#of god really is an ao3 girlie like i always suspected then OPEN UP THE FUCKING DOCUMENT BITCH

[forestmossling]

been avoiding the ‘miscommunication’ tag on fics on ao3 so hard it chased after me and got me irl what the FUCK man

[ms-nesbit]

saving private grayson (a ww2!dick grayson x reader fic)

words: 3.6k

rating: 18+ (minors, as always, fuck off)

warnings: smut, insecure dick grayson, fainting, oral sex, masturbation, grief

summary: cadet Grayson faints prior to his departure to Belfast. His recovery is one to be remembered.

notes: i actually loved writing this one, but that's because i was working through some things. hope you like it too.

read on ao3

A fighter plane soared overhead as Dick sat on the patchy grass, waiting for the captain’s arrival. It was over a hundred and fifty three days since he last saw Gotham, let alone his adoptive father, prior to his draft into the war. God willing, he wanted to roam the tattered streets one last time, as he had prior to his departure, but Dick swallowed the same grief he felt on the campground that he had almost choked on the night of his parents’ death.

Skies above him heavily contrasted the doom looming over the camp, sun beaming down on the cadets’ freshly ironed uniforms. A voice boomed, alerting the cadets to their feet and in line in an orderly fashion.

“Today, you will be marched to your new base in Belfast. I’m not keen on girly talk, but…” the voice drowned out underneath the thumping in Dick’s temple. He had a migraine preceding his arrival to Ireland, but hadn’t thought much of it until the sun, kissing heat upon his face, dimmed, along with his peripherals.

“Grayson, you hear me? Grayson? Grayson!” was all that he heard before he collapsed, rifle plopping to the ground mere seconds before he.

—

Upon opening his eyes, Dick was met with a canvas tent hanging overhead, attempting to sit up and look around before a woman approached him, urging him to remain flat on the fold-out bed. She wore a short-sleeved white shirt and a blue A-line dress layered over it, her hair neatly tucked into a low bun.

“What happened?” Dick sleepily asked, still rising to consciousness.

An older woman stepped up to the other side of the bed, wearing a patch on her bosom, and frown wrinkles. “You passed out in the yard shortly before the march. Sergeant saw it best to keep you here, and send you off tomorrow if you’re better.” her voice was stern, and stare cold. All Dick could reply with was a faint nod. “Nurse y/l/n, please attend to this soldier and watch his vitals. I have to tend to the shipment from Red Cross to prepare us for the battle this week.”

Nurse y/l/n, opposite of the head nurse, replied curtly, “Yes, ma’am.” her posture loosened once the elder nurse vacated the tent, her shoulders rounding into a slump. Dick’s eyes never left her, and he didn’t know whether it was the possible concussion or the angelic figure posing as an ancillary to his recovery.

But he felt safe when she wrapped the blood pressure cuff to his left bicep, securing it before checking his numbers with the air bulb. Her free hand was on his forearm, index finger stroking his wildly strands of arm hair. “So,” he began, clearing his throat, “you, uh, come here a lot?”

Really, Grayson? Really? Dick shut his eyes as soon as he heard the maladroit attempt at flirtation leave his mouth. That is, until he saw the soft corner of her mouth twitch into an acute grin. “Seeing as though this is my station and you are my patient, yes, I believe I am here quite a bit.” the loud tear of the velcro from the cuff interrupted her. “Do you fall unconscious a lot?”

Her voice was titillating, cocking a brow as she stood beside him to hear his response. “Not until I saw you around.” Dick flashed his signature smile that worked back home, overlooking the tightly wrapped adhesive around the crown of his head.

It worked nonetheless, drawing a giggle from the nurse. Her effulgent smile called to him, like a moth to a flame, and he was instantly mesmerized by it. “Pretty sure you’d have passed out long before this morning if that were the case.” she suspected, “Where ya from?”

“Gotham, New Jersey, Miss. And you?”

Nurse y/l/n shrugged, “Chicago.”

Tilting his head to the side, Dick held out an imaginary cigar, mocking Al Capone. “Like the Great Bambino, eh?”

“That’s…the Yankees, hon.” she corrected, still amused by Dick’s charm. Well, there goes that, Dick thought to himself, never really was good at sports anyhow. “Maybe we should take your pulse if you think Baby’s from Chi-town.”

Dick pretended to brush off the criticism, despite being embarrassed by the failure. He lowered the scratchy blanket to expose his bare chest, hoping that maybe his physique could charm the pretty dame. She blinked at the toned figure, dismissive of it as she placed the cold stethoscope on his chest. “Deep breaths in, Big Al.” Dick’s chest rose and fell with his breath. “Again.” she moved her stethoscope, reaching on the far side of the bed (and leaning on Dick’s arm and shoulder) to register the health of his other lung.

As Dick breathed, he glanced over at her free hand, which rested on Dick’s, unaware of the contact. He restrained himself from interlocking their fingers, or bringing her hand to his lips to place a delicate kiss. “Can you sit up for me?” the nurse requested, adjusting her posture.

Dick obliged, sitting up straight as he felt the cold stethoscope on either side of his shoulders; his skin kindled where it met hers, and he took long, deep breaths to prolong the contact he desperately sought.

“You know, my father said we lived around where the St. Valentine’s massacre took place.” she added, folding the stethoscope before neatly placing it in her uniform pocket. “Said that it was just dreadful. My mother didn’t want to leave their apartment for days.” Jesus, that accent’s beautiful. “What about you? I heard that some of the folks from Chicago fled to Gotham after Capone’s arrest. S’that true?”

Treading carefully about his response without compromising his vigilante identity (or that of his adoptive father), Dick pursed his lips before pushing them out, making a ‘pop’. “Heard about it, yeah. I was told when my parents died that one of the goons that murdered them was an import from Chicago, though I dunno for sure.”

Sympathy took over the nurse’s face. “I’m sorry about your parents.” she prefaced, expression soft. “Your vitals look fine. Are you sure you weren’t dehydrated from bathing in the sun for so long?”

Gotcha. Dick grinned cockily. “How did you know I was resting in the sun for a bit?”

The nurse realized her mistake, and instantly exhaled through her nose. “I do believe that’s irrelevant. Well, I think it’d be best if you stayed here in the shade for a while, especially considering the humidity expected this week.”

