Honesty ♧ Bucky Barnes

Preparation

She would do anything never to feel that exposed again.

Erin looked at the dress, running her eyes over the smooth fabric. She smiled to herself. She had an idea. Erin pulled out a thick pair of black tights from her drawer, thin enough to show the shape of her legs, but opaque enough to cover any visible scars.

She smiled to herself.

Perfect.

********

The door to Erin's room opened hesitantly, and she walked out slowly, her heels clicking loudly on the floor. Bucky looked up from his place on the couch and promptly stopped breathing. He didn't know what he had expected when he'd asked her to dress nice. Perhaps a pair of jeans and a classy top, just something slightly more fancy than her usual attire of grey sweatpants and black tank tops. What he hadn't been expecting was for her to walk out of her bedroom looking like that.

Her blonde hair, usually in a simple ponytail, pulled back on her head for the sake of practicality was styled in soft curls around her pale face, falling just below her collarbones. It was amazing how much of a difference it made to her face. She looked kinder almost, her expression less stern and more gentle. Her deep brown eyes were lined with a think rim of kohl, making them stand out even more, and she had painted her full lips with a coat of red lipstick. Bucky was fixated by that mouth. The gentle slope of her cupid's bow, the plump, soft skin. His mind was on overdrive again, thinking about what a mouth like that could do.

He blushed, and tore his imagination away from such thoughts. Tonight wasn't about sex. It wasn't about seduction. Tonight was about Bucky regaining the trust of a woman he wanted to spend all the time he had with.

Bucky's eyes raised when he took in her outfit. She was clothed in a deep blue dress, contrasting beautifully with the pale skin of her neck and arms. It flared at her thin waist in silky pleats, ending just above her knee.

She looked like she's stepped straight out of Bucky's dreams. More specifically, the dream that he had found himself having more and more often recently, in which Erin was a girl from Brooklyn in the 40s, and had promised to wait for him when he went off to war. She was a vision.

She smiled self-consciously at him, and he let out a puff of air from his lips.

"Jeez Louise, Jefferson..." the words came out in almost a whisper, and Erin rolled her eyes, tugging the hem of her skirt further down her legs, covered by a second skin of black silk.

"You look like a million bucks," He admitted, almost to himself. Erin blushed, a surprisingly fetching colour on her, and Bucky shook himself out of his revere, taking a step forwards and extending his arm to her. She rolled her eyes at his chivalry but grabbed onto it regardless, her dainty fingers clutching the hem of his black v-neck sweater tightly. He could feel the pressure of her hand on his metal arm. Only pressure. No indication of the warmth that he knew would be leaching from her body into his, the arm didn't have sensors to pick that up.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going, Buck?"

He merely smiled conspiratorially and gestured for her to follow him out of the door silently. The corner of her mouth quirked upwards in a smirk as she shook her head at his unnecessary secrecy and followed along, allowing herself to be pulled out of the door. The night was chilly, and Erin's arms burst into goosebumps as soon as she stepped out of the flat doors. Bucky noticed immediately, and shook off his black jacket, wordlessly draping the warm fabric over her shoulders. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt underneath it, his metal arm still completely covered. She leaned slightly into the warmth.

"Bucky, you don't have to-"

"If I'm gonna do this, Jefferson," he looked down at her with a strange expression in his eyes, "I'm gonna do it properly."

He hooked his arm through hers and the pair of them walked along the deserted streets. He could tell that she was desperate to know where they were going, the scientist in her couldn't resist an unanswered question, but she kept silent, appearing happy enough to walk along with him in silence. He knew how they would look, the two of them arm in arm along the empty side of the street. A pair of young lovers, lost in each other.

He didn't mind.

He continued walking, following his nose. He had been walking earlier that evening, his head full of shouting voices, half telling him to keep going and never look back and the other half telling him to run back to Erin and never let go of her. He hadn't been looking where he was going, walking for the sake of walking, and eventually he had stumbled across something that had made him run back.

"A funfair?" Erin's voice was surprised as they rounded the corner and saw the bright flashing lights of the fair that had been temporarily installed at the corner of the busy street. It was busy with people, families and friends walking through the stalls with smiles on their faces and candyfloss in their hands. He looked down at her.

She was smiling back up at him, her eyes gleaming, and his heart leapt. This had been a good idea.

He grabbed her small hand in his much larger gloved one and walked forwards, pulling her along beside him. Here he was, walking through a fair surrounded by gaudy flashing lights and dancefloors. A beautiful girl on his hand, the smell of candyfloss thick in the air.

He felt like he was back in Brooklyn.

Her hand tightened in his as they took in the sights of their own small piece of paradise.

He felt like he was home.

t*4AM'/

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