The Sharpest Lies [Bucky x ReaderxSteve]

Forty-Seven

Bucky listens as the man in charge of the current security shift gives him an update. When he'd returned home, he'd expected to be informed that the woman hired to do the alterations on your wedding dress was still in residence. Instead, he'd been told no one had come or gone besides him and Steve.

"Is Steve here?"

"No, sir, he left about thirty minutes ago."

"To do what?"

"No idea sir," the man says.

Nodding, he leaves the men to their jobs and heads in. In the bedroom, he found the bag with your dress hanging on the closet door, but you aren't anywhere to be found. It takes several minutes but eventually he finds you in the gym shower.

Bucky shakes his head as he studies you for a moment. Over the past six weeks, you spent a lot of time in the shower or the bath. When his curiosity finally got the better of him and he'd asked you why, you'd just said that it helped quiet your mind. Stepping into the room, Bucky knocks softly on the door to announce his presence.

Your shoulders jerk slightly, but when you turn to face him your eyes are clear. The smile you give him still doesn't hold the same level of brilliance as before your ordeal, but it's still warm. "Hey."

"Hey," Bucky greets quietly, "How long have you been in here?"

"I don't know," you say with a shrug, lifting your hands to stare at your fingertips. "But, I'm not a prune yet, so not too long."

"Do you want me to install a rain shower in our bathroom?" Bucky asks, leaning against the wall.

"Huh? Why would I?"

"I thought maybe that's why you're using the gym shower instead of the master."

You glance up at the shower head, your eyebrows pulling in briefly. "Oh. No. That's not why."

"Really?"

You gesture at the wide ledge that runs along the three walls of the shower. "Since seeing anything below the waist involves what amounts to complicated gymnastics, this is the only shower I can shave my legs and lady bits in."

Bucky's eyes drop to the ledge and he sees the little collection of shower products you must have brought with you. "Oh."

When you burst out laughing, Bucky looks back up at you. Bemused, he nonetheless feels some of the heavy weight he is still carrying lifting at the sound. "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry," you gasp, one hand waving in his direction as the other rests on your stomach. He watches as you try, unsuccessfully, to stifle your laughter. Only to end up snorting before you finally get a handle on yourself and let out a happy sigh. "I'm sorry. Really. It's just the look on your face was priceless."

"Glad to know my face makes you laugh."

"It does more than make me laugh," you mutter in an undertone as you tip your head back up to the spray.

Your mind races as you struggle with it. Over the weeks, you'd found yourself increasingly desperate for a sense of normal that has been missing. Logically, you knew that both Steve and Bucky had experienced their own kind of trauma over what happened to you. But they had ended up reacting differently than you'd been expecting. You'd expected Steve would pull away from you, like he had in the past when things got complicated. Instead, he'd done the exact opposite, becoming an open book expressing his every thought and feeling.

It had been Bucky who'd pulled the furthest away from you. It was like a chasm had opened between the two of you and with every passing day, it felt like it was becoming more insurmountable. You couldn't even effectively quantify what the distance actually was, it was just there and it made it feel like everything was off-kilter.