bakerstreet | Rubber duckie, you're the one

Rubber duckie, you're the one

The Bathing Meme

Scrub-a-dub-dub, this meme is ridiculous. No, really. This is a meme about taking a bath. Silly.

- Post your character with name, series, and preferences as the subject header.
- Reply to other characters, using the RNG (1-7) to choose a bath type from the list below, or don't!
- Characters bathe. Or other things involving a bath. Whatever, dudes. Anything goes!
- Sexy times and/or triggery material may pop up in threads. Please be conscientious toward your fellow roleplaying buddies!
- Original meme found here

1. Bubble Bath: Here, the characters are sharing a humongous bubble bath with all the froth they can handle. The scent is delicious, the water is warm—go on, enjoy yourselves!
2. Shower: Perhaps not as fun as a bubble bath, but hey, at least it's built to accommodate two. Don’t slip!
3. Hot Tub: A whirlpool of warmth and—mm. Don't mind me. I'll just be sinking in.
4. Hot Springs: An outdoors bath is good, too, right? Or maybe this is part of a hotel. Either way, it sure is steamy.
5. Decadent Bath: There could be bubbles here, or maybe just those wonderful smelling oils and salts. Awwww, yeah. This bath probably cost a small fortune, so you should enjoy it while it lasts.
6. Lake: In case the hot springs weren't rugged enough for you, here's an actual lake, complete with waterfall for all your rinsing pleasures.
7. Other: Bathe in a shoebox for all I care!

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( for the few rare moments, it's nice not to think - not that some milding state of disassociation is okay by any means, but resisting over analyzing is a feat in itself. steve gives himself permission to get lost in the white noise of the shower and the eerie quiet of the house until it becomes less calming and more unsettling.

bucky's not the guy to enter some sort of vegative state under a steamy spray and when steve's not compartmentalizing his own day's worth of stuff, he locks in on some unsavory curses, muffled by echoing splatters and the overhead fan as they are.

he's up before he's genuinely weighed his options. what options? something is wrong, there's no choice there. ) Buck?

Everything okay in there?

( he's leaning into the doorjamb for approximately four point five respectful seconds and then he raps on the wood with his knuckles, striding in regardless of his sensibilities. there's not much between them he hasn't seen before, though circumstances have changed, and neither one of them is precisely as they were back then (as two best pals who lived together and were in various states of undress here and there). he'll take his chances. )

[ Bucky doesn't mean to be alarming. In fact he tries his absolute hardest not to be, almost all of the time. He tries to be a lot of things that he's pretty sure he's failing at. ]

Uh...shit.

[This time he tries to keep it a little more under his breath. He doesn't exactly want Steve to see the blood in the water, circling down the drain, or that his hands are stained in it. The last thing he ever wants to do is worry Steve, but he seems to be doing a lot of that these days.]

Yeah. Everything's fine.

[Except it's not, and Bucky doesn't really see any other way out of this. jesus christ, it actually really hurts. He's used to pain far worse than this, but he can still admit it. To himself.]

It's just a minor situation. It's worse than it looks. I've got something jammed pretty deep in my back. I'd get it out if I could, but- I can't reach it.

Edited (omg i swear i'll stop editing now lmao ) 2025-02-20 05:58 (UTC)

( by the time he gets an answer, he's already several steps into the bathroom with water that might be running cold, bucky cursing as close to under his breath as he can get. and it's not good enough—his efforts—because steve can hear him as clear as day. everything's fine, he says, and maybe some partial sliver of him even means it, but it's strong enough to detect a sharp metallic scent in the air, the cursing, the way he's been in here for twenty-thirty minutes and he's not toweling off by now. steve's not the sort to wrench the curtain open without reasonable means to and when it comes in the form of bucky admitting he needs help, clarifying, steve still hesitates.

he's a cautious man, where honor is concerned.

( still a beg for forgiveness type, though, over permission. )

he wants to ask again to be sure, narrow it down, pinpoint exactly what bucky means first but he can smell the blood already. so, it's a moot point, the figuring it out. almost. )

Does it need surgery, do you think? Can I get it out?

[ Bucky's not worried about honor or modesty anymore. Not when he's had decades of HYDRA treating him like a piece of meat, and he was forced not to think about any of it. Even coming back to himself, his thoughts, his memories, some things are harder for him to get used to once again.

Steve is already in the bathroom, he knows this. He doesn't want to ask for help, but he has to. ]

I don't know what it needs- I can't see it. Maybe...you can get it out and see.

[Steve seems hesitant about it- but Steve's been hesitant about a lot of things lately. Bucky knows it's because of him. Cause he's not the Bucky Steve remembers and that's probably a hard thing to reconcile.

But they're still here, trying to figure it out together.]

( it's uncomfortable on principle because he's in a bathroom while someone else is unclothed, but not because he's never been exposed to these sorts of things. it's just been awhile. and, yeah, of course, there's a portion of it that's attributed to not knowing what to say or do, or how to be, when it comes james buchanan barnes—not bucky—that steve's trying to adapt to. knowing but not knowing, familiar but unknown. it's complicated. it's too complicated. what isn't as complex is that he needs help and help is the one thing he can contribute.

without further ado, he does wrench open the curtain and soldier up to the request.

he reaches for the water first, shuts it off. maybe this turns out to be something where he has to quickly wrap bucky in gauze, assuming they even have adequate bandaging on their persons. for now, the nearest clean towel has been set next to him on the sink, in case he needs to tear it into makeshift bandaging to stop the bleeding. )

Come here.

