Title: Heady Mix
Fandom: MCU/Captain America
Rating:Teen
Length:400
Content notes: Includes drinking.
Author notes: A few years post-TWS, when Bucky has come to live with Steve and wants to meet all of Steve's friends. For fan-flashworks for the sweet and sour challenge
Summary: Steve throws a dinner party, and Bucky plays bartender for (and flirts shamelessly with) Maria.



"Can I get you a drink?" Bucky asked.

Maria cocked an eyebrow and smiled. "You got any specialties?"

"You have no idea."

Maria managed not to roll her eyes.

"All right, all right," Bucky said. "I make a good sidecar."

"Sidecar sounds great," she said.

She sat back in the large cushioned chair and watched as Bucky carefully ran a lemon peel around the rim of a glass. She supposed she should have expected old school.

"I take it this get together was your idea?" she asked him as he carefully measured out the cognac into the shaker. She gestured to the rest of Steve's apartment; Steve and Tony were sitting and talking animatedly by the fireplace, Pepper and Coulson were sampling at a table full of desserts, Clint and Bruce were lounging by Steve's LP collection, and Sam and Natasha were dancing to Artie Shaw. Maria couldn't remember the last time she saw everyone so relaxed.

"What makes you say that?" Bucky asked.

"Steve Rogers is a lot of things. But I doubt dinner party host is one of them."

Bucky let out a little grin, and Maria recalled that Barnes once had the reputation for being quite the charmer. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be charmed or not.

Bucky shrugged. "I wanted to get to know Steve's friends better. You guys never go out and have fun." He had finished adding the lemon juice and cointreau and was shaking the ingredients together.

"We have fun," Maria said.

"If you think shooting aliens in the head is fun."

"I do, actually," she said, and Bucky let out a laugh, genuine.

"Then I see why you all get along with Steve." He poured the drink into her glass and handed it to her with a little wink.

She sipped it, then smiled. A perfect balance of sour and sweet, lush against her tongue.

"You do make a decent sidecar," she acknowledged, smiling up at him as he leaned against the arm of her chair.

"I'm a good dancer too."

"I'll keep that under advisement."

"I hope so." He got up and started making a sidecar for himself then, concentrating on the thin line of lemon peel. Maria watched him work, watched his hands craft the drink as she sipped hers.

"So are you glad you came to our little party?" Bucky asked.

She smiled, gazed up. "Getting there."