Yes it is another bonding farm chapter but that is part of my plot. Sorry if you don't find it interesting but I don't just want two characters who magically fall in love with each other after knowing each other for 2 days. Things will start to get more action-packed soon I promise (along with some big reveals!)

Chapter 32

Bucky with both hands placed steadily on the bathroom sink scrutinised his reflection. His lengthy hair obscured parts of his face from view. His jaw was covered in a significant amount of stubble. His brows furrowed as he looked at himself. To be honest he did look disheveled and his hair was disrupting his vision at times. This would be a great disadvantage in a fight. He hadn't realised how inconvenient it was until Annie had offered him an elastic to tie his hair back with. From that point on it has been a reoccurring nuisance.

HYDRA hadn't really risked getting close enough the chop the growing hair, not that they really cared much. Not that he would have trusted them to hold a potential weapon so close to his head. As he thought about it he did not trust any individual in that scenario, except Annie.

He shook out of his thoughts as he focused on his growing stubble. He brushed his hand along his spiky jaw. Shaving hadn't really been a priority while they were on the run. He had only partaken in the grooming activity once or twice since they arrived. Now Laura made jokes about his growing facial hair, questioning his intent to grow a beard. Annie usually crumpled her face at this comment clearly not in favour of the option.

He shuffled through the cabinet to find a plastic wrapper filled with disposable razors. Shaking cream was harder to find but eventually his search reaped reward. Soon all the small hairs were trimmed from his face. He still didn't feel any more normal. The only times he felt the smallest amount of normalcy was when he was alone with Annie. She didn't look at him with any coolness, fear or reservation making him sometimes forget his past. She just smiled.

He breathed in a deep breath watching how his trimmed face moved with the action. He had to build the courage to ask her. She was the only one he trusted enough to stand behind him with the sharp blades snipping right next to his head. He couldn't just allow it to keep growing.

He trudged down the oak stairs hating every squeak. He relaxed as he saw her just finish putting away the plates used during breakfast. Even though they had relaxed a little he still felt tense when they were distant but he had to ignore his worries. It was unreasonable to expect Annie to be fine tethered to him every second of everyday. He was just glad that the strategist didn't mind him tagging along with her routine too much.

She approached him with a fresh grin, "Well don't you look nice? Got a hot date or something?"

He frown incredulously at the short woman, "No? Why would I?" Why would he want to spend time away from Annie with some other woman? He didn't care how 'hot' she was. He didn't really remember what a date entailed anyway. All he currently had were glimpses of dancing and laughing as well as a science show. Most were repetitive though some involved Steve as well. In none of them did the lanky man seem happy.

She chuckled at his baffled reaction, "I'm kidding Buck. You haven't even met any available woman your age anyway. Well unless you been hiding one under the bed." He knew that one was a joke. The pleased upturn of Annie's lips helped with his diagnosis. Aside from the previous mishap, he was getting better at jokes and banter. Sometimes they just burst out without any contemplation and other times they were slow and clumsy but Annie would laugh anyway.

He noticed she had started calling him Buck. He wasn't sure if she just found Bucky to long or if she was growing more comfortable with the ex-assassin. But he liked the nickname. It felt unique to her.

With slight boost of confidence Bucky risked asking in a hesitant voice, "Could you cut my hair?"

Annie's bright blue eyes went round at the abruptness of the request. "Do you actually have a date?" She questioned curiously looking for the cause of the sudden appeal.

Bucky deadpanned, "No. The length is inconvenient and obstructs my sight."

"Sure Bucky," Annie's look of surprise merged to her usual smile. "I used to cut Steve and your hair all the time. I got pretty good at it. Though honestly it's hard to make something on you look bad," She reminisced to herself as she began to search for a sharp enough pair of scissors. Bucky pretended not to hear the last bit.

"Hey Bucky can you get a dinning chair out?" He nodded his head despite the fact that she couldn't see him with her eyes directed into the draw. He placed the chair in the kitchen.

