Sunrise | Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words Unspoken

You met his gaze finally and held your hand out to him with a soft smile.

"He loves you, Bucky. You know that right? He was the one who got me here to help you and as much as helping you is my job, I want us to be friends."

Bucky took your hand and gave it a squeeze. The feeling in his chest was back as he glanced down at your entwined hands.

"Friends."

__________

Bucky sat on the stony shore of the lake, his socks tucked into his shoes beside him as he let the water lap over his bare feet.

He'd found himself down by the hammock a lot when he wasn't with you. Usually with his notebook in hand as he made his way through the memories that were still coming back to him bit by bit each day. At Steve's suggestion, he had turned the back half of the notebook into a journal of sorts. The intention was to keep track of his progress and thoughts around his readjustment, but Bucky had more important things to take note of.

The emotions he'd felt when he snapped at you in the media room had snuck up on him over the weeks prior. The day you'd shown him the hammock, he'd realised that something was going on between you and Steve. And for reasons unknown to him at the time, that was the start of it all.

When Steve told him the truth, and that you had decided it would be best to end your arrangement, Bucky had held hope that the strange bout of jealousy he felt was over. But instead, it was replaced with longing. Which he found just as strange considering he didn't know you. Not really. Not enough to justify the fact that he'd clearly formed an attachment to you.

And the declaration that you wanted to be friends when he was prematurely clutching at the idea of being more didn't help calm the chaos inside of him. Nor did the fact that you were overly tactile with him. He knew it was just part of who you were but the platonic hand holding and gentle touches over the last few months amounted to more physical contact than he'd received at any point during the dark days, and each time it was like his senses went into overdrive. He wasn't going to admit that he'd felt you there during the last nightmare either, your magic touch calming him more than the words Steve insisted on saying every time. And funnily enough, he hadn't had another since that night. His dreams had only been filled with you.

Sighing at nothing in particular, Bucky turned to the back of the notebook and unclipped his pen from the cover. His eyes wandered over the words scrawled across the page previously.

Laughed at a bad joke I made and gave me that look.

Tied her hair away from her face to, in her words, 'help her concentrate'.

Traced patterns over old lefty absentmindedly whilst watching a movie.

Let me loose on her record collection and played me her favourites.

Anchoring his feelings in particular moments. That's all he'd written. The list went on and on. He thought about that day, what you'd done to ignite the feeling in his chest that he'd become so accustomed to.

Wiped motor oil from my face after fixing Steve's bike.

Danced around the kitchen to a song in her head whilst making lunch.

"Hey, I've looked everywhere for you." Your voice came out of the trees like music to his ears and he abruptly closed his notebook, tucking it into his pocket.

"Everywhere except the secret hiding spot you showed me?" Bucky chuckled, glancing over his shoulder as he watched you slip your shoes off and join him on the shore.