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“What do you mean I’m doing it wrong? You said crack the egg into the bowl, is there more than one way to crack an egg?”
“Yes, there’s the right way, and the way you’re doing it,” Bucky answered Natasha’s frustrated inquiry with a kiss on her neck. “Your way gets as much egg on the outside of the bowl as the inside, here’ do it like this.” He took another egg from the carton and tapped it on the counter, “See this indent? And the crack here? Use the indentation to separate the pieces, This way you won’t break the membrane and the shells won’t get into your eggs, and your eggs will get into the bowl.”
Bucky knew he was infuriating her, he also knew she was as entertained as she was miffed.
“Stop that, let me do it.” She pushed him aside with her shoulder. “Hey! I hate you for being right you know.”
“Yeah? Go on then, take cooking lessons from somebody who doesn’t know anything.”
“You used to be a better teacher,” she challenged, giving him killer side-eye to punctuate her point.
“Yeah, but I am better at so much more these days. Such as making choices for myself and being a pretty damned good cook, which is why you asked me to show you.”
She turned and put her arms around his waist, resting her cheek on his chest, “you’re right. You’re better at being a cocky SOB too.”
“I’ve got news for you sweetheart,” he said, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “I was a cocky SOB long before anybody got their grubby fascist hands on me. Come on, two more eggs.”
“You were always extremely focused on the task at hand.” She gave him a quick squeeze before facing her bowl of eggs again. “So, I assume this is going to be easy and not an immediate disaster?”
“Well, Talia, it depends on how hard you tap the egg, this isn’t a power move, be gentle.” He blew in her ear softly, aiming for distraction and succeeding. “I do like it when you’re very gentle.”
She pushed him away again, this time firmly with her hands on his chest. “You can teach me from the other side of the counter. Shoo.”
He capitulated willingly and walked around to the opposite side of the island. He leaned against the barstool that rested there and watched her finish cracking the eggs needed for the recipe. Her hair fell down over one eye and as with any other task she set out to perform, she was concentrated on doing everything right. Her tongue poked out briefly when she multi tasked reading the recipe and identifying and utilizing ingredients needed. He eased onto the stool and his movement cracked her focus long enough to look up at him with her obscured eye and warn him.
“If you say I’m beating these eggs wrong I’ll beat you. This whisk doesn’t look like it would be too comfortable in certain applications.”
He leaned forward with his chin in his hands and grinned at her, saying nothing was likely worse than any comeback he could utter, so he just winked at her and watched her screw her face up in agitated frustration. There was an audible grunt that escaped her in her gruff dismissal. A deep sense of satisfaction and endless fascination filled his soul as he kept his smile low-key and relished the moment.
His only comments were in response to her genuine questions throughout the rest of the recipe. When she presented the finished quick bread from the oven, he could sense an uncharacteristic self-doubt in the way she held her breath. Although he would love to tell her she needn't worry that wasn’t the feedback she wanted or needed.
“Well? Do we get to have a taste test?”
“Is it at all possible that it’s poisoned or something?”
He bit his lip to rein in a chuckle. “No, you followed the recipe. Would turning a bread recipe into poison without adding anything poisonous be a kind of alchemy? Come on, look how delicious it looks and —” he inhaled deeply “— smell that heavenly aroma. Come on, Talia, share your magic bread.”
She removed the bread from the pan and sliced an end off, carefully handling the hot food. With a piece in hand, she reached across the counter and offered Bucky a bite.
“You’re in an extraordinary mood today, What’s going on?”
He chewed on the decadent bread and considered an answer. “Well,” he said with much of his bite still in his mouth, “I’ve decided to start enjoying things. Everyday moments, time with you, things I was robbed of. I’m not going to let the dark parts of my life have much time above ground. I’ll deal with them, sure, but I don’t have to live for them.”
She seemed simultaneously content with his response and expectant.
“What?” he muttered around another bite. “Oh! Talia, Mm-mm. Of course it’s good, it’s great! Would I be scarfing down another bite if it wasn’t? Two questions, do you think you could and would do it again and when are you going to clean up after yourself?”
The kitchen towel hurled at his head was no surprise, he had it coming. He got off the barstool and retrieved the towel. He set it, scrunched up, on the counter by the sink before stopping next to her in the center of the kitchen.
“I have been cleaning as I’ve go. You — it’s impossible that you missed that. You are an impossible —”
“Overbearing stick in the mud?”
“Oaf !” The exclamation was negated by the affectionate expression she couldn’t hide. “Why can’t I control my features when it’s you? Only you.”
“Because I am impossible. ” He wrapped his arms around her from behind and nuzzled her neck. “What do you want to learn to bake tomorrow?”
She turned around in his arms, twining her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. “I’ll think about that tomorrow.” She nipped his bottom lip and then held it gently between her teeth.
He touched the tip of his tongue repeatedly to her top lip, a vague promise for what would follow, and carried her to the bedroom while still kissing her.
“We might get to baking tomorrow,” he teased throwing himself backward onto the bed with Natasha on top of him. I have different kind of taste test in mind for today, we might be busy for awhile.
Her amusement showed in her playful teasing of his lips and the sweet laugh that escaped into his mouth. “I like the sound of that.”