( when he has, steve has to decide whether this is worth grabbing and pulling out, and facing the blood loss, or taking him to a hospital ( which frankly isn't an option for anyone but especially him ) and steve holds his breath after the inhale, but then he's definitely grabbing the metal and circling his palm around it. )

It might need stitches. ( from me, he doesn't say, a rough stitcher at best. ) Count to three?

( he's pulling it out at two and immediately wrapping, if need be, but you know, it's the breathing that counts. and then hoping there's something in his emergency kit. )

[ Bucky lets out a long, ragged sigh, his gaze meeting Steve's when he opens the shower curtain. He probably should've shut the water off already, but he was trying to deal with this on his own.

There's blood on the tile, in the water, running down his back, dripping over his ass. It looks bad. A lot worse than he looks, he swears. ]

Sorry about this. I didn't notice before.

[because pain is still such a foreign concept to him. He wasn't allowed to feel it for so damn long. Couldn't care for himself even if it did. He shifts to the edge of the shower so Steve can get a better look, a better grip, giving him a nod.]

I'll heal. It's fine.

[He waits for Steve to count, metal arm whirring as his hand curls into a fist when the metal does get pulled out. He lets out a sharp breath, then nods- even though blood is leaking out even faster now.]

Okay, good..... good.

( if bucky doesn't think that steve is either guiding him to sit on the bath's ledge or worst of all, to stand still while steve climbs in fully clothed and completely wraps him in a towel that he's ripped into pieces as needed, he has another thing coming because that's just not the way he operates — seeing things from the outside. it means a lot of things, either way, like holding bucky still to get a firm wrap that feels snug enough to subdue most concerns until he can figure out a more permanent solution.

obviously, wrapping him tightly in the shower is not a good solve, it just happens to be the momentary one.

when he steps away, it's to re-evaluate quickly. is this going to hold? should he be looking for a needle to sterilize? is there one in his kit? can he make do without? do they have clean clothes? does bucky need an IV? are they both going to make it through the night? that kind of thing. )

Will you? ( he inquires, more pleadingly than necessary, less casual. he knows that he would, eventually. he doesn't know the particulars of bucky's serum. ) Do I need to call someone more qualified?

[ He needs stitches. He definitely needs stitches. Steve should know better than to listen to the ex-Winter Soldier when it comes to pain or keeping himself together. The towel is good for now though, slowing the bleeding at least a little.

That's the first step anyway, before Steve can even take needle to skin. But this next part has him more alarmed than all that blood ever did. ]

Call someone? Are you kidding me?

[Bucky tenses up hard at that, an almost wild look in his eyes at the suggestion. That's a surefire way of getting them both back in the hands of the wrong people.]

Steve.

Nat. Sam. Wanda.

( he lists off brainlessly. )

I don't mean someone. I mean, somebody I trust.

( by someone he means his someones, his people. because people aren't general for steve, they mean prematurely assured — safe. )

I can at least call someone I know to walk me through the stitching. Make sure I'm not missing anything. That I'm not letting you bleed out. You want me to wing it? Guess? I will, if you want that. But I have people — we have help, outside of a hospital room.

I'll do it anyway, Buck, you know that. Just be sure you wanna risk it.

No.

[He shakes his head, very nearly pushing Steve's hand away as the anxiety bubbles up, but he presses it down hard, trying to get his shit back together again.]

You know how to stitch people up, Steve. We were in the army. You were in the army and you've been on the field...

[Bucky doesn't get it. He doesn't understand what's going on here right now, with Steve trying to bring someone into this when they've so desperately been trying to keep their distance. Or maybe that's just him.

Steve probably wants to get back to his people.

He's so angry at himself for getting hurt in this kind of way. And for clearly making Steve uncomfortable while doing so, because this has to be something else entirely. ]

I won't bleed out. I've had it way worse than this. I'll make sure the wrapping is on real tight and by morning I'll be as good as new.

I know how to do it, more or less, get it right. I'm fumbling through.

( it means he's applying pressure that's too hard and hypothesizing which is why, and either way, steve doesn't give a crap outside of the real why. that's healing bucky and sticking him together. )

So, you're fine and I'm wrong. I'm okay with that, if you're safe. How about you get out of the shower, let me stay up - in case I need to - and you get some sleep?

( steve is a lot of things since then, least of all bucky's contentment, and he just rolls with the punches. )

The stitches are otherwise, need a real distraction for that.

[ Steve wouldn't be fumbling through, but Bucky doesn't have the energy to argue it right now. The metal shard is out of his back and the blood flow is slowing down. He doesn't want to make this any worse than it already is. Steve is so clearly uncomfortable, and Bucky wishes they weren't stranger. He longs to be the Bucky that Steve loved and felt comfortable around.

He looks down at himself, covered in blood.]

Let me just wash off real quick... and then you should shower too. I'll be fine.

[ He's a mess. He's such a goddamn mess and he's been trying not to be. These missions have helped. Being with Steve has been the only other thing keeping him sane, but- maybe it's not good for Steve. He's not good for Steve. He wonders if he should've just been put back on ice instead of selfishly going on the run with his... friend.

And now he's standing here naked, and suddenly- for the first time in a very long time, he feels self-conscious about it.]

Thanks. I'm sorry. I was in a weird spot with this, but- thanks for helping out. I'm okay.

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Rubber duckie, you're the one

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my bad my brain died

glad it's back now!

<3

<3!

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