A/N: Hey guys! Here's a new chap - I hope you enjoy!

If you guys are like me and loooove Bucky (which I'm sure most of you do!) then check out my new fic which I just posted which is also Bucky/OC! It's called 'Teacher, Tutor, Boyfriend'! Have a read and tell me what you think!

Xoxo

~O~

Over the months, and specifically the past weeks, Maddy had grown accustomed to sleeping with Bucky. His warmth and security wrapped around her, the fact that she knew, no matter what, that she was safe when in his arms. It allowed her to get the best sleep she had had since the kidnapping. It allowed her to rest completely and know that there was someone right beside her that would always protect her and more importantly was powerful enough to do so. It didn't hurt that Captain America was a few doors down either.

So what woke her in the middle of the night was that lack of security, the lack of warmth and unconditional love that came along with resting her head on Bucky's chest. She groaned lightly and felt around the large bed for his body but was met only with cold emptiness. She blinked her eyes open blearily, rubbing sleep from them and peered around the room. It was still pitch black out, but as her eyes adjusted, the moonlight provided just enough light for her to see she was alone in the room.

Maybe he's with Steve, she thought, sitting up. She hoped that he hadn't had nightmares again. She hated seeing them hurt him like they did. She slithered out of bed, naked, and scooped up one of his long sleeved shirts. Yanking it over her head, she padded down the hallway in search of her absent lover. She silently cracked opened the door to Steve's room and peered in, but the bedroom was pitch black and Steve was sleeping peacefully - and alone - his face stuffed into his pillow and his arm hanging off the edge of the bed. She smiled softly as he snored lightly and shut the door as quietly as she could.

She was about to give up her search and go back to bed - possibly Bucky had gone for a run to try and tire himself out - when a light tone of music reached her ears. Her eyebrows furrowed and she followed the quiet noise downstairs. At first she thought maybe he was playing a record or listening to the radio station, but as she drew closer to the sound, she realised that it was in fact authentic and being played as she listened. It was a piano and Maddy immediately recognised the song as 'Claire De Lune' by Claude Debussy. It was being played softly, slowly but beautifully and meticulously. She followed the sound to one of the rooms that she had not been in since they had bought and built the safe house. She hesitated, before pulling open the door quietly and slipping inside. It was a large, spacious room, probably meant to be another lounge room or sitting room. Instead, half of it was filled with boxes and the other half decorated with canvases of beautiful paintings and photographs and a large, black grand piano. It was her mother's room, or rather, a room dedicated to her mother. A shrine, maybe.

Everything her mother had owned and loved and cherished lived in that room. Madelyn did not enter the room, she did not look inside it or dwell in it. As far as she was concerned, it did not exist. Her father followed suit. To look at it and enter it was to feel the pain of losing her mother all over again. For the first time since the safe house had been built, she looked around the space. Her eyes immediately sought out Bucky, who was sitting on the piano bench, hunched over the instrument, shirtless with just a pair of sweats slung low on his hips.

His fingers moved across the piano keys accurately, but almost hesitantly, unsurely. Her mother had played this song when Maddy was little. Maddy would sit beside the piano, drawing, as her mother played for hours. She was brilliant, had done it her whole life.

Maddy watched Bucky play for a few moments, listening to the beautiful, familiar melody flooding her ears. She knew he knew she was there - his hearing was too sharp for him not to - but as she slowly approached him, he did not look up, focussed on the apparatus in front of him. He had no sheet music; he knew the song by heart. She gulped as she neared him and then stopped beside him, but still he stayed focussed on the piano. She slowly lifted a hand and put it on his shoulder, the right one, sliding it across his bare skin. He let out a long, ragged breath and his hands fell away from the keys. The silence cut through the air like a knife, a harsh comparison to the beautiful music that had filled the air only seconds previous. He slumped down further, his head resting on the top of the piano. He was shaking a little underneath her hand.

"Bucky?" her voice broke, even though she hadn't meant for it to.

His hands slowly curled into fists and he did not look up. She gulped, shifting on her feet, unsure. After a few, heavy minutes of silence, the air thick enough to choke even the best pair of lungs, Bucky finally spoke, his voice gravelly and rough, muffled from his face being pressed against his arm. "I'm sorry if you don't want me in here…I just-..I wanted to see if…" He trailed off, burying his face further in his arm.

