The Collection- Bucky Barnes

Off the Clock- Epilogue

A house is just a house. Just a conglomeration of walls and floors. Windows and doors. A roof. Several rooms added together to make a house. A house is just a house until someone makes it a home.

For James Buchanan Barnes (Bucky to literally anyone who knows him, minus the son that now calls him Dad instead of Daddy), there are two people who make the Albany brownstone a home for him.

One is his ten-year-old son, Will. The other is his girlfriend, Y/N. They're easily the lights of his life.

He's had three homes now, in his whole life. It's been an unnaturally long one, that much can be said. Long and, as of recent, filled with happiness. He remembers a time when, just over a decade ago, he had thought happiness was something he would never reach. There would be small bursts of it, separated by long periods of content and the occasional waves of guilt, shame, and sadness. And that, he told himself, was life. That was the life he was sure he was meant to have. Nothing else beyond that.

And then...Will.

He had never really understood the term 'bundle of joy', not until he laid eyes on his son for the first time. Bundled in that cloud soft hospital blanket with fluttering eyes and his bottom lip wavering. All six pounds and four ounces of him. Bucky Barnes has never been an easy crier. It took a lot for him to lose control of himself like that. But the second they put that boy in his arms, he was a goner.

Will was the sharpest piece of happiness he had ever felt. Nothing in the world compared to the way his heart would swell when those big green eyes landed on him or he got a gummy smile. The first time Will laughed. His first steps. The first word.

He never felt like anything was missing after that. He had friends and he had Will. There was nothing more he wanted.

At least, until that day at the park.

Toddler Will Barnes had been a heathen in raw form. Not so unlike his Aunt Rebecca. He liked to scare his dad, run away from him at the park. Impromptu games of hide-and-seek. That was how she came into their lives.

Sweet, heaven on earth Y/N.

If Will was the sun popping out after a storm, she was the sound of the birds after. He didn't know it 'til about two years in. Or maybe he did and he just ignored it enough so that he couldn't know. Tricked himself out of it.

Even now, he remembers the first time that he realized just how important she was to him. The way her smile made him smile. How he was happiest when he was with both her and Will. He remembers everything. From their first meeting, the first time she called him Bucky instead of Mr. Barnes. The first kiss. The day he knew just how in love with her he was.

And the day he decided she was the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

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It's a beautiful wedding. Picturesque, really. Floating lanterns and flower petals. Hazy music and an aura of love. Wanda and Vision look like the dictionary picture for happiness.

"You know," Y/N leans her temple against Bucky's cheek as they dance, "I've never been to a wedding."

"Really?" His vibranium hand is surprisingly warm wrapped around hers. The other secured to her waist.

"Mhmm." Behind them, Nat is dancing with Will. His bowtie, having once been perfectly at his throat, is now skewed diagonally. "Are they all like this?" He asks what she means. "Happy. Warm. Like you can feel their love inside you."

Because she does, she feels it. It's almost overwhelming. Maybe it's the champagne or maybe it's the fact that Bucky looks beyond handsome in his suit. Whatever it is, she wants to live in this feeling forever.