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Assistant: Title: Touch, Not War
        Author: kittymills kittymills 
        Chapter: 1/1 
        Summary: After Val's announcement and the chaos that followed, the apartment they escape to finally settles into uneasy silence - until Bucky finds Ava, unravelling quietly in the kitchen, her body flickering from too much time in the suit. She doesn’t ask for help, not at first, but when she lets him close, Bucky learns just how much he still has to give - and how much Ava has given him without even knowing.What begins as quiet comfort becomes something deeper, steadier, and far more intimate than either of them expected.
        Contents: Summary:
            
              After Val's announcement and the chaos that followed, the apartment they escape to finally settles into uneasy silence - until Bucky finds Ava, unravelling quietly in the kitchen, her body flickering from too much time in the suit. She doesn’t ask for help, not at first, but when she lets him close, Bucky learns just how much he still has to give - and how much Ava has given him without even knowing.What begins as quiet comfort becomes something deeper, steadier, and far more intimate than either of them expected.
            
        

        
  Notes:





    
      I had this idea since before TB* but no matter how many times I try to write it, I don’t feel like I’m doing it justice. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, I don’t know.Some creative liberties taken with the lore for the setup.  Set the night after the press conference in the movie.Mind the tags. .... i should be sleeping right now
    




  





    
        
          The hum of the fridge was the only sound in the apartment they had escaped to following Val’s surprise announcement on the debris strewn street earlier that day. It was dark, but Bucky didn’t need the light when he had years of shadow trained instincts to guide him. He padded barefoot into the kitchen, feeling restless with too many whirring thoughts that wouldn’t give him any peace.The others were all asleep in their various rooms, exhausted after the fighting and the subsequent media frenzy. He had expected the kitchen to be empty – filled only with shadows and silence, but instead he found her.Ava, hunched over the sink with both hands gripping the cool metal like it was the only thing anchoring her to the earth. A glow from a lit up billboard outside the window washed her slim form in a cool blue glow, giving her shoulders an ethereal look even as they rose and fell in shallow, choppy breaths. She was out of her combat suit, wearing only in a thin white tank top and bare legs, her hair loose down her back. She almost looked like the ghost she was named for, but even in the dim light he could see the sheen of sweat painting her skin.He paused for a step, then watched as a shudder rolled over her again. A flicker, maybe, although it was hard to tell in the shadows.“Ava,” he said, keeping his tone low and careful as he approached her.  She didn’t startle at the sound of his voice. Of course not, she had known he was there from the instant he stepped into the hall. She had been shadow ops trained too, and her instincts were honed tight. The fact that she didn’t turn to look at him told him there was a level of trust there now. She was aware of him, but not concerned by him.“Ava,” he said again, this time closer. There was a definite unsteady flicker now.She didn’t look at him but the slight tilt of her head that told him that she had heard him. He caught the grimace that twisted her profile.“Congratulations,” she rasped, her voice brittle as she hunched over the sink. “You found me looking like sh@t.”He knew Ava well enough by now that her response was a poor attempt at humour. A deflection. He frowned, stepping closer again. “You okay?” he asked, even though it was clear she wasn’t.“No, actually.” She blew out a breath, shaky and dry. Her eyes flicked to him, rueful and he relaxed at her honesty. At least he wouldn’t have to pry the truth out of her from behind her pride. “But that’s not new.”He reached around her, grabbing a glass and filling it from the tap in the sink. “Talk to me,” he said, handing it to her.She took the glass with a trembling hand but didn’t drink yet. Her other hand remained death-gripped on the edge of the sink. Her eyes wouldn’t met his, as though maybe she was ashamed.He knew a little something about what that felt like to let someone else see your weakness.