“Wouldn’t make much of a difference if you’re the one caring for me.” Dick refuted, satisfied with his answer. “Though if we were to become acquainted, I think it would be good for me to get your name. Y’know, for my health.” he placed a hand over his heart.

The nurse rolled her eyes. “You’re not the first one to pull that one over me.” she interposed his zeal, popping it like an overinflated balloon. “But if you wish,” she sighed, leaning in to his ear, her breath close enough to tickle his ear like an inviting breeze. Her voice dipped an octave, the reticence resembling seduction. “My name is y/n.”

“Y/n, huh?” Dick repeated quietly, the name rolling easily from his tongue. “Pleasure is mine.” 

As y/n left, she kept her eyes on Dick, until she turned to exit the tent. It would have been ignorant of Dick to dismiss the way he melted at the sound of her voice, especially in close proximity, and after the interaction, it left Dick full of emotion: taming his debauchery, triumphant in learning nurse y/l/n’s name, and… an unusual feeling. One he hadn’t felt since his time traveling Europe and the States with his parents.

When the night drifted in, soldiers and nurses drifting in and out of the medical tent with their own preoccupations, Dick waited for y/n’s return, eyes darting to the entrance any time he heard footsteps approach. It wasn’t until past dusk, when most of the stationed cadets were ordered back to their quarters, and head nurse into hers, that y/n arrived. By that point, Dick’s eyelids were heavy, bored by the lack of contact, and almost falling asleep.

That is, until he spotted y/n walking slowly up to his bedside. “Hey, you.” he dreamily greeted.

“Do you feel a little better?” y/n withdrew her stethoscope from her pocket, reading Dick’s pulse.

“I do now that you’re here.”

Nurse y/n rolled her eyes at Dick. “I guess I did walk right into that one.” she admitted. “One of the nurses told me, and I wanted to know if this was true 𑁋 were you one of the Flying Graysons?”

“Mm-hmm.” Dick replied.

“Thought you looked familiar. You traveled to the Cicero area back in ‘29 or ‘28, right?”

Dick’s eyes slowly widened, recollection washing over him. “Yeah, I think so.”

“I saw you guys there. I was 9 or 10. Thought you were all a gas.” she conceded, murmuring under her breath  as she turned away to set the blood pressure monitor, “Thought you were really cute, too.”

Dick’s lips turned into a devious smile. “Am I still cute?”

“Depends.” y/n adjusted the cuff on Dick’s bicep, ignoring his flexing of it. “Are you always this mouthy?”

Mouthy? “I just like making some conversation, that’s all.”

Y/n scoffed. “The other on-duty nurses said you were quiet as a mouse when they were around.”

“...so you asked about me?” Dick’s smile was bright, even in the dark, impervious to any of y/n’s attempts to shut down his flirtation.

“Just so you know,” y/n began, pumping the air bulb of the blood pressure cuff, “if Madame - the head nurse - sees me primarily with you when we’re handling a wave of wounds, she’ll dismiss me for the day.”

Dick couldn’t quite pin whether or not y/n’s statement was more of a bluff than a fact. Why would the head dismiss her when they need her most? “Then why not stay the night with me tonight so I won’t miss you so much when it happens?”

A sheepish grin appeared on y/n’s face, followed by a glare. “Do you know how much trouble I would be in if Madame found out?”

“Make something up. I am requesting for you to be at my side for the night for my care.” Dick reached out to touch y/n’s hand, her fingers bending to close around his, before she unhanded him, walking over to the nurse’s station to jot something down.

Dick waited patiently for y/n to return, his leg jumping in the medical bed - similar to a dog’s tail wag - upon y/n’s return. “Had to write down my reason for extended stay, along with your vitals, since you seem to be burning up, Grayson.” she hinted, eyes pleading for Dick to play along.

“My head.” Dick mumbled dramatically, pressing a palm to his forehead. In response, y/n snickered, barely covering her mouth with her hand. “So where were we?” Dick scooted up in his bed, patting a space beside him for y/n to sit; she thanked him and sat stiffly. “It’s okay. If Madame shows up, I can just cover for you. It’s not a problem.”

Y/n turned to face Dick, tucking her feet underneath her thighs. Sweet mercy… Dick thought to himself when he caught a glimpse of y/n’s bare thighs, exposed by the rising nurse uniform. “Your job growing up as an…”

“Acrobat.” Dick finished.

“Right.” y/n said. “Acrobat.” she repeated, mostly for her own sake. “Do you miss traveling? I’m sure being here is nothing compared to what you’re used to.”

Though she had a point, she was overall incorrect: Grayson was accustomed to the grime and grit of Gotham, almost blocking out the fugue state of traveling from destination to destination as a child. He looked down as he thought through his answer. “I suppose I do miss it,” he started, dallying facade fading, “but I mostly miss my parents. I never even got to say goodbye.

“And what hurt even more was how I went from this traveling boy wonder-” he paused at the slipup, “-to the adopted son of a Wayne. I’m thankful for the comfortable life, especially since the Depression overtook most of Gotham, but…my adoptive father doesn’t…” he trailed, overcome with emotion. His overgrown dark strands of hair - a mop, as his captain named it - draped over his eyes, masking the tears welling up in his eyes.

But y/n could tell from the broken voice that he was in too deep, and that the war was the last possible thing to break his spirit. She cupped his chin, lifting it so their eyes could meet, neatly combing his loose strands behind his ears. She then wiped a stray tear before it could run down his cheek. “I don’t understand what that’s like,” she admitted, eyes still on his, “but sometimes it’s not okay. Men here get shell shock, and all of a sudden, they realize how poorly they were treated all their lives, and this war was the breaking point to crush their soul. I was worried it would happen to you too.”

Y/n’s hand still on his cheek, Dick cocked his head. “How do you mean?”

“You’re…different, Richard. Most of the cadets that march through here are just boys in uniform, boys in a line, boys with guns. And I’m not sure exactly how old you are,” she chuckled, “but you carry yourself with wise eyes. There’s something in there, and it’s okay to let go.”

The words settled themselves on the bed with Dick and y/n, crawling up Dick’s side, neck, and into his ear. They nauseated him at first, but because y/n was right: he left Gotham for a better cause, but also because he lost himself in the mask and costume. It consumed his identity whole, and Bruce hadn’t seen past his own arrogance to know any better.

