Lost and Found - Bucky Barnes x OC

Easy, girl

A/N: Potentially some dubious consent in this chapter

**

Frankie knew it was stupid, and she had taken on board what her mom had said about love. Absolutely. But surely there was no harm in some casual fun too? Right? Right. And Bucky was gone. It's one thing wanting to open yourself up for love, but it's pointless if you tried that and the other person just wasn't interested.

She had messaged Dexter the App Guy looking for another date. Yes he was boring. Yes he was something of a pervert. But he wanted to see her. He thought she was hot. He was pretty cute. He was there. She knew she wasn't going to marry him, but they do say the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. And who is she to argue with 'they'?

She wanted to feel desired again, to be touched and held, even if it was by someone she didn't care about.

It did feel good to dress up again and get out of her funk a bit, she'd been wearing sweatpants and leggings since the breakup. Tonight she'd made an effort – a figure hugging red dress, silver pumps. She'd given her hair a well needed masking treatment and taken the time to exfoliate her body in the hopes it would be caressed.

She met him at the same bar as before. He shot her a big grin as she took her jacket off and showed off her tight dress. 'You look incredible' he said in her ear. 'But I can't wait to see what you look like out of that dress too'. He winked at her and she felt a lump of disgust in her throat, but managed a smile back.

'I'm so pleased you wanted to give this another shot' he told her, taking her hand across the table. 'I thought that was the last I'd see of you that night you had the emergency call'.

She pasted an artificial smile across her face. 'Well...you never know how life will turn out, do you?'

He licked his lips and nodded back at her.

She gestured to the server. 'I think we need drinks, don't you agree Dex?'

Dexter nodded again, even more enthusiastically.

'Great, shall we start off with a few shots then?' she asked cheerily. 'I'm not fussy...as long as it's the strong stuff'.

**

Bucky was tired from travelling. Despite the romcom worthy rush to the airport with Sam, he had to wait until the next day to get a flight. He spent a lot of time pacing in the airport to run down the clock, but it had given him a lot of time to think.

He decided he needed to see Frankie and finally tell her how he really felt. Enough was enough. Yes she may not want to see him, she may hate his guts – but at least she would know that he loved her and that he had done what he did because he was scared of hurting her. And yes, maybe partly because he was scared of his love for her – this was new to him. Being vulnerable and allowing yourself to love another person felt like a weakness, like opening yourself up for pain – but it wasn't really. Loving someone was a strength, it was brave to open yourself up like that and step into the unknown. He understood that now.

He thought about Steve taking that leap of faith to be with Peggy, how his heart was still with her after everything that had happened since, after all those years apart. Steve didn't even flinch, he knew exactly what he needed to do. Of course he did. He always did. He knew exactly what Steve would say about Frankie.

He thought about Dr. Ward's shock, and Sam's anger. They were both right, he'd been foolish. And yes, maybe part of it was that he didn't really feel like he deserved Frankie's love.

He wasn't sure if he could make it right, but he had to try.

He finally got home and dumped his bag. It was pretty late now, but he couldn't wait any longer.