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“Aaand they’re doing it again,” John sighs. “Yep. Great. Fine.”
He turns back to his plate with a shake of his head. Ava and Bucky pay him no mind.
“Was that tongue?” Yelena says, eyes widening. “At dinner table?”
“You don’t have to look, Lena,” Alexei replies, voice muffled by his hands covering his face.
“I… I think maybe we shouldn’t have put up so much mistletoe.” Bob fixes his eyes on the offending plant above their heads.
“You think?” John groans.
Bucky feels Ava’s smirk against his lips, and smiles back.
Yeah, revenge tastes sweet.
~
A week prior, the grave mistake that started all this was made.
“Where’s the tape?” John calls out.
“Here,” Bob answers from the ladder he’s on. He tosses the roll of tape toward John, who catches it with one hand.
“Thanks, Bob.” He attaches yet another mistletoe over the spot where Bucky and Ava always sit together on the couch.
Meanwhile, Yelena looks out the window with spy-grade binoculars.
“Hurry, they’re almost back,” she urges. “Oh, nevermind. They’re just holding hands kissing in the middle of the path. In front of all those little children.”
Without looking back, she adds, “Dad, put Alpine down. Bucky will kill us all if you put poisonous plant on her collar.”
“But is fake plant! Not poisonous,” Alexei said.
“Technically, the plastic is poisonous—”
“—Shut up, Walker. No one asked.”
“Okay, okay. Sheesh.”
“Um, guys? The lift is coming up,” Bob chimes in, eyeing the increasing lift number warily.
“Shit, everyone, positions. Now!” John shouted, launching himself onto the couch. He grabs the nearest magazine and holds it over his face, nevermind that it’s upside-down.
Yelena and Bob sit in front of the TV, feigning being engrossed, though she glances at her phone to make sure it’s ready for the camera.
Alexei looks around confused, then grabs a roll of tape and starts sun rolling it.
“Dad! What are you doing?” Yelena shout-whispers.
“I—”
Ding! The lift doors open, cutting Alexei off.
The unsuspecting couple walks in, hand in hand, deep in conversation. Their hushed voices trail off when they take in the sight before them: The team clearly trying and failing spectacularly to appear innocent and ordinary, and—
The mistletoe.
It’s basically everywhere; above every doorway, hanging on nearly every available surface, even on their unspoken dinner seats.
“What’s this?” Ava breaks the silence warily.
The team says nothing, opting instead to collectively stare above their heads. Bucky and Ava glance up at the same time.
There’s practically a whole garden of mistletoe up there.
“Where did you even get so much?” Bucky’s eyebrows shoot upward.
Bob shrugs. “Target.”
“Not important, just kiss already! It’s tradition,” Yelena all but singsongs, TV long forgotten.
The pair in question turn to each other apprehensively. It’s not like they haven’t kissed before — they have, multiple times a day, actually — but never in front of an audience.
“Do we have to?” Bucky asks. “Why are you all watching?”
“Just do it!” The team shouts in unison.
Ava sighs. “You all need hobbies.”
Then she turns to Bucky, and an unspoken conversation seems to pass between them. The air simmers with anticipation, a stillness just begging to be broken.
They move in perfect synchrony, hands unlinking. Bucky cups her cheek with his vibranium hand, while his flesh hand finds its way around her torso. Ava locks her fingers behind his neck, pulling him down. His lips are just above hers, barely an inch of space between them.
There’s a moment of perfect silence, like even the universe itself holds its breath.
Ava searches his eyes, looking for any sign of discomfort, but all she finds there is amusement.
Oh.
She smirks back, and closes the distance.
Their lips meet for the briefest of seconds, and then they break away.
“What!” Yelena protests. “That’s it?”
“That’s all you’re getting, you psychos,” Ava answers the watching crowd.
Without waiting for a response, she grabs Bucky’s hand and stalks back to the lift.
Then they’re gone.
~
“Your room?” Bucky asks once they’re safely in the lift and Ava presses the button to her room’s level.
“Yep,” she answers, leaning into him. He wraps an arm around her waist in response. “They’re less likely to put mistletoe in my room.”
Bucky hums. “And would that be so bad?”
“James!” She punches his arm lightly.
He answers with a heated look that sets her face on fire. His fingers dance against her waist, sending sparks shooting across her skin. Involuntarily, she sucks in a sharp breath.
“Yes, doll?” he says with a shit-eating grin.
Her eyes narrow, but the effect doesn’t last long when his thumb skims her ribcage and her breath stutters.
The lift door opens, and she’s blessedly saved from losing any more dignity. They walk out, hands intertwined as they make their way toward her room.
“I’m going to kill you,” Ava hisses. “I will—”
She stops in her tracks.
Because right above her door, hangs mistletoe.
“Of course,” she sighs.
Bucky’s gaze follows hers, then drops back to her. Ava lifts her hand to his cheek. She grins. “Shall we continue?”
“Thought you’d never ask.”
His lips find hers again, eager and warm, and her back meets the door. His flesh hand cradles her head, cushioning her messy bun, while his vibranium hand steadies her at the waist. Her hands slide up to his neck automatically, like they’ve done this a thousand times.
The kiss deepens, familiar and dizzying, until they’re both smiling into it, laughing breathlessly against each other.
Her fingers tighten in the fabric of his shirt and—
They’re falling.
The door slides open with a whoosh and they tumble backward in an undignified heap, Bucky hitting the floor first with a muffled oof. Ava catches herself on her hands just in time to avoid knocking their heads together, hair falling into her face.
For a second, they just stare at each other. Bucky looks up at her with wide eyes, like he’s seeing her for the first time.
“Shit,” he mumbles, more to himself than her.
“Are you okay?” she asks quickly, searching his face.