Suddenly, y/n’s eyes were familiar. Dick wanted to climb into them and hide, live a free life as a free man, free from the burden he carried - no longer an Atlas; rather, an acrobat, flying about. Despite being the last Flying Grayson, his wings were clipped, and he treaded the Earth, with tattered feathers and blistered feet. 

Stunned, Dick opened his mouth, wanting to say what he repeated in his mind: Come with me. Come home with me. Be my home. He understood now why men in uniforms wed upon their first day back on the mainland. He squeezed her hand, bowing his head in to press his lips to y/n’s.

Y/n returned the kiss, sharply inhaling at the scent of tar, musk, and evergreen Dick carried. His lips were welcoming, warm, as she kissed him, and when she pulled away, she was met with his oceanic eyes crashing at the shore for her.

Again. His eyes asked. Please, kiss me again.

And by all the willpower she had, y/n did, holding Dick’s face with her hands.

Their kiss was deep, passionate, and if it hadn’t been for the lack of privacy, they would have stripped their clothing by minutes’ time. Instead, y/n’s hands roamed to every muscle Dick allowed her to explore, her fingers reaching down, down, down…

Dick gasped into the kiss, y/n’s hand brushing against his clothed erection. She pulled away once more, this time asking with heavy eyes - to which Dick nodded, granting her access to unzip and away the restriction between his need and her desire to touch.

“I have you.” y/n whispered endearingly, pressing her lips to Dick’s cupid’s bow. He reclined, allowing her to take him, his self-control signed away the moment he laid eyes on her. Y/n unbuckled and tugged down Dick’s uniform trousers, along with his underwear, exposing his hardened need. The sight of it alone - truly needy, with precum pooling at its head, throbbing - ignited a heat in y/n’s core.

Dick saw the glossed over look in her eyes, and asked, very tenderly, “May I touch you?”

Y/n managed only a nod, a single one, body impatiently waiting for his contact. To her surprise, Dick placed a hand on her cheek, stroking it, with fond eyes. “There is something I would like to do, if that were alright with you.” he licked his lips, expression nervous. “Can I…taste you?”

He stared longingly at y/n, her hand still at the base of his pelvic bone. Marry me. Love me. Have me as yours. I’ll protect you from everything, he wanted to say, wanted to express, wanted. That was it though: an eternal yearning, or a momentary desire? Dick hadn’t known, nor did he want to spoil his chances at finding out himself. He only waited for y/n to answer, as she contemplated silently.

“Yes.” she breathed, “but be kind and patient. This is my first time.” her cheeks sprinkled a dusty pink. Dick moved on the bed, hands sprawling over y/n’s clothed body as he took all the time he wished he always had. He pushed y/n’s dress up, and rolled her stockings down to her ankles, just barely enough to allow himself access to her dripping core.

He bestowed kisses along her legs, stopping near her sensitive folds as he took in the beauty before him. With one hand, he held her thigh; his other enclosed around his hard cock, breathing unevenly as he waited for her affirmation.

“I’m ready.” she susurrated, voice unstable. With that, Dick dove his head in, licking at her folds. Y/n gasped, legs spreading further. “Oh” she breathed halfheartedly, weakly, as Dick lapped at her bundle of nerves.

Dick rutted into his hand, as eager to hear the noises y/n emitted as he was to know he was the source. He moaned into her pussy, causing her to whimper, hips rising to meet with his mouth. Her head spun, full of everything and nothing; her vision blurred, finding herself near her high, and Dick knew by the way her legs trembled, breathing unsteady, and he thrusted relentlessly into his hand.

“I wanna come with you.” Dick offered, still stroking his cock. “Please, y/n, I want you to come with me.” It was a long time since he wanted to selflessly love, to feel someone else fall before him. Dick would be the first to admit that he behaved selfishly in the past, but not here, not with y/n unwinding beneath his touch, by his touch.

The hospital bed creaked in the night as y/n’s hips faltered, driven by ardor and primal need. “Keep going, Dick,” she whined quietly, as to not disturb the sleeping crew outside of the tent, or - even worse - the shameless nymph that Dick brought out in her.

Dick knew. He saw it in her eyes as they watered, and the way her chin shook with desire. Using the hand that held her thigh, which was now bruised from the tightened grip, he inserted a finger into her entrance, pushing past its fluttering walls to curve into her g-spot, licking and sucking on her clit until she reached her breaking point.

“Oh, my god!” y/n threw her head back into the thin sheets of the hospital bed, hips buckling into Dick’s face and finger as she rode out her orgasm. Dick continued moaning, eyeing her fucked out state, as he chased his own high.

When y/n’s hips fell, she became cognizant of her surroundings - especially Dick, still between her legs, fucking his hand as he stifled his loud moans in the skin of her thigh. Y/n watched intently, ruffling her hand through his untidy dark hair. “Go on, Dear. Come for me.” she cooed, snapping whatever reality Dick held on to, and sending him into a whirling high.

“Y/n, fuck.” Dick whimpered weakly, ropes of cum coming out as he thrusted into his hand. He cursed under his breath, and through barely closed lips, before he finally stilled his hips, and released his now spent cock from his grip.

Y/n fixed her stockings and dress, rushing to her feet to assist in cleaning Dick’s mess. She returned with a warm towel, and a glass of water, urging Dick to lie down as she helped blot up the sticky cum that fell on himself and his blanket.

“You really don’t need to baby me, y/n.” Dick joked.

“I’m not,” y/n reminded, “just wanted to clean up since that stuff looks uncomfortable to deal with.”

Dick burst into laughter. “It is.” he sipped some of the water before reaching over and placing it on the stand-up end table beside his bed. “Can I hold you? When you’re free, of course.” he chuckled awkwardly, new to the circumstance.

Y/n neatly folded the towel and placed it under Dick’s bed, in a hidden bag for used towels. She climbed into the bed with Dick, laying on her side as Dick brought his arm around her shoulders, closing the space between them.

Silently, they shared the night together, listening for the distant whoosh of the ocean, and the crickets’ calling for one another. Y/n was first to drift to sleep, her inhale stuttering before she released a deep exhale through her nose. Dick kissed her hair, occasionally glancing at her relaxed, dreamed state.

“I love you.” he muttered, low enough for barely even his ear to catch. He was happy with his answer from the universe, the bluebird resting in Robin’s arms as they began their tidings together. Whether he were to fly to war, buried in hollow nests and earthly burrows, he knew that his home was here, under the bluebird’s wing, with her body intertwined with his.

