Alpine's personality comes out in full force over the next few days. She really is a gorgeous cat and Bucky finds himself falling in love with her a little more every day. He pats the empty seat next to him on the couch whenever he sits down to watch TV or read. Alpine always leaps up to join him, snuggling in his lap, purring like a motorboat.
But that's only when nobody else is around.
Most of the time, she seems to be powered by kibble and spite. Shannon and Bucky have to keep her from knocking things off of counters and pull her down from the top of the fridge while she scowls and snarls at them. Shannon brings Ace over to meet her. At first, Alpine is suspicious. Bucky suspects she's run into the odd dog or two before he met her. She walks in large circles around the giant dog before pouncing on his tail. Ace is incredibly patient, flopping down and closing his eyes while Alpine jumps on his back, swats at his head, and eventually falls asleep next to him after tiring herself out. After that, they're inseparable whenever they're together. Ace picks her up by the scruff of her neck and carries her into the bedroom when it's time for bed while Alpine meows softly and Shannon giggles.
Bucky feels like they're a little family - a strange family, but a family nonetheless. Shannon spends more time at his apartment because Alpine claws up her sofa whenever Bucky brings her over. He refuses to buy her a cat carrier, instead just puts her in his coat whenever they have to go anywhere together. He likes scratching her head while he sits on the subway. When Shannon isn't around, Alpine snuggles up next to him in bed and he falls asleep to the sound of her soft purr. It feels nice to be able to take care of something and not completely mess it up. Alpine seems to like him a lot. She follows him everywhere around the house. Of course, he would rescue a cat with separation anxiety. They really are one and the same. When she can't follow Bucky, she follows Shannon, and if she can't follow Shannon, she follows Ace.
The evening of Shannon's work party is fast approaching and Bucky feels himself getting more and more nervous when he thinks about it. He doesn't do well at these things. Actually, he's never really been to a party since Stark Expo. And that wasn't even really a party. He has no idea how to conduct himself, making conversation feels so disingenuous with people he doesn't know. Unless it's a one-on-one thing, his anxiety goes through the roof.
Two days before the party, Shannon suggests that they go shopping for him the next day. He puts up a small fight.
"I have a suit jacket."
"Sam wants it back," she says, flopping onto the couch beside him.
"Wha — why didn't he tell me?"
"He left you a voicemail."
"I don't know how to check those."
She laughs and musses up his hair with her fingers. Bucky growls softly, but leans into the touch.
"Yeah, he figured that out when you didn't call him back. He's coming to the party too."
Bucky's eyes widen.
"Seriously?"
Knowing two people who will be there makes him feel a little less like throwing up. If he can stick with them the whole night, he's good.
"Yeah, someone else's plus one ditched, and I'm head chef, so..."
She shrugs and grins.
"Sam's good at all that socializing stuff," Bucky mumbles. "I'm not."
"Stick with me, cutie pie. Trust, me we'll have a good time. It won't be as crazy as you're anticipating."
Bucky wraps his arm around her and pulls her close as they watch television.
That night, he awakes from a nightmare with a short gasp. Shannon's arms are wrapped around his waist and Alpine cuddled up next to him. Bucky breathes deep and counts to four before he exhales slowly. Alpine wakes up and meows softly as she pushes her face against his.
"I'm okay," Bucky whispers as she licks the sweat from his face. "I'm okay."
Shannon shifts in her sleep.
"Buck?"
"I'm okay," he whispers again. She squeezes him.
"You had a nightmare?"
"Yeah," he whispers. "It's okay. I've got you, and Ace, and Alpine."
"Always," Shannon breathes as she kisses his metal shoulder.
Bucky smiles and tries to fall asleep, but after half an hour, he can't seem to make it happen. He can tell by the sound of Shannon's breathing that she's still awake.
"Shannon?"
"Hmm?"
"You awake?"
"Yeah."
Bucky smiles.
"You wanna play that question game again?"
She giggles. Carefully, he turns around to face her. Alpine gets up to lay at his feet. Shannon reaches out to touch his face.
"I'd love to." She yawns. "Would it help you sleep?"
Bucky kisses her to tell her yes.
"You start." She says. "I need to think."
"Have you ever gone on more than one date in a day?"
"Yes," she says.
"Really?"
"Yeah," she laughs. "I actually ditched a guy halfway through a lunch date to have coffee with you the second time we met up."
