#realtiy!TV bucky

[your-modern-shakespeare]

A Little Too Real: Epilogue

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 4.5, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 7.5, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 10.5, Part 11, Part 11.5, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14

Summary: RealityTV!AU- You are a wardrobe supervisor for a popular TV network. The show is planning a reality TV show like the bachelor and Bucky is the newest contestant. But as the competition starts he realizes that he doesn’t like any of the girls…on the show anyway.

Pairing : Bucky x Reader

Word Count: 16,355

A/N: Well...THIS IS IT! This has been such an emotional rollercoaster not only for these characters but for me too. This story is about three years of my life and I’ve been putting off ending it because it’s been a really hard week, but it’s time to share a happy ending for these characters. I want to thank everyone who has read and loved this story and supported me along the way. I couldn’t have done this without you so Thank you! But without further ado, I love you guys and Enjoy! (P.S. A completed masterlist will soon be posted with links to every chapter and some fun info about the series. 

Warnings: fluff, FLUFF, some sexy times and mentions of, maybe like a little angst but not really?, drinking, talk of drinking and being drunk, fluff?, I think that’s it, fluff

ONE YEAR LATER 

Y/N’S POV

I tried my hardest to sleep on the flight and yet my nerves and the time difference didn’t make it easy. 

This being my first full week off in over six months, you could definitely say that I was looking forward to it. Not to mention, I hadn’t seen Bucky in about 2 months...in person that is. This tour had been hard on me, harder than the last one. But I guess it was different when you knew you had someone at home waiting for you. 

But things were good with me and him. The distance definitely put a strain on our relationship, but we knew that coming from spending every second together to hardly seeing each other was going to be hard. This realization hit pretty early on. 

After the crew watch, Bucky and I had about two weeks together before I had to leave again. But like I had told him before, I had Monday off, so he took me to the hospital to FINALLY get my cast off and then to our redo first date...it was perfect and then we went on the date...I’m kidding of course. The date was everything I could have ever expected and more, he really pulled out all the stops. Not to mention he was there the next morning when I opened my eyes, which was the only thing I had been nervous about. 

He was also there for the opening night of the show, that next Tuesday, which he absolutely loved. We got to walk the “red carpet” beforehand, he got to watch the show, and then we got to go to the after party together. But the best part of the night was that we got to tell everyone that we were together, that we were a couple and that we loved each other. 

Yet, the real world came knocking the following Monday morning, and we couldn’t keep pushing off our inevitable flights. I was headed to Boston first and he was going back to LA. 

So over the next couple of months we Skyped at least once a week, talked almost every night, and texted probably way too much. But we had decided early on that even if it was just a fast call, that it was important to hear each other’s voices, that even if the text was good morning or goodnight, at least it was an easy way to feel connected to each other. The Skype date, though, was the most important out of all, this was not rescheduled or missed and was usually on Mondays because I was always and he had gotten them off too, so that there was no way we missed our date. It was nice that way. 

There was one Monday where Tony called him in to work, but the whole time he worked we were on our date. It was pretty fun that way because we liked to mess with Tony and make him feel bad that he had messed up our Skype date. But I had to admit it was nice to see Tony and I actually got to see a little bit of what Bucky was working on with this latest update of the arm. 

A lot of times we ended up talking about things that I didn’t understand but the way he spoke about his work just made me smile, because I could see how happy it made him. And ever since Tony had hired him on full time, now that he was done with the show, he seemed to be a lot happier. It really gave him the time to start exploring updates for the arm and he even began reaching out to other people about different limbs. Which I knew he had been excited about because he had been pushing to do projects like this even before we started dating. 

But this also meant that he spent a lot of time traveling like me. Where I was going to a new city every week or two, he spent a lot of time going back and forth between New York and LA, so did Tony. Fortunately this made me feel less guilty about having a place in New York when I wasn’t living there. I let friends stay there when they were in town or on vacation and whenever Bucky and Tony were there they were more than happy for an apartment over a hotel room. 

And then my first break came and God if I wasn’t excited for it. Bucky was in LA at the time so I stayed at his apartment and we had a million wedding type activities  to do with Peggy and Steve, seeing as this was the first time that I had been able to get more than one day off. Peggy, Steve, Wanda (who got engaged to Vision on their one year anniversary), Vision, Bucky and I had all had multiple Skype calls to discuss wedding details, before the break, but once my one week hit there seemed to be an explosion of wedding stuff to do. 

We had another engagement party, just a small event for the close friends that Peggy’s parents hadn’t thought to invite and other family members, like Bucky’s mom, who hadn’t been able to make the first party. We had a bridal shower where Steve and Peggy got a butt load of new stuff, mostly things for the kitchen and money from her family in the UK. We went to three different bridal salons both for Peggy’s dress and for the bridesmaid dresses. Then the following day I went to Steve’s morning suit fitting as well as Bucky and Michael’s, no matter how awkward that was, don’t even get me started. And even on top of all the wedding things, I still had a couple of days to spend completely alone with Bucky. 

Then it was back on the road for me. 

But it wasn’t nearly as bad this time around. Bucky and I had gotten used to our routine so that wasn’t hard to pick up again and being in Austin my first week back after the break, at the venue where this all started, felt almost like home in a sense. I got to talk to the people who I worked with before, I got to talk to some of my old theatre teachers, and I got to have a stress free week. It was just so nice to not have to worry about dressers that I didn’t know, in a theatre I had never been in, and a city that I knew nothing about. It was a great first week back because of it. It was the other five-ish months that were difficult. 

I grew to miss Bucky a little more everyday. We still had our calls and texts but it was harder after having spent a whole week seeing him, to suddenly see him so little. Not to mention, on top of working seven to nine shows a week, it depended on the city, I was helping Peggy plan her wedding. That meant that I was usually on a Skype call with Peggy, her mom, the wedding planner, and Wanda, picking out flowers, invitations, cake design, caterers, a band/or DJ, and pretty much everything else that was aesthetics and essential for a wedding. Of course, we also talked about the guest list, which was very long, when to put in fittings for the dresses, per my expertise, who to book for hair and makeup, which airline to use for flights, and anything else that I probably would have never thought of. It was all a little overwhelming. 

So as the next couple of months passed this became the new routine. Talking to Bucky, talking to Peggy and her wedding planning committee, and then working a lot of shows, while I bounced around from city to city. You could say that as the less and less sleep I got the more I started to regret taking this job. 

Don’t get me wrong, I loved this show. I loved the people I worked with and the musical itself was something that I surprisingly never got tired of...but like I said, it was hard to be away from the people I loved. 

So when I hit my next week long break it was off to the UK for me. Two months since seeing Bucky, six months since seeing Peggy, Steve, Wanda and Vision (who so easily joined our friend group and became just as essential), and my first time ever being in the UK, it was a little crazy. And I was exhausted. 

I wanted to try and sleep a little more than I did on the flight but, I don’t know, being in the air made it hard. I was also overthinking EVERYTHING.

Where would I have to go to get my luggage, would I take a taxi to Peggy’s parent’s home or would I just go straight to the venue, would she be there to pick me up or would someone else be there, and when would I see Bucky? 

So with all of that to think of, sleep didn’t come so easy. 

But when I heard that we were starting our descent into Heathrow, I perked up a bit. I was beyond excited to get off this plane and I knew that at the very least I wasn’t but an hour from seeing Bucky again. 

So we landed and everyone on the plane grabbed their things. I had one small carry on which had my bridesmaid dress in it, I did the alterations myself seeing as it was too difficult to get a fitting in while I was stopped in one of the cities, and an outfit or two, just in case my luggage was lost. That was another thing I thought about too. 

But for now I focused on getting off the plane and into the airport. 

I waited in line to get off and made my way inside the airport and through the gate. Already I could feel a little bit of the stress that I had been thinking about on the flight. But like I did with every other airport I had been to, I followed the signs to baggage claim and I waited for my other bag to come out. As I stood there and watched all the other passengers get their bag I started to feel a little worried that mine wasn’t going to come out. But before I had the chance to investigate further, I felt a tap on my shoulder. 

I turned around and as soon as my eyes registered what they were seeing, I felt two very different things. One was relief because out of my peripheral vision I could see my luggage, and the second was complete excitement because standing before me was Bucky.

I dropped my bag, immediately jumped into his arms, and kissed him senseless. I didn’t care about the people around us or the fact that Steve and Peggy both were standing behind us, I just focused everything on Bucky and the fact that I hadn’t seen him in what felt like forever, hadn’t actually felt him in just as long. When he pulled away, I just wrapped him in my arms, not quite ready to let go of him. 

“I missed you so much.” I whispered in his ear. 

“I missed you too.” He said back to me, not letting me go, but setting me back on the ground. 

“I love you.”

“I love you.” I kissed him one more time before actually letting him go. I picked up my bag from the floor and handed it to Bucky before going over to Steve and Peggy, giving them hugs too. 

“Our hello wasn’t nearly as good as Bucky’s.” Peggy said to me sarcastically mid hug. 

“I guess I should have said hello to you first then?” I asked, moving to Steve for a hug. 

“Nah, I guess boyfriends can be greeted first.” I laughed at the two of them and then we headed out of the airport. 

In the car, Steve and Peggy were in front and Bucky and I were in back, and as much as I wanted to talk to Bucky and catch up with him, it was hard to when I was so curious about the city and all of the things to see. Luckily he caught on and started to give me fun facts about the city and all of the things that he recognized from when he lived here. 

And then about an hour later we pulled into a driveway which led to a beautiful, very old and traditional home. Out front stood Peggy’s parents along with one other person who I hadn’t met. Being the gentleman that he was, Bucky opened my door for me and assisted me out of the car before grabbing my luggage. As he did that, I went over and greeted Peggy’s parents and they introduced me to Mrs. Langdon, the housekeeper. And by housekeeper I mean the head honcho of the place, at least on the female side, and by that I mean they had a full staff for this house, which astounded me. Honestly when I thought the Carters had money, I didn’t think it would be so much that they were practically Downton Abbey, but they pretty much were. 

Anyway, Mrs. Langdon gave me a tour of the “estate” as she called it and eventually brought me to my shared room with Bucky, where he was already waiting for me. 

I spent a little time getting settled in, unpacked some of my stuff, took my bridesmaid dress out of my bag, and sooner than expected I had passed out next to Bucky on the bed. We may have done something else before passing out but no one else needed to know about that.

But back to the wedding...Over the next couple of days we did a lot of different things. We had hair and makeup appointments with our team so that we could finalize our wedding looks; the boys went and got proper haircuts. Steve and Peggy finalized the head count which pretty much finished everything with the caterers and vendors. We finished making the playlists for the DJ and we went over the music for the band one more time. I went ahead and steamed or pressed everyone’s dresses, suits, trousers, and shirts, at the least I knew that Peggy’s dress would need the time to completely dry, so it was good I did it ahead of time. And then we got to the last two days before the “big day.”

So, with the aroma of a hangover lingering in the thoughts of my future, I woke up to the day of Peggy’s bachelorette party. We had decided to give us a day between the bachelorette party and the wedding because I knew that Peggy would want to go kind of crazy and we didn’t really want to feel un-functionally terrible the day of her wedding. So with that in mind, Wanda and I had to do a lot of research on amazing places to go and things to do...in a country that we had never been to before. Easy, right?

But anyway, we decided to start the day off slow and gradually build up to the crazy-drunk night that Peggy had imagined her bachelorette party being. So we let her sleep in a bit, went out for Brunch at her favorite cafe, got mani/pedis, and then went shopping for a look to go out on the town in. 

We were searching through the racks of a dress store in the city and Peggy peeked through the dresses to where I was looking on the other side of her rack. 

“So when are you and Bucky getting hitched?” 

“Haven’t I answered this question enough for you?” I responded, pulling a dress out and laying it over my arm. 

“I’m going to keep asking until it happens. You know that right?” Wanda just laughed at us. 

“And I will always give you the same answer. When he asks you’ll probably be amongst the first to know. Not that it’ll happen anytime soon but…”

“What makes you think it won’t? You two have been together longer than Wanda and Vision have and they’re already engaged.”

“First, that’s not true. We were friends when those two started dating. And second—”

“Friends.” They both said and put in air quotes. I ignored it. 

“Second...I’m still on tour for another six months. It would be impractical to try and plan a wedding in the middle of tour madness. We hardly get to see each other as it is, but could you imagine me showing up to bridal shower or an engagement party after not having seen him in months.”

“Are you trying to say that your reunion would be too inappropriate? Just get a room beforehand and it’ll be fine.” Wanda finally chimed in. 

“I’ll even fix you hair for you before the party.” Peggy said. 

“You guys are so embarrassing. I’m just saying that I’m not sure it’s going to happen anytime soon. I would be excited if it did happen, we talk about getting married and we try and make plans, but it just isn’t in the immediate future. Right now I have the tour and he has his newest project with Tony, not to mention the actual reason we are here in a dress store right now. We should be really focused on your wedding.”

“I’m just talking shop. I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re supposed to do at these bachelorette parties.”

“You may have a small point, but let’s talk about wedding things. What about you Wanda, what’s happening with your planning?”

Directing the attention away from me was exactly what we needed to get this dress shopping back on track. The wedding planning sped things up believe it or not, not only did the three of us find a look for tonight, Wanda a beautiful red velvet dress, Peggy a gorgeous white jumpsuit , and for me a stunning pants/tank combo, but now Peggy wanted to stop by a bridal salon and have Wanda try on some wedding dresses. I mean, when would she ever have another chance to try on gowns that hadn’t been made in America?

So, of course, we had to Skype with her twin brother, Pietro, he was technically the only family she had left and he had practically threatened us about getting to help pick out the dress. She ended up falling in love with one but decided that she would have to come back later to figure out the logistics of ordering it and getting it back to LA. And as any best friend would, I offered to do the alterations as soon as the tour was over, to help offset the costs, which she was relieved to hear. 

After we were done at the bridal salon, we quickly stepped in to a shoe store, Peggy telling us that we obviously needed new shoes to go with our new dresses; it was crazy how much I had bought for this wedding, it was a never ending shopping spree.  We had even purchased a bride-to-be sash for Peggy to wear out, which she absolutely loved. But anyway, with shoes and dresses in hand, we went back to the hotel room we got for the night and started to get ready for the crazy part of the night. And with hair done up, makeup sponged on, dresses in place, and shoes strapped up we made our way to dinner. 

Peggy chose this nice restaurant that apparently Steve had actually shown her while he was living in London and helping take care of Bucky after his accident. And knowing how well Steve treats Peggy, the place definitely lived up to his standards. Everything was delicious and even though the place was nicer than most restaurants it was actually really nice to experience a piece of their relationship that was so simple and down to earth. But with dinner soon done and plenty left to do tonight, we left the restaurant. 

The funniest thing about Peggy’s idea for a bachelorette party, was definitely the research materials she used to give us ideas. Mostly from movies, her ideal party was definitely out of line for the Peggy we had come to know and love. Of course, Wanda and I had to veto a lot because we had concluded pretty early on that some of things listed were things that the three of us would never be comfortable with; for instance, like going to a strip club. But one that we stuck with, because at the very least it was the most harmless out of the ideas, was going out to a nightclub. We weren’t entirely sure if she would like this place, but we had a back up if she didn’t. 

Peggy, much like Steve and Bucky, was an old soul. And despite the pop/modern music they played at the parties they hosted, it wasn’t ever too loud that you couldn’t hear what the other people were saying. Which was exactly the case when we stepped foot into this club. 

There was a DJ at the front of the room playing some song that we had never heard of and the dance floor was packed with people jumping around, poorly dancing and even some obscene couples. But ignoring that, Peggy pulled us over to the bar and ordered each of us a drink to kick off the idealized night. 

We sat at the bar for maybe a few minutes before a group of guys, seeing Peggy’s sash, dragged us over to their table. They were all very nice to us, they asked us about our boyfriends and we asked about theirs, which struck up some great conversations. We even, bravely, got up and danced for a bit and the guys bought us drinks...way too many drinks. After awhile I cut myself off because I was already feeling pretty out of it and it wasn’t even eleven. That and I was also getting sleepy and alcohol would only make that worse. So when we were done dancing and back at our table I hung out with Peggy and Wanda and the guys, but I think they were catching on to just how tired I was starting to become. 

Peggy came and plopped down next to me, very ungracefully climbing over anyone who was in her way, Wanda following very stably.

“You’re not having fun.” She slurred. 

“What? Of course I am!”

“You’ve been staring at the wall for like five minutes.” Wanda said.

 “It’s not because I’m not having fun.”

“What else could it be?” Peggy got closer to me. 

“Well...the time difference has really messed with me and I get sleepy when I’m tipsy, you can ask Bucky. And for some reason I really want some tacos. Do they serve tacos here? Like good street tacos, not like Jack-in-the-box tacos, but like good authentic street tacos?”

“I’m not sure if they serve those here.” Wanda decided, not really seeing any food around here. 

“But you’re lucky I picked some up along the way.” I heard from behind me and turned to see Bucky standing there with a bag of food in hand. “You’re also lucky that I know you so well.” He handed me the bag of food and I pulled him down closer to me so I could kiss him. 

“What are you doing here?” He walked around and sat down beside me, both Wanda and Peggy going to talk to Vision and Steve. 

“Peggy is...very drunk and she’s been texting Steve all night, he was worried about her.”

“Well it’s sweet of you guys to come and hang out with us, didn’t mean to spoil your night.”

“Seeing our girls could never spoil the night, not that I’m saying we weren’t having fun. We had the whole day away from each other, so why not spend the night together?”

“I like that.” 

So for the next couple of hours we danced and we talked with the guys who were all very jealous of just how stunning our boyfriends were. Bucky and I didn’t do any more drinking and as the night went on I got out of my little funk and had a great night. 

Peggy and Steve, though, were the first to bow out. She was definitely drunk and Steve was ready to take her back to the hotel. But as soon as the bride and groom were gone it was a gradual departure for the rest of our group. Vision, Wanda, Bucky and I all went back to the hotel but had to get separate rooms since we had only gotten one for the night; a King size bed would have fit three girls, not six people. We didn’t really get into our room until three in the morning but after that I’m pretty sure it was the fastest I had ever fallen asleep. 

The following morning...I wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought I was going to be. But Bucky and I had had a plan to keep the both of us from getting too sick. The trick: vodka and you know what’s interesting about vodka...it’s clear...like water. And with Peggy so out of it, she never caught on to the fact that Bucky and I weren’t wasted. 

I just didn’t want any of this weekend to be tainted by being sick, or blacking out, or even a hangover. And honestly I kind of figured that Peggy would feel the same but then again the pressure she was under from her family and the wedding planner alone and add on top of it all living at home during all of this, would probably make me drink that much too… if I had any of that I mean.

But anyway, because the only thing we had to do today was greet the guests who were staying at the castle and have dinner with Peggy’s family, Bucky and I got to spend the day together; apparently they don’t do rehearsals for weddings in the UK or like a big family rehearsal dinner. It was really important to me to have a day like this because I needed to spend as much time with him as I could before I had to go back on the road. 

So we started the morning off with Breakfast and then Bucky showed me around London like a proper tourist. We saw everything that anyone would see if they took a week long vacation in London. 

We stopped at every London landmark, taking countless pictures, and just enjoying our time alone together. He really treated me like a princess, making sure that I had an absolutely amazing day. And it was...a perfect day with the perfect man; I couldn’t have asked for anything more. So with a good mood set for the day we headed over to the venue. 

Out of every single detail selected for the wedding, the venue was by far the most insane and the most extravagant. And by extravagant I mean that they were getting married in a castle... A CASTLE! Talk about a literal dream come true. From what I was told, the place had been completely rented out for the entire weekend, so if that wasn’t a huge reminder of just how rich the Carter’s were, then I don’t know what else would have been. 

But with the castle being about 2 hours from where we were, and us being about 2 and half hours from when Peggy wanted us to meet downstairs so that we could start greeting people, I decided to do my makeup in the car and then Bucky and I would just change once we got into our room. The only problem with my plan had been Bucky thinking he was funny when he swerved the car on purpose, obviously trying to mess me up; he thought he was so cute. He’s just lucky that the end of my eyeliner was far enough away from me that it didn’t do nearly as much damage as it could have; I had a little mark on my cheek that I had to fix. He got a pretty good laugh anyway, but I had the rest of the drive to think of a proper payback. 

About thirty minutes after Bucky’s prank, we pulled up in front of this gorgeous castle, absolutely picturesque, and ogled just a moment before a few people, who I could only assume worked there, came and grabbed our things from the car, parked the car for us, showed us to our room and then left us alone. 

With little time left until we had to meet up with Steve, Peggy, Wanda, and Michael, Bucky went into the bathroom first and I took my dress and Bucky’s suit out of their garment bags, giving them a quick glance over for any wrinkles. When I couldn’t find anything too major, I went ahead and tried to do something with my hair, not really having the time to do too much to it. 

Yet, Bucky had had plenty of time to shower and dry his hair, so when he came out of the bathroom, he was looking as handsome as ever and I thought that maybe now was a good time to get back at him. 

So I was sitting on the bed looking at him and he walked over to his bag, going to grab clean clothes to change into. He easily caught on to me. 

“See something you like?” He said, smiling at me. 

“I don’t know, I guess it would depend on what you would do if I said yes.”

“Y/N...you are playing with fire…” 

“What are you going to do about it?” He made his way across the room, dropping the clothes that were in his hands, and grabbing me in his arms before kissing me hard. 

It’s been a little over a year since our first kiss and yet he still had that way of kissing me that just made me melt in his arms, physically and emotionally swoon. Yes, I was trying to get payback for earlier but where I had planned to tease him all night and make him regret messing with me, this plan was now seriously backfiring against my will to say no to him. 

And as it usually did, the kiss developed a lot further than just a kiss. He was already naked from the shower and he was making quick work of the clothes I had been wearing. He just made me feel as if I was the only person in the world that mattered, like time completely disappeared when he kissed me, like we had no where else to be. Which actually did remind me that we had somewhere to be. 

His lips moved down to my neck giving me, most likely, the only chance to interrupt this and get downstairs on time. 

“Bucky…” I tried to stop him. 

“God, you’re so beautiful.” His lips on my skin felt like Heaven, a heaven I really didn’t want to ignore, but...

“Oh God, Bucky we can’t do this.” He pulled away from me and looked at me, his lips only an inch away from mine. 

“Do you want me to stop?” I had wanted to get payback for what he did earlier...but I also missed him so much over the past two months that I never wanted him to stop. 

“No.” I closed the inch between us and pulled him closer to me. He took full advantage of this and kissed me as if he was seeing me for the first time all week; kissing him like this made the whole world fall away.

That is until we heard the knock at the door. 

“I don’t want to particularly know, but I think I can guess what you two are doing in there, and guests are going to get here any second, so..." We heard Steve say outside our door. 

Bucky fell beside me on the bed, letting me sit up and take a second to re-adjust the little that I still had on. I got off the bed first and went over to where our clothes were hanging. Bucky groaned before he too got off the bed, grabbing his boxers from the floor and putting them on, and then came over to get dressed. I took the dress off my hanger and slipped it over my head, then turned to Bucky so that he could zip it up. As he buttoned up his shirt and put on his pants, I tied his tie for him and as I fixed my lipstick, he put on his tie and jacket. Last, we both sat on the bed and put on our shoes, Bucky, obviously, taking a little longer than me. When we were ready to leave the room, he grabbed my hand and leaned down to give me one last kiss. 

“I love you.” He said. 

“I love you.” 

We made our way to the door and opened it to see Steve standing there waiting for us. Bucky let me out first, like the gentleman he was, and yet he glared at Steve the whole time. 

“Perfect timing as ever Steve.”

“You knew what time you needed to be downstairs.”

He walked off in front of us and we followed after him, letting him lead us through the castle, back downstairs. As we walked though, Bucky let go of my hand and walked behind me, trying his best to apparently smooth out my hair that he had messed up, something that I had missed earlier when we were getting ready. 

Not being too far away from where everyone else was, we joined the group quickly, beating the first guest. Bucky grabbed my hand again, standing in line next to Wanda, Peggy and Steve, Michael was on the far side, as far away as he could be from me. 

(Side note: at the bridal shower we had thrown for Peggy and Steve, Michael volunteered to come over from London to bring the Carter family gifts. Somehow he thought it was a good idea to kiss me, “because he was still in love with me,” which resulted in Bucky punching him. Bucky was just being civil now for Peggy’s sake, but he really hated Michael...so we both just kept our distance from him...as much as possible.)

Anyway, the first guest to arrive was actually Peggy’s grandmother and grandfather and a few other members after that, but seeing all of Peggy’s family actually made me kind of sad. Not because Peggy’s family was here, they were great and loved seeing Peggy and Steve right as they arrived, but because Steve didn’t have anyone. Everything that I had been told about Steve’s family was simple, his mother and father had both passed, they were both only children, and Steve was an only child. I didn’t know anything about his grandparents but apparently, neither did he. He seemed okay though about having only Peggy’s family at the wedding, he would always do anything for her. It just made me sad not to see anyone there for him. 

And yet, a few minutes later, unexpectedly, Winnie walked in. She went to Steve first and I just watched how incredibly happy he was. Bucky and Steve had grown up together, they had practically been brothers and when Steve’s dad died, it was Bucky’s mom who helped his mom out and the same when Bucky’s dad died. And when Steve’s mom got sick and died, it was Winnie, Bucky, and Peggy who had helped him through. So I could see how much it meant to him that she came for the wedding. 

After she said hi to Steve and Peggy, she came over to Bucky and I. 

“Hi mom.” He said, giving her a big hug. 

“My baby! You look so handsome.”

“You can thank Y/N for this one, she knows how to make me look my best.”

“Y/N.” She came over to me and gave me an even bigger hug, didn’t think that was possible. 

“Hi Winnie. I had no idea you were coming, but I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I know. Peggy called me and asked if there was any way I could make it. She said that she knew that it was a long way for me to come but that it would mean a lot to Steve, so of course I had to come.”

“If we had known you were coming, we would have come and picked you up.” 

“Yeah mom, we absolutely would have picked you up.”

“You guys are so sweet, but I didn’t want to interrupt your week together by making you pick me up from the airport. I know you crazy kids haven’t seen each other in a while.”

“Well, either way I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad I’m here too.”

His mom went off with some of the other guests and we finished greeting whoever came in. Later when we walked throughout the house we saw that tea had been served and that we were pretty much stuck in a modern picture of Downton Abbey. Bucky and I liked to just wander around the room, tea cups in hand, and listen in on how Peggy’s family talked to each other. It was really just like an episode of Downton Abbey, except it was 2019. 

And then we went to dinner. This wasn’t anything official for the wedding, it was just dinner. But coming from America where it was normal to have a rehearsal dinner it kind of felt like that but there wasn’t really any official talk about the wedding. 

The food was amazing though. There were a lot of different courses, appetizers I had never tried before, a main course that was cooked to perfection, and dessert that was so decadent that I almost didn’t want to eat it. 

Later Bucky and I were sitting on a couch in the main room, while Peggy and Steve were off somewhere, probably talking to her family. 

“Bucky?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for today.”

“You don’t need to thank me for anything. Showing you around London was my pleasure.”

“I had a lot of fun.”

“I did too.” He leaned down and gave me a kiss, not too long but long enough for his mom to come over to us and interrupt. 

“You two are just the cutest; perfectly made for each other.”

“Thanks mom. It’s honestly all Y/N, she brings out the best in me.”

“And he’s the perfect gentleman who treats me like a queen.”

“Well I’m glad everything that I taught him has stuck.”

Sitting next to us, she asked a lot of questions about my job, what I was up to, the places I had visited and of course when the tour was over. I think she was trying to convince the two of us to get married and yet she was so indirect about it, it was kind of ingenious the way she brought it up; like an ambush but so innocent and motherly. 

But as it got later Peggy and Steve started showing people to their rooms which gave Wanda, Vision, Bucky and I the perfect time to head to bed ourselves. While Bucky and I were walking to our room I texted Peggy letting her know that we were heading to bed and that she could text me if she needed anything. 

I had every intention of going to bed as soon as we got in the room, Bucky...not so much. As soon as the door was shut and locked behind me he was kissing me senseless, like we hadn’t been interrupted earlier. 

“I’ve been thinking about you all night.” He said between kisses, slowly backing me up towards the bed. “You just looked so beautiful in this dress.” 

“So what are you going to do about it?” He smiled and laughed at the statement I had said to him earlier. 

He kissed me again, this time going for the zipper on the back of my dress, I started to undo his tie and the buttons of his shirt, both of us getting completely undressed without breaking our kiss. This time when we kissed though, it wasn’t nearly as rough as it had started. There wasn’t a pressure there had been this afternoon, there wasn’t a possibility of being interrupted, nothing but him and me just so wholeheartedly loving each other. It was perfect, being with him was perfect. 

And yet, the morning of the wedding came much earlier than planned. And by that I mean that Peggy snuck into our room, both Bucky and I only covered by a sheet, and woke me up before the sun was even up. She kept whispering about how we needed to get started on everything and I could obviously tell how nervous she was, but I was also naked and not in any position to talk about this without fear of flashing my best friend. 

So I asked her to give me five minutes and that I would meet her out in the hallway. I wanted more than anything to snuggle back up to Bucky and sleep until at least the sun was up, but I couldn’t leave Peggy out in the hallway when she was freaking out. So I gently woke up Bucky and let him know what was happening, gave him a kiss goodbye, got dressed, and quietly walked out of the room. Peggy was pacing and Wanda was leaning against the wall, obviously waiting for me. 

“What’s wrong Peggy?” I asked, stopping in front of her, making her stand still and look at me. 

“There’s just so much to do and I woke up this morning with countless emails from my clients and I want to answer them but its my wedding day and I shouldn’t be thinking like a lawyer. And then I was sitting in my bed all alone and I was just thinking about things like, what if the flowers don’t get here and what if the bakers drop the cake and what if—”

“Okay, you need to stop. You’re assuming the worst possibilities because you’re stressed.” We decided that maybe we shouldn't talk in the middle of a hallway full of bedrooms where everyone was sleeping, so we walked down to Peggy’s room. 

“That’s the thing, I’m not stressed—”

“Peggy do you know what time it is?” Wanda asked. We sat down on her bed. 

“I wasn’t able to sleep that well.”

“Listen to me...everything is going to be fine. Despite what your mother and wedding planner have told you, today is not about the wedding, it’s about you and Steve. When you look back at this day you’re not going to think about the flowers or the cake, you’re going to think about how happy Steve made you and how grateful you are to have found someone as amazing as him. And I don’t know if this is just stress or fear or what but I think the biggest thing you’re facing right now is not being close to Steve.” I would know. 

“I’ve been away from Steve for more than one night.”

“I’m sure you have been, but take it from someone whose been in a long distance relationship for over a year, when you feel lost and scared and stressed you don’t want to be alone. You don’t want to be half way across the country or even just down the hall from him when you feel like you need him, even if it’s just for a hug or to tell him how much you miss him.”

“Yeah.” 

“I think that maybe when it’s a better time of day, I’ll go and talk to Steve and see if maybe we could do a little blindfolded meet up, I think it’ll help with what you’re feeling.”

“Really? That’s not breaking the rules is it?”

“No, as long as you don’t see each other it should be fine.”

“I think that’ll really help.”

“Good. So what do we need to do?”

“I think we should try and go back to sleep for a bit, I’m sorry for waking you guys up so early.”

“Well we can stay in here with you and that way you won’t feel so alone.” Wanda suggested. 

“I think that’s a good idea.” I agreed.

“A mini sleepover, yeah, I would love for you guys to stay.” 

So we all cuddled together in her bed and went back to sleep for a couple more hours, and when we were woken up this time, we all seemed to be in a much better mood. That is until we realized that it was Peggy’s mother and the wedding planner, who were now just in the room to talk and keep us from falling back to sleep. 

They kept talking about everything we needed to do today and I could see the stress start to creep back into Peggy. So I texted Bucky, I needed to get these two together even if it was just for a minute. 

Y/N: Are you awake?

BUCKY: I am 

Y/N: Are you with Steve?

BUCKY: Yep

Y/N: We need to try and sneak Peggy over to see him

BUCKY: Is she okay?

Y/N: She’s just needs to see him. Trust me 

BUCKY: What can I do?

Y/N: I just need you to find something to blindfold him with and I’ll let you know when we can escape her mother. 

BUCKY: Okay

So as we started to get ready for the day, I looked for any chance for us to sneak off. But first we had to deal with her mom, which meant we had to play along until there was an opening. So we all took our turns showering, letting Peggy go first, and meeting up with her and the hair and makeup teams, as soon as we were done, in a bigger room down the hall. It was nice to be pampered on, to not have to worry about how I was going to do my hair or makeup, there was someone for that. Surprisingly, the longer we sat there the less stressed I felt, but I could tell that Peggy wasn’t feeling the same. 

So when her mom got word of some kind of problem with the flowers, I saw the perfect chance to escape. So I texted Bucky first and asked where he was, letting him know we were on our way. I grabbed the blindfold we had and the three of us snuck down to the boy’s room, putting the blindfold on Peggy before I knocked. When I knocked, I heard some movement and we had to wait a minute before Bucky opened the door for us. The three of us obviously looked like we were getting ready, you know, we had clips in our hair and parts of our makeup done, but the boys looked like they were just lounging around...I was kind of jealous. 

But anyway, Wanda and I helped Peggy into the room and over to Steve who was standing blindfolded by the bed. When she grabbed onto his arms and felt that it was him, she wrapped her arms around him and his around her, we could all see the immediate relief they felt to be close to each other again. So wanting to give them a minute, Vision, Wanda, Bucky and I went to sit on the couch on the opposite side of the room, Michael just sat in the chair in the corner of the room and ignored us; Vision should have been a groomsman but Peggy was scared that she would never hear the end of it if Michael wasn’t one, so Vision was there to hang out with the guys and help keep the peace between Bucky and Michael. 

I sat next to Bucky with my legs draped over his lap and he leaned down to give me a kiss. 

“Missed you this morning.” He said. 

“I missed you too. Peggy was freaking out and she needed some help, I couldn’t say no to her. I’m just glad we were able to sneak over here, who knew that flowers would cause an emergency? I thought we were never going to get her mother to leave.”

“Yeah and I’m sure when they get down there and check all the flowers, they’ll find that everything is perfectly fine.” That sounded fishy to me. 

“What did you do?”

“Steve was freaking out too. You presented a good idea but I knew that there had to be some way to get Amanda to leave the room…”

“You...are sneaky.”

“I would do anything for Steve and they needed to see each other.”

“Sap.”

“You’ve made me this way, loving you made me this way.”

“Then I’ve got nothing to complain about.”

We only had 10 minutes together before we had to get back to the room. I could tell that Peggy was feeling much better and looked excited to get ready and get down to the “altar.” So the ladies picked up where they left off and her mom came back into the room, claiming that everything was perfectly fine; I tried not to laugh, but I smiled at the thought of what Bucky did to help out his friends. 

But as time passed and as we got closer to the start of the ceremony, I could tell that Peggy was getting a little nervous again. There wasn’t much we could do at this point but encourage her and let her know that she would see Steve soon. 

Somewhere between the freaking out, getting ready, and the mimosas, we actually got to the final fifteen minutes before we were supposed to make our way to the ceremony room. So Wanda and I went ahead and got into our matching dresses and then went to help Peggy into hers. 

Peggy’s dress was...stunning and absolutely special. See, when Steve’s mom got married it had been a tradition in her family to incorporate the “something blue” into the gown. Steve’s mom had had a light blue petticoat underneath her dress when she married his dad and Peggy knew that the best way to honor his mom was to continue the tradition. She took that same petticoat and asked the alterations team from her bridal shop to incorporate it into her dress, which only made the dress that much more special.

So with dresses, heels, and bouquets in place the wedding planner came in and told us that everyone was ready for us and since the ceremony was inside the castle we didn’t have to go very far. I was so excited to finally see Peggy and Steve get married, but even I had to admit that as we got closer to the ceremony space the more nervous I got. I wasn’t nervous about them or their marriage, more about the fact that I was walking down the aisle by myself. 

But I pushed those feelings aside and held up Peggy’s train as we made our way down the stairs, stopping right outside the ceremony room, where Peggy’s dad waited for us (He got a little teary when he saw her in her dress, it was really cute). Despite the fact that we maybe only had a minute until we walked down the aisle, I turned to the girls and wrapped them both in my arms. 

They both just laughed at me but hugged me back just as hard. 

“You know, the next time we’ll hug like this you’ll be Mrs. Rogers.” I whispered. 

