Late Nights and Hair Ties

Ever since Bucky began living at the compound, life had changed. It wasn’t a bad change, just different. Steve seemed happier and more relaxed when Bucky was around. Sam seemed happy to have someone else to joke around with and hang out with. Tony and Natasha seemed on edge at first, but over time, both seemed to relax and welcome him into the family. For you, you’d found a late night workout partner, and you both seemed to benefit from the partnership.

You’d joined the Avengers a few months after they’d moved to the compound and had been through several missions with the team. You had become a part of the family. Like many of your team members, you were plagued with insomnia and nightmares. Some of the horrors that woke you up at night had to do with the missions you went on and the people you couldn’t save, but some were based on your life before the Avengers. When these woke you up, you were often filled with anger and too much pent up energy, so you usually made your way to the training room to work through the anger and energy. Once Bucky joined the team, he quickly became a regular in the training room late at night.

The first night you went to workout, having woken up just after midnight, you were shocked to see him running on a treadmill. He’d moved in only days before and you hadn’t had an opportunity to really talk to him. Wordlessly, you joined him, stretching first then beginning your own run a few machines down from him. That night you both moved around the room in near silence for a few hours until the exhaustion became too strong and you ended up dragging your self back up to your room around four am. The next night when you were woken up and made your way to the gym, he was again on a treadmill. You noticed immediately that the machine next to his had an extra water bottle from the kitchen waiting for you. “Do you mind spotting for me tonight?” you asked climbing onto the machine next to him. He looked over and nodded immediately.

This became a routine. He almost always made it there before you and grabbed an extra water bottle. You would start on treadmills then move on where ever you wanted to work, spotting each other when necessary. Over time, conversation grew as you both stretched or took a water break. You got to know each other a bit, and you noticed how much he seemed to struggle with his hair while working out. “Hey Buck, why don’t you tie your hair back?” you asked one day before climbing onto a treadmill. He looked at you in shock. “I hadn’t really thought about it, just dealt with it. Don’t have anything to tie it with any way.” You smiled at his reaction and offered him the hair tie you always had on your wrist.

“What do I do with it?” he asked sheepishly taking it from your hand. Without saying anything, you took your own Y/H/C hair from the pony tail it was in and brushed it out with your fingers. You turned so he could watch what you were doing then collected your hair at the back of your head, low enough that if he copied your actions, he’d be able to capture every hair. Finally you pulled the hair tie that had been holding your hair from your wrist and wrapped the elastic around the hair tightly. Turning to face the super soldier beside you, you tightened the pony tail a bit and watched as he tried to replicated your hairstyle.

For the most part, he succeeded. Over the course of the night, a few tendrils escaped around his face, but it seemed to bother him a lot less than before. That night as you were dragging yourself out of the training room, Bucky followed for the first time. He silently followed you to your door then cleared his throat a bit to get your attention. As he pulled the hair tie out of his hair carefully, he said, “Thank you for teaching me how to do that.” You took the hair tie and shot him a smile and said, “See you tomorrow?” He just nodded and you let yourself into your room, closing the door behind you softly.

The next night you had two extra hair ties on your wrist. Almost immediately when you joined Bucky on the treadmill, you reached out for his hand and slid both of them on his wrist. He gave you a smile and put his hair up again. Your night continued as usual, except Bucky walked you back to your door again. This quickly became part of the routine.

Soon you began seeing Bucky with his hair up in the little ponytail you’d taught him all the time. Working out, relaxing, or working in general. One night when you arrived at the training room, he came up to you looking upset. “What’s wrong, Buckaroo?” He smiled a bit at the name then held up a broken hair tie. “Oh that’s fine. Happens all the time. Its just a rubber band, here I have more.” You slid a hair tie from your wrist and held it out for him. “Thanks, Y/N.” He took the band from your hand and slipped it onto his wrist before beginning his workout. The next time you were out shopping with Nat and Wanda, you made them stop at Wal-Mart where you bought a 50-pack of hair ties. You threw the grocery bag in your locker that night and walked out to join Bucky, smiling.