“Hey,” he said carefully. “You don’t have to be tough with me.”She scoffed a little at that, just a typical kneejerk reaction that he knew was all defensive but it faded quickly.  He waited patiently, steady in the quiet.“The suit’s messing with me,” she told him after a long moment. Her hand still shook. “Too long in it. It used to hold me together, but now if I wear it for too long… afterwards it’s like wearing static against bare nerves.”His brow furrowed. He tried to remember the brief on her abilities, and how she’d got them. “Quantum feedback?”“Something like that.” She finally drank, swaying a little. He braced himself to catch her but she frowned at him in warning. There was that stubborn pride of hers.“So why wear it?”She gave him a tired look, like she couldn’t believe him of all people, could ask her such a thing. But he wanted to hear it from her.She must have read it in his eyes, because after a moment, she gave a small sigh and continued.“The Pyms… They stabilised me, made me better, but when the snap happened, well then Val happened.”Bucky had a feeling he knew this story. “What did she have on you?”Ava snorted weakly. “Everything.” She winced, and something like a ripple of pain rolled over her face. “I wasn’t dusted, unfortunately. And during the blip-“Bucky exhaled. “You had no one.”Ava’s mouth twisted as she gave him a stiff nod and a mock salute with the glass as confirmation. “Give the man a cigar.”Bucky took the glass back from her when her hand started to shake again. “What did she make you do?”Ava slid him a narrow glance, like she wasn’t sure if he was serious. He just wanted to keep her talking.“Oh, the usual. Not all that different from SHEILD really, although she was good at putting a spin on it that made it all somehow… rather noble.” Ava sighed but it shifted into a wince she tried hard to stifle. “The suit gives me the ability to use my skills, but it’s not what stabilizes me anymore. It used to keep me together,” she explained, her voice raw. “Now it just tears me apart slower.”Bucky swallowed down a memory, bitter in his throat. “I used to throw up every time they woke me up for a mission,” he heard himself say quietly.That made her glance at him, finally. Her eyes were shadowed, sharp and questioning.“It’s not the same, but I remember what it was like after the cyrofreeze,” he said. “Waking up after months, sometimes years on ice, stomach empty, and my vision swimming… like… like I was breaking at the seams.”Her eyes locked on his, clear and assessing even in the low light leaking in from the billboard outside. She didn’t soften completely, but some of the tension in her shoulders eased. For a beat, their eyes met and held in the shadows.Then her mouth quirked in her familiar lopsided smile. “F@ck@ng charming, isn’t it? How we survived all this just to be allergic to ourselves.”She tried to straighten, but her knees buckled.He caught her without thought and she collapsed against him with a rough, broken exhale, her forehead finding the centre of his chest. Her breath ghosted through the fabric of his black t-shirt.“Easy,” he murmured. “I’ve got you.”“I’m fine,” she muttered stubbornly against his chest.He sighed. “You’re really not.”She let out a sound that might have been a grunt. She was a livewire, this one. The thought had only just crossed through his mind when he felt a weak shove at his shoulder.“Don’t get used to me like this,” she grumbled.“Sure,” he answered easily as his lips twitched in a smile. She growled something sharp under her breath he chose to ignore.“Come on, spooky, I’ll help you.”“Spooky?” She made a sound that was half a snort, half a laugh but she didn’t shove at him again. It was almost as though she was willing to accept his help now. “That’s a new one.”“Isn’t that what Walker called you?”“Walker?” He heard the distaste in her tone. “No, he called me Ghost Lady. Or Lady Ghost, I don’t know.”“What should I call you then?”He looked down and caught her studying him. One of her hands was curled tightly around his vibranium bicep. In the low light, he thought he might have seen her mouth curve.“Just Ava will do.”

