This means war

Chapter 13

*Warning smut ahead!* 

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Steve and Bucky laid cuddled in bed. All their limbs were tangled as they took in the vast expanse of blue before them. "Steve," Bucky mumbled lazily. Steve hummed in response. His fingers trailed up and down Bucky's arm, caressing the skin gently.

"How much do you have in your bank account?"

Steve paused to think. "Just under a million, I think."

"What about you?"

"Around 500,000 I think," Bucky responded. "I have 340K in cash in my hide out in Romania. So we have that as a safety blanket." Bucky was hesitant to use the money in his account. He had no idea if Pierce wanted him dead or not, extracting money would be telling Hydra his location. He had to find a way to move it to a different account.

"Let's buy a house," Steve suggested.

Bucky smiled, "Yeah. Where were you thinking?"

"I don't know. Somewhere in the countryside though, they'd have a hard time finding us there."

Bucky lifted his head and placed his elbows on Steve's firm chest. "I wish we could live at my house. We put it together and it's filled with so many memories."

"Yeah. You know when I decided I wanted to marry you?" Steve sat up so he could look into Bucky's eyes. "When I was looking at your house plants."

"Those are our children!" Bucky chided. "They have names."

Steve laughed. "Yes, Emily, Rosa, royalty and Trish. I mean I always knew I wanted to marry you. But on that day when I stepped into your house, all the memories came rushing back to me. The way we debated over where things would look best, the way we struggled to place all your heavy furniture. The time I almost fell down the stairs and you caught me."

Bucky laughed when that last memory resurfaced in his mind. Steve continued, "The way we argued over the shades of colors to paint the house, you said they all looked the same. The way I dumped a can of paint on you and we somehow ended up having sex on the floor."

"I remember that," Bucky grimaced. "It was so hard to clean up after that. But remember when I got stuck in the secret room and we didn't know how to get me out?" Steve chuckled happily. "But what was it about the plants?"

"I remembered the moment I gave them to you. You told me 'I can't give you kids so let's raise them together'. And you took good care of them. You never forgot to water them, and you always repotted them. Even when you weren't living at the house, you'd always drive back to water them. And you'd ask Nat to do it if you were away or me if you were both away. The average lifespan of a house plant is like 8 months, but it's been two years. When I asked you why you're so dotting on them, you said 'It's the only thing I can proudly say is ours, they're really precious to me. I guess this is how a mother feels when looking at their baby'."

"You remember that?" Bucky's cheeks became heated.

"Every single word. I remembered all that and knew that I could never be with anyone else."

Bucky scooted closer to Steve and placed his head against his shoulder. "I can't ever be with anyone else either," he said quietly. "I'm really glad I met you." Bucky gazed down at his finger, proudly brandishing two rings. 

Bucky had lost his family at a very young age. He was so young that he couldn't remember his parent's faces or names. His name had never really meant much to him, it had never tied him to anything.

A name gave a person an identity, tied them to something larger. That's why when Steve suggested that they hyphenate their names, but Bucky refused. Being a Rogers, he felt part of something bigger. He was now a part of Steve's loving family.