap]

"That's not important right now." He wasn't ready to admit that he'd had feelings for her since he was a teenager. That he went all that time without saying anything, and it was just now that he'd finally admitted it.

[msrogers]

"Oh yeah? I think it's pretty darn important." She didn't have the strength to pull away from him though. Stephanie didn't want to say much either.

[ayeayecap]

If Steph said it was important, it was important. He wasn't in the position to deny her. "Since forever. Since we were teenagers."