#*glances at the corner* ‘whatcha got there?’ ‘a smoothie’

[princeanxious]

💕Them 💕💛💖💛💖💛💖💛💖💛💖

Theyre so somft and deserve to be happy ;;

[purpleyellow]

The audacity

Seventeen 14th member

Hayun’s masterlist

“Seventeen won’t take bs when it comes to Hayun”

Requested by: two (2) anons    

cw: offensive language

a/n: Feel free to share your thoughts with me. Requests are open! 💙

(to my brazilians around, this gif is svt’s version of ninguem solta a mão de ninguem)

The arrival of dancers made the practice room even more crowded and noisy than usual. It was one of the few times Seventeen worked with an outside dance team, and they happened to have a lot of new faces around, who needed time to figure out the staging and how things were working so far.

After they ran through the choreography a couple of times, the choreographer called in a break, allowing the huge group to instantly clear the middle space and separate themselves into small circles of conversations.

Seungcheol, Jeonghan, and Joshua instantly met each other and began chatting about dinner plans and whatnot. Slowly approaching Jun and Wonwoo, the oldest filled them in on what they're deciding until he starts searching for someone.

“So, we could order it on the next break and have someone grab it for us. Anyway, did anyone see Hayun?”

“Making friends, as usual,” Wonwoo comments, pointing at the other corner of the room where the girl was surrounded by four dancers.

“Hayun-ah” The leader waves her over and waits as she jogs to his side “We're talking about dinner, what do you think about-”

“Oh, those guys were talking about this new restaurant that opened downtown, I was thinking of tagging along with them” She points back at the group and watches as her members nod “But I can cancel, of course”

“No, go ahead. It's just a meal” Joshua goes to wave her off when Seungkwan approaches them with crossed arms.

“Yeah. Just a meal. Until she's suddenly ditching us during the holidays and moving out with her new friends” The boy pouts, turning his face away from the group. Hayun reaches up to ruffle his hair before landing a soft slap.

“Says the dude who is friends with half of the entertainment industry” Ignoring his eye roll, she turns back to the rest of their little huddle “Well, if nobody else will feel betrayed”

“I was kidding” Seungkwan whines and Scoups pushes her away from them “Stop being dramatic and go do your mingling”

Going back to the group of dancers, Hayun resumes chatting with them for a couple of minutes before the break is over.

After more hours of running over every tiny detail for the stage, the rehearsal finally ends and the scattering of people begins. Hayun takes a couple of minutes talking about minor adjustments with the members and just checking up on them before searching for the four friends she had made that evening.

“Hey, how do you guys plan on heading there?” She asks, taking a sip from her water bottle and missing the glances between the two boys and two girls.

“Actually, we might have to do it another day,” The girl closest to her says and flips a hair strand off of Hayun's shoulder. “We got pretty tired from this last session”

“And work tomorrow it's going to start pretty early, you know. It's best to let this go for today,” The boy nods to her before pulling out his phone from his pocket and slightly turning away from the idol.

“Yeah, I get it. That's okay, we'll reschedule it then” Hayun smiles and gives them a thumbs up “I'll head to the dorms, then. Have a good rest, and tomorrow we'll talk more”.

Sending her some quick waves and small smiles, the four dancers waited for Hayun to turn around before sharing an annoyed look and sighing.

The practice room slowly grows empty, only leaving Wonwoo and Vernon who lost an incredible game of rock, paper, scissors, and had to stay behind to clean up everything. Finally turning off the lights, the two boys head out into the hallway and spot a group of four people standing by the entrance.

“Aren't those the people Hayun was talking to earlier,” Vernon asks quietly before a voice from the group reaches them.

“Why is this damn cab taking so long? We should have let that airhead tag along”.

“Agreed. She would have talked our ears off, but at least we would have made it to the club already”.

Sharing a look, the two idols stop walking and listen closely to understand if the dancers are talking about what the boys think they're talking about.

“That was so stupid. Why would you invite her in the first place? She's so annoying”.

“I mean, having an idol considering you a friend would be fun, right? Especially with the Christmas season coming up. Can you imagine the gifts she would buy us?”