“Ava,” he repeated softly. He held her gaze for a beat, something strange passing between them he couldn’t name.He guided her out of the kitchen, his vibranium arm steady around her waist. She leaned into him with a stiff-legged pride, insisting she didn’t need his help while holding on like she’d drown if he let go.“I’ve got you,” he murmured.  “You’re okay. You’re not alone, remember.”He sensed she would have fought him if this had happened days ago, before the void and walking through each other’s horrors, but now there was nothing left to hide.When they reached her room, he led her to the bed and eased her down. Her legs curled up instinctively, but her hand caught his wrist as he tried to move away.“Wait.”He paused, looking back at her. There was a small lamp on her bedside table, and it spilled a soft golden glow over her warm skin as she looked up at him. He could see her working up to something. Something that might leave her exposed.“It’s better… when you’re here.”She couldn’t have punched the air out of his chest harder if she tried. He kept his face carefully neutral but he nodded like he understood what she meant. He recognized the effort it cost her to say it, the sudden tensing of her body like she had instantly regretted what she had just said out loud. He hadn’t known her long, but he already knew Ava wasn’t the type ask for help unless she was desperate.“It’s… Look, this is going to sound crazy, but when I picked up your arm earlier-“ she gave him another rueful smile. It was lopsided and Bucky found he liked it. “-I felt something. Something… good. Like it steadied me. So, Can you stay close, just for a bit?”“Sure,” he said, then hesitated as he looked at the space she occupied. She tugged him down with surprising strength, or maybe it was just that she had knocked the wind out of him that he went so easily. He lay down on the bed and tucked in behind her, careful and a little stiff. It had been decades since he had laid beside a warm body, let alone someone as attractive as Ava. And she smelled good, something warm and faintly like vanilla tickling his nose.  “Just until you feel steady,” he said stiffly.“The light,” she prompted, just as a shudder rolled over her again. He shifted just enough to flick off the lamp and douse them both in darkness before curling back around her.It felt like he was closer in the darkness. More intimate. Like he could steal a breath of her skin and she wouldn’t know it.He pushed the thought away. “Better?” he asked instead.“Yeah,” she murmured, then after a beat she said, “Well. Almost.”She reached behind her, groping until she found his vibranium wrist. Her lean fingers curled around the metal with enough pressure that he felt the feedback spark in his brain.“It helps,” she muttered, like the confession cost her. “Touching it. I don’t know why… Maybe it’s the vibranium. But it does.”After everything that had happened today, he was too tired to question it. He just nodded, and allowed her to pull his arm around her body until she was tucked in tight against his chest and wrapped in his arms. An unexpected feeling snagged under his ribs. With hardly any material between them, her skin felt molten hot where they touched. Another tremor passed through her body, and he could have sworn she flickered weakly in his grasp. He was reminded she was still a live wire of discomfort as he spooned her.His nose brushed her hair. “This okay?”She made a sound that was half a hum, half a snort. “Don’t get too cozy, Congressman,” she said but her breath hitched. “I’m a wreck.”“You’re fine,” he murmured before he could stop himself. Cautiously, he tightened his vibranium arm around her and splayed his metal fingers out against her stomach. If she thought the vibranium helped, he wasn’t about to argue it. The mysterious element held properties even he couldn’t understand. If it helped her, he would stay close for as long as she wanted.He told her as much, encouraging her to rest. This time she didn’t answer, but she didn’t relax either. He was struggling too, becoming more and more aware of her as they lay together on the bed. Her skin was so warm, the smooth expanse of her shoulder just inches from his lips. She shimmered occasionally, breath catching in her throat as he tried to tether her to him. She shifted closer, hips pressing back against him, her tank top riding up. He could feel every breath she took.And something inside him that he’d once thought was long dead for decades started to stir.Long minutes passed. Their breathing evened out but it sleep didn’t come for either of them.“James,” she murmured, and he wondered at why she said it like that instead of Bucky like the others. Somehow he didn’t mind his birthname coming from her lips when it sounded like that.“Yeah?”There was a long pause before she answered, so long he wondered if she had fallen asleep. It was impossible to relax. The longer he lay beside her, the more he started to notice things he’d never noticed before. The fragrance of her skin, the warmth of her fingers, the softness of her curves and the strength he knew she had in her form. His thoughts wouldn’t settle and he was distracted, surprised at the way his body heated just from her lying beside him.He hadn’t even known he could feel anything like desire anymore. HYDRA had done a stellar job of carving it out of him and he had been empty for so long he wondered if he would ever feel that spark again.But lying here with Ava-He shoved the thoughts aside. He wasn’t here for that. Or so he thought.More moments passed before Ava shifted. Slowly, she placed her hand over the back of his vibranium palm and gripped his hand in hers. She held it for a few beats, and then she slid his hand down her stomach.And then lower.Bucky stiffened, his breath stalling.She turned her head slightly, met his gaze over her shoulder. There was no seduction in her expression. Just a raw, burning request he couldn’t tell was real, or just a figment of his over worked mind.Bucky swallowed hard. “Ava…”“You’re already here,” she whispered in the dark. There was enough moonlight spilling through the curtains to show him the way her eyes begged. “So help me.”