One Shots || Bucky x Reader || ABC

E || Elixirs and Enchantments

All night, the blue-eyed lamplighter had hesitated as he observed the small cottage from afar, nervously tapping his fingers against the tinderbox which was securely attached to his belt. The stone cottage looked particularly haunting tonight as the evening's fog clouded the streets of Salem and a slender black cat sat perched on the cottage's windowsill, its bright yellow eyes focussed directly on him, despite him being hidden carefully in the shadows as usual. The cat's stare was unnerving and nearly had the lamplighter turning on his heels to return to the safety of the small room he had been renting. Right when he was about to turn around and had convinced himself this was folly, he stopped in his tracks when you appeared in the cottage's window. His eyes felt immediately drawn to you; to the freckles that spotted in constellations across your cheeks; to your dark hair and eyes as wild as your soul. He held his breath as he felt his eyes take you in eagerly, desperate to learn more about you as he had attempted to do for weeks now. For the past few weeks, most of his days had been spent desperately lingering to light the lamps across your cottage, or nearly tipping off his ladder when he had leaned in too far to catch a glimpse of you as you left the bakery at the crack of dawn. Despite the stories or his belief that you could kill him with a flick of your finger, he found himself unable to stay away from you.

His heart beat loudly in his chest as, suddenly, he found his feet moving towards your cottage, like a man pulled there by some enchantment or spell which had been cast on him. He just wasn't sure if it was your magic pulling him there, or the way you smiled as you picked at the herbs strung across the ceiling, carefully selecting some stalks of dried sage and vervain. The black cat calmly watched the lamplighter walk up to the path as he nervously looked around, hoping no one would see him knocking on the door of a witch's cottage. It would cause trouble he wasn't ready for.

The blue-eyed man half expected the cat to change into some beast, set on defending her mistress. But, the cat simply watched as the man breathed in deeply before he knocked on the wooden door, his free hand clutched around the locket his mother had always worn. He immediately second guessed his decision and wondered whether he had just walked into a trap and would be sacrificed in some horrific witches' ritual in the forest by the next full moon.

But when the door opened, all his worries instantly dissipated from his mind as he saw you up close for the first time in his life. The words he had prepared died on his lips as he found himself breathlessly staring at you. Overcome with the inability to take all of you in in a single glance.

You smiled at the young lamplighter as your eyes connected with his. He had been watching you for weeks now, thinking that you wouldn't notice. He looked particularly nervous as his eyes didn't seem to be able to leave yours.

He gaped at you like you had cast some kind of spell on him. You had not. You had never seen his eyes up close, they were coloured like the blue of calm oceans and clear skies. It took him almost five seconds until he snapped out of his daze and hurried to take off his flat cap, holding it in his hands nervously as he briefly bowed his head to you and finally spoke.

"I- I am so sorry to disturb you tonight miss," he muttered, nearly stumbling over his own words as you smiled at the young man, for you had wished he would have come to your cottage much earlier.

"I uh- I was wondering if-" he continued to struggle as he lifted his right arm to nervously scratch the back of his neck. It wasn't often that men came knocking on your door, as they either hated what you were, or were afraid of what you would do if you hated them in return. The people who did show up to your door were often other women, looking for something beyond regular medicine to help cure their children's illnesses or for not ever having to face the fear of having an unwanted child in the first place. But never has a man walked up to your door and asked you for help. Until now.