“Yeah, dude. We wouldn't even need to worry about paying for stuff anymore. Just have Hayun tag along anywhere and, boom, no more tabs to pay.”

“But also, no more functioning eardrums”

“No, you have a point. She seems like she'd give us her credit card password on the third time we hung out. Not to mention, looking at her position in contrast with ours. You don't even have to befriend her, but be on her good side, and she'll make sure to give us more gigs within Pledis”.

Standing frozen, Wonwoo and Vernon listened to everything they were saying and shared looks of disbelief. Having enough of it, the oldest cleared his throat and slung his bag, making it hit his own back with enough force to make a thumping sound.

“Let's go, Vernon,” He ignored the four people standing before them with wide eyes and resumed walking. Once shoulder to shoulder with one of the dancers, Wonwoo stopped again and said while looking ahead, “Next time, be careful of whom you're talking about”.

Vernon, on the other hand, made eye contact with each dancer before raising one eyebrow and following the oldest. After closing the car door, he groaned annoyed, “Can you believe they had… ”

“… the fucking audacity” Jeonghan places his cup on the table, face showcasing utter disgust after Wonwoo told him what they had listened before leaving the Pledis building.

“Show me who those people are again tomorrow. I'll make sure they never step inside our practice room, ever again,” Hoshi points out.

“Is there a way of not having them tomorrow? I'm afraid Scoups Hyung might commit murder” Dokyeom brought attention to the leader standing on the corner of the kitchen.

Looking like he was plotting an illegal act, Seungcheol scoffs and pushed himself away from the cabinets. “The bare minimum you would expect from someone is that they can be professional. I swear, those people are getting an earful for talking about Hayun within a billion-meter ratio from where I work”.

“It's best to let it rest until tomorrow's performance is done. After we'll probably never see them again, so there's not much point causing any visible disturbance.” Laying a hand on the leader's arm, Woozi tried to make some sort of sense, but all it did was cause Scoups to roll his eyes.

“We can't just act like nothing happened”

“We also can't change anything about the choreography until then” Hoshi butts in and takes a breath trying not to jump in the 'let's hunt them down' train.

“They already know Wonwoo and Vernon heard them trash-talking her, so I'm not letting them have it easy tomorrow.” Jeonghan rolls his eyes and pointed to both Woozi and Hoshi, “I'm speaking my mind the first moment I see those sons of bitches, you're free to wait until the show's over”.

“About that, I don't think we should tell Hayun what happened” Joshua, who had been quiet the entire time, speaks, drawing attention to him. “Not until, as you said, the show is over, and we won't see them again. You know that she's probably going to get disappointed about it”.

“And you expect her to not go running to meet her new 'friends' once we arrive at the venue?” Wonwoo raises an eyebrow, but Mingyu shakes his head and backs the older up.

“We just have to keep her entertained around us. Fill in Dino, Seungkwan, and Myungho later, and have them help with making sure the group doesn't run into her”.

Raising his hand, Vernon casually mumbles “Maybe don't tell Seungkwan, he won't be able to hide his feelings about the whole thing”

“Myungho won't either” Jun comments and the room falls silent at the sound of the remaining members chatting and approaching the kitchen.

“Wow, you make a meeting and forget to call in the main characters” Hayun laughs walking through the room and opening the fridge for a beer “So, when's the food arriving?”

~

Hayun is sitting on the makeup chair, casually watching Scoups and Jeonghan whispering to each other from the mirror's reflection, when a hand lands on her shoulder and another holds out a smoothie for her.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Joshua sits on the chair next to her while Mingyu punctures the drink's lid with a straw.

Without taking her eyes off the mirror, she nods with her head to it. “Those two are up to something”

“Scoups and Jeonghan Hyung? Nah, they're always like that. Sharing secrets and stuff,” Mingyu giggles, shoving the straw inside her mouth and shifting to stand in front of the mirror. “Cute nail polish, when did you have time to get it done?”

“Oh, these are acrylics. This lady was just putting them on” Hayun falls into his trap and began analyzing the design with some occasional comments from the boys.

