Help Me To Heal

That is weird

After Lexie left with Sam, Bucky spent a few hours sitting and reading quietly, trying to distract himself from the thoughts of what they could possibly be up to. Eventually he made himself some dinner and tried to eat as much as he could, but the nerves for the date and intrusive thoughts about Sam and Lexie being alone together for this long left him with very little appetite.
He showered and changed into a black long sleeve henley, black jeans, black leather jacket and of course his gloves.

Bucky arrived at the restaurant a little before 10 and entered to find Leah clearing up tables and putting away chairs.

"Hey!" She greeted him with a friendly smile as he nervously handed over the flowers he had bought on his way there. "Well if that isn't the most adorably old fashioned thing anyone has ever done" Leah laughed "take a seat, I'll be done in a few"

Bucky nodded and took a seat at the bar, as he sat there waiting for Leah to come back he scowled at the lucky cat sat on the bar top, it's golden paw waving wildly back and forth with no sign of stopping. He grabbed it and forced it to stop, smiling smugly to himself as he let go. Seconds later the cat was back to waving enthusiastically and Bucky let out a loud huff stupid thing he thought angrily.

"So, have you dated much since half the fish in the sea came back?" Leah asked as she handed him a beer

"Not really." Bucky shrugged

"What about that girl you came in here with? She seemed nice"

He flinched slightly at the mention of Lexie "she is but it's uhh.. complicated so we're just friends" Bucky cleared his throat nervously "I actually tried that online dating thing briefly, that was pretty crazy. There's a lot of weird pictures"

"What kind of weird?"

"I mean, tiger photos? Half the time I had no idea what I was looking at. It was.. it was a lot"

Leah laughed "you sound like my dad. Wait, how old are you?"

"106" Bucky replied honestly

Leah laughed, assuming it was a joke and Bucky laughed nervously along with her. He glanced towards the door, wondering if it was too late to make a break for it.

After more awkward exchanges between them they eventually settled down to play a game of battleship. The conversation got a little more easy, talking about hobbies and family and the usual first date stuff.

"So, what's your favourite movie?" Leah asked, it was an innocent enough question that Bucky answered without thinking

"The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but if I had to pick one movie I'd say the second one."

"Oh really? I've not seen them. Why don't you sell it to me, tell me what's so good about it"

Bucky thought for a long moment, he actually wasn't sure why he'd picked that movie. He'd only seen it once when he watched them all over Lexie's birthday weekend. He tried to think back to what even happened during those movies but all he could picture was how Lexie's eyes lit up with wonder, how she teared up at the emotional scenes, how her nose scrunched up as she laughed at the funny bits, how she leaned forward watching with anticipation during the suspenseful scenes despite having seen the movies countless times. The small movements of her lips as she silenty mouthed the words since she knew the movie off by heart. That's when it hit him, they were his favourite because they were her favourite and his first time watching her watch them was a memory he would treasure forever.

Unfortunately this was not really a thought he could share with the girl he was currently on a date with.

"I'm really sorry Leah, I've got to go" he said as he stood up