He no longer felt heavy. Dick Grayson was free.

[lovemesomerafael]

Destroying The Planet To Save It  Chapter 29:  Why Would Anyone Dig?

                   Chapters 1-25   Chapter 26   Chapter 27  

                              Chapter 28   Read It On AO3

Bucky and Joss finally got their chance to pilot a quinjet together on their way from New Zealand to Australia.  Since it was Joss’s first time flying a quinjet, she acted as Bucky’s copilot, although she suspected that she would always have trouble getting Bucky to let her fly left seat.  She didn’t care.  She just wanted to enjoy the experience.  

Steve hadn’t been kidding when he told Sharon that Bucky had a particular type.  For Bucky, there was something for about a woman who flew aircraft, always had been since he’d first heard of such a thing. He’d never enjoyed going through the checklists with a copilot so much as he did now, with Joss.  Although he didn’t let his concentration flag, he spent a lot of time during pre-flight and take-off looking over at her, her dark hair in a messy bun, brow furrowed in concentration as she focused on her responsibilities.  He could see the military professionalism and precision in her bearing and her movements.

He was happy to see that she didn’t spend all her time concentrating on flying, though. Bucky caught her sneaking looks at him until, once they were at altitude, she glanced over to find him openly watching her.  Both broke into full, delighted smiles as the reached out and clasped hands for a moment.

“This is fun,” he laughed.

Joss almost giggled.  “Yeah. I was crazy jealous of Jeff Traynor when he got to fly with you to Atlanta.”

Both of them winced, remembering that Jeff Traynor had died in the crash of that flight. That was not at all the mood either of them wanted today.

“You’re planning to just land this plane normally, right?”  Joss asked, trying not to grin.  

“Everybody’s a critic…”  Bucky sighed, turning back to his instruments.  “But I’ll tell you what.  If we crash again, I’ll get you those Hawkeye pajamas you asked for.”

Joss laughed merrily.  

 Once they landed in the arid red of Alice Springs, Bucky and Joss had a half-day’s drive to the cattle station where the machine they were here to destroy was reportedly abandoned.  It was located in an outbuilding that, like the one in Colombia, had its own power generating station.  They had debated methods of approach, each of which had its own dangers.  A helicopter would have been much quicker and easier, but equally obvious, and even though there wasn’t another building for miles in any direction, they didn’t want to alert anyone to their presence.  They ultimately decided on a Land Rover, which would still set up a plume of dust visible for miles, but they could hike in the last few miles and at least hope anyone watching would think whoever was out there had stopped well short of the machine.

The building housing the machine and the power station were almost identical to those in Colombia, except that the building was significantly larger.  There was nothing around it as far as they could see, so after lying flat in the rocky, red sand for half an hour and seeing nothing, they readied their weapons just in case, and approached.  

The building had a locking mechanism that appeared to use a code, but when Bucky tried it, it wasn’t locked.  He cocked an eyebrow at Joss.

“Abandoned…” she mouthed, shrugging.  

He appeared to consider that for a moment – that was his thought, too – before nodding once.  They took their places on either side of the door before he threw it open and they went in fast, sweeping the interior with their weapons drawn.  

The trap was so rough, so jury-rigged, as to be completely unavoidable, even if they’d been expecting it.  Bucky had an ongoing argument with Tony Stark that the more sophisticated security was, the easier it could be to defeat.  If they lived through this, Bucky was so going to use this to win that argument.  

But first they had to deal with the four men holding weapons on them.  Two of the men had HK416’s, while the other two had what looked to be standard hunting rifles, one of which was bolt action.  The ropes that had closed on them hadn’t disarmed or bound Bucky or Joss, but they’d sure as shit pulled their aim off, which meant that neither of them could fire an effective shot before the guards had them in their crosshairs.  

In other circumstances, Joss would have been amused – and, God help her, aroused - by the level of fury radiating off Bucky at having been caught napping like this.  As it was, part of her enjoyed the obvious care with which the guy with the bolt action rifle kept as much distance as possible between him and Bucky as he disarmed them.  That took awhile, given the sheer volume of weaponry they carried between them.  Even with the time he took, Bolt Action Guy still unknowingly left knives on both of them, mostly because he was too afraid of Bucky to frisk him.  Bucky’s snarl when he went to frisk Joss made him re-think that idea, too.  

One of the guys with an assault rifle appeared to be the leader.  He spent a long time going through the contents of the backpacks Bolt Action Guy had taken off Bucky and Joss, while Bolt Action Guy took a stance a few steps from Bucky and the guy with the other rifle stood as close, covering Joss.  Once the leader had finished looking over each item in their packs and grunting to the other guy with a HK416 about the ones he couldn’t identify, he looked up at his captives.

“So. What’re yous doing all the way out here?”  The leader addressed his question to Bucky, which suited Bucky just fine.  

“Got lost hiking.”

“Did ya’. Always go this armed when you’re hiking?”

“Sure,” Bucky grinned.  “Might be snakes.”

The man looked a little surprised.  “Americans.”

“Yeah.”

The men looked at one another, then the leader went on.  “I’m guessing you’re here for this,” he gestured with a shoulder toward the machine behind him.

Bucky did a double take, as though seeing the machine for the first time.  “What the hell is that?”

Now the leader grinned evilly, and Joss shivered just a little at the state of the guy’s teeth.  That much decay had to hurt.  “Nice try, mate.  Who sent you?”

Joss let Bucky do the talking as she scoped out every detail of the building.  She could see that he was doing the same thing, and wondered whether their keen scrutiny was as visible to these idiots as it was to her.  

“Sent us hiking?  Nobody.”

“See, that’s not gonna help ya’.  ‘Case you’re not aware, I got all the power here.  So you might as well tell me what you’re up to.”

“Is hiking called something else in Australia?”  Bucky asked Joss, keeping his eye on the armed men.  “Should I have said walkabout?”

“No, that’s something different,” she answered.

The leader turned his attention to Joss as the guy with the other hunting rifle took a step closer to her, the shaking in his finger just barely perceptible where it rested on the trigger.  

“How about you, girlie?”  The leader asked.  “You wanna tell me what you’re doing here?”

Joss shrugged and tossed her head toward Bucky.  “Me?  I’m with him.”