Peace has seemingly set inside the dressing room, yet it doesn't last long until Dino's loud “Uh?” caught the attention of the members, who turned to see what he and Vernon were doing.

Trying to shut the youngest up, Vernon makes it very obvious to the guys that he had just filled Dino in with the “frenemies” situation. Most of them try to brush it off and not bring more attention to it. Seungkwan, however, approaches them by, very loudly, asking what's up.

“What are you talking about?” He boringly fixes up his outfit. Vernon can feel the burning eyes of Jeonghan on his skull as he tries to deviate the conversation to another topic.

“Did you go see catering already? I heard they had a coffee machine”.

“Wait. Does he not know what happened?” Dino fails to read the room properly and instigates the older boy.

“What happened? Why is everyone sharing secrets all of a sudden? Is the thing you're discussing why Scoups Hyung seems ready to jump someone”.

The timing of events can't be worse, as the makeup artist taps Hayun's shoulder to let her know they were done. Within seconds, the girl gets up and turns to where the three youngest were standing.

“What's with the gossiping? Did Vernon lose his airpods again?” She brushes away from Joshua as he tried to hold her in place and waves off Mingyu when, in a panic, he suggests they should check out the pigeons outside.

“What? No! I mean, yeah! How unfortunate, isn't it?” Vernon jumps around his answers and tries looking for anyone willing to help him out.

“Just tell her about it” Approaching them from the door, Jeonghan, now without the leader's company, shrugs his shoulders, making Hayun raise an eyebrow.

“Jeonghan, at least wait until the day is over,” Joshua speaks through his teeth and the boy rolls his eyes.

“Well, she already knows something is up, and to be fair I don't know what good hiding this will bring. At least, if she feels like doing something about it, she'll have the chance right now”.

“Do something about it? Hadn't we agreed that the best is to wait until the performance is over and just never see them again?”

“What even are you talking about?” Hayun shuts them both up and Jeonghan and Joshua turned to her with annoyed expressions, “Don't even look at me like that. You're the ones mentioning me as if I'm not in the room”.

Placing a hand on her shoulder, Joshua tilts his head a little and speaks softly, “Trust me for a moment here, it's best if you brush it aside. Until later at least, and then we can settle it as you wish”.

“Wha- Just spill it out for fucks sake. I'm going to combust if you don't tell me right now whatever this all means,” Hayun puffs, punching his shoulder. Just as Joshua opens his mouth to say the same thing again, Jeonghan beats him and shoves himself in front of the girl.

“Do you recall those dancers you were planning to go out with yesterday? Yeah, well, turns out they're all little shits who were trash-talking you, and just overall talking crap, yesterday”

“Jeonghan” Joshua repressed the older who does nothing but wave him off.

“Doesn't matter what they said because you're nothing of it, and-” Adverting his eyes for a second, Jeonghan stares to the side, where half of Scoups' body is waving for him through the door. “And, and, you're amazing and all of that. So now go rest your awesome self while I go teach those punks a lesson”.

Zooming past her, Jeonghan runs to the door, where the leader is already back outside. Hoshi, Jun, Woozi, and DK, scream for him before also going out of the door. A very lost, Seungkwan, simultaneously tries to get Vernon to tell him what exactly the dancer said before while shouting for the older to wait for him to also speak his mind.

“I didn't want you to know about this before the performance, but-”

“Whatever, let's make sure nobody dies today” Hayun rolls her eyes and turns around, Wonwoo running from where he was watching everything and holding her by the shoulder.

“Do you want us to go fix that up? It's okay to give them the cold shoulder or just go off if you want to” Nodding, she keeps silent and walks out, bringing the rest of the guys behind her.

The8, who also had just found out about the situation, whispers to Vernon, “Can you believe they had the audacity?”

“I know, right?” The youngest whisper-yelled at him as they made it to the hallway and assessed the situation.

“The next time you even think about opening your mouth to talk about her-” Scoups had his finger pointing at the tallest dancer -who ironically had a few centimeters on him-, while the rest of the members stood next to him nodding and calmly listening to what the leader was saying.

