Dia Castillo is happy and relieved to say that Bucky Barnes isn't having a ptsd episode. She knows from personal experience how troubling they can be. But she's still processing what Bucky did and the longer she stares at his freshly cut brown hair, the more it sinks in.
"You cut your hair" she's standing in front of Bucky, her fingers brushing through his short soft hair. Joshua and Sarah long gone, already inside the building, already annoying Sam probably.
"I did" Bucky smiled. Dia rested her hand on his cheek and felt no internal struggle or anything like that, just happiness and peace.
"Did you have Josh cut your hair?" She asked with dread, slowly pulling her hand from his face.
"Why would I let Josh near my neck with scissors?" Bucky asked. "But what do you think? Do you like it? I had a dream that I should cut my hair" he passed his hand through his hair.
"You had a dream that you should cut your hair?" Dia repeated in skepticism.
"Not weird, right?" He leaned in, placed his hands on Dia's waist and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"No. I mean I had a dream last night where you left me for Isaura" Dia shrugged.
Bucky looked down at Dia with wide eyes. "What? Leave you?" He gasped.
"Yeah" she nodded and placed her hands on his shoulders "You and Isa were talking and five minutes later you fell deeply in love with her and you left me for her" she explained.
"Dia, I would never" he kissed her forehead "never" he kissed her cheek "never" he kissed her other cheek and then moved to her mouth where his lips brushed against hers when he spoke, "leave you for your sister. Or anyone else for that matter" Bucky moved his hands and cupped Dia's face. He kissed her slow and tender and even though it was just a dream, Dia knows Bucky would never leave her for her sister.
"I sure hope not" Dia murmured and cupped Bucky's face with her right hand. "Her and Strange are getting back together even though no one knows why they broke up in the first place"
"Maybe they never broke up. Maybe it's all an act" Bucky suggested and pulled Dia closer to him, which was easy since she's wearing skates.
"What? Like one big roleplay?" Dia asked in disgust. "Ugh, I don't even want to think about it"
Bucky chuckled and peppered Dia's face with kisses. She giggled and buried her face in his chest. "You're so cute, Dia" Bucky wrapped his arms around Dia and kissed the top of her head. "Beautiful день. You're so adorable, darling" Dia felt the heat spread from her cheeks down her neck and she only buried her face deeper in Bucky's chest.
"What a couple of sluts!" Rhys yelled at them as he walked across the parking lot. "Get a room. I'm getting scarred for life!"
"Why do you always appear out of nowhere?" Bucky asked Rhys.
"It's funny how you react to it" he answered with a smile. "But I miss your looks of confusion after I appear out of nowhere. Ever since Dia told you what my mutation is the fun has been lost. But the others don't know so I have that"
"Not even Tony knows?"
"That poor billionaire doesn't know" he sadly shook his head.
"Poor? He has enough money to buy our lives" Bucky pointed out.
"Yet he doesn't share the wealth" Rhys shook his head. "Nice haircut by the way"
"Thanks" Bucky smiled.
"Alright, well, I'll see you two inside. Rhosyn is waiting inside. There are games waiting for us" with that, Rhys teleported from the parking lot to inside the building to join his sister.
"I've never seen him do that. It's weird" Bucky mumbled.
Dia smiled and turned to face Bucky. "We should also go inside. There's a skating rink, and an arcade area and laser tag, oh and food!" She smiled. "There's also a bunch of stuff put up for auction since it's for the fundraiser. I still have Tony's card so we can go crazy" she tugged on his arm to get him moving but he stayed in place. "Bucky, come on" she pulled again but he stayed put.
"Uh, I have a confession. I don't know how to roller skate" he nervously rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.
Dia blinked. "You don't?" Bucky shook his head. "So Hydra teaches you all these languages, trains you and makes you into an assassin but they didn't teach you how to roller skate?"
"There weren't exactly any extracurricular activities I could sign up to" Bucky joked.
"Well that's okay. I can teach you" she sweetly said.
"Can you teach me out here?"
"Why out here? Inside is better"
"I–" Bucky closed his mouth and looked at the ground for a second before looking back up at Dia. "I don't want Sam to know. If he knows I don't know how to roller skate then he won't make me forget it"
Dia couldn't help but laugh at that. "Why are you and Sam like this?"
