Title: Holding Hands
Fandom and Pairing: The Avengers (movieverse) Steve/Tony, Bucky
Rating: NC-17
Length: 1388
Written for my
Avengers Fluff Table prompt: holding hands
Summary: Three times Steve wakes up.
AN: Canon Character Death
Wind howls and snow blows as a train rumbles down tracks cut into the side of a mountain. An explosion fuels the air with heat. Bucky clings to the side of the train.
'Bucky! Hang on!' Steve reaches out and there is fear in Bucky's eyes. 'Grab my hand.'
The sicken sound of breaking metal is replaced by Bucky's scream. A scream that fades as Bucky falls like a rag doll to the forest below.
Steve startled awake. His heart was beating like a drum in his chest and his breath came in gasps.
'You all right, Cap?' Tony said in the darkness.
Steve sat up in bed and looked around as if the assure himself that he still wasn't on that train. The room was dark and quite. Next to him Tony's arc reactor was glowing and the light reminded Steve of the streetlight that had been outside the window of his childhood bedroom. Steve reached over and touched the reactor core, his fingers brushed against metal. Tony's hand landed on top of Steve's and the feeling warm skin replaced the feeling of cool metal.
'You okay?' Tony asked again after several moments.
'I'm fine, just a bad dream.
'Oh. You know I have a remedy for that.'
Steve moved his hand away from Tony's and lay back against soft pillows. 'Do you think sex would help?'
Tony switched on a lamp and for a moment Steve was blinded by yellow light. Once Steve's eyes adjusted he looked around the room in Tony's pent house. The walls were painted a deep red to match Tony's bed sheets and other than an end table and the bed there was little else in the room. Steve once asked Tony why he didn't put more things in the room and Tony just smirked and said he was only planning on using the bed; Tony then showed Steve exactly what he meant.
'Sex? I was going to offer to make you a glass of warm milk, but a good idea is a good idea,' Tony said with a grin.
'Okay.'
Tony moved over and positioned himself on top of Steve. The press of Tony's naked body helped Steve's dream fade, if only he could lose the memory so easily. Tony started by placing gentle kisses on Steve lips, his hands rubbing Steve's shoulders. If Steve thought about it he would have to say that the times Tony was gentle were his favorite times.
Steve let the feeling of Tony's skin and the spicy scent of Tony's cologne surround him After a while Tony moved from Steve lips to Steve's chest. Nipping and sucking on Steve's nipple caused Steve to hiss and grab on to Tony's hair.
When Tony placed kisses on Steve's sensitive stomach Steve laughed. When Tony grabbed Steve's hard cock and kissed the tip Steve gasped. Tony's pink tongue came out and licked the tip, tracing patterns on to skin. Steve gripped sheets hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.
Tony wrapped his lips around Steve's cock and sucked, his cheeks hallowing. Steve laid back and reveled in the feeling of Tony's mouth around his cock. After a few hard sucks Steve trust up into Tony's mouth and came hard.
Tony moved up the bed and collapsed on top of Steve. His hand found Steve's and their fingers threaded together. As Steve drifted off into a dreamless sleep he thought maybe tomorrow he'd do something special for Tony; maybe breakfast (and blow jobs) in bed.
*************
Steve was in an abandoned building. Dust and the smell of mildew hung in the air and broken windows let in yellow sunlight. The morning had started out good, he had made breakfast for Tony after giving him a blow job, but things went downhill from there.
A giant blue snake creature slid across the dust covered floor. Tony stepped forward and the snake reared up, it was as tall as Tony and its blue scales glistened. Steve saw the snake open it's jaws, slime dripped from yellow fangs, and without even thinking as Steve stepped in front of Tony and was hit by green slime. Steve wished he hadn't thrown his shield at the snake, it had caught it in its mouth and tossed it aside.
As Steve's slime covered uniform smoked, Steve felt his skin burn. Falling backward, Steve saw Tony hit the snake and it backed away.
As the world faded into blackness, pain spread throughout Steve's body and Steve closed his eyes.
********
Steve opened his eyes and looked around. The room was bright white. Steve couldn't see any lighting fixtures, but light seemed to come from everywhere. In front of him was a window. Outside the sky was red and purple. It felt as disconcerting as the time he woke up after sleeping seventy years.
He was laying on a bed under a quilt; the colorful squares were soft and well known. Steve stuck his hand under the pillow and his hand closed around something cool. Pulling his hand out from under the pillow, Steve opened his hand and looked at the glass marbles he was holding. He remembered how Bucky used to love playing with marbles. Steve felt tears slide down his cheeks.
'Hey, buddy.' Steve heard a voice say.
Steve rubbed his eyes and saw a familiar figure sitting in a chair next to his bed. Steve felt his breath catch and when he could finally speak he said the only thing that came to mind. 'Bucky?'
'Yep,' Bucky said with a grin.
'What's going on? Am I in heaven?'
'Nah. It's more like a temporary resting place.'
'Oh,' Steve said trying not to sound too disappointed.
'You want to be in heaven, don't you?'
Leave it to Bucky to get at the heart of the matter.
Steve sat up and rubbed the marbles in his hand. The feeling of smooth glass against his fingers was soothing.
'I do. I was asleep for seventy years and the future is confusing and tiring. Everything is so load and fast, there are even phones without cords.'
'It can't be that bad. Isn't there something good about the future?'
Steve thought about it and his mind went to Tony. Even though Tony didn't and couldn't understand what Steve was going through he still tried to make things easier. As Steve remembered the time Tony tried to show him how to use a remote, a lesson that ended in couch sex, Steve felt himself grin.
'Oh, look at you. You've got a dame don't you? Does she have nice gams?'
Steve felt his mouth go dry. He didn't know how to tell his best friend that he was in a relationship with Tony. In Steve's time two men together was the kind of thing that was never talked about. Steve took a deep breath and decided to bite the bullet.
'It's Howard Stark's son.'
Bucky's eyes went wide and then he broke out into a wide grin. 'Well I'll be. If he's anything like Howard he had better treat you right.'
Steve felt himself grin. 'He does.'
'Good. Good.'
Something was gnawing at Steve's mind. 'You said this was a temporary resting place, does that mean you're not really dead?'
'Steve I...' Bucky never finished his thought. Steve felt himself being pulled by some kind of invisible force and everything went dark. The next thing he knew, Steve was staring up at ceiling tiles.
'Easy. Easy,' Steve heard Tony say.
'What's going on?' Steve asked Tony who was sitting next to Steve's bed. The fact that he was in the same spot that Bucky had been was not lost on Steve.
'You're in the hospital. The slime ate through your suit and infected your blood.'
'I died.'
Tony grabbed Steve's hand and gave it a squeeze. 'Yeah. Just for a moment. If it had been anyone else it would have killed you permanently.'
'Oh.'
Tony leaned forward and brushed his lips against Steve's cheek. 'You okay, Cap?'
'Yeah. I'm fine.'
Steve squeezed Tony's hand and closed his eyes. As Steve thought about it he thought that seeing Bucky again had been the very definition of bittersweet, but at least he still had Tony and the rest of The Avengers. He did enjoy telling The Hulk to smash things among other things.