“Oppa, just drop it,” Hayun shouts, walking past them and holding his shoulder.

Annoyingly, Scoups rolled his eyes and turned to her, “What do you mean, drop it?” Thinking for a second, he blinked and turned even more bothered, “Who even told you about this?”

The leader looked around until he found Mingyu, offending the tall guy who made an X in front of his body.

“Doesn't matter who told me. Let's just not lose time doing this” Brushing past him, Hayun now faced the dancers “Look, I'll teach you something right now, so grab it or drop it okay? I don't give a shit that you don't like me, or whatever, but at least be professional because all this situation did was teach me that none of you care about your careers. It's pretty clear by the angry puppy beside me that you just lost any chance of growing inside our brand, so keep this as a lesson and respect the artists you're working with. Also, once we're on stage put on a smile, so my fans won't be able to sense your shit”

“It should be pretty clear by what she said but you definitely don't have a chance to work with any Pledis artist again” Hoshi came from the end of the hallway alongside their manager and choreographer. The latter nodded and added.

“For the sake of the performance, you should all go back to your dressing rooms. You all said whatever was on your mind, so try to refocus during the last few minutes you have”.

“I didn't get to say what was on my mind” While the group was dispersing, DK mumbles on the side and Jun snorts.

“You had a chance, but all you did was stare at them and scowl until Scoups Hyung took the lead”

“I don't care about who said and who didn't say what they wanted” Hayun rolled her eyes, turning to the boys as they arrived in the room. Clasping her hands together, she brings them to her face and smiles, “You all care about me”.

“The fact you still doubted about it after years hurts me” Dokyeom held his chest and frowned, the girl laughs and goes to hug him.

“Group hug?” Seungkwan says uncertainly and Hoshi nods, dragging Woozi with him, “Group hug!”

[literaturehoeenergy]

Best Friends - Spencer Shay

pairing: Spencer Shay x fem!reader

genre: fluffy; friends to lovers situation

warnings: none

word count: 792

request: no

a/n: Well, I said the world needed more Spencer Shay fan fiction, so here we are. I hope that anyone who finds this also loves Spencer as much as I do.

Living with Freddie and my Aunt Marissa wasn't all bad. I didn't have to pay for room and board while I was in college, and I got to meet Freddie’s cute little friends, and very specifically, I got to meet Spencer Shay. Granted, the constant cleaning of my entire body by Aunt Marissa was annoying, and her weird rules for Freddie and I (despite me being an entire adult) were a little strict, the fact that I got to hang out with Spencer was kind of worth it. I was in my third year of college when I moved in with the Bensons, and Spencer was in an unknown year of being a law school drop out artist and legal guardian of Carly. We were close enough in age to get along, even though Aunt Marissa didn't really approve. I believe her exact words were, “he's a tall, dirty man child”.

This didn't prevent a friendship blossoming, obviously. In fact, I think it just spurred it on. Nonetheless, as the years went on, Spencer and I got closer, and I eventually fell in love with him because who wouldn't. I never intended on telling him, I graduated not too long after we met and was working as an English teacher at Freddie, Sam, and Carly’s high school, so I had enough on my plate, and Spencer never seemed very interested in me that way. He was always going on dates with new girls or working on a new sculpture. Carly, Freddie, and Sam all seemed to think differently than me, but I wasn't stupid. Spencer was a catch, anyone would be lucky to have him. 

After I graduated, I finally got an apartment of my own in Bushwell Plaza down the hall from the Bensons and the Shays. Spencer frequently popped in to invite me to get smoothies or coffee, or to get away from the teenage energy that was always in his apartment. This day in particular was not ideal for such company, I had a ton of midterm essays to grade and I wasn't even close to being done despite the deadline being only a few days away. I sighed heavily when my front door opened, spotting Spencer out of the corner of my eye. “Hey lady, whatcha up to?” I set my pen down, glancing over at him as he settled into the couch next to me. 

