Recollection ★ Bucky Barnes

My Idiot Mother

The brightness of the sun found its way through Marlena's bedroom curtains, lighting up her fair skin with a beautiful golden hue. The light fell upon her closed eyelids, causing the petite girl to let out a groan. She pulled her comforter over her head and rolled over in bed, once again oblivious to the fact that she had been laying on the very edge of the bed to begin with. Marlena squealed as she fell and hit the ground with a very distinct thud. She let out a huff and threw the comforter off of her body before sitting up, now fully awake and very annoyed that she had allowed that to happen again.

She sighed and pushed back the hairs that had fallen from her ponytail before glancing up at the clock on her bedside table. It was 11:37, which confused her slightly. She was always up before 10:30 because of Mason, but he hadn't woken her up this morning which was rather strange. Marlena stood up, gathering the comforter and placing it back on her messy bed. Her eyes flickered over towards the couch where Bucky should have been sleeping, and she grew shocked to find that he was awake and looking at her with a mixture of amusement and another emotion she couldn't quite read on his face.

"Did you see that?" she questioned him.

He chuckled and nodded his head, causing her to frown. She wished she wasn't so clumsy, but she couldn't exactly help it. Her dad and his mom were two of the clumsiest people she knew, so it was in her genes. "You are quite possibly the clumsiest person I've ever met."

"It's just who I am," she replied as she looked at the clock again. She scratched her head and turned back to Bucky, more than ready to speak again until he cut her off.

"There's a woman here," he stated. "I heard her come in at around four in the morning." Bucky remembered being fairly startled when he heard the front door open earlier in the morning. He thought the government had found him, or worse, Hydra. He even left the comfort and safety of Marlena's room to see if he could assess the potential threat, but when he realized that the woman talking on the phone was somehow of relation to Marlena, he found himself sauntering back into Marlena's room without another thought.

"A woman?" Marlena double-checked. She was ninety-nine percent positive she knew who the woman was, but she hadn't been expecting her for at least three more days.

Bucky nodded and Marlena scoffed, rushing over to the door. She stopped halfway out the door and turned to face Bucky, who was looking over at her with a dubious look on his face. "If you want to take a shower and get dressed, that would be lovely. Just come downstairs when you're ready." She didn't even give him the chance to respond before she sped out of her room and headed down the stairs.

The smell of bacon and maple syrup flooded into her nostrils, and Marlena hurried towards the kitchen. She shoved the kitchen door open, only to be met with the excited voice of her little brother and the very familiar figure standing by the stove.

"Mom?" Marlena started as she walked further into the kitchen. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in California."

Her mother scoffed at the greeting and threw a piece of french toast onto a plate. "Hello to you, oh dear daughter of mine. No 'How was your flight?' or 'I'm so glad to see you.'? I feel so much love." She turned around and sat a plate of food down in front of Marlena's normal seat at the island before turning to face her daughter.

"You know I'm happy you're back," she told her mother as she hugged her tightly, "but I just wasn't expecting you to be home so soon, or at least back on the east coast so soon."

"Well, I finished what I needed to get done, so I decided to come home early and spend some time with my two beautiful children before I'm forced to go back to work."

Marlena shoved a piece of bacon into her mouth while her mother poured her a glass of apple juice. "How much is 'some time' exactly?"

"Three days, doofus," her mom retorted, turning back to the stove to fix some more food. "It's not long, but I've missed you guys."