The Collection- Bucky Barnes

Off the Clock- iii

"When's Daddy comin' back? Will looks up at her through dark lashes. He's a carbon copy of his dad. Same slope in the nose, same shape of the mouth. The same dark mop of hair. Bucky keeps his long, past his ears, long locks that always threaten to dust the tops of his shoulders. Will's hair has always been short, neat and tidy. Coarse brunette that somehow always finds its way covering his forehead.

The only thing that keeps him from being totally like his dad is the fact that his eyes are green. Deep green, dark, evergreen pine. Bucky's got eyes so blue, they may as well be sapphire. Blue enough to put the sky and clearest of seas to shame. She could, quite literally, drown in them.

"Tomorrow. The quicker you go to sleep, the quicker you can see him again." The quicker I can study, but she doesn't say that.

He settles further into his bed, pulling the blue and white striped comforter up to his chin. She pats the top of the blanket. What she does next is ritual. Unknowingly, she had classically conditioned him into falling asleep. Her index finger is soft as it slides down the baby curve of his nose and then taps once on the end. She leans down and kisses him on the temple.

"Goodnight, Will."

She's quiet getting up, quiet leaving the room. The door is left cracked open. Nine p.m. and he's out like a light. Good thing, because he's actually got school tomorrow.

Dinner (a sad excuse of a meal of meatloaf and mashed potatoes) has already been cleaned up. Dishes washed and put away. The house is quiet and it's just her. She plans to go back to her rental tomorrow, while Will's in school, and pack up some things and clothes she'll need through finals. The longer the thought dwells, the stranger she finds Bucky's offer. Yes, he's always been protective but going so far as to pretty much move her in until Faith comes back?

No matter. No time to think anymore on that. Dead week just means classes aren't in session. It doesn't mean she doesn't have work to do.

She's about an hour deep in a paper on the effects and subsequent dangers of some drug she doesn't really remember the name of when her phone rings. She expects it to be Bucky, calling to check in on Will. So she's unfathomably surprised to see another name on the Caller ID.

Mom.

Heart beginning to race, she answers. "Hello...?"

"Y/N, hi."

Her mother's voice sounds foreign and strange. Truth be told, she can't remember the last time she's heard it. Their communication is few and far between. Not something she really minds, in all honesty.

"Uh, what's up?" she bites down on the end cap of her pen. Her eyes shift from the laptop screen, to the book, to her notes. "Everything okay?" Someone has to be in trouble. Or dead. No other reason her mom would be calling at ten p.m.

"Everything's fine. What are you up to?"

Small talk. What the actual fuck was going on? Had she been shifted into a parallel universe? That's the only explanation she has for everyone's strange behavior as of recent.

"Writing a paper. Will's asleep upstairs."

"Will?" She doesn't like the way her mom tests his name out. She repeats it a few times. Will, Wiiiiill, Wiilllll, Will. "Is he a boyfriend?"

Holy hell. She sighs. "Will, Mom." She tries to jog her memory. "He's the kid I babysit. Have for three years now."

"Oh, that's right! Of course." She knows her mother has absolutely no recollection of this. She has a good way of saving face. Or so she thinks. "How's school?"