Summary: You're forced to marry a royal guard even though you're a criminal.
Word count: 2.1k
A/n: Set in medieval times kinda.
—
This is where it all ends. With marriage. To a royal guard, out of all the people. A forced marriage between a criminal and a royal guard.
But this is the only way you could have guaranteed protection. Over the years of you stealing, killing, fighting, screwing other people over you've acquired a certain number of enemies.
Someone gave away your location and the royal guards showed up, ready to take you in for a lot of different crimes. You tried to fight them off which dug you into deeper shit. The Captain guard or whatever managed to get you into his grasp.
He brought you to the king who would decide what public execution you would face. But when the king saw you, he couldn't go through with it due to the ties you have to his wife.
Instead, he came up with a plan that would surely keep you off the streets and under the watch and protection of his best royal guard.
Marriage to James Buchanan Barnes.
And that's exactly what's happening.
You're standing in front of a priest with your soon to be husband next. The marriage was supposed to happen as soon as possible and in private to avoid any objections or problems. You look to your right and see the king and queen standing side by side, arms entangled.
"Please join hands," the priest says as he motions to the both of you and your head snaps to him before looking at the jackoff who turns to face you with his hands out for you to take. You look up to see he has the same unamused expression on his face, matching your own.
You glance over at the queen who has a stiff expression, like she's bitting back something to say. "You're really going to force me to do this?" You ask her and she opens her mouth the say something, but the king speaks over her.
"It's this, or death," he says.
"Fuck me," you say and they all gasp, including the priest. "Shit, I'm sorry," you slip again causing them to look at you with wide eyes and you to cringe as you place your hands on his.
"Do you... name please?" The priest asks.
"Ben... Dover," you say.
"Do you Ben Dover— are you serious," the priest sighs and the queen bites back a smile as the king speaks up. "Her name is y/f/n, my apologies father," he says.
The priest nods his head and turns his attention back to you and him. "Do you, y/f/n, plead yourself to be James Buchanan Barnes devoted wife... to nurture him, and love him through sickness and health... to head his every request, and listen to all his worries...until death parts the both of you?"
You look over at the queen and she gives you a sad smile. Rolling your eyes, you look back at the jackoff and everything starts to pile on your shoulder. Tears start to climb their way up in your eyes, desperately wanting to be let free and fall down your cheeks, but you don't let them. You don't want to seem weak and vulnerable in front of your soon to be husband.
Not when you're anything but weak and vulnerable.
"Yep, I do," you say, reluctantly.
The priest turns his attention to the man that you don't know standing next to you. "Do you, James Buchanan Barnes, plead yourself to be y/f/n devoted husband... to protect her, and love her through sickness and health... to worship her everyday, and listen to all her worries...until death parts the both of you?"
He takes a deep breath and his fingers tighten on yours slightly. You watch as he exhales slowly and nods his head. "I do."
"Then by the power invested in me, and the lord above, I now pronounce you husband and wife, united together by an invisible string until death, shall you part."
And with that, your old life was over, and a new hell just washed over you. Flooding the streets in your brain, new rules, new expectations. Everything was now different.
—
It's been a month. A month of torture and despair. You don't touch your husband and he doesn't touch you. The two of you hardly talk and he sleeps on the floor at night. Or sometimes you do.
Last night there seemed to be a weird shift in him though. His attitude towards you took a turn and he was patient with you rather than angry. He was... nice.
You were still a bitch though. Testing his patience until he snapped. But he never did.
"Jackoff, why are you being nice?" You ask as you sit up on the bed. He looks over at you and rolls his eyes. "I have a name you know," he says.
"I'm very aware, but I prefer jackoff. It makes me giggle," you shrug. "Answer the question."
He sighs as he comes over and sits next to you, making you stare at him in shock. "Wether we like it or not, wether we hate each other or not, we are still married. We both took an oath and vowed to not break it. I still think we should try to make this marriage work so you don't get killed by one of your enemies."
You nod your head, understanding where he's coming from. "There's a ball being hosted tonight, when I'm not on duty, I'd like to see you. Maybe we could... dance or something..." he trails off in embarrassment and you try, but fail to hide your smile at his sudden shyness.
"I'd like that," you say and his eyes meet yours. The one thing you've always admired about him is his eyes. You love how blue they are.
"I have to go take care of some things, but I'll be back before the ball so we can go together," he says as he tucks a strand of hair behind your ear. "I'll see you later, doll." He stands up and leaves the room.
