Electric / Steve Rogers x OC x Bucky Barnes ✓

Chapter 35: Taking a Nap

MADELINE

Bucky walks me out of the gym and we step on the elevator to go to the top floor. 

He puts a hand on the small of my back to support me and I tense up immediately. He notices. 

"You alright?" Bucky asks me as he studies my face. 

I look into those steel blue eyes and nod. "Yep," I reply as I turn my head back to look at the door. 

I can feel him still watching me but luckily the elevator dings and the door opens. I rush out as fast as I can, walking towards my room in a hurried pace. As I reach my door with my hand on the doorknob, almost in safety, I hear Bucky again, "Maddie wait!"

I swallow before turning around and forcing a smile. "What?" I ask. I watch as Bucky walks towards me. 

"I think maybe I should stay with you for a little while, just to make sure you don't.. you know... fall into a coma again or something." He gives me a small smile and tilts his head. I look up into his eyes and they are deep and never ending and it feels like I'm drowning. 

I quickly tear myself away from them. 

"Buck, I, uhh..... I think I just need to like.... rest? I don't know. I just... Can you just give me a minute?" 

He furrows his eyebrows as he scans my face. 

"Yeah, sure, if you'd rather be alone, that's fine. But I also thought maybe we should talk about this morning? I spoke to Steve but, you know, you and I might need to clear the air too." He looks to the ground, embarrassed. 

I widen my eyes at him. "Oh, right. You really want to talk about that?" I dart my eyes to the side and down, praying that a hole in the ground will swallow me, out of sheer embarrassment. 

"You don't think we should?" He asks me and I glance up to meet those puppy-dog eyes of his. 

I sigh, running a hand through my hair. "Yeah, maybe. It's just.. weird.. you know?" 

He exhales loudly, "Oh, trust me, I know." 

We walk into my room and I plant myself on the bed. Bucky stands awkwardly by the door, visibly uncomfortable and unsure of what to do. 

I sigh, "Oh jeez Buck, just sit down. You're my best friend. We need to make sure this doesn't change that." 

He gives me a wide smile as he loosens the bun at the back of his head, and run a hand through his hair. "It hasn't. It won't. Sorry, I'm just.. awkward." 

"I know. Now sit down." 

He sits down opposite of me and I adjust myself a bit to face him. "Maybe we don't even have to talk about it. We can just pretend it never happened and go back to normal. What do you think?" 

"Yeah," he says as he smiles at me, "Normal sounds good." 

I grin at him, "Okay good. In that case I can tell you something I've been meaning to talk to you about."

He looks at me confused.

"I told Steve."

He furrows his eyebrows at me, "Told Steve what?"

"About Hydra. My past.. Our past. Mostly, anyway."

He raises his eyebrows at me, "Oh, wow, okay. What did he say?"

"Not much but I wasn't really expecting much either." I reply as I look down.

"How do you feel?" He asks me and I glance up at him, meeting those piercing blue eyes of his.

"Right now, I feel okay. But you know what it's like, Buck. I'm not sure how I'll feel in a couple of days or if it will affect me."

"I know," he says as he takes my hand in his. Earlier when he touched me I felt on edge, but now it just feels like my closest friend comforting me, which is nice. 

"I didn't tell him everything, though." I say as I glance back down.

"Why not?" He asks me as he squeezes my hand.

"I don't know. Really. Part of me knows that it won't change what we have right now but a tiny part of me believes that it would. How could he love someone who did those things?"

Bucky sighs, "He still loves me after everything I did, Maddie. He will love you too."

I hold his gaze, "Yes but when you did those things, you didn't have your memories. You didn't know what you were doing. I wasn't that far gone and I did it anyway."

He nods slightly, "I know. Doesn't change who you are now, though." He takes my hand to his lips and kisses it lightly, sending shivers up my spine. 

"I don't want to talk about it anymore.. I'd rather pretend to be a normal person.. I don't have anything to do for the rest of the day. Wanna watch a movie?" 

The smile he flashes back at me could literally break hearts, "Sure, that sounds good." 

... 

I wake up as something tickles my cheek. As I open my eyes I realize a movie is playing on the TV and that I'm in my room. I shift slightly, feeling a hard body against me. I cuddle closer to the body, relishing in the feeling of Steve next to me. 

It's not until I look further around the room and see Steve sitting at the end of my bed, smiling at me, that I realize what's really happening. I raise myself onto my elbows, startled, and look down to Bucky next to me, his metal arm around my waist and his long hair having been the thing that tickled my cheek. I look to Steve with widened eyes.

Steve chuckles at my reaction. "That was cute," he says while I keep the panicked look on my face. Bucky is still asleep, and in his sleep, he groans and tightens the hold on my waist, pulling me back down, my back against his front. Steve moves to lie down facing me, sufficiently squishing me between the two. 

"Hi," he says with a smile, "Did you have a good nap?" He glances down at the metal arm holding on to me tightly and chuckles again. "Something going on I should know about?" 

I am still at a loss for words, not even sure what's going on. I look at him, horrified. "Steve, I... I don't..." he interrupts me. 

"Don't worry sweetheart. This is actually kinda cute. Although it is weird to walk in on your girlfriend with another man." He moves closer to me and kisses me, his hand cupping my cheek.

Now, normally I would focus on the Super Soldier, who is not Steve, holding me close to his body with his metal arm, but at this moment the only thing I can focus on is Steve calling me his girlfriend. 

I smirk at him. "I didn't know I was your girlfriend." 

"Oh really?" he says as he smiles back, "That's weird, everybody else knew." He kisses me again. 

I hear Bucky groan behind me and he shifts against my body. 

I look at Steve and he starts to chuckle before leaning over my body. "You good pal?" he says to Bucky who just groans again in response. 

This makes me giggle and it takes all of 2 seconds until Bucky sits up abruptly, effectively removing his arm from around my waist. I move to look at him and he looks at both me and Steve with panic in his eyes. 

"What the-" he says before Steve cuts him off. "You and Maddie took a nap, I think." He chuckles again. Luckily this whole situation is amusing to him. If not, this could have gone terribly, terribly wrong. 

Bucky rubs his eyes before saying, "Yeah, I guess. We were watching a movie and then... I don't remember." He looks down at me and I smile at him. 

"Me neither. Guess we both just needed a good nap." 

"Yeah," he says with a big smile. As he looks back up at Steve he clears his throat and gets up abruptly. "I should go. I need to... go." 

Bucky leaves my room faster than I can say goodbye and I look back to Steve. 

"So," he says, "Should we talk about that?" 

I chuckle at him and the grin on his face.