Work Text:
Steve woke up in the middle of the night, intending to roll over, wrap his arm around Bucky, and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, Bucky was no longer in bed, the light was on in the kitchen, and he could hear the clatter of kitchen utensils. A variety of possibilities flashed through his head, from likely to entirely outside of the realm of possibility. Deciding that whatever was happening in the kitchen would be best dealt with head-on, Steve padded out of their bedroom and into the kitchen.
Whatever he had expected, it wasn’t this. Bucky was standing at the counter, whisking what smelled like chocolate pudding at a frankly incredible speed. Steve was certain pudding wasn’t meant to be abused in such a fashion. He leaned against the door frame, just watching for a minute, before asking, “Did you get hungry?”
Bucky turned to look at him, reaching up to brush a strand of hair back from his face. “I couldn’t get back to sleep,” he replied. “So I thought I’d make something to eat, but then there wasn’t really anything that looked like I wanted to eat it, until I found this package of pudding shoved all the way back in the cupboard, so I figured, why not?” Flecks of chocolate dotted his face and arms from the speed at which he had been whisking the pudding.
Steve barely even remembered buying the pudding mix, and was slightly concerned that it may have gone bad, but he kept this concern to himself, focusing on Bucky instead.
"Is everything okay?"
Bucky shrugged. “Nightmare.”
"Why didn’t you wake me up?"
"Didn’t want to bother you."
"You know it doesn’t bother me."
"I wanted to let you get some sleep, then. You stayed up half the night with me last night. You could use some sleep." Shrugging again, Bucky turned back to inspect the pudding.
"I think you already beat it into submission," Steve smiled.
Bucky rolled his eyes, removing the whisk from the bowl and licking it clean.
"You’re really supposed to refrigerate that before you eat it."
"That’s only a suggestion."
Steve crossed over to him and kissed his cheek. Sometimes Bucky needed some space, some room to breathe. “I’m going to go back to bed, unless you want me to stay?”
Bucky shook his head. “I think I’m fine.”
Steve nodded. “Come back to bed if you feel like it later.”
Eventually, Bucky would come back to bed and Steve would curl around him again, hoping that Bucky would actually manage to get some sleep, although he knew Bucky rarely managed to sleep again after a nightmare. He started to head back to the bedroom, but stopped again. “And don’t eat all of that pudding. I want some of it.”
Bucky smiled. “Sure thing. You can have it for breakfast.”
"Breakfast of champions," Steve smiled at him before heading back to bed.
(True to his word, Bucky left a Tupperware container of pudding the fridge, just for Steve.)