Chapter 41: Happy Birthday

"Where are you taking me?"

Bucky had his tie wrapped around his eyes as I escorted him down the halls, completely ignorant the other soldiers who looked at us like we were crazy. I ignored them all and pulled Bucky along by his arm, tugging him down a hall towards the conference room that we had commandeered for the day. It was March 10, and that meant one thing.

I opened the door, pushed Bucky inside, and tugged off the blindfold.

"Happy Birthday!"

I laughed and began to sing along as Bucky pretended to conduct us all, making a grand show of wincing and rubbing his ear at Steve, who glared good-naturedly.

"You didn't have to go to all this trouble," Bucky assured us as the singing stopped.

"No trouble at all… Ugh!"

I quickly helped Peggy catch the cake as it began to slide out of her arms and Steve jumped to hold the door for her. She gave him a grateful smile as she and I wrangled the large cake onto the table and Howard followed with plates and forks.

"Maybe there was a little trouble," Peggy admitted sheepishly. "Happy birthday, Barnes."

"Thanks," Bucky said gratefully.

"This cake may be a fire hazard, old man," Yori chuckled as she lit the nearly thirty candles with a glowing fingertip. Bucky huffed out a laugh at that.

"Do they even make cakes big enough to fit all your candles, Tsukuda?" he countered.

"Alright, alright, no bloodshed until after I've got my cake!" Dugan announced, cutting them off with a grin. Bucky rolled his eyes at that.

"And we all know standing between Dugan and food is hazardous to your health," he ribbed as he leaned forwards and blew out all the candles but one in one breath. His eyes flicked up to meet mine as he blew the last one out. I smiled at him, my hands clasped together loosely under my chin. He smiled back cheekily. God I loved that man.

"Bet I know what he wished for," Morita said under his breath, pointing at me not so subtly.

"Pervert," Peggy accused.

"No, that's Steve's department," Yori said breezily, to much gaping. Steve blushed to the roots of his hair as Bucky nudged him in the side meaningfully. Steve also looked a bit begrudgingly amused as well though.

"Something you want to share with the class?" Falsworth asked Yori incredulously. Yori innocently cut a slice of cake and held up the plate in offering.

"Cake?"

"Merci," Dernier said, snatching the cake from her hands and hustling to the other end of the room to get out of reach of Falsworth's grasping arms. Yori's joke was forgotten as she distributed cake and we all sat down at the long conference table to chat as we ate.

"Oh!" I huffed in surprise as Bucky caught my hand and tugged me down to sit on his lap.

"Come on you two, that's sweeter than the cake!" Jones protested jokingly.

"You're just jealous," Bucky countered swiftly, smiling up at me as I crossed my legs.

"It is your birthday," I smiled, and kissed him swiftly before cutting a slice of cake and holding it up for him, my other hand cupped under it to catch crumbs. "Cake?" I asked. Bucky took the bite as the other men pretended to gag and wretch at us. I didn't care. Peggy contented herself with a pursed lips hiding a smile.

"Mi amor!" Dernier cried dramatically, holding up his fork in front of Jones.

"My darling!" Jones chimed back with equal melodrama as he wrapped his arms around Dernier and squeezed tightly. The Frenchman choked slightly.

"Enough!" he huffed, and pulled himself free. Yori whapped the both of them chidingly with her wings.

"Baka," she scolded fondly.

The laughter and teasing continued as we ate cake, jokes flying up and down the length of the table along with the odd bit of icing when Morita made a crack about Dernier and Jones's relationship and got a fork flung at him for his trouble.

"So what was your birthday wish?" I asked Bucky, leaning back against my shoulder and pushing my plate away from me.

"First off, I'd like the rest of your cake," Bucky began. With a laugh I passed the plate to him and he grinned, popping a bit in his mouth. "Secondly I can't tell you or it won't come true."

"Of course," I agreed.

"This is really good cake," Bucky said, pointing to it with his fork. "Where'd you get it? I don't think there's an open bakery near here."

"That's why I made it," I replied with a shrug. Bucky choked slightly.

"You made this? It tastes like heaven!"

"I like to bake in my free time," I explained. "Like you said, there aren't any open bakeries near here and I told Howard that no, we weren't going to import a birthday cake. So I asked Steve what you liked and threw this together."

"If this is what you threw together I can't wait to taste something you tried on," Bucky chuckled.

"When this is all over I'll make you a big Southern dinner, complete with fried okra and burgoo," I promised.