“I know.” Peggy let go first and dabbed at her eyes, wiping a tear away before it fell. 

“Let’s do this.” Wanda said and we all smiled. 

The wedding planner watched as the ceremony started and then put us in our order, getting us ready to go; Peggy and Steve wanted as much of an American wedding as they could get: the only things they got were Peggy walking down the aisle last, Steve facing Peggy as she walked and an additional wedding cake to go along with the fruitcake. From where I stood, I could see that Peggy’s mom was seated in the first row to the left, Bucky’s mom in the first row to the right, Steve was standing at the end of the altar and Bucky and Michael, all three guys in gorgeous morning suits, were just now walking to their seats. I was the next one to walk down, Wanda following after me and then Peggy and her dad after her. 

So as soon as the guys were seated to the right, I took in a deep breath and put all my faith in myself to not trip down the aisle. I smiled, I looked right ahead, I walked with as much grace as I could muster and then I caught Bucky looking at me with a big smile on his face. And it was as if every worry I ever had simply disappeared. I looked at him as long as I could and then I sat down next to Peggy’s mom, Wanda being beside me soon after. 

And then small quartet started to play Canon in D.  

Everyone stood from their seat and turned to face Peggy as she finally stepped into view. She looked even more gorgeous walking beside her dad, with the huge grin on her face and her eyes locked on Steve. I looked over at him and he was trying hard not to cry but I could see how emotional he was at seeing her in her dress. He looked up at the ceiling before she got up to him trying his best to squeeze the tears back in. 

When she got up to the altar her dad moved the veil from her face and kissed her cheek, giving his official blessing with the officiant and handing her off to Steve. 

He reached out for Peggy’s hands and looked at her with a brilliant smile on his face. But then he saw her dress, up close, and there was nothing holding back the tears anymore. He had to have seen the blue and it had to make him think of his mom. Seeing the free flowing tears Peggy stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, giving them a very sentimental moment before the ceremony. 

“Are you okay?” She asked. Just slightly pulling away from him. 

“Yeah, I’m okay.” He reached up to wipe his tears and she got his other cheek. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.” They both stepped just enough away from each other, taking each other’s hands again and looking to the officiant. 

“Are you guys ready?” The officiant asked and they nodded.  

And then the ceremony began. 

“It is my great honor to welcome everyone today to the union of Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter. We are gathered to celebrate the life that these two share, to celebrate the love that they have for each other and the love that they continue to find in each other every single day. This place in which we are now met has been duly sanctioned, according to law, for the celebration of marriages. You are here to witness the joining in matrimony of Steven Grant Rogers and Margaret Elizabeth Carter. If any person present knows of any lawful impediment to this marriage, he or she should declare it now.” He stated and when no one replied with anything we directed his attention back to Steve and Peggy. 

“Are you Steven Grant Rogers free, lawfully, to marry Margaret Elizabeth Carter?” 

“I am.” He replied.

“Are you Margaret Elizabeth Carter free, lawfully, to marry Steven Grant Rogers?” 

“I am.” 

“Marriage, according to the law of this country is the union of two people, voluntarily entered into for life, to the exclusion of all others. Today Steven and Margaret wish to publicly affirm this commitment and offer each other the security that comes from legally binding vows, sincerely made and faithfully kept. But first I was asked by the couple to read a poem, one they believe as do I, that perfectly describes not only their relationship but their future together.” He shifted the papers in his hands. 

“The Art of Marriage” by Wilferd Arlan Peterson: Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In the art of marriage the little things are the big things… It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner. It is discovering what marriage can be, at its best.” 

“This ceremony does not create a relationship, it is a symbol of how far you've come since the moment you met. It is a symbol of the promises you have and will make to each other as you grow stronger as individuals and as partners. No matter the challenges you face, you now face them together and your lives are no longer just for yourselves. You depend on one another to love, support, care, and protect you. These values and promises are not to be taken lightly and will remain with you for the rest of your lives.”

“Do you, Steven, take Margaret to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish all the day of your lives?”

“I do.”

“Do you, Margaret, take Steven to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish all the day of your lives?”

“I do.”

“The rings?”

Bucky stood from his seat and walked over to the altar, handing Steve Peggy’s ring and Peggy Steve’s ring and then returned to his seat. 

“Repeat after me.” He said to Steve. 

“I, Steven, give you this ring as a symbol of my vow. With all that I am and all that I have, I promise to love and care for you as I accept your love now and for always.” He repeated and placed the ring on her finger. And then he moved to Peggy. 

“I, Margaret, give you this ring as a symbol of my vow. With all that I am and all that I have, I promise to love and care for you as I accept your love now and for always.”

“Steven and Margaret you have both made the declarations prescribed by law and have made a solemn and binding contract in the presence of your witnesses here today. It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare that you are now legally married. Steve, you may kiss the bride.”

Steve stepped closer to Peggy and wrapped his arms around her before kissing her. The whole crowd erupted in applause and I seriously doubted there was a single dry eye in the place, at least I wore waterproof makeup. 

When they broke from their kiss and the clapping stopped the officiant gave his final pronouncement. 

“It is my honor to introduce, for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers.” 

Everyone clapped again and Steve and Peggy walked down the aisle together with Peggy’s arm laced through Steve’s. They both looked so happy that I couldn’t help but smile with them. As soon as they were out of the room, Bucky walked his mother down the aisle, followed by Peggy’s mom and dad, then Wanda and I, and last Michael. 

We were told ahead of time to meet Peggy and Steve outside, where we would take some time and take photos before heading over to the reception, giving plenty of time for the rest of the party to arrive; apparently not everyone had been invited to the ceremony. So we let the photographer tell us how to pose and where to stand and who to stand by and whatever else. 

Eventually we got to the point where she was done taking pictures with the family and then with the wedding party, so we all headed back to the party and gave Steve and Peggy a chance to take some individual photos and spend a little alone time together. Bucky, held my hand as Wanda, Bucky and I made our way back inside and as soon as we walked through the front doors Vision joined our group. 

Walking into the reception...this space was absolutely gorgeous: tables covered in expensive linens, only the best china, elaborate centerpieces, hanging flowers, chandeliers, and candles everywhere. This is obviously where Steve and Peggy lost all decision making ability. This had Peggy’s mother written all over, not to mention the fact there had to be at least enough chairs and tables for 250 people; I wasn’t sure where the other 200 people were coming from but I wanted to go back to the small ceremony again. 

Bucky and I still ventured in and found the table with our names, right next to Vision and Wanda,  and sat in our chairs, waiting for Steve and Peggy to finish photos. This gave us a chance to relax from the sort of stressful morning and kind of check in with each other, especially since the four of us had kind of been separated all morning. So we talked and the guys had some funny stories about Steve getting ready and then Steve and Peggy made their entrance. 

They looked just as happy before, if not more. They walked hand in hand to the middle of the dance floor and let the DJ present them to the new crowd, before joining us over at our table: Steve, Peggy, Peggy’s parents, Bucky's mom, Wanda, Vision, Michael, Bucky and I were at the front of the room looking out over the dance floor and to the guests. 

It was almost simultaneously that the food began to be served. I wasn’t too sure what everything was on the plate but I recognized chicken which was delicious as was the other food I wasn’t sure about. Peggy and Steve did there best to eat properly, but I knew they were both probably starving seeing as it was a little after five and it was the first time they had eaten all day; it was tradition for the bride and groom to share their first meal of their wedding day as a married couple. 

Having finished eating dinner and plates now being collected Peggy and Steve made their way over to the cake which was just as extravagant as the rest of the party. But where the big cake was all fruit cake and mostly just for the English guests who were used to eating fruitcake, Peggy and Steve had a second cake for the few Americans who were here and for the cake cutting, since it was smaller and easier to cut. If 250 people hadn’t been watching them I knew that Peggy would have tried to cover Steve’s face in cake but with her mother watching closely they both carefully placed a bite of cake in each other’s mouths, the guests applauding afterwards. Nice and proper. 

After pictures had been taken of the cake cutting, servers came and started to cut and distribute the fruitcake, the few Americans at our table asking for the other. And as soon as everyone had had their piece, Steve stood from his chair and reached out his hand for Peggy to take, asking her for the first dance of the night. The band started to play Dream a Little Dream of Me, which I knew was their favorite song to dance to, and then he wrapped his arms around her and lead her into a very sweet and very simple dance. 

When the song finished they helped Peggy back to her chair and then it was time for the speeches...unfortunately, Michael was up first. Being the bride’s brother, and seeing as the nature of toasting in London was actually supposed to be a roast, Michael should have had a lot of material. And he had some funny things to say, I’ll give him that. But it was when he started talking about me and about how his ex was best friends with his sister, was when it got real awkward for me and a little anger inducing for Bucky. When he finally wrapped up his speech there was an awkward clap, I’m not even sure about what happened, so I could only imagine the confusion of everyone else. 

Waiting for Michael to not be in the same walkway as him, Bucky then made his way up to the mic; I know he was ready for his speech, he had rehearsed it with me multiple times over Skype.

“Hi, my name is Bucky and Steve is practically my brother. In every sense of the word he is, believe me. Brothers...they annoy you to no end, do the exact opposite of what you say just for the hell of it, and of course they give the best material for the best man’s roast, I mean speech. The first thing that you need to know about Steve is that this man that you have all fallen in love with is the exact opposite of the man that I grew up with. Yeah he’s handsome and he’s managed to snag Peggy who at the time, when they met, was way out of his league...may still be but I’ll leave that alone for now. But what none of you know is just how crazy this guy was. The biggest thing about Steve was that when we were in high school he was not nearly as handsome as he is now, sorry buddy, you’re married now so I’m allowed to say this.” Everyone laughed and he paused so they could. “Despite that he was the most loyal, most kind boy you would ever meet...which was not a hit with the ladies, I’m sure you could imagine why. And I thought for a long time on what embarrassing story to tell, it had to be something that you had never heard of but something that didn’t absolutely ruin him for you guys. So this story is actually a well kept secret, the thing that I was sworn to never repeat, a secret that has been kept since we were seniors in high school…” 

“Bucky.” He stood and said, almost in a warning. Peggy pulled him back down into his chair, laughing at how defensive he was being. 

“See, he’s scared so it’s perfect. But anyway, as most of the close family would know, Peggy and Steve started their relationship as friendship; they were just as close as I had been to Steve...except the tension between those two was definitely romantic where the tension between me and him was due to him stealing my comic books or something stupid like that. Anyway, as friends, the three of us were inseparable and then we got to prom season our senior year. The three of us had always gone to homecoming together, but this was the prom and you absolutely had to have a date. Peggy was the “it” girl and like I said earlier, way out of Steve’s league, and she was the date that every guy wanted. I always had the suspicion that she said no to those other guys because she was waiting for Steve, which she was, but he had it in his head that he couldn’t just ask her, he had to outshine everyone. So Peggy being asked out by the quarterback was kind of the last straw for him, the next day he came up with the ultimate ask-Peggy-to-prom plan. And this plan...It started out with flowers, the most beautiful bouquet you could imagine...and it ended with a broken arm.” There were some confused faces and a small laugh. 

“I’m dead serious guys, a broken arm. So the day that Steve had planned to ask Peggy to prom was actually the best and worst day of my 18 year old life. The best because I had only waited a little over three years for him to get the courage to do it. The worst because of how it went. But our first stage was buying everything for what he wanted to do: flowers, candles, flower petals, her favorite candy, something he saw that he thought she’d like, a lot of presents, and then we went and had film developed of every single picture they had ever taken together. Once we got everything, we waited until she was out of her house, drove over and started to set up this surprise. Now obviously we couldn’t go inside, so naturally we scaled the fence and set it up in her backyard. We made a heart of rose petals, spelled out “Prom?” in candles, and had all of her gifts set out on the table. Steve was dressed in the nicest thing he owned and holding the flowers, standing behind his sign. And we must have waited for hours, and I mean literal hours, not just figuratively. The candles kept blowing out, the wind was blowing the petals all over her yard and then what I thought was the unthinkable happened, and yet it was still highly probable with Steve in the picture; he was a big klutz. But this is the fun part.” 

“So he goes to light a few of the candles again, but like I said earlier, he’s a klutz, and he trips and falls on top of the ones that are still lit. Now most of them didn’t catch but there was one that did. So in a moment of pure panic he runs over to this pond that they have in their backyard, and as he is running over to stop from anymore of his shirt catching on fire, he trips again, halfway falling into this pond and breaking his arm in the process.” 

There was quite a bit of laughter and everyone watched as Peggy sat across his lap, trying to keep him in his seat. 

“So anyway...that happened. But back to the story. So his arm is broken, I’m trying not to laugh and yet I’m trying to help him off the ground without hurting him, and there’s now no way he can ask Peggy to prom this way; I mean I guess he could, but I wasn’t going to let him. Now this is the part that Steve doesn’t know. I’m pretty sure that what he thinks happened is that she saw the set up and came to find him. Right?” He asked Steve and he nodded. “Well I have to tell you that that is not what actually happened. I told you to go to my car and I told you that I was going to finish setting up the promposal...but that’s not what I did. And it may have been selfish but I just didn’t think that either of you deserved that. Steve, you went out of your way to prepare this romantic promposal and Peggy had waited almost four years for this moment, so Steve deserved to actually be there and Peggy deserved to be asked in person. So I, very quickly, cleaned up everything. I threw away the rose petals, the candles, and I took all the presents and flowers and put them on the front porch, minus the photos, I took those with me. But I obviously couldn’t just leave all of this with no explanation of why it was there or who left it. So I grabbed this receipt and a crayon from my pocket, don’t ask me why I had a crayon, I couldn’t even tell you, and wrote out: Come and find me? Brooklyn Hospital. Steve. I wasn’t sure what that would do, but I had to hope that these two would get some common sense and just go for it. Peggy did end up meeting us at the hospital though and Steve told her…”

Bucky stepped off the makeshift stage and came back over to our table, leaning over close to us, Steve glaring at him the whole time. 

“Now Peggy...what was the excuse that he gave you?” He held out the microphone for her to answer. 

“He told me that he broke his arm playing baseball with you.”

“He would say something like that wouldn’t he...if I’m being honest I couldn’t remember the excuse, so thanks for that.” He then walked back up to the stage, laughing, as was everyone else. “Anyway...I’m going to wrap up I promise. So after the excuse of the century, Steve finally asked Peggy to prom and of course she said yes and I guess the rest is history. They sat in his hospital stall as he was getting his cast put on and they looked through the photos and when they came back from the prom it was nothing but love with those two. I have to say, the moral of this story wasn’t to out this secret, it’s wasn’t too embarrass him or roast him, even though it was kind of fun to do that, it was to prove the lengths that he would go to to make Peggy happy. Him meeting her was fate and it took them three years to finally get past friendship, but I know that they’re stronger for it and will forever be perfect for each other. He’s my brother and I could never imagine him being with anyone else. So thank you for letting me come up here and talk your ear off. Steve and Peggy...I love you guys, you know that, and I totally take credit for getting you two together. Thanks everyone!” 

Everyone applauded as he came around and gave Steve and Peggy each a hug before coming to sit back beside me. 

“You did great.” I said to him. 

“Thank you, my favorite pastime is embarrassing Steve, except this time he asked me to do it.” I laughed and leaned forward to give him a kiss. 

Next up in the wedding agenda, we had the father daughter dance with Peggy and her dad, and the mother son dance with Steve and Winnie, obviously making the whole room come back to a little more of a serious note, but giving the perfect opportunity to invite people on the dance floor and to really get the party started. 

There were happy, upbeat, and modern songs and there were jazzy, vintage, and slower songs, just a perfect mix given the variety of ages amongst the guests. Bucky and I danced a few times between getting drinks and eating cheeses and other assorted finger foods, I even danced with Steve, Vision, Wanda, and Peggy all individually and we did a few group dances for fun. And then we got to another slow dance and of course I let Bucky pull me away from everyone else and put the attention back on us for a second. 

“Hi.” I said. 

“Hey beautiful.” 

“You know, I haven’t had the chance to tell you how handsome you look today.”

“Well I haven’t been able to tell you how beautiful you are.”

“That’s a lie, you told me earlier, right before the pictures.”

“Can you really blame me though, I have the most beautiful girlfriend in the world.”

“Bucky…”

“What? I do.”

“Well thank you. I was trying to compliment you, but thank you.”

“Your very welcome...but you may continue complimenting me.” He was just cracking me up today. I hadn’t seen him just effortlessly happy in a long time, I missed seeing him like this. 

“I just loved seeing you as I walked down the aisle...you looked so handsome and you were smiling and I felt so much love for you.”

“You have to know that I felt the same way.”

“I do. And not only do you look so handsome but I am loving the finished product of your morning suit.”

“Well, I only look this good because of you. You’re the one who made sure we all looked good, even you know who.”

“Do you want to know what my favorite part about this morning suit is?”

“I have two guesses.” 

“Okay.” I smiled

“Number one: you like it...because you can’t wait to take it off of me later.” I laughed at him. 

“Wasn’t exactly what I was thinking but I don’t mind where you’re going.” This time he laughed at me. 

“Well it’s a good thing that that wasn’t the real answer then. Number two...you like it because my pants are high waisted and you can’t see my white shirt when I lift my hands above my head.”

I took in a deep breath, my jaw hitting the floor. “Oh my god...you know me so well.” I pulled him down and kissed him; I could feel him smile. 

“Well if you had doubts before…” I laughed at him.

“Yeah, no doubts now.” I teased. 

“Good.” 

After we were done with our dance, Bucky grabbed my hand and walked out of the house and down to the dock overlooking the lake, claiming to want a second alone with me in a space not so loud. The scene was absolutely beautiful with the setting sun and the calming waters, it was the perfect escape from the crazy party happening inside. 

We walked down to the very end and leaned against the railing, taking a moment to breath in the air and enjoy the peace and quiet. 

He turned and looked at me and I leaned back against the corner of the railing, letting it support me a little more and take some of the pressure off my aching feet. 

“Can I admit something?” He asked. 

“Of course.”

“I missed you this week.” Curious...

“We’ve actually spent a lot of time together—”

“I know, but it’s not the same when everything we’re doing is for someone else, you know? Yeah we saw each other, and we got to be in the same room as each other but we didn’t get to really spend as much quality alone time together. It’s why I wanted to bring you out here...for just a moment.”

“Well you couldn’t have picked a better moment. It’s beautiful out here.”

“Yeah it is.” Except he was still looking right at me. Sap. I just shook my head at him. “Seeing how happy Steve and Peggy are, it made me think about us and about how much I love you. And honestly I don’t think I’ve told you that nearly enough.”

“Bucky...I know that you love me. Just because you don’t say it to me doesn’t mean that I don’t know it. And I know that I’ve made things complicated this past year—”

“You haven’t made anything complicated.”

“I’m the one who took this job.”

“That’s your dream.”

“You’re my dream.”

“And you’re mine.”

We both turned back out and looked at the water, watching the sun change it different colors. 

“You know...the first thing you ever said to me was in Russian.”

“Really...I guess it was, wasn’t it?”

“I’ve been thinking about that a lot. I remember being so nervous that day and then I walked into that room and saw that huge panel of people sitting there, watching me. The nerves had been bad before but they were worse after that, and I’m not sure if you could tell but I was about ready to walk out of there. Then they asked me about myself and I just tried my hardest not to lose it, and then you spoke. ‘Ты говоришь по-русски?’ I looked over at you and my heart leapt in my chest (You speak Russian?). You hadn’t said more than three words to me and I was completely amazed by you. You were the reason I accepted the job. You were the reason I went and said hello to everyone on set that first day, I didn’t want you to catch on that I had only come to see you. You were the reason that I did everything I did and you are still the reason I do everything I do. But the craziest part is that I'm still falling in love with you after all this time and after everything we’ve been through. There are things that I fall in love with everyday and it’s amazing. You’re just...amazing. And there’s no one else I would rather be amazed with for the rest of my life than you. Because I love you and you’re my everything. So no matter if you’re ten feet from me or 10,000 feet, I’m always going to love you.”

“Bucky…”

“I just thought you should know.”

“Well I definitely thought I knew, but it’s nice to hear it from you.” I reached up and kissed him with tears in my eyes, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him close to me. God, he was just the sweetest and honestly the master of grand gestures, a pro. “I love you too, you know. I don’t think I can come up with something that sincere and wonderful on the spot, but I want you to know that I feel the same way about you.”

“Oh, no, I definitely rehearsed that.” We both laughed at each other and he let go of me, reaching for something in his jacket pocket. “I have something for you.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” He pulled out an envelope and put it in my hands. On the outside ‘James’ was written, in a very familiar handwriting. I looked up at him, completely shocked by what this could be. He gestured for me to open it. 

“Asa gave this to me. And I think it’s a perfect time for you to read it.”

So I opened the letter and pulled out the note, a note that my father had written to Bucky before he died. I could already feel the tears in my eyes coming back, but tried to hold them back so that I could read what he wrote. 

****

Dear James, 

On the last day of a man's life there are quite a few things that tend to go through his mind. I thought of two things: my wife and my daughter. 

I thought about how much I missed my wife and how lucky I was to know that she was waiting for me. That day I saw her face a lot, everytime I closed my eyes I saw her eyes looking right back at me, almost beckoning me in a way. And God if I didn’t want to go to her. When I had been as sick as long as I had, there just came a point where the fighting didn’t seem worth it, not when I could have stayed with her. 

But I thought of Y/N and I thought of the lies that I had told her and the secrets that I had kept. With time she would forgive me for them, but if I didn’t say goodbye to her, if I didn’t tell her one last time how much I loved her, then I knew that she would never forgive me. So I called her and as a father does sometimes, I lied to her to protect her from my impending leave. 

And then she asked me about you. The same man who had gone on a television show to find love and had coincidentally fallen in love off screen. The same man who cared for her and was there for her in the ways that no one had been before. The same man who is her best friend, the love of her life and her hero. And in a way, James, you are my hero too. 

When I’m gone, things will be hard for her. She always believed in this idea of who her parents were, praising us for our titles and not for our actions. Her mother was a saint but never really got the chance to show Y/N the things that moms get to show their children. And I...I was the perfect idea of a father, from a distance I was everything that she was missing. But when I sent her to America, I didn’t know that her grandparents would keep her. 

I want to tell you that I fought harder to bring her back, but with her mom gone and her parents wealth and my lack thereof, it seemed impossible. My life without my wife became unbearable and the medical bills just as so, not to mention I had no legal way of getting to the states, not a way that was fast anyway. So with life stacked against me, I let her go, hoping that at the very least her grandparents could give her a better life than I could. 

Y/N never knew the truth and in every way all I seem to do is cause her pain, which is why I never told her about my being sick. 

There are choices that we have to make in this life. We never know if they’re right and yet my mistakes and lies have somehow brought her to you. So in a way I hope they weren’t all mistakes because no matter what I did in this life, my life was always for Y/N. 

But now I’m passing the baton. She loves you and she’s going to need you now more than ever. So if there’s only one thing that you ever do in this life, just make her happy. Show her the world, give her everything that she could possibly dream of, be her everything, but most importantly love her as if every day is your last. Love her and never let go. 

So fall more in love with each other, learn new things about each other, grow old with each other, do the things that I never got to do with my wife. Just make sure to always love each other and everything else will be okay. I promise. 

Take care of my little girl, 

Your future and late father-in-law

P.S. I hope what’s in this envelope helps 

****

“What’s in the—” I looked up to see Bucky down on one knee, with a ring in his hand. All air had completely left my lungs and I knew that if my face wasn’t already covered in tears, that it was now. 

“I’ve had this for a little over a year now, but I’ve known for a lot longer that I was going to marry you someday. It was never a question of if, just a question of when and I can’t see a better moment than right now. So...Y/N Y/L/N will you marry me?”

Without any hesitation and with a huge smile on my face, I said, “Yes. God, yes.” 

I knelt down and gave him a big kiss, holding his face in my hands and not letting go for a long time. When I pulled away, he stood up and put that gorgeous ring on my finger. And if I thought the tears had been bad before, I don’t even know what was happening now. He could see how emotional this was for me and he just pulled me into his arms and held me tight to him. 

“Are you okay?” He asked, placing a hand on my cheek and bring me back up to look at him.

“Am I okay? I am so happy, I really am.”

“I know it’s hard not having your dad here.”

“I didn’t even know that he wrote to you. I knew that I had mentioned and told him a little about you, but that letter was just so personal, like he knew how much you meant to me.”

“Asa. After that time that he spent with us, he told him every little detail about us and he knew, he knew how much I loved you.”

“I love you so much. I can’t believe you proposed.”

“I’m so incredibly happy you said yes.”

“How could I have ever said no? You make me happier than anyone in the world.”

“You make me happy too.”

Instead of going back inside right away, we went and walked around the grounds, enjoying the sunset and the beauty of the castle. Then that curiosity from earlier was brought up. 

“I’ve been thinking about something for a little while now, I wanted to talk to you about it. See, I spoke to Steve and Peggy about proposing to you and Peggy had some interesting things to say. She asked you about us getting married and you didn’t think it was good time because of the tour.”

“Well, you have to admit that it’s not. We’re practical people, we understand the busyness of our lives and we saw what Steve and Peggy went through when planning their wedding. I hardly get to see you as it is and planning a wedding, our wedding, over Skype just...it’s not something I want to do.”

“First of all, our wedding is not going to be like this wedding. It’s beautiful and has absolutely celebrated the couple that they are, but you have to admit that it’s kind of crazy. We don’t have an Amanda and we don’t nearly have as much family and where Peggy and Steve had to fight a lot for a day that was even a little bit there's, we get to choose what we want. So that’s the first thing, the second thing is that I never want you to feel guilty about taking jobs that make you happy. I know how much you love what you do, I know you love the theatre. And I’m going to be there with you every step of the way no matter what you choose to do. This proposal isn’t about us settling down and getting married, this is about me making a commitment to you, it’s about me wanting to spend the rest of my life with you. I don’t care if we get married tomorrow or ten years from now. We could just go and get married in a courthouse and I would be perfectly happy. But I just want you to be happy, and I want you to stop thinking that I could ever be disappointed or upset that you took this tour. We will figure everything out, just as we have since the moment we met.”

“You’re amazing and I love you.”

“You’re amazing and I love you too.”

“I’m not ready to go back inside.”

“Then let’s not go back inside just yet.”

As the sun kept going down we just watched as the colors of the sky made everything that much more beautiful. But as you could imagine, being gone as long as we had, made a certain friend group curious. Bucky and I were sitting closer to the front entrance, they had some little concrete wall/benches, when Steve, Peggy, Vision and Wanda found us. 

“You guys have been out here for a long time.” Peggy said. She was obviously the most curious out of everyone but it also seemed like she totally knew what happened. 

I didn’t even say anything I just took my left hand from Bucky’s and held it up for them to see which definitely resulted in some squealing and lots of hugs. They were obviously so happy for us and in that moment I just got really emotional again. I could feel the tears in my eyes and I tried really hard to keep them in. 

“Hey, why are you crying?” Bucky asked, bending down to my level and wiping a tear from my cheek. 

“It’s just been such an emotional day. Earlier you gave me that letter from my dad and it really made me realize that my mom and dad will always be a part of me, but the five of you are my family. And I couldn’t imagine a better family to have.” I started to say to Bucky and then spoke to the group.

Trying to keep those tears back failed when they attacked me in a group hug; I think everyone got a little teary eyed hearing that. And being right in the middle of all of this love just reminded me of how good my life was and how lucky I was to find such wonderful people. 

When we managed to stop crying, we decided that the six of us had definitely been out for too long, and headed back inside to the reception. We danced, we partied, we drank but most importantly we loved. 

Somewhere amongst the partying I went and hung out with Winnie who was the most excited out of everyone that Bucky and I were engaged; I’m serious about that too. And from the get go she had so many ideas, I could tell that she had been thinking about this for some time. Bucky seeing the slight panic on my face though, and from across the room, came to rescue me, taking me back to the dance floor. 

 And then it got late into the night and guests started to leave, giving the perfect opportunity for Steve and Peggy to bow out for the night, needing the sleep for their flight to St. Lucia the following morning. So they walked around the room and said goodbye to everyone and then they got to me.

“So...you quit your job and didn’t tell me right?” Peggy asked. “I can’t go another six months without you.” I laughed and wrapped my arms around her.

“No I didn’t quit my job...but they did add a show stop in LA.”

“Really? Steve and I are totally coming to see the show.”

“I would expect nothing less. Have a great honeymoon.”

“I will and you enjoy being engaged.”

“I will.” 

Steve was next, giving me a huge hug and telling me how happy he was to be getting a sister. And then the people who were left gave them a proper send off, with picturesque sparklers and a vintage car for them to drive off in. 

After they left though, everyone sort of made their way either back to their rooms or to wherever they were staying. So Bucky and I said goodnight to Wanda and Vision and went up to our room to do a little more of a private celebration of our engagement and of course before that I had to call Asa and let him know, he was practically my dad; we decided to call friends in the morning. 

And when the sun rose we got ready for our day, cleaned out our room, ate breakfast, and got on the road back to London. We had called Tony, telling him and Pepper, who had gotten remarried and were perfectly happy with each other, our wonderful news. So as a pre-pre wedding gift, he gave Bucky another week off so that we could really spend some time together. Of course I was grateful for any time I got to be with Bucky but it was nice to spend a little more time together as an engaged couple and in the same state no less. 

But a decision that I cherished more than anything in the world, and thought back to frequently, was taking that job at the network. At the time it had only been a way for me to make ends meet, I needed money and they needed someone who actually knew what they were doing. And yet, I got a lot more than I ever bargained for: I got a family and I met the love of my life. But like that journey had shown me, not everything was going to be easy and there were going to be moments where I had to depend on the people in my life to help me and love me.

But most importantly it was moments like Peggy’s wedding, Wanda’s wedding, eventually my wedding and every milestone in between, that really showed me the amount of love that I had in my life, something I hadn’t thought I had before I met Bucky. So even though my friendship with Bucky seemed a little too real for Reality TV, our marriage continues to grow as we face new challenges and fall a little more in love with each other each and every day. So who needs Reality TV when you’ve got a Bucky?

****

THE END

****

Tell Me What You Think Here

Tags: @fangirl1802, @seargantbcky, @lust-for-pan, @38leticia, @barnes-and-noble-girl, @karipaleta, @capandbuck, @camillechan, @findacauseandserveit, @audasia25, @kendallefire , @alicerozenju, @snuggleducky, @mell-bell, @lifeasabookbutterfly, @the-red-world-of-jess-chibi, @iamwarrenspeace, @ssweet-empowerment, @chook007 , @juliagolia87, @jjsoccer11, @smol-flower-kiddo, @mrsdaamneron, @isaxhorror, @barnesism, @thatgirlrowan, @linki-locks11, @janeyboo, @vgurl18, @guera31, @bornfortherainydays, @carryonmy-assbutt, @calwitch, @mackevanstanfan80, @mrsalh32611

[your-modern-shakespeare]

A Little Too Real (12)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 4.5, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 7.5, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 10.5, Part 11, Part 11.5

Summary: RealityTV!AU- You are a wardrobe supervisor for a popular TV network. The show is planning a reality TV show like the bachelor and Bucky is the newest contestant. But as the competition starts he realizes that he doesn’t like any of the girls…on the show anyway.

Pairing : Bucky x Reader (eventual)

Word Count: 10,375 (ish)

A/N: So I’m excited to finally get something out after my terrible bout of writer’s block. We should only have one or two parts left of this fic and then it will all be over :( But I hope that you guys are still with me and I’m sorry for the ridiculous wait. Love you guys and enjoy!

Warnings: kissing, mentions of sexy times, google translate, talk of depression (non-descriptive), break-up talk, I’m not sure what else

BUCKY’S POV

Week 9

Monday

“Guys! I don’t have anything I want to say!” I said to Steve and Peggy. Ever since I got back to LA, I’ve been getting non-stop calls from these two and when that wasn’t enough they decided that an impromptu visit would get them the answers they wanted. I had managed to avoid them all weekend, but on Monday I was not so fortunate.

“Something happened in Moscow and now Y/N is ignoring us. What did you do to her?” Peggy said.

“I—There’s—I can’t talk about what happened.”

“Then that means that something really bad happened.”

“Something bad did happen, but it’s not anything I can talk about.”

“Bucky you have always been able to talk to me, why is it different now?” Steve asked.

“It’s different because it has to do with Y/N. You guys know me better than anyone. And so you know that I would tell you what was happening if I could.”

“He does have a point there.”

“Well that’s not good enough for me. She called me and told me about you finally asking her out and then you plan literally the most perfect date, not to mention that I know what that dress looked like on her. And all of the sudden the two of you aren’t speaking to each other. How does it get to that stage?”

“Like I said...I wish I could tell you. I miss Y/N every single second of the day and there’s never a time where she’s not on my mind. I love her, but I have a reason for what I did and I wouldn’t have done what I did if it wasn’t important. Everything I do is for her.”

“If you could just tell us what’s happening—”

“I wish I could, but I can’t. And I would love to talk about this more but I need to go to work.”

“Bucky we just want to help.” Steve tried one last time.

“I know you do. This is...this is hard on me too. And I can’t talk about it, which makes it harder. I want more than anything to go and tell her what’s happening, but right this second I can’t do anything. I just need to finish the show so this can all be over and I can focus on her.”

I walked out the door then, knowing that those two would lock up when they left. I drove to work, thinking about Y/N and what I did. I’m sure there was a better way to do what I did, something that made more sense. But everything that I did was to protect her and that was my only priority at the moment.

Monday...first day of filming.

T-minus 11 days until I can see Y/N again.

Y/N’S POV

Monday

Being back in LA was not as comforting as I thought it would be. Of course, it didn’t help that I didn’t want to see anyone or talk to anyone or tell anyone what happened, so instead I just ignored everyone and sat in my apartment alone until Monday came around.

And then I had to go to work.

But I couldn’t see him again, so I had to use, for the first time ever, a favor that I had with the one person who probably hated me the most right now.

Y/N: I’m cashing in my no-questions-asked favor

WM: Well I’m glad to see you’re alive. You know, we’ve all been worried sick about you and you can’t even tell us that you got back or that you’re home or apparently anything.

Y/N: The favor?

WM: I regret ever giving you that

Y/N: I need you to take over the dating show

WM: The dating show?

Y/N: That was a question

WM: Unintentionally

Y/N: I need you to do this

WM: Of course I will, but if you think that you can just ask me to take over Bucky’s show and not give me a reason then you’re crazy. 

Just reading his name made my heart leap

Y/N: You’re not getting a reason from me, that’s why I’m calling in the no-questions-asked favor instead of the regular favor

WM: How many favors do I owe you?

Y/N: More than you think

WM: I’m worried about you

Y/N: I’ll be fine

So that day, instead of going on the road with the rest of the crew, I went and hid away in the wardrobe room, trying my best to get everything organized and set up for once “the dating show” was done. Wanda was at the house filming when I left for the day so, I ignored another call from Peggy, I sat and ate dinner, alone, and went to bed early, crying myself to sleep...again.

Tuesday

I got into the wardrobe room early and unluckily for me Wanda was there waiting.

“I need an explanation.”

“And I need a break.”

“Y/N, I can see that something is wrong.”

“Well your eyes are working.” I went over to my table and started to clean up.

“Why won’t you talk to me?”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” She just glared at me. “Nothing I want to talk about.”

“What did he do?”

“Who?”

“Bucky.”

“He didn’t do anything.”

“You know, He looks just as miserable as you do.”

“Good.” I mumbled under my breath, knowing for sure that she didn’t hear me.

“Then what did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.” I said way too quickly and way too aggressively.

“So he did do something.”

“I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because things are already hard enough! I don’t need constant texts and calls from you and Peggy! I’m not fine that’s all you need to know!” She looked at me and could definitely see that I wasn’t okay.

“I know that I don’t know what exactly you’re going through but you know I’m here for you, right? This doesn’t have to be hard.”

“I just can’t do this right now. I can’t handle all the questions and I can’t handle the way you look at me.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. I know that there’s been a lot happening lately, but I also know that you’re the silent grieving type. Now I don’t know what happened between you and Bucky in Moscow but I know that it can’t be easy losing a parent. So I’m going to step back and when you’re ready to talk about what happened with Bucky I’ll be here for you.”

“Thanks.”

“And I know that Peggy and I can be annoying sometimes but it’s just because we love you.”

“I know.”

“That and apparently Bucky won't tell them anything either.”

“I just need some time.”

“Well time I can give...no matter how impatient I am.”

“And pushy.”

“Now you’re just being insulting.”

“But I still love you.”

“I love you too.” She mumbled.

