Sunrise | Bucky Barnes x Reader

Stolen Moments

"Bucky!" You yelped, peering over your shoulder to see a handprint of flour on the backside of your black sweatpants. He appeared beside you with a cheeky grin, continuing to roll out the pizza dough as if he didn't do anything. Rolling your eyes, you dusted your own hand in flour, landing a swift tap to his right bum cheek.

"Oh, I see how it is doll." He laughed, reaching across you to the bag of flour. Bucky's childish behaviour had you giggling like a lovesick teenager. He had come along in leaps and bounds since you first started working with him and every time you shared a light-hearted moment like this, you could feel yourself falling further.

"No, no, no, Bucky!" You squealed as he sprinkled the white powder over your head and onto the floor surrounding you. "You started it so I hope you know you're cleaning that up." You peered up at him with your hands on your hips, a cute pout on your face. Bucky took the opportunity to nip at your bottom lip, pressing his mouth to yours in a quick kiss.

"Hey," you breathed as he pulled away, "You're really bad at this no acting on it while we're at the compound thing. As much as I enjoyed that, you can't just kiss me in the kitchen."

Bucky shrugged sheepishly. "I couldn't help myself... it'll never happen again." There was a smirk etched onto his features and a playful glint in his eye that told you he was straight-up lying to you and you tilted your head, mirroring his expression. He brushed the flour from your hair and shoulders, his fingers lingering on you for as long as he dared before turning his attention back to his pizza.

It was early December and the pair of you had been very well behaved around each other since your discussion on the beach, even when the rest of the team had been away on missions you would make sure to sneak down to the lake for alone time, away from Tony's high tech security system. Now you were trying to disguise a date night as some platonic pizza making and a movie. It had been Bucky's idea, his time had been taken up with combat training and he was so close to being signed off now, he was desperate to do something together that wasn't you sat beside him making notes on his progress.

He was generally doing a lot better mentally, his memories were still filtering through day by day and he would share them with you once they all clicked into place. The good ones at least. You'd always be able to tell when a bad one had broken through, a Winter Soldier memory that he would have tried so hard to suppress but would make its way to the surface anyway. If it happened during the day, he'd become quiet and try to keep his distance before ending up by your side, finally allowing himself to seek comfort. You'd read to him or watch a film he hadn't seen before to distract him from reliving the horrors of HYDRA.

At night they would breed into a nightmare. And even if Steve was home, he'd leave you to it. You told yourself that you didn't mind, that you cared about Bucky more than anything else at that moment and would do anything to take his pain away. Fortunately, the bad memories and nightmares were now happening less frequently, and Bucky was always quick to thank you for that. You just didn't expect Steve to be so nonchalant about the fact that his best friend was still suffering to some extent.

With the pizzas topped and in the oven you were clearing up when Sam jogged into the kitchen.

"This looks fun, and smells delicious. Can I join the pizza party?" His voice made you both spin around, your backs against the counter to hide the handprints. It appears you were too slow though.

"Why have you got a flour hand on your butt, Y/N?" He quirked an eyebrow, glancing to Bucky who just shrugged as if he had no idea how it got there. You looked around at your sweatpants, your eyes widening in shock.