Everything the Light Touches

Chapter Thirteen

chapter warnings: language, angst, drinking, unwanted touching/slight non-con

Bucky'd had the week from hell. The day you moved in he felt like he was holding his breath until he saw you interact with Alpine after his father left. Then he was being called away by Steve to talk about the situation with your parents and Pierce, a situation namely involved Caden Smith and his burgeoning role in the Pierce family as Alexander's right hand.

"Steve I don't care what the fuck we have to do to keep that fuck head away from her, but Smith is almost as dangerous to her as Pierce and Stinson combined. I don't want him anywhere near my side of fucking town. You see him anywhere near her you kill him. I don't give a fuck what it starts, that man will. Not. See. Her," Bucky'd growled when Steve mentioned how Smith had been sneaking around their side of the city more as if placed on an undercover mission. Bucky had ground his teeth when he heard that Thor had caught Smith lounging around outside The Underworld. Bucky's memory of the last time he'd seen Caden Smith, knocked out and bloodied outside the Stark Industries gala, brought to mind the words he'd said about you, aka the whole reason Bucky had knocked him out in the first place. Caden Smith may have seemed like a harmless, meager lackey when you first came to town, but that had quickly shifted.

Bucky had returned home late that night. He'd greeted Alpine when he walked in the door with a couple scratches and treats and as he walked to her room to play with her for a little bit he stopped at the sound of quite sobs and near hyperventilation coming from your room. Bucky's body seized at the sound but as he approached your door to knock and check on you he heard talking on the other side.

"Wanda what the fuck d-do I do? I can't run away, someone will find me. I am NOT marrying Liam fucking Stinson but is Bucky really any better?"

The implications in your wobbling voice that Bucky was as bad as Liam in your eyes cut him to the quick. A sharp stab of hurt and pain slicing at his heart had Bucky removing his hand from the door but also kept him frozen to the spot. Your quieted cries were dampened by another voice lightly cooing and speaking calmly.

"Sweetheart, you know the answer to that. You know that Bucky is a thousand times better than anything your parents and Liam could ever devise. I know he broke your heart. You know he broke your heart. Hell at this point, he knows. But you need to talk to him. Maybe it'll help you to at least see more clearly why he did what he did...that doesn't mean you have to like him or love him or ever want to be near him again. Just. Don't murder the man. The way I see it, he's your ticket to true freedom."

That made Bucky step away. In that moment, Bucky began to truly realize the level at which he'd hurt you. Her'd slowly been processing it since the truth had come out at his father's conference room table not long ago but he'd never truly looked into how he did the opposite of what he had planned to do. Bucky Barnes never wanted to hurt you. It was never in the cards for him. Bucky had been hurt when your parents unveiled the truth behind their plans to him at just nineteen years old. His immediate thought was that you had been involved and knew about what they had planned but there was always a small voice in the back of his mind saying it was bullshit. The voice suspiciously sounded a lot like Steve Rogers but he brushed past that.

Bucky Barnes had loved you with a passion so intense it could dissolve entire solar systems. But he couldn't tell you that. Not now. Not after how he'd hurt you and been the one to destroy any semblance of a "blissful" future the two of you may have had. And now? Now he had no clue how to make it right.

And so, for the rest of the week Bucky stayed out of your way. At least that's what he called it. Natasha said he was avoiding the inevitable. Sam said he was being an idiot. Even Steve huffed out a laugh at the latter. Bucky had spent the week going to work early and leaving work late. Going to Steve or Natasha's after work to just give you time alone. He'd met with his father once to talk over the order he'd given regarding Caden Smith and George had seemed a little uncertain. But after mentioning the words that had come out of Smith's mouth in regards to George Barnes' future daughter-in-law he'd conceded almost immediately, grumbling something about 'nobody talks like that about my daughter' under his breath as he nodded his head in approval.