I went back to work and she headed out, more than likely to her flight for whichever girl’s families he was supposed to meet first. I had dodged a bullet, I always loved Wanda for having my back, but it didn’t lessen the hurt in my heart. I wasn’t sure anyone could fix that.

BUCKY’S POV

Tuesday

With filming done at the house for now, it was off to a new a place.

I didn’t see Y/N at all yesterday and Wanda looked like she wanted to murder me, so I assumed that Y/N wasn’t coming to shooting anymore. That being said the crew and I left pretty late for our flight, accompanied by Malia, whose dad lived in Seattle.

It wouldn’t be a long flight, only at about 3 hours, but sitting in a plane next to one of the crew members, luckily, I didn’t have to put too much effort into putting up my charade, which made everything a lot more tolerable.  

I had never been to Seattle before and despite the fact that I was going to be “pinning” after another woman, I was actually kind of excited for a distraction from what was happening.

After the initial phone call, I had done everything in my power to avoid Y/N. She was already in my every thought and she was ignoring me, so so far everything was going to plan. I just needed to make it to next week, I needed to finish the show. So I had to believe that being in a city that I had never been to before, would provide the perfect distraction from...everything. That is until I spot the cameras.

When we landed I grabbed my carry on and followed the crew out of the plane, all the while they filmed mine and Malia’s every move. Most everyone had just the one bag they needed for the four days that we would be traveling but we had to stop briefly for Malia’s bag at baggage claim, seeing that she wouldn’t be back in for filming again until next Wednesday.

Malia’s father met us at baggage claim shortly after we found her bag, doing a proper introduction. There was definitely a clear resemblance between the two and after her mom left them it must have been a great relief for Malia to be so unlike her.

Her father showed us over to his car, where I placed both of our bags in the trunk before opening the door for her and letting her slide in first. The crew climbed into a van parked behind us and then we got on the road.

The drive to Malia’s house was about an hour and went through the heart of the city. So instead of going straight to the house we decided to stop in downtown and do some basic touristy things: Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, which I hadn’t know was a thing, and even had a little time to stop in at Pike Place Market after our dinner at their favorite restaurant. It made for an eventful day. I got to see a beautiful city, look at some of the best artwork, and experience a new place that I had never been to before. And despite all of that, I couldn’t help but want to show Y/N all of it and see her smile as she saw how beautiful it was. A few times I had tried to talk to Wanda, I guess just wanting to have someone to talk to about all of this, since I couldn’t talk to Y/N, but she pretty much ignored me everytime I tried.

As we finally called it a day and headed back to her home, her dad spoke more about the city and about how he and Malia had come to live in Seattle. And then he pulled up to their home. It was sort of hidden in from the main street, surrounded by trees and yet still close to their neighbors. It was a beautiful house, unusually big for just two people and yet according to her father quite small at only 3 bedrooms.

As we made it inside, her father grabbed our bags from the trunk and Malia quickly dragged me inside to give a tour, and as usual the cameras were there. The house on the inside was just as beautiful as the outside, with basic but updated features, you could tell it had been recently cleaned, and kind of like her father lived here alone, which I guess he did. To me it appeared strange that the house was so bare. There weren’t too many pictures of the two and despite Malia having shown me pictures of her mother, there was no peep of her mother anywhere. Nonetheless the place was great, just a little un-homey to me.

Malia showed me to the guest bedroom which had a great view of the backyard which was big and surrounded by trees, creating a natural fenced in area. Also on the ground floor, next to the guest room was the kitchen and living room, which I had seen right when I walked in.

She showed me downstairs next, which automatically made me feel a little better. Both the master and the second bedroom were on this basement level and between the two was a small living space with a loveseat, chair, and entertainment system. It became very evident that this was the main living space as there were more pictures and just a little more life than what I had seen upstairs.

As soon as the tour was done her father met us downstairs with Malia’s bag, and just like that the night had ended. The camera crew left for their hotel and promised to be back in the morning, I went back upstairs and quickly fell asleep, not needing more than my head to hit the soft pillow for me to be out.

T-minus 10 days until I can see Y/N again.

Wednesday

I woke up the next morning, actually feeling as if I had gotten some sleep. Her dad had made us breakfast and the half day that we would spend here today would pretty much just be me and Malia...and the crew of course.

But she had made things...kind of hard. Don’t get me wrong I liked Malia, she made it this far for a reason, but she kind of did the exact opposite of what I expected. The whole point of today had been to have her show me who she was, show me where she grew up and how she became the person she was today. When in reality I spent the whole day going around her town meeting people that she had grown up with and being shown off, as if she had already won. It made me feel very uneasy that this side of her, one where she cared so much about what people thought of her, was coming out so late in the show. What else did I not know?

After I thought we had met the last of the entire neighborhood, I took Malia out to lunch, to a little place that I had spotted last night driving in. I should have known better than to expect anything different though. We were shown over to a table and as soon as we sat it was as if the whole place wanted to meet me and while we ordered, ate, and paid I didn’t spend any time talking to Malia, her too busy talking to whoever had joined us at the moment.

Later when we got back to the house I packed up my things and got ready for the next flight. Malia had offered for her and her dad to drive me to the airport but I insisted that she spend as much time with her dad as possible, not really being in the mood to try and carry a conversation with her after a day like today.

And so, with my things in the trunk, me and the crew headed back to the airport. We had had a little bit of time to wait around but I got to walk around, grab some coffee, and I even grabbed a couple of postcards so I could give them to Steve, Peggy, and Y/N when this whole mess blew over. When we finally got to board our flight I found my seat and unfortunately for Wanda, she had to sit next to me. We sat in silence for a bit, I not being sure about what exactly was safe to talk to her about, but knowing that I needed to, otherwise I would explode.

“I have a reason.” I said randomly.

“It’s not good enough.”

“I love her and I would have given everything to stay with her, but I’m thinking about her and I’m not good for her right now.”

“That’s bull and you know it.”

“I don’t really have the choice.” I said a little slower hoping she would catch on to something. I stared at her hoping for some kind of response.

“She trusted you to be there for her—”

“I left her a note asking her to trust me. I need you to trust me too.” Something clicked this time.

“Something’s happened...hasn’t it?” She whispered, making sure none of the other crew members would hear.

“I’m not allowed to say.” I whispered back.

“Is she in trouble?”

“Not anymore.”

“But you can’t tell me anything?”

“I can’t tell anyone.”

“How long before you tell her?”

“Next Friday.”

“Next Friday is the last day of the show.” I didn’t respond after that. She got the idea and now I just needed her to tell Y/N and hopefully she would forgive me when I saw her again.

That or I would have to come up with another plan.

T-minus 9 days until I see Y/N again.

Y/N’S POV

Wednesday

It was another day. Another very long day.

Wake up.

Get ready.

Go to work.

Go home.

The worst part of it all though, was how lonely it was.

And yet instead of calling my friends and just telling them what was going on I watched a sad movie and got all the tears I had been holding in, out of my system.

And of course, I thought of him...a lot.

Thursday

As easy, yet as terrible, as it was to hold everything inside, I was going crazy from not telling anyone about what happened. But I couldn’t tell Peggy what happened because she was Bucky’s friend first and I couldn’t tell Wanda because she still had to work with Bucky. Normally I would call my dad and without him here...the person I went to for everything was Bucky and I obviously couldn’t do that.

The one person I had left...I had to believe that he would be on my side.

I knocked on the door of his very big house and waited for him to answer, but it wasn’t him.

“Is Tony here?” I asked.

“Yeah, let me go get him.”

So I stood in the living room as the woman left to go find Tony. Weirdly enough I was actually kind of nervous, but I wasn’t sure I would make it through the rest of the show if I didn’t get this off my chest. I was pacing in the living room when he came in.

“Hey, Y/N.” I turned to face him and he wrapped me in a hug. “I heard about your dad, I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks.”

“But I’m pretty sure that that’s not why you’re here.”

“I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“How about we sit?” The woman said and we moved over to the couch.

“Y/N, you’ve met Pepper right?”

“This is Pepper?”

“According to Tony, I have you to thank for knocking some sense into him.”

“You two are back together?”

“We’re working on it.”

“Well I’m happy for you guys, I could only wish to be so lucky apparently.”

“I think we need to know what happened.” Pepper said.

“What did he do?” Tony asked. Placing a pillow in his lap and letting me rest my head on top.  

“He...I fell in love with him. I let myself believe that he loved me too. I was fooled, duped, played. And now I feel like I can’t breath or eat or sleep because I’ve lost a piece of me.”

“What did he do?”

“He was there for me after my dad died. He came to the funeral and made me feel as if everything was going to be alright. He took me out on the most perfect date. He gave me the best day of my life and showed me what love was really like. But worst of all, he was my best friend. He took care of me, he protected me, he fooled me into loving him. And then left me. I mean, I’m not stupid right? There was something there.”

“You two are crazy about each other.”

“Then what did I do wrong?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then what could have happened? I am rattling my brain for some kind of explanation. That day...those dates felt like something more than just a one day kind of thing. He said and...did things that meant more.”

“Tell us about the date, maybe something happened.” Pepper said.

“I have gone over everything a million times...it was a perfect day. He made me breakfast in bed, took me to Roscosmos, and we met up with his friend Sam who gave us a tour of the headquarters. Then we went out for coffee with Sam before we headed back to my house.”

“Did anything weird happen while he was there? Sometimes confronting your past can be hard and he always wanted to be an astronaut, it couldn’t have been easy for him to be back there.” Tony asked.

“He was happy. He didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, nothing upset him, he was glad to be back, even if it was just for a little while.”

“What happened after?” Pepper said, trying to get me to continue.

“We went back to my house after that and got ready for the next part of the date. I had this really great dress that Peggy bought for me as a bridesmaid gift and he was wearing this navy suit...he looked really handsome. But anyway, he took me to this jazz club and we had drinks and ate dinner and he danced with me, he requested my favorite song...it was nothing I had expected, it was a perfect date.”

“And?”

“And what?” They didn’t need to know everything right?

“It didn’t end there right?” She knew, women always knew.

“The blush tells you everything.” Tony cut in, pointing at my cheeks.

“You guys are so embarrassing.” I covered my face with my hands.

“How was it?” Pepper asked.

“I can’t tell you that!”

And they kept badgering me until I couldn’t take it anymore and walked out onto the patio, putting some space between me and then.

Despite having wanted to talk to someone about all of this it still hurt like hell to think about how good everything was. I missed him. I missed the way he would walk really close to me, so that our hands would touch accidentally. I missed the way he would smile at me when he caught me looking at him, and ignore the fact that I had been looking at him. I missed talking to him about every little thought on my mind, even the thoughts and ideas that made no sense whatsoever. I missed the way he used to hold me when I laid next to him in bed. But most of all I missed the feeling of being completely loved by someone else because I knew that my feelings for him weren’t going to go away anytime soon.

“Are you okay?” I heard coming from behind me. I quickly wiped the tears off my cheeks and turned to look back at Tony.

“Sure.”

“That doesn’t sound okay.”

“I just...I came here looking...looking to hide away I guess.”

“From what?”

“It’s...that’s something he used to say when things got tough. You know, we would go and hide away from everything.”

“Did he give you a reason?”

“For leaving?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

“Then he doesn’t deserve you.”

“I can’t even remember what my life was like before his interview.”

“I get that.”

“I just thought that talking to you would help because maybe you wouldn’t be on his side. I know that Peggy and Steve are and I can’t tell Wanda what’s happening because she works with him everyday. Normally I would talk to my dad, but...I can’t. I’m just not really sure what to do.”

“When Pepper left me, it was the hardest thing that I went through. She had been this huge part of my life, she was my best friend. All of the sudden I had to learn how to live without her.”

“What did you do?”

“Well at first I tried to blame her, I tried to make it seem like it wasn’t my fault. And then I went through this crazy partying phase where I drank too much and looked for ways to make the day disappear. And when that didn’t help the depression kicked in so I dove back in to my work looking for a distraction. But it took me too long to realize that the reason she left, was me. I had always been a workaholic and it got worse when I got the prosthetic project. I worked through the night, never left the office, and then the fame followed. It became easier for me to talk to someone else at work about what was happening. It became easier to dive back into my work when we were fighting. It became easier...to ignore her and it should have never gotten that far. So when I was done being crazy and depressed and whatever, and when I finally realized that this whole situation had been my fault, I had to spend a lot of time with my feelings. There was a reason she left now, and I had to find a way to be better, not to fix things with her, but to prove that that person wasn’t me anymore, even if she never took me back. What I had to realize was that I may have messed up the best thing I ever had and with time I would come to live through the pain I created. I had to learn to live without her so that maybe one day I would deserve to be happy again. And no matter what happened as long as she was happy, I knew that I would be fine.”

“You were willing to give her up?”

“Yes. I had become someone I didn’t recognize. When I finally realized what I had done, it was too late to try and explain to her what had happened. So instead of trying to make excuses and blame something else for what happened, I decided to let her go so that she could be happy.”

“Do you think I should let him go?”

“I think that you need to talk to someone who knows you and him a little better. I can tell you to leave him and that you deserve better but I’m not the one who knows the both of you best. And I don’t think that Steve and Peggy are automatically going to be on his side.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re they’re friend too. And I don’t think you should make anything final without really talking to Barnes first. There may be a reason, one that could easily fix things. Don’t give up on something good if you don’t have to.”

“Okay.”

I didn’t stay too much longer after that. He tried to get me to stay and watch a movie with them but like he said, I needed to sit with my feelings and maybe I would gather up the courage to actually go and see Peggy and Steve.

BUCKY’S POV

Thursday

We arrived in Hawaii pretty late, too late to go and meet up with Ulani and her parents; they would meet us at the hotel in the afternoon. So getting into our hotel rooms, which I didn’t have to share with anyone, was a blessing after our long flight. And yet the idea of sleeping alone... again...sucked. I was really missing Y/N.  

I woke up the next morning still feeling tired after the shift in time, trying multiple times to go back to sleep until a reasonable hour came around and not having much luck. So instead I got ready for the day, went downstairs for some breakfast and snuck away from the rest of the crew, just wanting to spend some time by myself. So I walked around the island, I did a little window shopping, picking out some souvenirs for everyone and ate some Hawaiian delicacies before heading to the beach. I just put on my shades, put in my headphones and sat in the sand, watching the waves hit the beach over and over again. It was calming and a very welcome distraction. Except for every now and then I would see people looking at me, well not at me, but at my arm and for a second I would think back to Y/N and how she never looked at me in that way, how easily she had accepted that it was a part of me.

But when enough time passed I got the phone call from the director, telling me that I needed to come back to the hotel. I had my towel wrapped around my neck and my t-shirt in my hands, having used the hot weather and the sun to hopefully dry myself off a little more before putting my t-shirt back on. I needed to get back to the hotel and take a shower before meeting Ulani’s parents and maybe even have a enough time to grab Wanda and ask her to iron my shirt for dinner tonight.

I walked into the hotel and started making my way over to the elevators when I was stopped by one of the crew members and was ushered over to Ulani and her parents. I could see their expressions as I was moved to stand in front of them and I very quickly put my t-shirt back on before apologizing. They did the polite thing and told me that they saw it a lot living in Hawaii, but I could see that they were uncomfortable with my arm and that made me feel unwelcome.

And despite that, the cameras started to roll and we did the first introductions and like before I acted like everything was okay when I knew it wasn’t.

No matter what happened, I could tell from speaking with them further that they were good people, there daughter being a spitting image of them. The thing that I liked about Ulani so much was her kindness and her ability to be herself when things got too dramatic with the other girls. She stood out basically because she never stood out. At another time in my life I would have liked to believe that I would have dated her on my own. And meeting her parents and having them think that she had found someone to love only made me feel worse than I already felt.

Her parents seemed excited to meet me, though, after the initial shock of my arm and even gave me a traditional leis, an official greeting to the island, since they weren’t able to meet me at the airport. And instead of doing the touristy things, seeing that I had already done some sightseeing, after I was properly bathed, dressed, and had packed up my things, the three of them took me to their house.

The drive to Malia’s childhood home was beautiful as anyone would expect of Hawaii. Her parents talked excitedly about things happening in their neighborhood and gave me a few stories about what Malia was like growing up. And then they pulled up in front of this beautiful house.

It was smaller than the other ones we had passed, but surrounded by trees and with the noise of the ocean in the background, their home stood out by far. The house itself was triangular with high vaulted ceilings, white wood walls, and dark hardwood floors. This house was stunning in every way no matter how small. Malia being an only child the only other members of her family to meet were her two dogs who immediately welcomed all the added attention of myself and the crew.  

So the rest of the day consisted of settling in to the guest bedroom, walking along the beach with Ulani and eating a traditional Hawaiian meal at a luau, all the while putting on a carefully planned out ruse on my part. It was exhausting.

Spending the day with these cameras on me, watching my every move with a woman that I didn’t love, probably hurting her in the process, made it hard to go to sleep that night. And even though it was just one more night I couldn’t help but feel so completely homesick. I wanted to talk to my friends about what was going on, I wanted to see Y/N, kiss her, hold her, I wanted to be done with the show.

So I spent a lot of time that night going through my phone, looking at pictures and text messages with Y/N and just praying that next week would go by much faster than it was currently moving. I missed her...I missed her a lot.

T-minus 8 days until I see Y/N again.

Friday

The following morning was supposed to be my day with Ulaini, you know showing me where she grew up. But this morning I got a little unexpected surprise and not a bad one at all.

“Hey James? Can I talk to you for a second?” Ulani asked.

“Yeah, Sure.” I looked at her, waiting for her to talk.

“In private?” She looked at the crew members around and knew that she didn’t want this recorded.

“Yeah, did you have somewhere in mind?” Then she came up with a brilliant escape plan, keeping everyone from noticing that we had ever left at all. We walked some ways away from her house, but being so close to the ocean she had the perfect little sea cliff hiding spot for us to sit on, and one with an incredible view at that. She sat down first and I followed behind, both of us looking out at the waves and I waiting for her to say what she needed to say.

“I need your help.” She started. I liked Ulani, I considered her a friend no matter what and if she needed my help who was I to say no.

“Okay.”

“But I may offend you.”

“Okay?”

“I don’t love you.”

“Okay.” I was confused now.

“And I know that you don’t love me.”

“Well….” She wasn’t supposed to know.

“And it’s okay. I’ve seen you with Y/N.”

“But how does this help you.” I gave in, I guess admitting that she was right.

“I think that I have a way to help each other out.”

“I’m not sure I know where you’re going with this.”

“I have also...fallen in love with one of the crew members.”

“Really?”

“And I know, and you probably know too, that the crew contracts don’t allow for coworkers to date.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But there is also a slight issue when it comes to our contracts.”

“With what? I had my lawyer go through it and as soon as the show is over I should be in the clear to see anyone I want.”

“I know that in my contract it says that as soon as I’m eliminated or if I win, the contract is complete.”

“Right, but in my contract it doesn’t ever say that I have to choose someone.”

“But you wouldn’t be completing the contract.”

“What?”

“Okay, so I’ve been thinking. What happens if you don’t choose anyone, contractually?”

“Nothing, the shows over.”

“Not quite. It leaves a hole, essentially, in the contract which can give the network the possibility of sequels.”

“You’re kidding right?”

“I’m not. I went over my contract and it’s permanently finished if either of us end up with someone or if we lose.”

“But they can’t just make us do another show if I don’t choose someone.”

“There’s nothing that says they can’t. If we get eliminated we’re done. If we’re chosen we’re done. But there is nothing in our contract that tells us what happens if nothing happens. And then we would technically still have the contract which leaves the network with people who are still contracted.”

“Which means that we would still be working for them.”

“Which means we still can’t date coworkers.”

“What are you suggesting then?”

“We complete the contract.”

“So I choose someone.”

“You choose me.”

“But if you’re eliminated, you’re free and you—”

“If I win, our contracts will be done and you don’t have to explain to me that you’re in love with someone else. We end our contracts and we get to go off with the people we actually love.”

“Does Malia know about this?”

“No, she actually really likes you. But if you choose me you won’t have to explain to her what we already know.”

“You know, if you had told me sooner I would have eliminated you, I would have been sad to see you go but you deserve to be happy.”

“You would have been sad?”

“Yeah. There’s no drama with you.” She laughed at me and I couldn’t help but laugh too. It felt nice to laugh again. “So do I know this coworker?”

“Yeah you do.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Um...her name is Diana.”

“Props Diana?”

“Yeah?” She looked shocked though.

“What?”

“I just didn’t expect you to react that way.”

“React what way?”

“You know...”

“Because you’re bi? There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Well I’m glad you think so.”

“Are you happy?”

“With her...Yeah.”

“Then that’s all that should matter.”

“Thanks.”

“Of course. You know, I may not love you but I still do care about you. I knew from our first date that you would probably win if I was going to pick anyone. Out of everyone I thought that you were the most like someone I would date in real life.”

“Funny enough, I don’t think I ever would have dated you if I met you out in the real world.” I just laughed.

“Why’s that?”

“The last boyfriend I had...he wasn’t so nice when I told him that I was bi. I knew it well before I met him but I just didn’t think about telling him right away. Ever since then I’ve just had more luck with dating women, not that there’s anything against men; you’re just too attractive honestly.” I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed that hard.” The last time probably being with Y/N. “I’m sure it had been something Y/N said.” I said a little more sad.

“Why do you sound sad by that?”

“I haven’t seen Y/N since Moscow.”

“Why?”

“I can’t really say...legally.”

“A gag order?”

“Yeah. They wanted to put her through more...stuff and she doesn’t deserve that, so I did the only thing they offered so that I could be with her again.”

“They made you break up with her.”

“If you consider one date being together than yeah.”

“You guys have only been on one date?”

“It took us a long time to step out of the friend zone.”

“You guys just always seemed like more, and I’m talking like the whole time.”

“What you guys didn’t see was that Y/N and I met long before the show started. And I was scared that my feelings for her were too strong especially when I was about to go on this dating show. There were a few times I wanted to quit and my friends told me otherwise, but they didn’t know how I felt about Y/N, they just assumed I was scared.”

“How did you two meet?”

“She was at my interview for the show. When I first walked in the room, I was so nervous, everyone was looking at me except for her. She was staring down at this notepad, kind of like she was doodling, then I got to stand in front of everyone...and she looked up at me. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. So I introduced myself and they asked me to take a seat. I started telling them about myself and I don’t know what brought me to say that I spoke Russian and Romanian, I guess I just wanted to impress her, you know? And yet the next thing I know she’s speaking to me in Russian, trying to prove that I wasn’t lying. And then I’m talking about how I used to work at Roscosmos and she got really excited because her and her dad had loved Roscosmos. But everything after the interview was just...easy and it’s crazy to think of it in that way because of everything that’s happened but for me it wasn’t ever hard to just be there for her. I didn’t always have the right things to say or did the right things but being with her was really the best thing I could give. And being by her side and seeing just how amazing she was made me fall in love with her.”

“That’s really romantic.”

“How did you and Diana meet?”

“Well...I met her, technically, on the first day of filming. She was walking around the house straightening up things and I thought she was cute, but I kind of had the same thought as you, you know, that I was on this show to see if I would fall in love with you. But as the first weeks passed by and I kept seeing her around it got harder for me to ignore that she was a little more than cute. So I started talking to her, just little things like how was her day and that I liked the shirt she was wearing. Then it turned into her pointing something out that she had spotted on the show and those longer conversations turned into texts and calls. We had been dancing around each other when by that point we knew that there was something there. And out of nowhere she finally asked if I was into girls, she was so nervous, it was cute, and instead of answering her I just kissed her. I just felt so strongly about her that I didn’t feel the need to hide it and we’ve been dating ever since.”

“Honestly, I wish I had done that with Y/N sooner. And yet somehow I don’t regret having been her friend first.”

“I don’t either, even if we were friends shorter than you guys were. One thing I am sad about though…”

“What’s that?”

“She’s here in Hawaii with us and I can’t introduce her to my parents. I don’t really get to fly out here that often and it would have been the perfect opportunity to come out to them.”

“They don’t know?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sure the right time will come again.”

“Yeah.”

We stared out at the waves for a little while longer but eventually had to go back to the house, where the crew had been looking for us.

We could only film a few more things before the crew and myself had to leave for the airport; we visited her high school, went to the beach...again, and finally stopped for lunch. The day, unlike what had happened with Malia, was actually good and I was happy that she didn’t try to introduce me to everyone on the island.

The flight back to LA wasn’t nearly as long as the flight from Seattle, I still got home later than I would have liked but I had a lot of time to think on the plane and I came up with a plan.

T-minus 0 days until I see Y/N again

Y/N’S POV

Friday

I got home relatively early from work and quickly made a batch of small pies before heading over. I drove my car in complete silence not really being in the mood to sing along to whatever overplayed radio song. When I pulled up in front of their apartment I sat for a minute, trying my best to collect some last minute bravery to face them. And then I made my way over to their door, knocking as quietly as I could in the hopes they wouldn’t hear.

“Please don’t be mad at me.” I said as soon as the door opened and before me was Peggy with an unhappy look on her face. I held out the plate of pies as a peace offering.

“I’m not sure what exactly I should be mad at. Maybe the fact that you've ignored me all week or the fact that you won't tell me what’s going on, or maybe it’s-”

“Hey Y/N.” Steve moved in front of Peggy, grabbed the pies, handed them to her, ultimately stopping her rant, and wrapped me in his arms. Feeling the familiarity of friends, no matter their anger at me, gave me relief, and made me cry.

Steve could feel my sobs and because of it he held me tighter, not even caring that we were standing on their front porch.  “I’m so sorry Y/N.” He said, not saying it because of anything in particular, just saying it because he was upset that I was upset.

“I’m sorry. I’ve wanted to talk to you guys all week, I just...I thought you wouldn’t want to see me.” I said finally having pulled away from Steve, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

“Wouldn’t want to see you?” He asked shuffling the three of us inside.

“You guys were his friends first.” I said, sitting down on the couch, both of them following suit.

“Y/N…”

“You’re crazy if you think we’d choose which friends to be there for based on something like that.” Peggy said.

“Yeah, if you need us, we’re here for you.”

“Not to mention the fact that he was the one who did this to you, of course we’re going to be on your side.”

“I don't want you to be mad at him.” I said.

“You don’t want us to?” Peggy asked.

“The funny part of all of this is that I’m not really even mad at him. I’m confused and I’m hurt, but I would never be mad at him because I love him...you know?”

“Yeah.” Steve agreed.

“So what happened, obviously the date went well.”

“Obviously?” I asked.

“I saw you in that dress, remember?”

“Yeah...It was a perfect date.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“And…?”

“I’m not giving details.”

“So something happened?”

“You two are setting me up just like Tony and Pepper did.”

“They set you up to admit that you and Bucky slept together?”

“Yes.” As soon as I answered their question I knew I had messed up. They became a trying-their-hardest-not-to-smile mess and there was nothing I could do to stop it. “Fine get it out of your system.”

You know when you haven’t seen your best friend in a really long time and when you do get to see each other again, there’s like a lot of squealing and hugging. It was like that with those two, except a whole lot worse. I just sat there and let them get it all out and when they finally caught on that I wasn’t responding to anything, they stopped.

“Sorry.” Peggy said and they both stopped the crazy show that was happening.

“I didn’t come to talk about that.”

“We know.” Steve said.

“I’m just so confused. One second everything was perfect and the next thing I know I haven’t seen him in a week.”

“So the date was perfect, the after was perfect and then he was gone in the morning?”

“Right.”

“Something must have happened while you were sleeping.” Peggy suggested.

“Yeah but what? Everything was completely okay before we went to sleep and he didn’t mention anything before.”

“It may not be something you immediately think of. So, let’s think about what we do know.” Steve cut in.

“Like?”

“Like we know that the both of you are in love with each other.” Peggy said.

“And?”

“We know that a long time ago he decided not to choose anyone on the show.”

“Right. But guys...there’s something I haven’t shown you, I’m not sure if it’ll help but...”

I pulled the letter out of my pocket and looked at it, feeling a little of the heart break all over again.

“He left this on my bedside table before he left.” I handed it over to Peggy and Steve moved closer to her so that he could read.

“Y/N, I can’t begin to tell you how amazing last night was, I would have given anything to stay in that moment forever. You deserve so much more than what’s been dealt to you and ever since the moment I met you, I’ve wanted to be by your side. I wanted to watch you take on the world, I wanted to be the person who told you that everything was alright and make it true, I wanted to hide away with you every chance that we got. I wanted so many things with you, for you, that I got too caught up in the moment and because of that I can’t be with you right now. I wish I could explain to you what’s happened, God knows I’ve told you everything since the moment we met, and yet I can’t put you through this, not after everything you’ve been through. I know you're going to hate me but I have to hope that one day you’ll forgive me and, once this blows over, maybe give me a chance to show you why we belong together. I wish more than anything to be with you one day but if all we had was last night than I’m grateful that I even got one night to be with you. If I do get to be with you again, I look forward to making this up to you. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks. Love, Bucky.” Steve read out loud, which was then followed by a huge silence.

“Is it me or was that the most romantic and non-terrible break up ever?” Peggy finally pointed out.

“Isn’t it annoying?” I asked.

“Yeah, I see why you’re so confused.”

“And not that angry.”

“I mean, he said all these wonderful things and he made it seem like this temporary thing. I don’t know whether to be mad at him or sad or happy. I just...I don’t know. Which is somehow worse.”

“Yeah…”

“But it does raise a question.” Steve said.

“What?”

“‘I’ll see you in a couple of weeks?’ He obviously has something planned.”

“Is anything supposed to be happening in a couple of weeks from the time he left the note?”

“He doesn’t know about it.” I mumbled.

“What?” Peggy asked.

“Nothing.”

“No, what are you talking about?” There was a long pause, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell them or not, but then again I did come to them for help.

“I resigned.”

“What?!” They both said at the same time.

“My last day is next Friday.”

“You quit because of him?”

“Yes and no. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to see him and not feel completely broken up over him leaving. But this whole thing with him, with the show, made me realize that I wasn’t even living in the real world. They call that reality tv...when it’s all fake. Everything was fake and I fell in love with theatre, with portraying something real, not fooling people into thinking something is real. Working for the network was only supposed to be temporary, it was a way for me to save up some money so I could do what I wanted. I don’t have that problem anymore and I need to get back to reality, back to how I started.”

“What you have with Bucky is real.”

“Yeah, which makes this pain real.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I have...something lined up.”

“Like what?” Saved by the bell, or the knock I guess, we all turned and looked at the front door.

“That must be the pizza we ordered.” Steve said, moving from the couch.

“Let me get it, it’s the least I can do.” I offered, moving off the couch and in front of him.

“You’re out of a job.” Peggy pointed out.

“And I still have $25 million to my name.”

“What?!” They both said at the same time...again. I think that was the first time all week that I genuinely laughed. I could feel the smile on my face as I opened the door...and I could feel it fall a few seconds later.

We both just stared at each other as if there was nothing to say despite all the questions I had. After what seemed like forever he finally spoke.

“Hi.” Was all he said...that was all he had to say?!

My heart was telling me to say something to him, to ask him what happened, to get the answers that I needed. My head was thinking something completely different.

Before I could even register what was happening I had slapped him hard across the face followed by a slam of the door.

“Did you just slap the pizza man?” Peggy asked.

“No.”

“Oh...you take him, I’ll take her?” She said to Steve.

“Yeah.”

“No, I want to talk to him.”

“You just slapped him.”

“I was angrier than I thought.” I opened the door before they could stop me and moved out of the way so he could come in. “I’m not apologizing.”

“I deserved it.”

There was an awkward silence that followed and I just watched him, not really wanting to look away but not really wanting to look at him either.

“Well, this awkward silence is awesome and all but is there a reason you stopped by Bucky?” Steve asked.

“I just didn’t want to sit at my apartment all alone, but I can leave, you guys were probably doing something.”

“You can swing by tomorrow.”

“That sounds good.” He turned to leave, but I couldn’t just let him leave.

“Bucky, wait.”

“Yeah?”

“Why now?”

“What?”

“You used to tell me everything, we’ve always trusted one another.  So why now, why this secret?” He looked at me with sad eyes, eyes that looked like he wanted to tell me and yet when he opened his mouth nothing came out. “You can’t tell me, can you?” I feel like I looked pretty sad, which seemed to catch his attention. He moved closer to me and placed his hands on both sides of my cheeks, holding me like he used to.

“I really want to, It’s been killing me. It’s like I’ve...I’ve been gagged, you know. I can want to say everything that I’ve been holding back and yet I can’t. Я хочу вернуться в Москву. Я хочу, чтобы все вернулось к тому, как это было. (I want to go back to Moscow. I want everything back to how it was.)

“Я также.” (Me too.)

And then as he usually does, he did the unexpected. When he left me alone in Moscow I had always assumed that I had done something to turn him away from me. And then the more I thought about the note the more confused I got, wondering why it seemed like a temporary pause in our relationship. And yet I had always assumed that we could tell each other anything, and if he couldn’t tell me what was happening now then something must have changed, right? So the very last thing I expected him to do was kiss me.

As much as I didn’t want to give in to him, I could feel myself physically sink against him and relax into the kiss. After not having seen him for a week, I couldn’t help but take this moment and remember exactly the way that he made me feel before he left. It was easy for me to love him, I just wasn’t sure how easy it would be to forget him, or even if I wanted to. There were so many thoughts going through my head, that I was never going to get him out.

He pulled away from me, holding me for just a second more before letting me go completely.

“I’ll see you soon.” He said before he left. I watched the door until my brain caught up with what happened, despite not understanding it at all. I turned around to face Steve and Peggy with a confused look on my face.

“Please tell me that you guys just saw that.”

“Yeah, why?” Steve said.

“I wanted to make sure I didn’t dream that.”

“No, that happened.”

“You guys are so cute together!” Peggy said way to excited.

“Well I’m glad you think so, because I’m just more confused.”

“I think I can help there.”

“How?”

“I think I know what’s happening.”

“What?”

“Something funny happened when he was talking to you.”

“Like?”

“When he was talking about being gagged, he looked at me.”

“He looked at you?” Steve asked.

“Yeah.”

“I noticed that too. I couldn’t see where exactly he was looking but he looked away from me when he said that.”

“So I have a theory, one that would make a lot of sense.”

“Okay.”

“A gag order.”

“Okay?”

“A gag order prevents lawyers, witnesses, and other people involved in a lawsuit from giving information to media sources or an unauthorized third party.”

“But what lawsuit? There’s nothing going on that would involve him.”

“Nothing on your grandmother or Jackson’s lawsuits?”

“Not that I know of. I mean he punched Jackson, but I don’t think anything happened after that that would cause a lawsuit.”

“Okay…”

“What about his contract? It’s the only other legal thing I could think of.”

“I didn’t see anything in his contract that he had violated or would give cause to a lawsuit. But…”

“But what?”

“You have a contract with the network right?”

“Of course.”

“Then maybe it’s your contract that’s the problem.”

“My contract?”

“The whole point of the dating show is for him to date the other women on the show, or coworkers. So in his contract there can’t be anything that prohibits him from seeing coworkers when that’s the whole plot of the show.”

“Right.”

“But your contract could have the clause just like most other workplaces.”

“Okay, so let’s say that this is possible. First there’s no proof that Bucky and I have been anything more than friends. Second can they bring a lawsuit against me because I decided to date a coworker?”

“Yes and no. No if all they had was a suspicion. Yes, if they have proof and you’ve given reason to.”

“Given reason to?”

“Caused them problems, cost them money. For instance, let’s say that Jackson decided to charge Bucky with assault charges for that punch. Because it happened on network property it would technically be up to the network to cover the legal fees, which can stack up. They could say that because the two of you were together it caused Bucky to be reckless. They can twist things however they want if they have proof.”

“The gag order?”

“You and Bucky aren’t married so lawyers could use him against you. The gag order keeps him from telling you anything. And him keeping his distance from you could help prove to the network that you weren’t seeing each other and not give them the grounds for a lawsuit.”

“So would this ever end?”

“There is a way.”

“What?”

“He has to choose someone on the show.”

“Great.”

“The one thing that always threw me off about his contract was that there was never anything that stated what would happen if he didn’t complete the show, like if he quit for instance.”

“How is that bad?”

“It leaves a loophole, a pretty good one for the network. See, if he doesn’t finish the show it leaves a hole in the contract that could allow the network to set up other shows for him to be on, as well as the two remaining girls. The contract is completely fulfilled when he chooses a girl on the show.”

“And he won’t be a coworker anymore.”

“Which means if he decides to see you after the show is over then they can’t hang that over your head.”

“A couple of weeks, the letter said a couple of weeks, like when the show is over.”

