homecoming » bucky barnes AU

chapter twenty two

A couple of days previous...

Wendy was twirling the coil of the phone around her finger impatiently as the phone rang. She was inspecting a chip that appeared on one of the telephone buttons. Bucky had just left, finally, after a boring spiel about some movie he liked. Wendy thought that perhaps she was getting a little bored of him. She decided to call Steve. After all, they were still friends.

"Hello?"
Steve said, lost for breath.
"Hey."
Wendy chimed happily.
"How are you?"

Steve's breath heaved on the other line.
"Fine, you caught me while I was boxing. What's up?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to talk. I miss you."
She smiled down the phone.

Steve frowned a little, confused by her bluntness.

"You're not supposed to say that."
He replied.

Wendy smirked to herself, holding down a laugh.

"Come on, Steve. Let's not pretend."
She whispered.

Steve's heart beat rapidly in his chest as he heard her breathy tone down the line.

"I'm bored of him."
She cooed.

Steve squeezed his eyes shut.

"That wasn't supposed to happen, Wen."
He said back quietly.

"I've chosen you. Why can't you just come over."
She whispered again.

Steve felt his stomach flip, eyes still closed, disbelieving what he'd just heard. He remained silent.

"Don't tell me you're not bored."
She said, a little louder.
"I know she's not for you."

Steve again remained silent, inhaling sharply.

"Okay, maybe I was wrong."
He said lowly. Wendy smirked.

"Me too. I should've chose differently. I knew when you called me you wouldn't last with her... Steve... please come over."
She whispered the last part.

Steve glanced over his shoulder at the closed door to his room where he knew Laecie was.

He hesitated, not speaking for a moment.

"Okay, but you can't tell anyone. Anyone at all. Okay?"

Wendy smiled to herself.

"Okay. I'll see you in a half an hour."
She said through a smirk.

Steve hung up, leaving Wendy to do the same. She placed the phone on the hook and headed to the bathroom to freshen up.

-

Bucky flopped beside Laecie in her bed, tired and dripping wet from a shower. Laecie sat cross legged, staring down at him. He exhaled outwardly.

"Go on."
He said. Laecie bit the inside of her lip.

"Can you just tell me, from the start of it all?"
She asked, already fumbling with her thumbs. Bucky sighed, staring at her hands, then up into her eyes.

"Well, it started when she got back. She was so... I don't know..."
He trailed off for a moment. Laecie looked up from her thumbs at him with raised eyebrows.
"Seductive."
He finished.
"She knew everything she had to say to me. Manipulative is probably a better word. I don't know... we have so much history, and we had all this fucked up unfinished shit."
He continued.

"So, that's more important than anything we had?"
Laecie said to her hands. Her tone wasn't angry or upset, just plain.

"No, Jesus, no. I just... I couldn't help but hear her out. I found her by accident in the bathroom on the fourth. She was talking about how she missed me so much. I was just so thrown off, so confused by it all. I wasn't sure why she'd shown up out of the blue the way she did."
He sighed. He looked up at Laecie and gripped her hand.