Rifle Guy took another step toward Joss, which was the step she had been waiting for. She reached out, stepping under the barrel as she did, and tore it from his hands.  The guy squeezed the trigger in his surprise, but the bullet went harmlessly through the wall of the steel building, allowing a solid bar of sunlight into the room to illuminate the sand and dust dancing in the air.  Rifle Guy went down hard when Joss coldcocked him with the butt of his rifle, and she turned as she pulled the rifle into position on her shoulder just in time to see Bucky take out Bolt Action Guy with a thunderous clout from his left fist.  Neither of the rifle dudes were going to be taking further part in today’s activities.

But they weren’t fast enough.

The leader and his buddy with the other HK416 had their muzzles in the faces of their captives before Joss could get off a shot or Bucky could pull the bolt action rifle from his guy’s hands.  Bucky and Joss froze.

“Put it down, girlie,” the leader growled.  Joss tossed the rifle carefully onto the concrete floor of the building.  She looked slowly up, her eyes going huge as she took in the semiautomatic rifle at close range, seemingly transfixed.  

Soon, Bucky and Joss were again standing next to one another, while the two guards began to have a muttered conversation.  They were too close to try to keep it between themselves, and Bucky’s supersoldier hearing would have picked it up, anyway, but their accents were so thick and their use of slang so prevalent that they were far less comprehensible than they knew.  

Bucky turned his head to glimpse Joss.  As she kept her eyes on the leader’s weapon aimed at her, she had a look of concentration on her face not unlike that she’d worn when they were flying the quinjet earlier, but she didn’t seem unduly frightened.

“OK?” Bucky grunted.

“Yep,” she responded without glancing at him, although she did turn her eyes to the other guy’s weapon aimed at Bucky.  “You?”

“’M Good.”

Other Guy shot them a hate-filled look.  “Shut up!”

The conversation between the two guards was short and decisive.  Less than five minutes later, Bucky and Joss were standing in the fading sunlight, staring at a vast expanse of sand behind the steel building housing the machine.  The Leader kept his semiautomatic trained on them as the three just stood there, listening to sounds from inside the building.

Soon, Other Guy came around the corner.  To Joss’s apparent delight, he was carrying two shovels.  

“Oh, you’re kidding.  Really?” she cried, suddenly happily excited.

The Leader looked at her in confusion.  “What?”

“Shovels. The desert.”  Joss gestured, smiling at the men like Other Guy had come from the building carrying cotton candy.  “You’re gonna do the thing where you tell us to dig our graves, right?”

“Yeah. That’s right.”  The Leader flicked a concerned look at his partner.

Bucky frowned at Joss, looking about as confused as the men did.  “And this is a good thing?”

“Well, OK, yeah, there’s the whole threat of imminent death thing, but I’ve never understood how this works, and I’ve always wondered.”

Other Guy stepped closer.  “What the fuck are you on about?”  

“I don’t understand why anyone would dig the grave.  I mean, if you’re gonna kill me, then fuck you.  Dig it yourself.  And if you’re not gonna kill me, we don’t need a grave.  So…  In the movies, they always dig.  Why would anyone do that?”

“Shut up, bitch,” the Leader spat.  “Dig.”

He motioned to Other Guy to hand the captives a shovel each, which he did.

“No,” Joss said petulantly.

“Joss…” Bucky said, voice low, looking annoyed and slightly embarrassed, mostly because he wasn’t going to give these assholes the satisfaction of faking fear.  He could see where she was looking, which gave him a pretty good idea what she was doing.

“You’re gonna dig because you think there’s a chance you might live.  Long as you’re digging, you’re alive,” the Leader told her. “And then there’s the hope you’ll find a way to escape.  But if you refuse, you die right now.”

“Good idea,” Joss said.

“Dying?” the Leader asked with a sneer.

“No.  Right now!”

As though they’d been planning and rehearsing it, both Bucky and Joss lifted their shovels and swung for their targets simultaneously.  Bucky hit Other Guy cleanly in the head and that was that. Joss, having shorter arms, hit the Leader in the arm, knocking his weapon to the sand, but had to reach back to swing a second time.  She didn’t get the chance, because before she could, Bucky had already dealt him a resounding thump with his left fist and he was falling.

“I was gonna get him,” Joss complained.

“I know you were.  I was just savin’ you the trouble.”

Joss actually had to think about whether she was annoyed by that while they disarmed the men.  When she saw the smile on Bucky’s face as she stood with the Leader’s HK416 in her hands, she decided she was definitely not annoyed with him.  

“Safety’s on,” he said, holding up Other guy’s weapon.  “I knew that was what you were doing.”

Joss smiled back at him.  “Your idea.”

Maybe it was weird to take a moment to embrace right then, and a little macabre to share a kiss that heated up quickly.  There were two unconscious jagoffs at their feet, after all.  But it felt exactly right to Bucky and Joss.  

“Remind me to tell you all the things you did just now that were stupid hot,” Joss murmured against Bucky’s lips.

“No problem, because I got a few things to tell you, too.”

They kissed for a bit longer before separating reluctantly.  “Work to do,” Bucky grumped.  

“Yeah. What do you wanna do about these dudes?”

“Drag ‘em inside, we’ll truss ‘em all up and send help for ‘em when the machine’s dead.”

Joss began work on the machine while Bucky dragged the guards into the building.  By the time he got their limbs zip-tied and had locked them in the building’s storage locker, Joss was halfway done. He helped her finish destroying the machine and they re-packed their backpacks, including the orb from the machine, made one more check of the now-conscious but deeply unhappy guards, and opened the door.

It was the kind of pitch dark where there was actually starshine, once they let their eyes adjust.  It was also very cold.  Somehow, neither of them had really thought about this, probably because eliminating the guards had taken so much longer than they’d planned for the entire mission.

“Shit,” Bucky said as they both stopped dead just outside the door.

“Oh. Huh.  Gonna be much harder finding our way back.”

“Joss, we can’t.”

She looked up at him.  “We have flashlights.”

“Doesn’t matter.  It’s not safe and if we missed the truck in the dark, we’d be lost in the desert.”

“Shit. Take their truck?”

“Gonna have to. But only as far as ours, and then we’re stuck until daylight.  Can’t drive out here at night, there’s too much chance of hitting animals on the road. It’s so dark, you can’t see ‘em until it’s too late.”

“What, like kangaroos?”

“Those, and cattle, horses, camels.”

“Wow. Back home, all you have to worry about are deer.”

