Take Me back to the Start | B. Barnes

Bonus Chapter: Merry Christmas

It's that time of the year.
The time of hell.

I know, I should be thankful for this beautiful opportunity to spend time with family and all, but it really is most likely impossible to enjoy Christmas when Tony Stark is in charge of it. For unknown reasons, he is like Christmas itself in person and spends, no, wastes a hella lot of money in decorations, food and presents.

"Oh, come on, Tony can't be that bad! I'm sure it'll be fun." Bucky chuckles at my cautious behavior as I keep looking out of the door, making sure a certain brunette billionaire won't spot us.

"Shh! Trust me, he will make Christmas exhausting as hell. We should meet up with Steve soon, then we will just quietly leave the base and go to Brooklyn." I turn to meet his smug grin on his lips, his arms crossed over his chest, signaling that he's definitely mocking me. Closing the door again, I place my hands on his shoulders, squeezing them lightly. "Look, you don't know Tony like I do and I really want your first Christmas since forever to be perfect and relaxing, okay? You deserve the best Christmas ever."

"Alright. And I really appreciate your effort, canary. But as long as I'm with you and Steve, I'm happy." He plants a short but tender kiss to my forehead as his arms snake around my waist. It's not necessary to tell me that Hydra didn't celebrate Christmas with him.

"You... Are you okay?" I ask him worriedly, trying not to think about what he did on December the past seventy years.

"A bit on edge, to be honest. Don't worry, okay?"

"As your wife, I'll always be." I smile slightly and gently caress his cheek, his stubble tickling my palm. Leaning into a kiss, we suddenly get interrupted by a noisy rumble and in the next second, Steve suddenly crashes into our room from the air shaft. My eyes widen in shock and Bucky is startled by our best friend's painful land on the ground.

"Steve!" He shouts and we run towards the blonde but he's already getting up, barely carrying any scratches and only coated by dust.

"Clint told me that was the only way to get to your room without being seen in the corridor. We gotta go now if the train is supposed to leave in five minutes. But first..." He takes a deep breath as he knocks off the dust, then he suddenly pulls us both into a tight hug, "Merry Christmas!"

I let out a laugh into his chest while Bucky's smile grows, his head resting on Steve's shoulder. We almost collapse into the bed but manage to stand somehow, Steve's chest vibrates from his chuckle.

"What was that for?" I grin as he lets us go from the embrace.

"This is our first Christmas together since 1944. Shouldn't we celebrate?" Steve suggests and we nod. "Now let's go to Brooklyn, I wanna see what happened to the old apartment- "

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Tony shouts through a mic, invading our room with Clint and Natasha. The three of us flinch and my heart almost jumps out of my chest, mentally groaning at our failed attempt. "Ha! Thought you could escape my Christmas terror?"

"Shut up, Tony." I just mutter annoyed and Steve groans.

"Clint! I thought you would help us??"

"I was but... Then Stark somehow managed to catch Nat and me, so I was like 'Why being the only ones who get busted?', you know?" Clint nervously laughs. "I mean, now we are stuck in this nightmare together, right?"

"Jesus, guys, I won't celebrate Christmas like I usually do. You're acting like it was the worst." Tony shakes his head disappointedly and now we are all ears.

"So no more ridiculous Santa visiting in the mall?" Natasha asks with hope in her voice and Clint stares at him in disbelief.

"No more gigantic Christmas tree decorating for seven hours?"