[Virginia AU] take my waking slow

[nerves_of_ice]

The nightmares are present, but at least they don’t jerk him out of sleep in any way that disturbs Sharon. When he does finally wake sometime shortly before dawn, he kisses her shoulder and her hair before sliding silently from the bed.

Bucky pulls his shorts back on, then pads into the kitchen and searches out the coffee. He sets it to brewing as quietly as he can and picks up his phone to send Alyona a text while he watches the sky lighten.

surprise - am in Berlin
hope all is going well

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[nerves_of_ice]

"I am, too. I know I just saw her not that long ago, but..."

He shrugs.

[from_the_outside]

She untangles her fingers from his and reaches to tuck a fallen lock of hair behind his ear. "I'm sure she was so happy to see you, too," she tells him.

[nerves_of_ice]

"She was," he admits, tipping his head into her touch. "Although part of that might be because she's pretty excited about me being an Avenger now."

[from_the_outside]

"I'm sure that's only a small part."

She hadn't gotten a lot of details from Nat about Yelena, but she can put together what she heard today with what she'd learned before to create a picture of a little sister who wholly adores her big brother.

Her fingers tug lightly at the ends of his hair before she lets go and reaches for her glass again.

[nerves_of_ice]

He shifts from his crouch to sit beside her on the sofa, although he doesn't push her to uncurl from her cozy position if she doesn't want to.

"Still."

[from_the_outside]

She shifts to give him room and sips at her wine. "How was the rest of your day?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Not bad, I guess," he murmurs. "Different, for sure. How do you do this every day?"

[from_the_outside]

"How do I what?" she says, amused. The wine gives her thoughts a comfortable cushion and she's pleased to have moved away from the danger zone of talking about Yelena. "Go to work?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He grimaces a little. "Everyone in suits, in a giant box of a building, running on paperwork."

[from_the_outside]

"Uh-huh."

Maybe if she hadn't had most of two glasses of wine, she'd be a little exasperated. As it is, she just rolls her eyes and laughs at him. "Tell me how you really feel," she teases.

[nerves_of_ice]

This time he makes a face at her. "I'm used to looking at intel. Just not like that."

[from_the_outside]

"The world runs on paperwork, baby," she tells him, amused. "Even the Avengers. It's just that Happy and the lawyers take care of it so the team can focus on the fun stuff."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I know that," he mutters. "But like you said, I'm not usually the one doing it. Not since the Army, anyway."

[from_the_outside]

She takes a swallow of her wine and watches him with undisguised amusement. "You should be through the worst of it now," she counsels. "Aside from the occasional report. And I bet Riley's got some assistants around who can help with that."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Probably more than occasional. But that's what the tablet's for." He shrugs. "Riley's team's supposed to help, like you said, when it comes to sifting the data."

[from_the_outside]

"I'm sure they'll be useful."

Her feet are bare; she nudges her toes against his leg, marveling all over again at having him here, real and solid. So what if Yelena Belova doesn't want to meet her? That doesn't change anything. "I didn't hear any explosions, so I figured things must have been going reasonably well."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Reasonably. Although I think the HR guy's having some kind of crisis now," he informs her. Bucky curls his hand loosely around her ankle.

"Evidently it's a problem that I don't have a Social Security Number."

[from_the_outside]

She laughs at that – giggles, more accurately. "Yeah, I guess it would be."

Sharon leans her head against her free hand and watches him. "But our HR people are pretty good at navigating sticky legal situations."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I was trying to explain it didn't matter because there wasn't a payroll issue or whatever and Riley hopped in to connect the guy to Alan before he had a breakdown, so ..." He shrugs again.

"Anyway, it could be worse." Bucky smiles at her. "For one thing, I'm here."

[from_the_outside]

She smiles back at him over her glass. "I'm glad you're here," she murmurs. "Even with the paperwork."

[nerves_of_ice]

He studies her carefully. "Ross didn't give you too hard of a time, did he?"

[from_the_outside]

God, she'd almost forgotten the texts from Ross. She'd been too busy planning and then shopping and then getting just a little bit tipsy when dinner didn't work out. "No," she promises.

It's difficult to say what too hard of a time might mean, but her boss had sounded more exasperated than angry. "He was just venting a little."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Uh-huh." Bucky sounds a little dubious. "He asked if there was anything before yesterday. I told him I'd been interested for a while, but I didn't compromise you."

[from_the_outside]

"Of course you didn't."

He'd been far more concerned about that than she had been, which is understandable, considering what it did to him and Natasha. And, by extension, Yelena. "Don't worry, baby. He can be annoyed, it won't mean anything. It's all aboveboard now."

[nerves_of_ice]

"It is," he murmurs, watching her. "No regrets?"