“And you’ve seen what a deer’ll do to a car.  Imagine hitting a camel.”

“No, thanks.”

“Well, let’s go back and get their truck.”

As it turned out, the guards weren’t so great at protecting the machine, but they drew the line at handing over their Land Cruiser.  Bucky and Joss never did get the keys out of them.  Bucky spent a long time with the guards in the storage locker, eventually getting frustrated as he realized that even going full Winter Soldier wasn’t going to work without actual violence.  But then, as he was looming over Bolt Action Guy, he heard the Land Cruiser start up.  All five men in the storage locker looked up with identical expressions of surprise.

“Where’d you find the keys?”  Bucky asked as he walked over to the vehicle parked next to the now-defunct machine.  

“Didn’t.”

“Wait, you hot-wired it?  How do you know how to do that?”

Joss smiled guiltily.  “I plead the fifth.  I also get to drive.  Our packs are inside; get in.”

“I gotta throw those canvas tarps we found over the meatheads in there.  They can huddle together, but it’s already getting cold in here.”

“I’ll help.”

Once they were sure the guards would be safe overnight, it took over an hour for Bucky and Joss to drive the few miles to their Land Rover.  They had to pick their way around rocks and other obstacles, and ensure that the SUV didn’t bog down in deep sand, which meant that Bucky often had to get out to test the terrain ahead.  Eventually, however, they were relieved to see their Land Rover glinting in the headlights behind a particularly large boulder at the side of the unpaved road.  

They had both been thinking about what would happen when they reached it.  Their ideas about what they wanted to happen ran along surprisingly similar lines, although they couldn’t know that.  Which meant they were both feeling an edge of nervous excitement as Bucky pulled up the floor hatch behind the back seat to look through the emergency equipment stored there.  Being a S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle, it was kitted out with all the necessities, as well as several luxuries like real blankets and actual pillows. He smiled as he pulled things out.

Soon, they’d put the seat down and made a bed in the surprisingly large cargo space in the Land Rover, upon which they sat, barefoot and all their weapons stowed, nibbling on some kind of high-calorie nutrition bars and drinking packaged water.  

“This is really disgusting,” Joss said, holding up the nutrition bar.  

“Better than starving.”

“I’m not going to starve in one night.  Besides, I’m not the supersoldier with the insane metabolism.  You can have the rest of this.”

“They’re not bad.  There’s berries in here,” Bucky said, accepting the bar Joss had only nibbled at.

While he munched at the nutrition bars, Joss answered Bucky’s questions about her childhood and how she’d ended up in the Secret Service.  He was interested, and impressed at her accomplishments.  When they’d finished their survival dinner, he laid down and put his right arm across the pillow next to his with an incendiary look of invitation.  Without a word, she smiled and snuggled next to him, a hand on his hard, flat stomach and her head on his shoulder.  They fit together so perfectly that they were both immediately aware of how comfortable it was.  

“Is now a good time for me to tell you how impressed I was with the way you handled those guys today?”

Bucky let out a huff of laughter.  “Not much of a fight.”

“Maybe not, but now for the rest of my life, I get to say I fought by your side once.”

Joss felt him stiffen just a bit.  “Why do you say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m about to disappear in a puff of smoke.”

Joss’s response was to shift her position slightly and slide her hand to the side of his waist so she was holding him closer.  

“Hey,” he said, nudging her with his shoulder.  She lifted up to her elbow and looked at him.

“Are we back to that?  To you thinkin’ you’re nothing to me?”

“I didn’t mean that.”

Bucky pushed her hair back, away from her face, and tilted her head up so he could see her expression in the faint light of the glow stick they’d activated.  “We made a pact, you and me.  Always honest about how we feel and what we want, right?”

“And no hurting each other.”

“Exactly. And I’m apparently doing a lousy job of letting you know how I feel, if you still think I’m…  we’re…”

“I’m sorry, Bucky,” Joss said softly, leaning down to kiss him lightly.  She stayed where she was, looking into his eyes as much as she could find the courage to.

“I keep doing that.  I just…” She touched his face with a tentative finger, running it along his cheek and then under his jawline.  “You’re so beautiful, it’s hard to look at you sometimes,” she gave a soft laugh, then took in a deep breath.  

“Honest about how we feel.  OK,” she whispered to herself, then looked into his eyes again.  “I knew what you looked like before we met, so it’s not like I wasn’t prepared for that part.  And I knew that you were pretty damn spectacular with weapons.  Or without them, for that matter.”

He didn’t interrupt, although her compliments were making him uncomfortable.  Instead, he touched her face as lovingly as she was touching his.  

“But then you turn out to be so…  sweet, and funny, and thoughtful, and you didn’t even blink when I told you about me. Hell, blink?  You made being a mutant into something good.”  Her finger was tracing his lips now, her eyes following its path.  “And then there’s the way you kiss…”

Bucky smiled and kissed the tip of her finger.  Now he wanted to interrupt for a different reason.  Still, he kept silent as Joss went on.  

“I told you that I was afraid of falling for you.  But the thing is, the more I know you, the more I realize I wasn’t scared enough.  So…  What I said, I say that stuff because I’m still trying to protect my heart.  But…”

“But?”

Joss forced herself to look into Bucky’s eyes as she whispered, “But I think it’s already too late.”

Bucky could feel those words deep inside him, like she’d just unlocked something and released a wave of electric heat that rolled through him, complex and powerful. “You don’t have to protect your heart from me, Joss.”

With that, he lifted his head to capture her lips with his, kissing her with all the tenderness he could.  He tried to reassure her with his kisses that she could trust him with her feelings just as she’d just trusted him with her life earlier.  They both felt the weight of the moment, there in the emptiness of the Australian outback.  This wasn’t about sex, not yet.  It was about Joss taking a risk with her heart, and Bucky recognizing the honor and responsibility of her trust.  More than that, it was about sharing and acknowledging the beginnings of a new love, with all the promise and exhilaration that entails.

Long moments later, Bucky rolled them over so that it was him leaning over Joss.  He began to deepen his kisses, teasing her lips with the tip of his tongue to see how she would react.  She reacted with a gasp that he felt tingle all along his nerve endings.  When she opened her mouth to him, flicking her tongue against his, he was emboldened to kiss her the way he’d been wanting to for what seemed like forever.  She not only welcomed it but kissed him back just as passionately, their heavy breathing and occasional soft moans loud in the enclosed vehicle.  