He took an uneasy seat in the chair and was shortly approached by Annie who had found a decent pair of scissors as well as a towel. "You sure about this Bucky?"

He nodded his head unintentionally moving the shaggy locks with it. He frowned at them causing Annie to laugh lightly at the adorable reaction. Though she was sad there would be no more of those, she did think he looked dapper with short hair. His hair in the short style naturally settled perfectly into place.

She wrapped the towel around his shoulders as Bucky grew nervous. He didn't know why he was so anxious. Was it the blade? But he had had plenty of blades thrust at his head, though that had been during a fight. Maybe the blade reminding him of those fights. Or was it that he was worried about the change? How he would look, if Annie would like it or what he would do with the increase in exposure, no matter how small.

Annie paused waiting for him to settle before snipping off a large chunk of hair. She hadn't done this in a while and never with such long hair but she was confident in her skill. You don't cut two boys' hair for over a decade without getting pretty good.

Bucky heard another snip followed by another as the long brown hairs fell beside him onto the floor. He felt the slight difference on his head in weight and air flow. He patiently waited finding no reflective surface to examine the cut from. When his hair had been significantly shortened Annie's cuts grew more careful and precise. Every now and then she would move around to view his hair from the front always making him feel a little self-conscious. With each cut he became more anticipant.

Annie had almost finished, she had left the top a bit longer than the rest remembering how he used to have it cut. She left the hair slightly longer than how he had it before the war but not by much. The decent length of the hairs atop his head had already began tousling Annie noted with amusement. She rarely had the chance to see his hair in such a way as the old Bucky insisted on styling it neatly like all the men in the 40s.

She moved around to view him from the front, snipping a few last stray hairs. She leaned back to admire her work. Even with the lack of practise she still managed to do quite a good job. In that moment Laura walked in, rather surprised to see her kitchen utilised as a hair salon.

She smiled at Bucky, "Well who knew you were so handsome under all that hair."

Bucky tensed unsure how to respond to the compliment. He ran a hand through his shortened hair not expecting it to end so soon.

He turned his head to Annie, pleased by the lack of disruption to his sight awarded to the shorter style. "How does it look?" he asked uncertainly.

She grinned warmly at the man who she had never before seen so self-conscious about his appearance. "You look good Buck. See for yourself," Annie answers encouragingly directing him to the downstairs bathroom.

Bucky followed Annie's direction to the small, square tiled room. He rested his palms on the cold ceramic sink and stared at his new reflection in the square mirror that hung on the wall just above the sink.

His hair looked similar to the images in the Captain America exhibit though it was ever-so-slightly longer, allowing the stands on the top of his head to tangle. He liked the shorter hair. He felt he looked less like the ghost assassin, the Winter Soldier and more like Bucky. He felt more like a normal person than a broken man.

He ran another hand through his hair trying to recognise it. He saw a flash of himself back in the 40s. He was combing his hair, styling it to the side while bopping to the lively music that filtered through the radio. He finished with a flair of his comb before smirking at his refection. The memory faded to leave him staring at his current reflection.

When he entered back into the kitchen which had now been cleared of the chair and cut hair. Laura greeted his return, "Ah, Bucky I need to talk to you too."

He settled beside Annie as they both listened to Laura's eager tone, "Clint's coming home today and we were wondering if you two would look after the kids while we go out. We just don't usually have anyone to babysit. Really it's just Nat. But would you to mind?"

"Clint's coming?" Annie wasn't sure if she should be excited or worried. She decided she should just be glad that she is going to be able to see her friend. "Of course we can. Bucky are you okay to do that?" Annie turned to him with concern.

Bucky didn't know who this Clint man was other than this was his house and he is Laura's husband but he seemed to be important to Annie. "Yeah, sure" Bucky responded with pressed lips. A trait he had taken from Annie. The woman in question rewarded him with a toothy grin.

