Bucky came back in your room, and you smiled at him over Peter's head.
"Hey baby."
"Hey doll, Pete."
"Hi Bucky" Peter waved.
"How'd it again?" Bucky asked, referring to your brief therapy session that Dr Raynor had just given you.
"It was... helpful."
"She asked me to pass along her number. Do you want it?"
"Yeah" you nodded.
"Okay... hey Pete, you mind giving me a minute with her?"
"No, of course" Peter agreed and got out of bed.
You kissed his hand just before he stepped away.
He left you and Bucky alone.
Bucky lay down next to you in your bed.
You put your arm across him and you pulled yourself up to lie on top of him.
He laughed as you rested your chin on his chest and smiled at him.
"I love you baby. So much."
"I love you more doll."
You put your head on your side so your ear was pressed against him.
You closed your eyes and smiled softly to yourself at the sound of his heartbeat.
Bucky's fingers ran through your hair.
"Baby?" you whispered.
"Hm?"
"Can I- I mean, do you- did you keep my ring?"
You couldn't see his face.
He didn't say anything, but he reached his hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulled it out.
You held your hand up.
Bucky slipped it on your finger and kissed it gently.
"If I ever take it off again, slap me" you grinned.
"I'm not gonna do that doll."
"Wuss" you giggled.
"How bout you just never take it off in the first place."
"Deal."
"So... the Wakandans will be here soon to take that off" Bucky traced the device around your neck. "And then I was thinking I would take you for that dinner I promised."
"That sounds amazing."
You waited patiently for Bucky until Ayo and Shuri came with a tool to remove the device.
Bucky sat in a chair next to you and you sat up as Shuri prepared to take it off.
"This may hurt a little" she warned and pressed something against the device.
Immediately your whole body ached with pain, and you but your lip until it bled. You shut your eyes and tried to bare the pain.
You squeezed Bucky's hand tightly.
"Stop! It's hurting her!" you heard him yell.
"It's almost off" Shuri called.
You couldn't help it. You opened your mouth to scream out.
Bucky squeezed your hand back. He was terrified.
"Okay I've got it!" Shuri declared and stepped back.
The pain slowly started to fade.
You opened your tearful eyes and panted heavily, trying to catch your breath.
"Y/n, doll look at me. Y/n are you okay? You're okay right?"
You looked at him, but didn't say anything.
He smiled softly at you.
"You're okay. It's over now."
Still without saying a word, you pushed the sheets off you and climbed out of bed. You quickly jumped onto Bucky's lap and wrapped your arms around him.
"It's okay doll, I've got you" he said, kissing the top of your head as you cried. "Thank you Shuri, Ayo."
"Any time" Shuri smiled.
They left shortly; the others returned.
Peter and Tony sat on your bed as you refused to move from Bucky's arms. You had resorted to sniffling into his jacket, and he stroked his hand up and down the side of your arm in comfort.
Sam was standing near the door.
"What happens now?" Peter asked.
"Karli's dead, and the Flag Smashers have been taken to the raft, so I guess everything goes back to normal" Sam explained.
"Right. And what's normal?" Peter joked.
They started talking about what would happen next, but you zoned out until Bucky whispered in your ear.
"Are you okay doll?"
"Mhm."
"Okay, just checking."
"Hey baby, you remember at Christmas when you somehow managed to call Thor?"
He didn't reply, and you looked up at him to see him smiling at you.
"He's already on his way" he informed you.
"You're amazing" you grinned.
"Yeah I know."
———
When Thor finally arrived, he burst into your hospital room worriedly.
"Y/n! Oh I'm so glad you're okay! You are okay, right?"
"Yeah I'm okay."
You turned on Bucky's lap to face Thor so that you could give him a hug.
"What happened?"
You told him everything.
"I want that thing destroyed!" Thor declared when he heard about the device.
"Already done" Bucky said.
"And the people that wanted to hurt you... where are they?"
"Dead or locked up" you told him.
"So you're fine?"
"Yeah I'm fine."
"Oh I'm so grateful."
"So are you two gonna tell me how you keep in contact?" you asked Bucky and Thor. "Because I'm your sister and I don't even know how to do it."
"It's not him I'm in contact with" Bucky said. "It's Rocket."
"Rocket?"
"He gave me this intergalactic communicator last time we met."
"Why?"
"He wants my arm."
"Oh of course! Yeah he may have mentioned that" you giggled. "So what, he didn't want to see if I was okay?"
"No I did."
You looked over at the door where Rocket was standing in front of the guardians of the galaxy, and you laughed.
"I see you got your family back" you commented.
"Yeah, thanks to you."
"It's good to see you again."
"It's good to see you too... so that arm..."
"No" Bucky replied bluntly.
"We'll get it" you mouthed and winked to Rocket.
You looked back at Thor, who was still smiling brightly at you.
"Thor there's something I wanted to ask you..."
"Yeah?"
"Well I never, really, have myself time to... I didn't... after Thanos... can we hold a funeral for Loki?" the thought almost brought tears to your eyes.
"Of course we can. We must honour the brave thing he did."
"I agree" you nodded.
You smiled at the others in the room, then realised...
"Can we go? The device thing was taken off so I'm immortal again and I'm not feeling any pain."
They all agreed, you said goodbye to most of them, and you returned to your apartment alone with Bucky.
You just wanted some time to yourself after everything that had happened.
When you got there, you undressed almost completely and lay down on the mattress.
Bucky took off his jacket and shirt, then lay down next to you.
His skin was warm and comforting against yours.
The cool metal of his arm was soothing as he ran his hand up and down your back.
You were comfortable on his shirtless chest, enough to fall asleep.
Bucky pulled you closer by the waist and hugged you as you slept.
He drifted off too.
Both of you slept peacefully the whole way through the night for the first time in a while.
