Broken Soldiers | Bucky Barnes x OC

63. empty smiles

6 months after the Snap.

October 2018 — Dayton, NEW JERSEY

Hailey sat up from her bed, smiling softly as she looked outside her window, birds chipping. She got out of bed and walked down in her kitchen. She made herself some pancakes and went out on the porch to eat them in peace.

Five months ago, she had found this perfect house just outside of Dayton. She was far enough to feel at peace and close enough to the small city for small groceries and sometimes make social contacts with people, even though she dreaded it.

She adored living here, it was everything she ever wanted. The house was probably too big for only herself but she almost never got out of her own house so she might as well have a lot of space. She even had a mini lake next to her house, she would swim in it if she had the motivation. She often thought about what she said to Natasha and Steve in the space just before they got to Thanos and she had yet to buy ducks but she really planned to. Maybe chickens, too.

The house had two floors and the top floor had three bedrooms and each bedroom had its own bathroom, it even had a small living room right when you got off the stairs. And the main floor had one bedroom, a massive open kitchen with the living room right next to it. She had a lot of windows so the house was constantly very clear. She liked it, she thought it kept dark thoughts from creeping in her mind. And a porch surrounded the whole house and a part of it looked over the lake and the sunset, that was her favourite part of the house.

After ten minutes of watching the lake, she got up from her seat and walked back in the house. She dressed herself in some sports clothes and went running.

She went on a run every morning, or at least she tried. She read somewhere having a healthy routine helped grieving. She had no idea if it was true but she was now set on this routine.

She ran for two hours, headphones plunged in her ears, music blasting in her ears. She made a stop by the small city and entered the grocery shop.

"Hey, you" Annie, her closest neighbour, smiled at her.

"Hey" Hailey gave her a small smile.

A few people in this town knew who she was and thank god none of them cared. After the Snap, a lot of people had blamed it on the Avengers but thankfully, this town didn't really care about Hailey moving in. Actually, a lot of them had helped her move in.

Hailey got everything she needed for the whole week plus a small bag and paid for everything before walking out of the small store. She hoped to get to her house without Annie calling after her, like every time she'd see her, but obviously she had hoped too high.

"Hey, Hailey, I was thinking... this is almost Halloween and in this town, we usually have a little tradition. It's—"

Annie was a thirty two year old woman who lost her fiancée and her one year old daughter in the Snap. But thankfully, Annie didn't blame Hailey one bit. On the contrary, even, Hailey thought that Annie searched for a kind of comfort in her.

"Okay, Annie" Hailey chuckled awkwardly, "I appreciate you trying to make me... fit in but... I'm not really interested in... participating in small town traditions, if you know what I mean"

"I know what you mean. I just thought that..."

"And I appreciate it, really. Thank you for everything you doing but I just can't. Maybe, next year, though. Bye"

"Uh- yeah, sure. Bye"

Hailey felt kind of bad for always turning down Annie but Hailey had zero energy or intention to make friends in this town. Sure, they were nice and maybe she would've loved to be friends with Annie. But ever since the Snap, Hailey just couldn't do things as well as before. And that included socializing.