Clint Baron had no idea what to expect when he entered his country home. Annie and her mysterious assassin friend had been living there for almost three weeks and all he had really heard from Laura was that both were an amazing help with chores and that Bucky was slowly starting to grow used to the domesticated setting. Clint had no doubt that any other woman would have cast the two out when she discovered that Bucky was previously a HYDRA assassin. But Laura with all her experience with Natasha and himself looked deeper than the hostile exterior. He had been informed of the incident with Bucky which had made him rethink his decision but Laura had convinced him to let them stay. She knew the man better than him and had insisted on his good intentions.

Clint wandered through the door of his home welcomed by the familiar smells and sights of home. "Hey, I'm home." He waited for an answer but received none. "What does a guy have to do to get a little love around here?" he muttered to himself before he heard laughter from the kitchen.

The light laughter followed by an inquiring, "Clint?"

He followed the voice into the green and white timber floored room to find two unusual occupants of his home. Annie was already waiting for his entrance into the kitchen standing in front of a sink of soapy water. He was relieved to find that she looked as she always did; a tangle of blonde curls and curious cyan eyes. The large man to her right who now watched him cautiously did look different. Clint had already prepared himself for the sight of the fabled Winter Soldier in his home. The leather clad, long haired assassin that Nat had told him about but instead he was facing James 'Bucky' Barnes from his high school history textbook. It was even harder to connect the HYDRA ghost to the man in front of him with the man wearing a pale blue flannel and in the act of drying the dishes. His quick eyes did notice the silver robotic hand that shot out from his long sleeves.

Before Clint had time to make any more observations Annie had dried her soapy hands and pulled him into a hug. He gladly accepted the embrace, simply happy that she wasn't dead. Annie then abruptly pulled away with a look of annoyance, "When were you going to tell me that you had a family?!"

Clint rolled his eyes knowing this was coming. Annie hated secrets, one of the reasons she distrusted SHIELD so much. Although her judgement on that had been right on point. "When are you going to tell Steve you're alive?" he challenged not afraid to illuminate her hypocrisy.

"Those are completely different Clint," Annie defended.

"You and I both know that's a lie," He retorted confidently.

He felt guilty for his past comment when he saw the conflicted look on Annie's face and decided to move on. "So who's your friend?" He smirked at the man who seemed to grown even more tense since Annie had increase her proximity to him. Clint knew exactly what the guy was going through. Knowing Annie, the poor guy probably already cares about her more than his own hide and is trying to do everything in his power to keep her safe. The woman was completely oblivious to her effect on people, especially those acquainted with loneliness and distrust. He's been seeing the withdrawal effects on Steve and Nat for the past month and it was painful to watch.

Annie perked up and moved to bring Bucky closer. The man seemed hesitant to come nearer but allowed Annie to guide him anyway. "Clint this is Bucky. Buck this is my friend Clint. He helped me with all the 21st century confusion."

Clint held out his hand which Bucky watched warily but refused to shake. Instead Bucky opted for gruffly saying, "Thanks." He then turned away and continued with wiping the bubbly dishes with a slightly damp tea towel. Clint thinks he might he thanking him for his hospitality but he couldn't sure. Bucky may not have been the rough looking assassin he had anticipated but it was still clear that the man was not normal, he had visibly been scarred by HYDRA.

"No much of a talker is he?" Clint joked.

Annie smiled at Clint amusedly, "You got a warmer welcome than Laura."

"Yeah, how?" Clint questioned a little offended that the man wouldn't even shake his hand. Yeah he was highly trained but this was his house and he clearly wasn't hostile.

"For the first week all he had said to her was his name. He just doesn't trust people yet and I don't blame him," Annie defended as she watched him warmly.

"He obviously trusts you," Clint observed with a grin.

"Now he does but when I first met him he barely said anything to me other than 'you need sleep'," Annie clarified.

"Yeah that must have been so difficult for you," Clint teased knowing Annie's tendency to fall asleep almost anywhere. Once after a movie marathon with Nat the previous night he had found the blonde passed out underneath her desk at work.

"Where's Laura?" Clint asked now curious as to why his wife wasn't yet here to greet him.

"Of you mean your secret wife, Laura?" Annie provoked.

