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Sarah and Bucky had spent plenty of time together in the weeks since he arrived in Louisiana. Just not time alone. Sam was always there. Or the boys. Or Carlos or someone else from the docks where Sarah’s boat lived. And honestly, Bucky didn’t mind that they never got a chance for it to be just them. He could watch her help the boys with homework or show them how to untangle fishing nets all day, all week, forever. He could say the same about watching her clean fish, discarded scales up and down her fishing bib and that look of concentration on her face. He even liked watching her and Sam bicker, although sometimes those moments of sibling-love hit him with sharp pangs of loneliness and jealousy.
When he found himself alone with Sarah on the boat one afternoon, he couldn’t help feeling eager. Eager and nervous. Sam was on a two-day trip to Washington. Cass and AJ were both at a friend’s house. It was just them, the boat, and a starboard diesel-engine that refused to turn over.
While they worked on the engine, they didn't really talk. It was all climbing around inside the hull, rewiring, yelling through layers of fiberglass for the other to try this switch or that pulley, and getting covered in grease. For that, Bucky was a little grateful, but after three hours, they hadn’t made almost any progress. Both tired and covered in soot, Sarah asked if he wanted to take a break.
He offered her his hand to help her climb out of the engine room, and she smiled that shy, soft little smile before taking it and letting him help lift her out of the floor compartment. Her hand was strong and calloused and he only let go of it reluctantly.
He followed her lead to the boat’s deck and sat down next to her on the cushionless transom bench. It was approaching dusk, with the evening sun casting different shades of orange and purple over the ocean next to them. Every so often, a fish flopped out of the water with a little splash.
“Y–”
“I–”
“Sorry,” She fumbled. “You go.”
“No, no, go ahead.”
Sarah looked down and smiled back over at him. “I just wanted to say thank you. You’ve been a really big help with all of this.” She gestured to the boat in front of them.
“No problem.” Those eyelashes, those dark brown eyes, that soft cheek. God, if she wasn’t a work of art. Bucky blinked and tried to focus. “If you’ve got a bionic arm, might as well use it, right?”
He liked making her laugh. Making her smile. Some people smiled automatically, all the time, at anything. Sarah didn’t. You had to earn a smile from her. You had to work for it. If he could, he would spend the rest of his life getting her to show hers off.
He liked too that he didn’t have to hide himself around her or her family. He didn’t have to wear gloves or heavy layers to cover up the black vibranium prosthetic. She knew who he was. What he was. It didn’t seem to bother her, except occasionally when he used his superstrength to entertain Cass and AJ. He had gotten pretty harshly chastised when she walked into the living room one day to find him carrying around the couch over his head with the boys sitting on top of it. But even then, it wasn’t about the arm or the serum. It was about not breaking household objects and keeping the boys safe.
Besides, it was really no trouble to hang around and help with the boat. It gave him the chance to do something with his arm and juiced up body that wasn’t related to killing or fighting or war. A chance to do something good, in a wonderfully quotidian sort of way.
“Yeah, well, you keep showing off and pretty soon Carlos is gonna be trying to get you working for him down at the body shop.”
“Okay, first of all, I don’t show off.”
“Of course not,” She teased, knocking her knee against his.
She was always so lovely to look at. In the morning, in her bonnet and slippers, making coffee. When she drove up to the house in her pickup truck, windows down, music crooning, arm hanging over the sidedoor. At night, over dinner. Now, with her braids tied back and out of her face, a smear of grease and dirt on her brown cheek.
“I’m sorry,” She said with a short laugh, glancing over at him. “You were gonna say something.”
The wind coming off the water smelled briny and fresh. It reminded him a little of Rockaway Beach but with less smog and sulfur in the air. Sometimes he forgot that he grew up by the ocean. Sometimes he forgot how much he missed it.
“I was gonna say that you’ve got a pretty nice setup here,” Bucky said finally.
“Just pretty nice?”
“Fine. Very nice,” He smiled, holding her gaze.
He wished he was better with words. Better with tenderness. Better with everything. He wished he could tell her how long it had been since he sat down for a family dinner like the ones Sarah had with Cass, AJ, and Sam every night. How long it had been since he felt this kind of calm. This kind of peace.
“I… I like being here, Sarah.”
“I kinda like you being here too,” She admitted softly.
“You do?”
"I mean–"
When she started to roll her eyes, he reached out, cupping her cheek in his hand, and laying a gentle kiss on her lips before she could finish the retort he knew was coming. She tasted like ocean and honeysuckle and pine trees. He drew back, both surprised and embarrassed by himself. “Sorry,” He mumbled. “I should have–”
It was her turn to cut him off with a kiss.
They were both careful and unsure at first, like they were afraid to touch. Slowly, they each gained confidence, hands beginning to find the other’s body, lips beginning to move with each other in rhythm. By the time his tongue was tracing Sarah’s bottom lip, he was out of breath.
They pulled away from each other, but he kept his hand on her knee and she kept hers on his chest.
“I haven’t done that in awhile.” She was coy and flushed and looking at him through those lashes, those perfect lashes. If he wasn’t already feeling weak, he was now.
“Me neither.” He could feel himself grinning like a smitten teenager, and yet he didn't feel sorry for it at all.
“You smell like diesel,” She whispered.
“You don’t seem to mind.”
“No?”
“Not at all.”
“I do a little bit.”
“You do, Sarah? Really?”
For two people who weren't teenagers and hadn't been in quite some time, they sure made out like they still were.