Silhouette || Bucky Barnes

april showers

"Where do you see yourself in ten years?"

The white fabric curtains rustled under a warm breeze, the open window allowing a hint of May to pour into the Queens loft. Wind chimes bustled calmly, the scent of distant rain filling the space.

Gabriella looked up to Bucky, her head against his chest as the two were sprawled out comfortably on her couch. She idly held the hand he had on her stomach, watching the light filter though his storm ocean eyes. "Ten years?"

James lightly smiled, admiring every feature as her eyebrows drew in pensively. "Ten years," he repeated as he ran his free hand along her unleashed main of dark curls.

"I wouldn't mind being in this spot right here."

"Yeah?" he asked as he kept his eyes on hers. "You're not going to rearrange the furniture in a decade?"

Gabi couldn't help but laugh, "You know what I mean. I don't care about where the couch is, I just want to be with you."

A smile was evident on Bucky, "That sounds like a good plan to me."

"What about you?" Gabi questioned in response. "Ten years from now, where are you?"

"Maybe on a boat in the Mediterranean, the war over and my girl by my side." Bucky watched the curtains blow in, eyes distant as if he could see it. He looked down to Gabriella, "You can come too."

Gabriella feigned offense, sitting up from Bucky's grasp. She sat on her knees, with wide, nearly playful eyes on him. "You did not. You did not just say that to me."

James leaned back into the edge of the sofa, all smile. "What, you don't want to come to the Mediterranean with me?"

Gabriella looked rueful, trying her hardest not to laugh. "Only if I get to push this other girl off the boat."

Bucky caught her hands, flipping her underneath him on the flouncy cushions. His grin stretched from ear to ear, hovering over her curvy frame with his dog tags dangling from his neck. "There's not another girl, G. It's just you. It'll always be you."

Gabriella reached up, brushing wisps of an outgrown military cut. "That sounds like a good plan to me."

||

The sound of the pounding rain traveled into Science Hall in Queens, a  storm clouding over all of New York.

High up in the famous building, a meeting room was layered with seemingly impossible equations and the scent of strong coffee.

The three occupants were unchanged from their clothes of the day before, deep in caffeine induced alert as the morning was rising over the city in dampness.

Gabriella ran a hand down her face, setting down her eighth cup of coffee on one of the few open places on the large oak table. "We're running out of time."

"It's not like the war came with a countdown, Gabi." Howard stood up from leaning his elbows on the crowded surface. His button up was slacking, his tie long gone and his eyes wilting.

"No, but it typically comes with a detonation," retorted the stressed brunette, "and if we can't beat the clock, we're all going up in flames."