"Yes that Laura" Clint sighed, this wasn't going away was it?

"She's getting Lila and Cooper ready," Annie informed just as light footsteps could be heard running down the stairs.

The running was followed by a shout from upstairs, "Cooper! You need to brush your teeth!"

Lila and Cooper entered the room thrilled to find that the extra voice was their father. The two swarmed to Clint and hugged his legs. Clint laughed as he lifted Lila up into his arms and ruffled Cooper's shaggy hair.

Laura huffed down the stairs clearly exhausted by forcing the children through their morning routine. She saw Clint and gave a relaxed smile before moving to him and kissing him on the cheek, "Hey honey."

"Hey" Clint turned back to Annie remembering their plans. "Are you okay with babysitting the kids tonight? It's date night," Clint eagerly informed.

"Yes Clint," Annie shook her head affectionately.

Clint winked at her, "I knew there was a reason I let you stay around."

Laura and Clint had left half an hour ago nicely dressed and off to one of the few restaurants in the nearby town. Annie, Bucky, Lila and Cooper had just had dinner and now Cooper was sprawled out on the armchair with his small video gaming device and Annie and Lila were currently drawing with Lila's collection of coloured pencils on the wide coffee table in the play room. Lila was propped up on her knees and bent over the low table as she carefully drew. Annie lay with her legs tucked in the side not needing the extra height. Bucky sat to the side of Annie with his hands resting on his bent knees watching the two draw.

Lila announced, "Finished!" proudly as she held up her drawing of a butterfly to be viewed by Bucky and Annie. Annie smiled and complimented the pleasant picture. Annie turned her head subtly to see Bucky offer Lila a small smile. The young girl who had already noticed Bucky to be a very quiet man saw the elusive smile as a prestigious reaction.

She sets it aside and puts out a blank piece of paper to start a new masterpiece. As her purple pencil is heavily dragged across the white paper she wonders, "Bucky, are you a good drawer?"

He looked surprised by the question, the Barton girl had started to warm up to him but rarely questioned him directly. His furrowed eyebrows and focused look suggesting he was searching through his scattered memory for the answer but resolved to answer in an uncertain tone, "I don't know."

Annie couldn't hold in her laughter any longer. Bucky and Lila's heads snapped to her as the laughter started to bubble out. She shook her head lovingly at the recollection of the many failed attempts at art in Bucky's childhood. Steve, a boy naturally attributed to art had sometimes recommended drawing as an activity and Bucky, the considerate child he was, agreed. The comparison of Bucky's crude and impatient drawings to Steve's careful sketches was humorous to both Annie and her mother.

"You are awful at drawing. I'm sorry but no memory is going to help that fact."

Bucky frowned at her and then glanced at her own artwork in progress with a light smirk, "Well I don't really think you can judge."

Annie saw his line of sight and held her drawing to her chest in an attempt to hide the hideous piece from his judgement. She snuck another glance at it and concluded that he was right. She was awful at drawing. She lowered it down and examined her poor rendition of a tree. Bucky's issue was a lack of patience and care for the activity but Annie's problem was just a plain lack of skill. The lines were sloppy and the form of the plant was ridged and disproportionate.

Annie grinned at little at how bad it was, "Yeah it is really awful isn't it? The only one of us that had any skill was Steve. He drew you once and you insisted on keeping it because you thought it made you look handsome." Annie chuckled to herself remembering how Bucky had resembled a parrot admiring its own reflection.

"Can we watch a movie?" Lila inquired hopefully evidently now bored with drawing. Cooper seemed intrigued by the idea.

Annie sat up agreeing, "Sure we can. Laura said the child's movies were on the bottom shelf right?" She was just glad she could give up on her mangled tree. She was sure a movie would help broaden Bucky's understanding of the world anyway. It certainly had with her when she first arrived in the 21st century. Though she had struggled in discerning which movies were based on real events and which were fiction.

