the team doctor || bucky barnes (EDITING IN PROGRESS)

52.

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱᴏɴɢ: ᴍʏ ʙᴏʏ - ʙɪʟʟɪᴇ ᴇɪʟɪꜱʜ

"𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬."

~

BUCKY WAS HOPEFUL.

Well, he tried to be.

He initially underestimated how long she'd be angry for. It had been two weeks since the incident, and the rest of the team had returned a few days after. She spared no time revealing his betrayal to Sam, who then told the entire team.

If her anger wasn't punishment enough, the comments from the team definitely was. Sam even had "#TeamValerie" stickers made.

"Don't you think that's too far?" Nat chuckled as Sam stuck a sticker on the fridge.

"I don't give a fuck, he hurt Valerie."

Wanda sipped her tea from where she sat next to Nat. "I'm not saying this is an excuse, but there is some merit to his reasoning,"

"Lying to her face?"

"If you were in Bucky's position, you might have done the same,"

"It takes a lot to pretend you have no idea who someone is," Nat reasoned. "However, I get your point. But none of us can fault Valerie for being as pissed as she--"

Valerie walked into the kitchen, causing Nat to abruptly stop.

"No, go ahead," Valerie said sweetly. "My relationship is public knowledge as is the reason it failed. And that's all my fault for trusting him anyways, so carry on."

She grabbed a drink from the fridge before going to the common area.

"She's chipper today," Nat sighed.

"She's just coping,"

"This job is so weird," Sam chuckled.

Valerie entered the common area, planning on finding Bruce to finish their game of chess. Instead, she instantly made eye contact with the last person on earth she wanted to see. Luckily for her, Bruce waved her down from the corner. As though it were a movie scene unfolding in front of their eyes, Steve, Tony, and Rhodey watched it all.

It pained Bucky to see her around the tower knowing how she felt toward him. She was doing a great job of occupying her time so he didn't have an opportunity to catch her. Her gaze left Bucky's quickly before walking to the chess table. He noticed she had starting wearing her cardigans again. Of course, he also noticed how she didn't wear them at all when he snapped out of the Winter Soldier's grasp. He didn't know what it meant that she was wearing them again. He doubt she did, either.

But fuck, if he didn't miss them.

He wasn't sure if she was doing it on purpose, but she wore skirts daily now. It was enough to drive him up the wall at night. He was so starved of her that just watching her play chess almost brought him to his knees.

He tried hard, she had to give him that. Over the two weeks, he found every excuse to knock on her door from pretending to return some random sweatshirt to borrowing sugar.

"What could you possibly need sugar for?" She had said a week ago.

"Baking,"

"You don't bake."

"You don't know that,"

She gave him a pointed look.

"I'm picking up new hobbies." He argued.