Trying Your Luck - Bucky BarnesxOC

Part 35: Celebrations

Janice, George, Sam, and Bucky have spent the past week conspiring when Shannon isn't around, trying to come up with a birthday party that she'll really love. They settle on planning breakfast and dinner with all of her favorite food and wine. Afterward, he'll take her to the barn to give her her necklace. Bucky feels incredibly proud of how sneaky he's been - although, he's almost certain that Shannon knows that something's up because she keeps asking him what the big surprise is that he's hiding. He gives her the same answer every time: "What surprise?"

It infuriates her, but it makes Bucky all the more excited for the big day.

Bucky hides her necklace in Janice and George's room underneath the vent in the floor. Janice cried when he showed it to her and George patted him on the back and told him, "Good job, son."

Bucky already feels like he's part of the family. Part of him wants to propose now, but it's not what they agreed to. The last thing he wants is for her to reject him, or to feel pressured into saying yes just because her family is there. He can't deny that he's starting to get swept up in the excitement of all of this planning and sneaking around. He wants to make the day special for her, the same way she does for him almost every day.

From the first day that they started dating, she surprised him with home-cooked meals, new movies to watch (even if he hated them, which he did most of the time), new music, new everything. She's the epitome of a cool breeze. Fresh, exciting, everything he's wanted forever. He knows it won't always be this way, they'll tell each other the same stories a thousand times over, but in new ways. That's what he wants. It's what Steve got with Peggy.

It's all Bucky has ever wanted since he could remember.

This morning, he sneaks over to the barn, littering it with candles and flowers that he picked from the garden. Janice gives him some dried bundles of lavender that she got from the florist in town to spruce up the place and make it smell a little bit less like a barn. He sets the necklace down atop a small pile of hay and puts a small bouquet of flowers around it. Bucky sweeps up the mess that they've left behind from their previous nights of lovemaking and lays down a small blanket for them to sit on... or do other activities. It's her birthday, and he's hers for the night. He sets down a couple of bottles of wine and some glasses, along with some of her favorite chocolates and candies that he very sneakily ordered online before they left. Sam made sure that Shannon never touched the mail.

Bucky finds himself in the kitchen figuring out how to ice a cake at 8am with Janice at his side.

"You want to smooth it out, dear, use the flat side of the knife."

"Like this?"

He scrapes off a heap of icing to make a flat surface. She kisses him on the cheek.

"That's perfect! You're a natural."

Bucky grins and Janice takes over, piping beautiful lettering and flowers around the edges. Bucky can already tell that Shannon is going to cry the moment she sees it.

George is quietly reading the paper in the living room, sipping his coffee, while Sam cooks a big breakfast for everyone. Once Bucky gets the hang of how to ice the rest of the cake without making it look like a weird rock formation, Janice and George go out on a short walk before Shannon wakes up. She tells Bucky to put the cake in the back of the fridge behind the Tupperware so that she won't find it if she reaches in for a bottle of water or a beer. Bucky does as he's told and helps Sam with the dishes. Sam looks at him.

"So what did you get her for her birthday?"

"A necklace," Bucky replies. He hands Sam his phone, showing him a picture of it.