"He started it" Bucky grumbled.
"And he would say you started it" Dia retorted. She reached out and brushed her fingers in his short hair. She felt a chill run down her spine and she looked over her shoulder to the parking lot. She can feel a burning gaze on her but no matter where she looked she saw no one.
"Are you okay?" Bucky asked when he noticed how Dia is acting.
"I just have this feeling that someone is watching me" she mumbled. Alert, Bucky straightened up and scanned the parking lot. His eyes carefully trailed along the parked cars and inspected the people walking around. "There's no one" she softly spoke and placed a soft hand on his cheek. "Come on Jamie. I know a way to teach you how to roller skate while inside without no one seeing you"
"Jamie?" He questioned. Dia giggled and leaned in to kiss him. The feeling of being watched is lingering.
·𖥸·
Bucky stared at his surroundings in confusion. He saw people walk around him, kids running, none of them even glancing his way. He can hear them talking and laughing, he can hear the music coming from the speakers, he can see Sam judging Thor for having a stack of corn dogs on a paper plate. He can see Tony talking to some little kids and Natasha inspecting gift baskets in the auction, deciding which one to put money on.
He can see everyone and hear everything, but no one can see or hear him.
"What is this?" He looked back at Dia who's smiling.
"This is the mirror dimension" she skated toward him, her camera still hanging from her neck. "Wizards, like me, use the mirror dimension to train, practice our spells. The real world isn't affected by what happens here"
Bucky turned his attention back to the people who can't see him. He waved a hand in front of Pietro who's enjoying a blue slurpee. "Pietro!" Wanda called her brother. He turned to her and saw her waving him over to the games. He walked over to her and Bucky staid in place.
"You can spy on people in here" Bucky said with a smile growing on his face. "Wizards have all the fun"
Dia laughed at that. "Come on" she grabbed his arm and pulled him to the skating rink. Her yellow moxi skates touched the smooth brown floor and smiled at Bucky who's standing at the small door of the rink, still standing on the carpet.
Nervously, he joined Dia and he immediately grabbed her other hand for balance. "I hate this"
"You haven't even begun" Dia smiled. She slowly moved back so Bucky can move forward. "One foot at a time" she softly told him.
"I'm gonna fall" he grumbled.
"You're not gonna fall. Just look at me. Look at me, Bucky" he did so, his blue eyes locking with Dia's brown eyes. All his attention is on her, everything around them isn't important. "Focus on me and you'll be alright."
Without knowing, Bucky is slowly moving across the floor. Slowly but surely skating. When he first put on the skates he nearly fell when he stood up but he was able to regain his balance, thankfully they were near the door to the rink otherwise Bucky isn't sure how he would've made it over there. Maybe Dia would have to move him with magic.
"See? You're doing it...slowly but you're doing it" Dia softly told him. "You'll be ready for ice skating in no time"
Bucky nearly lost his balance at that. "Don't even joke" he warned in a stern serious voice.
"Don't worry. I don't know how to ice skate. People say it's like normal skating but it's not. It's slippery. You know how many times I fell on my ass? Bobby tried to teach me but it's hard" Dia explained.
"Who taught you to skate?" Bucky asked Dia, his legs moving without him knowing. He's still holding her hands, his eyes locked with hers.
"My mom" she smiled fondly at the memory. "I was six. She taught me outside on the sidewalk, but not before she made sure I was wearing a helmet and all the other protective gear. Sometimes I would skate around the house, oddly enough she never yelled at me for doing that. Well not until I accidentally broke a plate. The real sad part was that I couldn't shift the blame to one of my siblings because my mom saw and no one was around to blame"
"I remember when I was a kid, my little sister Becca broke a plate and she shifted the blame to me. I didn't say anything and my mom took money from my allowance to replace the plate" Bucky said.
"Aww" Dia crooned. "You see, if my siblings did that I would've turned on them so fast I would have whiplash"
In the background, the song Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, by Santa Esmeralda, began to play. A small gasp escaped Dia's lips and she smiled small. This didn't go unnoticed by Bucky.