“Look, Spence, as much as I love your company, I don't really have the time today to hang out.” It came out harsher than I intended, but he just leaned forward onto his knees, setting a hand on my back. 

“That's okay, I could tell you were stressed when I saw you this morning.” I sighed, leaning into his side. “Here, how about I make you some dinner, you keep grading, and then I'll help you try to relax.”

“Spence, you don't have t--”

“I want to, Y/N. I can't have my best friend all stressed out.” I laughed lightly, meeting his eyes. “Seriously, don't worry about it. If anyone can get through this, it's you.”

“Thanks, Spence.”

A couple hours passed before Spencer put a blindfold over my eyes and removed all my work from my coffee table. “Voilà!” I giggled as he settled next to me again, removing my blindfold and gesturing broadly to the plates on my coffee table. 

“Aw, my favorite! How did you know?” He scoffed, handing me a fork.

“I know everything about you, Y/N.” My breath hitched in my throat, making the laugh I let out after sound strained. 

“No you don’t.” He raised his eyebrows expectantly, shoving pasta into his mouth. “I don’t know everything about you either, Spence.” We kept talking about random things throughout the meal before I broke it to him that I had to keep grading otherwise I wouldn’t meet the deadline to put all my grades in for the midterms.

“Okay, okay, I get the hint,” he chuckled. “We should do something after you grade. It’s spring break next week right?” I nodded. “Well I think that you and I should go on a trip, like out to the mountains in a cabin or something.” 

“You wanna go on a trip with me?”

“Yeah! I’ve never seen you go on a trip anywhere, you deserve to get away. And who better to get away with than your best friend?” I smiled up at him, sighing.

“You know, that would be nice. Let’s do it.”

“Yes! I’ll go and do some research and make the plans and everything. You just grade away. I’ll see you later.” I waved as he closed my front door, falling back onto my couch with a huff. A whole week vacation with Spencer?

*******************************************************************

[sunwukongssuccessor]

May I like request a macaque x reader? I knows fandom canon that he likes plums. Maybe reader makes him a treat with plums ?

Anonymous asked:

Macaque x Shy Reader?

Decided to add in that request while I was at it. I hope I did both requests justice!

You had gotten a pretty good deal at the market place considering how fresh the fruit was in your haul. Plums, mangos, peaches, bananas, apples, practically a rainbow of fruits filled your platter.

Now your only questions were what to go through first and what to make?

Maybe some smoothies or a fruit salad? Maybe even fruit leather since taking a triple take at it made you realize that this was a lot of food.

And that was accounting for a demon with a pretty decent appetite.

“Whatcha making?” Macaque asked while you were in the zone of cutting plums and removing the pits, the sudden pressure against your shoulder as he rest his chin on it for a better view caused a jolt.

Your hands froze in place, you glanced at Macaque with a raised eyebrow to which he gave a fang filled smile in return. Your line of sight soon set back on the food in front of you.

“Not sure,” you answer as you tried to suppress the smile that wanted to break out, a warmth starting to spread across your cheeks despite it. “Was there something you wanted?”

Macaque then got off of you, now at your side and leaning against counter. “Don’t know yet. Still deciding really.”

“Between what?” You laughed as you started to placing the chopped fruit in an ice cream churner you pulled out from the freezer soon after the idea popped up. Sorbet was sounding good in your mind but you still wanted to hear what Macaque was craving. “I didn’t give any options.”

“Well, there’s the fruit and there’s you,” Macaque answered with a light laugh.

Your head almost snapped from how quick the turn was at that comment.

“What?” is all that came out in a tiny squeak, face feeling insanely warm now.

Macaque kept the casual smile, as he leaned closer. “Both are pretty sweet, I just want to be sure.”

You turned away, hand covering a good portion of your face, fingers spaced enough to let you peek through and see at least some of your counter. A breath being taken in to calm you down a bit.

“Can you not,” you mumbled as you pulled your hand away, now going to the rest of the ingredients that you would need for the sorbet.

“I’m just saying,” Macaque defended with a chuckle. “It’s definitely sweet of you that you’d make something for me.”

