Floating

Chapter Three

'You alright?'

'I think I'm doing pretty well, considering.'

'You're doing great,' he glanced towards your friends, 'but I think your secret's out.'

'Really? I thought I played it off.'

A low chuckle vibrated through his chest. 'I guess we'll see.'

You buried your head in the crook of his neck, closing your eyes in an attempt to deflect the suspicious looks Nat was giving you.

You almost just died for Christ's sake, surely she'd have to give you a pass this time.

---

Clambering into bed that night, you'd never been so pleased for a day to be over. Every muscle in your body was aching.

You still weren't sure how, but under cross-examination you'd actually managed to play the incident off as a fluke, claiming to your friends that a mixture of shock and the two beers you had with lunch made you forget how to swim- how the hell they bought that you'd never know.

Obviously you'd tell them the truth at some point, you were just glad you could do it in your own time.

Just as you were nodding off, there was a faint knock on the door, and Bucky's head appeared in the gap soon afterwards.

'Thought I'd make sure you're all good, two close calls is a lot for one day.'

'Tell me about it.' You gave him an exhausted smile. 'I'm okay though, thanks Buck.'

He was silent for a second. You could tell he was dying to come in, but after everything that'd happened he was obviously reluctant to impose. You had no idea why he was so desperate, you probably looked like an absolute mess that needed at least ten hours sleep and maybe some kind of sedative, but it was flattering nonetheless.

'Well, g'night.'

'Hey.' You stopped him just before the door closed. 'You can stay, if you want to.'

'You want me to?'

'Yeah, I do.'

---

A light shake of your shoulder dragged you out of sleep. You grunted, keeping your eyes firmly closed, and rolled away from your tormentor.

'Hey,' he scooched across the gap you'd created and shook you again, 'wake up.'

'What time is it?'

'I don't know, like seven.'

You aggressively shrugged his hand off your shoulder. 'Fuck all the way off.'

Just as you thought you'd gotten rid of him and started to feel yourself relaxing back into sleep, Bucky jumped off the bed and ripped the sheet away from you, laughing at the incredibly irritated frown you shot him while still curled up in fetal position.

'C'mon, we got stuff to do.'

'The fuck you talking about?' You were awash with grogginess, the boyish excitement on his face kind of starting to piss you off. 'Am I still asleep? Is this a nightmare?'

'Close but no cigar. Now get up.'

He basically dragged you off the mattress, the expression on your face frozen into one of angry confusion as he coaxed you into your bathing suit and down onto the beach. He, for some reason, tried to start leading you into the water, but you stopped dead as soon as your toes started getting wet.

'What the hell are we doing out here, Buck? It's way too early for another brush with death.'

'Alright, look, I have an idea. I want to help you out and I figured we should probably do it before Nat wakes up.'