peace [bucky barnes]

25

a/n: this is the longest chapter i've ever written, so buckle up! grab a snack & hope you enjoy (ish) x

The next few weeks passed by in a lovesick dream, neither Bucky nor Eden able to keep their head out of the clouds as they floated about their usual lives. Every spare moment was spent together, slipping into a comfortable routine with the other placed directly at the centre; most evenings were spent at Eden's apartment, cooking dinner and falling asleep intertwined on the couch, while weekends sent them exploring the city together, soundtrack of giggles still the accompaniment in all that they did.

Bucky slotted into Eden's life like there had always been a vacancy for him within it, the perfect shape to the lonely hole she'd grown to ignore. She didn't realise how much she'd needed him until he was immersed into her days, until she woke up one morning to him sleeping soundly beside her and felt entirely whole, like she had found the place she was meant to be for the first time in her life.

That morning, she gave him a key to her apartment, and in the time since he hadn't been back to his own for more than five minutes. 'Going home' had newfound meaning to him, the phrase no longer sinking his stomach to the floor as he pictured the dingy light of his bedroom, the exposed brick and creaking floorboards where he bundled blankets in a makeshift bed; home was white, peach-scented sheets, a cream couch with a ginger tabby curled amongst the colourful cushions, and Eden humming along to her record player as steam pirouetted over the kitchen island.

At night, he sometimes found himself lying awake, listening to her shallow breaths or watching the rise and fall of her chest as she slept, wondering what the hell he had done in his life to get so lucky. He was in a perpetual state of falling, love expanding impossibly inside him with each day, reaching intensity beyond the bounds of anything he could have dreamed; he questioned when the motion would stop, when he would plummet into solid ground and have fallen in love with her, but every moment brought refreshes and newfound revelations that only sent him tumbling further and further into infatuation.

After seeing the smile returned to its permanent position on her lips, he decided not to mention the Benjamin disaster with her, not wanting to disrupt the bubble of joy they'd created or risk losing the spark she had only just regained. He was terrified of the possibility of another lapse in her happiness, knowing that if she slipped back into that fearful state, the heart which he no longer claimed ownership of would fracture into pieces alongside her. All of his energy was channelled into maintaining that smile, keeping both of them stable, filled to the brim with so much love that nothing else mattered more to him.

And so when Eden proposed they go on a double date with Penny and Sam, his heart leapt to agree before his brain had a chance to catch up.

They were strolling around the lake in Prospect Park, hand-in-hand, ripples of the water reflected in her chestnut as she gazed up at him and asked what he thought. She was so excited, eyes lighting up with glee, beaming smile on her face, and so intoxicatingly beautiful that he turned into agreeable, subservient putty in her hands. His compliance was a knee-jerk reaction of besotted hypnosis, and her delight in the aftermath was so wonderful that he knew he was going to have to go through with it.

The idea didn't seem too terrible until the evening arrived, as he trudged through Manhattan to meet Sam a few blocks from the bar, and finally the spell Eden had cast began to wear off.

"You couldn't have dressed up a little for the occasion?" Sam quipped as they met, gesturing to Bucky's outfit, lip curled with exaggerated disgust. "Too broke to buy a nice shirt, Buck?"

Bucky glanced down at his usual all-black attire, frowning, smoothing down the button-up he'd found stuffed at the back of his closet. "What's wrong with this?"