𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠'𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
two - suburban magic
BuckyBarnes x Female!Reader
summary: Bucky and Y/N get to Westview, but things are not exactly as they imagined. How will they work now that everyone thinks they're married?
a/n: I know the first two chapter are a little slow and establish the story, so I'm thinking of posting ch. 3 tomorrow. That's where things really start off - let me know what you think!
!Divider is mine. Please give credit when using!
word count: 4k
chapter warnings: fake dating, settling in, so much angst, kinda fluffy, also this is not proofread - all mistakes are my own
✶ 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 | 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 | 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 ☾
“So this is it?” Y/N peered up at the red static wall. Her head was leaned back all the way to try and catch the end of it.
“This is it.” Bucky stood behind her, his hands buried in his pants pockets.
It was unbelievable. Yes, Wanda was powerful, but this? This was so wide and big and... kind of intimidating. Just not the Wanda Y/N thought to have known. She let her eyes wander to either side and watched as the wall extended into the distance. There was a faint whirring sound from the red. It seemed almost nostalgic, in an indescribable way.
Y/N turned around to Bucky, her eyes hesitant and drilling into his with nervousness. But Bucky seemed determined. He stepped further toward the wall until he came to a stop right next to Y/N.
When she had called him two days ago in the middle of the night, Y/N was set on this obscene idea to get here and start a totally unbothered life. Right now, it was rather scary. She hadn’t thought about how intimidating change was in a long time. She was too busy dealing with all her grief and the aftermath of the last major change. And now that she was confronted with this feeling of uncertainty again, she wished herself back into her boring New York City apartment with the same view and the aggravated neighbor, and the constant street noise. That was where everything seemed calculated. There she could control the next couple of hours without fear of major outside influence. It was safe and it was habitual, without heart racing or sweaty hands.
Maybe she should have never called him. Because right now, all of these things were happening. Racing heart: check. Sweaty hands: check. Uncertainty: check, check, check. Y/N didn't know what would wait behind that wall. That was if they were even able to break through. She didn’t know what would happen after they had made it. Back in her apartment, the thought of suburbia and its idyllic atmosphere had brought comfort and longing to her chest. But seeing it so close in front of her really made her question her sanity. She couldn’t just run away and live a life as a housewife. That was not how life worked.
So yeah, if she would not have Bucky by her side right now, she would have probably bailed the second she felt her doubts bubble up. But with Bucky, it was different. There was someone else sharing the dream of escaping with her and it brought a weird comfort to her. She wouldn’t be alone in there. She would have Bucky and Bucky would have her. She felt safe with him.
“We’re really gonna do this,” she whispered to herself, but Bucky’s ears picked up on it anyway. Without a response, he took her hand in his.
They locked eyes for a moment and Bucky look this time to nod intently in her direction. His hand twitched, reassuring Y/N of his presence and it felt as though this small gesture conveyed a bigger message only he could decode.
“Are you ready?” His stare was hopeful but concerned. He looked like he was ready to bail just as much as she was. But she wouldn’t pass on a chance like this, not because she chickened out.
“No.” She smiled. “But that’s okay.” She probably never would, but Y/N had decided then and there that that was nothing that should stop her anymore.
Bucky’s vibranium arm reached forward, hesitant to touch the magic wall, but not really stopping in its movement. When his fingers grazed the static, a faint shock hushed in the air, traveling through his body to hers and making her feel the force behind it. This was real. As unbelievable as it looked, this was real. Bucky retracted his hand in surprise, looking back to Y/N with a questing glare. But she just nodded forward in a ‘try again’ motion, her eyes desperate and nosy at the same time.
His flesh hand tightened around Y/N’s when he laid the whole of his vibranium palm against the red wall. Noise, light, power. All at once flooded Y/N’s senses as she watched Bucky lean forward to break through. Every part of her body was tingling with electricity shooting tiny white specks of pain in every part of her skin. Tears were brimming in her eyes with determination. This might have been a bad idea, but before she could even comprehend that thought, Bucky turned his head in her direction. There was something in his eyes that made her want to withstand so much more pain than the one she already felt. Like an urge to uphold anything for him in trade for the sacrifice, he made for her. A silent message was passed between the two and only a heartbeat later, Bucky pushed further into the flickering scarlet. His foot stepped forward, digging into the ground as he bent his knees to bring up more strength. Y/N took a deep breath and then she lifted her free hadn’t to the barrier as well.
Together they drove their entire weight up against the wall, but it was like leaning on cement. Nothing would move this mysterious piece of magic. It was painful, too. Like touching fire with bare hands. As if the lights were slicing through her skin, pulling on her nerve endings with unbelievable force.