Her fingers found their way into his hair, softly combing through the thick locks while her other arm pulled him closer.  Their bodies turned toward each other, touching along their lengths before Joss slid one of her legs between his, bringing them even closer.  For a long time, they stayed like that, mouths exploring, breathing together, as the light from the glow stick grew fainter and fainter.

Every instinct Bucky had began to urge him to roll onto her, but he held himself back, even though he was pretty sure she was pulling him – consciously or not – to do just that.  He couldn’t keep his hands still, though; he stroked down her back, then up her flank, dragging her soft cotton shirt with his hand, untucking it from the waistband of the khakis she was wearing.

He needed to slow this down, needed to back up a bit.  She’d told him how she was feeling, but he hadn’t yet told her.  He needed to hold up his end of their pact and, besides that, he wanted to tell her.  Wanted her to know.  Hoped that knowing he was falling in love with her would make her feel the way she’d just made him feel.

Because Bucky was falling in love.  He knew it. Of course, he was deeply attracted to her.  Who wouldn’t be?  But he’d known pretty much from the time she pulled a switchblade from her hair that Joss was special, and everything they’d been through since then had only confirmed just how made for him she was.  Now, tonight, having her tell him that she cared for him the way he cared for her had done something to him.  He realized a couple of things as he slowed his kisses and gently backed off their intensity a bit.  He realized he was just as afraid of his feelings as she was of hers.  And he also realized that it was too late for him to do anything about them, even if he’d wanted to.  

Bucky finally made himself pull slightly away from Joss, looking down at her as she’d looked down at him earlier.

“You OK?” She asked breathlessly.  

In the deep darkness, it was impossible to see her expression, and Bucky decided he definitely needed to see her right now.  

“I’m good,” he said, as he lifted up further to reach behind her where there was an open duffel bag.  Pulling out another glow stick, he quickly crushed the capsule inside and shook it to life, casting a warm yellow radiance.

“That’s better,” Bucky murmured, brushing a soft kiss across Joss’s lips.  “You know, I’m nuts about you.”

Joss’s answering smile was worth having taken the time to activate the new glow stick.

“You ask me, you’re the beautiful one in this car, Joss.  Flying with you today, and dealing with those guys guarding the machine… that was fun.  Everything with you is fun.  I never met a girl like you before, and I been lookin’,” he smiled.  “I want you to know that those feelings you have for me, I got ‘em for you, too.  Prob’ly worse.”

She clasped him tightly as he began to kiss her again, feeling her smile against his lips, and the heat between them quickly rekindled.  Bucky didn’t remember his shirt coming untucked from his tac pants, but suddenly Joss’s hands were underneath it, sliding along his back, and the feeling of her hands on his skin instantly caused his brain to begin to short out.  He didn’t really know how or when he rolled on top of her, but when he felt her legs part to let him slide between them, he couldn’t be sorry. She hooked her calves over his and slid one foot slowly up and down his leg.

Soon her hands were roaming, caressing their way to his waist, and then he was lifting up so she could flatten her palms on his chest.  He pulled his lips from hers at her sharp intake of breath, suddenly aware that his erection was pressed against her and afraid he’d crossed the line.

But when he looked down, he could see that her eyes were heavily lidded and she looked anything but offended.

“Can I take your shirt off?”  She asked, a little shyly.  

He just about dislocated a shoulder reaching behind him and pulling his shirt over his head. This time when she gasped, he knew exactly what she was reacting to as she took in his bare torso for the first time.

“Bucky…” she whispered, hands everywhere.  

It was hard not to lower his mouth back to hers, but she was still filling her eyes with the sight of his chest and arms, and watching her hands exploring him.  He closed his eyes when she circled a nipple with her finger, then dragged the finger lightly over it.  Once again, he realized his body was moving without him being aware of having begun, rubbing his cock against her as she caressed him.

“I wanna do that to you,” he heard himself almost moan.

All she said was, “Yeah.”

He really didn’t want to roll to his side, but he really did want to get her clothes off, so he lifted a little awkwardly and shifted his body until he was lying by her side.  Joss sat up, eyes a little unfocused like Bucky’s were, and helped him pull her shirt over her head.  Once that was done, Bucky slid his hands, oh-so-slowly, down her shoulders and onto her back, looking into her eyes as he unhooked her bra.  Her dazed smile told him that she was entirely on board, which she reinforced with the soft whimpers she made as she watched his eyes and hands discovering her breasts.  Long, slow blinks became closed eyes.  Joss let her head fall back and arched into his hands.

Bucky suddenly needed to get his mouth, his lips and tongue, on her, so he sat up just enough to ease her back down to her pillow.  “You’re so beautiful, Joss.”

She breathed a long, appreciative hum and began to comb her fingers languidly through his hair.

“You OK with this?”  He asked, kissing the tip of her nose and grinning.

“I’m so OK with this,” she grinned back.

The only fully-formed words spoken in the next long interval were softly whispered praise and endearments murmured into skin, while they touched and caressed and kissed, learning one another’s bodies and how the other liked to be touched.  They moved often, one lifting to slide on top of the other, or rolling to lie side by side where they could touch more of each other.  As they did, they became more and more brazen about grinding their bodies together, until Joss was straddling Bucky, their kisses deep and invasive while she followed the pressure of his hands on her hips to rub against his cock.

“Joss. Wait, Joss…”  He panted.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“We should, um… talk about what we’re doing here,” he gasped between deep breaths as he guided her hips until she was sitting up next to him.  He sat up, too.  The second glow stick had long since diminished to a dull light spot on one side of the Land Rover so that they really couldn’t see each other’s faces.  

Joss ran her fingers along her hair, realizing that her bun was hopelessly lost and simply removing the elastic to shake her hair out around her shoulders.  Like Bucky, she worked to control her breathing. “OK.  Yeah.”

“We were gonna go slow.”

“Mmm-hmmm. We were.”

“You still want that?”

It took Joss a minute to answer.  After a slight hesitation, she reached behind her and there was a soft rustle and clatter before another glow stick came to life in her hand.  “I want us both to be comfortable.  That’s what matters.  Having said that, though, we promised to be honest about what we want.  And I want you, Bucky.  I’ll take this as slow as you want, and I’ll enjoy every second. But my honest answer is that I don’t want to stop.  I want to make love to you.  Here. Now.”

