Save Us First (Bucky)

35 - The end

Three months later Ivy woke up in the bedroom of their new house.
The morning sun was shining into her face, and she slowly turned around.

Bucky's side of the bed was empty, so she got up, threw on shorts and his shirt, and walked down the stairs.

„Buck?"

No answer.

Ivy grabbed a fresh towel, left the house, walked over the porch and then a small meadow, before she arrived at the small lake next to the house.

Bucky was swimming, but when he saw her he came to the wooden step.

"Knew I'd find you here."
Ivy sat down and laid the towel for him next to herself.
"Yeah. Needed some fresh air."

He climbed out of the water, effortlessly as always, and sat down next to her, putting the towel around his shoulders.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
She looked at him.
"Nightmare?"
"You know it. Wasn't that bad though", he said, and they both stared out onto the water for a while.

Eventually, she took a deep breath and stared at her hands.
"Bucky, I...I gotta talk to you."
His eyes met hers, concern on his face.
"What is it?"
"You know, now that we're like...away from the Avengers and all that, some day I...I'm gonna want a baby. You know?"
He chuckled and looked out onto the lake again.
"I know."
"Well, are you gonna make me one or am I gonna have to find someone else?", she said sarcastically and he had to laugh.
"What, right now? Here?"
"Shut up, you know what I mean", she said and lay her head on his shoulder.

"Is that what you want, doll?", he asked softly and kissed her on the forehead. "A family? With me?"

"Yeah. What do you want?", she answered him and he took a deep breath.

"I wanna spend the rest of my life, however long that is, with you. Here. And if you wanna try for a baby...okay. Why not? I mean...if all that shit hadn't gone down 1945...I probably would have had a family, too."

"And you'd be long dead by now."

He chuckled.
"Yeah. Imagine if I had to go through all that shit just so that I could end up with my soulmate, who just happened to be born in the wrong century. So the universe catapulted me out of mine into yours."

She giggled.
"Honestly, I like that explanation a lot more than what really went down."

"Yeah, me too", he said softly and took her hand.

She looked up and gave him a kiss.
"I'm really proud of you, do you know that?"

He smiled and nodded.
"Yeah."
"Good."

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gave her another kiss.

"Can 110 year olds even have kids?", she asked suddenly and he had to laugh.

"Hey, I'm not actually 110 yet, okay? And, I honestly have no idea. I obviously never tried, so...I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

She giggled.
"Sounds exciting."

"Sounds like a lot of fun."

"Wanna start later?"

"Hell yeah."

She giggled again and gave him another kiss, before they both got up and started walking back to the house.

He put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek.
"Love you."
"Love you too."

~
"I still can't believe how peaceful it is out here", Bucky said and kissed her on the forehead.
Ivy wrapped her blanket a little tighter around her knees and leaned against him.
"Yeah. Compared to New York, it's insane."
"I love it."
"Me too."

They were sitting in front of the house, on the porch, on a wooden bench, wrapped in a thick wool blanket, Buck had a beer in his hand, Ivy a glass of wine.
She lived for these moments - peace and quiet, just him and her watching the stars and the lake at night, enjoying the fact that nobody needed them.
Nobody knew where they were.
They had to worry about nothing.
It was just them, getting all the time together back that they had lost due to fights, trauma and injuries.

He kissed her on the temple and said:
"Do you think the others miss us?"
"Oh I sure hope they do, because I miss Loki like hell."
"I know. I miss Steve."
"Me too. And Scott. And Tony. And Nat and Wanda. I miss them all. More than I'd like to admit, but...it's better this way. For us, I mean. They'll be fine without us. And we'll be fine without them."
"I know we will, but...It is still weird not having them around", Bucky said.
"Yeah. But I definitely wanna invite them to the wedding."
"Oh, of course. We have to."

James had proposed after the first two weeks in the house, when they had been all settled in.
Really romantic, down at the lake, in the evening, sunset.
With a ring and an emotional declaration of love and down on one knee.
She had cried - and she had said yes before he could even finish the question.
It didn't matter though, because he had already known.

Buck gave her a kiss.
"I can't wait to finally marry you."
"Me neither. We deserve this after all we've been through."
"If we ever break up, we went through all of this bullshit for nothing", he realized and she giggled.
"Good thing I'm not gonna break up with you."
"Oh I hope you won't."
"Never."
She smiled and gave him another kiss.
"Alright. Tomorrow's another day, let's go to bed."
"Alright. Good night, doll", he said as he got up and gave her a kiss.
"Good night. Sweet dreams."
"Oh that would be something, wouldn't it."
"Don't worry. They'll come."
"Why would I need them? I'm already living the sweetest dream I could ever imagine", he smirked, pointing around him.
"Aww."
"Yeah, that was good right."
"Fantastic. You're a real sweetheart."
"Damn right I am."
"I love you, James."
"I love you too, Ivy."