The Distance - A Bucky Barnes x OC Story

Chapter 3 - The Doppelganger

Trigger warning : grief, suicidal thoughts

The Avengers Compound, New York - August 2024

Bucky gazed into Adriana's warm brown eyes and saw love in her eyes. She was the only one in his life that dared to call him cute and he liked it. He held Adriana's hand tight and thought that it was the moment, the moment for their first kiss. So he leaned closer to her and slowly closed his eyes as she did the same. He felt his heart racing really fast as they leaned closer to each other. Suddenly he felt like something tickling his face. He opened his eyes and saw a white furry tail brushing his nose. Alpine, Adriana's white persian cat was standing on top of him, walking in circles on his chest and meowing loudly.

Bucky groaned. It was just a dream, he grumbled. It was the third time that week that he dreamt of Adriana, and it was a good dream too, not like the first two dreams he had when he dreamt of seeing her die in his arms. This last dream, he realized, was like a memory from their second date when he first visited her apartment and met her cats. As soon as he realized it was just a dream, he felt that gaping hole in his chest again. The permanent hole in his heart that he had felt ever since he saw Adriana exploded in the sky before his very eyes. He sighed and forced himself to smile as he looked at Alpine who was still standing on his chest, her blue eyes stared back at him.

"Meow.." Alpine said, looking at him as if asking if he was okay.

"Good morning, Alpine. I'm okay. Just had a good dream and you had to disturb it, didn't you?" Bucky smiled and stroked Alpine's head. He then picked Alpine up from his chest and sat up.

He glanced at the clock on his night stand, it was 7 in the morning. Time to wake up. He thought. He stood up and carried Alpine with him out of his bedroom. Suddenly he felt something brushing his feet. He stopped and looked down and saw Chloe, Adriana's grey tabby persian cat, walking around his feet.

"Good morning, Chloe." Bucky smiled at her. Chloe looked up and meowed. Saying good morning to him in cat language perhaps, Bucky thought.

He put Alpine down and continued walking downstairs towards the kitchen. The two cats followed him, both walking in zig zag in front of him and making him almost trip.

"Careful there, Alpine, Chloe. You don't want me to trip do you?" Bucky said, laughing.

After his meeting with Thor, Bucky followed his advice in taking Adriana's cats back from her friend. After Adriana was gone he had given them to Adriana's friend from work, Emma. When Bucky told Emma that he would like to take Adriana's cats back and take care of them, Emma was very grateful. She had two dogs already and having additional pets in her apartment was actually quite a burden. And so for the past month Bucky took care of Alpine and Chloe. They proved to be good companions for him. Even though they sometimes reminded him of Adriana and made him sad, he was still somewhat happy that he had some legacy from Adriana behind, something to remember her by.

When Bucky arrived in the kitchen he found it deserted. A couple of weeks after the Kree invasion was over and the Avengers had a meeting to plot their next strategy, the girls, Riri, Kate and Kamala had gone back to their homes. Clint also had gone back home to his family. Bruce went back to live in his apartment. Rhodey went back to Washington DC and Thor went back out to outerspace with Love, going from planet to planet helping others in need. Only Sam, Wanda and Bucky stayed at the Avengers Compound.

As the Kree invasion became a thing of the past, the Avengers returned to dealing with minor problems back at their own places. Sam, Bucky and Wanda spent their days mostly to train and deal with minor problems around the country. Sam in particular still received daily reports from other Avengers around the world informing him of their missions and potential problems. Wanda spent her days honing her skills and sometimes went to Stephen Strange's place to learn more about magic and her powers. Bucky had taken a permanent position as SHIELD's hand-to-hand combat and weapons instructor. He also sometimes acted as an advisor at SHIELD's Weapon's Research & Development Department. Even though they had won against the Kree, they followed Carol's advice and stayed prepared. SHIELD continued to recruit new agents and produced weapons and gadgets to prepare for future attacks.