Bucky took another step, releasing a forceful scream as his hand began to dent the wall. His fingers were halfway hidden by the rest of the structure. And all of a sudden, there was a shock washing right through Y/N’s body. As if she was walking through a painful waterfall that could tear right through her. There was no more pushing against the wall because it felt as though the wall was actually reaching forward, hugging them in its ear-shattering static noise. Y/N screamed as well. Her body was on fire, her head felt like exploding and if it weren’t for Bucky’s hand anchoring her to something tangible, she would have probably fallen unconscious from the pain.
And then, as fast as it started, the pain was gone. Y/N fell forward with a thud, as did Bucky, their faces touching the soft grass and an overwhelming warmth consumed the pair.
Y/N’s heart beat faster than ever, her thoughts running a mile per minute but not producing anything remotely sufficient for her situation. Her fingers were tingling, her head heavy - almost dizzy. She sat up slowly, looking around and taking in her new environment. The noise of the wall was faint from this side. The grass seemed greener and the air warmer. Not unbearable, but definitely summery. Y/N took a deep breath as she listened to the birds chirping in the distant trees. It was paradise, peaceful and calm - totally secluded from everything else, maybe even reason. There were houses in the distance and if she really listened closely, Y/N could make out the sound of children playing in their front yards.
A groan emerged from her left, and her eyes wandered to the man beside her, slowly pushing himself upright.
“That was...”
“Weird,” Y/N completed as she watched him taking in his surroundings as well.
“Yeah.”
Then he redirected his gaze to her body, scanning up and down for injuries. “Are you okay?” His hands rested on his thighs, his head leaning forward, urging her to talk.
“I’m okay.” Y/N smiled and watched as Bucky’s brows softened. He looked around again, probably taking everything in properly. “Are you okay?” She asked carefully.
“I’m okay.” His eyes stayed on hers for a little longer and Y/N could feel her chest warming again.
Bucky stood up, cleaning off his jeans, and then he held his hand out to Y/N. She looked up at him, her eyes wandering back to his extended offer and finally placing her hand in his.
“I really didn't think we’d make it halfway through,” she said as she too cleaned off her clothes.
Bucky chuckled. “Yeah, it hurt like a bitch.”
That it did.
Bucky stopped in front of a beautiful house. Painted in light blue and with white shutters accompanying the windows, the house stood proud over the suburban street with an unmatched significance. He must have felt it too, the pull this home had on everyone’s stare, inviting one's gaze beyond the white picket fence and longing for a peak within its bright walls. How Y/N would have wished to live in it as a child, how her inner desire longed for the ocean blue to engulf her and marry calmness to her soul. It was truly perfect.
The lawn stretched from the porch to the mailbox that stood right next to a real estate sign. It showed two heavily photoshopped agents with bright smiles and a bold number beneath, indicating that it was, in fact, for sale. Unbelievable, in Y/N’s opinion. This home was too nice to ever lay empty in an area like this: suburbia. Filled with people desperate to live a perfect life with their perfect families and their perfect happy, smiley faces that would hang above the fireplace.
Y/N’s heart ached at the thought. A family - the whole that had been ripped in by fate twice by now, which was definitely two times too many. And simultaneously exact the reason why she stood on this street, with that beautiful home mocking her misery in bright blue hues.
“It’s like out of these movies.“ Bucky muttered with a frown that didn’t match his doughy eyes at all, and a smile snuck on Y/N’s face as he said what she had been thinking out loud.
“Oh my, you must be the new neighbors!” Y/N whipped around and watched a brunette exclaim with the brightest smile. “I am so thrilled to have a new couple in the neighborhood,” she leaned towards Y/N and brought her hand up to her mouth; “Let me tell ya, Berta from down the street is becoming a little old and she always kills the mood when she starts talking about her dead husband.” The woman laughed loudly and then she waved her arms.
Y/N was glued to the ground, her expression unintelligible as all her concentration shifted to the sudden encounter with one of Westview’s occupants. The woman must have noticed how shocked and confused Bucky and Y/N looked because a second later she extended her hand.
“How rude of me. I am Agnes, it's so nice to meet you!”
“Bucky,” Bucky said while shaking her hand. “And this is Y/N.” He smiled as he hid his left arm behind her back.
Y/N just smiled. It was all she could do with the sudden realization that this woman had assumed them to be together. Moving into a house in the suburbs together - Oh, God. She thought they were married! Y/N’s heartbeat was pounding in her chest as Bucky played it cool, trying to get the neighbor away.
“So nice to meet you both! You seem like you’ll fit right into our lovely neighborhood.” She clapped her hands before her chest once. “And you chose the most beautiful home of them all, too!”
“We- what?” Y/N’s voice faltered as she turned her head back to the house. The sign with the two agents had a bold red sticker on it now: ‘SOLD’
She felt Bucky’s hand twitch on her side and was met with an equally confusing stare once her eyes traveled from the magical sign back to him. A silent monologue passed between the pair, though Y/N wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to convey. Another squeeze of her waist and Bucky’s face turned back to the brunette woman with a bright smile.
