Surprise update! Yay!

~Christianne

Anna POV

"Please!" I begged.

"No."

"What do I have to do?"

"Sit still, to begin with."

"No!"

There was a heavy sigh. "Don't do this to yourself, Anna."

"Oh and what are you going to do about it? Lock me in here?"

"You really aren't leaving me much of a choice!"

"Please please please let me out of here!"

"No!"

"But I'm bored!" I said loudly, sitting up in bed so I could see Bucky. He'd been sleeping in my room, or I in his. We didn't talk about it, really, but we both knew it would be better for each of us not to sleep alone. "And, I am perfectly fine, I might add."

"Uh-huh, sure you are." A very shirtless Bucky said through the open bathroom door. He was shaving, and not really listening to what I was saying.

We'd been back in London for nine days, and nobody was letting me do anything. The doctor, Kára, had insisted that I have a two and a half months of no stress, no work, no nothing. I wanted to protest, but in all honestly, as nice and concerned Kára could be, she scared me a little. Granted, for the first three days I was half-conscious and needed the rest, but now, I was half an hour of silence away from climbing the walls.

"Really, I am!" I insisted, nodding my head quickly, making my sleep-wild curls bounce around my head.

"Oh, I believe you." Bucky chuckled, drying his face off before he walked back to his—'our'—bed and flopped down on it. It was early, just before nine, and the sun was starting to filter through the windows. Yesterday, I kept asking him why he didn't have curtains, and the answer I kept getting was 'I lived in my apartment in Brooklyn since I was 17 and I never had curtains!' He didn't really answer my question though.

"You feelin' ok?" Bucky asked, looking up at me, playing with the collar of the shirt I was wearing.

I felt myself blush, and fell down to lay next to him. "You keep asking that, and my answer isn't going to change." I told him, giving him a little smile. "Out of curiosity, what would you do if I said I wasn't ok?"

Bucky smiled and propped himself up on his elbow. "Well, I'd tell everyone that I had something important to do…"

"…And?" I asked when he trailed off.

He smiled and leaned down to kiss my nose. "I'll take care of you." He said simply. My gaze dropped, and my eyelashes brushed my cheek. Bucky fell back to lay next to me, pulling me close so I was plastered along his side.

"You know, I'm gonna need this back," Bucky said with a smirk, tugging on the collar of the blue-gray button down of his, breaking the silence.

"You'll get it back." I assured him, batting his hands away; they were getting dangerously close to some buttons that covered some pretty important parts.

"No, I mean I need it back now."

"Wear another shirt!"

"That's the only clean one I have!"

"You wore it yesterday!"

"Well, considering the rest of my shirts are on the floor, it's really my best bet."

"You have to do laundry today then, because, since I can't do anything, I don't have to get out of this bed at all today, which means you're not getting this shirt back—so tough." I told him, giving him a smug little smile and crossing my arms.

"I'm sorry, is that supposed to be a threat? Because it just sounds like a really good offer." Bucky said, a smirk on his face.

"Oh no no, you have stuff to do mister." I said, smirking at him and tapping the tip of his nose.

"But I'm a procrastinator, you should know that by now." Bucky teased, propping himself up on his elbows so he was looking down at me.

"I know, I'm just clinging to the hope that you'll actually get something done on time." I sighed, looking up at him.

"You know, I've never had many complaints on how I get things done." Bucky said, leaning closer to me, that smug smirk on his face.

"Oh you just think you're all that, don't you?" I sighed, raising a hand up to rest it on his neck as I smiled up at him. My thumb brushed over his smooth, cleanly-shaven jaw.

He just gave me one of those little half-smirks. Raising his hand to gently take my wrist. He wound his fingers through mine, and with the other hand he pulled the sleeve of his shirt down so he could see the fading bruises on my wrists. The blue had only started to fade two days ago. Back in France, Kára had taken x-rays, and said it was a miracle that I didn't have a broken wrist.

Bucky slowly turned my hand, tracing the last deep line of purple and blue hidden under the deep green and yellow, before placing a gentle kiss on the inside of my wrist. I sighed and let my head loll to the side, and Bucky took the opportunity to nuzzle my cheek and press kisses to my cheek and jaw.

I slowly wrapped my arms around his neck and shoulders, one hand threading through the cropped hair at the back of his head. His soft lips began placing lingering kisses down my neck. I swear my eyes almost rolled back in my head when he kissed the spot just behind my ear. His lips hovered over my ear for a moment, his hot breath tickling my ear, before he spoke; "I only think that 'cause a'what you said the last time."

My eyes opened wide, and I felt a hot blush crawl up my cheeks. I quickly removed my hands from his neck and hair and used both of them to give his chest a sharp shove and made him fall to the other side of the bed. He was smirking and trying to suppress a laugh as he looked at my beat red face. I crossed my arms over my chest. "You said you wouldn't bring that up again—ever."

