Chapter 4
He couldn’t believe the Captain actually had the balls to come back into his bakery after the last time. Nor could he believe that he explicitly turned down a slice of the pie. Everybody loved his pie. Everyone except for Captain fucking America.
What could possibly be so bad about his pie? It’s just a normal pie.
If he were in a more rational headspace, he could likely come up with half a dozen completely valid reasons as to why the Captain wasn’t a fan. He could have been having a bad day. A villain could have poisoned him and his taste buds weren’t working properly. Maybe he just wasn’t as hungry as he thought he was. However, Bucky was not in a rational headspace, so Steve Rogers was an asshole.
There was a petty part of him that wanted to leak to the press that Captain America was secretly a massive prick, but he knew that wouldn’t solve anything. It would be very satisfying at the moment though.
He wasn’t shocked that the Captain left long before Clint and Nat, but he was shocked to find the pair still there when he started closing up shop.
“What are you two still doing here?” He asked as he stacked the clean ceramic mugs on the counter.
“We wanted to talk to you about Steve, but we figured we should wait until the civilians were gone,” Natasha explained.
That made sense. Civilians cause security breaches and Bucky signed an NDA along with his bakery lease. He legally couldn’t go to the press. He added that to the list of reasons he couldn't out Rogers as an asshole. Stupid Stark, covering his bases with the people he let near himself.
“What about him?” What could they possibly want to tell him about Steve? He didn't want to know anything about Steve. (That was a lie, he very much wanted to know more about Steve. He wanted to know all of the things about Steve)
“It’s not my place to tell you why, but there is a reason he reacted how he did. If you knew you would understand. So we just wanted to tell you it has nothing to do with you or the quality of your pie.”
To say he was surprised would be a bit of an understatement. He was so ready to write Steve Rogers off as an asshole who doesn’t live up to his public persona. Part of him wanted to pry and see what information he could get out of them, but the rational part of him told him not to. If Steve wanted to share that information he would. And he highly doubted he would ever be worthy of that information considering how he acted today.
“Good to know.”
“What? You’re not even going to try and get any more information out of us?” Clint asked.
“Clearly he’s not as stupid as you,” Natasha teased.
“Clearly,” Bucky agreed. “I don’t spend as much time with Natasha as you do, but even I know I would never get any information out of her. However, I could probably get something out of you with enough shots of espresso and muffins.”
The three laughed and made small talk as Bucky continued to clean up the shop for the night. He considered kicking them out while he cleaned, but they were good company and talking made the work go by quicker. Plus, he really needed to work on making more friends. He couldn’t get by only talking to his sister and his cat. Why not start with a few Avengers.
All that was left for him to do was spray down the tables, so he rolled up his sleeves and got to work. He listened as Clint complained about the last mission that they went on, swearing Bucky yo secrecy with the information that wasn’t yet public knowledge and probably never would be. Natasha just listened at her boyfriend, affectionately rolling her eyes at him.
When the last table was clean, he was more than ready to kick the pair of spies out of his shop, annoy his cat with love, and go to sleep.
The universe was clearly not on his side, because Natasha started a conversation he never thought he would have.
“Are you giving it one last shot?” Nat asked him, nodding towards him.
“What are you talking about?”
Natasha raised an eyebrow at him, silently calling him a dumbass. At least, that’s what Bucky always assumed that look meant.
“I thought you gave up on writing to your soulmate years ago.”
Bucky was starting to regret having that conversation with her.
“Yeah I did. And I would greatly appreciate you not bringing up that jackass. I’ve worked very hard at being okay with the fact that I will never meet him.”
Natasha’s eyes widened. “Bucky,” she said slowly, “look at your left arm.”
Bucky looked down at his forearm and gasped at what he saw. There was writing on his arm and it wasn’t his. His soulmate was out there and was reaching out to him. He wasn’t destined to be alone like he always feared he was.
‘It's been years since I tried, but I’m giving this one last shot. I hope you’re out there.’
The words baffled Bucky. How could it have been years since he tried, he had never seen anything. And how was it that he didn’t see all his attempts to reach out. He had so many questions for him, but he tried not to think too hard about it. Instead, he basked in the joy of knowing his soulmate was out there.
His right hand found its way to his mouth as tears began to well up. He couldn’t stop looking at the neat script that one adorned his forearm. If it weren’t for Natasha handing him a pen, he likely would have forgotten that he was supposed to write something back to them.
With shaking hands, he penned a simple response.
‘I’m here.’