𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚜 - 𝚋𝚞𝚌𝚔𝚢 𝚋𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚜

sunkissed

Sweet Creature - Harry Styles

Cara laid with her head on her hands, looking up at Bucky's sleeping face. She was literally on top of him. She somehow always woke up even closer to him than when she fell asleep.

As he stirred awake, Bucky opened his eyes, smiling at the blonde looking up at him. He took a deep breath, puffing his chest and stretching his arms.

"Hi cutie." His raspy voice sent butterflies to her stomach. She smiled back at him, biting her lip.
"Keep doing that and the shirt is coming right back off." Cara rolled her eyes and blushed when Bucky sent her a cheeky wink.

"Whatever you say, Buckaroo." Cara pushed his messy hair out of his eyes. "I'm hungry." She jumped out of bed to walk to the kitchen and ruffle through the bare cabinets. She pulled out four eggs and two pieces of bread. Bucky made the toast while she scrambled eggs. Both worked in a comfortable silence, her humming gently.

They ate on the couch, Cara resting her feet across his legs and laying back against the armrest.

"I never heard back from my last letter." Bucky spoke softly. "I was worried."

Cara's face burned in embarrassment and she looked down. "I'm sorry. I just got in my head."

"About what?" Cara didn't say anything, instead focusing on picking a piece of crust off her toast. She sat up to sit cross cross next to him.

"You can tell me anything." Bucky pulled her face to look at him.

"It's stupid." Cara whispered, looking at his lips.

"Hey, I promise anything you say isn't stupid." His hands were now on her shoulders. She sighed. "Cara please tell me."

Giving in, she sighed quietly. "I was with Winter and Georgia and Winter was talking about how she couldn't last long without sleeping with someone, and it scared me. I know you would never do that, but I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was off." Bucky didn't say anything for a moment.

"Cara, I love you and only you." Bucky kissed her forehead, pulling her into a hug. She knew that nothing was going to happen as she held him. Bucky loved her, and she loved him.

Love always scared her, reading about heartbreak and the consequences of thinking with your heart rather than your head. But as she sat there, in the arms of James, she knew that living on the edge was worth it.

She found what she needed all her life.

August 2017

"Crater Lake!" Bucky shot up off of the table, the machine connected to his head falling over. His voice lost control as he yelled the name quickly. Bruce backed away, surprised from the outburst.

"What?" Natasha rested a hand on the table, looking at him with bewildered expression. Everyone in the room looked at him with different faces.

"That's where she has to be." He spoke quietly, out of breath from memory scanning all day.

"Why Crater lake?" Tony crossed his arms and tapped his foot.

"The day I proposed, she said she always wanted to go to Crater Lake." Bucky whispered as he looked down, avoiding the pitied gaze of everyone else.

"We can look, but I feel like there's a stronger memory. Are you sure about Crater Lake?" Tony asked. Bucky nodded firmly.

"Okay." The next ten minutes was silent, Tony getting the Quinjet ready for the trip. Bucky knew something had to be there.

"I want all of you back here in 30. We'll stay for the night." Bucky got up off of the table, but Peter's voice made him freeze.

"Guys, wait. There's a house in the woods near Crater Lake on AirBnB."

"So?"

"We can stay there, so we won't have to drive back and forth. More time to look."

"How many rooms?" Tony raised his eyebrows.

"Three. It's nice." Bucky just nodded along. A comforting hand reached up to touch his arm. Bucky yanked his arm back. Nat looked down, embarrassed.

"We're going to find her." She smiled softly at him. Bucky said nothing, leaving to go pack.

A knock on his door brought him out of his head. He soon realized he had twelve pairs of underwear and no shirts in his bag.

He pulled the door open to find Steve. "If you're here to tell me it's a bad idea, I'm not changing my mind." he swung the door closed, but Steve's hand stopped it.

"I want to go with you." He spoke firmly.

"Why?" Bucky was livid. He spent the last month being yelled at by Steve for this, and now he wants to tag along?

"There's no stopping this, I know it now. She's my family." Bucky said nothing. "I'm sorry. For all of this. I want to help you, I just didn't want to put her in danger if she was still out there."

Bucky sighed. "Okay. Go pack." Steve smiled slightly, making Bucky give him a small close lipped smile.

He quickly finished packing and found he way to the Quinjet. Everyone was already on. He silently took a seat next to a window away from the rest of the team.

The ride was around five hours in the quinjet. His feet tapped nervously when he saw the lake under a haze of clouds from the window. It looked the exact same as the picture they saw the day he proposed.

"We should go there when we're older, Buck."

The words sounded hazy in his memory, but he recognized her voice just the same. The way she always smelled like vanilla and jasmine. The way her hair looked like honey and her eyes like coffee in the sun. Her sunkissed glow that always made her radiate happiness. The yellow knit sweater she wore even though she was still cold.

He felt a lump in his throat. Digging out his ipod and earbuds, he shoved the little buds into his ears and clicked play on the all too familiar sound of his girl.

The sun was setting on the horizon, casting a yellow glow over the trees. Bucky focused on his feet, crunching the twigs in the dirt road to the AirBnB. The air was warm and sticky, bugs flying around him left and right. Bunnies scurried through the bushes and trees as squirrels ran up the trunks and through the branches. The road was too rough to drive the last quarter mile.

"Damn it, Kid! You can't mix those together!" Tony and Peter were playing Candy Crush on Tony's phone since Peter's died hours ago.

"Now there's no signal! Great." Tony grumbled. "I was so close to winning." Bucky didn't pay them much attention, their voices merely in the back of his mind. All he thought about was getting his girl back. There had to be a way to find her, had to be some kind of clue for him.

Tony and Peter stopped in the road. "This is it, guys." Peter smiled. "Isn't it gorgeous."

The house had two stories, an eggshell color all over. The shutters were a pale blue, windows all over. There was a stained glass window on the second floor center with a tree.

Bucky didn't give any of it a second glance. It felt as if time had rewinded on him, as if he was standing there with a clean shave and his Sergeant uniform on, his girl on his left. The image of her with her honey hair braided to the side flooded his mind. The delicate ring rested on her small finger, her right hand clutching his own. Her smile seemed to shine brighter than the sun. Everything glowed with a yellow sheen, the setting sun glittering over the lake to the left. Her face lit up at the sight of the house. She bounced on her feet as she ran to the yellow swing. Her laugh echoed in his mind.

It was as if his head was dipped in water, a temporary bliss rushing over him before the storm came after. Everyone else's voice seemed to fade in and out, like they were faraway and he was at the bottom of the pool.

"Bucky!" Steve's voice seemed to pull his head back to surface level, his head snapping to look at him. "What did you see?"

Bucky didn't say anything, instead looking back to stare at the decoration hanging from the porch.

Sea glass wind chimes.

end of part 2.