Chapter 26-Old Pleasures

Bucky:

I would have screamed as I fell out of bed if not for my training. Why I even let Beni buy the air horn, I would never know. But nonetheless I headed down stairs anyway.

"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!" She said. Beni was wearing a pair of sweatpants, running shoes, and gray, long sleeved shirt that said 'ARMY' in big, black letters.

"Is that a crack about my hair or me sleeping?" I asked, ultimately suppressing a yawn.

"Whichever one you want," she replied, leaning against the wall.

"Where are you going to drag me off to?"I asked, not even considering to decide whether I wanted her sleeping beauty comment to be about my hair or me sleeping. I leaned against the railing, only a few steps down. She grinned.

"I need a running buddy if you're up to it," she replied. I raised an eyebrow. Running? It was only...Eight in the morning apparently, and I had nothing better to do. Besides, after that day in the hospital where I showed a little more emotion than I actually wanted to I felt like I kind of owed her. But I had to admit that it did feel nice to know that I was safe enough around Beni that I could actually cry around her.

I yawned slightly as I nodded, and went back upstairs to get dressed.

I took off my shirt as I walked inside my room, and couldn't help but look at my body in the mirror.

I had abs, that's the first thing I noticed. They were nice and toned, as well as every other muscle that threatened to rip every shirt I wore. My hair was a tangled mess, but the shade of brown went well with my bright, blue eyes. Beni's drawing was right. My eyes did show a tiny bit of happiness.

But what bothered me was my arm.

It was big, shiny, and metal, ad it had the communist star on it. And yet the star somehow looked good compared to the ugly surgical scars that surrounded the base of my arm where metal met flesh. When Beni saw my shirtless for the first time she didn't so much as bat an eye. She acted as if it was a normal arm, and I couldn't have been more thankful.

And I still am thankful. If it weren't for her, I would probably be killing HYDRA agents half way across the world, and as much as I still wanted them all dead, I wanted to stay here even more. Beni had taken me in without a second thought, as if we had been old friends before she hit me with her car. Or, before her friend that was driving hit me with his car.

I shook my head, leaving on my black sweatpants, and threw on a gray, long sleeved shirt. I would just wear pair of shorts or something tonight when I went to bed. After that, I quickly threw on a pair of running shoes and headed down stairs, where Beni was. She was fixing one of the pictures on the wall because it must have been crooked or something. She turned around as soon as I got down the stairs with a satisfied smile. Christ, she had to many smiles. They all needed to be named.

"You ready?" she asked, placing her bands on her perfect hips. I nodded and tried giving her a smile, but for some reason every time I smiled it felt weird. Probably because unspent seventy years of not smiling.

"Let's go."

Third Person:

Beni and Bucky were both panting by the time they raced back to the house. They bad sprinted to the reflection pool, which wasn't very far from where they lived, and jogged around it several times. Bucky because he could just go that long, and Beni because she thought it was actually fun. By the time they got back it was ten in the morning and they were both sweaty and needed showers despite the fact that both of them looked like they just got out of a swimming pool.

They both quickly took showers and got dressed into clean clothes. Bucky found Beni in the kitchen with her hair in a wet ponytail with a cup of coffee in her hands. She was leaning over a newspaper, smiling in content.

"There's coffee on the stove for you," she said without looking up. Bucky thanked her and grabbed his designated mug. It had the periodic table on it, because as much as Beni loved reptiles, she also really liked chemistry. Beni herself bad a Ninja Turtles mug in between her slender fingers.

"What's in the paper today?" Bucky asked, leaning on the other side of the island.

"So far the only thing interesting is Marmaduke and the crossword puzzle that I'll do later."

"That's always fun."

"Almost as fun as grocery shopping."

"I can't tell if you're making fun of my grocery shopping or if you really just don't like grocery shopping."

"Both."

"Naturally."

Beni smiled and walked around next to him, leaning on the counter with her waist instead of her elbows like Bucky. Bucky turned around the discarded newspaper, flipping through it boredly. He cocked his bead to the side at an advertisement for a Thanksgiving Ball later that night. He raised an eyebrow at Beni, but she was to busy drinking her coffee to see Bucky's face.

"You know what I really hate?" Beni said a few minutes later.

"What's that?" Bucky answered, turning around so he was in the same position as Beni.

"Shampoo. But like, I like using it. I like it so much I use it on a daily basis. But it's choosing shampoo at Walgreen's or some shit that pisses me off. Like, it use to be kiwi, strawberry, and citrus. Now it's like mystical frost made in Santa's workshop mixed with the tears of a unicorn and a rare type of berry from fucking Narnia to add volume. And the most frustrating part? It still smells like fucking citrus."

Bucky burst out laughing, which of course made Beni laugh, too. They thought it funny, their laughs being so different from one another's. Beni's was high and cheerful, and if you made her laugh bard enough she snorted. Bucky's was deep and lighthearted, as if he didn't have a care in the world, when in reality it felt like he was carrying the world on his shoulders sometimes. They laughed for so long and so hard they were actually having a hard time breathing, and it felt like their sides were going to split at any second.

It was a decent morning.

Beni sighed as she flopped on the couch next to Bucky, and he gave her a quizzical look.

"What's up?" he said.

"Do you know what I need to get the hang of again?"

"What's that?"

"Dancing."

"Dancing?"

"Yeah. It used to be one of my favorite things to do."

"Well, dancing is easy. All you need is the right song."

"You know how to dance?" she asked with slight astonishment as she lifted her head up. He nodded.

"Yeah, I do. Now go get something really fancy on."

"Why?"

"You'll see. Now go get something fancy on."

"Okay..."

Bucky watched as she left with a raised eyebrow and a very visible swing of her hips as she disappeared into her room. He got off the couch as soon as her door was closed and went upstairs to get ready.

He was suddenly thankful for the box of old clothes Beni had given him a while back ago. In it was a suit, bow tie, and dress showers that more or less fit him. He quickly put it on and went to the bathroom. His hair. His hair is what he needed to work on. He brushed it, then combed it, and used some special hair stuff to tease it back. Then he brushed it back completely, not liking how that looked, and put his hair in a low pony tail. That looked much better. Then he shaved his five O' clock shadow and beaded downstairs to wait for Beni.

Thankfully he only had to wait ten minutes for her to come out, and what he saw was absolutely breathtaking.

Beni had put on a midnight blue dress that sparkled if you were in the right lighting. It had no waist, and it split at her left thigh and down, revealing a pair of matching two inch heels. Her hair was curled slightly and she wore dark blue eye shadow and mascara. Everything she wore was bringing out her beautiful green eyes more and more.

"Do you want to tell me where we're going yet?" she asked. She didn't wear any lip stick, and in Bucky's opinion, she didn't need to. Her lips were already perfect enough.

"Nope," he said. She sighed, but smiled nonetheless. He held out his elbow and she linked her arm through it and they walked out the door together.

"Please?" she asked before shutting the door. He chuckled slightly.

"We're going to find the right song."