“It’s not always about you,” you reply, the corner of your mouth curling just a bit from the compliment. “I just got a lot to spare.”

“Maybe,” Macaque agreed. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it.”

He placed a gentle peck on your cheek just as you hit the power button on the churner.

Your mind went blank for a moment, Macaque soon placed his hand at the top of your head and ruffled some of the hair.

“Call me when it’s done,” he told you.

“Okay,” you answered as he walked off.

Your hands soon went to smother the embarrassing heat that was across your face. You really were a fool for this monkey.

...

Thanks for reading! If you liked this or any of my other fanfiction please consider donating to my ko-fi!

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Height diference ,Size kink Tony is just so short, fits everywhere and always looks up to Bucky as if being kneeling, so Bucky really can't stand being in a room with him wihout getting horny

Summary: James Barnes, former Winter Soldier and current hot mess, is trying to gather the courage to make a move on the maybe hot mess but definitely hot Tony Stark. An undercover mission gone awry gives him the chance he was looking for, albeit not in the form he expected.  (Spiritual sequel to In From the Cold but it can be read as a standalone)

Link to Ao3

Feeling the Heat

Chapter 1

James would like for the record to state that if it wasn’t for Tony’s goddamn eyelashes, he wouldn’t be in this mess. He wanted to feel them on his lips when he kissed the laugh lines at the corner of Tony’s eyes and he wanted to feel them brush his skin as Tony fell asleep on his chest.  Tony’s warm brown eyes were already arresting enough without the thick fringe, the way they sparkled with amusement even when Tony wasn’t smiling or how they would go sharp and distant when he was deep in thought.  But the kicker, what really got to James the most, was the way that Tony would sometimes glance up at him through those thick eyelashes when they talked.  

Tony was short, yeah; whenever Tony stood next to him, it always surprised him that Tony only came up to his chin because honestly, Tony had so much presence that it made him seem taller.  But Clint was the same height, and so was Bruce, and neither of them made James feel tongue tied and gave him the butterflies that Tony did. Ridiculous.

So after much thought, James decided to blame the eyelashes. Weeks of study had revealed that there was a sweet spot where James could stand, far enough that Tony wouldn’t have to lift his chin but close enough that he did have to look up, that would almost always lead to at least one such glance. James had planned assassinations with less effort than conversations with Tony.

He sighed.

But if he were honest, it probably wasn’t just the eyelashes.  Tony could be next to him in the elevator and James would think about picking him up and how Tony could wrap his legs around his waist and that would bring Tony’s generous mouth level with James’s and that’s when he would have to derail his own train of thought lest he embarrass himself. On the bad days he fantasized about pulling Tony into a hug, wondering if he would fit right under his chin like it seemed like he would.  He also wanted to tuck Tony into bed and aggressively big spoon him every time Tony ghosted around the place late at night with that sad, haunted look in his eyes.  He knew Tony was strong and capable and that the Iron Man suit could take far more damage than James could in his best body armor, but he still daydreamed about being able to stand in front of Tony and protect him.  To let this mangled body save a life instead of only having memories of taking them.

“Whatcha thinking about?”

James jumped when Tony appeared right at his elbow. Tony frowned and moved his cup out of harm’s way when James almost spilled his coffee.  “Jeez, jumpy much?” Then with apparently a death wish he poked the century’s most prolific assassin in the side. “What’s got you so on edge?”

Predictably, James’s brain froze when presented with a conversational ambush, especially when he saw that Tony was wearing a tank top and low-slung jeans that revealed a tempting line of skin at his hips.  There was a smudge of grease on the back of the hand holding the coffee cup, a red line around his eyes from where he had been wearing goggles, and his hair was sticking in all directions like someone had been ruffling their hands through it.

For a quick, sharp moment James wanted him so much that his chest ached.  Swallowing around the tightness in his throat, he finally noticed that Tony was looking at him expectantly. He pulled his thoughts away from Tony’s eyelashes and realized he’d been asked a question. “Just tired,” James mumbled and got up to go back to his room, afraid his thoughts would show on his face.  He so mortified that he didn’t even notice the way Tony’s eyes followed him as he left.

