Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Reader

Café Conflicts- Bucky Barnes Pt1 (Modern AU)

Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake.

This single thought ran through your head as you looked at your laptop. It was around 12:30 in the morning as you sat in the barren café, studying for your final in psychology. Your eyes were red as your eyelids began slipping over your iris'.

"No, stay awake, you've almost finished the chapter," you murmured to yourself. You looked to your right to drink the last swallow of bitter black coffee left in your mug... Or so you thought anyways. You glanced over in the direction of the cashier, Steven, who's eyes were squinting at the brightness of their phone screen. You lifted your arm up with mug in hand hoping to catch his attention.

Nothing.

You closed your eyes for a few minor seconds to breathe before attempting to catch his attention one more time. But alas, the scrawny excuse for a boy didn't budge. Begrudgingly, you let out a groan that required most of the energy you had left. Steven jumped at the noise, unaware of the additional body in the building. His eyes searched until they found your outstretched hand, and, sluggishly, refilled your mug with the scorching, caffeinated liquid.

After taking a long, drug-out gulp, you reluctantly looked back towards the screen and continued reading the bright black-and-white print.

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"Uh, Miss? Are you, uh, are you alright?" You stirred in your sleep, progressively becoming annoyed that someone would be bothering you at this time of the night. Couldn't they just let you sleep in peace? Was it just too much to ask for?

"Uh, Miss, you may want to get up now."

Apparently it was.

It must be around 3-4, you thought turning your head to the opposite side of the nagging voice, hoping to sleep just a few extra minutes. Until you realized that the sun had now become a problem because it was currently glaring at you from millions of light-years away.

Can't someone learn to close a curtain? you continued your silent rant in your head. Wait, the sun, that must mean..

Yours eyes shot open and you lifted you head to quickly you had to give yourself a moment due to how dizzy you became. After a minute or so, you assessed the situation you were in. The sun was out and burning bright and you were still sitting in the exact same spot as last night.

"Ah, Miss, it's nice to see you're finally awake, I was wondering if perhaps you would li-" "What time is it?" You asked quickly, cutting into this poor guy's sentence. "Oh, it's uh-" He glanced down at his watch, "Almost 11." Shit shit shit shit shit. You were already 4 hours late for class and had missed bloody first, second, and third period. Christ you needed to get yourself together.

"Jesus I'm late. Bloody Hell," you exclaimed rather aggressively, shoving your personal belongings into your bag and running out the door as quick as you could.

"Wait! Miss! You didn't pay for your drinks!" You rolled your eyes so hard they may have momentarily gotten a glimpse of you brain as you opened your wallet and threw a twenty as him yelling "Keep the change!"

You rushed to the sidewalk looking like havoc but only being concerned with when the next bus would arrive. You checked your slowly dying phone. 11:07  dimly lit up on the screen as you groaned. "Shit" was all you could grumble as you found your way to the bench to wait. The next bus wouldn't come around until 11:30, which would still be too late to take your exams considering it was the middle of bloody December and they were about to let out Christmas break for most of the Universities in the area. Now, if you were able to show up to class in the next 10-15 minutes everything would be absolutely fine, but no, it had to be almost a 20 minute wait before the bus even got there and then another 15-25 minutes you even reached University. This is perfect, absolutely marvelous, it couldn't get any better cou-

"Excuse me ma'am, but, er, are you alright?" You quickly whipped your head to the oddly concerned voice ready to begin ranting about bloody awful your situation had become in a matter of minutes, but stopped short when you saw the face that was speaking to you.

First off, he was hot as hell, with perfectly chiseled facial features that blew you away. The way his grey t-shirt hugged his seemingly-toned abdomen and how his long brunette hair was combed out of his face, yet a few delicate strands had found their way in front of his eyes. His eyes were an astonishing blue eyes that just... you didn't know. They were just, breathtaking. But, something seemed off in them, like they held a secret he kept to himself, a story he wouldn't allow them to tell.

"Uh, hello?" The stranger questioned you again, causing you to snap out of your trance-like state and notice the hand waving in front of your face. You could feel the heat rising to your cheeks as you focused yourself back onto the current dilemma you were stuck in.

"Oh, uh, hi." You mumbled sheepishly, attempting to cover up your embarrassment. "Um, yeah. I'm fine." You looked back up at the stranger and could tell by his raised eyebrow that he didn't believe a bloody word coming from your mouth.  "Well, uh, that's actually a lie," you continued, brushing a few strands of hair behind your ear. "I fell asleep in the café last night while I was studying for an exam, and, well, I kinda overslept." You moved your eyes to stare at the cement below, using your shoe to mess with a cigarette butt that had suddenly became very intriguing. "And I don't really have a way to get there on time because I don't have a car and the next bus doesn't get here for another 20 minutes. So, in shorter terms, I am ultimately screwed." You forced a small laugh at the end, the irony of the situation coming into view.

"Oh," the stranger started. "That's quite unfortunate." You mumbled a yeah and continued to stare downwards.

"Well, I could, uh, give you a ride?" Your head shot up as you glared at this guy. "I mean, I have nothing to do today really and you seem pretty flustered with this whole situation. So, if you want, I could ride you down there?" He said it more as a question than a statement. You could not believe this. This guy, this completely random stranger, was willing to let you hop in his car and take you to Uni. He was a miracle, a full blown mir-

"Or not, I guess? If you're not comfortable riding with a completely random stranger, that's alright, I'd understand." He continued. Now it was his turn to stare at the ground. "No no no," you began. "That would be, that would be wonderful. Yes, I would grateful if you would give me a ride." The guys face instantly perked up as he gave a small smile. "Alrighty then, let's get goin'."

You followed him down the sidewalk, careful to star a few steps behind to be sure you weren't invading his personal space.  "I'm, uh, (Y/N) by the way," you stated as you headed down the side walk. "Well, I'm James, but everyone calls me Bucky." You nodded in acknowledgment and continued down the sidewalk with him, feeling a boost of confidence growing inside you.

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There will be other parts to this story because I think it's cute. It'll get better I think?? In my opinion anyways.

-Isabelle