Work Text:
“Sweetie?”
“No.”
“Cupcake?”
“No.”
“Shnookums?”
At this, Bucky didn’t even bother replying. He just raised his head from the newspaper he was reading and stared at Peter, aghast.
“OK. Not shnookums. But seriously, Bucky, I need a pet name for you. There’s a bunch of websites and articles which say it’s healthy for a couple in a relationship to have pet names for each other. Don’t you want us to be healthy?” He tucked his feet under Bucky’s thigh and squirmed back into the couch cushions to get comfortable.
Bucky slowly shook his head. “First of all, whether or not we have pet names for each other is unlikely to seriously impact the health of our relationship. If you honestly think that not having a pet name for me is some kind of sign that our relationship is unhealthy, we’ve got bigger issues. Secondly, there are other articles that say pet names can actually kill off passion. Someone even wrote a book about it. Do you want to kill our sex life?”
Peter pouted at Bucky for a moment before letting out a huff. “I can’t believe you went looking up stuff about pet names.”
Bucky blinked at him. “Seriously? You’ve been pestering me about this for three days. A man needs to be able to defend himself. Besides, you’re one to talk.”
“But I just want to be able to call you something besides Bucky and James,” Peter whined. “You’ve got pet names for me.”
“That’s because you’re adorable, pet,” Bucky said, as he reached out a hand and rubbed over Peter’s knee. “All of my pet names for you make sense.”
“What about Bucky-bear?”
Bucky shuddered. “You call me that and I’ll call you Petey-pie.”
Peter pretended to consider for a moment. “It’s not terrible…” Bucky shot him an incredulous look. “OK, so it’s pretty terrible. But what else can I call you? Apart from Honey, because I have a feeling I use that one when I’m not thinking.”
“Well, you could always call me ‘my love’.” As Peter went to screw his face up, Bucky hastened to explain. “You could call me ‘my love’ in public and call me ‘my lover’ in private. Because I’m both, right? Your love and your lover?”
A smile blossomed over Peter’s face. “You’re totally right, my love. Also, because we are alone, come here, my lover. Come and make your words a reality.” He waggled his eyebrows at Bucky ridiculously.
“Why don’t you come here, my little bucket of gin?” Bucky said, grabbing Peter’s ankle and dragging him down the couch and into his lap. “My little popsicle of pleasure. My little love nugget.”
Peter squealed and laughed. “No! Make it stop!”
“Look,” Bucky said, turning serious for a moment, “when the time is right, something will come about organically, and it will be meaningful and just for the two of us. Until then, I think we’re ok. Don’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess you're right…shnookums.”