Bucky chuckles.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. He was really boring and kind of sexist." She smiles. "Have you ever had a one night stand?"
"Yes," Bucky whispers.
"When?"
"The night before I was deployed." He blushes. "It was two girls, actually."
Her jaw drops.
"James Buchanan Barnes! I never knew you were a ladies man!"
Bucky laughs and bites his lip.
"I used to be, yeah."
"Were they cute?" She asks.
"Very," he confesses. "If they're still alive, they'd be at least 100."
He looks over his shoulder at Alpine who sleeps soundly on her back, her tiny limbs splayed out. Bucky has never seen a cat look that comfortable before. He turns back to Shannon, grinning.
"Have you ever had sex in a public place?"
He must be delirious from the nightmare or the lack of sleep because as soon as it comes out of his mouth, he has the urge to hide his face in the pillow. Shannon stifles laughter and blushes, biting her lip.
"Once, yeah."
Bucky's eyes go wide, curious.
"Where?"
"It was at a concert," she laughs.
"In the crowd?!"
"No!" Her eyes go wide. "No, thank God. It was in the bathroom. We got caught. It was so embarrassing. The security guard called my mom."
"You were a teenager?"
Shannon nods and looks like she's dying of embarrassment. Bucky leans in and kisses her.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay," she giggles. "I just want to die whenever I think about it."
"What did your parents say?"
"They were pissed. My mom couldn't look me in the eye for like two weeks. My dad just pretended it didn't happen." She pauses. "What about you? Have you —"
He shakes his head and watches as she gets that mischievous little glint in her eyes. Bucky starts laughing before the words even leave her lips. He knows exactly what's coming.
"Do you want to?"
"Where would we go? New York is packed," he chuckles.
"I'm sure there's a sleazy bar we could do it in."
"Yeah, if you like hepatitis," Bucky teases.
Shannon throws her head back and laughs.
"Okay, fair. Who's turn was it?"
"Mine." He pauses. "What's your favorite memory of one of your parents?"
"I thought this was going to get more sexual," she laughs.
Bucky shakes his head. Shannon takes a deep breath and runs a fingertip across his skin.
"When I was a teenager, my dad and I used to get into a lot of fights. He didn't like the way that I was living my life. I was super into art and music without actually being very good at any of it. I hung out with freaks and weirdoes and my dad is a pretty conservative guy — well, was. That's changed." She pauses and her eyes fill with tears. Bucky reaches out and runs his thumb along her bottom lip.
"We don't have to talk about him."
"No," she whispers, kissing the pad of his thumb. "I want to. It keeps the person he was alive. He was just a big stickler for rules and tradition and he didn't understand me. So we would fight. It would get pretty vicious. I said some terrible things to him just out of anger, and then I would run up to my bedroom and slam the door. Every time we would fight, without fail, he would knock on the door and ask if I wanted to go for a drive. That was kind of how we made up. And I always said yes because I never wanted to make my dad mad or hurt him, it was just teenage anger, you know?"
Bucky nods. Shannon takes a deep breath.
"Anyway, we'd go on these long drives - for like three hours!" She laughs. "I wouldn't talk for the first hour, but he would put on music. Just classic rock like The Who, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, stuff like that..."
Bucky knows that those bands are important, but can't really connect them to any sound or anything meaningful in the same way that she can. Shannon sniffles and wipes a tear away.
"So for the first hour, it was just silent, and then he'd start to sing along. And I would start to sing along. We sounded terrible, but it broke the tension between us and it made us laugh. And then we would start talking. Sometimes we'd go and get burgers or ice cream and just sit on the hood of the car while the sun set and figure our stuff out. So, when I got older, he was better able to understand why I wanted to move to New York and be on my own." A tear slips down her cheek. "We were just ships in the night when I was a kid. He didn't understand how he had this kid who was such a fucking maniac, and I didn't understand why he couldn't just relax."
"But he understands now."
"On some level. I think so."
"What did he think when you got married?"
Shannon laughs.
"That was another big fight. He hated Will."
"Really?"
"Yeah," she whispers. "Said he wasn't a good fit. I was too wild for him."
Bucky grins and she stares at him for what seems like ages. His breath catches in his throat and his lips part. She reaches over and kisses him deeply, making him groan softly against her mouth. Her hands scratch against his scalp and he pulls her toward him, closing the gap between them. Shannon pulls away, breathing hard.
"Sorry," she laughs. "Your mouth just looked irresistible."