Bucky laughed again, and looked at me with those cerulean blues that made me not want to pretend to be mad at him. "Will you stop looking at me like that?" I asked him, making him smirk more.

He rolled his eyes at me, and stretched his arms over his head. I took a second to sneak a glance at his firm chest, making sure he didn't see.

"You're…different, since you…got back." Bucky told me, smiling. "In a good way." He added quickly.

"I know." I told him. "I'm…I'm trying something new." I admitted, and Bucky raised his eyebrows questioningly.

I sighed heavily and looked up at the ceiling. "My grandfather used to tell me I was filled with piss and vinegar." I told him, making one side of Bucky's mouth turn up in a smirk. "He told me I kept it all bottled up, and I would…have more fun if I let it out now and then." I didn't want to say the next thing, but it was important. "I don't wanna...die and not have any fun." Bucky smiled stopped growing, his head lolled towards the ceiling, and his hand fell to rest on my bare knee.

There were two knocks on the door, and the door knob turned. "Hey Buck-Oof!" I heard Steve say, and the door practically rattled in the frame. "Since when do you lock your door?"

Both Bucky and I propped ourselves up on our elbows to look at the door.

"What do I do?" Bucky asked, still looking at the door.

"Why are you asking me?" I hissed at him.

There were two more knocks. "Bucky? You in there?"

"Just-Just make him go away." I groaned, falling back onto his pillows, pulling one over my head. Bucky gave my thigh a light pinch, making the leg kick him in the side.

"See what you've reduced me to?" Bucky chuckled. I peeked out from the pillow and saw him grabbing a wrinkled shirt off the floor. "…wearin' shirts off the floor." He said in a teasingly, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

I used the pillow to hide my giggles, but when I heard Bucky turn the deadbolt I peeked out again. He only opened the door enough to see Steve, and not an inch more. "What?" He asked, his hand tapping impatiently on the doorframe.

Steve, surprised by Bucky's tone probebly, took a second to talk. "Uh, brought coffee. Wanted to talk to you about the next m-"

"Not now. Go away." Bucky said in the same polite, conversational tone he always had. Don't be rude, I wanted to tell him.

"Well, you're awake now, won't take long-"

"Don't make me tell you to go away again, 'cause you know I will."

"Oh, I know you will, if you just let me in-"

"Nope. Sorry. Can't." Bucky said, his hand still tapping.

"And why is that?" Steve asked in an exasperated tone, playing along.

"Because he's not alone in here, Steve!" I called to them before Bucky could answer. I threw the pillow to the other side of the bed and sat up. I saw Bucky chuckle, and open his door wider so Steve could see me, in Bucky's bed, wearing his shirt (and nothing else, I might add, not that Steve could tell though), and with mussed, wild hair. I gave him a smile and prayed it wasn't shaky.

Steve had been raising a coffee cup to his mouth, and had stopped midway when he saw me. The files fell from under his arm. I gave him a bigger smile and a little wave.

"Yeah…I'm gonna take this." Bucky said, taking the other coffee cup from Steve's hand before he could drop it.

"Bucky will be down in a little bit." I said to Steve, who nodded, putting his arm down and forcing a bashful, awkward smile on his face.

"Uh…Y-Yeah…See you…Uh, later…" He mumbled, quickly walking away. Bucky leaned on the open door and took a drink from the coffee cup, laughed once, then shut the door. I groaned and fell back on the bed.

"See, the fact that Steve can't talk about, or know people had, sex is why he's never had any." Bucky said, shrugging out of his wrinkled shirt and letting it fall to the floor.

"What?" I asked, propping myself up on my elbows, my eyes following him as he handed me his coffee and crouched down to dig through his trunk.

"You know 'what'. And you didn't hear it from me." Bucky said, standing up, and brushing off a small metal box. He fell back on his bed, making the whole frame move. He landed so we were sitting opposite each other, and he balanced the small box on my knee.

My brows furrowed, and I looked from the box to Bucky and back again. "What-?"

"Figured I better do it now." Bucky cut me off, leaning back, his legs stretched out in front of him, propped up on his elbows. "Bad things usually happen to me in threes; I was in a HYDRA prison, you were in a HYDRA prison, the next bad thing is probably going to be Steve—God knows he goes looking for trouble—and I kinda want him to be the best man, so I figured I batter do it now."

"B-Best man-?"

"You know, remember when you asked me what I meant when I said I loved you?" Bucky cut me off again. I shut my mouth dumbly, unable to take my eyes off the small metal box, with roses on the top, still balanced on my knee. "And, remember how I said I'd circle back to how I think you're the prettiest woman I've ever seen?-Well, I'm circling back to it now." My eyes snapped up to Bucky.

"It's not just your looks I think are beautiful, Glow. Don't get me wrong, I love the corkscrew curls to the bottom of my heart, but it's not the prettiest thing about you.