“And you’ll be done with the network.”

“So if this is true...and that’s a big if, you think I should wait this out?”

“I think he has a reason for what he did and I think that he loves you. And if he says a couple of weeks then maybe hear him out in a couple of weeks.”

“In all of the years that I’ve known Bucky, him leaving like he did was the most out of character thing he had ever done. And I know how much he loves you, so waiting for the show to be over and waiting for him to explain, is the least you could ever give for a lifetime of happiness. Some people never meet the person that they’re supposed to be with for the rest of their lives. So if all you have to do is wait a week to be with him, then I say wait.” Steve chipped in, saying something for the first time in a while.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” They both asked.

“Okay.” I could feel the smile on my face just thinking about it. One week. It seemed that I had waited my whole life to be with him, so I could do one more week.

With the rest of the night we watched movies and finally got our pizza. Steve ran out and bought us some ice cream and for the first time since Bucky left me alone in Moscow, I had a really great night.

PART THIRTEEN 

Tell Me What You Think Here

Tags: @fangirl1802, @seargantbcky, @lust-for-pan, @38leticia, @barnes-and-noble-girl, @karipaleta, @capandbuck, @camillechan, @findacauseandserveit, @audasia25, @kendallefire , @alicerozenju, @snuggleducky, @mell-bell, @lifeasabookbutterfly, @the-red-world-of-jess-chibi, @iamwarrenspeace, @ssweet-empowerment, @chook007 , @juliagolia87, @jjsoccer11, @smol-flower-kiddo, @mrsdaamneron, @isaxhorror, @barnesism, @thatgirlrowan, @linki-locks11, @janeyboo, @vgurl18, @guera31, @bornfortherainydays, @carryonmy-assbutt,

[your-modern-shakespeare]

A Little Too Real (11)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 4.5, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 7.5, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 10.5

Summary: RealityTV!AU- You are a wardrobe supervisor for a popular TV network. The show is planning a reality TV show like the bachelor and Bucky is the newest contestant. But as the competition starts he realizes that he doesn’t like any of the girls…on the show anyway.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (eventual)

Word Count: 6100

A/N: I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July, I unfortunately am in the middle of a burn ban in Colorado which meant no fireworks for this Texas Gal. But anyway, I hope you enjoy this much awaited for chapter and I love you guys!

Warnings: google translate, fluff, angst, kissing, I honestly don’t know what else

Y/N’S POV

Week 8

The weekend had come and gone just a quick as the week had. I spent most of my time indoors, talking to Bucky and going through things in the house, but I was in such a terrible mood that I couldn’t have been fun to hang around. And yet somehow he was still there. And God was he there.

It wasn’t that he was trying to do anything or make a play but he would do these things that would drive me absolutely crazy. He would always stand close to me, hold my hand, wrap me in his arms, you know, intimate comforting things.

But as life would have it, Monday came and with that came work.

“You should stay here.” Bucky tried to reason with me. He was standing in the doorway of the closet, shirtless, trying to pick something to wear. I was resting up against the headrest of the bed trying my hardest to convince Bucky and myself that I was good enough to go to work, that and staring at him.

After the funeral I had had so much going on, that it was easy to forget about everything that had happened between the two of us. So now having a bit of time to screw my head back on, the thing that was really bothering me now was the fact that Bucky and I hadn’t had the chance to talk about everything that had happened between us over the past couple of days. I wanted to tell him everything, I wanted to follow my dad’s advice and not wait to be with him. But even though I was in a better place than I had been it was as if there was still a hazy film on everything.

I didn’t want to start a relationship with Bucky when everything in my life had been so shaken up. And yet lately when was that not my life. 

So instead I just watched him, memorizing every part of him and letting him comfort me. And that was how my Monday started.

I was drawn back to reality when Bucky asked me some question, not getting a response from me.

“Y/N?” He asked this time, coming to sit beside me on the bed, now with a shirt on.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Are you okay?”

“I just got lost in my thoughts for a moment.”

“Well if you’re going to come to work with me, you should probably get ready.”

“Yeah.”

So I got out of bed and got in the shower, not taking too much time but not really being in the mood to go fast. And Bucky was very patient with me because of it.

I got dressed in some of the only black clothes that I had left, knowing that I would need to conjure up the energy to do laundry, before Bucky helped me into my heavy winter coat and then out to the car, with all of my gifted food in tow. But for now, as we drove to the makeshift studio, we sat in silence listening to the foreign music on the radio and, I don’t know about him, but I was thinking about him and how I wish that instead of going to work, we were running away and that all of our feelings were known and that nothing was confusing. When in reality it was quite the opposite.

Bucky pulled into the lot where they told us we could park and we carried in as much food as we could, getting some help from some of our crew who had been in the parking lot. We dropped off the food at the tent where lunch would be served and then Bucky and I broke off.

He went to the makeup/hair trailer so that he could start getting ready and I moved about the set answering any questions I could and translating when needed.

I tried my hardest to stay positive, to keep my feelings in check, but as the day got later it became harder the longer I stayed away from Bucky. I don’t know, he just did something that always made me feel better and when I didn’t see him I didn’t feel better. Of course, It didn’t help that I kept thinking about him with these other girls and I tried my hardest not to be jealous, but I just couldn’t push that thought out of my mind

I couldn’t do normal things without thinking about him, I couldn’t even speak Russian sometimes without wondering how he said things or just wondering how it sounded coming from his lips. And then there were the hard moments when I couldn’t breath, sometimes from the pain and other times from the lack of him being close to me.

But the thing that bothered me the most was that this had always been us, the constant flirting and the erratically romantic thoughts, and yet it took us this long, it took me this long to think that maybe he felt the same too.

When it was time for lunch we met at the food tent and Bucky and I explained to everyone what foods we had brought, what was in them, what they were called, that sort of thing. Everyone seemed to love the food and it was great that I didn’t have to take any home with me later. Bucky and I were the last ones to eat and we grabbed our plates and went to eat in his trailer.

We were both sitting cross legged on the bed, facing each other, and eating our food...mostly in silence.

“How are you feeling?” Bucky asked me between bites.

“Sluggish, slow…” I looked up at him and he was sitting much closer to me than before, his face much closer...

“Yeah, I get that.”

“Does this feeling ever go away?”

“What feeling?” He said with a smirk on his face. I smiled back just briefly, enjoying the seconds long distraction.  

“The loss.” I responded after some time. “I was so young when I lost my mother that I honestly can’t remember how I got through losing her.”

“Well you also had a lot going on at that time. I’m sure the distraction helped.”

“Distraction…

“I could think of a few.”

“I’m sure you could.”

“I could show you.”

“I think I have a pretty good idea.”

And just having a moment of complete courage, I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to me. His lips were familiar and wonderful, but a little chapped from the cold weather; I didn’t mind at all. He pushed our plates out of the way before he shifted, making me lie back against the pillows, and bringing himself to rest mostly on top of me. I moved my hands to his neck, letting my fingers run through his hair, ultimately pulling him closer to me, and his hands ran up and down my back, almost in a soothing manner but also in a way that drove me crazy.

We kissed until a knock came at the door.

“Мистер Барнс, они готовы к вам.” (Mr. Barnes, they’re ready for you.)

“Момент.” (Just a moment.) He called back. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“I know it doesn’t help much, but I really don’t want to go.”

“You have a show to finish.”

“With a bunch of girls I don’t like.”

“Then hurry up.” He smiled at me and leaned down to kiss me one more time before he climbed off the bed.

“I’m going to count down the minutes.”

“Time will pass by slower that way.”

“Fine.” He started walking to the door and right before he walked out, he turned and looked at me. “Hey, Y/N?”

“Yes Bucky?”

“Can I take you out on Friday?”

“Take me out…”

“On a date.”

“On a date?”

“I think it’s about time.” Now it was my turn to smile.

“Yes.” His smile came back too.

“Great, um...I should go, but I’ll see you later.” He turned to leave but looked back at me again.

“Yeah, you will.”

“I’ll work fast.” Again.

“You better get going then.” I reiterated.

“Yeah.” This time he did walk out and as soon as he did I collapsed back against the bed again with a huge smile on my face.

I sat in a bliss for a just a minute before all these wild thoughts started going through my head, I quickly became a nervous mess. And there were two people who I knew could steer me back straight.

PC: Hello?

WM: What the hell Y/N?

They both sounded very upset with me and groggy from it being almost 3am there.

YN: Sorry guys, I know it’s really early there but I need help.

PC: Is this about your dad?

YN: No…

WM: What could you possible be calling us about then?

YN: I...I have a date with Bucky

PC: WHAT?

WM: WHAT?

They both said at the same time, which was then followed by a huge freak out moment and lots of questions, most of which I couldn’t understand.

Y/N: Guys!

PC: Steve, says that he is so happy for you guys.

WM: We want details

YN: There aren’t any details, we were eating lunch in his trailer and then he got called back to set and right before he walked out he asked me out on a date

WM: And he said those words?

YN: He said those words

PC: It’s finally happening

YN: I know and I’ve liked him for a long time, so why am I so nervous?

WM: Everyone gets nervous on a first date

YN: But this certainly isn’t the first time of anything with him. I shouldn’t be nervous.

PC: This is where things start to get official. You’ve been friends with him for so long that transitioning into a relationship is going to be different and you’re going to need to figure out a lot of things.

YN: What if he gets in trouble for being with me?

PC: He can’t. I finished going through his contract and there’s nothing in there that says he has to end up with someone on the show.

YN: Really?

PC: Really.

YN: Have you told him?

PC: No but now I can just leave that to you. Just go up to him, give him a big kiss and tell him you love him.

YN: And tell him about the contract

PC: I’m sure you’ll get around to it.

WM: Hopefully now when you kiss him you’ll actually remember it.

YN: Well…

WM: Well what?

YN: Do you remember that day outside of my trailer, when I was really mad at him?

WM: Yes…

YN: We sort of kissed and that’s why he was so happy…

PC: WHAT?

WM: WHAT?

They both said at the same time again.

YN: And that’s not the only time we’ve kissed since then

PC: Then you have no reason to be nervous because you clearly have been seeing each other for some time

YN: Kissing and being in a relationship are two very different things

WM: Are they though?

PC: It’s too bad that you don’t have the dress I gave you there, that would knock his socks off and more pieces of clothing...I’d hope

YN: Well…

PC: You have it?!

YN: I was getting ready at Wanda’s house for you’re engagement party and I put a bunch of my travel items in my backpack so that I didn’t have to take all of my stuff with me to her apartment. When we got in the car later for her and Vision to drop me off at my apartment, I put your gift in the backpack so I didn’t have anything in my arms as I made my way up the stairs. Then I heard that my dad died I just grabbed all the clothes I could and my backpack, knowing I had all my travel stuff in there already...and the dress.

PC: I swear its fate

WM: It is pretty perfect

YN: But I shouldn’t wear that on the first date should I? I mean what if we don’t go anywhere that fancy?

PC: You’re wearing the dress. I’ll have Steve talk to him.

YN: You are simultaneously terrible and amazing

PC: I’m pretty sure I learned that in law school

We both laughed at her, I could even hear Steve laughing in the background.

YN: Well I’m sorry that I woke you guys up so early, but…

PC: I’m glad you called.

WM: Me too.

YN: Anyway, I always feel better after talking to you guys, no matter how crazy you are

PC: Just have a really good date with him

WM: And give us all the details after he leaves in the morning

YN: Like I said...crazy

PC: Love you, Y/N

WM: Love you too!

Y/N: I love you guys. I’ll talk to you later.

We all said goodbye at the same time and hung up soon after.

I didn’t stay in the trailer too much longer, there was work to do, but I was feeling much better than I was before. And so I went through the rest of the day in a haze, a peacefully happy haze. Honestly, I had spent so much time lately in such a poor mood, that is was a nice change to feel something different, something other than sadness. And now after spending time alone with Bucky and knowing that he didn’t have feelings for the other girls, despite not having told me what he felt for me, made me feel so much better.

So I went through the day in an okay kind of mood and later that night, after Bucky’s first date of the week, we went back to my house and cuddled on the couch, watching whatever TV show we could find that was remotely interesting and then ignoring it to do...other things. But then again it wasn’t hard to get distracted around Bucky.

It started with sitting very close to each other, my feet up on the arm of the couch, my head resting on his shoulder, and his arm wrapped around my waist. Then it turned into light touching, his fingers dancing up and down my arm and I traced the lines of the metal that made up his. Creeping closer and closer to each other, it didn’t take us long to get to kissing and without the interruptions this time...besides my brain, of course. I was the first one to pull away.

My forehead rested against his, our lips inches from each other and our breathing erratic, I finally decided to ask him about everything that was on my mind.

“Bucky?”

“Yes?”

“I have something I need to tell you.”

“Anything.” He moved back a bit so that he could look me in the eyes but held my face in his hands in a way that made me feel as if he was still just as close.

“I talked to Peggy today.”

“Yeah? What did she say?”

“She told me that she finished going through your contract.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“There’s nothing there that says you have to choose someone on the show.”

“But you still look upset.” His hands moved down to grab my hands, his thumbs rubbing circles along my skin, his eyes never left mine.

“I’m not upset.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“You know me too well.”

“That’s not a bad thing.”

“We never had that talk.”

“No we didn’t.”

“Are we going to?”

“I want to.”

“But?”

“I was worried that you had too much going on. I didn’t want to pressure you about us when it seemed like everything around you was falling apart. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to be beside you, to help you pick up all the pieces.”

“It has been pretty crazy lately hasn’t it?”

“Yeah, but I don’t mind. I just want to do what’s best for you. When I talked to Steve and Peggy about their transition from friends to more-than-friends, they said that they started out by just going on a date and everything after that came to them with time. So I’m not saying that we shouldn’t talk but I think we shouldn’t feel pressured to figure everything out, especially before our first date. What’s important is that we’re together.”

“You always have the right things to say.”

“Believe me, the last thing I want to do is mess this up, so I figured the least I could do is try to figure out the best things to do.”

“You’re amazing.”

“You’ve made me want to be amazing.”

We didn’t stay awake too much longer after that. Once the episode that had been on had ended, we went up to his room and quickly fell asleep, not doing anything that would distract from getting the sleep we needed.

And then the following day was...another day. It was nice though to talk in a language that I never got to speak in and Bucky and I met up later for lunch, which was, again, a nice distraction from the day and the fact that he had another date to go on that night; I just tried not to think about it.

And when we made it to the end of filming for the day, we couldn’t have been more excited to go home...that is until we walked in.

We got out of the car and walked over to the front steps leading to the door, right where Asa was sitting.

“What do you want Asa?” I went up to the door and unlocked it, letting the three of us in out of the cold, despite my wanting to shut the door in Asa’s face.

“Well I want for you not to be mad at me, but as I can see that that won’t happen I have opted for trying to talk some sense into you.”

“Talk sense into me? You’re kidding right? Because from what you told me, I was the only who didn’t know that my father was dying and yet I’m the nonsensical one?”

“I was just doing what your father told me to do.”

“Yeah? Well did you think, just once, that maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was better for me to say goodbye, to see him one last time, to do anything other than what happened.”

“Of course! I knew that you would be mad, I knew that this was a possibility.”

“Then why did you do it?!”

“Because I didn’t want your last memory of your father to be anything like the last memory of your mother!”

“They—I—My mother—” I tried to take in a deep breath but the only thing that came out was a strangled sob. I tried to hold everything in but it made breathing harder and I tried my hardest to not think of her, to keep everything pushed down like before, but it didn’t work. “Can you leave please?”

“Y/N please, please, I know you’re upset with me. I know that I can’t fix this, but please don’t shut me out. You’re my family too.”

“And what happens when you’re gone?!” I could feel the tears in my eyes, the build up of countless drops waiting to fall.

“When I’m gone?”

I tried to find the words and yet I couldn’t do anything but stare at him.

“Y/N…” He walked over to me, cautiously placing a hand on my arm. “I know that what I do is risky and I know that I’m not your parents but I do love you as if you were my own.”

“They left me.”

“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“You had your reason.”

“No, he had his reason. I should have told you.”  And with that the tension between the two of us completely disappeared, now creating a calm. But something was still bothering me.

“How will I know?”

“What?”

“How will I know you’re going to come back?”

“Everyday I fight to come back to you. I can’t make you promises because we don’t know the future but I can promise that I will always be with you. Just like I know that your mother and father will always be a part of you.”

“I just...I can’t lose anyone else.”

“I know.” He opened his arms for me and I took the few steps forward to embrace him. “I’m going to take care of you.”

“You need to take care of yourself.” I said as I pulled far enough away from him to give him a stern look.  

“Okay mom. Anyway, I’m going to leave you two for the night.” I looked back at Bucky who was sitting on the arm of the couch, watching our argument.

“You don’t have to leave. I know that I was upset before but you don’t need to pay for somewhere else to stay, there’s plenty of room here.”

“And ruin whatever it is you’re going to do. No, I may be a father figure in your life but I am in full support of whatever...this is.” He said gesturing to to the two of us.

“What?” I said, looking over at Bucky with a wild expression, not sure if we were telling anyone outside of our friend group or not.

“I saw you two at the funeral.”

“Oh.”

“You guys are good together.”

“Thanks?”

“Okay. I’m turning dad mode off for the night. I will see you two later.”

“Yep.” He walked around me and over to the door, before he turned back.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Well you shoot people for a living so I think the bar is pretty low.”

A look of complete shock crossed his face and then he began to laugh.

“Sassy, I like it. But I’m going to go now before I see anymore.” This time he did walk out the door and I turned and looked at Bucky.

“Well that was something.” I said.

“But you made up, so that’s good.”

“Yeah.” He reached out for me and I went to stand in front of him, wrapping my arms around him and resting my head on top of his. He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me tight to him, giving me comfort that I didn’t know I needed.

“You ready for bed?”

“Very.”

We went upstairs and got dressed for bed, not really talking to each other and yet the silence wasn’t awkward or weird. Once we were dressed we climbed into bed and laid facing each other, letting sleep eventually take us away from the day.

.

The next morning would prove to be difficult, not only because it was way too early but also because I knew that I needed to visit my dad’s lawyer. Ever since the funeral I had been trying so hard to push down all of the feelings that I had about him and about losing him, but with today solely being about his legacy, it was hard not to think of him.

I woke up before Bucky did and I snuggled even closer to him, trying first to go back to sleep but in the end just laying with him. But with time, sleep did almost come, that was until I felt Bucky’s lips on my forehead and those lips moving down my cheek to my neck…

I, now being fully aware of him, put his face in my hands and brought his lips up to mine. Without breaking the kiss he moved on top of me, pinning me underneath him. I moved my hands down his back to the edge of his shirt, moving to take it off of him...

He pulled away first, not giving us a chance to get too much further than we already had, and stopping whatever could have happened.

“As much as I would love to continue this, I believe we have somewhere to be.”

“Do we though?” I asked.

“Unfortunately.”

“Wouldn’t you rather stay here?” I reached up, giving him a kiss, and pulling him back down to me. He indulged me for a moment but pulled away again.

“You are going to be the death of me.” He rolled off of me but stayed close beside me. I rolled over to my stomach so that I could look at him.

“Stay here with me.”

“I wish I could...you can’t skip out on your dad’s lawyer.” I sighed, knowing that he was right but it was always going to be a lot easier to ignore your problems, which was a strong mood for the morning. “Believe me, I know how hard it is to want to finalize something like this, you know it’s kind of like a last goodbye which is hard. But you also need to trust me when I tell you that the closure that you get from doing this will really help.”

“Did it help you?”

“Yeah it did.” I sighed again.

“Okay.” I groaned, rolling over until I reached the edge of the bed and climbed out, making my way to the bathroom as best as I could.

I quickly took a shower and got ready for the day, getting dressed in something relatively casual, and yet still way dressier than usual. I walked out of the bathroom to look for Bucky but he wasn’t in the room. So I made my way downstairs as best as I could with my leg, finding him in the kitchen, rifling through my fridge

“What are you doing?” I asked, pulling him out of whatever he was doing. He turned back to look at me with a smile on his face.

“I was going to make you breakfast.”

“Well I’m ready to go, so you need to go get ready and I will make breakfast.”

“You’re going to make me breakfast?”

“I am.”

“Okay, then I’m going to go get ready.”

“Okay.” He went back upstairs to get ready and I grabbed the ingredients for Картофельные Блины с Мясом or Potato Pancakes with Meat. It had been my dad’s favorite meal, one that my mom always made for him and ingredients he always had in the kitchen.

At some point in my cooking, Bucky made his way back downstairs and leaned against the counter watching me.

“So what are you making?”

“I’m sure you could guess.” He moved to stand behind me, peering over my shoulder. He looked into the pan and smiled.

“Potato pancakes...with the meat filling.”

“You are correct.”

“It’s been a long time since I have had anything this good.”

“You haven’t even tasted them yet.”

“It’s your cooking, it’s got to be good.”

I quickly finished the pancakes and placed some butter on the table. We sat down across from each other and forked a couple of pancakes onto our plates. He took his first bite and I couldn’t help but smile.

“These are absolutely amazing.”

“Thank you, it’s my mom’s recipe.”

“I need you to make me these for the rest of my life.”

“Yeah, I’ll get on that.” I smiled and looked back down at my food.

We both finished our food and did whatever we needed to do before heading out. Bucky drove us into the heart of the city, parking in the lot in front of a very nice building. He turned off the car and climbed out, coming around to open my door for me, but before I climbed out I took a deep breath and then placed my hand in his. He didn’t let go of my hand, even after I was out of the car, giving me a great comfort as we walked into the building.

When we got into the lobby we followed the signs up to A. Petrov’s office suite and took a seat in the waiting room. This place, like the building, was very sophisticated and everything like what a TV lawyers waiting room would look like. What my dad had done to afford a guy like this was beyond me.

I messed with the hem of my skirt as we waited and after awhile of doing that, Bucky grabbed my hand and placed it in his, hoping to calm my nerves. But it must have felt like forever before the man I was supposed to be meeting with, left his office with a very rich looking woman following behind him. He looked over at us and seemed to know exactly who I was.

He turned to us as soon as the woman was out the door.

“Ты говоришь по-английски, не так ли?” (You Speak English, Don’t You?) He asked.

“Yes, we both Speak English and Russian, so whatever you would prefer to use…” I responded.

“I prefer English.” He said, despite his thick Russian accent. “So come on in and we’ll get right to it.” He gestured to his door and we both followed him in, sitting in front of him. “First of all I just want to say how sorry I am for your loss. “

“Thank you.”

“Your father was a great man.”

“Yeah.”

“And he definitely made sure you would be taken care of.”

“He did? I never thought...I didn’t think he had any money.”

“No your parents didn’t have a lot of money but they both had life insurance policies.”

“Both of them?”

“Right. Your mother left everything to your father and he only ever used the money to pay for your school and anything you needed. So there’s quite a bit left from that policy and then your dad’s.”

“Okay.”

“So I have some legal things to go over with you and then we can discuss what exactly was left to you.”

“Okay.”

So he spent a lot of time going over everything with me, explaining why the sum of what was left to me was significantly less than what was put in the will, all the tax stuff that I had no idea about, and then finally all the info about my parents medical bills. It was a lot to take in and there was a lot of information being thrown around.

“Does that make sense?”

“More than I thought it would.”

“Good so now for the fun part of all of this.”

“Fun part?”

“I knew your parents very well, they were the happiest couple I had ever met. I know that you may not remember much about them, but I think it’s important to remember them in that way in this tough time.”

“Thank you.”

“So, despite all of the money that we just talked about you not having, both policies will leave you with a little over $25 million.”

“Million?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

I was in complete shock, I wasn’t even sure I was breathing. My jaw was on the floor and I’m pretty sure I had squeezed the life out of Bucky’s hand.

“What I think she’s trying to circle around to is how did their policies become worth that much?” Bucky asked.

“Y/N? Are you with me?” He asked before continuing. I just nodded my head.

“Well, as you probably know, your grandfather ran a multimillion dollar company. In his original will, one that he had made when he was younger and more tolerable of your grandmother, he left everything to her. But in his most recently updated will he left everything to your mother, and yet with your mother’s passing, everything was left to your father, which your grandfather didn’t contest; with the understanding that it would go to you in the future. But your grandmother wasn’t aware of being cut out of his will or the fact that she got nothing when he died. So she used the original will to fool everyone into thinking that the money was rightfully hers, which, of course, came to light when she got arrested. The detective on the case, Detective Vanhoose, needed to arrest her on a big enough charge to officially authorize the investigation into her accounts. So when they froze everything they found out that the money actually belonged to your father and his will left everything to you.”

“But if he didn’t have access to those accounts until right before he died, how did he afford all the bills he paid for me? It sounds like they both had no idea that my grandfather ever left them that money.”

“Your mother still had a life insurance policy, it covered your schooling.”

“So now I just have...$25 million?”

“Your father spent a lot of time with Detective Vanhoose trying to figure out the best way to correct what your grandmother did. He wanted to make sure that you were taken care of.”

I covered my face in my hands just trying my best to wrap my head around the fact that I was a millionaire now.

“I know you need some time to process this all, so I’m going to give you a copy of your father’s will and the paperwork you need to sign to have the funds released to you. Take your time and read over it and come back when you’re ready to sign. I’ve been speaking with the detective and there are a few things that the NYPD need to do to release the funds after they receive your paperwork so it may be awhile until you see anything but we’re here to help you out and we’re going to try and get it to you as soon as possible.”

I just nodded. He handed me a big stack of papers in a folder and just as he did for the woman he had talked to before us, he walked us out of his office, giving us a sincere farewell before scooping up his next client and disappearing into his office once again.

Bucky and I rode back down to the lobby in silence, walked through to the parking lot in silence and climbed in the car...in silence. He didn’t start the car right away but I hadn’t noticed until he said the first thing in well over five minutes.

“So on Friday you’re going to buy me dinner right?” He asked, trying his hardest not to laugh but easily making both of us laugh out loud. I was crying by the end, using this different emotion to get out all this pent up stress. When we both recovered ourselves we looked at each other with smiles on our faces.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Are you really going to make me pay for our date?”

“Of course not! I never make a woman pay for a date but especially not you.”

“Well that’s good, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t after me for my fortune.”

“Yeah that’s all I’ve been after.”

“I knew it.” He laughed at me briefly before he turned on the car and started on his way to work for the day.

He had one more date that night and then a short filming tomorrow to wrap up the episode, giving the crew Friday and Saturday for packing up supplies and traveling back to LA. I wasn’t exactly sure when Bucky was flying back and honestly I didn’t know if I was going back any time soon. I’ve had multiple people tell me to take the time off, to heal, to recover and to deal with legalities. But the thought of being away from LA, from being away from my LA family, no matter how makeshift they were, and of course, from being away from Bucky, made me feel just as bad as I did here. There was a lot to figure out and not a lot of time to do it in.

So as Bucky filmed I distracted myself with reading the paperwork and doing research on the things I didn’t understand. And at some point after filming Bucky came and stole me away from it all, returning me home for the night.

As we layed in bed later I sat there thinking of everything. But as I looked over at Bucky, already fast asleep, I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I was. The fortune I had come into couldn’t measure up to the love that I felt for this man and with that comforting thought, and for the first time all day without a confused thought, I fell asleep wrapped up in the only person who made me feel like the richest person alive. 

.

PART ELEVEN POINTE FIVE 

Tell Me What You Think Here

Tags: @fangirl1802, @seargantbcky, @lust-for-pan, @38leticia, @barnes-and-noble-girl, @karipaleta, @capandbuck, @camillechan, @findacauseandserveit, @audasia25, @kendallefire , @alicerozenju, @snuggleducky, @mell-bell, @lifeasabookbutterfly, @the-red-world-of-jess-chibi, @iamwarrenspeace, @ssweet-empowerment, @chook007 , @juliagolia87, @jjsoccer11, @smol-flower-kiddo, @mrsdaamneron, @isaxhorror, @barnesism, @thatgirlrowan, @linki-locks11, @janeyboo, @vgurl18, @guera31, @bornfortherainydays, @carryonmy-assbutt, 

[your-modern-shakespeare]

A Little Too Real (9)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 4.5, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 7.5, Part 8 

Summary: RealityTV!AU- You are a wardrobe supervisor for a popular TV network. The show is planning a reality TV show like the bachelor and Bucky is the newest contestant. But as the competition starts he realizes that he doesn’t like any of the girls…on the show anyway.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (eventual)

Word Count: 15,622 (I give up guys!)

A/N: I’m sorry this took so long, as you could imagine it takes quiet a bit of time to write something this long. That and I’ve been doing a lot of job stuff recently since it’s about to hit the summer season which is usually the busiest for theatre folk (that is at night). I’m not completely sure if you’re going to love or hate this but either way I hope the wait is worth it and I love you guys! Enjoy! PLEASE pay attention to POV indicators 

Warnings: angst, fluff, implied and mentions of sexy time, mention of nudity? (both of these are not what you’re thinking), kissing, mentions of cheating, mentions of someone dying (not main character), mention of pregnancy, wedding talk, PTSD type situations?

Week 6

Y/N’S POV

The problem with living alone was that it was pretty...lonely.

I tired to spend Sunday alone but really only made it halfway through the day before I gave up and went over to Bucky’s to hang out.  

I knocked on the door of his apartment and waited a couple of seconds for him to answer. When he opened I tried not to react too noticeably to his bare chest and water soaked hair, wearing nothing but a towel.

“Y/N, hey!” He said, now obviously flustered.

“You weren’t expecting me were you?” He waved me in and closed the door behind me.

“No offense or anything, I just kind of assumed you were Steve, but it’s fine, you’re welcome any time. ”

“Is Steve supposed to come over, I don’t mean to intrude?”

“No, no. Um...just give me a second and I’ll fill you in?” He said, gesturing to his nakedness.

“Of course, yeah.” He walked back to his room and got changed and I made myself comfortable on the couch. It didn’t take long for him to join me on the couch...now completely dressed.

Now, I had seen a man before, I had dressed men before, I had seen Bucky without clothes on before, but seeing him in nothing but a towel did not help the thoughts that had already been going through my head.

“So…”

“So...Peggy’s parents are in town. They’re these rich Brits who want to get over involved in the wedding and Steve called and told me that my apartment had been deemed his escape.”

“So you thought that he was already going insane?”

“Yeah.”

“And you don’t mind having Steve around when you’re wearing nothing but a towel?”

“We grew up together, we’ve been through everything together. I don’t think there’s really anything that could phase either of us.”

“So going back to Peggy’s parents, what are they like?”

“Well they’re really nice and they love Steve; they really took him in after his mom died. And they worship their children, they gave them the world, and didn’t stop there. And now they’re both so successful: Peggy’s getting married and has a great career and you haven’t met her brother yet, but you would like him, he worked in theatre for a bit and he’s done a lot of traveling. But anyway, they just really want to be a part of the wedding planning since they live so far away and they’ll be gone for a long time after the party this week.”

“Party this week?”

“Peggy didn't ask you?”

“No.”

“Her parents are throwing this big fancy engagement party on Thursday, of course she’s going to want you there.”

“How fancy are we talking?”

“Well, most of her family will be there, and her parents may be rich but that’s an understatement with the rest of her family; so It’ll be pretty fancy, black tie. We plan on doing something a little more casual for Steve once they go back, but I suppose you’ll be able to crack out that second dress for the party.”

“Oh, I’m not sure it’ll be that fancy.”

“Well what does it look like?”

“It’s a ballgown.”

“And?”

“That I designed for a red carpet event.”

“Yeah. The party is more like...like something in Downton Abbey. They’ll get all dressed up, lounge around a big house, eat small food, drink tea, maybe do some dancing.”

“So more like a fancy cocktail party.”

“Yeah, but a little more British. The women can wear whatever they want, as long as it’s appropriate. Men have to wear tails or a really nice suit.”

“Please tell my you’re going to wear tails! I love a good tailcoat.”

“Well, I’m not wearing tails to the engagement party, I haven’t had the time to go to a tailor, but I am to the wedding. You should definitely come to the fitting.”

“I would love to come to the fitting. You know in school my final project was constructing a suit for Intimate Apparel. Everyone else had these beautiful corsets and they trusted me with the most difficult piece, but it was also the only male piece that we constructed, which made it really special.”

“So then you’ll know if it looks good on me.”

“Well I don’t think anything could look bad on you, but I’ll know what the tailor’s doing and I can explain things to you.”

“I would like to have you there.”

“Well, I will be there.”

Bucky and I lounged around, watching Downton Abbey and eating take out food, nothing too far away from what we had been doing before; besides the fact that we weren’t living together anymore. And of course, we got to the most dramatic part of our episode when I received a call.

YN: Hello?

PC: I’m kidnapping you and Wanda tomorrow to go dress shopping.

Y/N: Why would we need new dresses Peggy?

I said looking over at Bucky with a smile on my face. He smiled too.

PC: Come on. I know you’re with Bucky and I know that he knows about the engagement party which means that you know.

YN: How do you know I’m with him?

PC: Am I wrong?

YN: No.

PC: Then Steve and I will pick the both of you up in the morning

YN: You know that...that I’m not staying with Bucky anymore right? I was cleared by the doctor, so I went home.

PC: Oh. I mean—we can still pick you up, you know just from your place.

YN: Yeah I would appreciate that

PC: Good so we’ll still pick up the both of you before we go shopping

YN: Okay. See you tomorrow.

PC: Bye

YN: Bye

PEGGY’S POV

“So what did Y/N say to you kidnapping her?” Steve walked out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

“Did you know that she moved out of Bucky’s apartment?”

“What? No.”

“Apparently the doctor told her that she was good to go home and she did.”

“Really?”

“Well I didn’t get much information about what happened, but don’t think that I won’t interrogate her when I see her.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

“I just don’t understand. I thought they were getting closer to each other.”

“I thought so too.”

“Then why would she move out?”

“I don’t know.”

“There has to be something that we missed.”

“Well she did almost get kidnapped by her ex husband, maybe that has something to do with it.”

“What?!”

“Did she not tell you?”

“We haven’t spoken since the lunch. What happened?”

So Steve sat down on the bed beside me and explained everything that Bucky had told him. And after he finished I completely understood why she hadn’t said anything to me. The whole thing was crazy, but she hadn’t even known that any of it had happened, not before Bucky told her.

“I know why she left.” I said afterward.

“You do?”

“Bucky put himself in danger for her. And her whole life she has had to be so strong and yet that changed when she met Bucky. He made her vulnerable and in a way that she hadn’t been since her ex was in the picture. So with Bucky being there for her and her ex being around too…”

“She left to put her feelings back in check.”

“Exactly.”

“Which means we are further away from getting those two together.”

“Unfortunately.”

“What do we do next?”

“I’ll talk to her tomorrow during shopping.”

“I’ll do the same with Bucky.”

“Good.” He leaned over to give me a quick kiss which turned into a not so short kiss too quickly. I pulled him down closer to me, kissing him deeper, but he pulled away.

“Do we have time before we go pick up your parents?”

“If we don’t do it now we won’t be able to until they leave.”

“We could—”

“We are not going to escape to Bucky’s to have sex.”

“I’m just saying, if we asked he would go over to Y/N’s and give us some privacy.”

“Really, he said that?”

“No, but I’m sure he would say yes.”

“Just shut up and kiss me.”

We had to rush to the airport after that, but ultimately we made it in time to pick up my parents from their flight. They had been so excited to see us and when we drove them to our apartment they easily settled in to the guest bedroom.

The following morning we made a traditional English breakfast before we headed out to pick up everyone up for a day of shopping. We went to Wanda’s place first seeing that she lived the closest to us, next we went to Bucky’s and last we stopped by Y/N’s.

Bucky, always the gentlemen, especially when it came to Y/N, got out of the car and ran up the steps to help her down, opening the door for her before she climbed in.

“Hey guys!” She said and Bucky climbed in closing the door behind him.

Steve started driving towards the city and we all made small talk, mostly talking about what my family was like and what the party would be like and even talked a little about Bucky’s time in London right after his accident.

And then the boys dropped us off in front of a nice boutique before they headed off to get suits for themselves.

Now I just needed to find out what was going on with Y/N.

Y/N’S POV

Peggy had made an appointment previously for the three of us to find dresses, letting us know that this would be a good place to find something classy and English enough for Americans to wear to a fancy British engagement party.

The staff immediately greeted us as we walked in and as soon as we confirmed our appointment they eagerly gave us free reign to shop. The woman helping us was very fond of showing us dresses that were way too expensive, even though Peggy offered to pay for the dresses. So instead we picked out some of the less expensive dresses (still pretty pricey in my book) and had the woman helping us place them in the dressing rooms. When we reached the limit on how many dresses we could have in the room, we were shown to our respective dressing room and we put on our first options.

