pov- imagines

MAGNETS- B. BARNES

pairings: bucky barnes x reader, mentions of other avengers
warnings: mentions of a mission, mostly fluff
about: love letters with magnets; my contribution to kathie's () love letter writing challenge! i hope this fits!!

you had tried your best to wipe away the blood smeared across your cheekbones and stained into your suit, etched underneath your fingernails like a visible reminder to both yourself and everyone around you of what you do and who you are, yet it lingers, the vermillion visible in the lights when you turn to observe something next to you, the smell of blood sharp if you search for it too hard. the metal still stings your tongue.

but it's your best, and it does enough to lessen the stares you receive as you walk around a store in berlin. a red basket with silver metal handles loosely hangs from your fingers, heavy black tac boots contrasting with the honey feeling of the place you're in silent against the floor. the smell of old books surrounds the heavy scent of danger that still follows you as you walk, even if you try to shake it off the minute you're done with your job, tucking the person you make yourself to be back into the person you are.

it's funny, you suppose—the contrast in you, bruised and cut in your mission gear, a stray blade you forgot to remove before you left hidden behind your calf, your hair up and tangled, the sting of red-beaded cuts still fresh, shopping in quite possibly the cutest store you'd ever been to. it makes you want to drag bucky here so he can look at the old books, revel in the warmth the place oozes. you think you'll bring him at some point.

a coo slips from cracked lips, pink-stained nails carefully reaching for a white cat magnet that is on the magnetic board next to pet care books, gasping when you spot a similar one of a dog that looks nearly identical to yours. cute.

with a smile and amount of care that mirrors the brutality running through your veins in the battlefield you were just in, you set both magnets down in your basket, gently patting them as if to settle them in. scanning the rest, you can only help your excited little dance when you find a magnet reading handsome. you grin when you spot a sign telling you that new magnets come in every week. you have to come back now.

you set it down in your basket and go to look for more, picking out one of the place you're in, and another of a little plant.

you're almost to the checkout counter when you notice a package of magnets, containing the alphabet and numbers twice, along with commas and periods. another one with only vowels sits next to it, and you can't help it when you look at the design. i needed vowels anyway, you convince yourself, putting them in your basket.

-

it surprises you when you walk in.

you suppose it's the two-or-so weeks since you last walked through the doors of your apartment, the last time you'd been in your kitchen, opening the fridge door to take out the milk for you and bucky had been a memory, the only reprieve you'd had from the violence you were hired to create.

you can understand now why wanda couldn't help a startled gape when she came to yours and bucky's apartment last month, shocked stare dragging over the kitchen covered in magnets. you'd gotten so used to a magnet-less place during the mission that all possible magnetic surfaces covered in magnets of all kinds make your lips part a little.

although it's not like every inch is covered, it's still staggering to see how large the collection you hadn't even realized you started had gotten. your message from a few days ago is still spelled out on the fridge with letters of varying design. i miss you (already) in upper and lowercase, shiny and matte of varied colors. you smile a little at the fact that bucky hadn't taken it down since you left, having only added miss you more underneath. you spot i love you in one corner of your oven, something you'd sleepily strung together one night you were trying to stay up to wait for him.