“We really don’t want to be rude but why don’t you let us get settled, Agnes? It's been a long day already and we would appreciate some rest before the movers get here.” His smile didn’t falter and Y/N tried the same, but she couldn’t shake the uneasiness spreading in her stomach like a wildfire. Something had changed already and Y/N couldn’t place her finger on it.
“Oh, of course. I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone.” And then she turned around and walked towards a house with deep purple flowers in the front yard. “Welcome to Westview!” That was all she said with raised arms before she disappeared behind the door.
Welcome to Westview. That was the plan, right? But for some reason, it didn’t feel like it was going according to it.
That night was horrible. Y/N tossed and turned in the sheets of her indefinite home, and even though it was the most beautiful place she had ever laid eyes on, it was intimidating. As if she had no control over her future, nor the slightest possibility of knowing what could happen. To her, to Bucky, and really everyone else.
The time the neighbor had left felt like a blur. Up until the moment, Y/N’s exhausted body hit the soft sheets of her new bed, time had seemed like a concoction of colors that stretched and faded in long lines as if the moments had rushed by her and she could watch them from the window of a speeding car.
A lot of weird things had happened today. The first and undoubtedly the most scarring of them all was the wall moving through her to engulf her into Westview. She had never felt such a phenomenon but it was comforting that she could share it with Bucky.
That Agnes lady was a weird component, too, but Y/N figured every town needed a nosy neighbor and she just happened to have met her on the very first day. That was something both of them probably had to get used to still. In the city, people minded their own businesses. They went about their life with as little contact with strangers as possible and Y/N kind of liked it that way. Bucky probably did, too. And neighbors? Well, neighbors basically ran to their doors when another opened. The casual small talk Americans were so well known for was avoided like the plague. The only encounter people had with neighbors was in the case of complaints. And those were, again, nagging about their privacy being disturbed. Y/N had felt it the second she entered Westview: a shift in demeanor. Unlike New York City, people actually cared for their fellow occupants. In Agnes’ case maybe a little too much. People knew about the person at the end of the street. They cared about their well-being and they dug up gossip about their dog sitters if the occasion called for it. Suburbia’s inmates were well aware of the community they lived in, and that thought alone scared her.
When Agnes had left, Bucky had found a key in his pants pockets that actually unlocked the pretty blue house. And before the both of them were even able to step one foot in their new estate, a moving truck halted on the street with scratching tires. Four men, all dressed in blue overalls, carried box after box past Bucky and Y/N, who just shared another look of confusion. Whatever had been in those boxes apparently belonged to them, and once the men left the property the house looked like someone actually lived in it.
Beautiful wallpaper lined the walls of the foyer that lead directly to a staircase painted in white. A mirror hung above a small table that was decorated with flowers. There were jackets and umbrellas hanging in the closet by the staircase and just a step to the left opened a wide arch the view into a stunning open kitchen with an island of marble. The cupboards were the same blue as that of the house’s exterior. Further back beyond the open kitchen and the adjacent dining area opened another arch to a broad seating area. A glass door by the living room lead out to the patio, where a green lawn unfolded in the distance. A sizable pool covered part of the area and the rest was framed by flowers in all shapes and colors.
It was just as Bucky had mentioned earlier ‘like out of these movies’ and Y/N could have sworn that she had seen a house comparable to this in one of Wanda’s TV shows before.
When Bucky had reached to open the door to the backyard, Y/N had felt a shiver run down her spine. That was what had felt so off out on the street before. Bucky had looked at her with a questioning glare and as Y/N’s stare traveled from his hand back to his eyes, the expression on his face had fallen and been replaced by one of utter helplessness. His arm, Bucky’s vibranium arm was gone. Well, it wasn’t gone, It was normal. It was a flesh arm, one like the other he had. And just as it did Y/N, Bucky looked like it scared the living shit out of him. That had been the first thing that had actually been terrifying. The nosy neighbor and the changing signs, she could deal with, but this? This felt like an intrusion. Like a bad magic trick that secretly pulled the ground from under your feet.
He had ripped his hand from the handle and held it away from his body as if it didn’t belong to him, and that’s when Y/N had noticed the silver wedding ring shining on his finger. She had checked, and sure enough on the fourth finger of her left hand sat a thinner, more delicate version of Bucky’s ring. She Didn’t mention it, thinking it would just destabilize him further after the discovery they had just made. So after another beat of silence, Bucky had excused himself and left to the upstairs, where Y/N only guessed the bedrooms to be.