When we were all dressed we went to stand out in front of the mirror, all three not obvious or serious picks but fun nonetheless

“So...I’ve been dying to ask you—” Peggy started to say to me.

“Well this can’t be good.” I said in response. She turned to look at me giving me a serious look.

“Why did you move out of Bucky’s?”

“I knew this wouldn’t be good.”

“You moved out of Bucky’s?” Wanda asked.

“Why is this such a big deal?”

“Why is this not a big deal?” Peggy asked.

“It’s not a big deal because staying with Bucky was nothing more than for medical precaution advised by my doctor. Bucky talked to the doctor and told him I could go home, so I did.”

“But things were going so good.”

“I don’t know what you mean by that.”

“We just mean that everything seemed really great between you two, so why mess it up?”

“Everything's still fine between us, nothing has changed.”

“But you left.”

“I couldn’t have stayed there forever.”

“Who says you couldn’t.”

“Now you guys are just messing with me.” I turned away from them and headed back to the dressing room to put on the next option. My next dress was a much better option, one I would have actually bought for myself if I had the money.

When I came out the second time I was the first one out of the room, so I sat in one of the chairs and waited for Wanda and Peggy to join me before I said anything to them.

“Okay. I’m going to say one thing and then we are going to drop this conversation.”

“Okay.”

“I left Bucky’s because I was getting too close to him. It was getting harder and harder to keep everything down.”

“Then why do it?” Wanda asked.

“I’m not talking about this anymore.”

“No, she’s right. Why are you trying so hard to push everything down? You love him, you won’t admit it but you do.” Peggy argued.

“You know I get berated every time I go out with you guys and honestly I don’t like it. I came here to hang out with you so please stop questioning me like I’m a murderer.”

“Well if Wanda had a love interest we would be doing the same thing with her.”

“Is that so?”

“But I don’t have anyone.” She said. 

“Or do you?” I asked, hoping to direct attention away from myself.

“No one serious.”

“No one serious?!” Peggy and I both asked at the same time.

“What? We’ve only been out on one date.”

“What’s his name?” I asked.

“Well his real name is Jarvis but everyone calls him Vision.”

“Vision?”  

“He works for Tony on his security detail, an upper level man. He got the nickname because he knows everything that happens, he’s the eyes and ears for Tony.”

“Pretty clever.” Peggy said.

“Yeah.”

“And you like him?”

“It was...a really good first date.”

“You going to see him again?”

“I think so yeah.”

“See, now we can just grill Wanda for fun details.”

“No. Wanda has a date, she is actively seeing someone. You are ignoring your feelings and shoving aside the love of your life. It’s not the same.”

“Well anyway let's talk about something else. What about these dresses?” I stood from the chair and went to go stand beside them, fixing the dress as I did.

“Well you look amazing and should totally get this dress.” Peggy said to me.

“Yeah you look hot, Bucky wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off you.” Wanda added.

They both laughed.

“This is not what I meant by you telling me what you thought of this dress.”

“Just being honest.” Peggy said.

“Well if I look ‘hot’ than it’s not right for a proper English engagement party.”

“But it’s perfect for showing Bucky what you got.”

“This Party is not about that.”

“I could just buy it for you anyway, you could wear it out on a date with him, let him take it off you at the end of the night...” I glared at her and they both just laughed at me.

“I am not getting this dress and to think I was going to give you a compliment on yours.”

“Well jokes on you I’m getting this dress because I think I look ‘hot’ in it and I know Steve will like it on...and off me.”

“You do look really good...even though I’m mad at you.”

“You can’t be mad at me, I just want you to be happy and I feel like that dress could help you get really happy.”

“Well the ‘happy’ you’re talking about is not happening with Bucky.”

“Maybe not now, but I have a pretty good feeling.”

“Whatever. I’m going to go put on the next dress.”

Peggy sat out in one of the chairs in her dress as Wanda and I put on our next dress. I decided on the third dress that I tried on which made me look good but was a little more covered and more formal than the last one I had on, despite how much I liked it. Wanda ended up picking the fourth dress she tried on and then we met the boys down the street for lunch before Steve and Peggy drove all of us to work. They dropped Wanda and Bucky off at the house and then went back and dropped me off at the studio so that I could get some work done before I would make my way back to the them. 

Today was technically my first day back at work and boy was I happy. I started at the wardrobe room finally being able to catch up on the work that I had had to push off because of my medical leave. I had been working so long that I didn’t even notice the time and tried to get to the house for filming, but with crutches and a slow going taxi I was definitely late.

I made my way over to the director’s area where Wanda was sitting and we sat and watched the show until we finally got to a break. Bucky came out of the house first and walked over to me.

“You’re late.” He said with a smile on his face.

“I’m a cripple.”

“A late cripple.”

“Got me there.” He laughed at me.

“So how’s your first day back?”

“Good so far.”

“Yeah? Good.”

“Definitely not lacking on the work I’ve got to do.”

“You’ll catch up soon enough.”

“I hope so.”

So as the night came to a close and as we drew later into the week, I worked on everything I needed to to catch up on, helped Peggy pick out a few things for the party, meeting her mom along the way, and spent a lot of time with Bucky.

He was an open book this week, despite not having been the week before. He told me every single doubt and thought he had about the four remaining girls: Ulani, Gabriella, Kristy, and Malia. I sat there for hours listening to what he thought about these girls, which I had to admit hurt quite a bit. But despite everything I listened to what he had to say, listening to things I didn’t even know he was thinking of.

Wednesday night, after a long night of filming, we laid on his bed facing each other. I had planned on going home but he looked like he had had a rough date, a double date with Kristy and Gabriella.

From everything I had seen, which is a lot more than Bucky, these two had it out for each other. It made for a pretty hostile date and a handsomely defeated Bucky.

“That was bad wasn’t it?” He asked.

“Yeah…”

“You want to know the worst part about it?”

“What?”

“I felt like I was on a date with Nat again.”

“Really?” I said in shock.

“When I was in the hospital I had a lot of time to think about what happened with Nat. And I just realized how exhausting the whole relationship had been. I must have had better patience back then because I honestly have no idea how I put up with her for so long. But I was sitting there while they both fought for my attention demanding to be heard and expecting me to care.”

“You don’t?”

“It’s not that I don’t, it’s just that they were both trying so hard to impress me, to make themselves seem more appealing. I just feel that when you meet someone and start dating them you either feel it or you don’t. It shouldn’t have to be about selling yourself to someone or trying to make them believe that you’re a certain way when that may not be the case. Its fake. They were being fake and that’s honestly the best way to describe Nat.”

“So does that mean you know who you’re getting rid of this week?”

“Honestly…?”

“What?”

“I feel like I’ve just wasted everyone’s time.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I don’t think I’m going to end up choosing any of them.”

“What?”

BUCKY’S POV

“What?” She just looked at me like I was crazy. “What do you mean? Can you do that?”

“I don’t know. I have a lawyer looking into it.”

“Peggy?”

“Yeah.”

“I bet she got a kick out of that.”

“What?”

“Looking at your contract to see if you have to pick someone on the show. I'm sure her imagination is running wild with reasons for why.”

“Yeah, her and Steve and probably conspiring against us.”

“Yeah...What are you going to do until then?”

“Keep playing it out until I know for sure.”

“And what happens if you have to choose someone?”

“I'll tell her the truth and make it look good for the cameras.”

“And you think she’ll go along with it?”

“I don’t know. I tend to hope for the best with these girls and get screwed by them at the same time.”

“We’ll figure it out.” She grabbed my hand and held it in hers giving me a hopeful look.

That night Y/N stayed over. We stayed up way too late talking and when the morning came she went back to her apartment to get ready for the day and check on any last things that Peggy needed help with.

Having Y/N there again, even if it was just one night didn’t make things any easier for me. Ever since I kissed Y/N it had been pretty much impossible to think of anything else and when those thoughts started it didn’t take much for my imagination to run wild. So how was I supposed to tell anyone that the reason for Peggy’s evaluation of my contract was so that I could choose Y/N, that I could finally tell her the way that I felt.

So instead of trying to find some way to hang out with Y/N again today, I opted to distract Steve from the over zealous in-laws-to-be. I walked into the big mansion that Peggy’s parents had rented out for the day, with the garment bag holding my suit slung over my shoulder, looking for Steve.

There were countless workers moving about the house, setting up flowers and tables and everything you would actually imagine for a wedding except for the fact that this was an engagement party. I walked around the mansion, asking anyone I could about his whereabouts until I found him upstairs in one of the bedrooms.

“Hey. What are you doing here so early?” He asked. 

“Well you did ask me to come early.”

“I thought it would be like thirty minutes.”

“I’m just awesome like that. But I thought that I would come and help you out, keep you from going insane.”

“Yeah? And what’s the real reason?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on, give me a little credit. I think I know when you want something from me.”

“Well it’s not really needing something more than just wanting to get away as well.”

“From?”

“Y/N.”

“Why?”

“It’s not because I want to be away from her, but because I have to.”

“What?”

“When she told me she was moving out I was honestly sad to see her go. And I honestly hate living alone now but I think it was good that she left.”

“Why’s that?”

“While she was there I felt like I could cross any personal line that I wanted to and it would be okay. I let myself believe that she was there because she wanted to be with me not because the doctor was forcing her to be there. And I just left my heart on my sleeve and let it feel everything it wanted to about her. Her leaving made me put things back into perspective.”

“You know that she probably left for the same reason right?”

“I don’t know, she seemed pretty excited to go home.”

“What did she say?”

“That she should let me have my apartment back so that I can get back to my ‘bachelor ways’”

“Yeah doesn’t really sound like she left because she wanted to. You should have stopped her. God knows she has enough trouble getting down those stairs. If anything it’s a safety hazard for her to be back at her place.”

“I did try to stop her, she practically ran out of my apartment at the end of the day.”

“Not because she was excited to go home, but because she needed space from you. She obviously felt the same way and needed the space to put herself back into the right headspace.”

“Anyway...I came here to escape my women problems, so let’s do something else or talk about something other than me.”

“Okay. One last thing, because you’re trying so hard to bury your feelings for her and I wouldn’t want to keep you from that. But you do know that you’ll be stuck with her in Moscow for two weeks, right?”

“Wait what?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Well they told me that some of the crew were coming with us but I just figured they wouldn’t send the head of the department.”

“They thought that because she has some background with other tech departments and she can speak Russian fluently, that she would be a useful asset to have in Moscow.”

“Well I wasn’t planning for that.”

“Which means you probably just need to tell her how you feel.”

“Or I just need to shove down my feelings even further.” I hadn’t even told Steve about the kiss and God if that didn’t make me feel ten times more for Y/N than I had before. “I’ll figure out what to do but right now I need you to take my mind off of it. So what can I do to help?”

Steve and I moved around the huge house working on whatever Peggy’s mother assigned to us and occupying every second we could until it was time to go get ready for the party.

Putting on my suit, I stared at myself in the mirror, taking deep breaths and once again trying my hardest to get Y/N out of my mind. But when I couldn’t seem to find a good reason to hide out in the room any longer I went next door to Steve’s room where he was supposed to be getting ready.

I went to the door and hearing the noise beyond, I decided not to intrude, figuring that Peggy had found him before I could whisk him away.

So I was playing wingman now, doing absolutely everything I could to keep anyone from going up there to find them. I was walking downstairs when I bumped into Peggy’s mother.

“Hello Bucky.”

“Amanda.”

“Have you seen Steve around?”

“Oh, he asked for a few more minutes to get ready. I am all yours though, what can I do?” I held out my arm for her and she laced her arm through mine as I led her back downstairs.

She had a whole list of things apparently that still needed to be done. So like I volunteered, she put me to work.

It was maybe twenty minutes later that Steve walked downstairs, his hair a little ruffled but nonetheless looking good in his new suit. He walked over to me first.

“Have fun?” I asked with a smirk on my face.

“You heard?”

“I’ve been covering for you, Amanda is looking for you.”

“You’re the best.”

“Well I figured you needed it after having Peggy’s whole family in that apartment of yours all week.”

“Yeah. Thanks, It felt like I hadn’t seen her all week.”

“Just a couple more days and they’ll be gone and then we can have a real party.”

“Yeah, I love them but man they can get crazy when it comes to all of this stuff. I just want to marry Peggy.”

“And you will, but it may be a painful process.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.”

We both worked until the first guests arrived, giving Peggy her cue to show up and attached herself to Steve’s side. They greeted everyone who came in and I tried to stay near the food and drinks.

Somewhere amongst my hiding, Steve made his way back over to me grabbing a drink for himself and Peggy.

“I see you found a hiding place for the night.”

“Unintentionally.”

“You can’t hide from Y/N. She’s going to find you.”

“I’m just preparing myself.”

“Peggy says that she looks stunning.”

“She’s always beautiful.”

“Then why are you hiding, make a move.” Steve handed me one of his drinks and then grabbed my arm, pulling me back into the room where Peggy and her family were.

“Steve, wait. There’s something I didn’t tell you earlier.” I stopped him before we could get too close to anyone, but in perfect sight of the front door.  

“Okay?”

“I messed up.”

“You may have to be more specific.”

“You can’t judge me.”

“No judgement here.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it. But um...I kissed Y/N.”

“What? That’s awesome man. I’m so happy for you.”

“N-no. How do I say this? She was asleep.”

“She was asleep?”

“It was the day after Jackson and her grandmother got arrested. And I called her doctor and he said that she would be good to use crutches which meant that she didn’t have to stay with me anymore. I thought it would be the last night that she would be with me and I just saw her laying there and I was thinking about all of the good times we had together and I kissed her, thinking it was my only chance.”

“And the problem?”

“I can’t—I can’t stop thinking about it.

“And you spend all of your time with her.”

“It was stupid.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty stupid.”

“Steve—”

“I—I want to help you I do, but this has gone on too long. You love her, just go and tell her.”

“I—” I looked over at the front door, having heard it open, to see Y/N, Wanda, and her date walk through. I went to turn back to Steve but did a double take when I saw what she looked like, my jaw hit the floor. I stared at how beautiful she was, the way her eyes sparkled, the way her body looked in that dress, the lipstick that made it hard to look anywhere else...

“You’re in way more trouble than you think.” He said, patting my shoulder before leaving me to face Y/N alone.

STEVE’S POV

I walked back over to Peggy, not even thinking for a second that Bucky saw me go. She was talking to some relative that I knew she didn’t know, from the look on her face alone, and politely excused the two of us before I tugged her off to somewhere more private.

“Thanks for that, I had no idea what he was talking about.” She said with a smile on her face.

“We need to tell them...tonight.” Was the only thing I could say.

“What?”

“Y/N and Bucky. We need to tell them that they kissed at my birthday party.”

“I thought we weren’t getting involved.”

“I’ve been trying not to but I can’t do this anymore. Bucky kissed Y/N.”

“What?”

“While she was asleep. The last night she stayed with him he kissed her and he says that he can’t stop thinking about it.” We both looked back through the doorway to the room, spying on Bucky and Y/N.

“And they’re practically drooling over each other.”

“Well that was always there, but even more so tonight.”

“You did good, Bucky looks good in that suit.”

“Just like you said, Y/N likes a navy suit.”

“Well, I did have a better dress for Y/N but we unintentionally teased her out of getting it. It may have been a little too sexy for this party anyway, but he would have eaten it up.”

“She looks good though.”

“I bought her the other dress anyway, I plan on giving it to her later so that she can wear it out on a date with him.”

“Which is why we need to tell them, give them the push they need.”

“They need a shove.”

“Yeah and this should do it.”

“I’ll take Y/N as soon as she’s done talking to him.”

“Good, I’ll take Bucky.”

Y/N’S POV

“Hi.” I said to him, staring a little too long at the man of walking sin.

“Hi. You look…” He paused for an uncomfortable amount of time, trying to find the right word.

“Good?”

“Beautiful.”

“Thank you.” I smiled real big, taking the complement to heart. I stared at him for just a moment before I turned around to face Wanda and Vision.

“Bucky, this is Wanda’s date Jarvis. Vision, Bucky.”

“Please call me Vision, my friends do.” They shook hands..

“It’s nice too meet you Vision. Wanda, you look incredible.” Bucky said, trying to break up some of the awkward tension.

“Thank you.”

“Peggy and Steve were just here and would love to see you guys. As you can probably see we have quite a large party here, so they may be difficult to find at first but if you do find find them feel free to rescue them from a relative.”

“That bad huh?” I asked and he laughed.

“There’s a lot of people here that I don’t even think her parent’s know.”

“I know quite a few English families just as big, it can be overwhelming.” Vision added.

“Yeah, but anyway we have refreshments through that door and waiters are walking around with flutes of champagne, so feel free to eat and drink as much as you want.”

Right as he said that a waiter passed by us and we took the remaining four flutes from him.

We started some small talk and were actually talking about Tony when Steve and Peggy rejoined us.

“You must be Vision.” Peggy stated. “Wanda has told us a lot about you.”

“Thank you for inviting me.” He said.

“I’m Peggy and this is Steve, my fiance.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you. Well I hope you guys are enjoying the party so far, but I am stealing these two ladies away for a bit, you boys may have them back once I have received the secrets I am in search of.”

“I swear if she’s not a lawyer, she’s a spy.” Steve commented and we all chuckled. Vision moved down to kiss Wanda on the cheek before Peggy whisked Wanda and I off to some secluded part of the huge house.

BUCKY’S POV

“I’m pretty sure she is a spy and you her willing accomplice.” I said as soon as the girls were out of earshot.

“More like stockholm syndromed captive.”

“Ooh.” I said, laughing.

“Kidding. I love Peggy. So Vision it looks like you may get in on the action tonight as a new member of the get-Y/N-and-Bucky-together club.”

“Come on, it’s not actually a club.” I tried to interrupt, just taking whatever he had to say at this point.

“Fine, it’s me, Peggy, Wanda and now you and our mission is for us to get these two stubborn heads together. But just a quick recap, if Wanda hasn’t already explained, Bucky here is in love with Y/N and we’re pretty sure it vice versa as well. Bucky here though, won’t admit his feeling for her because he’s on a reality TV show to fall in love with someone else. But I threw a Fourth of July party, also my birthday, freshly into their friendship in which the two don’t remember that they kissed.”

“Wait what?” I said, stopping him from saying anything else.

“Yeah...the girl you made out with, I remembered very clearly that it was Y/N, I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

“So why are you telling me now?”

“Because I’m hoping that it’ll give you the courage to tell her how you feel.”

“Mr. Stark and Wanda both speak very highly of Y/N, you would be very lucky to have her.” Vision said.

“I know, I am. I just don’t...I don’t really know what’s holding me back, not when I feel the way that I do.”

“This is about Nat.”

“No it’s not.”

“Nat is his ex who cheated on him while he was living in Russia. He lost his arm in a freak accident and she never showed to see if he was okay. He later found of she had been with another guy pretty much the whole time he was there.” Steve explained to Vision.

“I don’t know much about Y/N but she doesn’t seem like the person to do something like that.” He said in response.

“I know she wouldn’t.” I said.

“Then you’re just scared. You’re scared that she’ll turn you down, even though anyone with eyes could see that she’s just as much in love with you as you are with her.” Steve placed a hand on my shoulder, giving me a serious look.

“You won’t know unless you ask her.” Vision said with a small smile on his face.

“I’ll talk to her tonight.” I finally caved.

“Good.” Steve looked very pleased with himself. I just needed the girls to come back.

Y/N’S POV

We didn’t venture too far from the party scene, just far enough away to get a little privacy.

“You are pretty good at kidnapping us and in broad daylight no less.” I commented.

“The sun is going down, correction, and yes I am.” Peggy said.

“So what is it you wanted to talk to us about?” Wanda asked.

“Not so much as ask you anything, more like I need to tell Y/N something.”

“This can’t be good.” I said.

“It’s pretty good, we’re going to like it anyway.”

“Great.”

“You remember the fourth of July party that we threw for Steve?”

“I would use that term loosely for that night, don’t remember really anything other than the fact that it happened.”

“Something happened at the party.”

“Okay.”

“You and Bucky kissed that night.”

“What?” Wanda asked.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh thank god!” I had never felt so relieved in my life.

“What?” They both said.

“I thought I was going crazy.”

“You remembered?”

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“First things first, you’re going to try and say I told you so and you guys going to get all weird but I don’t need that, I need you to be serious.”

“Okay.” They both replied.

“Ever since the accident I’ve been in this really weird place. I remember everything about the crash, I even remember the feeling of them cutting into me, piecing me back together. I don’t know how but I do. I used to close my eyes and see it over and over again and then after I finished that nightmare, the ones with Jackson started. It became this terrible loop and I felt it draining the life from me. I stayed close to Bucky because he made me feel normal, he reminded me that I’m a good person and that I’m not going crazy. And even though he couldn’t always keep the nightmares away, when I jolted awake, scared out of my mind, I had someone to grab onto, someone to root me back down. He reminded me that that wasn’t real. And the truth is I can’t imagine my life without him. And I know that puts me in a hard place because he’s on the show and I’m his friend, but um….I had this dream. And you can’t judge me for it, but I saw a glimpse of me and him. It was a kiss, a really good kiss but it was...everything. And even though the kiss was a dream it somehow felt real. I mean I know it wasn’t, Bucky and I had never kissed before, but in the dream it felt familiar, like we had before. And I’m not going crazy because it did happen. I just didn’t remember.”

“So what are you going to do now?” Wanda asked.

“I don’t know. Obviously he doesn’t remember either, otherwise he would have said something.”

“But what if he didn’t?”

“Just because I know I’m not crazy anymore, is not going to change the situation that we’re in now.”

“It changes everything. You had a dream of being with him and it was trying to remind you that you had kissed him before. Just walk over to him and do it again.”

“No. The only thing that changes is that I shouldn’t get drunk around him.”

“Come on. People don’t have sex dreams about their best friend and just stay best friends.”

“It wasn’t a sex dream, it was one kiss.” I lied.

“Either way, this confirms that you have feelings for him, ones that he needs to know about.”

“Do you love him?” Peggy said, her first time chiming in. She looked like she understood what I was thinking but at the same time she had this look in her eyes that made me want to tell her yes, to scream it so that everyone could know.

“I—” I had planned on telling both of them how much I was in love with Bucky, that was until I saw a very familiar face, one that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Ladies, I come baring drinks.” The man said carrying four chutes of champagne.

My jaw hit the floor. He passed a drink to Peggy first and then Wanda, saving his last glance for me.

“Y/N?” He looked just as surprised as I was.

“Michael.”

“Y/N.” Then he did the unexpected. He moved the few feet, that had been the only thing between us, grabbed me in his arms, as best as he could, and kissed me just as passionately as he did when we had been together…eight years ago.

I pulled away from him first, completely startled by the fact that the first man who I had ever loved was kissing me again.  

“Michael.” I whispered, having a sudden flash of everything that we had had and of course our eventual break up.

“What are you doing here?” He asked me.

“Hold on! How does my brother know who you are?” Peggy asked me.

“Your brother?!”

“How do you know Peggy?” He asked.

“I...I thought I would never see you again.”

“Yeah.”

“Excuse me.” I whispered and hurried off as fast as my crutches would take me.

BUCKY’S POV

I walked in right as Michael kissed Y/N. Not only was I completely shocked but the confidence I had just had was completely gone.

I had no idea how Y/N knew Michael, I had no idea if this was something new or something old or something that had been going on for a while, but she looked pretty startled when she pulled away from him.

There were a lot of confused faces and questions being thrown around to each other as Y/N just looked like she wanted to burst into tears. Suddenly she started to walk away from the group, going as fast as her crutches would take her. I watched as she went, knowing that she would need someone to talk to, just like I had needed when I saw Nat again that first day of filming. So I pushed everything else aside and would try my hardest to be there for Y/N because that was what she needed right now...a friend.

YN’S POV/ MICHAEL’S POV (Bolded)

The plus side to having an engagement party in a mansion was the fact that this mansion had a pool, which was on the opposite side of where the party was happening.

So I took off my one shoe and moved my dress out of the way before I placed my foot in the cold water, needing the distraction to ease my mind.

Not only was it too crazy that I almost admitted out loud that I was in love with Bucky, which was something I’m sure I couldn’t take back, but Michael was here.

“Hey.” I heard and turned around to see bucky. He moved to sit on the ground next to me, unbuttoning his jacket, removing his socks and shoes and rolling up the legs of his pants so that he could put his feet in the water too.

“Hey.”

“I saw you rush out of there.”

“Yeah.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“Just something else to add to the crazy.”

“How crazy are we talking?”

“Michael...he was the first boyfriend I had after my marriage.”

“Michael Carter?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.” I looked at him, glared at him really.

“Is that all you can say?”

“Honestly, it’s not that crazy.”

“To you maybe. He was the first man I ever loved.”

“What happened?”

“I’m only going to ask one more time, how do you know Y/N?” Peggy asked. She was the little sister and yet she always knew how to make me feel small.

Y/N had just stormed out of the house and honestly I felt bad for kissing her. I had no idea if she was seeing anyone or if she even wanted to see me again. God knows she had the right to be angry with me.

“What happened Michael?” She asked again.

“I left New York behind...you know, after Jackson and my grandmother. The plan had been to move to LA and try to figure things out. I started school at UCLA and worked on my Costume Design degree as long as I could...but I just couldn’t do it. I honestly hated living in LA, which is crazy now, but I hated it before. So I transferred without telling Asa and my dad.”

“To UT Austin right?”

“Yeah. And even though Austin was a crowded city it was so much better than LA. I think the biggest part was that maybe LA, so soon after living in New York, reminded me too much of them. So I lived in Austin all throughout college and somewhere in between I got this incredible job on campus dressing for the touring shows that came in to use the campus’ performance hall.”

“Well you know that I moved to Austin to be with my girlfriend and I got a job working at this theatre on the UT campus. I was exploring the other side of sound design and thought that working the touring shows would finally help me break through the design block I was in. So I would help these touring crews load in there sound equipment and I would program the board and help them put on mics during the show. And then my girlfriend broke up with me, leaving me alone in Austin at a job that I found surprisingly great but far away from home.”

“So I went to class and then went to work, finally doing something that I loved; Wardrobe. It wasn’t that I hated Costume Design, but I don’t guess I liked either. After I started this job I told my advisers that I didn’t want to do anything else. And so they made sure to give me more jobs with the touring shows, hoping that the people I would meet would give me opportunities to do exactly what I loved. I was working Next to Normal, super small show, but that’s where I met Michael.”

“2010, Next to Normal, that’s where I saw Y/N for the first time. She was in all black and honestly the most beautiful person I had ever seen. She was working with there Wardrobe Supervisor at the gondolas, which is where they keep all the clothes, and I was plugging in the power strips to light them. We hadn’t had the chance to put the curtains up yet to make the changing area private but she didn’t see me and ran into me when she walked out.”

“I was collecting laundry from the gondolas, that’s where they keep the costumes when they travel, and I was walking out of area and he bumped into me while he was plugging in the powers strips. I dropped the clothes that I had in my arms and he helped me pick everything up and then I rushed away from him.”

“You ran away from him?”

“I was nervous, he made me nervous.”

“But she ran away from me after I helped her pick up the clothes she had dropped.”

“She ran away from you?”

“Yeah. But anyway, after that we didn’t really speak to each other. We both worked the next couple of shows but I just was under the impression that she didn’t like me because every time I tried to talk to her she ran away.”

“We did work the next couple of shows together which made things super awkward, but with everything that had happened with Jackson I just got worried when he kept popping up and trying to talk to me.”

“So I stopped trying to go after her. I needed the job more than anything, so I focused on that.”

“He stopped trying to talk to me, and honestly I needed the job and the experience so I forgot about him.”

“Until the Summer…”

“Until the Summer…”

“The theatre I had been working at, usually didn’t do things over the summer, so I started looking into other theaters around the area, knowing that I didn’t have the option but to fulfill the rest of my lease period. So I started working at Zilker Hillside Theatre. They do a couple of shows in the park over the summer and eventually it would roll over past the summer and give me a shot at doing some work for ACL, Austin City Limits, you know one of the big music festivals.”

“I was taking a few classes over the summer to help make up what hadn’t transferred and decided to do something really fun so I started working at this outdoor theatre at Zilker Park. And I don’t know if it was fate or just coincidence, but he was there working the same shows, again.”

“And somehow she was there, again. So this time instead of pushing it off I went up to her and said what I had wanted to say before.”

“He walked up to me and started saying all of these things to me, things that I didn’t even know that he was thinking about. I mean we had really only met once and he ran into me, it didn’t give occasion to conversation. So I listened to what he had to say and honestly I was surprised. He was talking about how beautiful I looked that first day and how frustrating I had been every other time.”

“I may have said some nasty things. She was just so frustrating.”

“But then he asked me out.”

“But I still asked her out.”

“And surprisingly enough...I said yes.”

“And by some miracle, she said yes.”

“So we had lunch, because work usually went late and everything closed by the time we were done for the night. He took me to get street tacos and we sat at a picnic table and talked. It wasn’t super romantic or anything too out there for a date, but it was nice getting to know him.”

“I took her to a food truck to get street tacos. I know it's not the most romantic thing but I really just wanted a chance to get to know her better. So we sat at a picnic table and talked until it was time for us to go to work that night. And honestly it was surprising to me, how much I liked her.”

“He drove me to work later that night and honestly despite the way that I felt about him, I wasn’t sure about seeing him again. And I told him that the next time I saw him.”

“Only she had doubts. She told me that she liked me but she was nervous and standoffish the next time we saw each other. So I came up with a plan to show her that I was serious about seeing her again.”

“I didn’t think that he would do anything. I guess at that point in my life, with no family around and really no friends, my accent was still pretty strong back then, I was so terrified of everything that happened with Jackson that I didn’t want to get involved with him. But he didn’t take no for an answer. He was convinced that he could get me out on a second date, it only took me a week to say yes to him.”

“Everyday for the next week I gave her some sort of present, some way to show her that I was serious about taking her out again. I bought her flowers, chocolates, authentic Russian foods, I even bought her a new flashlight because hers was just terrible.  And after a week of trying to convince her to say yes to a second date, she finally said yes.”

“I tried to say no to him, thinking it would be easier that way, I figured my past would always be too much for anyone. But then he started doing all of these sweet things for me, bringing me presents, food on the late nights, even a new flashlight because he said mine sucked. But, I don’t know, I guess that because he was willing to do so much for me, he convinced me that he deserved a second chance. So at the end of the week I finally said yes.”

“And it was as if things...clicked. She so easily became the center of my world.”

“We spent all of our time together after that. We just got so wrapped up in each other, it was truly a whirlwind summer romance.”

“It didn’t take me long to fall in love with her…”

“It didn’t take me long to fall in love with him…”

“We made it three months before everything changed.”

“And then everything changed.”

“You called me and told me that Bucky had been in that terrible accident. So I picked up everything and moved back to London just like mom had asked.”

“He said that a friend of his had been in a terrible accident and that he had to go back home.”

“Of course, I told her that I would stay in touch and that I would see her again.”

“He told me that he would stay in touch and that I would see him again.”

“But life caught up with me. Once Bucky moved in with us, it just became too easy with the time difference and the new job and all the new life in the house to forget about Austin and about Y/N.”

“He stopped talking to me, stopped trying to make it work and eventually we just stopped all together. Didn’t really need a break-up because it didn’t even last a week after he left. We never spoke again.”

“We didn’t make it a week long distance. I never spoke to her again.”

“I did love him, but there was always this creeping suspicion that it wasn’t going to last. Maybe it was the fact that he was my first boyfriend, despite the fact that I had been married before, or maybe it was because we weren’t in love as much as I thought we were.”

“I did love her, and I really did think that we were going to last. Maybe if I had stayed and kept us in our small little bubble, we would have lasted. Seeing her here makes me wonder why I ever left her. It’s like fate brought us back together.”

“How do you feel now?” Bucky asked me.

“Honestly, it’s nice to see him…”

“But?”

“But when he kissed me…”

“Nothing?”

“Not like it was before. Eight years too late I guess.”

“Eight years…”

“Yeah...why?”

“Oh my god.”

“What?”

“I’m the reason you guys broke up.”

“What?”

“Eight years ago...that’s when my accident happened.”

“Eight years ago?” I was thinking about everything that I knew and there were some things that weren’t adding up.

“Yeah...that’s when it happened. I stayed in London for a few years, went to a clinic for my depression and once I was mentally healthy I started having these ideas for prosthestics. I went to New York first to try to find someone to develop my idea and when that didn’t happen I moved to the next major city, working my way west until I stopped in LA. I met Tony and started developing the idea and halfway through the project he told me that I needed to go to physical therapy to build up the muscles in what was left of my shoulder. I met Luna the first time about six years after the accident, she was about four, and the rest is history.”

“Sorry, the way you talk about it makes it seem like…”

“Like it just happened?”

“Like your recovery was a lot faster.”

“I wish it had been. The past eight years have been really hard and it took me a long time to get here. You know that’s why I auditioned for the show, though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I wanted a quick way to meet people outside of the hospitals and the labs and have someone who hadn’t or wasn’t currently working with my family or friends to make me normal again. That and the girls in real life didn’t want to date a man with a metal arm.”

“Bucky, you are normal. Just because you have a metal arm doesn’t make you any less normal. And they’re stupid for not seeing how amazing you are.”

Having a second to look at each other, now noticing just how close we were sitting, I turned to look at him, seeing that he was already looking at me. Our faces couldn’t have been but a few inches away from each other and I tried to take in a breath without him noticing.

I thought about what Peggy had said, the fact that we had kissed, which meant that I wasn’t crazy, which meant that my dream meant that I wanted to kiss him again? Now I was overthinking.

The truth of it all was that he was inches from me and I wanted to kiss him and it almost seemed like he did too. I moved forward just a bit and he did too.

“Y/N, I need to tell you something…”

“Okay.” We didn’t move away from each other, he took in a breath, licked his lips and opened his mouth to say what he needed to…

“I—”

“Y/N?”

The whole world stopped.

That voice hadn’t been Bucky’s and I really didn’t want to leave this moment, but…

I pulled away first, the curiosity getting the better of me, and looked over to see Michael looking at me, hopefully not seeing what almost happened since we were at such a weird angel.

“Michael.”

“If you have a second I would love to talk to you.”

“Sure. Give me a second.” I looked over at Bucky before I moved to stand. “You were going to say something?”

He opened his mouth to say something but closed his mouth before he, I think, could say what he actually wanted to say. Instead he said, “You really do look incredible...just stunning.”

“Thank you. You look very handsome too. I’m a sucker for a navy suit.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah.” Was all I could think of to say back.

So instead of the both of us saying what we wanted to say, I moved my foot out of the pool and did what I could to dry off my foot before I put my shoe back on. Bucky pulled his feet out but stood and moved to help me up before he even thought about his shoes. He grabbed my crutches and held them out for me, being the perfect gentlemen and friend, once again helping me.

“Thanks.”

“I’ll see you inside.” He said, before he bent down and tried his best to dry his feet off.

I moved across the backyard area to Michael, mine and Bucky’s moment officially having died.

BUCKY’S POV

As soon as I was able to get my feet dried off I put my shoes back on and went back inside to the party.

I felt like an idiot.

I should have said something to her while I had the chance and yet here I was putting my wet feet into dry socks, admitedly the worst feeling, and walking back into the crowded room while Y/N was probably laughing it up and falling back in love with Michael Carter.

I walked over to Steve whose smiling face fell when he saw my expression.

“That doesn’t look like the face of a man who finally admitted to the girl he loved that he loved her. You froze, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t freeze...I was interrupted.”

“Sure.”

“I was...by Michael.”

“By Michael? Carter?”

“Yeah, apparently Michael was Y/N’s first love while he was living in Austin. She was in school and they both worked for the same theatre.”

“This is a sign.”

“What that she belongs with him? You’re supposed to be on my side, just because you’re marrying Peggy—“

“No, if they were together while he was in Austin that also means that he left her behind in Austin when he came back home to help us out with you.”

“I’m not getting a point here.”

“She wasn’t meant to be with him. If it was meant to work out it would have worked out. But instead he forgot all about her.”

“I’m still not getting the ‘sign.’”

“Not a sign for him, a sign for you, to tell her.”

“She doesn’t like him like that anymore.”

“But can you say that he doesn’t like her?”

“She doesn’t want to get back with him.”

“That’s never stopped him before.”

Then I thought about the way he made her say yes to a second date, how she hadn’t wanted to pursue him and yet she still managed to say yes to him.

I had to do something, but I didn’t know what.