(More after the break!)

.                                              ———————

Jab. Jab. Roundhouse. Elbow. Jab. Jab. Uppercut. Knee.

James let himself fall into the rhythm of his workout, the world narrowing to just him and the thud of impact as he hit the punching bag.  Behind him, Steve was on the souped-up treadmill Tony had designed for them, his strides a quick counterpoint to James’s strikes.  After thirty minutes they would switch, then lift weights, then spar, trying as ever to reach muscle exhaustion before boredom set in.  The best days were when Tony would put on a suit and spar with them outside, but he had too many demands on his time to be able to do it more than once every other week or so.

Which was probably for the best, considering that after those sparring sessions, the leftover adrenaline and endorphins gave James a hard-on that just wouldn’t quit.  He would invariably spend the next few hours masturbating until his dick got chafed to fantasies of peeling Tony out of his suit and bending him over one of his work tables, or maybe having Tony ride him on the back of one of his motorbikes.

James dragged his thoughts away from that and tried to focus on his work-out, getting back into his rhythm until the loud smack of a hand hitting a practice mat broke his concentration; looking up, he realized that on the other side of the gym Tony was getting a martial arts lesson from Natasha. He quickly forced his eyes away and back to the bag, because Tony was wearing another tank top and his biceps were almost as bad as his eyelashes.  Plus, he was also wearing those thin workout pants that always clung to his ass when he started sweating and that shit was not fair.

Jab. Jab. Jab. Elbow. Cross. Jab. Hook.

Steve tapped him on the shoulder and gestured towards the treadmill.  As he cranked up the speed, James tried to get back into the exercising mindset but his concentration was shot. Sometimes when he was tired and high on endorphins, he could have a normal conversation with Tony instead of being the tense, wound-up wreck he usually was.  Now, however, all he could think about was pinning Tony to the mat, both of them sweaty and breathing hard, and Tony looking up at him through those goddamn eyelashes-

He tripped on the treadmill and had to grab the sides before he fell.

“Careful, Buck,” Steve said with a small smile, as if he knew what James had been thinking about.  “If you bite it on a treadmill, Sam will never let you live it down.”

“Yeah, yeah,” James muttered.  “Everyone’s a fucking comedian.”

                                   ———————

A week or so later, James found himself wide awake at three in the morning, something that happened with enough regularity that he knew that he wouldn’t be going back to sleep any time soon.  With a resigned sigh he climbed out of bed and started wandering through the compound, checking that all was well while he waited to get tired enough to go back to sleep.

To his surprise, he saw a light coming from the kitchen; approaching quietly, he smiled to himself when he saw Tony staring blearily into the fridge.  He was barefoot but still wearing the clothes from earlier, his fancy dress shirt pulled free of his pants and sleeves shoved messily up to his elbows.  James gave himself a minute to watch fondly as Tony went on his tiptoes to search through the top shelf of the fridge before he cleared his throat and came closer.

“Wha- oh, hey James,” Tony said, squinting at him from around the light of the fridge. “What’re you doing up?”

“Couldn’t sleep.  You?”

“Got tied up in paperwork and now I’m hungry.” Looking over his shoulder, James realized Tony’s problem; there was a bunch of food in the fridge, but it all needed to be cooked, and while Tony could cook, he was an indifferent chef at best.  He would inevitably get impatient and turn up the burners to make everything cook faster, then wince his way gamely through his burnt meal and live off smoothies for the next few days.

James gently hipchecked him out of in front of the fridge and gestured for him to sit.  “I’ll make you something.”  He knew Tony was tired because he went without argument, claiming a seat at the bar and propping his head up on his fist as he watched James pulling eggs out of the fridge. “Omelet or scrambled?”

“Oh.” Tony perked up at that. “Omelet.”

As James chopped vegetables for the omelet, he was acutely aware of Tony’s eyes on him, feeling his gaze like the heat of the fire; despite that, though, the “What were you working on?” James said as the eggs started to sizzle.

“Budget forecasts,” Tony answered with a yawn.  “It’s that time of year, so.  I’ll be at it for the next few days.”