"You're beautiful in how you think." He stated plainly, looking me dead in the eye. "You're beautiful for that little sparkle you get in your eye when you talk about something you love—I was gonna say 'when you look at me,' but that'd just make you blush. It's true, though.

"You, Annabelle Jane Brightman, are so much more than a pretty face." Bucky said, sitting up, leaning closer to me. "You're a beautiful person."

I blinked at him. "B-Bucky-"

"I'm not done yet." Bucky cut me off, for the third time. "Remember, back a few months ago when you were trying to explain the whole…physics thing, about alternate universes?—Sumethin' like that?" I nodded dumbly, my mind in overdrive and my heart breaking out in a sprint.

"I can guarantee you, Annie, that in any of them, does any alternate me love you more than I do." He said seriously. "And before you say anything, in the ones that you claim exist where I don't love you, that's just because I don't know you in those.

"I will, though, I'll always find you. Think I proved that." One side of his mouth curled up in that half-smirk as he reached over to brush his fingers down my cheekbone, under my jaw and pull lightly on one of my curls.

"Bucky-" I said, trying to say something.

"Not done yet." He said again, still talking. "Wanna know what I think the best part it gonna be, though? Waking up at three in the afternoon, rolling over and seeing you. Walkin' around with you on my arm all the time. I could go on for hours."

"Buck-"

"Not done yet. You know what I've been thinking about since I met you? Farm houses. Farm houses with big red barns and horses."

"B-"

"Still not done." Bucky leaned forward more. His blue eyes bore into mine, and a wave of calm washed over me. I still desperately needed to speak. "People look all their lives for what we already got, Anna, and I don't want to look for anything else ever again…so…" Bucky gave a heavy pause. I could hear my heart beating in my ears.

"Annabelle Jane Brightman, I promise to protect you, love you, and do my absolute best to make sure you are happy for the rest of your life." Bucky said with deliberate slowness, his eyes were burning into mine, and I could feel my bottom lip starting to tremble. I tried to speak again, but a lump rose in my throat, keeping me from speaking.

"Annabel-…Glow," Bucky said slowly, moving to open the box balanced on my knee. "Will you ma-"

"Bucky!" I yelped, lunging forward and clapping my hand over Bucky's mouth. I ended up pushing him back on the bed, half on top of him. Somehow, he managed to hold onto the ring box. He was looking up at me with a surprised, and mildly alarmed, look in his eye.

My own eyes were wide as I looked down at him. "Don't-Don't say what I think you're going to say. Just-Just don't say it. I'm not saying no, I just don't want you to ask, because then I'll say yes and I feel like I just got my own mind back and-and I want to get better on my own, I have to get better on my own and until I do that I-I can't."

Bucky said something, but it was muffled by my palm.

"What was that?" I asked weakly, removing my palm so could talk.

"You don't have to get better alone, you know." Bucky repeated, thankfully, he didn't seem mad.

"You did." I reminded him, thinking of all the times I offered to talk that he never took up.

"Never said I was better." Bucky countered, slowly raising a hand to gently stroke my hair and brush my cheek. My lips twitched up in a smile, then they darted to the ring box.

"Can I see it?" I asked softly, trying not to smile.

"This?" Bucky asked innocently, holding the box up slightly. "Nope." He finally said with a smirk.

"Why not?" I asked incredulously.

"Because, you say yes, then you get the ring. That's just how it works." Bucky said smugly.

"Aw, c'mon! Just a little peak!" I complained, reaching for the ring box. Bucky chuckled and held it out of my reach, his long arm hanging over the side of the bed. I put one hand on his chest and pushed, trying to reach the box. I ended up practically pushing my chest in his face, but he was laughing so hard I doubt he noticed.

"Hey Bucky, we need you-"

"For the love of God Steve!" Bucky groaned, lolling his head over the edge of his bed to glare at Steve, who, I might add, hadn't knocked. I was still trying to get the box; I didn't care Steve was there. I wanted to see the ring.

Steve blinked a few times, no doubt surprised at the sight. I mean, I was practically laying on his best friend wearing his shirt that basically put my legs on full display.

"I-I—Uh," Steve stuttered.

"Steve. Words. If you came in here without knocking; speak, words." Bucky grumbled.

After clearing his throat, Steve spoke "Buck, Phillips wants all of us, now."

Bucky groaned, closing his eyes and scrubbing his face with his free hand. "I'll be down soon. Now leave." I saw Steve roll his eyes, but quickly shut the door.

Bucky looked up at me with a pair of puppy-dog eyes and sighed. "You're not gunna wait here, are you?" he asked, sounding very disappointed.

I just smiled and kissed his cheek before getting off him and pushing him off the bed. He barely moved an inch, but got up anyway. "Don't suppose I could-"

"I'm keeping the shirt!"