Bucky didn't expect it. It was so simple and small, but it was so beautiful. He was watering his homeplants, the one in the corner, the little vases on the table and the little garden he built himself on his small balcony, when he saw her: a small orange flower appeared in the vast of the green garden.
He started with the plants after he went grocery shopping, while going to get some simple things like milk and eggs, he saw the beautiful display of different flowers and house plants, but it was the small little vase with two little red peppers that got his attention, so he gifted himself with a pair of peppers.
That happened six months ago, and Bucky's plants collection grew, all kinds of plants he could get he would bring home, he liked their smell after the rain, and the look it gave to his small apartment, the plants made it feel like home. But even though he had a healthy amount of plants, not even once a flower had bloomed. Until now.
Bucky was mesmerized, he remembered when he used to buy flowers to his mother, to his dates, he remembered how things used to be so colorful... then they weren't. He remembered white, gray and black, thick concrete walls and a kind of red that stained his visions and he wished he would never have to see such vibrant red again.
Bucky also remembered that it has been way too long since the last time he smiled over something so... mundaine, so fragile.
A small orange flower!
Bucky reached the flower with his metal hand, his chrome fingers trying to be as gentle as possible, the petals moved carefully, as if they were aware of how in need of care the man before them was and he smiled. He then touched them with his flesh hand, trembling, he let his fingers gently caress the flower and it was so soft! a kind of softness that he had forgotten about.
Bucky smiled even wider, he knew he had destroyed a lot of things, he had made many mistakes, but this little orange flower planted in him a seed of hope.
Bucky Barnes knew that he had in him, the willpower to create beautiful things.