Sweet Suit
You rushed out of the kitchen into stood in front of the elevator, waiting for it to arrive on your floor. You rocked back and forth of your heels and toes and crossed your arms. Bucky followed you out and stood beside you, placing a hand on your shoulder. You felt him stiffen and glanced up as an uncomfortable expression crossed his features as he looked at his metal hand.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, running towards the stairs and up to his room.
“Don’t be too long,” you called out before the door shut behind him. You sighed and couldn’t help but fidget with the ends of your hair. What is he doing here? How did he know where to even go?! The elevator dinged and you whipped your head up to watch the doors slide open to reveal your brother standing there.
“Ryan?”
“(Y/N)!” he said breathlessly, as if he ran here. Just as he stepped out of the lift, Bucky rushed in, now donning a hoodie with long sleeves that covered most of his hands. He looked from you and your brother and walked slowly towards you.
“Bucky, this is my brother, Ryan. Ryan, this is my… boyfriend, Bucky,” you said awkwardly, making gestures between them. Your brother strode towards you, running a hand through his hair that was the same colour as yours. He stretched out his right hand to shake Bucky’s and you felt him sigh in relief, grabbing it with his human hand shaking it with a small, forced smile.
“Well kiddo, times really have changed, you look great!” Ryan said, pulling you into a tight hug. You grinned and the familiar scent of him washed over you and you sighed happily before pulling away.
“You too, nice suit by the way,” you commented, with a smile.
“Comes with the job, nice t-shirt sis,” he winked. You looked down and realised you were wearing one of his old shirts and blushed slightly, laughing at the irony.
“So what are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy to see you but…. How did you find me?” you blurted it out, still in shock about your brother actually being here, in the Avenger’s Tower of all places.
“I’m here in New York on a case, and I heard you were a big shot living with the Avengers!” he exclaimed, patting your shoulder and smiling widely. “Last time I saw you, you were my little nerd who kept stealing all of my books and clothes, now you’re here.”
“Just because she wasn’t there for that alien invasion doesn’t mean that she’s not a real member of the Avengers,” Bucky snapped with hostility. You elbowed him in the stomach lightly and shot him a look.
“I don’t think that’s what he meant, Buck. Trust me, if you saw me when I was a teenager, you’d know that I was exactly what it sounds, and nobody would have thought I’d have made it into a job like this,” you said, reminiscing slightly about your adolescence filled with an obsession of books, dragons, and fanfiction.
“I’m so proud, kid,” Ryan said, ruffling your hair affectionately.
“I learn from the best,” you smiled at him. “So how long are you here for?”
“At least a week, depending on how things go down with the job.”
“Ryan! You should stay here! Tony won’t mind at all,” you exclaimed excitedly and jumped up and down. You felt Bucky watching you and glanced at him to see he had visibly become less tense and awkward; a smirk had replaced his features.
“I’d love to, but I’ve already got a place set up. Besides, I really don’t want to be in the way,” he said, surveying the surrounding room. His eyes travelled from the flat screen TV to the arrangement of couches and expensive items that were scattered around the room. “You got a nice set up here, though.”
“Are you sure?” you said, slightly deflated. You stopped hopping and looked at him with puppy dog eyes.
“Positive, but we definitely need to spend as much time as possible together before I head off. Speaking of which, I really have to go, I only called over to let you know I was around, I’ll give you a ring later?”
“Oh… yeah, sure,” you said, trying to not sound disappointed.
“Great to see you (Y/N). Nice to meet you too, Bucky,” he said brightly. You hugged him tightly before he stepped back into the elevator and waved good bye. When the doors closed you felt Bucky slip an arm around your waist and you leaned into him.
“So that was the famous brother of (Y/N) (Y/L/N),” he said softly.
“Seeing as you’re the only one who knows about him, I wouldn’t use the word ‘famous’,” you said, taking his hand in yours and leading him back to the kitchen.
“You okay, doll?” he said, pulling at your hand so you faced him. His blue eyes stared into yours seriously and it took a lot of self control not to melt right there. You sighed and nodded.
“Yeah, I’m just… still processing what happened. I mean he’s here. It’s been so long. And he’s actually here in city,” you said, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Suddenly all of your doubts and insecurities resurfaced. “Oh my god, what if we’ve completely lost connection, I mean, what if we can’t fall into the same flow. I was really upset when he left, and we lost contact, what if that happens again? What if this will just be built up so that I’ll just be left without a family again? What if he leaves me?” you stammered, tears falling down your face. Your chest started heaving as you struggled to find your breath. Bucky stared at you with wide eyes. You guessed he probably wasn’t used to being the one that wasn’t freaking out in a situation, but he recognised that you were having a panic attack.
“(Y/N), listen to me, take a deep, slow breath,” he instructed, taking both of your hands in his and took a deep breath himself so that you could copy him. After about five seconds, he let the breath out and you copied. “You’re doing great, just keep doing that.” Once you caught your breath you let out a small laugh and wiped the tears from your face.
“I’m acting crazy, I know, it’s just seeing him again… it brought up all the feelings I had when I was a teenager. It’s been a really long time since I’ve freaked out like that,” you admitted, trying to ignore the feeling of guilt that built up inside you. You hated confiding in people and coming off as weak and helpless. Talking about your fears of abandonment to someone who was captured, tortured and experimented on by HYDRA, was brainwashed to kill innocent (and not so innocent) people, and could barely go a few days without relapsing into his assassin mode probably wasn’t the best idea. You didn’t want to burden Bucky with all of your problems but he seemed to want to help, and you didn’t know why, but you felt like you could trust him with anything.
“Now, will those work in a ‘microwave’?” Bucky said, gesturing to the abandoned mugs of hot chocolate and using air quotes on the word ‘microwave’. You laughed and nodded, and set the timer to one minute.
“I’ll be right back,” you said walked out to the living room, realising you had left your phone on one of the couches when Ryan had arrived.
“Hurry back, doll.”
Once you grabbed your phone, you heard the microwave beep loudly and there was a piercing crash. You rushed in to find Bucky standing against the wall and a large knife plunged into the door of the microwave.
“What the hell happened?!” You shouted, walking cautiously towards the appliance and swinging the door open. Sparks emitted from some loose wires and you squealed and jumped back. Bucky growled from across the room and you opened the door fully and sighed in relief. The hot chocolate was still okay.
“Bucky?”
“I just… I didn’t expect it to…” he trailed off, muscles flexing as he clenched his jaw. You picked up the cups and took a sip out of yours.
“Apart from some melted cream, it’s alright,” you smiled gently. “Oh and the knife in the microwave, but we’ll let Tony handle that.”
Bucky smiled weakly and took the cup from you. He rolled his shoulders back to stretch and downed the hot chocolate.
“Are you okay?” you asked, trying to mask the pang of empathy you felt for him.
“I guess, I let down my guard and it just kind of… shocked me,” he replied, looking weary.
“I’m so sorry, it’s my fault, I forgot you haven’t used to the appliances here and then I threw you off with my stupid problems. Don’t worry about anything okay, you’re perfectly safe here. And don’t even think about the microwave, Tony can deal with that.” You plastered a reassuring smile on your face and rubbed his forearm comfortingly.
“I’m fine, I think. We can watch the rest of the film if you want?” he said, perking up a bit at your touch.
“Sure!”
You weren’t sure how the two of you had become so comfortable around each other, even though you were dating (yes just since last night but still), but it was just so natural. You hooked your arm into his and dragged him down to his room, trying not to think about explaining how your boyfriend was an ex-assassin to your brother later.