I stayed close to Steve and Peggy as the party continued, waiting for Y/N and Michael to come back from wherever they were talking. And when she did, she didn’t look happy. She headed straight for the champagne.

I walked over to her and I saw relief flash over her face when she saw that it was me, but nothing but worry grew on my face when I saw the tears that were threatening to spill over.

I placed my hand on her back and led her to stand behind a wall that would shield us from the wondering eyes of Peggy’s family. I had my back against the wall and I wrapped her in my arms letting her head come to rest against my chest and her just taking in deep breaths.

“Thanks for stealing me away.” She said after sometime.

“It looked like you needed someone to hide with.” And then she laughed. It was the most magnificent sound.

“God, I’m a mess aren’t I?”

“A beautiful mess.”

“Thanks.”

“No, but seriously, it’s just been a rough couple of weeks, it’ll get better.”

“I’m not so sure about that one.”

“Michael isn’t a big problem, not after Jackson.”

“Yeah.”

“Just tell him exactly what you feel, tell him whether or not you want to see him again—”

“I don’t.”

“Then tell him to leave you alone.”

“But he’s Peggy’s brother, she’s my best friend, I feel I should be a little nicer than that.”

“Then tell him that you don’t want to see him in a romantic way again. It’s been eight years, he can’t just expect you to have waited for him.”

“You’re right.”

“Maybe just this once. Ready to go back?”

“Sure…”

“That didn’t sound very sure.”

“Just take me back before I change my mind.”

So we walked back into the room and joined Peggy and Steve, who were later joined by Wanda and Vision.

And just like that, the night went on.

Once Peggy’s parents saw that Steve and Peggy stayed in the room long enough to do the things that they wanted, the more official part of the party started. Her parents talked about what Peggy was like as a kid and how from a very young age she always showed signs of becoming a lawyer. They talked about there love for Steve and how he had already become part of the family and they told everyone how excited they were to have him officially in the family.

Then it was my turn.

They finished there speech with a toast, everyone taking a sip from there champagne glasses. I met them up at the front of the room where they both greeted me before I took over.

“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is James Barnes. I have known Steve my whole life and I figured that I should probably say something on behalf of his side of the family. But yeah...growing up with this kid, I thought I had been good to go on this whole best man speech deal, but I will say that Steve did ask me not to bring up any embarrassing stories, any ex-girlfriends, or really anything else that I had originally planned on talking about. So that really left me with nothing. Instead I need the extra time to come up with something as mind blowing as a best man speech so until then I just have something quick to read. So…”

I pulled a piece of paper out of my jacket, something I had been holding on to for a very long time.

“‘To my son,

I’m sorry I couldn’t be here today, God knows I wanted to. There were so many things that I never got to do with you, so many things that I never got to say, but no matter, what you were always my pride and joy. When I found out I was pregnant with you I couldn’t remember a happier day, I remember the smile on your father’s face when I finally told him and I remember all the plans that we had for you, even before you were bigger than a peach. But the realization that you were actually coming hadn’t hit me until I lost your father. I was so terrified by the thought of raising you alone, heartbroken and alone, and yet that all changed the second I met you. There had been no instruction manual, no one to tell me how to raise a child, and yet somehow I didn’t completely mess it up. I know that I made mistakes with you, I know that there were times that you hated me and that just came with the territory of being a mom. But everything I ever did was because I loved you.

But there will come a day when you decide that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone and I know I won’t be there for you. I know it will be hard and I know that it won’t seem fair that I couldn’t stick around, but just know that I am always with you. And because I know you, I know that Peggy will be your wife someday. And if she is anything like you describe than I know that you’ll be okay. (Bucky, if he doesn’t end up with her please don’t read that)’” I stopped and everyone laughed.

“She was always smart and probably knew well before they did that they would get married one day. But anyway back to the letter. ‘So don’t worry about messing up or worry about the little things that make life seemingly hard. That’s what you have each other for and at the end of the day, no matter what happens, everything will be alright. So love each other, grow together, enjoy the life you have together, because at the end of the day all that matters is the life that you spend with her.

So make every moment count. I know I did.

I will always love you,

You mother’”

There was clapping after I finished the letter and I had to wipe away a tear before it had the chance to fall down my face.

“Steve, you mother gave me that letter the last time I saw her. She said that I would read this to you when I thought the time was right and I guess if and when you decided to get married to Peggy. So Steve and Peggy, not only has it been the greatest privilege getting to be your friends but it has been an honor getting to watch the two of you fall in love with each other. From friends, to more than friends, and soon as husband and wife. You two are proof that two people can love each other so deeply that words just can’t describe it; soulmates as close as it would get. I know that your mother wanted to be here, she would have loved to see you marrying Peggy, and as fate would have it, your mother somehow thought I would be the best person for all of this.” The room laughed. “So I promise to be there for you guys in any way you could need me and I promise to keep your mother’s memory alive as best as I can.” I lifted my champagne flute towards the ceiling.

“To Steve and Peggy.” Everyone repeated after me and took a sip from their flutes. I moved away from the front of the room and walked over to Steve. He immediately grabbed me in a big hug.

“Thank you.” He said, with tears running down his face.

“Don’t thank me, this was all her.”

“God I miss her.”

“I do too.”

He pulled away from me and Peggy’s mom went back up to announce that cake would be served now and that the rest of the night would consist of dancing and mingling. Of course Steve and Peggy had a few presents to open, leaving the four of us to fend for ourselves again.

Wanda and Vision went to the makeshift dance area, leaving me with Y/N.

“Your speech was really great.”

“Thank you. I had to wait a long time for those two to get together.”

“Really?”

“You want to dance?”

“Are you going to explain to me what happened?”

“Let’s dance.”

“Okay.” I grabbed her crutches, propping them up against the wall and lead her over to where everyone else was dancing, holding up most of her weight as we moved. I wrapped my left arm around her waist, holding her off her bad foot, and held her hand in mine. She moved her empty hand to my neck. “So?”

“Steve has always been in love with Peggy. When we were in high school, Peggy’s father moved the family to New York to help the family business. We were just starting our freshman year of high school and then she walks in, it was almost automatic that they became best friends. She so easily joined our little pack and it was the three of us all throughout high school. Of course she didn’t know that he was in love with her, but we would later find out that she was in love with him too. Nothing ever happened though, until our senior year and Steve finally got the balls to ask her to prom. That’s when it changed, they came back from that dance as boyfriend and girlfriend and the rest is history. All three of us ended up moving to California and her family left New York and went back to the UK and you know the rest.”

“I understand now.”

“Understand what?”

“Why they’re pushing us together.”

“I guess it would make sense, given how long it took them.”

“Yeah.”

It got awkward after that, I didn’t know if I should tell her now, that I loved her, or if it was just poor timing because of the Michael thing. But we just danced and I thought about what I should do and subsequently went through every single outcome of me finally telling her.

“Can we interrupt?” Peggy asked followed by Steve.

“Sure.” I said. I placed Y/N completely back on the ground and let Steve grab her before I started to dance with Peggy.

“So…?” She asked.

“What?”

“Steve told me you were going to tell her tonight.”

“That was before Michael.”

“Leave it to Michael to ruin everything.”

“I wanted to tell her.”

“Then just do it. Drive her home and tell her everything.”

“Did you finish going through the contract?”

“Not yet, I want to make sure I go through everything with a fine toothed comb. So far it’s looking good though.”

“Good, maybe I’ll just tell her once we know for sure. She seemed pretty upset earlier about something Michael said.”

“The most important part is that you tell her.”

“I plan on it, I do.”

“Good...and Bucky?”

“Yeah.”

“Your speech was perfect.”

“You know if people keep telling me that, I’m not going to be able to make an even better speech at the wedding.”

“You better get started now.”

“Sorry I’m going to steal my fiance back now.” Steve said, tapping on my shoulder.

“Where’s Y/N?” He just nodded over in her direction as she danced with Michael.

“I’m going to get a drink.”

Y/N’S POV

I was dancing with Steve, perfectly happy and talking about his mom, when Michael walked up to us.

“Can I cut in?”

“I don’t have anything else to say to you.”

“Please Y/N?” I took a second and looked at Bucky before I looked back at Michael. I just wanted to be done with him.

“Fine.”

So Steve left me alone with him and Michael wrapped me in his arms, the two of us slowly swaying to the music.

“I know you’re mad at me.”

“What gave it away?”

“I know that what I did was wrong, but I feel like it can’t be a coincidence that we’re both here tonight.”

“It is. Peggy is my best friend and the only reason I am talking to you is because I look forward to my friendship with her. Which means that you and I are going to have to be civil towards each other.”

“So this is about Peggy?”

“Of course it is.”

“And what’s happening with you and Bucky?”

“That‘s not what this is about.”

“So you admit that there’s something there.”

“No, I admit that there’s nothing here between us.”

“How can you say that? We loved each other.”

“Loved...past tense.”

“Anyway, I didn’t come over here to argue with you. If you’re willing to to try and make it work between us, non-romantically, than so am I.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I also came to ask a favor.”

“Okay?”

“A lot of my family is staying with Peggy and Steve at their apartment, but the rest of the family is staying at a hotel nearby. Because I flew in so late I wasn’t able to get a room and I was wondering if I could sleep on your couch and maybe we could talk a little bit more about how to make this work.”

“You’re not going to try and make a move on me are you?”

“I would never do that.”

“I have to ask because you always had some move to play against me.”

“I wouldn’t call that a play...more like a romantic gesture.”

“Well now I would call it a play.”

“And like I said I would never do that to you.”

“Fine I guess you can stay over...for Peggy’s sake.”

“I’m leaving town tomorrow, so I’ll try not to be a bother.”

“Okay.”

I looked behind me over at Bucky and waved him over. He came over to me and I put an arm around him so he could move me back over to where my crutches were.

“Thanks.” I said to him.

“Everything okay?”

“Talking to him, just opens up so much that I buried. I thought that everything with Jackson was done and then Michael is related to my best friend and he helped me through a lot of that but I’m so mad at what he did, I don’t even want to look at him. But he’s Peggy’s brother and I can’t ignore him for the rest of my life.”

“Yeah that would be kind of hard.”

“I swear it’s like I’m trying so hard to move on and every other aspect of my life wants me to stay behind.”

“Okay, well Jackson is gone, you don’t plan on seeing Michael again, so you just need to make it through the rest of the week.”

“Just tonight actually, Michael said he’s leaving town tomorrow.”

“Good, you’ll be done with him in time for filming.”

“I guess I can make it one more day.”

“You’re the strongest woman I know.”

“Thanks.”

We went through the rest of the party, couldn’t have been but an hour more, talking to Steve, Peggy, Wanda, Vision and her parents about some of the planning things that needed to be done. They talked about her dress and about finding a venue, whether or not it was going to be in London or in LA, and of course the budget.

Talking about the budget was insane. I knew that Peggy was rich but when it came to her parents paying for the wedding I swear that they must have thought that this was a royal wedding. Peggy tried to keep the budget low, not wanting to do something too big, but her parents ended up saying that they would just “see how it went.” They told Peggy not to worry about price that her and Steve could have anything they wanted.

Which was the perfect way to end that conversation and for Peggy to steal Wanda and I away for a moment.

She brought us into one of the bedrooms downstairs where there were two presents sitting on the bed.

She handed me the flat rectangular one and Wanda the small bag.

“At the same time ladies.”

So I opened the box and inside the box was the second dress that I tried on, the one that they so heavily teased me about. I took the dress out of the box and saw a note card underneath it. It read: I can’t tie the knot without you. Will you be my Maids of Honor?

I looked over at Wanda who had the same notecard as me and we both smiled back at Peggy.

“Of course.” I said first.

“I would love to.” Wanda said after me.

We both stepped forward and brought Peggy into a group hug.

“So what do you think of your presents?”

I held up the dress and held it up against me.

“No matter what you guys said about it, this was always a great dress. Thank you. What did you get Wanda?”

“Well I got movie vouchers, a gift card for a very fancy restaurant and a gift card for a lingerie store.”

“Third date essentials.”

“Oh my god.” She said with a laugh.

“It would seem that someone is more concerned with getting us laid than anything else.”

“Well it wouldn’t hurt.”

“You’re crazy.” I said, folding the dress back up and neatly putting it in the box.

“Crazy about you guys...my maids of honor.”

“This is going to be a long wedding.” I said to Wanda and we both laughed.

“I haven’t even had the chance to practice my bridezilla mode, yet.”

“Let’s hope that side doesn’t come out.” Wanda said. 

“We still have a long time before the big day.”

“I just can’t see you as a bridezilla.” I commented. 

“Honestly me either, but I think I should at least do it once...for the experience.”

“Let’s go back to the party.” Wanda and I just laughed at her and then made our way back over to the boys with gifts in hand.

“Hey.” Steve said to Peggy.

“Well now that the girls are back and your mom has released me from my duties for the night, I am going to head home. I’ve got to be up for filming super early because they cancelled the scenes I was supposed to shoot for the party.” Bucky said to the group.

“Well thanks for being here, I know it was hard to move around your schedule.” Steve said giving him a hug and then Bucky moved to Peggy, giving her one too.

“I wouldn’t have missed it.” Then he turned to Vision and Wanda. “Vision it was nice to meet you and Wanda, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He shook Vision’s hand again and gave Wanda a hug.

“Bright and Early.” She said. Then he turned to me. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the side of my head.

“I will also see you tomorrow.” He said to me.

“Not bright and early though, because I will be at the studio.”

“Still tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

Bucky left after that and it didn’t take long for Wanda, Vision and I to want to duck out too. I was hugging Steve goodbye when Michael walked over to us, clearly waiting to follow me home.

Peggy looked at my strangely and came over to me as Wanda and Vision said goodbye to Steve.

“You know that dress, the one that you look hot in?”

“You gave it to me.”

“If I find out you wore that for my brother, I’m never going to talk to you again.”

“I don’t plan on it.”

“Good, because that is strictly for you and Bucky to enjoy.”

“Whatever you say.”

“It is my life goal to see the two of you together.”

“That’s low, you’re a top rated lawyer and your number one goal is getting me—”

“I was being sarcastic...mostly.”

“Shut up.” I pulled her into my arms and gave her a hug before the three of us started to walk away, Michael following close behind us.

I turned to Michael as I climbed into the car.

“You can just follow us.”

“Okay.” He walked over to his car leaving me alone with Wanda and Vision.

“What are you doing?” Wanda asked as soon as we were alone and driving.

“At the moment? Sitting in your car.”

“No...I mean with Michael.”

“There is nothing going on there. He needs a couch to sleep on and he asked me if he could sleep on mine. And in the interest of continuing my friendship with Peggy I have decided to curb my hatred for him to try to be civil, for Peggy’s sake.”

“You hate him?”

“Of course I hate him! God, he broke my heart. I loved him and he disappeared. I tried for days to hear from him to get any sign that he was even alive and despite the time difference he could have at least texted and told me that he landed or made it home or really anything. I can’t even tell you the amount of times I just assumed that Jackson had gotten to him. It finally got so bad that I called Asa and told him everything. That I left UCLA, moved to Austin, and everything about Michael. I was so paranoid that I begged Asa to find something to make sure that Jackson hadn’t done anything to him.  You want to know what it took to make sure he was okay?”

“What?”

“One phone call, to his mother. That was all it took to verify that he was alive and that I had gone crazy.”

“Y/N, you didn’t go crazy. I mean you were married to a psychopath, I probably would have assumed that he had something to do with it too.”

“I spent so much time after he left trying to come up with scenarios that he was ok. I even blamed myself thinking I had said something in my texts or in my voicemails but I couldn’t come to terms with the fact that he just stopped talking to me. That’s what my grandparents and Jackson did to me, they made me second guess everything. So yes I hate him for reminding me of exactly what happened to me and for making me fall in love with him when I never wanted to and for being Peggy’s brother. I have to relive everything when I see him, so don’t think for one second that this is something that I want to do. This is something I have to do to be friends with Peggy.”

“I’m sorry.” She said. “Do you want me to stay with you tonight?”

“No, I feel like yelling and I know my neighbors wouldn’t appreciate that so I’m just going to go to bed and hope for the best tomorrow. And you have to be at work early.”

“You’re my best friend and if you need me I’m there.”

“Unfortunately I think I need to do this alone.”

“Ok. But I’m bringing you coffee in the morning.”

“Well I won’t stop you from doing that.” Her and Vision both laughed at me.

They dropped me off in front of my apartment after I let Clyde know that I had someone sleeping over tonight. I got out of the car and waved goodbye before they drove away. I started making my way up the stairs as Michael parked his rental; he quickly came up behind me.

“Let me help you.” He put his hands on my arms, but I pulled away from him.

“I’m fine.”

“Okay.”

He stayed behind me as I made my way upstairs and waited for me to unlock the door. I immediately walked into my bedroom and grabbed some spare sheets and a pillow for him, placing them on the couch.

“I know that you’re mad at me but I would really like—”

“I don’t want to talk right now. I am exhausted and there are a lot of things that have to be said, so I’m going to wait to do this in the morning where I am less likely to get the cops called on me.”

“Okay.”

Then I left him alone in the living room, closing the door behind me. I got undressed, putting on the coziest pajamas I owned, and wiped off my makeup before I climbed into bed. I grabbed my phone and looked at it, wanting to talk to Bucky, just to feel less mad, but decided against texting him because he was probably asleep.

I plugged it in and set it down on my bedside table but picked it back up when it buzzed.

BUCKY: You awake?

YN: Unfortunately

BUCKY: Just wanted to make sure you got home okay I smiled at the text before I responded, automatically feeling better.

YN: I did. Thanks

BUCKY: Are you in bed?

YN: Yeah. Trying to calm myself down, the whole Michael thing has me pretty mad.

BUCKY: I’m sorry.

YN: It’s not your fault he’s an idiot

BUCKY: I bet I can distract you

YN: Can you?

BUCKY: What are you wearing? 😏

I stared at the text for a long time. He didn’t mean what I thought he meant by that, right? He couldn’t possibly think that sexting me was going to distract me or make me feel any better.

BUCKY: Y/N?

BUCKY: Hey I was just kidding. Just trying to be funny. I obviously took it too far. I’m sorry.

YN: It’s okay. I’m just going to go to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

BUCKY: Goodnight Y/N

YN: Goodnight Bucky

I put my phone back on the bedside table and turned away from it, opting to not answer any more texts.

I woke up to my alarm and hesitantly picked up the smell of food being cooked...in my kitchen. I climbed out of bed and walked out into the living room, seeing that Michael wasn’t sleeping but in my kitchen cooking food.

“Good morning.” He called out. I walked over to him.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m cooking you breakfast. I was hoping to get done before you woke up so I could bring it to you, but since you’re already here, grab a seat and I’ll serve you.”

“No.”

“Y/N, you sure do make it hard for a man to woo you.”

“Woo me? Letting you stay with me was nothing more than me being nice. This was never about you getting the opportunity to wiggle your way back into my life.”

“I know that you’re mad at me, but I came here to win you back. To show you that I’m different now and I can be better than I was before. I just need you to give me—”

“No. I hate you! You don’t get to just show up after eight years and find me waiting for you. You left and never talked to me again. I thought you were dead, I thought my ex-husband had killed you, I thought so many things trying to come up with some explanation for why you would completely give up on something good. And I never got one!”

“There were things happening—”

“No! That’s not an excuse for not letting someone you love know that you were okay! And the fact that you would ever think that I would give you another chance is absolutely ridiculous.”

“It’s not that ridiculous. What we had was good. We loved each other and I know I messed up, but I still love you and if you could give me a second chance I feel that I could prove to you that you can love me again too.” He reached out to hold my face in his hands but I pulled away.

“No. No, I...I can’t. You broke my heart and every time I see you I think of everything that I’ve ever been through. You were the first person that I loved after the nightmare that my ex-husband made me live. I will always be grateful that you helped me through that, even though you had no idea, but I never want to see you again. And I know that’s not possible because we are both a part of Peggy’s life, but dating you again would be a mistake. If the boy I loved is still in there than I know that you deserve to be happy but I’m the last person who could ever make you happy.”

“I just don’t believe that.”

“Well you’re going to have to.”

“What can I do to convince you?”

“There’s nothing you can do!”

“I still love you!”

“I’m in love with someone else!”

I took in a deep breath. I just said that out loud. And God if it wasn’t the best feeling in the world. I felt like everything had just amplified to even a higher level. I felt like there was nothing in the world that could bring me down. I tried my hardest to hide the smile that came to my lips.

“Is it Barnes?”

“You don’t get to know. You have no right to my life anymore and you need to leave.”

“So that’s it? You’re going to give up on what we had?” I ushered him back to the living room where he started to collect his things.

“That’s it. And I’m pretty sure you did that.”

“Yeah but I made a mistake.”

“Yeah you did because I’m awesome and you have to live with the fact that you lost something amazing. And now I am in love with someone else and he is...incredible and everything I could ever want.”

“That’s great.” He mumbled.

“And I need you to leave so that I can get ready for work.”

“Right.”

He gathered his things in his bag and headed for the door, I following him. He opened the front door of the apartment and I held the door as he turned around to look at me one last time.

“I’m never going to forget you.”

“My advice...please do. I was serious before and even though I hate you, you do deserve to be happy. So forget about me and find someone who can actually do that for you, because it’s not me.”

“Goodbye Y/N.”

“Goodbye Michael.”

Then I closed the door behind him, physically and metaphorically. What a great way to start the morning.

BUCKY’S POV

I pulled up to Y/N’s apartment with two cups of coffee in the drink holders and a practiced apology in my head.

Before I sent that text I knew it had been a bad idea and yet I had still sent it. But I figured at the very least I could bring her a cup of coffee and try to make it right, knowing that we both had a long day ahead of us and knowing that I felt so bad about that text that I barely slept.

I pulled up to an empty parking spot opposite of where I saw Y/N’s car parked and climbed out, reaching for the cups of coffee. But I heard voices coming from one of the apartments and looked up instead of grabbing the coffees. I saw Y/N in her pajamas talking to someone with a bag slung over there shoulder, door opened, as if the two were saying goodbye. She turned back and went inside, closing the door behind her. When the man turned around you could say I was pretty upset?

What was Michael doing at Y/N’s apartment?

PART TEN 

Tell Me What You Think Here

Tags: @fangirl1802, @seargantbcky, @lust-for-pan, @38leticia, @barnes-and-noble-girl, @karipaleta, @capandbuck, @camillechan, @findacauseandserveit, @audasia25, @kendallefire , @alicerozenju, @snuggleducky, @mell-bell, @lifeasabookbutterfly, @the-red-world-of-jess-chibi, @iamwarrenspeace, @ssweet-empowerment, @chook007 , @juliagolia87, @jjsoccer11, @smol-flower-kiddo, @mrsdaamneron, @isaxhorror, @barnesism

[your-modern-shakespeare]

A Little Too Real (6)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 4.5, Part 5

Summary: RealityTV!AU- You are a wardrobe supervisor for a popular TV network. The show is planning a reality TV show like the bachelor and Bucky is the newest contestant. But as the competition starts he realizes that he doesn’t like any of the girls…on the show anyway.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (eventual)

Word Count: 5066

A/N: So I know that this is a long time coming but I hope that this is good. I’ve had a big writer’s block problem but I feel like I’m getting past it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Warnings: angst, a little fluff, hospital stuff, mentions of injury, car crash details, I don’t know what else

Tags: @fangirl1802, @seargantbcky, @lust-for-pan, @38leticia, @barnes-and-noble-girl, @karipaleta, @capandbuck, @camillechan, @findacauseandserveit, @audasia25, @kendallefire , @alicerozenju, @snuggleducky, @mell-bell, @lifeasabookbutterfly, @the-red-world-of-jess-chibi, @iamwarrenspeace

Y/N’S POV

I remember the car accident, that wasn’t the problem. It was how bad I wanted to wake up, but couldn’t. The accident played in a loop in my head, over and over again and I had no understanding of what was happening outside of my head.

You know those movies where people get stuck in a coma and leave their bodies and try to figure out why they couldn’t get back and they look in on their loved ones and whatever else happens? That was not this. It was me and my head hashing it out for consciousness.

But just when I thought that I couldn’t take it anymore, I started to hear something else.

“She’s going to be fine. You heard what the doctor said.” Steve?

“It doesn’t make me feel any better, no matter how much he reassures me. I mean look at her, she’s bound to be in a lot of pain.” Hearing Bucky’s voice simultaneously made me feel calmer and more excited. He was here, waiting for me.

“We won’t know until she wakes up.”

“Yeah.”

“She is going to wake up.”

“I know.”

I don’t exactly remember when everything happened, like time of day and how long I had been at the hospital, but according to what Bucky had said, he had stayed up most of the night, waiting for me to wake up. And trying to think really hard about the order of things, I realized that I missed filming and his mother’s birthday party. So not only did I feel bad physically, but also bad emotionally.

It wasn’t until the next day that I woke up and honestly it was terrifying. Apparently it had been too early and I ended up panicking when I started to choke on the tube running down my throat. I don’t know what I would have done if Bucky hadn’t been there.

Very quickly did the nurses come running in to help me, but as I tried to pull the tube out myself, Bucky was there to hold my hands and keep me from hurting myself. I just remember him repeating that I was okay and I just kept my eyes on him as the nurses took out the tube. But also one of things that made waking up early harder was that breathing by myself still hurt like hell. But the nurses also saw that, so instead of just having the tube of oxygen under my nose they gave me a mask that gave me more oxygen to help steady my breathing. The nurses left the room and Bucky started to move away from me, but I grabbed his hand and held it as tight as I could, hoping that he could see on my face how much I needed him to stay by my side.

He moved his hand to wrap around mine and gave me a small smile.

“I’m not going anywhere.” He said. He let go of my hand just for a second so that he could move the chair back over to the side of the bed before sitting down and grabbing my hand again.

The nurses came back in, a lot sooner than expected, giving me some pain medication that made me very tired. As much as I didn’t want to go back to sleep it was too hard to keep my eyes open. Right before I passed out I wrapped my hand back around Bucky’s so that, hopefully, he wouldn’t leave me while I slept. I didn’t want to be alone.

BUCKY’S POV

I couldn’t get her terrified look out of my head. She looked so lost and scared and she, without saying anything at all, begged me to stay by her side, to not leave her alone. So that’s what I did.

Steve came and went, Peggy came by and dropped off a bag of personal items from her apartment, and my mom kept calling non stop wanting information about my “friend.” She didn’t really imply air quotes but it was the way that she said friend that made me think that she thought otherwise.

Anyway, though Y/N didn’t have the tube down her throat anymore they did have her hooked up to an oxygen mask to help her get air easier, hopefully put less stress on the torn lung. But the longer that she slept the more worried I grew. I just wanted to know that she was okay, I wanted to take her home and help her feel as normal as possible, help her get back to herself.

The doctor had come in several times to check in on her and he explained to me some of the things that I would have to help her with after her discharge.

For one, she would most likely be in a wheelchair until she had less chest pain, enough to use crutches. I would also have to watch her very closely after we left the hospital for any signs of distress, breathing difficulties, excess pain or anything else that seemed out of the ordinary for someone who tore both her lung and diaphragm, like I knew exactly what that entailed. But overall it made me nervous, not only because I was now put in charge of what happened to Y/N but also because I had to make sure that she didn’t die on my watch.

You know, I could handle the broken leg and helping her get around, I mean I had done it with my arm for a long time. But making sure that her lung didn’t recollapse or that her diaphragm doesn’t rupture was a big load to carry on my shoulders. One that I was happy to do, but very nervous about.

So as she slept longer and longer I just watched her and prayed to anybody listening that she would be okay soon. But seeing her like that, just so lost to everything happening, made me kind of into a wreck and I’m pretty sure Steve saw it. He never said anything but he did little things to help me out. Like he brought me clean clothes and coffee and food and every couple of hours he would try to convince me to sleep but I never listened to him.

With that, I never had any reason to leave the room, so I had a lot of time to think about things, especially my latest revelation.

I loved her.

The longer I sat there, the longer I thought about how stupid I had been. Ever since the moment I had met her I knew that there was something special about her. But I had pushed everything down because I had been scared that my feelings would get in the way of us working together. Still, despite my best my efforts, I was hopelessly in love with her and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. But I had almost lost her...I couldn't imagine my life without her and I had almost lost her.

So how would I keep someone as important as her in my life and not tell her that I love her? How would I keep her safe and make her happy without her being mine? How do I move on from here?

I was torn away from my rampant thoughts when I heard a labored intake of breath.

“Y/N?” I called out and moved closer to her side. She was messing with her wires and trying to pull the mask off of her face, she was clearly disoriented.

I grabbed her hands to make sure she didn’t pull anything out, but she pulled her hand out of mine and moved her mask down so that I could hear her better.

“You’re here.”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” I moved the mask back down over her nose and mouth, making sure thats she was breathing again.

I sat by her bedside and told her everything that had happened since I found her in the hospital. So far she hadn’t said anything to me, just listened to everything I had to say, welcoming the distraction. But as I reached the most present instant before her waking up, she took her mask off again and took in a deep breath.

“I’m sorry...I missed—”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m not upset that you weren’t there.”

“You’re a liar.”

“How do you know me so well?” She smiled just a bit before she moved the mask back on her face. “I admit that I was a little upset, but knowing what I know now...I’m just glad that you're okay, because honestly I...I don’t know what my life would be like without you in it.” She grabbed my hand and looked at me like she was happy.

As the next few hours passed she started to breath better and better. She said that there was still some pain in her chest but the doctor said that that would be normal as she healed. And then he got to the good part.

“Mrs. Y/L/N, you’re surgery was very successful and it looks like you’re recovering a lot faster than expected. That being said, your father has asked your friend Mr. Barnes to help with your post-op care.”

“Is there a lot?”

“Well we could keep you here in the hospital and have you under 24/7 watch for the next week, make sure that what we did sticks. Or you can go home and have your friend do it.”

“Is there a lot?”

“I don’t mind helping.” I said to her.

“It’s not that I don’t want you to help, I just want to know much he would have to do.” She said to me and then the doctor.

“He will need to watch you and make sure that you’re breathing. We’ll give you a portable oxygen tank just in case you have any need for it but if something does go wrong, he will be the one to bring you back to the hospital and we will operate again. Other than that, you will need to be in a wheelchair until we can confirm that your diaphragm and lung are healed enough to use crutches. So he will be helping you get around and you may get tired of him being everywhere because he will be for the next couple of weeks. But in six to eight weeks you will get your cast removed. Until then you will need help, so you can not be afraid to ask for his help.”

“I’m not afraid to ask for help.”

“Y/N, I’ve read that people who have major surgery, tend to sink into themselves. They don’t want to burden their friends because they’re scared that they’ll lose them. You’re scared that you’ll ask for too much. So you may not be scared to ask but you’re scared that I’ll turn away from you when you reach that point.” I grabbed her hand and held it in mine. “You have done so much for me, more than I could ever repay, please don’t push me away. I want to help you.”

“You won’t run away from me?”

“No.”

Y/N and I spent the rest of the day hanging out around the hospital and she seemed to be growing stronger and stronger. She was still hooked up to oxygen but the doctors said that there was a big chance that she could go home tomorrow morning.

Steve and Peggy brought by some non hospital food for dinner and the four of us talked and Y/N laughed, even though it was little and it hurt. But it was fun...until the talk took a turn. I’m not sure how we got so serious but it brought up some good points and things that I needed to talk to Y/N about.

So when Steve and Peggy left I got Y/N’s attention and brought up what had been going through my mind.

“I think you should move in with me...during the recovery.” I blurted.

“What?”

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot, kind of like making a mental pros-cons list, so just hear me out. I’m going to have to watch you very closely over the next week and this is serious. I’ve been talking to the doctor and he’s shown me things to look out for and there's a lot that could happen to you and I need you...to be okay.”

“Bucky do you know why I was hesitant at first when the doctor said that you would be the one to help me with my recovery?”

“No, why?”

“You are my best friend. My best friend. I was so excited to see you here because I was hoping that you would do what you did when I woke up. You told me what was happening with everyone, you talked to me like we were at work and while you talked to me I forgot about the images flashing through my head. And then the doctor comes in and starts talking about my recovery and you disappear. I know that you’re worried but I don’t need whoever that was earlier, I need my friend. What’s about to happen...I’m scared.” She took in as deep a breath as she could as the tears started to form in her eyes. “I can feel where they cut into me...what they did to me and I’m scared by what the doctor said because I don’t want anything to happen again. So I don’t need you to be my doctor or my babysitter, I need you to be my friend. I need you to make me forget the accident, I need you to not treat me differently and I need you to support me and keep me breathing. You said you needed me, but I need you, I need you Bucky.”

She had a few tears running down her cheeks and her breathing was ragged, she was clearly upset by what I had said and I felt terrible about it. I grabbed her hand and made sure she was looking at me.

“I'm here for you, whatever you need from me, and I’m sorry if I freaked you out. I’m not trying to change what we have and if you want me to talk your ear off, I’ll talk your ear off. But I’m worried too and I’m scared that I’ll do something wrong and it helps me to think about this as if I know everything that could possibly happen to you. The doctor wants to release you in the morning and I really wanted to get all of this doctor talk and the medical preparations done here so that I don’t have to bring it out of there. Your recovery shouldn’t be about that, so I’ve been preparing now so we don’t have to deal with it later. I know that we are going to be okay because once we get out of this god forsaken hospital everything will go back to semi-normal. We’ll figure things out as we go and we’ll keep everything fun and easy. But most importantly I’m always going to be you’re friend and I’m always going to be here for you. No matter what, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Really?”

“Really.” She took in a deep breath and wiped the tears off her face.

“I’m sorry for exploding like that.”

“It’s okay. All of this is overwhelming, I should have gone a little slower.”

“You’re just trying to help.”

“Yes, but what you’ve been through is traumatic and it will take you some time to adjust. I know for a fact that trying to operate with one leg will be difficult, so at least I know something about that.”

“I’m lucky that you’re helping me.”

“I’m happy I finally get to do something to pay you back. Not that I’m trying to get even but it’s nice to be able to do something for you.”

“You do a lot more than you think.”

“I would love to hear what.”

“It’s my secret.”

“Well, maybe one of these days I’ll get you to tell me. I know that you may not want to think about this right now, but I would feel more comfortable if you would move in with me for the week. I mean, logistically it would be easier to get your wheelchair through my apartment door on the first floor than your door on the second...so that’s the biggest thing. Not that I wouldn’t carry you up to your apartment but I thought it would be easier.”

“That’s fine.”

“And Peggy brought you some clothes so you should be good for at least a couple of days, maybe after work we can swing by your place if you need some more stuff.”

“You guys are too good to me.”

“We’re all here for you. We’re going to get you through this.”

“I know.”

The following morning, Sunday, the nurse helped Y/N get changed into her pajamas and gave her some tips on how to keep her cast as clean possible but as she got ready I left the hospital to get us some real food. Y/N would have to eat before she took her medicine so I figured she would want something other than gross hospital food. So as soon as she was dressed I gave her her food and I loaded my car while she ate. 20 minutes later we were out of there with discharge papers and a very doped up Y/N.

She was pretty quiet the whole ride home but I just chalked it up to the meds. She would usually take these at night so that she could pass out afterwards but the doctor said that she would make it home before that happened today.

I pulled up to my apartment and looked over at Y/N...who was completely passed out against the window. So instead of making a big fuss of the wheelchair, I just decided to carry her in and set her on my bed.

So I walked around to the passenger door, made sure she didn’t fall out when I opened the door, and picked her up. But as soon as I got up to my door I realized that I had no way to open it, so instead I kicked it really hard and hoped my mom would be home.

The door opened and she went to say something but I think she was shocked to see me standing there with a woman in my arms. So she just moved out of the way and let me inside.

“What are you—who is this?” She asked.

“This is Y/N, she’s staying with me for the week so I can make sure she doesn’t die.” I kept walking back to my room and she just followed.

“What?” I kicked open the door to my bedroom and placed Y/N on the bed. I grabbed a few pillows, propped up her leg and put the covers on top of her, making sure that she would have no reason to wake up. As soon as I got her comfortable I met my mom out in the living room where I knew I would hear either harsh words or overexcited personally invasive questions. I figured more of the second.

The first thing to come out of her was a complaint about me not calling her with enough updates but pretty much everything after that was her grilling me about Y/N. Apparently I hadn’t told her enough about Y/N because to her this “obviously seemed like something more.” It took me a while to convince her otherwise and I’m still not really sure she believes me but I needed to focus on Y/N.

So I grabbed my phone and went to sit in the chair in the corner of my room, that way I could keep a close eye on Y/N and so my mom couldn’t walk in and yell at me anymore.

