Leave This Town (Mechanic!Bucky AU)

Part 1

"Pack yourself a toothbrush dear

Pack yourself a favorite blouse.

Take a withdrawal slip

Take all of your savings out.

Cause if we don't leave this town,

We might never make it out

I was not born to drown.

Baby, come on."

Those first few hours of freedom were absolute bliss! Flying down the highway with the windows down, music blasting as you sang at the top of your lungs. It was everything you had dreamed of. You did it. You were out. You had quit your job, cashed out your life savings, bought a cheap but reliable car, and hit the road without looking back.

All was going according to plan. That is, until 4 hours later your car started to smoke and sputter, compelling you to pull to the side of the road for fear of dying in a ball of fire. There wasn't anything you could do at the moment, what with it being 2am at the time. Thankfully, it was the middle of summer so sleeping in your car wasn't too uncomfortable, at least at night.

Now, you sat on the trunk of your car as the sun's punishing rays beat down on you at mid-morning. Having walked a hundred yards in each direction, you were finally able to get a signal on your cell phone so you could look up the closest town with a car repair shop.

You had left home late last night just after everyone went to bed, hoping to be long gone before anyone realized. Instead, you were stranded in the middle of nowhere with a non-functioning car. You spent the early hours turning on your phone intermittently solely to call the repair shop since their hours weren't listed. They didn't even have a website. Or voicemail. This was the problem with small towns.

Finally, at 8:34am, a gruff male voice answered the phone and you told him your dilemma, indicating the mile marker you were stranded near. Shielding your eyes with your hand, you could now see the tow truck headed your way. After waiting an hour, that beat-up pickup truck was a sight for sore eyes. Sliding off the car onto your feet, you brushed the dust from your shorts as the truck flipped a U-turn and backed up to your front bumper. When the mechanic stepped out, you had to admit he was not what you expected.

He was tall with a muscular build, chin-length hair tucked behind his ears. He sported a light blue short-sleeved button-up shirt with a patch above the left breast pocket, jeans snug on his long legs with well-worn work boots donning his feet. As he approached, you were drawn to his brilliant blue eyes, straight Grecian nose, and sculpted jaw covered in the right amount of stubble. A flutter rising in your chest, you tried not to gawk at the specimen before you and hoped he would assume the flush in your cheeks was from the heat.

"Need some help?" he asked in a rhetorical manner, his baritone voice sending you shivers.

You answered anyway with a sigh, "So it would seem."

"Wanna pop the hood?" he asked and you obliged.

After poking around the engine for a few minutes, he dropped the hood back in place and wiped his hands on a rag before stuffing it in his back pocket.

"Best guess? Busted radiator. I'll take a closer look when I get it back to the shop. I'm Bucky, by the way," he introduced himself while extending his hand.

"Y/N," you replied, grasping your hand in his, the skin calloused with fingertips permanently stained black. "Does, uh...James...mind if you wear his shirt?" you asked, nodding to the patch above his breast pocket.