"Don't know what that is but it sounds good," Bucky said optimistically and I laughed.

"Presents!" Dugan announced, and packages were pulled out of a cabinet and passed towards Bucky. I climbed off his lap to give him room to move as he opened up his gifts. They were small things. A bottle of booze from Morita and Dugan, a sketch of the French countryside from Steve. Yori had done a calligraphy picture of his name. The others gave him random things they'd picked up or made. Knowing how much it bothered Bucky when I gave him anything expensive – the watch remained in his nightstand drawer when he was on a mission for fear it would get broken – I'd given him a pair of nice leather gloves and a scarf.

The festivities lasted well into the night and it was after eleven when I helped Bucky gather up his gifts to haul back to his room. I'd unofficially moved in the interim so I didn't have to run back to my room to grab clothes. Bucky put on his pajamas in the bedroom while I charged into a blue satin nightgown in the bathroom.

I came out fiddling with my locket, something that had become a habit. Bucky had already packed his gifts away and was sitting in bed under the sheets, his back propped up against the headboard. I sat down on the edge of Bucky's bed with my brush in hand and began to slowly stroke through my hair, working out the creases from an entire day in a bun.

I hummed happily. I loved moments like this, when it was just us in this little room and no one else. When Bucky was mine and I was his and everything felt at the same time intensely special and completely casual. Soft, quiet moments that when I thought back on them a decade or two from now would be bathed in warm light. This was the ease I'd always imagined a couple should have instead of the tumultuous relationship of my father and stepmonster.

"So was your birthday everything you'd hoped?" I asked him as I continued to brush.

"Almost," Bucky said, staring at his knees. I raised an eyebrow.

"Almost? What was wrong?" I asked in concern, setting aside my brush and twisting so that I knelt next to him.

"There's something I wanted that I didn't get," Bucky admitted. I blinked. This wasn't like him. Bucky was the opposite of greedy. To see him this quiet because he didn't get something he wanted was a very surprising.

"What did you want?" I asked in confusion, tilting my head to the side.

Bucky's lips were twitching and there was some kind of light in his eyes that I couldn't get a read on. He sighed.

"You really want me to tell?" he asked morosely.

"Yes," I said, worried now as I scooted closer to him.

"You sure?"

"Yes!" I was getting annoyed now. "Tell me, Bucky!"

He nodded and leaned over to his nightstand, pulling the drawer open. "What I really want," he pulled out a small black ring box and my breath caught as my mind put together the pieces of where this was going.

"What I really want," Bucky said, and now I recognized the glow in his eyes as hope and love mixed with a tinge of nerves. I'd rarely seen Bucky uncomfortable or unsure so it took some time to identify. "Is for you to marry me, Belle." He lifted the lid of the ring box and my heart stopped.

I looked at him, the man I loved more than I'd ever thought I could love anyone. I looked at the ring. I looked back at him, the man who loved me more than I'd ever thought anyone could. I took a deep breath and lost it.

I howled with mirth, clutching my sides as I chuckled. Tears built in the corners of my eyes and streamed down my face as I doubled over with the force of my laughter, losing my balance and toppling into Bucky's side. He huffed as he wrapped an arm around me to steady me.

"You're not exactly filling me with confidence on my answer," Bucky admitted a little nervously.

"Yes!" I managed to wheeze out around my laughter. "Yes, of course I'll marry you, you silly man! It's just… the ring…"

"Do you not like it?" Bucky asked edgily, but his eyes were sparkling warmly now that he had his answer. He was going to marry me, I was going to get married to Bucky Barnes and spend the rest of my life with him. I felt so blessed.

"I love it," I assured him. He pulled it from the box and slid it onto my ring finger. I stared at the ovular tiger's eye in the gold setting, a tiny diamond on either side. I looked from the stone to him with a grin. "You couldn't resist could you?"

Now Bucky was grinning as well. "Once I saw it in the window I really couldn't. I hoped you wouldn't think it was too tactless, especially since… I know you're still having nightmares."

My smile fell slightly. I was still having nightmares of my time as Tigress at Auschwitz, of feeling my teeth and claws tearing into flesh and feeling warm, wet blood running down my throat. I accepted it but I did not revel in it and the experience had shaken me a lot.

"I just thought it would be a nice reminder," Bucky explained. "When I found out about your mutation you were so sure I wouldn't want to speak to you ever again, the same way you were when I first saw Tigress. I want you to always know that I accept every bit of you. For better or worse." He smiled widely and energy washed over him. He tackled me onto the pillows, planting kisses all over my face.

