Flickers | Bucky Barnes

Worth It

Year Later

Bucky walked through the door, of his little cabin, and his body was instantly hit with relief from the cold air from the central air. Despite it being December, Wakanda still felt like the Sahara desert. The one thing he did appreciate about T'Challa granting them asylum was he could freely wear short sleeve shirts while working.

In Romania, the heat didn't bother him as much despite wearing long sleeves, but he believed if he wore the same apparel he did there here, he would suffer from a heat stroke that Karina was always worried about. Luckily, the Wakanda nation valued privacy and he was very grateful.

He quickly took off his construction boots and his black snapback and placed each of them on their respective racks. He took his hair out the hair tie that kept his hair locked in a small bun. He knew it was time to just let Karina cut his hair again. He could tell she was itching too, but she hadn't made a fuss about it. While he raked his flesh fingers through his hair, he listened intently to see if anyone was in the house as it was deathly quiet. Despite Karina's car out front she could've walked over to Steve's place or outside, but then he heard the loud slapping of paws against the hardwood floor racing towards him.

Bucky couldn't help but snort as the puppy ended up losing his footing and all but slid across the floor to his feet. The dog wasn't deterred by its clumsiness as it immediately began yelping and trying to jump up to lick his face and fingers.

Bucky could admit he had a love hate relationship with the tan little boerboel puppy. He hated that the dog liked to make a chew toy out of everything his little teeth could find and couldn't understand the use of a doggy door to go outside to handle his business. However, considering he got the dog for Karina, and he partially took into account the words of his therapist, Dr. Adisa, who pointed out a dog could also help with his recovery.

It took a while for Bucky to actually find a dog he liked and he hoped Karina would love. So after researching almost all type of dog breeds there were in the world, he eventually settled on the African Boerboel, or most commonly known as the South African Mastiff. The only selling point was it's sole original purpose of breeding was for it being known for protecting the homestead and to him it was a perfect fit considering Karina found a new hobby in gardening. She was home a lot more than him. She had taken a step back from working in the biomedical engineering department. She helped out occasionally and he was slightly worried that she was changing her life around for him, but she assured him it was something she wanted to do. Plus, despite T'Challa's security measures, Bucky was still paranoid and he didn't like she was alone most of the day.

So after visiting a pet store with Steve, as Sam long abandoned the trips as Bucky was too picky, he found the small adorable – Karina's words – vermin, now named Champion.

Bucky immediately began regretting his decision in getting the little shit when he first decided to piss in the house, on furniture, and clothes and tried to sleep in the same bed as him and Karina, but Karina was smitten with the slobbering canine. The dog was literally like her baby. Not even a day after they got the dog, Karina spent nearly $400 dollars in buying toys and clothes for the thing. T'Challa was generous in making sure they lived comfortably, but Bucky thought that was way too much for a little animal.

Bucky picked up the dog by its neck, gently of course, and let the dog lick its face before he held it out in front of him. Champion was still determined to lick something of his as it tried to reach his metal limb and lick the parts its tongue could reach. Considering how usually Champion and Karina were attached at the hip, he was surprised he didn't hear the soft padding of feet following Champion's greeting.

He looked into Champion's deep brown eyes as the dog looked at him with a excited eyes, "Where's your mother?"

As if the dog understood him, which he did, the dog began wiggling out of his grasp and ran up the stairs. Bucky followed the little puppy up the stairs quietly where the dog made his way to the master bedroom. Champion walked through the small opening that was big enough to fit him. Bucky smiled as he heard Karina jump at Champion's abrupt arrival in their bedroom before he made his way in. And as he scanned the room out of habit to see if anything was amiss, he jumped slightly as Karina came barreling over to him her arms wrapped around his neck as she planted a sweet kiss to his lips that he barely had time to return before she leaned back down. But considering her abrupt greeting, his hands went back to her waist pulling her back up to him where he pressed a more eager and deeper kiss to her full lips that caused her to smile against his lips.