Honesty ♧ Bucky Barnes

You Make Me Feel So Young

"Alright, what first?" Bucky looked down at Erin with a gleam in his eyes, and she struggled to hide a smile at his obvious excitement. Who would have thought that an assassin would get so het up over cotton candy and brightly coloured flashing lights? She looked up at him and the corner of her mouth twitched into a smile.

"Your choice, Buck. This was your idea."

He nodded at her response and gripped her hand in his metal one. She didn't think that she'd ever seen him this happy.

"I want to win you a teddy." Was his simple reply. He started forwards, tugging her along beside him until she was almost jogging to catch up with his long strides, his long legs reaching much farther than hers. It had been years since she had been to a place like this, but there was something about the bright lights and heavy scent of sugar in the air that put her at ease. That and the fact that her left hand was being gripped by the thick leather glove of a man she was beginning to trust with her life.

The pair reached the milk bottle stand together, and stood in the line that had formed in front of the jolly-looking stand manager, behind a young boy and his friends, each of them holding a pink cotton candy. There was a warmth radiating off Bucky that had nothing to do with his temperature. He seemed lighter somehow, as if in this moment, he had forgotten all of the shit that had happened to him. He squeezed Erin's hand slightly tighter, and she smiled to herself at the sensation.

The boy in front of them in the queue picked up a heavy-looking baseball and threw it with all his might at a pyramid of precariously balanced empty milk bottles, egged on by his friends beside him. His throw came just short, missing the bottles by a few inches.

"Sorry, Kid." Came the sympathetic response from the vendor, an overweight man with a large ginger beard and a kind face. Bucky let go of Erin's hand and walked up to the boy, putting his hand on his shoulder.

"You want me to win you one of those teddies?" Bucky asked, his New York accent ringing in the cold air. The boy beamed up at Bucky and nodded. He only looked about eight years old. Erin smiled to herself. If there was one thing that she hadn't been expecting, it was for Bucky to be good with children.

He handed the vendor a crisp dollar bill from his back pocket and took a hold of the baseball, rolling the soft fabric around inside the gloved hand of his metal arm. He looked at the target with a practiced eye and threw the ball almost nonchalantly. It landed square in the middle of the bottles, knocking them over easily. The boy actually squealed in joy, before taking his teddy and offering a 'Thanks a lot, Sir.' to Bucky as he walked away. The man turned to Erin, a gleam in his eye, and offered her his arm.

"Ma'am."

She rolled her eyes at the unnecessary formality, but grabbed his arm anyway as he paid another dollar, and once again easily knocked over the bottles, much to the amazement of the on-looking crowd. She leant up on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear.

"I knew all that HYDRA training would be good for something,"

He snorted out a laugh and shook his head imperceptibly.

"Do you want a unicorn or a giant stuffed seahorse?"

"Unicorn," Erin answered almost immediately. Bucky chuckled and took the large pink stuffed unicorn form the vendor, handing it to Erin with a smile on his face.

"There's something I want to do before we leave," He told her, his voice unusually serious. Erin readjusted her position, balancing the unicorn on her hip and looking up at him expectantly.

"I want to take you dancing."

She raised an eyebrow at the unexpected request.

"Bucky, I can barely walk in a straight line without assistance I don't want to be responsible for breaking every single one of your toes."