Soft Robotics ✧ Bucky Barnes

19. SUPPRESSOR

I glanced down at her head, at her hair sprawled out across me. I'd never been around her this long in silence. "Doll?"

"Hm?" she hummed, not looking up.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," she said, purposely curling her fingers into her palm to stop tapping. "We're never gonna look at stars together, are we?"

I swallowed. "No. I'm sorry."

She was quiet again, before asking, "Were you ever going to? Did you mean it when you said you would?"

"Yeah. I wanted to. I just wasn't thinking straight."

She laid her hand flat over the faint, white outline of a more recent bullet wound. I wasn't sure if she did it on purpose or not. "It sounds hard to be in your head."

I snorted. "I manage."

She scooted up to nuzzle her face into my neck, pressing kisses there, and I couldn't keep my breath even.

"Are you gonna talk to me again after I leave today?" she asked.

"Whatever you want, baby."

"Well, that's just a lie. Don't lie to me."

I hadn't meant to. "Sorry."

"I was wondering something else," she said, lifting her head to meet my eyes again. "I have to ask now because I'm afraid you're never gonna speak to me again after today."

"What is it?"

"Does the serum..." she stopped to consider, a laugh escaping her lips.

"Are you about to ask me something about my cock?"

"How did you know? They're scientific inquiries. Some general libido questions as well."

"Just ask."

"Never mind." She hid her face in my shoulder, laughing. "You sound so annoyed with me. I'm gonna ask Steve instead."

She was joking, but I nearly winced. I didn't know why she'd think she could say that to me. "Don't ask Steve," I said.

"Oh my god, it was a joke."

"Okay, well, don't think about Steve like that."

"Sorry," she said, rolling her eyes, not understanding. "I didn't think you'd be jealous."

Oh, right. She wasn't my girl. That's why she'd think she could say that to me. Because she could.

"Just ask what you wanna ask, doll."

"No, I've moved on. Focused on this now. Do you always get jealous easily?" she asked. She propped herself up on an elbow to study me.

No, actually, I didn't. At least, I couldn't remember ever being like this. But the thought of Grace with someone else made me physically ill. I chalked it up to the serum amplifying things (even though I wasn't sure it was ever there to amplify in the first place?). She didn't need to know.

"I don't know what to tell you, doll, except don't lay in my bed and talk about my best friend."

"I'm sorry, Daddy," she pouted. "I wasn't trying to make you jealous."

"Are you trying to make me hard now?"

It was easier to evade her questions than anybody else's around here. She was too easily distracted and way too trusting. She'd never make it as an agent or an assassin or a soldier and I loved that about her.

"No," she laughed. "Are you hard?"

She reached under the blanket to feel—so yeah, fucking now I was getting hard, with her delicate hand on my cock. "Don't just touch it like that if you're not gonna make me come, doll."