Checkmate (BuckyBarnes x OC)

Normality

I hugged Vadim goodbye and stepped along the path. After only a minute a shadow emerged from amongst the trees and Bucky was standing next to me.

"How did it go?" He asked.

I shrugged. "As expected, I guess."

"You don't sound too excited;" he observed.

I told him about how it went on the way back home. He wasn't too surprised about my father's distance towards my brother, which I found unusual, but I ignored it nevertheless. The walk back was calm and warm. I didn't expect weather to be getting as hot as it is now.

We entered the apartment in silence and I decided to begin making lunch. I was chopping some vegetables for I wanted to prepare fried rice with chicken and vegetables. I loved the dish and it was fairly simple to make. A few minutes in I heard Bucky sit on the chairs by the table behind me.

"Do you have any music here?" he asked.

"Why, you bored?" I asked jokingly and looked in his direction.

"I'm just saying, you never seem to have any background music," he talked and his eyebrows furrowed as he shifted his gaze to the floor, "I remember.. Back in the day there was music everywhere I went. In the bars, the streets, even at home my mother always had the gramophone going."

At the mention of his mother his gaze shifted into a frown and he went silent. I was biting my lip. I didn't know if that was my que to talk to him or whatever, but I had nothing to say to him. I was overwhelmed after I just met my family and there he was grieving over his.

I stepped closer and crouched down in front of him. I wanted for him to see me even with his head lowered, I didn't want to make too big of a trouble for him. He looked at me, his eyes distant. I didn't have to be a state detective to figure out what he was thinking about. His mother.

"I bet she was a nice woman," I murmured, "What was her name?"

"I don't... I don't know." he said with a shaky voice.

I stood up beside him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pressing his head under my chin. "Oh, Bucky..." I gently patted his back, wanting to pull away, when I felt his hands creeping around my waist. He embraced the hug and squeezed me tighter to him. I felt his head shaking, which could only mean that he was sobbing.

"I wish to remember so many things, but all is lost for me, Katrina," he sniffled in my shoulder, falling deeper and deeper in a long cry, "I don't know what to do, I tried everything there is. I can't remember them, my own family."

I don't think I ever felt as sorry for the man as I did in that moment. He was like a broken porcelain ornament, crumbling under the pressure of my hands. I held him close and tried to calm him as he was speaking on and on. His words were blurred by his sobs I didn't even understand what he was trying to say, but I calmed him anyways. After a while he breathed normally once more and backed away, running his hand through his tangled mess he called hair. He even chuckled when his finger got stuck between his locks for a second.

"I oughta get that mess you call hair sorted out," I joked and he smirked to my comment, but it was a small smile.

"Are you okay, Bucky?" I asked and tilted my head to the side when asking.

He sniffled and rubbed his eyes before looking at me and nodding, "Yeah, I'm fine, yeah."

He collapsed back on the chair, his gaze more distant than before. I sighed slightly, trying not to be heard by Bucky, before sitting down opposite to him. "That was intense," He nodded, but didn't look at me. I leaned back and crossed my eyes. "Tell you what, you'll help me prepare lunch, we'll listen to some music and I'll teach you how to make my favorite dish. In exchange for your help I'll help you find out anything that's in my power to find out more about your family."