Crying to the Sky // Bucky Barnes

Chapter 18: I want to dance

We eventually arrive at our new apartment. It's modern enough. Pale wooden floors contrast with the dark furniture, black leather sofa, a sleek flatscreen TV, grey wallpaper, dark wood tables and units.

We look around, the light floor and walls make the room seem bigger than it actually is, there is not much floor space in reality. The kitchen is nice, with blank white wall tiles, cupboards and drawers. The countertops are a pastel blue that match the floor tiles and the blinds on the windows. It is fairly cramped and a little dull, but we can fix that. We then check out the bedroom and bathroom. The double bed is coated in grey sheets, cosy orange swirls pattern the fabric, the colours complimenting the grey wardrobe and draws, both with orange handles and edges. The curtains are grey with orange floral patterns on it. You would expect it to look terrible but it works well, making the room cozy and not too extreme. The bathroom is mostly white and silver, not really interesting. Although bathrooms don't need to be interesting.

After having a look around, Bucky takes my hands gently, pulling me into the middle of the living room, "I can teach you to dance."

I laugh nervously, "But, there's no space."

Bucky lets go of my hands and walks towards the coffee table that sits in front of the couch, "This is ours now, right?" I nod, "So we can just make space."

After moving things around a little we stand in the middle of the floor. Bucky places one hand on the small of my back and the other in my hand as I place my free hand on his shoulder.

"Now, we used to do swing dancing," I nod, preparing myself, "So it's gonna be fast, okay? It's fine if you don't quite get it the first couple of times and just tell me if you get a little dizzy."

"Okay." I sound determined.

"So we step forwards twice then backwards twice, real fast." He instructs, "Ready?"

We do so, leaning to each side as we step, a hop in our step.

"We do that again, then we hold with both hands," We hold each other's hands, held out in front of us, "We spin and you let go of my right hand and face outwards with you arm up while kind of skipping around a little."

I nod in understanding, I had seen swing dancing before in old movies so I know what he means. We spin once and I do what he said, I grab hold of his hand and we do it again, only this time he spins me, I twist my hips as I hold onto his metal hand.

"Well done, you're a natural!" He beams. It must look strange. A couple, a man with a metal arm and a 4 foot 11 inch woman, dancing the Lindy Hop in their newly bought apartment in Brooklyn with only the sound of traffic passing buy on the street bellow to dance to. But we don't care. We are happy.

After a while of practice, spinning and bouncing around on the pale wooden floorboards, we decide to move everything back to where it was and go back to Steve's apartment. By the end of the week, we will be living here, Steve will have moved out of his apartment and into a new one. We get back to find Sam and Steve on the couch, playing a game of cards.

"You like the new apartment?" Steve asks, glancing up from his cards.

"Yeah, it is nice." I answer.

"A little cramped but we fixed that." Bucky smirks at the alterations he made to our new apartment.

"Go fish..." I hear Sam mumble as I turn and walk into our bedroom, leaving the sound of Bucky enthusiastically asking to join in behind. I sit down on my bed, unsure of how to feel. I feel slightly overwhelmed, happy and sad at the same time. We are all moving on. We will be seeing less and less of each other as soon as we all go our separate ways but at the same time Bucky and I will be closer than ever.

I feel someones presence and see something move in the corner of my eye, I turn to see Steve leaning against the door frame with his arms folded, "Hey." He says softly.

"Hey..." I just sit there. After a moment of silence I decide to speak my mind, "Everything is going to change, right?"

"Yeah..." He nods, "But it will be a good change."

"What if something goes wrong? What if he gets sick of me? What if he doesn't like living with me?" I voice my doubts.

"Josephine..." He sighs, I prepare myself for a lecture, "Firstly, he has been living with you since we found him. Secondly, you are surrounded by friends... Sam, Tony, Pepper, Natasha, Clint, Laura, Bruce and me. If something goes wrong, you and Buck will have all of the support and help you need from us. Lastly, Bucky could never get sick of you. I have known him a long, long time and I have never- never- seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you."

"You really think so?"

"I know so." He nods, so sure of himself, "He will be happy with you. Now come on, I think Buck and Sam have finished their game, you need to go through and kick their asses and show them how a real game of cards is played."

I take in a deep breath before standing up and turning to face Steve, "You're right, I gotta show them how it's done."

Sam is shuffling the cards when we enter, I waltz up to Bucky, pecking his cheek from behind, "Hey Sam, I wanna play."

"Oh, oh no. Are sure about this, squirt? This game ain't meant to be played by a pipsqueak like you!" He replies playfully.

"Just deal the cards, butthead!" I say, walking to the fridge to get a bottle of water.

"Who are you callin' butthead, butthead?!" Sam references Back to the Future.

"I understood that reference!" I yell back through, mocking Steve as I look through the contents of the small fridge.

"You were there?" I hear him question, I ignore him and let him think. Actually I wasn't but Tony told me about how proud he was to have understood something that was going on during what happened in New York oh so long ago.

"Hey, get me a beer, will ya?" Sam asks, and I grab one. I close the fridge and walk through to find the group sat around the table, a pile of cards in front of each of them and one pile for me. I sit the glass bottle on the table next to Sam. He thanks me, unaware that I was going to kill his hope, dreams and chances of ever winning at cards against me.