The Other Stark - Bucky Barnes x OC Romance

Chapter 57

Bucky woke up in the middle of the night, worried when he didn't feel Theo against him. She always slept pressed up on his side or fully on top of him. He climbed out of bed and checked the bathroom, making sure she wasn't sick and needed him. But when he saw the bathroom empty he got nervous and headed out into the kitchen in the penthouse. She had been waking up to snack a lot lately, he loved waking up and seeing her sitting on the counter munching away. But Theo was nowhere to be seen.

"FRIDAY, where is Theo?" Bucky asked nervously.

"Ms. Rogers Stark is in the gym." The AI responded. Bucky hurried to the elevator to check on her, it was the middle of the night, nobody would be up to train with.

When he walked into the gym everything was dark aside from a projector playing what looked like surveillance footage on the large wall of the gym. Theo was sitting in the middle of the ring, her legs crossed while she picked apart a pop tart.

"Doll, what's going on here?" He asked sweetly, making his way into the ring with her. The closer he got to her he saw she had tears streaming down her face, her cheeks and eyes were already red and puffy from however long she'd been in the gym alone. He quickly sat down beside her and pulled her against his chest. When he finally looked up at the wall where the footage played, he saw it was footage from the compound of her and Steve.

"Are you missing him a little extra today?" He asked sweetly, she nodded as she leaned against him, still watching the wall. Years worth of footage of her and Steve. Steve carrying her around, sparring with her, their 6AM breakfasts in the middle of the ring. Everything. The footage switched from the gym to the penthouse.

** Security Footage **

Steve knocked lightly on the doorframe to Theo's bedroom, she was sitting on the balcony with a book, she figured she'd read until she got tired.

"Sugar, you decent?" He called in, but kept himself in the doorway.

"Yes, dad. Balcony." Theo called out. Steve made his way through her bedroom and to the balcony, joining her on the swing. "What are you reading, sugar?" He asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Hill house." She said, closing her book and smiling up at her dad. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and laid her head against his chest, feeling his arm tighten around her.

"Of course you are." He teased, kissing her forehead lightly.

"Did you need something, dad?" She asked after a few minutes of comfortably sitting with Steve.

"I just came to see if you wanted to watch a movie?" He asked. "We don't have training tomorrow and I already miss my 6AM breakfast with my girl."

"Yes!" Theo said happily. "You can pick the movie and I can go grab snacks from Christian?" She offered.

"You can pick the movie, sugar. I'll grab the snacks from Christian. I'll grab your coco, too." He said, kissing her forehead lightly before hopping up and heading downstairs.

Theo hopped up off the porch swing, putting her book on her nightstand and climbing up on the bed, she scrolled through the streaming apps before finally deciding on The Purge. She got the movie queued up just in time to see Steve coming back in with an armful of snacks and her coco in the other hand.

"What is all this, dad?" She said with a laugh, jumping up and helping him put the heaping pile of snacks on the bed. Steve had grabbed BBQ twisty fritos and French onion dip for Theo as well as popcorn, pretzels, goldfish and grapes.

"It's everything my girl likes. And I remembered the chopsticks." He teased, pulling her metal rainbow chopsticks out of his back pocket and handing them to her. Theo had a strange habit of dumping the French onion dip straight into the bag of BBQ fritos, shaking it up and eating it with her chopsticks, but he thought it was adorable.