afterglow - tony stark

34

       Bucky had moved out.

       Since he saw Steve, a lot of things happened in the weeks that followed. One, she and Bucky finally revealed to the world that HYDRA was alive and well (they didn't know that it was secretly inside SHIELD). Bucky also outed himself as the Winter Soldier and took responsibility for all the crimes he had committed.

         With the backing of Steve, Captain America, Bucky was pardoned for all he did. He was now in therapy as a condition for his pardon. He still lived in Malibu as he wasn't ready to go back to Brooklyn yet; he knew if he did, he would remember everything.

             He was working through that with his therapist that would change once he moved back home (but he actually liked to think he was working through it by being around Eira). Steve even moved to Malibu until Bucky was ready to go back home; what they were supposed to do when the war ended seventy years ago. He wasn't leaving his best friend.

            Currently, Eira was with Bucky at a beachside restaurant. He looked so different from months ago as he cut his hair and he didn't seem as guarded. She was telling him about the birthday coming up she shared with Tony. Then halfway through she got distracted by the view of the beach outside.

        She pushed his arm as an idea filled her brain, "Oh, I should take you to beach one day."

          "With all those people?" Bucky frowned as he stared at all the bodies moving on the beach.

       "You can't be a shut in all your life, Bucky."

       "I like it so far," he muttered and she rolled her eyes.

        He quickly changed subjects, "So when is this party?"

        "You ask like you might have somewhere to be, old man," she teased.

          "Mean," he teased back and she told him when it was going to be. The date made his heart sink.

          _____

             It was the day of the birthday party and Tony had gotten her another necklace. It was a silver chain with a T pendant.

           She shook her head as she let him put it on her, "You really have to stake your claim, don't you?"

           "Snowflake, you know I do," Tony smirked a bit.

             "You're lucky that I like telling people that I'm yours or else we'd be having a very different conversation right now," she said.

              He wrapped his arms around her from behind and he laid a kiss on her shoulder, "And that's why we're perfect."

            She smiled before she turned around in his arms and gave him a warning look, "You're not going to ruin this birthday with some surprise kiss or with a revelation that you're dying, are you?"

            "Well, I plan to kiss you...a lot," he said which made her giggle. "But no ruining of any sort. Cross my heart."

               She smiled before she kissed him softly and sweetly. Then she pulled away slightly to look at him sheepishly, "I know you just gave me a gift but...I can't give you yours until after the party."

               "Really?" he smirked.

              She shook her head, "Don't think so dirty, Tony."

              "Snowflake, you know I always do," he still smirked.

              "I don't know why I put up with you sometimes."