The Hurt And The Healing: Bucky X OC

Chapter Eighty Five: I Could Seriously Use Some Comedy In My Romance

After nearly a year of focusing on everyone else's needs first, it felt strange for Mara to relinquish the job of "healer," even temporarily. But Bucky had taken over the role without leaving room for debate, and she was still too tired to fight him on that particular subject. So when he insisted on being the one to change her bandages even though she had done the same for hundreds of patients, she had accepted it with only minor grumbling. When he had Nonna come over and give him cooking lessons so she didn't have to worry about making dinner, she had filmed him cursing out the boiling-over pasta water and sent it to Sam with a laughing emoji. She had even decided to find his meticulous schedule of painkillers, antibiotics, and vitamins endearing.

But after nearly three weeks of only being apart from each other for bathroom breaks and quick runs to the bodega, Mara was close to losing her mind.

"Go!" she practically begged, prodding Bucky out the door with sharp jabs that he could not feel through his Kevlar. "Your city needs you!"

"I can stay home," he offered, standing firm in their open doorway as she tried to push him over the threshold. "The city has been fine without me. It will be fine if I stay in tonight too."

"No, no, not fine!" she argued, giving up on physically moving him and focusing her energy on pure emotional manipulation. "What if there is some sweet little old lady who needs help crossing the street? Or a cat stuck up in a tree? Or a violent gang ransacking some poor Mom and Pop shop?"

Bucky looked down at her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"One of those things is not like the other," he drawled. She smacked his chest in frustration, and he laughed. "That desperate to get away from me, hmm?" he teased.

"Couples need hobbies apart from each other," she reminded him, giving him a once over to ensure he wouldn't have any reason to double back after she got him to go. "Beating up bad guys is yours. Watching old rom-coms with a bottle of wine and shouting at the characters to stop being stupid is mine."

"Again, one of those things is not-"

"Would you just go!" she exclaimed with a laugh. He chuckled and pressed a kiss to her that had her questioning how badly she wanted him to leave. But it had been weeks since either of them had any alone time, and she had had more than her fill of couples activities in that time.

"Fine," he said, breaking apart their embrace and clearly enjoying how she wavered at being left standing without him to lean against. "But when I get back-"

"We'll make up for lost time," she promised him with a grin. He kissed her once more and she smacked his ass as he turned to walk away. "Go get 'em, tiger," she called after him. She could have sworn the tips of his ears went pink as he walked away.

Mara closed the door and rested against it for a moment, savoring the sound of an empty apartment. A sound that was quickly ruined by Alpine yowling and rubbing against Mara's calves.

"I know, baby," she agreed, stooping down and scooping the cat up into her arms. "But we needed a girls night in. And he needed to let off some steam."

She walked over to the couch where her wine glass was already full and waiting and sat down, still holding Alpine to her chest. She queued up a movie Bucky would never have been able to sit through and glanced at the door.

"He's going to be fine," she assured the purring cat in her lap. "He hasn't lost it edge in the past three weeks. He's still the badass he was before this happened."

Alpine did not argue, and Mara pressed play.

At the fifteen minute mark when the romantic leads met, Mara reached for her phone to check Bucky location, before quickly shoved it between the couch cushions.