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Deep Ocean's Drift
Bucky hated it when Tony was right. Tony was the smuggest son of a bitch he knew, and when he was proved right about something? Absolutely frustrating. He gloated. The blue scales he used to draw prey in flashed in his glee. He swam flips and figure eights as he crowed about how he was right and others were wrong haha how does it feel to eat shark scales. Or worse–
“Oh, Buck, I’m so sorry,” Tony whispered, carefully reaching out, curling his arms around his waist to pull him close as he used his tail to gently urge them both into one of nearby currents, so they could drift instead of swim.
…He was gentle.
“I’m sorry,” Tony said again, and blew through his gills to send jets of semi-oxygenated water against Bucky’s tentacles. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Bucky croaked, because it wasn’t. Tony had actively warned him not to go into the fissures. It wasn’t safe for his species of octomer. There were larger tentacled beings down there that ate them as prey. He’d met one.
Had only escaped by the skin of his teeth.
Tony blew through his gills again, then carefully asked, “Where’s Steve?”
“He’s fine,” Bucky snapped, and immediately hated himself for it when Tony responded by turning his head away submissively. “He’s fine,” he repeated quietly. “He turned tail as soon as he realized that he’d have to face you.”
Tony made a sound, which might have been hurt, or frustration, or agreement. His fingers trailed the edges of the seaweed wrapped around his arm stump. Two of his tentacles were gone, too. The tentacles would grow back. His arm… well. Who knew. All he and Steve knew was that him coming along could end one of two ways: Tony would be too distracted trying to comfort Bucky to notice, or he’d be so furious he’d electrocute them both. Steve felt he deserved it, but he also knew it would just make Tony feel worse later, so he’d watched from a distance to make sure he made it before swimming home to his own mate.
“I’m glad it’s you and not Natasha,” Bucky muttered, burying his face against Tony’s neck, pressing a kiss to his fluttering gills.
Tony was unable to help a bark of laughter. “Oh, to be algae on that wall.”
“Yeah, she’s gonna be so pissed, apparently Steve didn’t even tell her we were going down,” Bucky continued.
“He cannot stay with us,” Tony began. “She’ll storm into our cave and then she’ll see you and get aggressively protective–”
“Yeah she’s gonna be mean with love,” Bucky agreed, nodding.
“–and kick me out to go hunt for us all so you’ll be stuck between her fussing over you and her screaming at Steve for being an idiot–”
Bucky sighed. “I hope he just goes to Sam’s.”
“–and then she’ll yell at me for discharging my electricity because she can sense that shit even though she’d be the one who told me to go hunt.” Tony huffed. “Should we go stay with Pepper or Rhodey just in case?”
Bucky actually paused to think about the merits of it, but finally, he murmured, “I just want to be home.”
“Yeah,” Tony agreed immediately. “Yeah, okay. How are you, by the way? Do we need to stop at Bruce’s cave on the way back?”
“No,” Bucky said, finally lifting his arm to curl it around Tony’s back. “I’m good. I just need to rest.”
Tony turned his head to press a kiss to his temple. “Okay. Okay. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Bucky replied, pressing another kiss to his gills, and pulled him closer when he shivered in response.