"What?" He asked.
"This song. Have you seen the movie Kill Bill?"
"No" he shook his head. "There are a lot of movies I haven't seen"
"Oh, well guess what movie we're watching next movie night? Also, Bucky, we're halfway through the rink" Dia smiled.
Bucky tore his gaze from the woman in front of him and looked over his shoulder to see that they've made significant progress. Sure, he's made it that far while holding Dia's hands and moving slowly, but there haven't been any accidents...yet. The man became very aware that there are wheels under his feet and when he moved his leg, he slipped, lost his balance and fell forward, bringing Dia down with him.
Dia slammed against the hard wooden floor, she winced when her head hit the ground, the camera hanging around her neck, tumbled to the side with a loud snap and crack. But she didn't pay much attention to that because Bucky fell on top of her. Well, he managed to hold his arms out so to not drop all his weight on Dia, but he is on top of her. Thank God they're in the mirror dimension, otherwise, if Sam had witnessed this fall, he would be laughing, pointing fingers, bringing everyone's attention to them, more specifically Bucky, and never let him forget it.
"Note to self, don't distract Bucky when he's focused on skating" Dia groaned from beneath him.
He looked down at her with round eyes and pulled back enough to see her face clearly. "Are you okay? I'm sorry"
"How do I know if I have a concussion?" She reached to rub the back of her head.
"I'm so sorry" Bucky apologized as he got up on his knees. "Does your head hurt? Oh my God, please be okay, I don't know how to get help from here" he anxiously pleaded.
"I'm fine" Dia assured as she pushed herself up. Bucky held his arms out to help her sit up.
"Are you sure? What's your name? What's my name? How many fingers am I holding up? Who's the president?" Bucky moved closer to Dia and scanned her face, leaned closer to look into her eyes and his hands moved to the back of her head to feel for any bumps.
Dia giggled. "I'm sure I'm fine. My name is Dia Amoreena Castillo. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes, although you go by Bucky. You're not holding up any fingers and the president is Matthew Ellis. See? I'm okey-dokey" she smiled sweetly at him.
Bucky sighed and pressed his forehead to Dia's, his eyes locked on hers. "I'm sorry" he murmured and kissed the top of her nose. His gaze lowered to the camera hanging around Dia's neck and he immediately felt ten times worse. "Oh no" he breathed out and pulled back. "I broke your camera"
Dia looked down and saw that her camera is indeed broken. She pulled the strap over her head and held the camera in her hands. She inspected the damage while Bucky profusely apologized. The lens snapped off, there's a large crack through the camera, some dents and the screen in the back is also cracked.
"I'm sorry. God, I'm such an idiot. I-I'll buy you a new one. I'm so sorry, Dia. I'm so, so, so, sorry. It's my fault. I don't know how to skate and then I went and–" he was cut off by Dia's hand over his mouth. He expected her to snap and yell at him, he expected anger, frown on her face, but what he saw was a smile on her face, brown eyes twinkling and no hint of anger. What the hell?
"Bucky, it's okay" she said softly, no anger in her voice. "Don't worry. It's all okay"
He gently wrapped his fingers around Dia's wrist and slowly pulled her hand down. "But I broke your camera"
"You sweet oblivious fool" Dia chuckled. She held out the broken camera for Bucky to hold. He did so with a furrowed brow.
"What? Are you gonna magic it back to normal?" He questioned.
She didn't answer, instead, she placed her right wrist over her left, hands open as if she's prepared to catch something, she moved both hands and conjured a circle in front of them. Light blue runes glow into being within the circle, she then slides her left hand upward and runes slide into place around her right wrist and lower arm. The disc of runes remains beneath her fingers as if attached to her palm. She swirls her right hand slowly and the camera fixes itself before their eyes. Cracks are mended, the lens comes back to place, and dents are fixed. She lowered her arms and the camera in Bucky's hands is good as new.
"There's still much about magic that I need to learn" Bucky sighed.
Dia giggled, leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "You have no idea"
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Author's note
I come out from under the bridge I live in to bring you this update. I'm excited because I'm finally bringing the story to where I have it planned. Slowly but surely.