James made a face.  “I thought you had people for that?” He gently sidled the spatula under the egg to fold it over without breaking it and plated it, sliding it across the bar to Tony.

“I do,” Tony said shortly as he started to eat.

It took James a moment to realize why Tony wouldn’t trust anyone else to approve Stark Industries’ budget. “Oh. Right.”

Tony shrugged, like yeah, I was betrayed by an old family friend and now I have trust issues, what do you do. “This is amazing,” he said, gesturing at the omelet with his fork. Tony’s eyes softened from their tiredness and he smiled, making James felt his face get warm and turned away from Tony to put the dishes in the dishwasher.  “No problem,” he mumbled.  James knew it was time to make his escape when he was tempted to drape himself like a blanket over the tired slump of Tony’s shoulders and press a kiss to his messy hair, so he said something about getting some sleep and fled.

                           ———————

“No, it hasn’t happened yet, but it will, I swear,” Tony said into his phone as he bounded up the stairs leading to the shared living room.  From his half-hidden position next to a giant ficus tree, James took the chance to look his fill before Tony noticed him.  Today he was wearing a burgundy dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up over his forearms and a vest; his collar was unbuttoned and the small vee of skin showing there, the divot at the base of Tony’s throat, made James die a little. “Why do you care so much? Is there a betting pool? Do you have money on this? Because if so I want in.” As he listened to whoever was on the phone – probably Colonel Rhodes, judging from the way Tony was grinning at whatever he was saying – he was searching the couches and coffee tables.

James looked guiltily at Tony’s tablet on the table next to him, which he had used earlier instead of going all the way back to his room for his own.  Discretely, he cleared the browser history and cleared his throat to get Tony’s attention, waving the tablet at him.

“Hold on a second,” Tony said into his phone then tucked it under his arm as he took the tablet.  “Thanks, Terminator.  How are you doing today?”

James shrugged, barely able to look at Tony straight on.  “Not bad.  Had therapy this morning.”  The therapist had said that his infatuation with Tony was good, that it was a sign that he was emotionally ready for a relationship, and encouraged him to make a move.  James had stared at her like she was speaking Ancient Greek.  “Going to watch a movie with Steve and Sam this afternoon.”

“Oh, yeah?” Tony grinned.  “Which movie?”

“The one about the giant shark.”

Tony made a thoughtful noise.  “The dinosaur one is better.  You and I should go see that one sometime.”

Now James was staring at Tony like he was speaking Ancient Greek. “Oh…kay?”

“Good.”  With another blinding grin, Tony put his phone up to his ear. “Alright, I’m back, Rhodey.  I have my tablet, what was it that you wanted me to look at?”

“He said we should go see a movie together,” James said. “What does that mean?”

Natasha shrugged and didn’t look up from painting her toenails. “That he wants to see a movie with you?”

“But is it a date? Did he ask me out on a date?”  Is this what a heart attack felt like? James felt the need to lay down, so he slid out of the chair and laid down on the floor to stare at the ceiling.

“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him.”  She laughed when James said something uncomplimentary in Russian. “I think it’s a good idea though. You would be good for him.”

“How?” He asked, spreading his hands wide. “I’m a fucking basket case.”

“Bold of you to assume we aren’t all basket cases,” she said with a raised eyebrow. “But you’re a mother hen, it’s in your nature to take care of people.  And Tony has a bad habit of running himself into the ground if he thinks it’s for a good cause, so if anyone could use a mother hen it’s him.”

James was speechless. “Mother hen?” he repeated incredulously, turning his head to look at her.

“You heard me.” Natasha straightened and admired her toes then started on the other foot.

James grunted and watched her careful strokes with the tiny paintbrush as he thought about what she’d said.  What’s the worst that could happen? He couldn’t imagine Tony being cruel about turning him down if he wasn’t interested.  And if he wasn’t, Bucky could track down the nearest Hydra base, wipe his own memory, and move to Mongolia. “Ok,” he said finally. “Sure.  I’ll ask him out on a date.”