She took a few breaths in and out to steady herself. "It's ok," she said, even though it wasn't. Her heart was pounding and she was trying her best to not let her eyes flick around the room. She didn't want to look at everything her mother had left behind, didn't want to remember that she wasn't the only thing left missing the wonderful woman. "What did you want to see if you could do?" she prompted gently.

He took a few moments to answer, slowly straightening up but still refusing to look at her. "I wanted to see if I could remember," he said, his voice nearly too quiet for her to hear. "If I could remember how to play. And if…if my arm could even…" he flexed his metal fingers. She imagined that it was harder to play with the metallic appendage due to its dulled sense of feeling.

She hesitated, biting her lip for a second. "You could….It was beautiful."

He slowly shook his head. "Not like before," his voice broke, overwhelmed with emotion. "It's never going to be like before…I'm never going to be like I was before."

Maddy made a small, sad noise in the back of her throat and crouched down beside him, reaching up to cup his jaw with her delicate hand and turning his face toward her. Their eyes finally met and she saw his blue depths were filled with tears, tears she knew he would never allow to fall.

"You don't have to be," she assured him quietly. "Nobody expects you to be." She stroked his cheek with her thumb, running her finger over the stubble that stretched across his jaw. "Just because it's not going to be the same as before, doesn't mean it can't still be good."

He squeezed his eyes closed, but still he did not cry.

He is so, so strong, she thought. Then he pulled her up by her hand and bundled her into his arms, sitting her on his lap and clutching her close to his chest. She allowed him to, simply holding her love against her, stroking his hair softly as he buried his face in her neck.

"It's ok," she murmured soothingly. Her eyes were drawn momentarily to a photograph of her and her mother and for a second her attention was stolen from Bucky, wondering away to the grief in her own chest, the squeezing that happened every time she saw a picture of her mother's beautiful smile. She quickly closed her eyes and focussed back on her upset boyfriend. "Just because it hurts sometimes, doesn't mean it isn't getting better. It'll be ok, Buck."

They stayed, tangled together, for a long time. Eventually his breathing evened out and they pulled back. He stroked some of her hair out of her face, fingers caressing the soft skin of her cheek.

"Play for me?" She requested quietly. When he hesitated, she added, "Please."

He let out a long breath and then gently placed her beside him on the piano seat, one of her legs still thrown over his own. His hands settled over the piano keys and he hesitated only for a moment, before beginning to play again.

He really was brilliant. The melody was slow and soft, just like before, but it was flowing and silky. He seemed to get more and more confident the longer he played, his fingers pressing thevkeys more strongly, the song becoming more upbeat. He looked comfortable when he did it, just like he did when he was dancing. Like he was surviving off of muscle memory.

He played for a long time, the night seeping on outside their little haven. Maddy stared resolutely at his hands as they moved deftly, listening to the beautiful music he created. After an immeasurable amount of time (seconds, minutes, hours?) the music abruptly cut out as Bucky ripped his hands away and suddenly grasped Maddy, pulling her back onto his lap and surging forward to catch her lips in a searing kiss. Startled only for a moment, she quickly responded and tangled her fingers in his hair as he ran his hands up under the shirt she was wearing, along the smooth skin of her back. He pulled her flush against his chest. Butterflies erupted in her stomach, a byproduct that occurred every time he kissed or touched her, no matter how many times they had done this.

His lips dragged along her jaw, then down her throat, where he sucked a bruise. She moaned his name out, pressing her hips down into his. He kissed down to the skin where her shoulder met her neck and he sunk his teeth in there, just harsh enough to sting. She gasped, hands tightening painfully in his hair. She yanked him back and smashed her lips against his, their tongues pushing against each other. He stood up with her in his arms and walked around to the side of the piano. He quickly closed the top lid down before lying her across the shiny, black polished wood. He leaned down and caught her lips again, slotting their mouthes together like they were made to be there. His fingers threaded with her own and he slowly pushed them up, to be pinned above her head. He ravished her neck, his lips pressing on her pulse point and making her arch into his touch. His hands tightened in her own and for a moment her heart leaped in her chest at being restrained like that - the powerlessness she possessed with her hands pinned to the polished wood of the piano making an uneasy feeling flow through her.

"Bucky," she gasped out, but either he was too pre-occupied to hear her or thought it was an encouragement because he simply pressed down further onto her body, pressing open-mouthed kisses to her collar bone. A curl of irrational fear unfurled in her stomach causing tears to suddenly invade her eyes. "Bucky," her voice had a bite to it and it took him only a beat to pull back, his hands loosening their grip enough on her own for her to slip her hands away from him and press them to his chest. For a bit, the only sound in the whole room, the whole house, the whole world, was their jagged breaths. She quickly tried to cover the fact that she had nearly just fallen into panic at being just that tiny bit restrained by saying, "I don't want to do this in here. This is my mother's room."