“Ava,” he warned again, his heart thudding in his chest. She couldn’t possibly mean what he thought she did-She pushed his hand down lower, skimming it along her body, sliding it under the waistband of her thin tiny sleep shorts and then pressing his palm between her legs.He exhaled, sharp and shocked through his teeth. The sound made her immediately tense but neither of them moved to pull away.“Ava, I-“He found himself dropping his face into the warm mass of her hair as he tried to think but another spasm rolled through her frame and for an instant, it felt like she disappeared in his arms.Ava made a pained sound. “I can’t control it right now. But I need-”“What do you need? Ava, tell me.” She faded out to the point he held nothing but air, but then she flickered back so quickly he wondered if he imagined it. “Whatever you need, I’ll give you.”Ava made another small sound, sharp and laced with pain. He shifted them, rolling her onto her back and bracing himself on his other arm as he hovered over her. He couldn’t move his other hand - her thighs had clamped tightly, keeping it in place.“I thought you said it helped?” he pressed, helpless in the face of her pain. It looked like it was getting worse now, or maybe that was just her control slipping. “The vibranium?”“I need it deeper,” she muttered, then gripped his metal wrist again, tight enough that he felt it through the tech. Her expression shifted, her eyes focusing on his for a sharp, determined beat. “Put your fingers in me. Please.”He inhaled sharply, stunned by the raw frankness of her request. Her eyes in the dark held no coyness, just raw, needy honesty.“Yeah, okay, sweetheart. Whatever you need.”The endearment slipped out without meaning to, but if she heard it, she ignored it. Ava moved his hand again, this time sliding it under her panties as she shifted back onto her side. He rolled with her, settling in to a position that gave her the control she clearly craved.They had barely settled before he had to bite back a moan. Greeted by heat and slick soft folds that even the complex sensors of his prosthetic limb picked up and sent flooding back into his brain, he quickly realised Ava wasn’t expecting him to participate. She against his palm with a soft moan, and he nearly groaned aloud.She was riding his hand.And he-He was undone.She gripped his wrist tightly, setting the rhythm, taking what she needed with small, aching gasps. His fingers curled inside her, two thick digits slow and sure even as his thumb braced against her nub. Every breath she took stoked a fire under his skin as she rocked against him. She was so warm. So alive. The moans and gasps that fell from her lips as she bucked against his hand didn’t come from pain, but from pleasure.And he realised… For once-for once- his hand wasn’t being used as a weapon. It wasn’t raining down ruin or destruction. Instead, it was offering comfort and connection. The stabilizing force she needed.It was hers.He whispered to her softly, his voice coloured with awe at what she didn’t know she was giving him. He kissed her shoulder and held her tight, feeling her body knitting back together as she took what she needed. Her wet sounds were music to his ears, a symphony he already knew he wouldn’t be able to get enough of and when she came, she clenched around his fingers, muffling the sounds of her relief and surrender against his arm. This time when she shuddered, she didn’t flicker or fade.She lay there breathing hard, still gripping his wrist, his fingers still inside her like she wasn’t in a hurry to release him.“Thank you,” she whispered, like it cost her something to say.Bucky’s throat clenched. He pressed his forehead to the back of her neck where her hair was damp with sweat, and said just as quietly, “Thank you.”He felt her stiffen in surprise. She was watching him when he raised his head, a wary expression in her eyes. His fingers still rested inside her, but neither of them were in a hurry to move them yet.The intimacy of it sat heavily on him.“When they gave me the arm in Wakanda,” he started quietly. “It was to fight. I’ve never brought anyone peace with it before.”She shifted carefully and he gave her space until she was laying on her back. Her hair spread across the pillow like a halo, but her eyes… her eyes were guarded. Cautious as she looked at him.“This doesn’t have to mean anything,” she said, and her chin lifted, as though she was bracing for something. Her face was shadowed, silver in the moonlight but he caught the way her gaze flickered away, laid in guilt.“I’m sorry,” she continued. “I know what it’s like to be used. That wasn’t fair to you.”He was almost amused. “Is that what you think that was?”Her eyes snapped to his and she grimaced. “I used you like… like a-““Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Real terrible. Just awful. As you can see, I’m absolutely devastated.”Ava opened her mouth, frowned, then narrowed her eyes. “You’re not funny, Barnes.”“I’m not trying to be,” he said, sobering quickly. “Ava… you don’t know what you’ve given me.”“Hopefully no long lasting damage,” Ava told him dryly and he huffed a laugh in spite of himself.“Hopefully,” he agreed and she wrinkled her nose at him. He looked down at her, cataloguing the way she looked against the sheets, soft and sated, and finally whole. She was beautiful in a way he hadn’t paid attention to before now.“Do you feel better?” he asked, voice gentler now.She raised her hand to his face, running her fingertips over his stubble, brushing a thumb over his lips in a gesture so tender his breath caught.“Yes,” she said simply.His heart kicked hard in his chest.“That makes two of us.”'
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
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