Chapter 6
You sat on the couch with your legs outstretched, scrolling through your tablet, trying to find a better, more permanent residence. God the housing market was fucked after half the population suddenly returned. Sam sat on the other end of the couch, looking very intently at his phone, brows frowned. “What are you doing?” you asked poking him lightly with your toes. He looked up at you from the corner of his eye. “Talking to work, about getting back into the field.” he responded almost quietly. You nodded back at him, even though you were fairly certain he was no longer looking at you. “I guess there’s still world that needs saving.” You sighed, stretching your neck back.
“I’m going to go to the store, I need to actually move.” You announced, standing up, and walking to the door to grab keys and slip some shoes on.
The grocery store was odd, many shelves empty, after five years supply lines had to be different, disrupted. They had enough butter and flour though, as well as many of the other ingredients that you needed. You picked up fruits too, and some other dinner necessities, that didn’t take much thought into actually cooking them.
It had been around a total of three months since we placed Tony’s heart in the river. Life was just so different now, harder to navigate. Nonetheless you returned to the cabin with bags in your hands, and placed everything into their respective places. Then followed shuffling noises down the hall. Sam’s room stood with the door open and him calmly and neatly folding clothes, ready to pack them into bags. “Are you planning on heading out?” you questioned gently, not certain how he was feeling. “Yeah.” he exhaled. “They got a Job that could use the Falcon.” he shrugged. “I get that, there’s a lot of world that still needs saving.” you repeated. “Just don’t become a stranger, because I can find you.” you also reminded, very little threat in my voice but a whole lot of truth. “Trust me I know.” he laughed back at you.
Bucky came back from his court mandated therapy appointment. He had been trying meditation and trying to figure out what to do now, with Steve gone. “Take a look at these.” You plopped the tablet down on the table in front of him “Are these apartments” he looked up at me uncertain. “Yeah, can’t stay here forever, and a lot of them are in Brooklyn too!” you tried to encourage “They’re all two bedrooms.” He sounded even more confused.
“Yeah, the housing market is tricky, and there’s a lot of things you need to get approved.” You gave half an explanation as you removed my ball of dough from the fridge. “I doubt anyone would be too desperate to share an apartment with the Winter Soldier.” he deflated. you could only roll your eyes, “I’d be your roommate dumbass.” Flicking flour at him, he just cocked his head and gave a look in between a puppy dog face and confusion. “Again there’s a lot that goes into getting an apartment, I figured it’d be easier if we did it together.” You shrugged your shoulders.
“But what if I snap and hurt….” You turned from your place in front of the fridge, removing a large square of butter to interrupt him. “First of all, you sleep in bed with me half the time, and I'm a magician, so if anything happens, we can handle it.” gently placing the butter in a diamond in the middle of your rolled out dough then wrapping it with the extra corners. “Also,” you continued, ``What's a credit score?” you gestured to the ceiling, he just looked at you confused “exactly!” you exclaimed as you rolled out your new mixture of butter and dough. “So look at the apartments and tell me what you think” You pointed a messy finger at the tablet.
After a few days, you were able to settle on a place and put in an application. Another month had passed when we officially had the keys and began to move much of the abandoned furniture from the Avengers compound into the apartment. “So, y'all moving in together? How is that gonna look?” Sam questioned you as he helped carry boxes up the steps. “I think it’ll be good for him, having a nearby support system and being in the city again.” You shrugged. “Okay sure.” Sam mumbled. “What’s with that tone?” You turned to him. He turned to look at me “Nothing, nothing, you two just seem very close.” he defended, suggesting there was something deeper than that. “we're friends, and regardless, you really think he’s ready for that yet?” You threw back “ I guess not” Sam gave in. “We should start to expose him to new things though, media and stuff like that.” You suggested. Sam nodded along “Yeah like The Beatles, Wizard of Oz, Stuff like that,” Sam tossed out “Yeah those are good. I kinda wanted to traumatize him.” You giggled a little. “Like Doja Cat, Shape of Water, Cardi B.” You laughed out as Sam looked a little terrified. “ You wanna traumatize him more?” he scoffed. “He’s been in ice since the 20’s, the world has changed a lot since then, we’ve got dresses above the knees now.” You kept laughing. “You’re ridiculous” Sam shook his head, also dissolving into chuckles.
Finally most everything was moved in, and separated into piles, like kitchen, living room, Bucky's rooms, Y/N’s room. Now it was just organizing everything.
It didn’t take too long, especially for Bucky who seemed to have a vendetta against decorations. He had begun to make friends though, with some of the other elderly people in the building. It was cute, and a really good sign.
Being in separate rooms, still didn’t do much to wake you up at night and travel across the living room to open the door and wake up the nightmare ridden soldier. There were even a few nights when those footsteps padded over towards your room and a silent invitation was requested. One that you always provided. Co-sleeping had become more common between you two, usually sleeping at opposite sides of the bed but it seemed reassuring, and it seemed to help, at least you hope it helped.
The Hair was an adjustment. He walked in with it after a therapy appointment one day and definitely caught you off guard. “What do you think?” he asked hesitantly. “It looks good,'' You assured him, walking over to fluff it up with your fingers through it “It’s quite different though, it may take me a moment to get used to.” You smiled up at him.
“It smells good in here.” he commented walking over to the rice mixture that was sitting on the stove. “Yeah dinner is just about ready!” You chirped, slipping behind him to grab a small bowl of lime crema out of the fridge.
Then you sat down at your small kitchen table and ate quietly together. “How’s therapy?” You breached the silence. “She kinda sucks.” He mumbled back at You. “I’m sorry, that's really shitty,” You deflated right along with him. “Well for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing great.” You smiled up at him, bumping my foot softly into his shin. This seemed to lift his spirits a little bit.
After cleaning up you began to roll out a ball of dough and place a butter square inside of it. “What are you making this time?” you heard Bucky’s voice come up behind you. His quiet steps and sudden talking had begun to startle you progressively less. “Croissants.” You explained as you began to roll everything out to do the first turn of the dough. He accepted my answer then went off to get ready for bed.
You started these stupid things too late so it was going to be a while until you could leave them in there overnight for their final rise. You could hear the sleeping breaths coming from Bucky's become more labored over the music that hummed softly from the bluetooth speaker you had on the counter. Then the breathing stopped with a gasp and you heard him walk towards you. “You’re still up?” A tired voice asked, confused. “Yeah, just got one last turn.” You explained to him.
“What are you listening to?” another question came out. “One of my favorites” You shrugged, standing and turning to fully face him. “Come here” You offered out a hand, which he took. The lyrics quietly were heard throughout the room
'my baby never fret none, about what my hands and my body done.'
You turned his hand and gently placed a kiss on the back of it. Then looked up at him “I’ll do this last turn, then we can go to bed, deal?” He smiled softly down at you, spinning you around once before he sat in the chair you had once occupied. you finished rolling out “You taking up dancing again?” You teased him while working. “Steve told me quite the stories about you.” You continued to chuckle. Bucky waved me away looking embarrassed at what stories Steve may have shared. “Not much dancing to do, at least not the way it was.” He looked wistful about the past and his old days. You finished folding over my dough mass before placing it back in the fridge. “Common peaches, it's time for bed.” You pulled him out of his head then and followed him back into his room. You shuffled into the bed and made ourselves comfortable next to one another.