What I ended up with is a little askew from the prompt, but it is Shrinkyclinks with besotted WS!Bucky and people being surprised Steve is his boyfriend, just with the surprise going the other direction.
Sam did one more circuit in the air just to confirm that everything was under control. The wannabe-despot of the week was being loaded into the back of a SHIELD van in handcuffs, and the three bioengineered chimeras she’d released in Central Park were all safely contained. They were part hyena, part cat, and part…actually, Sam had no idea what the hell was making them glow faintly purple, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t normal cat or hyena behavior.
Fortunately, the chimeras weren’t nearly as aggressive as their creator had hoped. Once the Avengers had herded them into a sunny area by a fountain, the chimeras had settled down to bask on the warm stone, ignoring their creator’s increasingly frustrated commands to make with the rampaging already.
“Can we keep them?” Clint was shooting boomerang arrows from the top of the fountain. One of the chimeras was lying on its back, batting lazily at the arrows passing overhead. “I’ll feed them and walk them and not let them maul any civilians, can we keep them, sir, pretty please with a cherry on top?”
“No,” Coulson said. Sam could see him standing by the SHIELD van, arms folded as he watched Clint.
“I want this one.” Natasha sat on the ground by the fountain, posture relaxed, apparently ignoring the chimera five feet to her left. The chimera ignored her back, except to twitch an ear in her direction.
“No,” Coulson repeated, but only after a pause long enough signal defeat.
Natasha rolled slowly onto her side. The chimera tracked the movement, then put its head down on its paws and half-closed its eyes. “I’m naming her Boadicea.”
“So we’re done here? We’re done here,” Sam said, and turned his comm off before he could get sucked into the argument.
He touched down outside the SHIELD perimeter, where Tony was shedding his suit like a lobster shucking off its shell one segment at a time. Each piece folded up neatly into the briefcase at his feet. The Winter Soldier was standing next to him, his face blank but calm.
The Soldier had been an official part of the team for a few months now. Sam still didn’t have much of a read on him. The Soldier had been invaluable during the whole Hydra/SHIELD clusterfuck, and that was enough to earn him a lot of goodwill, but just about the only things Sam knew about the Soldier were his fighting style and his call sign.
“Hey, Cap,” Tony greeted him. “Where are the spy kids? Let’s do post-battle brunch, I’m starving.”
“They’re trying to convince Coulson to let the mad science experiments follow them home.”
“Good luck to them, but God help them if they try to keep them in the Tower, Pepper put her foot down about pets. You buy out one animal shelter because the cages are too small and all the animals look sad and suddenly everyone thinks you’re a hoarder. I don’t get what the big deal was, we weren’t using that floor of the Tower for anything important anyway. Tacos?” Tony suggested. “I’m thinking that place by Fordham. BattleBot, you in?”
“Can’t,” the Soldier said, typing something into his phone. “I have a date.”
Tony stopped talking for an entire three seconds. “You. Have a date.”
The Soldier looked up and blinked, clearly nonplussed to find Sam and Tony both staring at him. “Yes.”
“With who?”
“My boyfriend.”
“You have a boyfriend. You have a boyfriend?” Tony looked like he’d just walked into a lamppost, and then the lamppost had handed him a birthday present.
Bucky gets flirty after missions especially when Steve’s gotten a little cut up, but he did a really good job punching out nazis today and he just wants to make Cap feel all better. YouNah’w’aMean? 😉
When Natasha took the time to look you up and down, frown with her eyes like you were lacking in some way, and then said “Down Under Coffee on Thursday at 6 pm. He’ll be wearing a festive red sweater with a reindeer. Withhold judgement until you meet him” you went to Down Under Coffee for 6 on Thursday and you looked for someone in a reindeer sweater.
Bucky looks like he’s had a difficult month, what with the eviction notice and all, but that’s not the reason Steve gives for allowing him to stay on his couch.
“You have somewhere to go?” Steve questioned, crossing his arms and attempting to look casual, not like he was worried for Bucky. He stepped into the apartment, ignoring how bare it was.
Bucky paused and gave him an exasperated look. “I’m not completely hopeless.”
A fic spanning from mid-November to early-February.
“Every year I hope Santa turns out to be evil,” Bucky said, his feet hanging over the back of Nat’s couch. He’d been back in Brooklyn for three hours and it felt like he was recharging from the city. Save him from the Midwest, jesus fuck. “It’s on my bucket list of things I want to sleigh. Haha, slay, get it?”
Nat ignored the pun, probably because Bucky used it almost daily around this time of year, and she’d been the one to do it first.
“I always wanted to kill an evil cyborg,” Nat told him, slicking on nail polish.
“What happened to your sweet Camaro?” Stiles asked.
“His sister borrowed it,” Erica said cheerfully. “Drove to Lake Tahoe for the holidays and left him here without transportation and fending for himself.”
This was… perfect, actually. Stiles needed a fake date and Derek needed a drive. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll drive you to and from the party and in return I get to tell Mrs. Gordon you’re my date.”
Something must have poked his Christmas Spirit. It might be the way Hale was watching the proceedings with a scowl on his face, unable to hide what was clear derision. Earlier, his eyes had lifted when Stiles entered the work pen with the presents, and Stiles had been under the impression he had been vaguely pleased. The only thing Stiles could think of that would make someone such a gloomy grump was not getting a gift.
“What?” Hale asked, staring at him through the glass wall that made up the part of his office facing the work area.
“I’ve got something for you!” Stiles said, waving the small rectangular present as he walked in.
“That’s not mine,” Mr. Hale said, staring at the box like it offended him. Then he stared at Stiles like he was offending him more. “You’ve made a mistake.”
“No mistake, sir. It’s a special delivery from magical Hale Holiday Elves.” Stiles gestured to his head. “See the hat. A man wearing this hat makes no mistakes.”
Stiles grew up with his bedroom window overlooking Derek’s bedroom, so when he returns home for the holidays he’s surprised to find a stranger in his nerdy neighbour’s bedroom.
Only, he’s not much of a stranger.
It is Derek Hale, the guy who is going to be his new step brother, if the rumours are true.
@forestfairyunicorn I really REALLY enjoyed drawing that !!! It was loads of fun, came surprisingly easy, and made me happy ^____^ Hope it makes you guys happy too !!!
Meanwhile Sam is like “I told you animals were good therapy, but did you have to adopt the whole shelter, guys ???”
ealdor 