"My Belle." He was grinning uncontrollably. "You're really gonna be my Belle."

I was beaming just as helplessly. I was getting married! "With a piece of paper and everything," I said, wrapping my arms around his neck and fiddling with his hair. Bucky pecked me on the lips.

"Your dad made me promise we wouldn't have a ceremony until after the war so that he could come," he said. "You okay with that?"

My eyes were warm and loving as I stared back at him. "Oh my love, I'd wait forever if it meant I got to marry you."

"Speaking of…" Bucky slid the ring off my finger and tilted it so that I could see the inscription inside. Only forever… and an eternity after that. A year ago I would have scoffed and called it cheesy but now I couldn't imagine anything more perfect.

Bucky tilted his head and gave me the smirk/smile that had made my heart flutter since the moment I met him. "I'd rather marry you a little sooner than that and spent that forever as your husband."

"Only forever… and an eternity after that," I agreed, and leaned up to catch his lips in a fierce kiss. His lips moved over mine, down my jaw to my neck and down onto my chest. I reached down to the lacing at the front of my nightgown and began to loosen it, letting the front gape open a little. Bucky's eyes widened. He seemed unable to tear his eyes away from the exposed flesh.

"Belle?" he asked, his voice a little higher than normal.

A little bit of Tigress leeched into my voice as I growled, "I don't want to wait until this war is over for a honeymoon."

And we moved forward together.


Bucky lay in bed on his back next to Josie, his head resting on one hand. He trailed absent patterns on her shoulder and back with the other. He tried to figure out what his favorite part of the evening had been. When she gasped and shuddered his name? Or when she screamed it in ecstasy? When, after they'd finished the first time, Josie had let her feral side out a little bit and climbed on top of him, attacking his neck and chest with nips and kisses? When she'd wearily murmured 'I love you,' right before they both drifted off?

Bucky's eyes drifted down to her hand resting on his stomach. The engagement ring gleamed there and he smiled proudly. That was his favorite part. When a Southern belle of an heiress with a sweet heart and a mind that spun his own decided she wanted to marry a nobody of a soldier from Brooklyn. When she'd agreed to become Mrs. Bucky Barnes and had looked up at him with more love in her eyes than he'd ever imagined there could be in a person.

Bucky leaned down and kissed her head fondly. She shifted and hummed in her sleep, eyes blinking open blearily as she woke. The moment her eyes fixed on him a tired smile spread across her face, that delicious curve of her lips making him swoop down to steal a kiss. Her thumb absently stroked against his skin as she smiled up at him.

"What're you lookin' at?" she asked.

"My future wife," Bucky replied proudly. "She's this gorgeous brunette with eyes like early morning fog."

"Sounds pretty," Josie smiled, waking up a little more. "Tell me more 'bout 'er?"

"She's brilliant and stubborn as hell, never lets anyone tell her what to do."

"A stubborn girl?" Josie repeated innocently. "Those c'n be a handful, ya know."

"Yeah I know, but I wouldn't have her any other way," Bucky replied, a grin slowly spreading across his lips. "She's a real sweetheart too."

"Sounds like yer a lucky man, ain'tcha?"

"And she's got the most adorable accent when she's tired," Bucky laughed, not at all surprised when Josie lightly swatted his chest.

"Hush!" she scolded. "Your girl sounds nice and all but you should hear about my future husband," Josie said knowingly.

"Oh?" Bucky asked innocently. "What about him?"

"He's got these gorgeous blue eyes that I could drown in, a smile that could make a girl's heart stop, and he smells like heaven," Josie said, burying her nose in his throat. Her expression went a little dizzy as she inhaled deeply. Bucky wondered vaguely if she was a little addicted to the smell of him.

"Sounds like a real heartbreaker," Bucky observed.

"I broke him of that," Josie assured him. "He's the bravest, funniest, most handsome man I've ever met. He treats me like a princess and takes care of me. He listens to me when I talk and doesn't tell me to hush up. He doesn't try to change me and lets me be who I am instead of trying to turn me into a proper lady. He makes me swoon sometimes and smile others and most of all he makes me love him more every day."

Bucky's smirk was getting wider and wider with every descriptor. Josie huffed and shoved him lightly, adding, "And he's a complete peacock!"

"Well what do you expect, stroking my ego like that?" Bucky protested, rubbing his ribs with a wince.


