Better Love || A Bucky Barnes Fanfiction

- Epilogue: Lifelong -

2023
I didn't want to wait anymore. A few days after Steve left us, I told her I loved her on bended knee, and two weeks later we were married in Wakanda. I met her family, they met our family, and those that we loved who could be there were. A little happiness, she says, in the strange and sullen aftermath of our times. The first step, I think, towards the future.

2025
We've just moved into our new house upstate. We would've stayed in Wakanda all our life if we could, I think, but Elena was missing her family. Me too, if I'm being perfectly honest. It was hard, doing missions with Sam from Wakanda. But T'Challa tells us that we're always welcomed back, which is kind of him and his family, and I know that Shuri will find a way to make travelling to see us easier and quicker in no time. I'm sure in the next few months - hell, maybe the next few weeks - we'll find her in our living room having made her own portal that could probably put Strange's one to shame. Who knows. 

The house is nice. Secluded. No white picket fence, which is fine, that was always Steve's thing, anyway. A few hours drive away from two of Elena's brothers. One of them has a summer house on the edge of Lake Huron, so we'll be spending the upcoming summer there. Even if he didn't, though, we have a lake of our own, smaller than our neighbours. Let's be honest, its more like a pond, but it's nice. There are frogs which Corrie likes to chase.

We're living outside of the city, not too far from Pepper and Morgan which Corrie couldn't be happier about. Those two girls are as thick as thieves. Two years apart if you don't get complicated with the five year gap, but almost like twins. They have a whole forest to play in, or a lake, or just the little playhouse at Morgan's. Maybe one day they'll have a dog to play with, too. I'd like a dog, something like a Siberian or one of those tall and lanky ones. Irish wolfhound, I think. A big dog, really. And Sam's been convincing me to get one, too, so I'm not alone on the idea. He thinks that it would be great to have a Captain America mascot on our side, but we might leave that idea for a little while at the moment. Don't want too much stress on us with a new dog seeing as there'll be a new baby in the mix, soon. Or maybe two. Elena says something feels different this time.

2028
Nightmares. Some jagged memories. It's been a struggle lately. I keep feeling... not myself. So it's helpful to read over the diaries to ground myself again. You forget how far you've come when you're in a bad head space. It isn't until you take a moment to reflect that you realize just how well you've done. So that's what I've been doing lately. Reflecting. 

Lots of changes going on right now. The twins are about to turn three. Elena's moving up in her job. Vice-principal, which is exciting. But we've been getting some major losses of late. Elena's dad passed away a few months ago, which was rough on her. Then Queen Ramonda, which devastated T'Challa and Shuri. We went to the funeral, so it was nice to see them and Okoye and their families, but I wish it had been in better circumstances. They're doing well, though. Standing strong. Hold fast.

Then there was Delilah. That... That was only two weeks ago, which is why, I think, I've been feeling not very well. Same with Elena. That woman was her best friend, a surrogate mother, someone who knew Elena better than she knew herself. God, she was like my mother. I can still remember every detail of the day we first met, when Elena had dragged my sorry ass out of the library and into the shelter that morning. She had been the sweetest person I had met in a long time, utterly devoted to helping others, seeing the good in each and every person who came through the shelter. Knowing that she's not on this earth anymore is upsetting. I feel as though - after the past few years we've had, losing Nat, losing Tony, losing Steve - that maybe we could be exempt from such tragic moments. But it's life, isn't it? And Delilah had a fantastic one. It was apparent in the amount of people that came to her funeral. She was never an avenger, never a super powered human being. She didn't take a serum or build machines or know martial arts. But she loved completely, cared entirely, and that makes her one of the greatest heroes of all time. And maybe one day, I'll grow up to be like her. One can hope.