angel cake ♡ tom holland/sebastian stan/chris evans oneshots

Hopeless * // Bucky Barnes

Bucky could hear her frustrated sobs through the thin walls separating their apartments the second her door slammed and something fell onto the floor. He'd been home all day, reading more about the eighties and listening to the music from that decade (he liked the eighties a lot more than the sixties, but not as much as the seventies. The nineties were supposed to be great, but he'd believe that when he researched it). He heard her leave just as the sun had risen, and from then on her apartment was silent, and he almost missed her presence. She was scared of New York - despite having lived there for a fair few months now - so anytime she left it was with Bucky, or whichever person had found their way into her bed. He knew no-one had come home with her that night, so he couldn't help but wonder why she had gone. He knew it wasn't his place to ask, but GOD did he want to - that woman was a lot better than anyone he'd ever known, so even though she was a little loud when she was having sex with strangers (she only did it when she needed comfort and didn't want to bother Bucky), and even though she stole his food when she didn't want to buy her own, and even though she sometimes crept across the shared balcony and through his bedroom window to sleep on his floor after a nightmare, he couldn't help but love her.

As a friend.

Obviously.

Nothing more.

Just a friend.

His friend.

They were friends.

He was totally happy with that.

But no matter how close they were, he had no idea whether or not to go and talk to her about whatever she was crying about - he wouldn't know what to say anyway.

A quick knock on the front door he was facing away from startled him from his mental plot of how to help her. The sobs had stopped at some point, but he could hear sniffling from the other side of the door. He ran to open it.

"Hey," he said casually, trying not to sound all pitying and sorry, because he hated how patronising it could be, "You wanna come in? I'm gonna make ramen so obviously I don't really have anything in, but I'm gonna be watching a movie sometime soon."

"Which one?" Lin replied quietly, stepping inside and scrubbing faded mascara stains from her cheeks. She settled on the sofa and pulled her sweater over her knees, tucking herself into a ball, while Bucky sat beside her.

"Footloose, then Flashdance."

"You're on the eighties now, huh?" She asked, resting her head on the couch cushion behind her. Her eyes stayed on Bucky's. He nodded.

"I tried to ask you over earlier but you didn't answer. Were you out with anyone?" He tried softly, hoping he was being a lot more subtle than he thought. Lin smiled a little.

"If you wanna know what's wrong with me you can just ask, you know."

So clearly he wasn't being subtle at all.

"I saw my family." She sighed, taking her legs out from her sweater and crossing them to take Bucky's hands into her lap and hold them. His heart jumped and he shuffled forward, "We'd planned it, so it wasn't like I didn't know it was coming, but it still hurt to see them. My dad, he, uh, he told me that Nona was in hospital. I asked if I could visit her, but he said it wouldn't be any good. Lilith said it'd put her in her grave if I showed up. No-one stopped her from saying it. In fact, I think they might've agreed. I mean, I did, at least. Jamie was crying, then he stopped when I showed up, which was so, so sweet. I picked him up and I did the helicopter thing he loved," she smiled, "But then Dad told me to put him down, that I was getting him overexcited. I asked where my mum was, and they told me she couldn't bear to see me. Well, they said she was sick. I knew the implication, though, I'm not completely stupid."