Title: Sufficiently Festive
Fandom: MCU
Characters: Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers
Length: 373 words
Rating: Teen
Warnings: nightmares mentioned in passing
Notes: Written for
picture_prompt_fun ’s advent calendar day #1
prompt pic
here.
Ao3 Link Steve wakes from another nightmare filled with cold, snow and Bucky slipping from him yet again. The bed is cool and the space beside him empty. Steve sits up and rubs his face. Things are good when he's awake. His dreaming life is a different story. Still, he'd rather have his waking life be good and his dreams less so, than it be the other way around.
Bucky and Steve are living together now. They'd rented a little house in New England when they returned from Wakanda. It's nice. No one seems to recognize them here, either that or they just didn't feel the need to let on that they did. Either way, it's nice.
Steve hopes he hasn't driven Bucky from their bed with his restlessness. He tends to sleep rough when the nightmares come. He pushes the blankets aside and pulls on a pair of boxers before heading out into the other room.
He finds Bucky in the living room hanging strands of multi-colored lights on a tall gangly tree that hadn't been there when they'd gone to bed earlier.
"I thought you said you were too old for a Christmas tree, Buck."
Steve's surprised but pleased to see Bucky awkwardly stringing lights around the tree. They'd given him a new arm in Wakanda after clearing out the programming that was left in his head. This one was designed more for everyday functions and less for destruction and war. They're retired, at least for now. Steve figures they'd both more than earned some time off.
Bucky turns around, a smile sneaking onto his face. "Yeah well, I can't leave all the mushy romantic stuff to you, Steve."
Steve crosses the room and wraps his arms around Bucky, maneuvering him under the mistletoe and planting a kiss on his mouth.
"I love it," Steve says when the kiss eventually ends.
"Good, I'm glad I didn't do all this holiday craziness for nothing," Bucky says and nips him on the neck.
After a bit, Bucky goes back to stringing the last of the lights and Steve joins in to help with the rest of the decorations. When they finish the house looks sufficiently festive and the two of them head back to bed.