Rumors of War || The First Avenger

Chapter Ten: Sweep Me Off My Feet

Picture is Bucky and Emma.

Music is "Stardust" by Nat King Cole.

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CHAPTER TEN: Sweep Me Off My Feet

{1938 - Five Years Ago}

Walking home alone after the lights go out in the sky shouldn't be something a girl from the 30s has to worry about. With police and people on the streets, you'd think that things like kidnapping, murder, and rape wouldn't exist these days. I'd hoped that people would've moved past their aboriginal ways.

I couldn't have been more wrong than tonight, July 22, 1938, at eight in the evening. I'm walking home from class, trying to complete my degree in the next semester so I can start teaching in the fall of 1939.

Half way home, I stop to get a strawberry milkshake from this new restaurant that a friend recommended, Rossi's, when a man in a suit starts walking behind me. At first, I don't think anything of it. He's probably on his way home, too. It's Brooklyn. Lots of people live here.

But when I turn onto the street that has Rossi's, he follows me, staying right behind me and closing in. My breathing hitches as I try to remain calm, not turning to look around. Once Rossi's comes in my view, I sigh a sigh of relief and slightly increase my speed. The door chimes open and I slip inside, watching as the man in the suit starts to walk past the door, only briefly looking at me.

"Oh, thank God," I mumble to myself, hands shaking more than my voice. I pull myself together and straighten up, trying to get my mind to settle down.

"You alright, Doll?" an unfamiliar voice asks from behind me.

I'd like to say I didn't jump, but that would be a lie. I turned around with a small yelp, earning a concerned, confused, and frankly, cute and toothy smile from the boy behind the counter. He looked to be about my age, maybe slightly older. He had a mop of brown hair that hung in his eyes a bit and the bluest blue eyes. Blue like you would not believe.

I smile back, a small amount of blush coming into my cheeks. "I'm quite alright. I just wanted a strawberry milkshake, and my friend told me that Rossi's has the best." I regain my composure and slip into one of the benches at the soda fountain bar.

The boy grins wider, keeping eye contact with me as his thick New York accent rolls out his next words. "That we do. He shoulda told you that we also have one hell of a cheeseburger, but that's just me." He winks at me. "One strawberry shake, comin' right up, Doll."

His nickname makes me blush deeper. It's not like I haven't been called Doll before, sometimes in a very derogatory and insulting manner, but the way he says it, it sounds like he means it in a kind and sweet way. "Thank you, Mr..."

"Barnes," he says, turning around with my milkshake in hand. "James Buchanan Barnes. You can call me Bucky. All my friends do."

I take a sip from the milkshake, smiling to myself as the silky flavor of the ice cream and the tang of the strawberries hit my tongue. "I just met your acquaintance, Mr. Barnes, and now we're friends?" I raise an eyebrow.

James Barnes laughs, grabbing a glass from the counter and drying it with a towel. "Touché, Miss..."

"Emma," I extend my hand for a handshake. "Emma Jane Holmes. It's wonderful to meet you, Bucky Barnes."

"Believe me," Bucky says, taking my hand, and instead of shaking it, he brings it to his lips and kisses the back of it. "The pleasure is all mine, Doll."