Change of Pace

Uninvited Guest

Bucky flinched back to reality, reacting poorly to the slideshow of all the terrible things he'd done that was running repetitively through his subconscious.

"Hush dear," soft hands, that stung to touch, smoothed down his arms and tightly gripped his hands. "Open your eyes for me, please."

It took him a couple of minutes, but, finally, he forced his eyes open.

He was in a large living space. There was a collection of expensive looking sofas, a huge coffee table, and a massive TV screen mounted on a wall. He was laid across one of the sofas. Alice, Emmett, and Jasper shared one sofa. Rosalie and Edward lounging on another.

His eyes were suddenly drawn to the woman who still had his face in her hands. She had similar pale, beautiful features to the rest of them, although hers seemed a little softer. More rounded in a way that made her look motherly. There was something about the shape of her face that had him reminded of a heart. She had billows of soft, caramel coloured hair that reminded Bucky of the women he used to see on advertising posters back when he should have been living. The woman was quite short, somewhere between Alice and Jasper's heights, she was slim in a way that made her equally as dainty as Alice except, where the girl was angular and sharp, this woman was soft and rounded.

"You're the mother?" Bucky asked, voice hoarse.

"My name is Esme Cullen, and you're Bucky Barnes, I'm afraid the introductions happened as Emmett was carrying you through the door." She gave a polite giggle, hiding it behind her hand.

"It's alright to laugh at me, you know, I'm sure that I would have laughed if I had seen that." Bucky grinned. He sat up slowly, running a hand over his hair as he twisted to lean against the back of the sofa. "Hey, big guy," Bucky's head rolled to look at the boy who shot him a look that suggested he maybe wasn't okay with Bucky making jokes. "Thanks for not leaving me in the dirt or whatever."

"I would never do that, especially knowing that I was the reason you fell in the first place, Bear." Emmett grumbled. He rose to his feet and stretched his arms above his head before sauntering across the room to  where his mother and Bucky were.

"You are not serious with that nickname, man." Bucky groaned and threw his head back, closing his eyes as if to hide from the shame.

"What?" Emmett couldn't hide his sly grin as he shrugged innocently. "You told Alice no, "Bucky boo," but you said she could call you "Bucky Bear," didn't you?"

"At a push, I said, at a push. Besides, as you've said, I told Alice that. Not you." Bucky grunted. He didn't open his eyes. Not even when the sofa dipped on either side of him. Emmett's arm slid around the back of his neck and forced his head to lean towards his shoulder instead of the back of the sofa, Esme snuggled up tightly to his side and, in typical fashion, Bucky graciously granted her more space by wrapping his arm around her.

"So, what do I get to call you?" Bucky opened his eyes and picked his head up off the younger's shoulder. He glanced at Emmett with a look of careful indifference.

"You can call me Bucky."

"But you have a nickname for me!" Emmett protested.

"I have a nickname for everyone, Gigantor."

"You have a nickname for everyone? What about us? Do we all have one?" Alice perked up from where she was still snuggled up against Jasper's side.

"Sure." Bucky shrugged.

"Do tell." Edward's voice was soft, calm as opposed to the frantic way he had spoken earlier.

"Nah, if you ain't smart enough to figure them out, then I'm having Bells moved to a better school." Bucky scoffed. "You're feeling better, yeah?" He asked. The boy still looked pale, but he did seem much more put together than he had been.