She had been right. Because after another hour of rummaging around the house, and getting to know the place to distract herself from thinking about Bucky, who probably just wanted to be alone, she went upstairs herself. Bucky had left her the master bedroom and chosen, what she could only assume the guest bedroom to be, for himself. She had gotten ready for bed reluctantly, her eyes regularly pulling to the door that led to a corridor that led to Bucky. He was just two doors away. Five feet and two doors, and yet, Y/N didn’t feel ready to take on this kind of comfort for him. Because it wasn’t.
So ever since she had gotten to bed, her thoughts had been spinning around the same topic. It was two in the morning, now and there was no sleep in sight for her. Y/N turned to her side again, staring at the clock on her nightstand in frustration. She was about to close her eyes when she heard a hesitant knock on her door.
She looked up when a muffled voice traveled through the wood. “Hey, Y/N?” Her heartbeat quickened.
“Yeah?” Bucky stepped into the room silently, his gaze low as his hand clutched the doorknob.
“I-“ His eyes met hers in the dim moonlight shining through the window. His were sparking with secrecy, an indecisiveness settled deep within. Y/N didn’t dare to move. He looked like a deer in headlights with his shoulders slumped and she could see his mind working on his features. Anything could scare him away now, and really, Y/N completely understood. “Never mind. I’m sorry. Go back to sleep.“ And then the door closed again and Bucky was gone.
But she hadn’t been sleeping. Y/N sat up in her bed as she heard his footsteps decent the stairs and after about ten seconds, she could hear him rummaging through the kitchen. Yeah, she would definitely not go back to sleep now.
The patting of bare feet sounded through the cool hallway before traveling down the stairs as well. Bucky stood by the refrigerator, retrieving a box of milk and pouring himself a glass. His bare back was exposed to the air-conditioned room, his muscles moving under his skin as his hands worked in front of him. He seemed to have settled with his new arm, as weird as that sounded. Of course, Y/N couldn’t possibly comprehend what that would feel like, but she imagined it must be hard to have it taken from him, after years of accepting it as part of him.
She remembered faint conversations in the compound with Bucky. She’d never asked him about his arm, but she had listened in on Peter’s curious questioning. Bucky had answered a bunch of questions about what features his arm had, and how he dealt with some issues, but he couldn’t really answer the stuff Peter was actually interested in. What she had picked up from it, however, was that the arm from Wakanda had grown on him and that he actually liked it, especially because it was from his friends.
Y/N slowly approached the brunette in the kitchen, and when she could clearly see the absence of scars on his arm shining in the refrigerator light, he turned around, his eyes tired and low on her frame.
“What’s the matter?”
He just stood there, holding eye contact as his mind fought with something Y/N couldn’t place. His mouth opened as if he wanted to say something, but then he closed it again. Time passed teasingly slow as he repeated the action.
“It’s just-” He turned around again, leaning on the counter and looking out the window. There was Agnes, walking along the street. What was she doing out so late? Y/N stepped next to Bucky.
“You don’t have to tell me,” she said, though she really wanted to know. She wanted to see if Bucky would confide in her, now that she was all he had in proximity. There had been an aching pain settling in her chest ever since he had given her that helpless look. A desperate cry about not being able to help the way she wanted, because she didn’t know where the boundaries were placed.
“No, I know.” There was a long pause, and Y/N thought that was where the conversation would end. She didn’t move though, her hand so close to his on the counter that she could feel him twitching on the stone. His breaths were steady and deep, the only thing sounding through the dark kitchen beside the constant whirring of the refrigerator. Agnes had gone further, she wasn’t within the frame of the window anymore, and Y/N quite frankly didn’t care, but Bucky’s eyes stayed focused on the dark.
“Can I ask you something?”
Bucky just hummed absently, the distance in the sound far more tangible than him at the moment. Y/N moved her hand closer to his left, her pinky fingers grazing his on the countertop. Bucky didn’t react.
“Do you feel with it now?”
His head slowly turned to her hand where her fingers met his. And for a second, Y/N thought she could see a grieving twitch in his eyes.
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s the same as before. Just looks... different.” Reluctance laced his tone as his eyes shifted back to the window after stealing a quick glance at her face.
Y/N just nodded and slowly retreated her hand from his, a sudden cold replacing the warmth that had been beating through her body just moments prior.
“A little late for a walk don’t ya think?” His voice sounded distant again as he nodded towards the window through which the pair had watched their neighbor.
“Maybe she’s looking for something.” Really, Y/N wanted to go back to the intimate conversation they just had. But Bucky’s demeanor had already switched.
He looked at her with raised eyebrows and then he stepped backward, walked to the door, and took his jacket. And with a final ‘I’ll be back’ he left the house. And Y/N? Well, she just stood there wishing for a little more Bucky. Just something that told her, that maybe, everything she wished for wasn’t just a distant dream.
𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓
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