Winter FLame

Part 9

After falling onto the bed, you both let out a little laugh. Pulling away from the kiss you look up at Bucky. You smile as your fingers brush over his left arm. The heat a wonderous feeling compared to the cold it used to be. Bucky shudders under your touch and your grin widens. He rolls off of you onto his back and lets out another laugh. He holds his left hand in the air and looks at it and flexes it, feeling the nerves firing. He turns to look you and asks, "Doll, can I take you on a date? I feel like I should do that before this goes any further."

"I don't see why not. I'll have to get a dress for this date. Maybe Nat will let me borrow one of hers." You say looking up at the ceiling.

Bucky nods and stands up. "How about tomorrow night? 6Pm??" He asks softly.

You sit up and look at him, smiling while biting your lip you nod a yes. He smiles back at you before dipping in and stealing another small kiss from you. You shake your head and stand. Walking him to the door you boot him from your room with mentions of going shopping.

After Bucky leaves the room you call out to F.R.I.D.A.Y "can you have Nat come to my room?"

The A.I responds alerting you that Nat was on her way. You hear a soft knock on your door and you yell a come in. The door opens and Nat has a sly smile on her face. "What were you and Tin Man up to?"

"I gave him an upgrade to his arm and he asked me on a date for tomorrow. Wanna help me with the clothes?" You say returning the smirk.

She breaks out into a broad grin and says, "Let me grab Tony's credit card and we'll head out."

You grin at her and walk to your closet. You pull out your favorite hoodie and throw it on over your tank top. You throw on your favorite pair of shoes and go to meet Nat at the garage door. You both hop in a lovely Audi and head to the nearest mall. Once there Nat has you try on a million different dresses, none of which you like. Just as you're about to give up, Nat comes around the corner with a gorgeous forest green dress. You grab it excitedily and head for the dressing room. As you slip it on you think this may be the dress. As it falls into place you let out a little gasp. It fits you perfectly. The dress hugging your wide hips, sinching in at the waist, and falling to just above your knees. You walk out and Nat grins. "That's the one Y/N"

"I love it. Now we need to find shoes!" You say.

"Agreed!" Nat replies.

You buy the dress and head for Nat's favorite shoe store. Once there you find a pair of stilettos that match the color of your dress and you squeal in excitement. Nat laughs at you as she swipes Tony's card. Once back at the compound you bound up to your room, excited for the date. With it being your first one you also feel the nervousness of not impressing Bucky. Deciding it was time to go to bed you crawl into bed and close your eyes. Your mind wandering back to the kisses you shared with Bucky and how it made butterflies erupt in your stomach. With the memory playing over in your mind you fall into a dreamless sleep.

You wake to the sounds of screams. You look over at your clock and see it's only 2:30am. Thinking the screams are over you flop over onto your stomach, trying to get comfortable. As you're on the brink of consciousness, another scream erupts, jarring you back awake. It dawns on you that it's Bucky. He must be having a nightmare and Steve hasn't gotten to him yet. You wait a few more moments as another scream can be heard and you remember Steve is on a mission. You jump out of bed and run to your door. You throw it open and rush across the hall to Bucky's room. You knock twice hoping it'll wake him up. When a scream comes instead of his voice you open the door and carefully walk in. you walk over to his bed and you can see him. He's tangled in the sheets. His left hand inside the mattress from the force of gripping it so tightly. He has sweat covering his face and chest. He's breathing fast, close to hyperventilating.

You reach out and gently touch his forearm while whispering, "Bucky... Bucky wake up its okay."

When he doesn't stir you contemplate what to do. Thinking to hell with it you crawl in beside him and run your fingers through his hair. You pull as much of his upper body into your lap as you can and continue to run your fingers in his hair. As you're doing that you can feel his breathing start to return to normal, but it isn't deep as if he were asleep. You're whispering to him that its okay. That he's safe. That he's free from Hydra. His arms snake their way around your waist and he takes a deep shuddering breath. He rolls his head to look up at you and you smile, softly down at him. Your fingers still stroking his chestnut locks.

"You okay now?" you ask softly into the dark.

"Yeah... That was the best way to be woken up since I can remember. Steve has to shake me 'til I come to swinging. Thank you Y/n" He says moving to sit up next to you.

"No worries. You'd have done the same for me." You smile brightly at him.

He looks at you slightly flabbergasted and huffs out a breath of air, "I don't think I'd have been as gentle. Or rather would have know how to be that gentle. Night terrors are horrendous."

"You forget. You have been gentle with me. When I woke up here for the first time. You were incredibly careful and gentle with me." You say reaching up to press his damp hair out of his face. "you're more gentle than you give yourself credit for, Barnes."

He looks down at his hands and then back up at you. "Thank you, doll. I needed to hear that."

"Of course! Any way, I'll let you get back to bed. See you later Bucky." You say moving to get off the bed.

Suddenly his metal hand reaches out and grabs your wrist. You turn to look at him and you see tears threatening to spill over. He swallows twice before he can roughly say, "Please.. stay. Just until I fall back to sleep."

You nod and move back over to him. You lay downnext to him and stroke your fingers over his cheek and down his jaw. You hand doesn'tstop until it tangles your fingers with his vibranium ones. He closes his eyesand you lay there for what seems like forever. You finally hear his breathingeven out and you carefully crawl out of the bed, pull the blankets around him. Youexit his room and make your way back to yours. Looking at the clock its 4:30 amand you decide to go to the gym and work the heavy bag. Thinking about how tohelp Bucky some more.