The longer the blaring siren from the kitchen sounded, the more worried you became that this time it was a real problem, and that Bucky had actually set the room on fire. You waited the agreed upon one minute, after jumping in too soon and not allowing him to fix his mistake on his own one too many times. After the minute had passed and the fire alarm was still going, you got up to see what had happened to the dinner that you were likely never going to have.
"Buck? You okay?"
"I've got it! I've got it!" he called out, stopping you at the doorway with a raised hand, the other trying to wave the smoke away from the fire detector to quiet it. "Please shut up," he groaned at device, the flapping of his towel at it growing more and more vigorous until it finally silenced.
You pulled your phone from your pocket and began to swipe your thumb over the screen, searching through your contacts for your standard emergency dinner plans. "So...pizza?"
"No, don't you dare!" he laughed, rushing across the room to take your phone away, shoving it into his own pocket to keep it from you before returning to whatever it was that he was trying to cook. "This was just a very minor setback. We still have enough here to make it, don't you worry."
"I trust you," you smiled, creeping your way into the room and peeking around him to see what he was making. "So what did you do?"
"I forgot the spatula in the lasagna pan and may have started a very small and not at all life-threatening fire in the oven."
"Okay, so what are we having instead?" You wrapped your arms around his waist from behind and rested your head against his back, humming contently to the sounds of his deep voice resonating through his chest, hearing the smile in it as he spoke.
"Not lasagna, that's for sure."
"Fine," you sighed, releasing your hold and moving to stand next to him, leaning against the counter and still trying to figure out what he was doing. You watched for a few minutes with a look of curiosity that didn't go unnoticed until he gave you a scolding look and pointed you towards one of the chairs. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stare!" you chuckled. "Did you make a dessert?"
"Babe, let's add a touch of realism to this situation, shall we?"
With a smirk and a little poke of your tongue at him, you went to the pantry to see what it had to offer that you might be able to work with. No one on the team had been out to purchase groceries in a long time, having been tied up with multiple missions, so your hopes of salvaging a dessert were pretty bleak. "Do we have an egg?" you called out to him, your voice muffled from having your head stuck deep into the cabinet and rustling around gathering baking items.
"What's wrong with your leg?"
"Jesus," you laughed, standing up to make your voice clear, "I said, do we have an egg?"
"Probably. It would be in the fridge."
"Really? Ya think?"
You had managed to find enough flour, brown sugar, some walnuts, butter and finally an egg to make a descent dessert, but you were missing one key item. "Hey Buck? I thought you were done with these?" you asked, holding up a bag of fresh plums.
"Well, it was kinda all I had for a while, so I guess I just got used to having 'em," he shrugged. "You can use 'em if you want to."
"It looks like they're the only fruit left around here, so plum tart it is!" You set the plums on the table and dug out a large mixing bowl and baking pan, spreading everything out over the kitchen table to start, but you paused when Bucky stood next to you with a look of awe in his expression.
"You know how to make that?"
"It's really not hard. Do you want to learn?"
"Uh, yeah!" he agreed readily, "it sounds so much better than eating them raw every day."
You smiled and pushed up on your toes to give him a quick kiss on his cheek; the excitement in his eyes at learning something new was adorable. "Okay, take all of the dry items and mix them in here," you directed, handing him the bowl and a mixing spoon. "Then add the egg and butter until it's all crumbly. I'll get the plums ready."
"I can do that," he smiled, whistling as he meticulously followed your instructions. "Okay, how's that?" he asked with a tip of the bowl for you to see. "I think I did pretty darn good."
"Yes, you sure did! Alright, now take about half of it and press it lightly into the pan so I can put the plums over it." Bucky nodded and started out okay, but he became a little too forceful with his metal hand and was making the layer much too thin. "Sweetie, press gently."
"I am pressing it gently."
"Sure, but how about just let up a little bit? Kinda like how Wanda showed you to plant seeds in the garden last week?"
He mumbled something under his breath, completing his task and pushing the pan to your side of the table with a grin, "my lady, it's all yours." Bucky leaned against the table with his arms folded gently over his chest, watching you with a deep concentration and his tongue poking just slightly from the corner of his mouth. His brow furrowed slightly when you came up one slice of plum short, but his expression quickly brightened when you simply made a few rearrangements to make it work.
"You're really into this, aren't you?"
"What? I'm hungry," he smiled, taking the pan back to finish adding the last layer of crumble. "And yeah, this is fun. Way more fun than trying to learn this stuff on my own." Once he was done, he held up the final result and smiled down at his work proudly, gently placing it in the oven as if it were the most breakable thing his hands had ever touched. "This hour needs to go by fast. I'm starving."
"Hey, that's why I'm here," Tony announced from the doorway with a wide grin, holding three large pizza boxes in his hands. When neither of you gave him the response he wanted and simply stared at him in confusion, he dropped them on the table with an exasperated sigh and perched his hands on his hips in frustration.
"FRIDAY called me with a fire alarm. That's the universal signal for pizza night, right?"