So I just sat and waited, waited for her to wake up...again.

A couple of hours had passed and Y/N had woken up. She was still kind of fuzzy but...she was beautiful. She hadn’t showered, her hair was a mess, she looked exhausted but she was the most beautiful person in the world.

I moved by her side and we talked most of the day. I made her food and I introduced her to my mom...which was very nerve wracking for many reasons and yet they seemed to be getting along greatly. Y/N apologized profusely for missing the party and said that as soon as she could she would make a new batch of birthday pies for us to enjoy. But my mom made sure that she understood that we both didn’t expect anything other than her taking as much time as she needed to heal.

“You know, Bucky didn’t tell me that you would still be here, but I’m glad you are, I wanted the chance to meet you before you left.” Y/N said.

“He didn’t tell you? Yeah I’m staying over for a few days. He works too much and I don’t get to see him enough.”

“So if she’s staying in the guest room and I slept on your bed, where are you sleeping?” She asked me very accusatory.

“I am taking the couch.”

“Bucky—“

“Don’t be like that. I don’t mind.”

“Well I do.”

“Well don’t, I volunteered to help you out and luckily my couch is very comfortable.”

“And if it wasn’t?” She said now amused.

“Well of course I would have to throw you out on the street and just hope that you would make it home.”

“Oh okay, because that sounds exactly like something you would do.”

“Oh yeah.” We were both smiling at the turn of the conversation and I risked a peek at my mom who was just as if not more happy at how the two of us had reacted to our disagreement.

So with that, I tried to make the most out of the time we had left in the day and gave Y/N as much normalcy as possible. We moved out to the living room and just lounged around watching movies and laughing and later my mom made us some dinner. Of course she had a secret agenda but I think I missed her home made food so much that I didn’t even bother to bring it up.

When it was time to go to bed I moved Y/N back into my room, propped her leg back up on the pillows and brought her her new nightly medication.

“So, I will be on the couch if you need me, just call out, I’ll leave the door open.” I turned to leave her for the night but she stopped me.

“Wait, Bucky?” She grabbed my hand. “I don’t want this to be weird but, will you stay with me?”

“Sure. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah..I just don’t want to be alone.”

“This isn’t about me sleeping on the couch is it?”

“No.” She almost looked scared.

“Okay.”

So I walked around to the unoccupied side of the bed and climbed underneath the covers right next to her. She moved so that her head was resting on my chest, her arms wrapped around me, and I couldn’t help but wrap my arms around her, feeling like she needed me to hold her.

“Are you sure everything's okay?”

“I remember everything.” She took in a deep breath. “I don’t want to.”

“I’ll stay as long as you need me to.”

“Thank you.”

“Good night Y/N.”

“Goodnight Bucky.”

STEVE’S POV

It was days like today that I loved. I had the day off, got to spend all of my time with Peggy and we actually fell asleep at a reasonable time.

We were both in a dead sleep until the loud ringtone of my cell woke me up.  I quickly picked it up hoping to not wake Peggy.

STEVE: Hello? I whispered.

WINIFRED: Steve?

STEVE: Hey Winnie, what can I do for you?

WINIFRED: Can you come over here?

STEVE: Is everything okay?

WINIFRED: Yeah I just need you to come over here, if you don’t mind.

STEVE: Sure, I’ll be there in a bit

WINIFRED: Thanks

STEVE: No problem

I hung up the phone completely confused about what was going on.

“What did Winnie want?” Peggy asked.

“She wants me to come over to Bucky’s.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t say.”

“She does know that it’s like one in the morning.”

“She wouldn’t have asked me to come if it wasn’t important.”

“I know.”

“Just go back to bed, I’ll see what’s happening.”

“I’m already awake, it could be something good. I don’t want to miss it.”

“Maybe you're right.”

So we both got dressed and headed over to Bucky's apartment. Winnie must have been waiting for us because we didn’t even get a chance to knock on the door before it swung open.

“It’s about time you got here.” She said, leaving the door open as she marched away.

“We only live ten minutes away.” Peggy said.

We just followed Winnie and she walked towards Bucky’s room...okay, I knew what this was about.

The three of us moved to stand in the doorway of his bedroom, seeing that Y/N and Bucky were sleeping together, arms wrapped around each other, just like a couple would do. Yeah, we definitely knew what this was about.

“What is happening with him? First he tells me that they’re friends, then she is moving in for the week, and now they’re sleeping together.”

“They are friends.” Peggy started.

“But he has feelings for her.” I continued.

“And she has feelings for him.”

“Then why this dance? We should just tell them.” Winnie concluded.

“Well there are some other things that have happened.” I said.

“Like what?”

“Well…” I looked at Peggy and she shrugged. “They kissed at my birthday party, but they don’t remember.”

“Okay.”

“And they work together so I think they’re both trying to keep things professional, you know, because he’s on a reality tv dating show.”

“But if he likes her, and she likes him, then why can’t we tell them? It’s pretty obvious that this is not just friendship.”

“I decided not to tell him.”

“Why?”

“Because of Nat.”

“She was all wrong for him and Y/N—“

“I pushed Bucky to see Nat. He was hesitant about seeing her and I told him that she was good, that all of the doubt that he had about her was just nerves...but he was right. And I pushed him and he was the one who got hurt...badly hurt.”

“But she isn’t Nat.”

“No but he needs to be the one to make the move from friendship to something more. I can’t push him again, give suggestive hints yes, but I can’t do that to him again. I know that he likes her more than he ever did Nat, so I want what they have to last even if it takes a while for them to get there.”

“Well you're sweet to worry about him, but don’t think that I won’t stop trying. If anyone can get through to him it’s me.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”

We didn’t stick around much longer after that. Winnie had made some sweets earlier in the day and loaded us up before we left, apologizing for waking us up. But after that we went back home curled back into our warm blankets and thought that maybe Winnie was right, maybe we did need to do something about this.

Y/N’S POV

The nightmares weren’t that bad last night. Having Bucky with me made me feel less alone, he made me feel less like a victim.

I remember the crash. I remember the song playing on the radio, I remember what I was thinking, who I was thinking about… I remember the feeling of the crash, I remember the crack of my leg, I remember the breath leaving my lungs as if it were impossible to ever breathe again. I remember the pain but most of all I remember the one face I would have given anything to see just one more time.

And I did, I did see him again. That was the first time that I felt relief, the second I opened my eyes and saw his eyes looking right back at me. I tried so hard to talk to him to, to speak around the breathing tube with no luck. But seeing him there was enough.

And then he stayed. He took care of me while I recovered in the daunting room, he spoke to me as if the accident had never happened. For a second I thought that everything was okay that I could handle staying friends with him, despite the thoughts I had had of him before the crash.

And then he changed, he started to talk about taking care of me and he started talking about things that could have fooled me into believing that he cared for me more than he did.

My response to his talk was some of fear, not because of his intentions changing towards me but because I was scared that my intentions would.

Before the crash I knew where we stood and honestly I would do anything to go back there, because I didn’t want to mess this up.

So when Bucky asked me to move in with him I was scared and when I asked him to stay with me last night I couldn’t do anything but hope that my growing feelings wouldn’t break my heart.

But the nightmares...yeah they weren’t bad last night.

Despite the sleep I got, I was still up pretty early. I didn’t dare move though, I wanted the good feeling to last a little longer. I waited and listened to his lungs moving, his heart beating and I couldn’t help but feel that I wanted to stay here. Something had definitely shifted when that car crashed into me, I just didn’t know if it was for the worse or the better.

PART SEVEN 

Tell me what you think here or if you want to be tagged

[your-modern-shakespeare]

A Little Too Real (5)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 4.5

Summary: RealityTV!AU- You are a wardrobe supervisor for a popular TV network. The show is planning a reality TV show like the bachelor and Bucky is the newest contestant. But as the competition starts he realizes that he doesn’t like any of the girls…on the show anyway.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (eventual)

Word Count: 5450

A/N: Long time coming, but it’s here. I don’t have much to say, besides that you guys are awesome and I love you! Enjoy!

Warnings: fluff, sad!bucky, angst, mentions of injury, cliffhanger (sorry)

Tags: @fangirl1802, @seargantbcky, @lust-for-pan, @38leticia, @barnes-and-noble-girl, @karipaleta, @capandbuck, @camillechan, @findacauseandserveit, @audasia25, @kendallefire , @alicerozenju, @snuggleducky, @mell-bell 

WEEK 3

BUCKY’S POV

I had to believe that the new week would bring something good. Not because that last week had been so terrible but the more that I thought about what happened with Y/N the more I wanted to make it up to her.

So, I quickly got ready for the day, putting on jeans and a t-shirt. The drive from my apartment over to Y/N’s wasn’t so bad and I stopped at a little coffee shop along the way, grabbing the two of us some coffee and something to munch on.

I drove up to the front gate of Y/N’s apartment complex, typed in the code that she had used before, and then Clyde waved me through after he recognized me from the first time I had been there. Finding Y/N’s apartment from that point was all muscle memory as I drove to the back building and walked up to the door I had only seen once before, but couldn’t bare to forget. I knocked on her door and was not expecting to see who answered.

“Hey, Barnes.” Tony left the door open as he turned around to go back to the couch. On the coffee table in front of him were two different laptops and it looked kind of like he was programming something.

“What are you doing?” I asked, heading into the kitchen to set down the coffee and food.

“Oh, Y/N asked me if I would change her phone number, so now I am changing all of her accounts so that the new number is registered instead of her old one.”

“But why?”

“Because she asked me to. You should be getting a text soon from the new number.” And it wasn’t even a couple of seconds later that I got a text from a unknown number. “So what brings you by?”

“Well I was going to ask Y/N to come to PT with me, but if you two are doing something…”

“No, I just came over to get access to her laptop.”

“Is she here?” I asked, looking around the apartment.

“Oh, yeah. She’s sleeping, I just decided to stop by before Luna’s diagnostic check. You’re going, right?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Then you better wake up Y/N.”

“Yeah.”

I grabbed the coffee and scone and walked into Y/N’s bedroom. She had a soft little snore and was propped up on a pile of pillows, hair strewn out across them, but completely cuddled in her blanket, looking as peaceful as could be. I sat down on the edge of the bed and moved her hair out of her face before I tried to wake her.

“Y/N?” She stirred a little. “Hey, Y/N?” I said a little louder and her eyes started to open.

“Bucky? What are you doing here?”

“Tony let me in.”

“Tony’s here?”

“Yeah, he’s in the living room.”

“What are you doing here?” She asked, sitting up to look at me better.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go to PT with me?”

“You want me to go?”

“Yeah. I mean, I won’t be doing too much. Tony’s going to be running some new diagnostic checks because of the whole thing that happened last week and we’re going to check on Luna.”

“Luna’s going to be there?” She smiled.

“Yeah, I figured that you may want to meet her.”

“I would love to go.”

“How fast can you get ready?”

“Never underestimate the speed of an ex-dresser.”

“I’ll time you.”

She grabbed the coffee cup out of my hand and quickly took a sip before she handed it back to me and headed for the bathroom. I went back out to the living room where Tony was sitting and sat right next to him. While we waited Tony did some last minute work and I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, saved Y/N’s new number and deleted the old one.

It couldn’t have been but twenty minutes later that Y/N came out, completely ready to go. I had to admit that that was an impressive time for a woman to get ready, I had never seen that before. Tony grabbed his things and the three of us left her apartment and headed over to the PT building.

When we got inside we made sure to sign in and we headed over to the tech room first where Tony would set up the computers for the diagnostic checks.

As Tony worked, I took Y/N on a small tour of the facility and introduced her to the few physical trainers and medical staff that I had come to work with during my recovery.

As we walked around, she told me about how Peggy had actually asked her out to lunch a couple of weeks ago and how the two of them had just instantly became friends and practically talked every day, I mean when she wasn't talking to me of course or working. And then I told her about the party that I was planning for my mom’s birthday and how it was going to be a big event this year since this was kind of the first year that I didn't have anything going on. Of course Y/N was invited so I made sure to give her the information and I told her a little about my mom so that she could get her a present if she wanted to, even though I insisted that she just bring by a couple of her birthday pies.

Once I had finished my tour we stopped off in the lobby and decided to finish waiting for Luna and her mom there.

“Thanks for coming with me today, by the way, I know that it was like I just showed up in your bedroom and asked you to come, but I’m glad you’re here.” I teased.

“That’s because that is exactly what happened.” We both just laughed at each other, but looked over at the door when Luna, with her bouncy little blonde curls, came skipping in. As soon as she realized I was waiting for her, she launched herself into my arms and held onto me as tightly as she could.

“Bucky!” She yelled.

“Hi Luna.” I placed her back on the ground in front of me and looked at the new dress she was wearing, a replica of the new Cinderella dress. “Or should I call you princess?” She giggled and curled herself around her mother’s leg.

“No, I’m Luna.”

“Oh. Well, Luna this is my best friend Y/N, we get to work together on my show.” Y/N waved at her. “She helps pick out everyone's clothes and sometimes she even makes them.”

“You know how to make dresses?” She asked Y/N.

“Yeah I do.”

“Princess dresses?”

“Any kind of dress you can think of.” She smiled. We heard someone walk around the corner and Luna got excited again running straight for him.

“I’m ready when you guys are.” Tony said as Luna grabbed his hand and pulled him away before he could barely finish his statement.

So the remaining three of us, went back into the tech room and I grabbed a chair, placing it right next to the table where Tony had set up his computers. Y/N went to move a chair right beside me for Luna, but I just picked her up and put her in my lap just like we usually did .

“Why don't you move a chair right in front of us, so you can see this? It's pretty cool.”

“We fix our arms at the same time.” Luna said to Y/N as she moved her chair to face the two of us. Luna's mother moved a chair right next to Y/N so that she could help if she needed to.

“At the same time?” She asked.

“Yeah, She’s a little s-c-a-r-e-d of the wires.” I said a little quieter hoping to not draw her attention too much away from Tony.

Luna’s...crushing on Tony. It’s the cutest thing ever. She loves him despite the hard outer shell he usually wears for everyone else. In reality he's just a big old teddy bear, but more so with Luna.

To start the diagnostic setup, I placed my arm on the table with the inside of my arm facing up and then Tony started attaching the wires. As soon as he was done setting up my wires, Luna moved her arm to rest right on top of mine, in the same position so that Tony could then attach her wires. I wasn't quite sure what about this made Luna feel better, but it did. Maybe because she saw me doing it at the same time and her seeing that I wasn't being hurt helped ease her, but I wasn't sure. Unfortunately the check took some time so this was the point where getting Luna to talk was very important.

“So, I haven't seen you in a while. You started school already right?”

“Yeah.” She said quietly, very nervously watching what was happening with her arm.

“You must be in like the fifth grade by now.” I teased.

“No!” She giggled and turned to look back at me with a smile. “Preschool.”

“Oh. What have you been learning?”

“Music and shapes.”

“Shapes can sing?”

“No!” She laughed.

I kept asking her questions about school and sometimes Y/N would ask her something. But we just talked to her until the software was done updating and as usual she was perfectly calm despite her nerves.

After we finished up with Tony, Y/N, Luna, her mom and I all decided to go out for lunch. We tried to convince Tony to come with us but apparently he had a meeting to go to. Luna gave him the saddest puppy dog eyes I had ever seen but he somehow was able to say no to her, I’m not sure how but he did.

I took the four of us to Luna’s favorite restaurant and we had a really good time just talking and letting Luna tell us these stories that probably were not nearly as funny as they were when she told them.

But overall seeing Luna, having Y/N meet Luna...I don’t know, it made things real again. Since I started being friends with Y/N I had pushed down pretty much everything that I had been feeling, mostly because of the reality TV aspect of our relationship. Because despite the fact that this was supposed to be reality, I couldn’t help but not feel more fake doing the show than I had ever in my life. Y/N made me feel real and seeing her with Luna made me think about life with her, how I didn’t want to be part of a reality without her.

But ignoring that for a moment, there was a very harsh reality that lived within my revelation, the possibility of Y/N not liking me the same. And as I stared at Y/N, thinking about how great these last weeks have been, I couldn’t help but want to keep that as sacred as possible. So I had to figure that the best way to keep what we had, was actually to not do anything to jeopardize that, including keeping my feelings at bay.

So as the next couple of days passed, I tried my hardest to do just that. I focused a little more on the show and the nine remaining girls, I worked a little more with Tony and the time that I spent with Y/N was more limited but still fun and casual.

And of course I couldn’t forget the countless hours of planning that I had to put in for my mom’s birthday party. I was very excited for the surprise, it was hard to surprise my mother, but I was also excited to see her, since I hadn’t in so long. Y/N spent some of her time helping me out, giving me a female opinion, which I was very grateful for.

The night before our last night of filming for the week and before the night of the party, Y/N, Steve, Peggy and I were decorating my apartment with the party decorations I had bought. Peggy volunteered to make the cake and Y/N was baking some birthday pies, with some begging on my part. Steve and I weren’t much good for planning where the decorations went, but we were pretty good at listening to where the girls wanted us to put things or where they thought things looked the best.

As the night grew later the place actually started to look like a party could happen here which would have never happened if I had been by myself. Steve and Peggy were the first to leave, telling me how happy they were to have helped out and that they couldn't wait for tomorrow. I thanked them for coming over and helping me out before they went home, leaving me and Y/N alone.

“You know I should probably head out too. I've got to go to the store before work to get your mom a present.”

“You really don't have to, she'll love the pies.”

“You can't go to a birthday party without a gift.”

“Fine.”

“And we’re done here anyway, you need to get some sleep. You said your mom was driving in early right?”

“Yeah. She's got a six and a half hour drive to make. I usually fly up to see her but she insisted on driving down. She’s probably about to leave actually, she says there’s less traffic that way.”

“Smart. But you do realize that you’re going to have to meet her somewhere else now.”

“Why?”

“We just spent like four hours decorating your apartment for her surprise party.”

“Oh...yeah.”

“You can’t bring her here.”

“Yeah I see that now.”

“Well, why don’t you just...treat her to a spa day or so something. There are a lot of hotels that have spas in them and I’m sure that she would enjoy the relaxation after her long drive.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“You could tell her it’s a present.”

“Yeah, thank you.”

“No problem.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then?.”

“I wouldn't miss it.”

And with that she left. I grabbed my phone and looked around for a nice hotel/spa for my mom and set up an appointment before texting her the address and asking her to go there instead of my apartment. Of course she was suspicious but I guaranteed her that is was a good surprise.

After I had convinced her to go and after she begged me to meet her for lunch, I turned back around and looked at the decorated room. I smiled thinking about the wonderful night we had putting all of this together. I loved the way that Y/N interacted with Steve and Peggy, kind of like she had known them for years and I loved how much they loved her back.

Another thought that I also had was about the fact that whenever I had something to do or wanted something to do, Y/N was always the first person to pop into my mind. When I was younger it used to be Steve, you know we would go to baseball games together and we’d go get food. But when he met Peggy things changed, it wasn’t that we stopped hanging out it was like we added Peggy to our team. But the fact that I could see Y/N joining our “team” made me nervous and made me question the way I acted around her or talked to her or anything with her.

Yet the biggest factor of this revelation was simple: I never thought of any of the girls in the same way that I thought of Y/N.

This singular thought managed to keep me up most of the night and when I woke up in the morning I was actually very ready to kick some more girls off the show.

This week had been kind of weird, not just because of the dates but I also could feel the tension in the air. I sort of knew what happened when I wasn’t in the room, but according to Y/N they were different people when I wasn’t there. She never told me who, because she wanted me to make my own decisions but I had been so paranoid all week because of this shift.

I begged Y/N to tell me something just to take my mind off things, something that would confirm that I wasn't going crazy. But she was stubborn and wouldn't tell me anything about the girls or what they had done. So instead I tried my hardest to push that aside and did anything I could to distract myself. I took a shower, I picked out a suit for lunch, I trimmed my beard, I even ironed my shirt for tonight, despite Y/N telling me she would do it, all of this just to give me some peace of mind. And with the hours I wasted, it gave me plenty of time to get dressed and meet my mother for lunch at her hotel.

When I got there, the hostess at the restaurant, the one right off of the lobby, showed me to the table that I had reserved for our lunch. It was about ten minutes before my mother came down and was escorted to our table. I stood up from my chair and wrapped her tightly in my arms.

“Hi mom.”

“Hi.” She said with a huge smile on her face.

“Happy Birthday.”

“Thank you.”

“How was your drive?” We both sat down in our chairs, facing each other.

“Long.”

“I’m glad you're here though.”

“Yeah, the drive was worth it. I’m happy to see you.”

So we ordered food and drinks and we just caught up on all the things we had missed about each other. I told her about the show and how it had been going and of course she was curious about the girls and yet for some reason I couldn't bring myself to tell her about Y/N. She asked about Steve and Peggy and even wondered about Luna and how the new updates on the arm were working. She told me about her friends and she brought up the fact that one of their daughters was getting married and how nice it would be to have grandchildren, you know, the whole guilt trip.

But the food was good, the conversation better and after talking to her I was ready for filming. I told my mom to meet me at my apartment later, telling her that I would text her when I got back from filming so that I could let her in.

So from the hotel I headed to the studio, stopping to get some coffee for Y/N along the way.  When I made it to the Wardrobe room the door was locked. I tried knocking but I didn't hear anything on the other side of the door and nobody came to open up.

To me that was very strange, Y/N was never late...unless she was helping me out or I was distracting her. Never late. So the fact that she wasn't here was the first sign that something was wrong. I chose to ignore it, seeing as she was allowed to be late at least once of her own fruition. But I definitely made note of the strange occurrence.

So instead I went to the hair and makeup trailer to get ready, now being thankful that I ironed my shirt before I came. Steve met up with me at some point, being the perfect distraction from my worry.

But as it got later I couldn't help but feel the thought that something was wrong creep back to the front of my mind.

“She'll be here, she never misses.” Steve said, before I headed back to my trailer to get dressed.

As much as I wanted to believe Steve though, I couldn't help but think that she wasn't coming, especially when I waited as long as the director would let me, for her to show up.

So, trying my hardest to hide the ache in my heart, we started filming. Tonight’s filming, like most shoots at the end of the week, was easy and with that two more girls were gone. You would think that I would be a little more torn up with there being so few girls left already...but I wasn’t. I was worried and upset and not really in the mood for dealing with these other women.

So as soon as we wrapped up filming and the crew said I could leave, I headed for my trailer, Steve following me as I went. He handed me my phone as we walked and I typed out a message to Y/N.

BUCKY: Is everything okay? Did I do something wrong? I still hope to see you at the party.

Knowing that I didn’t have a lot of time to get back to the apartment, and knowing that Peggy was handling the guests who had already shown up, I stepped into the small bedroom to change.

“Bucky are you okay?” I heard Steve ask on the other side of the door.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I even flinched at how harsh and not okay that sounded.

“I know you’re upset—”

“I’m not upset.”

“Bucky...she’s got to have a reason. We both know that Y/N is not one to break her promises. She would have been here if she could.”

“Yeah I know.”

I came out of the room dressed and ready to go to my apartment, the whole drive over spent in complete silence. As soon as I got to the door though, I changed my whole demeanor, having no other choice than to ignore the terrible feeling in my gut. I put on the biggest smile that I could muster and I walked into my apartment.

I found Peggy first, thanking her for helping out until Steve and I had gotten there and then I quickly made my way around the room, thanking everyone for coming but also looking for Y/N, hoping that Peggy had missed her. When I didn’t find her and I had waited longer than originally planned, I texted my mom, telling her to come on over. The hotel wasn’t too far from my apartment, so it was pretty easy to gauge when everyone needed to hide. I was on the look out for her while everyone else enjoyed themselves and honestly it was a nice distraction from the fake demeanor I had to keep up while everyone was looking. This way I could stare out the window and not worry about anyone asking me if I was okay or put on a fake smile to lie to them and tell them that I was.

I saw my mom’s car pull up and quickly turned to tell everyone that she was here. I went to stand by the door and waited a few seconds after she rung my doorbell to answer the door. She walked in with a huge smile on her face, looking like she had had a really great day. I leaned down to give her a hug and invited her in. When she set down her things, everyone came bursting out of their hiding places and yelling, “Surprise!” as loud as they could. 

She turned to look at me with a big shocked smile on her face and wrapped me in her arms one more time before she went and started greeting the guests. And then the party went on as planned: she talked to everyone, she opened presents and we dished out cake and ice cream. She couldn’t have been any happier.

And despite the surprise having gone perfectly, I was still in a pretty foul mood. Y/N never showed up...which wasn't like her. She was always there or at least would tell me if she couldn't make it, which was never the case.

But apparently my foul mood was very evident to my mother.

“What are you so upset about?” She asked.

“Nothing.” I said turning to face her. 

“James Buchanan Barnes, tell me what is on your mind.”

“It really is nothing, a friend of mine was supposed to come and she wasn't at work today, but it just isn't who she is to not show up.”

“She?”

“Mom, seriously.”

“Well I could try and help you, but you haven't told me anything about this girl.”

I glared at her, but delved into the shortest explanation of mine and Y/N’s relationship. She seemed to be gulping it up and I knew I was in for an earful when I finished.

“There's clearly something wrong.”

“What?” I wasn't expecting her to give me an answer so soon, a lecture though I did expect.

“I think something's wrong. I mean you've pretty much proven that she would never do something like this, at least not of her own will.”

“You think she could be in trouble?”

“Not necessarily, I just think she had a really good reason for not being here.”

“I know, I’m trying to believe that but I’m worried.”

“I know. But the fact that you care so much about her being here is sure proof that you like this girl. And when you find her—”

“Mom!”

“Don't ‘mom’ me. There's no time to waste, you have to find her.”

“But this is the first party that I have been able to come to—”

“I don't want you here, I want you to go find Y/N.”

“Okay.” I said, but was honestly surprised to hear her say that.

“I mean I want you here but I also want you to find her. It's the beginning of a really great love story.”

“Mom!”

“I’m serious James. Go find her.”

So with my mom’s blessing, I left the party and, without really thinking, I drove over to Y/N’s apartment. I pulled up to the gate and Clyde came over to my car.

“Ms. Y/L/N hasn't come back yet.”

“When did she leave?” I asked, 

“She left this morning for work earlier than usual or at least lately.”

“But she hasn't been back here since then?”

“No.”

“Okay. Thanks Clyde. If she comes back will you have her call me?”

“Is she okay?”

“I don't know.”

There was definitely something wrong. I wasn't exactly sure what it was yet, but something was off.

So I drove back to the studio hoping that she was working or something. I had to park outside of the security gate, since it was so late, and walk in. As I walked around the lot, peeking in on unlocked sets and checking the wardrobe room, I ran into Mike, one of our many production managers.

He looked tired and a little frazzled, furiously typing on his phone, clearly not having seen me.

“James!” He said after our run in had drawn his attention away from his phone.

“Hey Mike? What are you up to?”

“I just got the strangest phone call.”

“Okay?”

“A call came in at the executive's’ office. The man asked to be redirected here, to this specific lot. When he finally got transferred to my office he told me that he's Y/N’s father.”

“Her dad?”

“Yeah. He told me that I had to find her friend Bucky?”

“He said that?”

“Yeah apparently she's in the hospital and he doesn't want her to be alone. I mean I don't even know how to begin looking—”

“She's in the hospital?!”

“Yeah. You're friends with her right? Do you know this Bucky?”

“Yeah that's me.”

“What?”

“It's a nickname my family uses. What hospital is she at?”

“UCLA Medical Center.”

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and started walking away from him. I texted Steve, to let him know what was going on and so that he could tell my mom.

I quickly got back into my car and sped away from the lot, making my way towards her, as fast as I could.

There were a million things going through my head as I sped to the hospital and honestly knowing that she was there but not knowing that she was okay, was causing me more pain than I had experienced in a long time and that's saying something. I had no idea how I was going to get in to see her but I knew that I needed to be close to her.

So I walked in the lobby of the the lowest level and right up to the nurses station, hoping by some chance that they would let me in to see her.

“Excuse me.” I said, grabbing the nurses attention.

“How can I help you?” She responded.

“I’m looking for Y/F/N Y/L/N.”

“Name?”

“James Barnes or Bucky.”

“Bucky?”

“Yeah.”

“Her father told me that you would be coming by.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, if you’ll have a seat I’ll let her doctor know that you’re here.”

“Okay.”

I didn’t have to wait long for her doctor to meet with me, maybe fifteen minutes. He took me from the waiting area to her floor where he explained what was happening with Y/N before he would let me in to see her.

“I spoke to her father on the phone and he explained to me that you were one of her closest friends. Y/N is going to need a lot of help when she gets out in a few days and since he doesn’t live in the country, he believed that you would be the best fit for helping her.”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay, I'm going to try and explain briefly what happened but the police will be by later to check in on her and finish their report. You can ask more questions regarding what happened when they get here. But simply, Y/N was in a terrible car accident, she was lucky though. It may not sound like it but she came in with a collapsed lung and a broken leg but when we got her x-rayed we found that her diaphragm was also ruptured. Usually it’s a pretty hard thing to diagnose without any other injury so we got lucky that we had to focus there. We went in and repaired both tears and gave her a cast for her leg and she’s doing great. When you go in she’ll look pretty beaten up because of the bruises and cuts, she’ll also have a tube helping her breath until we know that that lung is working fully again. But she’s doing really well and she’ll be able to go home soon.”

“Okay.” I’m pretty sure that I was in shock just from hearing everything. That and the fact that this doctor was actually trying to make me believe that this was less terrible than it was.

“I know this is a lot, but it could have been a lot worse. I could tell that she was a fighter and I know that she’s going to be fine, you just need to have a little faith in her. But take some time and process this before you go in, it’ll be less shocking for you.”

“Okay.” I nodded.

“And if you need anything or if you notice anything wrong, her nurse’s name is written on the board in the room and she can help you with whatever you need.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure.”

I shook his hand and then he left. I stood outside of Y/N’s room and took some time to process, like the doctor had suggested. And when the need to see her overcame the fear, I opened the door and stepped in.

I stared at her for a long time, feeling terrible for having assumed that she would ever be any different than who she was. Y/N would have been there today, she would have been at the party too if she had any control over her day...but she didn’t, not today. And I was the jerk who had assumed the worst.

But when I got out of my head I moved to her bedside and sat myself down beside her. I grabbed her hand and held it in mine, not thinking about anything but her.

And with these thoughts came the true revelation. There was no way around it...I was in love with her.

PART SIX

Tell me what you think here or let me know if you want to be tagged

[your-modern-shakespeare]

A Little Too Real (4.5)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Summary: RealityTV!AU- You are a wardrobe supervisor for a popular TV network. The show is planning a reality TV show like the bachelor and Bucky is the newest contestant. But as the competition starts he realizes that he doesn’t like any of the girls…on the show anyway.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (eventual)

Word Count: 3300

A/N: Wow! With this part that makes week 2, 300 words short of 10,000 words. It’s kind of crazy to think about. I’m sorry that you’ve had to wait so long for this, but there is a lot of setting up that I had to do through this chapter and you may or may not catch on to it, so it took me a little longer. I love you guys and Enjoy!

Warnings: Angst, Fluff, google translate

Tags: @fangirl1802, @seargantbcky, @lust-for-pan, @38leticia, @barnes-and-noble-girl, @karipaleta, @capandbuck, @camillechan, @findacauseandserveit, @audasia25, @kendallefire , @alicerozenju, @snuggleducky

BUCKY’S POV

“So what happened on your date?” Y/N and I were sitting in my bed, eating whatever cereal I had in my cabinet and watching some rom com that was on TV. She had already told me everything that happened with Tony and how it was not a successful date and as much as I hated to think it, I was very happy to hear that her date had gone poorly. But following the talk of Tony, she became very insistent on knowing how my date went and I wasn't exactly sure why I didn't want to tell her that I really didn't like any of the girls.

“It was okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah.”

“And that's all you want to tell me?”

“She was great, beautiful and she knew all the right things to say to me.”

“But?”

“But she was as...normal as every other girl I’ve dated.”

“And?” I laughed at her, she just knew me so well.

“And when we kissed, there wasn't anything there.”

“So, much like my night.”

“Pretty much.”

“Well we tried, right?”

“Right.”

“Are you going to keep her on the show?”

“I guess I should for now.”

“Why?”

“Honestly I don't know. Would it be weird if I kicked her off even though I picked her for the one on one date?”

“Well if you know for sure you don't like her…”

“Yeah, I'm not sure. I'll have to wait and see how the group date goes.”

“That sounds...horrifying.”

“Yeah we’ll see.”

Despite how late it was, Y/N and I stayed up and talked for hours, forgetting all about the movie that we had started. I couldn't take my eyes off of her and the whole while I was thinking about what Wanda had said.

At some point in the night I felt her head hit my shoulder and when I moved, just the slightest, to look at her, I saw that she was fast asleep.

I let the back of my head fall back against the pillows, resting my cheek on her head and I let myself believe, for that night, that she was mine, that she wanted me just as much as I wanted her.

Y/N’S POV

I don’t know when I exactly fell asleep but when I woke up in the morning I definitely remembered where I had fallen asleep. I looked over at Bucky, whose chest I had been sleeping on, to see his blue eyes wide awake.

“I’m sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep on you.”

“That’s okay, I enjoyed the company.”

“You don’t think that we could just skip today? You know just lay around and eat ice cream and watch movie musicals?” He just laughed at me.

“Movie musicals?”

“Don’t judge me.”

“I’m not, I like musicals.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a guy say that before.”

“I’m a constant surprise.”

“Sounds about right.”

I laughed at him and then I heard my phone start to ring. I looked at the number to see that it was an international number coming from Moscow.

“Привет.” (Hello.)

“Является ли это Y/N Y/L/N?” (Is this Y/N Y/L/N?)

“Да” (Yes.)

“Речь идет о вашем отце.” (It’s about your father.)

“Он в порядке?” (Is he okay?) Bucky moved closer to me trying to listen in on my conversation, placing his ear right next to my phone.

“Он рухнул на работу и был Петровские Ворота медицинский центр.” (He collapsed at work and was taken to Petrovskie Vorota Medical Centre)

“Но он в порядке?” (But he is okay?)

“Да. Врачи хотели бы провести несколько тестов, но вскоре он должен вернуться домой.” (Yes.The doctors would like to conduct several tests, but he should return home soon.)

“Он бодрствует? Могу я поговорить с ним?” (Is he awake? Can I talk to him?)

“Он спит. Но он попросил меня сказать вам, что он не хочет, чтобы вы летели сюда.” (He's sleeping. But he asked me to tell you that he does not want you to fly here.)

“Он сказал, что?” (He said that?)

“Он сказал, что вам нужно быть на работе и что он в порядке.” (He said that you need to be at work and that he's fine.)

“Я останусь здесь, но ты скажешь ему позвонить мне, когда он уйдет?” (I'll stay here, but will you tell him to call me when he's discharged?)

“я буду.” (I will.)

“Спасибо.” (Thank you.)

“Хорошего дня.” (Have a nice day.)

“я попробую.” (I’ll try.)

I hung up the phone and took in a deep breath.

“Are you okay?”

“She said that he's okay.”

“But are you okay? You should go see him.” He stood up off the bed, moving to stand in front of me.

“No, if my dad said that he didn't want me to come, than it can't be serious.”

“But why would your dad tell you not to come?” I realized what I had done and had to come up with a quick excuse. I couldn’t exactly tell him the truth without telling him my biggest secret.

“The trip is long and I can’t leave the department without supervision, I would be out the rest of the week, maybe even longer. But he is also my father and he asked me to stay here, so I’m going to listen to him. You don’t have to understand but I have spent so much of my life without him and I’m not going to do anything to mess it up now.”

“You’re right I don’t understand, because I would do anything if I could see my father again. But unfortunately I don't have that luxury. You should—” At his words I stood up, trying to level to him as much as possible.

“You think that my father living in another country is a luxury?”

“That’s not what I meant. I just don’t think that you’re thinking straight.This is —”

“I have my reasons for not being able to see him, reasons that I haven't told you yet, reasons I haven't told anyone. And you know what? You've gotten closer to me than anyone has before, I opened up to you and right now you are judging me for something you know nothing about. I have never judged you about anything, I have always accepted you for what you are and right now I am accepting that you are a jerk.”

I grabbed my shoes off the floor by his bed and quickly left his apartment. I drove immediately to the studio and headed to the wardrobe room. Wanda was already there and could see the anger that was on my face, that being said, she didn’t say anything to me.

I honestly don’t know why I had gotten heated so fast, maybe because it was my dad he was talking about, but I just couldn’t understand why he would react the way he did. Then again, I did interrupt him...but it still didn’t give him the right to assume things about me.