"I'd never say no to a kiss from you," he purrs. "But finish your story."
"That was the story."
"Your dad hated Will?"
"Yeah." She pauses. "I think he would like you, though."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You're the kind of guy he wanted me to be with. Strong, stoic —"
"You think I'm stoic?"
"Yes," Shannon laughs. "You've got those steel blue eyes and you looked so grumpy when we first met."
Bucky's heart breaks a little.
"I did?"
"Yeah," she chuckles. "It was more of a confused kind of grumpiness."
Bucky sighs.
"I get that a lot."
"It's not a bad thing. If my dad wasn't sick, I think you two would have gotten along well."
"You said he's doing okay though, right?"
He can see the anxiety bubbling in her chest. She gnaws on her bottom lip and sighs.
"Sort of. He's got a lot of moments of lucidity. I just want to visit before he starts to really slip away."
Bucky traces a line along her collarbone.
"When are you planning on flying back?"
"Next month. I know it's a lot of pressure on you, which is why I haven't asked. We've only been dating a month or something, right?"
"Something like that," he agrees.
They can never really agree on when they started dating. She says it's the night he first came over to her house. He thinks it's the third coffee date that sealed the deal since she gave him a small peck on the cheek before she left, blushing furiously.
"I usually go to help on their farm," Shannon whispers.
"Farm?"
"Yeah."
He remembers Wakanda and the peace that he felt helping tend to the land, and helping with whatever needed to be done. He'd love to get a taste of that again, to leave the noise of the city, even if it was only for a few days or a week. It's not like he has anything else going on. As long as he let Dr. Raynor know that he was leaving, he wouldn't get bused for missing a therapy appointment. She's been going easy on him and she knows that this would probably be good for him. Bucky smiles.
"I would go."
Her eyes go wide.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Your mom could probably use the help."
"Definitely. She's basically just hiring people and paying them under the table to help out because my dad just can't do it anymore."
"I'd help. I've got to put this Super Soldier strength and metal arm to use somehow, right?"
Shannon looks like she's about to cry.
"I never thought you would say yes."
"Why?"
"I don't — I just know how awkward these situations can be for new boyfriends."
He chuckles and kisses her.
"It's not awkward if it's you."
She giggles and blushes.
"What is with you and these cheesy lines, Barnes?"
"Barnes?" He murmurs with an arched eyebrow. "You've been talking to Sam too much."
"He speaks very highly of you in our texts, actually."
Bucky grins. A natural silence nestles itself between them and, eventually, they feel Ace jump up on the bed, much to Alpine's displeasure. She crawls over and wedges herself in between them, flopping onto her side and purring. Shannon and Bucky hold each other and make stupid faces at each other until they both fall asleep. When he wakes up in the morning, he hears her on the phone with someone. Ace is gone and Alpine is sitting on his chest, yowling at him in the tiniest voice he's ever heard. Bucky sighs and rubs his face.
"Okay, okay. I'll feed you. You know Shannon's up, right?"
Her meow sounds like a screech and he picks her up.
"You're a pain in the ass."
He gets up and pulls some clothes on, picking up Alpine and carrying her to the kitchen. He stops just before he reaches the doorway, hearing Shannon's soft voice.
"Mom, he's amazing. Really. He's... God, I don't know how to describe him." Her giggle makes his heart flutter. "Kind, gentle, funny, sweet. Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely in love. I know it's fast, mom, but I just feel it, you know?"
Bucky decides to step into the kitchen and Shannon grins, mouthing a small "hi" at him. He grins and puts Alpine down on the floor. Her food dish is already full. She looks up at him and tilts her head.
"You... really? You won't even let me sleep?"
She meows and trots over to her dish, munching down her breakfast happily. Bucky sighs and pours himself a cup of coffee while Shannon continues to chat with her mom. He tries not to intrude and creeps into the living room, glancing over his shoulder as he hears Shannon say:
"Hi, daddy. It's Shan."
The heartbreak in her voice as she repeats herself makes his chest ache. He sits on the couch and listens to her. She alternates between laughing loudly and holding back tears. The conversation sounds relatively normal. She has to repeat words or phrases sometimes. Bucky can sense the patience that lives in her bones just because of what she has to deal with. Her voice gets soft again and he hears her say:
"Dad, I have to tell you something. I'm seeing someone."
Bucky's cheeks burn and he reaches for the remote, turning on the television so that she doesn't think he's listening.
But he is.