In your arms (I think I might survive)

2

A/N: time to - cough - turn up the spice a bit. Nothing explicit here, but... Well, you'll see. I'd say this chapter gets us the M rating.

— 2 —

After that first night, it's not that things change between Gale and Bucky in the daylight, but they do end up sharing Gale's bunk in an unspoken agreement from then on. It's just too damn cold to sleep alone anymore.

The nights pass more or less the same as the first one, some combination of Bucky climbing in after Gale and wrapping himself shamelessly around the man, clinging desperately, drunk on the skin beneath him like he hasn't been on liquor in too long now, but to a similar effect, nonetheless. If anyone told Bucky that he could honest to God get drunk on being close to a person, he would have laughed at them—

Yet here he is.

And the evidence is damning, he's drunk as many nights on Gale Cleven now as he used to be back on Base with a good whiskey in hand.

Bucky thought that maybe after a few days of sharing a bunk with Gale, he would get used to the weight of the man in his arms and that his desires would be easier to control over time since he would be used to having Gale there. Bucky was so, so very wrong. The more nights Bucky spends with Gale in his embrace the worse things get. Bucky has never been a patient man, and his impulse control is shoddy at the best of times when it comes to the simple pleasures of life.

That being said, Gale himself is certainly not helping the matter of Bucky's tentative control. Every night, Gale seems to relax further into Bucky's arms. Like when he pressed his own face into the warm flesh of Bucky's neck the fourth night like Bucky had done the first night, allowing them to press together, chest to chest so that Bucky was lying nearly on top of the other man, every part of them touching in a way they never had before.

Bucky nearly lost himself that night; he nearly gave into every hidden desire that whispers in the back of his mind constantly when he's around Gale but somehow he kept his hands from wandering too much, only slipping them under Gales shirt like the first night and warming them against his back and — admittedly — pressing the blond tighter against him.

In short, Bucky is losing his goddamn mind in the best possible way and it's all Gale Cleven's fault.

And it's hardly been a week.

At this rate, winter looms long ahead of Bucky.

Bucky is already lying in his bunk tonight. Their whole cabin is tense with thoughts of the war. Gale spent hours with the radio receiver pressed to his ear, rattling back every piece of news as it came across the channels. Bucky is wound tight with it all, itching under his skin at his inability to do anything about their circumstances in the war camp. He knows that it bothers Gale just as much, but true to the nature of the quieter man, he keeps it all to himself, carrying everything alone.

As the hour draws later more of the men climb into their bunk. Lights out is called and with a heavy sigh of resignation, Bucky takes slow steps toward Gale's bunk. He wonders if Gale will welcome him again tonight — If he still wants him here with how tense he must be after the day everyone has had and emotions running high. Would Gale want space tonight? Bucky casts his eyes back toward his own bunk which still lay empty mere feet away, ready to take him back should he need it. Then he thinks of the past week, especially the past few nights and the way the blond had unabashedly returned Bucky's embrace the moment he'd crawled into the bunk. If Gale doesn't want him there tonight, he'll tell him.

With newfound resolve, Bucky pulls himself into the bunk. He's gentle about the way he approaches Gale in the too-small bed. The other man is pressed nearly nose to the wall, facing away from the room and Bucky. It makes Bucky wonder if he's even asleep, but he thinks he must be awake, deep in thought, by the way his shoulders are so tense and his breathing is too shallow to be restful. Bucky turns on his hip so he's facing Gale, scant inches between them on the narrow mattress.