Heat rises up to your cheeks at the pet name he used for you. A small smile tugs at your lips, but you do your best to try and suppress it.
—
You stand in front of the mirror to smooth your dress out. Part of you wonders why you're going to this stupid ball, but you always come back to the same reason.
Bucky wants you to go.
Slow, heavy footsteps catch your ears as they get closer and closer until he's standing behind you and you look at him through the mirror. His eyes rake over your body until they reach your face. "You look... beautiful," he says and it feels like your lungs were punctured and no air can properly come out.
His eyes sends goosebumps up your arms and a shiver up your spine. "You don't look to bad yourself," you say with a small smile.
He wore his red and blue uniform with gold and black trimming, signaling this was a fancy event he was attending. The uniforms he wears any other day have white trimming and are either red or blue, not both.
You prefer his blue one because it bring out his eyes, but the red one is tighter so it's easy to see how muscular he is. The one he's wearing right now is the perfect combination of the both. It's also tight and the blue still bring out his eyes. His hair is neatly done, and his sword is glued to his hip.
"Shall we?" He asks as he bends his arm for you to take.
"We shall, jackoff," you say with a smile as you loop your arm through his and leave the room.
"I'll be at the far east side of the castle the first two and a half hours if you need me," he says once you reach the ballroom and you look at him confused.
"You can't use east and west with me," you say and he smiles.
"The pond with all the water lilies. I'll be over there," he says and you nod, now understanding where he's going to be.
He leans down and brushes his lips against your cheek. Looking into your eyes for a few seconds, he takes a deep breath before leaving and heading to his post.
You succeeded in wasting two hours by walking around and talking to people. You even dances with a young boy and he told you that he was going to brag to everyone that he danced with the prettiest girl at the ball. Which you adored.
But then, trouble came. It was almost like you could sense it creeping up as he walked in the room. He frantically looked around for you, knowing you were here and you could feel your stomach sink as his eyes zeroed in on you.
Even though you didn't know who was looking at you, you just knew it was trouble. As you looked over in the direction he was in, your whole body tensed. John Walker, your worst enemy was staring right at you.
"Shit," you curse as you hastily make you way to the exist. Once you make it out of the door, you book it in Bucky's direction. Running as fast as you can and not stopping because you know he's right behind you.
The only light guiding your way is the moon. And that proves to not be enough when you run straight in the pond. Cursing to yourself, you pull your dress up and start to run through the water.
Shooting a glance over your shoulder, you see John following your movements and running through the pond after you.
Hoping you chose the right direction, you run to the left. John runs after you and manages to catch up to you. He grabs your hair and pulls you back against him. You gasp as you elbow and kick at him, but he doesn't let you go.
So you scream as loud as you can. He covers your mouth, but you bite his fingers causing him to groan in pain and drop his hand. "BUCKY!" You yell and John his the side of your temple as his best friend Lamar, who you had no idea was here, comes up and covers your mouth with a cloth.
Just as your vision starts to go black, you kick his knee and he falls down. Oxygen rushes back to your brain. You feel something sharp pierce your side and then you gasp as the knife punctures your skin.
"Bucky," you say as you step on Johns foot repeatedly and finally manage to bring your head forward and send it back, clashing the back of your head against his.
He groans as he lets go of you and stumbles back, holding his now bloody nose.
You fall to your knees as you wrap your hand around the knife in you. Lamar comes over to and wraps his arm around your throat and pulls you up to your knees as he chokes you.
Where the fuck is my husband?
John approaches you and bring his hand back as he punches you. You feel your nose break and let out a small whisper.
He brings his arm back again, but before he's able to hit you, he pulled away and with a clean hit to his temple, he's on the ground. Knocked out cold.
"Unhand my wife, or I'll show you no mercy," Bucky says to Lamar who drops you to the ground. You have three seconds to run," he says and Lamar turns around the flee only to be met with other royal guards.
Bucky immediately crouches down beside you. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He asks and you press your hand near your wounded side. His jaw clenches at the sight and he glares over at John. "I'll fucking kill him," he says as you moves over to grab him, but you grab his hand and bring his attention back to you.
"Please, just help me," you say and he nods his head as he carefully picks you up bridal style and carry's you back towards the castle to get you help.
—
A/n: I feel like I could make this into a story with a better plot obviously. But let me know if you guys want that and if you would want it to be oc x Bucky or reader x Bucky.