“No,” he answers, voice vaguely hoarse. “But not for the reason you think.”
“Is—”
“—Damn, we missed this?” a voice interrupts, echoing down the corridor.
Ava half-jumps half-phases off Bucky, whipping around so fast it’s a miracle her neck doesn’t snap. “Yelena?”
“Yes, my room is on this floor too, actually.” Yelena plants a hand on her hip, phone in the other.
Ava blinks. “Oh. Right.”
Yelena sighs, shaking her head. “Why do I even bother?”
She turns to leave, then pauses. “At least close the door. There are children around here.” She gestures vaguely toward Bob’s room and disappears inside her own.
The door hisses shut.
Ava and Bucky look at each other.
“Shit,” they say at the same time.
~
This continues for several days.
They exchange a short kiss when the team’s around, but they can always be found somewhere else later on — finishing the mission, one could say.
When John walks in on them in the kitchen for a fourth time, he swears that he’s going to be sick.
And then he actually is.
“Can super-soldiers even get sick?” Ava asks, frowning.
“Technically, John is off-brand super-soldier,” Yelena chimes in.
“I have super-strength and all that, so I think it counts,” John shoots back, then hacks a series of harsh coughs. Bob pats his back tentatively.
Yelena scoffs. “Sure, Walker. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“It’s possible,” Bucky says. “The super-serum doesn’t make us immune from sicknesses, just less susceptible to them.”
“Ha! Red Guardian is never sick.” Alexei thumps his chest proudly. “Soviet recreation is perfect.”
…Alexei is next to fall sick.
“Will pass soon! I am not weak!” he protests loudly as Yelena drags him off to his room. His point is promptly disproved when he sneezes hard enough to shake the Tower. His complexion is pale and sickly, beads of sweat lining his face. Despite his best efforts to appear fine, his appearance gives him away.
The virus’s next victim is Bucky.
Weirdly, this sickness doesn’t seem to affect the rest of the team, none of whom are super-soldiers. (“Bob is a different kind, it doesn’t count!”)
But of course, stubborn as he is, Bucky refuses to rest. He still joins them as they clean up the table after dinner, despite sneezing and coughing all throughout the meal.
They’re discussing what to watch when it happens.
Without warning, Bucky catches Ava’s wrist in his hand and plops onto the couch, dragging her down along with him. With a contented sigh, he practically attaches himself to her side, taking her arm as a pillow. His head drops onto her shoulder and he kisses just above her collarbone.
“James!” Ava hisses, flushing right down to where his lips rest. “Everyone’s watching!”
“Let them,” he mumbles incoherently. “You’re warm.”
She tries to wiggle herself free of his grip, but to no avail. Much to Bob and Yelena’s amusement, the latter whipping out her phone to film them shamelessly. Ava buries her face in her free hand — then remembers she has another option.
She turns invisible.
Yelena sighs loudly and Bob just chuckles.
Bucky isn’t even mildly phased (ha!), and simply puts his vibranium hand on the empty space where her arm presumably is. Instantly, she re-materialises.
“That’s cheating,” she grumbles, but the vaguest hint of a smile tugs at her lips.
And is she intertwining their hands?
“So is using your powers,” he counters without missing a beat. Before she can respond, he coughs violently.
All humour drops from Ava’s face as she pats his back, concern taking over. Her brows knit together when he wheezes harshly.
When the wheezing calms down, Yelena appears in front of them with a glass of water, which Bucky sits up to accept with his vibranium hand.
The moment he’s downed it, Ava phases away and stands in front of him, all while still holding his hand.
“That’s it,” she declares. Without waiting for a response, she pulls him to his feet. Then she drapes his arm over her shoulder.
Bob moves to support his weight from the other side, while Yelena shifts the coffee table out of the way.
“Where… are we going?” Bucky rasps out.
“Your room to rest, like you should’ve hours ago,” Ava snaps.
Bob and Yelena exchange a look.
“This is what happens when you don’t rest, you idiot,” she goes on. “I told you to take it easy, but what did the indestructible Bucky Barnes say? ‘No, I’ll be fine, I can handle it.’ And look where that got us.”
Despite her annoyed tone, Bucky manages a grin. “Under the mistletoe?”
Everyone’s heads whip upward, and there it is — the fake plant hanging from the ceiling like evidence at a crime scene.
Bob drops out from under Bucky’s shoulder and all but leaps away from him with a yelp. “Nope! I’m out.”
He and Yelena watch with trepidation as Bucky and Ava turn to each other, locking eyes.
Ava glances up to the mistletoe, then her gaze almost instinctively drops back down to his lips. He notices with a grin.
“No, you’re sick,” Ava warns, leaning her face away from him.
“But tradition,” Bucky shoots back. He sounds almost… pouting. Bob and Yelena exchange another look. Bucky Barnes, pouting?
This illness is really doing a number on him.
“No,” Ava says firmly. “Then I’ll be sick too.”
“But—”
She cut him off with a kiss to the cheek. Yelena gasps dramatically while Bob looks anywhere but them.
“There. Happy now?”
“Could be happier,” he says, though there’s practically stars in his eyes.
“When you get better,” she promises.
“…Fine.”
Ava shakes her head and sighs. “You’re such a child when you’re sick.”
“You love me,” Bucky singsongs. Now Yelena has seen it all.
“Unfortunately,” she replies with an eyeroll and all the affection in the world.
With that, the pair continue toward his bedroom. Yelena and Bob make the clever decision to leave, all but running back to the common room.
As they leave, Ava’s quiet laugh echoes down the hallway at something Bucky said.
“Think she’ll stay with him tonight?” Bob asks.
“Oh, Bob, you are funny.” Yelena chuckles and pats his shoulder. “Of course she will.”