The four had ended up watching 'Sleeping Beauty' and all except for Bucky were fast asleep, draped across the lounges. When the movie had begun Bucky amusedly watched Annie's stunned reaction to the moving cartoon, seeing the gears turning in her head as she attempted to deconstruct the process of creation. Lila had been the first to fall, curling up in a small ball in the corner of the plush mint couch. Cooper had been second, lying with his head tilted up and his mouth hanging wide open. Finally Annie had slowly lowered herself onto his shoulder and shut her eyes, unconsciously cuddling into his side.

This left him alone to watch the end of the film as the Prince lowered himself down to kiss Aurora. Bucky unwilling glanced at the sleeping Annie but immediately cursed himself begging his brain not to get any ideas. He instead directed his attention to the end scene of the animated film. The Prince, whose name he couldn't remember, and Princess Aurora twirled around the ballroom as the fairies argued on the dress colour. A delicate smile spread across his face as he recalled the time Annie had taught him to dance. He had quickly advanced beyond his teacher's skill. He didn't care that Annie's steps were hesitant and frigid because it was one of the few moments that he felt capable of being gentle. His natural ability the slid from one step to the next made him believe he was capable of more than just hurting others. It was one of the reasons he was indebted to Annie and one of the many reasons he couldn't help but smile when he looked to her sleeping form.

He carefully untangled himself from Annie's tight grip and as gently as he could manage he lifted Lila and then Cooper onto his shoulders. Making it up the stairs with one child on either shoulder had been a challenge even for someone with his skills but eventually he slipped them down into their respective beds and awkwardly threw a blanket over them.

He returned to the brightly coloured play room to find the still fast asleep Annie discontently searching his absent warmth. She seemed quite happy when the warmth returned and delicately hoisted her up. He cradled the murmuring woman who instantly nestled into him. He wondered if she was conscious of her habit of seeking out a heat source whilst asleep. Over the past few weeks of sharing a bed he had begun to notice that it was Annie who shifted in bed, seeking him out. He just gladly received the slumbering embraces.

He effortlessly made it up the stairs this time finding Annie, as always, very easy to carry. He was thankful for his enhanced strength when he had to balance her in one hand while opening the blankets with the other when he reached the bedroom. He placed her underneath the sheets but her hands refused to release his shirt. He rolled his eyes at the woman who became extremely clingy while asleep but would not dream of it when conscious. Not that he minded. He obeyed Annie's sleepy request. He chuckled as she instantly snuggled into his side once more.

Bucky felt sleep creeping up on him but it had not yet taken hold so he resolved to watch her sleeping form that was too amusing to look away from. Bucky was still not very well versed in social norms and expectations and was unsure whether it was wrong to watch. But the strange faces Annie made in her unconscious state and the pure joy he derived from them had him ignoring the inkling that it was a strange thing to do.

He took the time to really look at Annie, the person he now knew better than any other person, perhaps even himself (though that wasn't hard). She was very pale making her rosy tinge of her cheeks prominent. She had a round face that he thought suited the variety of spirals that was her hair. Her eyebrows were neat and solid and her average length eyelashes were a matching caramel shade. Her nose was straight with a delicate bump along the middle of the downward slope. Her lips were pale and matched the rest of her face. The top lip was a little thin but was compensated for by the plumpness of the lower, making a very tempting duo.

Annie was not flawless. Light freckles dotted around her nose and a few sunspots sparsely scattered the outer parts of her face. At some points the blush of her cheeks would slouch or her skin would bump minutely but they were not noticeable and Bucky did not mind anyway. He thought all the features together worked as cohesively as all the pieces of her personality. In his mind Annie was just as she should be, he did not wish for any part of her to change.

He was suddenly struck by the possibility of Annie waking up to find him studying her face and quickly dragged his eyes away. It was weird wasn't it? He wasn't really sure about any of the more specific social conventions.

He felt as though it would be odd but he couldn't see how looking at Annie would be wrong. He thought she was very beautiful.

The internal argument of forgotten as Annie shifted, placing her slothful hand on his shoulder and resting her head on his chest while muttering something about paint. He pulled his arm tighter around her and closed his eyes forgetting all his worries.

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