"I'm sorry," he gasped out, going to bundle her close to his chest but she quickly pushed him back. She had to ignore his hurt expression and slip past him, landing gracefully on the ground.

"Come on, let's go upstairs," she said, avoiding his gaze and holding out her hand.

"Bambi," he said quietly, trying to garner her attention. When she still refused to look at him, he slipped his metal hand into hers before allowing her to lead him out of the room. She closed the door behind them and then leant her forehead against it, sighing, like she was able to breathe easier once they were out of there. "Maddy," he repeated her name. "I'm sorry." He didn't know what he was apologising for; she could tell. He was just grasping at straws, praying he hadn't done something wrong.

She forced herself to turn around and give him a watery grin. "It's ok Buck," she assured him. "Let's just go back to bed ok?"

They walked up the stairs, Bucky trailing dejectedly behind her, knowing he had done something wrong but not quite understanding what it was. She felt guilty - she knew she was the one that was supposed to be comforting him, he was the one that was damaged and hurting. But maybe, just maybe, she was damaged and hurting too.

When they got into their room they climbed into bed. He lay on his back, a hand under his head, staring up at the ceiling.

With his other arm he reached out and pulled her close to him, draping her across his broad, bare chest. She gulped and began tracing the scarred skin that led to his metal shoulder. He shifted uncomfortably beneath her touch, so she reached up and kissed the scars there, to prove that she loved all of him, not just the pretty parts (although a lot of him was extraordinarily pretty, e.g his eyes, his smiles, the way he sounded when he moaned).

"I'm sorry I went into your mother's room," he said quietly.

There was a pause of heavy silence.

"I'm not mad," Maddy finally said.

He didn't look like he believed her.

"Really," she promised. "I'm-I'm not. Let's try and get some more sleep ok?"

She closed her eyes, but after a few moments he spoke again, soft and quiet enough that she almost didn't hear. "I don't want to go back to sleep," he admitted.

She opened her eyes again and peered back up at him. He looked…She couldn't place the word. It was an emotion she hadn't seen on him very much.

He looked…Scared. That was what it was. He looked terrified, in his own way. His face was mostly stoic but his eyes were a disarray of emotions, blending together to create heart-stopping fear.

She wasn't sure what to do for a moment, how to comfort him. He was so strong and so powerful; it was foreign for her to think of him as frightened.

"Why?" She managed to croak out, emotion clouding her voice. "Buck you're safe here, I swear. Steve's just down the hall. He won't let anything happen to you." She gulped down the lump in her throat. "Neither will I."

"It's not that simple," he murmured, refusing to look at her, his gaze set on the ceiling. She knew what he meant. After she had gotten back from being kidnapped, she had been paranoid. Every little sound has sent her heart racing, every thud making her flinch. Even though she knew it was illogical, even though she knew she safe again, she was still scared. It was like it was ingrained in her - and that was after just one month. Bucky had been held captive for decades.

"I know," she whispered. "But it'll get better. I'll be here when you wake up. I promise. You'll be here too. With me." She hesitated. "Forever….right?"

His arm around her tightened, pulling her closer. "Forever's a long time," he pointed out. Her eyebrows furrowed.

"Not long enough," she protested.

He leaned down and kissed her lips, softly. His tongue edged into her mouth right before he slowly pulled back. "No," he agreed. "No amount of time will ever be enough."

"Maybe they'll turn us into stars," she said wistfully. "And we'll burn together until the sky collapses in on itself."

He smiled a little, one side of his mouth pulling up sadly. "I don't think the universe is that kind."

She thought on this for a moment. "Maybe the universe owes us one."

He liked the thought of that, even if he didn't believe it, and buried his face in her hair before closing his eyes.

~O~

A/N: Hey guys! I'm really sorry for the delay on this chapter - I really, really struggled with it and had writer's block and had to re-write it like twice and ugh. Also I'm so busy with year 12 holy crap.

Anyway, I really hope it was ok. PLEASE LEAVE ME A REVIEW AND TELL ME? That'd be nice.

You guys are seriously the best, thank you for your reviews last chapter (and all the chapters before!)

I didn't completely edit this so sorry if there are any mistakes!

Love you all xoxo

~O~