The Howling Commandoes plus Peggy and Howard sat in the same conference room where we'd had Bucky's birthday party the night before. They all looked a little concerned as they stared at Bucky and I holding hands in our chairs, our heads pressed together as we murmured to each other.

"What's happened?" Yori finally demanded.

"You're worrying us," Peggy agreed.

I sighed and raised my head to look around the table. "Well, Bucky brought something to my attention last night."

"What's wrong?" Steve asked immediately, looking at his best friend in concern. Bucky bravely put on a world-weary look and just shook his head wordlessly.

"If he's not talking it's something really bad," Falsworth said grimly. "What's wrong?"

"Well, there's something he wanted for his birthday that none of us gave him." I couldn't fight my smile any longer as I got incredulous stares from all around the table. I heard Bucky start to sputter next to me as well. "It seems we all neglected to get him one, so when he asked me to, I agreed to be his wife," he said, holding up my left hand and unable to fight the smile anymore.

Incredulity shifted immediately into delight as the room exploded into congratulations. Bucky stood up as Steve clapped him on the shoulder and they shared a manly embrace as Peggy and Yori practically dove on me for hugs and to see the ring.

"I'm so happy for you two!" Peggy cried as she hugged me tightly. I hugged her back with one arm, seeing as Yori had my left hand in a vice-like grip.

Laughter exploded around the room as Yori rounded on Bucky and shouted in disbelief, "You gave her a tiger's eye ring?"

"Did you really?" Dugan sniggered. Falsworth took my hand from Yori and laughed wildly.

"My god, he did!"

"You jerk!" Steve laughed.

"Punk," Bucky replied, slugging him in the shoulder.

Howard actually looked teary-eyed as he snatched me away from the ladies to spin me around in the air. He set me down and kissed me on both cheeks soundly as I grinned and hugged him. He grabbed at my hand to examine the ring.

"Hmm, nice stone, good setting." He flashed Bucky a thumbs-up. "And nice job on the personal touch!"

Bucky stared around at the other men. "Seeing as I can't seem to remember there being a limit on how many I can have, I was hoping you fine commandoes would consent to be my groomsmen?"

"You two, of course, will be my bridesmaids," I said, grabbing Peggy and Yori's hands in mine. Yori looked like she might actually started crying as Peggy shook her head.

"No, I couldn't possibly, you have cousins who-"

"Who are not the closest thing I've ever had to a sister," I told her sternly. "And no way in hell am I walking down any aisle with the best friend and my sister." I squeezed their hands.

"You'll have an uneven number of bridesmaids and groomsmen," Howard pointed out.

"Well, Jones and Frenchie can walk each other down the aisle," Morita suggested sweetly and had to duck as Jones threw a punch while Dernier cursed at him colorfully.

"You'll be my best man?" Bucky asked Steve knowingly.

"You've got to ask?" Steve replied with a boyish grin and hugged him again. "I'm really happy for you, you know?"

"Me too," Bucky said, glancing at me and smiling like he'd just won the lottery.

"Now hold on, wait a minute!" Howard burst out suddenly. "Groomsmen, bridesmaids… what am I going to do? You're not going to leave me out of the big day, are you?" he pouted.

"You could be the flower girl?" Bucky offered. I swatted him on the shoulder as Howard gave him a rude hand gesture in reply.

"I was hoping you'd be there for me," I admitted. "As my, uh, bridesman?"

Howard grinned and seized me for another round of cheek kisses. "I'll take it."

"Hey now, I'm soon to be a married woman," I teased. "You can't just go laying hands on me like that, Mr. Stark, or I'll sic my fiancé on you!"

Howard glanced over his shoulder at Bucky, who cracked his knuckles threateningly. He was grinning though, which took the sting out of it.

"Ah, I can take him!" Howard blustered. Bucky jerked a thumb at Steve, who crossed his arms and tried to look intimidating. He mostly just looked like a golden retriever.

"What if I bring a friend?" Bucky asked. Howard slowly took his hands off my shoulders.

"Alright, him I definitely can't take."


Real quick: I don't write smut, I can't write smut. Ask me to write a fight scene full of blood and brutal stabbings and I'm your girl but for whatever reason I can't write smut. So there won't be any of that here, which is why I'm keeping this story at a T rating. There may be moments that very obviously lead into some sexy times but that's as far as it'll go. Sorry to disappoint anyone who was hoping for some smut but I just really can't write it for the life of me.