Bucky reached to cradle the back of her neck softly in his metal hand, with which she’d realized he could be every bit as tender as with his flesh one.  “You sure?  Because that’s what I want, too.”

“I’m absolutely sure,” Joss answered, pulling him with her as she laid back down.

Side by side, they fumbled with each other’s belts and buttons, then zippers.  Joss wasted no time once she had Bucky’s pants undone, reaching inside to palm his cock through his underwear.  He had no control over the way he hissed her name or the way he moved to press into her hand.    

“Oh, honey, that’s dangerous if you wanna fuck,” he warned.

Joss’s laugh was low and carnal.  “Get your pants off, Soldier.”  

Bucky made short work of obeying that order, and once he was completely naked, he pulled off her khakis, too.  He moved to stretch out over her, but she shoved him gently to the side, rolling him onto his back and resuming the same position they’d been in.  Now her hand fully grasped his cock, and she kissed him wantonly as she began to stroke him.  He groaned.

“This is why I lit that glow stick,” she growled and lifted up onto her hands and knees, straddling one of his legs and beginning to kiss her way down his neck. “I wanna see you.  I’m going to kiss as much of you as I can reach.”  

She took her sweet time, and Bucky wasn’t sure sometimes whether he was going to survive. As she nibbled at his nipple and stroked his cock with her open palm, and as he felt her hot breath and her wet tongue delicately tracing across his abdomen while she tenderly cupped his balls, his groans were half pleasure, half torture of the best possible kind.

Eventually, after deliberately avoiding his cock to kiss down the tops of his thighs and then licking back up the inside, she lifted her head.  “I wanna taste you.  I’m gonna watch you come.”

Just hearing her say that almost made it happen.  Bucky was beyond words.  The best he could do was a lame nod and a humiliating, squeaky, “Mmm-hmmm,” but she smiled wickedly.  She got the message.

He noticed the billions of stars spilled across the sky outside the window of the Land Rover, and tried to remember the names of as many constellations as he could as he desperately held off his climax.  She had her mouth on him now, and was doing the most deliciously obscene things he’d ever experienced with her tongue.  It took Joss forever of licking and kissing and nibbling, sniffing and breathing on his most sensitive areas before she took as much of his cock in her mouth as she could, wrapping a hand around what she couldn’t fit.  Once she started a rhythm, he couldn’t think about it or he would come in the first few strokes.  As it was, when she had his cock fully coated in her saliva and he could feel the tip push against the back of her throat, it was only a matter of minutes before he was choking out between wordless shouts, “Joss!  Honey, I’m gonna come!”

She sucked and hummed and softly traced his balls with her fingertips as he writhed and shuddered, his cries loud in the enclosed space.  The stars in the sky became confused with the ones behind his eyes as he was helplessly carried along on wave after wave of hot, bone-deep pleasure.  He had no idea how long he lay there, shaking and surrendering to the animal sounds being wrenched from him.  He only knew that, when he came back to himself, he was stroking Joss’s hair as she lay between his legs, her chin resting on his thigh as she smirked up at him.

“That was… You’re amazing,” was the best he could whimper at the moment.  

She crawled up and snuggled back against his side, head cradled on his metal shoulder and hand lazily stroking his chest.  He was a little surprised at how energized he felt, even underneath the warm weight of his deep satisfaction.  His flesh hand roved over her as his breathing returned to something in the neighborhood of normal.  When he felt her nipple harden in his hand, he pushed gently at her so that she turned, giving him more access.  

The more he touched and stroked her, the more he felt her hips move against him.  Even this soon after his orgasm, he could already feel his dick stirring back to life, so he caressed his way down Joss’s body to her mound, feeling the wetness smearing the insides of her thighs. Bucky lifted up onto his elbow so that he could see her in the soft, yellow glow, see his hand between her legs as he slid first one, then two fingers inside her and watch her roll her hips to take them further in.  “Fuck, Joss, look at you.  You’re a fucking dirty fantasy, you know that?”

Joss just tipped her head further back and moaned indecently, arching even more as she fucked his fingers.  After thrusting them into her a few more times, he pulled them gently out and used the slicked-up pads of his fingers to touch her clit.  She practically came off the blanket and cried out, which prompted a low, debauched laugh from Bucky as he went back to finger-fucking her.  Only this time, he pressed the pad of his thumb against her clit, so that he rubbed it as he moved his fingers in and out of her. The movement of her hips became even more profane as she began grinding herself against his hand, and he could see her tense, hear her almost stop breathing, just before she shouted his name followed by a string of inarticulate gasps and mumbled, half-formed profanity.  

Bucky had never seen anything so hot as the way Joss rode her orgasm, completely oblivious to anything but the waves of ecstasy crashing over her.  The arm that wasn’t underneath him was thrown wide, as were her legs, feet planted to push against the mattress as she ground her hips, words and sounds erupting from her as she climaxed.  He was already fully hard again by the time she was able to crack her eyes open enough to peer at him.  

It looked like it took much of her remaining energy to grin up at him.  He leaned down and kissed her gently, pleased when she rolled toward him to clasp him in her arms and rock her pelvis against his engorged dick.  

“I still want you to fuck me,” she murmured throatily against his lips.

“Yes, Ma’am. You need a minute?”

“I’m no supersoldier, but I’m still keeping up with you so far.”

“And they say the Air Force is lazy,” he mumbled through the kiss, adjusting their positions again.  

She shifted until their hips were aligned, wrapping one leg around his waist and bracing the other foot on the mattress, ready to push against it to rock her pelvis against him.  

“You’re sure?”

“Yes! Bucky, please.  I need you, I want to feel you inside me.”

Bucky’s cock was as impressively-sized as the rest of him, but Joss was gloriously relaxed from her orgasm and dripping from hours of arousal.  He had no trouble easing into her.  

“Fuck, Bucky…”

“Ah, honey, you feel so damn good…”  He could hear himself making deep “Ungh” noises every few thrusts.  He tried to stop grunting, knew he probably sounded like a rutting pig, but the tight heat of her was so slick and good, and her tits were full and pressed against him with their hard little nipples, and she was making sounds, filthy lewd sounds with his name mixed in, and it was so fucking hot to be here in the cold desert night at the red center of Australia, buried balls-deep in Joss Emerson with her bucking and pulling him to her with one leg wrapped around his waist, and then he was coming and it was almost too much to bear as he emptied into her with a strangled scream.