I grabbed a spare piece of fabric and a whole bunch of grommets and headed back to my work table at the back of the room. I grabbed the speaker and plugged in my phone, playing the music as loud as I could and I just went after it. I had no reason to install grommets on this piece of fabric other than the fact that I got to hold a hammer and take out my frustration on making sure this piece of fabric had the most grommets of anything in this room.

I was pounding at the grommets and thinking about everything that had happened when I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw Tony.

“Hey.” He started. 

“Hi.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry, I set grommets when I’m angry.”

“Well what did that piece of fabric do to get on your bad side?”

“You’re not funny.” I said, despite my threatening smile.

“What’s got you so upset?”

“Bucky.”

“Do I need to beat him up, because I will.”

“No, I’m afraid that I was wrong too. Not as wrong as he was but still...slightly wrong.” He laughed and grabbed my hand.

“What did he do?”

“My dad is in the hospital, he fell at work, but the nurse told me that he didn’t want me to come and visit. I told Bucky that I wasn’t going to go and see him and he said something that just made me so angry, I just got so defensive. He did something that I thought he would ever do.”

“What?”

“He judged me. The reason that what I have with Bucky works so well is because we don’t assume things about each other, we don’t judge each other. He doesn’t know what I have been through with my father and he assumed that he knew what I should do concerning my father.”

“I’m not saying that he was right to judge you, but I can also see where he is coming from.”

“You’re not supposed to have his side.”

“Well, this may not be something you want to hear but you’re judging him right now. And I think that that is why you’re in here pounding at grommets.”

“How am I judging him?”

“Because as you have pointed out, he has no idea what happened with your father, but you have no idea what happened with his.”

“But I—”

“I think the more important question here is what were you doing with Bucky so early in the morning.”

“Not what you’re thinking. But why are you here, I’m sure it wasn’t to come and stop me from installing unnecessary grommets on things.”

“No, Bucky has his group date today and I am doing some follow up tests on his arm. I just thought that I would stop by and see you before I went searching for him.”

“Well thank you for stopping by, but it sounds like you have something to do.” I started to walk away from him, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me along as he went in search of Bucky.

BUCKY’S POV

I don’t know how I let her walk away from me this morning and if I didn’t feel guilty as hell for it.

After Y/N had left I headed for the studio, meeting up with Steve, so that he could help me go over everything for tonight.

“Hey man.” Steve said, walking over to where I was working.

“Hey.” I said standoffish.

“Wow, what happened to you?”

“Nothing.”

“It doesn’t sound like nothing.”

“I hurt Y/N. She’s mad at me.”

“What did you do?”

“I just said something stupid.”

“Sounds like something you would do.”

“Well thank you for taking her side.”

“Well maybe you should invite her to go bowling with us tonight.”

“I can’t invite her, I’m supposed to be on a date with 11 other girls. If Y/N came I would end up talking to her all night.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“She wouldn’t be up for it.”

“You didn’t ask her.”

“And I’m not going to.”

“You are making this so much harder than it has to be.”

“You know I asked you and Peggy to come tonight because I feel out of my comfort zone. I would really like for you to be there, but don’t make me regret asking you.”

“I just want you to be happy and I can see that you are when you’re with Y/N.”

“Things are more complicated than that.”

“Bucky I have to tell you something, it’s about—” We heard voices coming up behind us and turned to see Tony and Y/N walking towards us.

“Hey there, look who I found.” Tony said. “I believe I’m here to check your arm out before your date..s.”

“Yes.” I sat down in the chair closest to me and he placed his bag of tools on the table. He started to dig through the wires that made up my arm and I looked at Y/N for the first time.

“I’m sorry.” I said to her. “I shouldn’t have said that about your dad.”

“I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to blow up at you.”

“Then I guess we were both wrong.” I smiled at her. 

“Well you won’t hear me say it.” We both just laughed at each other. “But yes.”

“Well Stevie, I think we are needed...anywhere else but here.” Steve and Tony left the two of us to talk.

“So…”

“When I was eight, my mom died. My dad sent me to America to tell my mother’s family that she had passed. He was going to come with me but he couldn’t figure out his passport, so he sent me anyway saying that he would meet up with me in a few days. Once I was in America though, they didn’t let me go back. I didn’t see him again for eight years and I have only seen him in person twice since then. It’s not that I don’t want to see my father, it’s that I don’t want to mess up what we do have, I value it too much.”

“I didn’t mean what I said, about it being a luxury that your dad was alive. I think I’m just still so angry at what happened to my dad that I lashed out at you. My dad died when I was 12, he was hit by a drunk driver and he died instantly, they didn’t even try to save him. The driver was brought to the hospital and went through surgery and he lived. He only went to county jail for a year...that was his sentence for killing someone.”

“Bucky, I’m so sorry.”

“I just don’t want you to regret anything with your father, that’s why I was so mean to you.”

“I’ll call the clinic again and if he isn’t released I’ll go see him.”

“Good.”

“And let’s not do that again.”

“What?”

“Argue.”

“I can’t guarantee that, I may be wrong a lot but I’m not known for going down without a fight.”

“Oh? You’re a big softie.”

“What did I tell you about telling my secrets?”

“Shut up.” I stood from my chair and wrapped her in my arms, hugging her as tight to me as I could. “Well you better get going if you’re going to get to your date on time.”

“Yeah. I’ll see you around Y/N.”

“See you.” And then she left.

Y/N’S POV

I walked away from Bucky and back over to Tony, grabbed his hand and walked away from Steve before I asked him anything.

“There is something that I need to ask you about. I was going to text you but then you showed up and the whole thing with Bucky...”

“What?”

“I saw the news this morning.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Do they know that it was me? I mean I liked going out with you but I value my privacy and you did say that they’re wouldn't be any paparazzi at the event.”

“My PR team doesn't think that they know who you are. I told them to handle it though and they’re pretty good at making things disappear especially when it comes to me.”

“Well just to be on the safe side, I know that you can work magic with technology.”

“And?”

“I need you to change my phone number and let everyone know in my contacts list that I changed it.”

“Wait, you want to change your phone number? I can make sure that no one finds out about the two of us if that’s what you’re concerned about.” He looked really upset.

“Tony, this isn’t about you. I like you, you’re great company. I’m just not looking to be found...by someone.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“No, I just don’t want my past catching up to me. Please, will you do me this favor?”

“Fine, but you owe me a dinner.”

“Fine, dinner.”

“But I’m paying.”

“What?”

“I never make a lady pay.” He grabbed my phone out of my hands and we walked back to the wardrobe room where he hooked my phone up to the desktop in there and went to work.

BUCKY’S POV

The group date actually was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The girls were very competitive, as expected, but having Steve and Peggy there made things immeasurably easier. It also showed which of the girls were genuine because these were my two best friends and their presence in my life was non-negotiable. So anyone who did not get along with them automatically made it on my possible elimination list.

All throughout the games I made my way around to talk to the girls, pausing every so often to play a few throws with Steve and Peggy. It was kind of crazy how the girls fought over my attention, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the first night I had met them, where they literally stole me away from other girls, but it was mostly as bad. But as I promised, when the competition was over, the winner of the overall bowling games, we played three games and averaged the scores, won a one-on-one date with me.

So later that night, I took Ulani out to a nice restaurant where we simply ate dinner and enjoyed drinks on the rooftop. Ulani was super nice and beautiful, like most of the girls, but unlike the other girls she was different and it was refreshing. She was a former model, to pay off school loans, turned astrophysicist and believe it or not we actually talked about space for hours, while looking at the barely visible stars.

And I had to admit that it was really nice to talk to someone about it again. I really missed it. No one ever brought up my time training to be an astronaut because they thought that they would hurt my feelings. And when Ulani did there was no hesitation, she was excited to talk to me about it, seeing as I was probably one of the only people to fully understand her. The only thing that would have made me feel better was if we had had the chance to talk about my arm.

So far none of the girls had brought it up, I knew that they could see it but the fact that no one had the courage to ask me about it brought my head back to Y/N.

So yeah, Ulani was good and I wanted to see more of her.

The following day I met up with Y/N and I followed her around as she worked, talking to her about the girls and getting her opinion on who I should keep on the show. She seemed to like what I told her about Ulani and we ended up keeping Layla, my first one-on-one date, in because they’re had been three girls that I had already wanted to get rid of because of how rude they had been to Steve and Peggy.

Of course, when it came time to announce who was leaving, I didn’t tell them the reason that they were being kicked off but I did hope that they caught on. And like she always was, Y/N was there for me.

When I got home that night I saw that I had a text from Steve, which reminded me that he was trying to tell me something before Tony showed up.

STEVE: How did it go?

BUCKY: Good. Earlier, what did you want to tell me?

STEVE: Nothing, it was nothing.

Little did I know that he actually had a big secret that he was trying to tell me.

PART FIVE 

Tell Me What You Think

[your-modern-shakespeare]

A Little Too Real (4)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Summary: RealityTV!AU- You are a wardrobe supervisor for a popular TV network. The show is planning a reality TV show like the bachelor and Bucky is the newest contestant. But as the competition starts he realizes that he doesn’t like any of the girls…on the show anyway.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (eventual)

Word Count: 6360 (i give up on trying to make these chapters short)

A/N: So this is sort of the first part of this, meaning that there will be a 4.5 coming soon because I just wanted to get this out to you guys and this “week” isn’t technically over, that and we won’t know what happened with Bucky. I also apologize for being so stupid lately. This past week has been weirdly rough for me and I don’t really understand this funk that I’m in. I’m working on a lot of things but nothing really feels good enough, I��m feeling really down, so I’m sorry. I hope this part is good and enjoy

Warnings: angst, fluff, kissing

Tags: @fangirl1802, @seargantbcky, @lust-for-pan, @38leticia, @barnes-and-noble-girl, @karipaleta, @capandbuck, @camillechan, @findacauseandserveit, @audasia25, @kendallefire , @alicerozenju

WEEK 2

Y/N’S POV

The following week was when we started filming the actual dates. Bucky and I spent another night together where we went over his wardrobe for the dates, figuring that this may be something that we do for every week of filming.

The following morning, I was about to head over to the studio to get some work done when I got a call from Bucky.

“Hey, Bucky.”

“Hey, Doll. You haven’t left for the studio have you?”

“I’m about to walk out the door, why?”

“I need your help.”

“This isn't another wardrobe question is it, because I actually—”

“Y/N please.” Then I heard a painful groan on the other end.

“Bucky?” I heard no response. “Bucky?!” I said louder, but heard no response. “Bucky I'm on my way.”

I drove like a crazy woman to get to Bucky's apartment and was surprised to find the door unlocked. I immediately walked in and saw Bucky lying on the floor in his living room.

Seeing him lying there made my stomach drop and for a second I stood too stunned to move.

“Y/N?” I heard him call out.

“Bucky?” I ran over to where he was and looked at him and was surprised to see that he actually looked okay.

“My arm—”

“What happened? Are you okay? Do I need to call for an ambulance.”

“No, no. I called Tony, my arm...something's wrong.”

“What can I do?”

“I need to get to my room, without moving my arm.”

“I'm not sure—”

“I'll have to move it to stand up, which will be incredibly painful, but I need you to help me after that.”

“Okay, what do you need me to do?”

“I'm going to put my arm at a 90 degree angle and then I need to get into a sitting position. From there we can try and stand me up.”

“Okay.”

“So get behind me and you're going to prop me up by pushing on my right shoulder. It's going to have to happen fast and I'm hoping that it won't hurt too bad.”

“Just tell me when to go.”

“I’ll count to three and you go on three. By the time I get to your count my arm should be good.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Take a deep breath. It's going to be okay.” I said, I could tell now that he was not looking forward to the pain.

“Thank you for coming.”

“Of course.”

He took in a deep breath and started to count.

“One,” he moved his arm as he said, “two,” and then looked at at me as he said, “three.” My hands pushed up on his shoulder, sitting him up. He tried to hold back the sounds but the pain got too bad and he let out a loud groan, mixed in with a few choice curse words.

“I'm so sorry.” I said.

“It's okay, it's okay.” He was breathing heavy and I just sat next to him as he took a few minutes to recover. “God that hurt.”

“Are you okay?”

“I will be, I just need to get it propped up, I need to take the pressure off the joint, the ligaments that are still attached to my clavicle are being overworked. I don't want them to tear.”

“What happens if they tear?”

“My real clavicle won't be attached to my fake humerus, causing a lot of pain and no way for my arm to be operational.”

“Okay, so very important.”

“Yes, very important.”

“What's next?”

“I just need to stand up. So you're just going to push my right shoulder again, maybe my lower back and I will keep my feet from sliding.”

“Okay.”

“On three.” He counted down again and on three I pushed on his shoulder and he moved his legs until he was standing.

He took a minute and he steadied himself. He didn't seem to be in any pain this time, which made me feel better.

“Let's get you to your room.”

“Yeah.” He started walking and he held his arm as I followed behind him. He walked over to the left side of the bed and I pulled back the blankets so that he could slide in. I grabbed a pillow from the other side of the bed and he slowly slide into the position he wanted to sit in before I carefully put the pillow under his arm.

With the pressure lifted off of his shoulder, I could see him relax and fall further into the bed. I sat down on the right side of the bed, watching him closely.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m much better now, thank you for coming.”

“It's no problem. But what happened, why are you in so much pain?”

“Over the weekend Tony and I started working on the next development for the arm.”

“Which is?”

“Feeling. We wanted to try and create artificial nerves that could connect to the real ones and help with adding feeling. We thought we had something and I insisted that I try it out. Obviously it backfired.”

“This is just a setback, you'll get it next time.”

“You think so?”

“I think you're smart enough to do anything.”

“Thanks.”

“But I was also wondering, why did you call me?”

“Well I was sitting on the couch and I was thinking about the show and all of the sudden I just started having this terrible pain in my arm. I started to panic because it just kept getting worse and then I thought that if I could just get somewhere and lay flat that it would be better. So that's how I ended up on the floor, but the whole time I was freaking out I just knew that if you were here that you would help me and would keep me calm, I just wanted you to be here. So I called Tony and asked him to come over and then I called you.”

“I'm always here to help, always.”

“Thank you.”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Well I'm going to remove the newest updates and reset the arms software and hopefully it'll start moving again.”

“Doesn't sound too hard.”

“It isn't, I just wish that it had worked.”

“Me too.”

We both heard the front door open and I moved off the bed to go for the door when, I'm assuming, Tony walked in.

To be completely honest, he was very attractive. I had seen pictures of him but it was nothing compared to what he was like in person. He immediately walked over to Bucky's side of the bed, setting a bag full of tools beside him.

“Hey, Barnes. What seems to be the problem?”

“I can’t move my arm without being in immense pain?”

“Just a small a problem.” I said sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood.

“Right.” Tony replied with a chuckle. “Has it been acting up lately, have you noticed any sparking, or anything out of the ordinary?”

“Anything out of the ordinary...besides the metallic nature of it?”

“What is wrong with you all the sudden? I swear like ten seconds ago she was looking at me like I was a wounded puppy.” Bucky said to Tony, laughing at my sudden change. Tony reached for a tool and moved to start opening the panels on the outside of the arm so that he could get inside.

“Sorry, I get sassy when I’m nervous.”

“Nervous?” Tony asked.

“It’s not everyday I meet a billionaire.”

“Tony Stark.” He introduced, dropping the tool and sticking his hand out for me to shake. I took it.

“Y/N Y/L/N.”

“You’re not on the show, are you?”

“No, why?”

“Because you’re too good to be on reality TV.” I tried not to smile at him, but he was charming.

“No, I just work for it.” Both Bucky and Tony laughed.

He picked the tool back up and started removing the wires that had been causing Bucky pain. I ended up moving a lot closer to Bucky so that I could watch what Tony was doing and the whole time he was working, Tony very openly flirted with me. He also explained how some of this stuff worked and how they started building it in the first place.

But if I was being more honest...talking to Tony was nothing like talking to Bucky. He was a nice distraction though and with him around it was easier to hide my feelings, easier to shove them down. At first I was okay with the idea that Tony was a distraction but then it dawned on me...what if every other man I talked to never compared to Bucky, what if every other man was just a distraction?

I quickly shook the thought from my head and when Tony was done getting Bucky’s arm fixed, I offered to show him out.

“You know, I thought that I had met all of Bucky’s friends but now that I've met you, I find that you are the most interesting.”

“That's because I'm new.”

“New can be good.”

“Can be?”

“I want to take you out.”

“Out?”

“To this thing I have tonight.”

“What kind of thing?”

“A formal, black tie kind of thing.”

“Really?”

“My PR guy said that it would be smart to bring someone with me to this thing, if I don't pick one he usually grabs some random girl off the street, shoves her in a dress, and throw her over my arm. Now that I've met you, a wonderful woman I can have an actual conversation with, I would really like to take you.”

“This isn't a PR stunt is it?”

“No. Believe me, if I didn't have to go to this thing I would just invite you back to my place, order a pizza and watch some random movie that I haven't already watched on Netflix.”

“You really want me to go?”

“You would make my night significantly less miserable.”

“Well how could I say no?”

“That's the spirit! I know it's last minute but if you need anything—”

“I have a dress.”

“Really?”

“I'm in wardrobe, of course I have a dress.”

“Okay, where can I pick you up?”

“Well I was supposed to be at the studio about an hour and a half ago so I'll be in the wardrobe room.”

“Then I'll pick you up from there.”

“Sounds good.”

“Great, I'll see you tonight.”

“See you tonight.”

I closed the door behind him and went back to Bucky's bedroom. He just looked at me as I walked in the room, trying to hide my smile.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“A lot better. My arm should be fine for filming tonight, we’ll see.”

“That's good.”

“You know, I really appreciate the fact that you came to last weeks filming because I know that that is not part of your job, but either way I'm going to miss you tonight.”

“I—”

“He asked you out. You should go out and have a good time. I have a date tonight, you don't need to watch that.”

“But you'll text me if you need to talk to me...right?”

“Of course.”

“So...do you want a ride to the studio?”

“That would be great.”

“And you're sure you're okay?”

“I promise and the sling should help if there's any more pain in my shoulder.”

“Okay. But we've got to make a stop first.”

“Coffee?”

“Okay, two stops.”

“What's the first one?”

“My apartment.”

“Ooh the mysterious home of Y/N Y/L/N.”

“There nothing too special about my apartment, but I would like to keep where I live a secret. I don't just take anyone to my apartment.”

“Are you implying that I am special?” He said with a smirk on his face.

“Well you're some type of special.” I murmured under my breath, but he heard me. He started with a shocked face but then started to laugh, which made me laugh.

I drove up to my complex which was a lot nicer than what he was probably thinking. You had to type in a code to get through the gate and the security guard, Clyde, always made sure that no one followed in behind me. He did ask about Bucky but I told him that we worked together and that I was giving him a ride into work.

I pulled up to my building, the one furthest from the front gate and parked in my spot.

“So what are we stopping here for?”

“Tony wants to take me to this event he has going on tonight, it's super fancy apparently. I have a dress here and I'm already late for work so I know they're not going to let me go early to get ready for a date.” We walked up the staircase to the second floor, walking down the hall until we stopped at my door.

“Don't you work for yourself?”

“I still work for the network and have things to do.” I grabbed my keys and put it in the lock.

“So what does your dress look like?”

“Wouldn't you like to know.” I opened the door and let him in behind me. “Just give me a minute.”

I walked into my bedroom and over to my closet, shoving clothes out of the way until I got to the very back where I saw the two garment bags hanging. I grabbed the smaller of the two and laid the bag on the bed before I started digging through the shoes on the floor of my closet for the pair I wanted to wear.

As soon as I found what I was looking for I grabbed the shoes and my garment bag and headed back out to my living room. Bucky was roaming around the space looking at the few things that I had.

“Have you eaten?” I asked.

“No but you offered to stop for coffee.”

“Cofree is not breakfast.”

“But the bagel shop right next door to my favorite coffee shop is.”

“And where would that be?”

“I'll take you there.” He started walking out of the room and I quickly followed behind him, locking my door as we went.

“No. Let's not forget about what just happened with your arm. You can tell me where it is.” He stopped and turned to look at me as I rushed to keep up with him.

“You are no fun.”

“Well you know where I live so you can tell me where your favorite coffee shop is.” We walked back to my car and climbed in. I started the car but waited for him to give me directions.

“Fine but only if you let me buy the coffee and the bagels.” I started to drive out of the complex.

“How does that math work out?” He gestured where to turn as we spoke.

“I let you drive and I reward the help with food and drink.”

“I could just pay for myself.”

“Or because you are so late for work and you helped me out and I’m trying to be generous, you could let me pay.”

“You really want to pay that bad.”

“I’m all about even exchanges. My parents were married...almost twenty years but they were friends since they were young. They always had this thing that they did, where one would do something for the other and the other would return it. It gave them countless excuses to do things for each other and I grew up seeing the love that they shared for each other. I mean, even if they were arguing my dad would bring my mom flowers because she had ironed a pair of his pants the morning before the fight. I know that were not like them, but you're still my friend and I will always believe they had the best relationship. Which means that when you do things for me, I will do things for you, the best relationships that I've had work best when it's give and take for both people. I don't expect you to do the same because I know it’s just sort of a habit that I’ve acquired from watching my parents and now that I’ve said this out loud it sounds like I’m trying to get even with you.”

“No, it doesn't sound like that. It’s actually really sweet, I wish that I had some more memories of my parents. But I like the idea of it all, it seems like a really great way to communicate with each other.”

“I think so too. I mean we’ve just had a whole conversation because I wanted to buy you coffee. Turn here, it's right around the corner.”

“A pretty good conversation.”

“Yeah.”

So I pulled into the parking lot and he bought me coffee and we ate our bagels before we finally headed into the studio. He walked me to the wardrobe room and I asked him to swing by later before Tony was supposed to pick me up and I said that I would help him prepare for his solo date tonight. And then I got to work.

Wanda had a few questions about why I was late but I promised to tell her later. So after a couple of hours I headed over to the hair and makeup trailer and begged them to help me out since this was a date with a billionaire and I had no idea what I was doing.

So when it was about an hour and a half before Tony was supposed to pick me up, I had to convince myself to put the rest of my work aside until tomorrow and headed over to the trailer. Wanda sat by my side while they did everything and I asked her to hold off on the twenty questions until we could be alone.

And as soon as we got back to the wardrobe room she was all over me. I could barely get in a word until I begged her to let me explain. I told her everything. At first she didn't believe what I said about his arm, then again she didn't spend a lot of time with him, but she came around and was surprised to hear that I was going on a date with Tony.

“So you're going on a date with Tony?”

“Yes.”

“I thought we were talking about James.”

“James is just my friend.”

“You can keep lying to yourself.” She whispered under her breath.

“Wanda, I have the chance to have a really good date tonight. I haven't been on a date in what feels like years. When I talked to him it was easy and he's funny and charming. Buck—James has made it clear that we are nothing more than friends. So why should I believe that there is something there when we both know there's not.”

“Have you given him a chance?”

“Have I given him a chance? Why would I give him a chance? We don't like each other like that. I value his friendship, he is a good person, someone that I want to have in my life. But not as anything more than a friend.”

“I'm just trying to look out for you.”

“By trying to convince me that I like someone that I don't?”

“I've heard things about Tony and he's constantly in the limelight...I can see that you're excited for this date but I just want you to be careful.”

“I know...but it's not like I'm running to the paparazzi.”

“It may not seem like that right now, but an “event” with Tony Stark is bound to have photographers.”

“And?”

“And you know.”

“I should have never told you.” I murmured.

“Really, that's what you think?”

“I'm grateful for you, for watching my back. You've been here for me but I'm not going to hide from them for forever, I don't want to hide forever.”

“And you think that you want to unhide yourself because of Tony?”

“I don't know, that's why I agreed to the date.”

“You know, you can lie to me all you want about not liking James but I can see it. I can see the way that you two look at each other and I don't believe for one second that you don't feel something for him. Not to mention the fact that he is a much safer option considering he is on a TV show to fall in love with someone else.”

“Yeah and him being a reality TV star who is supposed to be in love with another woman is supposed to help me how? Because if I wanted to, I could date him in secret without anyone knowing? What about the fact that I would hate having to see him with other women? But what you don't seem to understand is that James is my friend...friend and I like being friends with him. So yeah, if I want to date Tony I will, and if they come, I'll be waiting.”

BUCKY’S POV

I was actually pretty excited for this date tonight, surprisingly enough. I had just finished setting up the date and made my way over to the wardrobe room. I was about to walk in when I heard Y/N talking to someone.

“But what you don't seem to understand is that James is my friend...friend and I like being friends with him. So yeah, if I want to date Tony I will, and if they come, I'll be waiting.”

I turned back around and knocked on the door, stopping their conversation.

I walked into the room to see Wanda messing with some papers on the desk and Y/N had her garment bag in her arms.

“Hey.” I said.

“Hey. I was just about to change.”

“I don't suppose I could join you?” I said mockingly. She looked over at Wanda before she spoke but looked at me when she did.

“Your suit is already hanging up behind the curtain.” She smiled and gestured to the fitting room and I walked in behind the curtain, pulling it shut behind me. Then I remembered that my arm hadn’t rebooted yet.

“Hey, Y/N. Can you come help me?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?” She peeked her head in.

“My arm hasn’t rebooted yet and it’s been years since I got dressed with one arm.”

“Oh sure, I can help.” She grabbed the white dress shirt and held it out for me to put my arms through. I got my right arm through and tried to bend my left arm, but it wouldn’t bend right, without causing some pain.“Let’s get the left one in first.” She suggested and adjusted the shirt so that my left arm would go in first. She moved around to the front of me and started to button the shirt. “You know it’s been a while since I dressed anyone.”

“Well I couldn’t tell.” She handed me my pants when she was done, I removed my jeans, and pulled the dress slacks up to my waist. “If you could just keep the pants at my waist...” She put her hands on my waist and I quickly did the button and zipped them up.

“I’m impressed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone do their pants up with one hand.”

“Why are you looking down there?” I teased.

“Let’s remember that you’re the one who asked for my help.” I laughed at her and she tied the tie around my neck before she helped me into my jacket. Thinking I was done she went out to grab her dress and I put my socks and shoes on and was about to ask her to help me tie them but I heard her talking to Wanda. I put on my sling extra slow.

“I am done talking about this. I want to have fun tonight. And I don’t want to talk about them again. I’m done with them.” Y/N whispered. She didn’t seem angry she seemed...desperate.”

“Go on your date...but if he does anything to hurt you—”

“I know.” She laughed. “I’ll be careful.”

“Good.”

I stepped out from behind the curtain. “Sorry I forgot about the shoes.” I said.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to leave before you were done.”

“It’s okay. I’ve gotten used to just using elastic laces but these shoes are new.”

“You used to use elastic laces in your shoes?”

“It was the only way I could get away with not tying my shoes.”

“You don’t have to explain that to me, I think elastic laces are miracles for shoes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, all of the shoes that we use for quick changes have elastic laces.”

“That’s cool.” She stood up after she was done tying my shoes.

“You look good.” She said.

“Thank you, I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You, but it was nice to be asked.” She smiled again but tried to hide it as she picked up the garment bag. “Now it’s my turn.” She went behind the curtain and started to change, asking Wanda to come in and zip her up when she was ready.

But I wasn’t ready when she came out…

“Wow...I—you—I mean—”

“I think that's the first time I've ever made you speechless.” She smiled.

“You look beautiful—stunning.” I finally spoke. She was wearing this beautiful half navy, half cream dress with some beading around her waist.

“Thank you.” She turned to look at herself in the mirror when I saw something that interested me.

“You have a tattoo?” I asked, referring to the words running vertically down the left side of her back. I could make out a few words, but the rest were hidden underneath her dress.

“I have three actually.” She looked back at me with a smirk on her face.

“Three?”

“Yeah, one here on my wrist,” she held out her right hand, a semicolon, “and one behind my ear,” there was a pair of vintage scissors behind her right ear, “and the one on my left side, closest to my heart.”

“What is that one?”

“You know Russian.”

“Yes, but I can only see the first three words.”

“And the other ones are a little more private.”

“Private? Why?”

“Because you would have to get me naked to see them.” I don't know if my jaw hit the floor but if not I definitely felt like a deer caught in the headlights. “That or you would have to see me in a swimsuit.” She laughed at me and turned back to the mirror. “Anyway, I'm glad you like the dress. I wasn't so sure about wearing it, but with the late notice I had to chose between this and the overly fancy one.”

“No this one is good, it looks good. Why weren't you sure?”

“Well it's a little personal...I guess. I made it and the beading was something that my mom was working on right before she died.”

“You made this?” My hand reached out to touch the fabric, feeling how smooth it was.

“Yeah, I had to make a lot of things in school this was one project.”

“It's beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“You know I used to have a tattoo.”

“Really?”

“Yeah...before the accident.”

“What was it of?” She didn't even bat an eye when I brought it up, she never did. Other people did.

“It's pretty nerdy.”

“Well I have never doubted your nerdiness.”

“When I first started working for Roscosmos, I helped build a new satellite that ended up taking this stunning photo of space, so I had it tattooed on my bicep.”

“Oh my god.”

“What?”

She just started laughing. “That is the nerdiest thing I've ever heard.”

“I'm going to show you the picture and then you'll understand.”

“No I understand, I'm sure it was beautiful and in all seriousness, if you want I can take you to my artist, she’s really good. She may think that a tattoo of a galaxy is insane but she'll do it.”

“I may take you up on that sometime.”

“I will warn her ahead of time.”

“Yeah that may be a good idea, my guy wasn't too thrilled about it when I asked him to do it. But then again he was a very angry Russian man.”

“Sounds about right.” We both laughed.

“Anyway, are you ready for your date?”

“It's been a long time since I was on a date...so I hope so.”

“You'll be fine, just be yourself.”

“If I'm taking your advice, you have to too.”

“I would be an idiot to doubt you now, even if it is my own advice.”

“Like I said—”

“You don't have the constitution to be wrong. I know.” We heard some rustling coming from over on the table and saw Wanda doing some work. Honestly I had forgotten that she was even in the room.

“Wanda what do you think?” Y/N asked.

“Do you really want me to tell you two what I think?”

“About the dress.” She corrected.

“The dress is great.”

“That's all I need to hear.”

“So when does Tony get here?” I interrupted, trying to erase the tension in the room.

“He should be here soon.”

It was a couple of minutes later before we heard a knock on the door and one of the show’s PAs poked her head in.

“I have Tony Stark for you?” She said.

“Yeah, send him in.” Tony walked in wearing a, most likely, expensive black tuxedo. He was wearing a million dollar smile and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little jealous that he was the reason for her smile.

“You look beautiful.” He said.

“Thank you.”

“Are you ready to go?”

“I am.” She turned to look at me before she went. “Have fun on your date tonight.”

“You too.”

They walked out arm in arm and I stared at them the whole way.

“You guys are so bad at hiding it.”

“Hiding what?”

“The fact that you are totally in love with each other.”

“I—We are—How did you know?” I caved.

“So you are in love with her?”

“I wouldn’t say love, but there’s something different about her. I don’t feel the same things about the other girls that I do when I’m with Y/N and I don’t know what that means.”

“Sounds like love.”

She grabbed her things off the table and left the room, leaving me very confused about what I was actually feeling for Y/N.

Y/N’S POV

We left the studio, in a limo...a limo, and his driver took us to one of the most extravagant hotels in LA. I had to remind myself not to look so stunned because everyone else there had probably been to events just like this before, but sometimes I couldn’t help it.

“I think that this is the most beautiful place I have ever stepped foot in.” I whispered to Tony.

“Well it’s nice, not the most beautiful thing I have seen tonight.” I looked at him and tried my hardest to hide my blush when I saw that he was talking about me.

“You are one smooth talker.”

“Thank you, it is my only skill.”

“You’re such a liar.”

“I'm trying not to be too egotistical on the first date.”

“I see.” I laughed as he showed me to our table.

The table was made up of complete strangers but Tony made sure to introduce me to everyone and we managed some good conversations. He asked me to dance a few times and we told each other things that you would tell someone on a first date. But overall Tony’s company was good and different. I loved spending time with him and he knew how to make me smile and laugh. There was only one problem…

“You ready to get out of here?” I looked around the room to see that some people were beginning to leave.

“Yeah.” He grabbed my hand and led me outside where we waited for our driver to pull up. “Tony, I had a lot of fun tonight. I was so scared that I was going to mess this up, but you proved me wrong.” He stepped closer to me wrapping his arms around my waist and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Well, I’m really glad that you had a good time. I was nervous to bring you to this event, just because sometimes these things can be really boring and—”

“It wasn’t.”

“Good.” Taking advantage of how close we were he leaned down and kissed me. But before I had a second to process he pulled away and opened the door to the limo for me. I slid in first and he moved in after me.

“Um...can we try that again?”

“Yeah.” He slowly moved closer to me and this time I took in everything that happened. The look in his eyes was one of excitement, his hands were soft, holding my face close to his, and his lips...definitely knew what they were doing. But there was still one problem...  

We pulled away and stared at each other, trying to find words.

“You can be honest.” He started. But the look in his eyes told me that he was feeling the same way that I was.

“No.” I said.

“Yeah.” He agreed.

“I mean it was a good kiss.”

“Yeah a great kiss.”

“But…” But I was thinking about Bucky the whole time? I couldn’t say that.

“Nothing.” We both said, we laughed at each other.

“But I have really liked hanging out with you and I would love to see more of you.” He said.

‘I would like that. It’s too bad though.”

“What?”

“That I wasted this beautiful dress on you.” He laughed out loud at me.

“Yeah what a shame.” We both laughed at each other, but he stopped, looking like he was trying to come to terms with something. “I have something to ask you, it’s kind of been stuck in my head and now that we kind of agreed on this not being something, I really want to ask.” I was hoping that he wouldn’t ask what I’m pretty sure he was going to ask, but… “So uh...what’s up with you and Barnes?” I just chuckled at him.

“There’s nothing going on with Bucky and I.”

“But he lets you call him Bucky?”

“Yes.”

“Interesting.”

“What?”

“It’s just that the only other person I’ve ever heard call him that was Steve and Luna.”

“And?” I was still pretty amused by his accusations.

“He’s known Steve practically since birth and Luna is a little kid.”

“I’m sure he let’s you call him Bucky.”

“Nope.”

“Well you guys work together.”

“And you don’t?” I tried to say something in return, but stopped myself. “You can be honest with me. I won’t tell him.” What could be the harm? He was no Wanda and I believed he would keep my secret.

“Yes...okay, I like him. I have pushed my feelings so far down because he’s on the show to find the love of his life and he’s made it clear that we are friends.”

“It’s not very clear to me that you two are friends.”

“What do you mean?”

“The flirting and the way that you two look at each other when the other isn’t looking. That’s why this, between us was never going to go anywhere. I thought that I would give it a try at the least but after that kiss…” He looked at me like he could have only told from the kiss.

“Hey you said the kiss was good.”

“The kiss was good, but it was just good.”

“Yeah.”

“I want to be honest with you and I don’t want you to freak out when I tell you this, but I miss my wife.”

“You’re married?”

“Separated.”

“Oh.”

“You were the only women that I’ve been attracted to since the separation was legalized and I can’t stop thinking about her. I really wanted this to be something, I wanted to prove to myself that I could get over her. But I don’t know if I ever will and I’m sorry if this makes it seem like I used you. But if it’s any consolation I have actually enjoyed myself tonight.”

“Well I would have to apologize too, because I think I sort of did the same thing, but to get Bucky off of my mind...not your wife.” He laughed at me and it was like the air cleared. “You should win her back.”

“What?”

“Win her back. If you still love her, fight for her. Show her how much you still love her.”

“I think it’s probably too late.”

“I don’t think it could ever be too late if you still love her.”

“You think?”

“You just have to be willing to fight for her.”

“You have to be willing to fight for him too.”

“It’s different with him, he doesn’t feel the same way. He’s got fifteen girls trying to catch his eye and I would rather not get into an actual fight over him. Those girls are ruthless.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve already caught his eye, so you’re a little ways ahead of them.”

“You're wrong.”

“No I’m not, you just don’t believe me.”

And like the gentleman he was, he dropped me off at home, making sure that I got in safe and then he left. I walked to my room and changed out of my dress and I looked at my phone for the first time.

I had a few missed texts from Wanda asking me to text her when I got home and one text from Bucky asking how my date went. I thought about everything that I talked with Tony about and opened up my phone to respond.

Y/N: Can I come over?

Bucky: Sure.

PART FOUR.FIVE