She Made The Wish △ Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers

Chapter 10: Uprooting

 "I know I've been in here before, but you really don't have more?" Steve rotated on his heel, taking in her scarcely decorated apartment. She just shrugged.

"I never really had time to go shopping."

"What about pictures, artwork- anything?"

Ophelia just shifted on her feet, uncomfortable with where this was going. "I didn't really have much of anything when I came here. Just the clothes that SHIELD gave me. The rest came with the apartment."

Both the boys continued to look around her 'home' as she ran around the apartment, putting what few belongings she had into one box. She made sure that her sketchbook, ruined Marvel skirt, clothes, and bathroom products were all in the box before taping it shut.

By the time she was back in the living room, Steve and Bucky were both talking in hushed voices in her living room. "What's up?" She asked, trying to be as nonchalant as possible while a feeling of unease crept up her spine. She had a bad feeling that they were talking about her.

Both of the men jumped apart, startled by her appearance in the room. "Nothing much," Steve said a bit too quickly, "Just telling Buck how we met."

"Oh," She smiled, "You mean how I saved your life?"

"Yeah, Buck, about that..."

"Can you believe this punk?" Bucky asked her, knocking his friend upside the head, "He refused to leave me. I swear you have always had a death wish."

Ophelia snorted, thinking back to all of the times Steve stormed into Hydra bases with Sam looking for Bucky earlier in the year. He would go in nearly unarmed, with his need for Bucky being the only thing fueling him forward. "Yeah, I think he does."

"Hey," Steve protested, "I'm not that bad!"

"Oh, yes you most certainly are." She fought back, "If I told him about some of the things you have been doing lately he would have a heart attack, the old man that he is!"

"Hey, I'm not old..." He said, trailing off. "I'm just well aged!"

Ophelia patted his shoulder gently. "Sure you are, Buck, sure you are."

***

Ophelia was folding the sheets from Steve's bed when it happened. Bucky was sifting through another one of Steve's boxes of belongings returned to him by SHIELD after he woke up. Steve hadn't had the courage to go through its contents, even after all this time, nostalgia taking him over each time he tried. Bucky picked up an old, frayed baseball from the box, a look of puzzlement on his face.

"This was mine?" Bucky asked quietly while looking at the old, weathered baseball.

Steve, who had been sifting through his closet, looked up with a small, hopeful smile. "Yeah. I nearly threw myself out of the stands trying to catch it. You were so mad that I was hanging off of the edge- you pushed me out of the way before I would get hurt. And the damn ball nearly hit you in the eye."

If she didn't catch herself she would have said something along the lines of 'oh, the feels', but thankfully she was in possession of some self-restraint. Instead she settled for a wink in the boys' direction before returning to her task at hand, continuing to fold up his bed sheets.

***

Ophelia woke up earlier than she would have liked on the day that they moved out. She looked around her bare bedroom a couple of times before walking into her kitchen, taking a seat at the counter. She peeked into the box that sat on the kitchen counter, smiling when she saw that the notebook she snagged from one of the SHIELD labs was resting on top. She sifted through the box to find a pen, letting out a sound of victory when her hands closed around one. Opening to the first page she wrote the date down and began to write.

May 18th

We are moving out today. While I spent most of my time in the boys' apartment, I still had a bit of an attachment with my apartment. It's not anything big, but it still feels a bit like home.

Speaking of home, I really miss home. Like, I miss it a lot, a whole lot. I miss my mom and how we used to spend every sunday together. I miss when we ate dinner together, though the boys usually fill that role as of late. I miss how mom used to make dinners too big for just the two of us so that we'd have to invite other people over. I miss how big her heart was. I just miss her so damn much.

I miss a lot of other things, like my friends and my sanity. (Literally- sometimes I feel like I'm going insane!) I miss how Jessica used to braid my hair when I was upset because I liked how it felt, and how Isabelle used to watch good shows with me. She had the best taste in tv, I swear. I mean, who else likes Marvel, Orange Is The New Black, and The Walking Dead? God, I miss those shows too.

I think I might also miss Riley a bit. Like I miss what could have been- we could have been great friends. We could have bonded over a number of things, but none of that can happen now. None of it. Not a single conversation because he's dead.

Ophelia wiped her teary eyes, a few stray teardrops falling onto the page. "Damn it," She mumbled, "I'm getting the fucking paper wet."

She attempted to dry the paper with the sleeve of her pyjamas, frustration bubbling up when it only smeared the ink. She stood up and kicked the chair angrily, trying desperately to ease her anger. She paced around the kitchen a few times to defuse her angry and upset feelings before sitting herself back down.

It's not that I'm unhappy, because I'm not- I'm really not. I am having a good time with Steve and Bucky; hell, it's all I've ever dreamed of and more. It's just... I miss home. I miss my mom, my friends- everything. I miss the house that I grew up in, and the back yard, and the smell of the neighbors cooking on a hot summer evening. (Because DAMN was their cooking good!) I miss my life.

And the worst part is that not only do I not know how I got here, but I don't know if I'm ever going to go back. I mean, of course I have some ideas as to how I got here (dying in one universe means you move on to the next?) and maybe why I'm here (to help Steve find Bucky sooner?) but these are only basic ideas. I have no idea what I'm dealing with and it's really frustrating me. Honestly, could the universe just give me a break?