Author's Note: This is a follow-up to What-If 3. One thing to note is that Alpine is Bucky's cat from the comics. She's a white cat with blue eyes and it's my personal headcanon that she's bilaterally deaf as a result. I've never encountered a deaf cat before so I don't know if they can vocalize at all. For the purposes of this shot, I went off on the idea that because she can't hear, Alpine's vocalizations would sound a bit loud and "off" compared to normal cats.
The next morning
Bucky stirred in bed and stretched, his hand gently coming into contact with something. He looked over and smiled when he saw Phoenix, still sleeping away. Her back was to him, hair splayed on the pillow and across her neck. The love in his heart swelled. The White Wolf turned onto his side and propped his head on his metal hand. His flesh hand reached over and pulled her hair off her neck. He gave a small chuckle when he saw the extent of the "damage" he had inflicted the night before when the two finally came clean about their feelings for each other. Phoenix had quite the bruise. "See that, Seiryu? Your girl's mine now," he thought, rather possessively. The White Wolf then mentally shook his head. He was feeling retroactively jealous of the now-dead High King. Such feelings had never crossed his mind until the night before. He felt a bit ashamed of his jealousy and the idea that he was staking a claim on a woman he and Seiryu both loved. Bucky just happened to come out the winner because, well, he was still alive. The dragon had faced his prophesied ending alone, in spite of Phoenix's decision that the end of her life would be the end of their courtship.
The White Wolf really had no right feeling the way he did. Seiryu had entrusted Phoenix to his care, giving her to him so she could live out the rest of her Time. Bucky figured this was what it meant to be human. These feelings would pass in time but for now, all he wanted to do was prove to Seiryu he was better than him. He didn't abandon Phoenix when they were staring death in the face. Bucky wasn't the one who threw her aside. It didn't matter if Phoenix herself thought that or not. The White Wolf felt that Seiryu should've given her the choice to die with him or not. Instead, she was thrown out of her homeworld into another and lost her magic. Bucky was still deciding if he resented the High King or not. On the one hand, it brought him and Phoenix together but on the other, she had lost everything and everyone she had ever known and loved. Was his reward worth the loss?
Bucky's inner spite festered and he scooted closer to Phoenix. Leaning over, he started laying gossamer kisses along her neck and ear. She stirred a bit and groggily called his name. Bucky paid her no mind as he pulled the strap of her camisole off her shoulder to lay a kiss there. Phoenix started coming awake more but before she could turn to face him, Bucky's arms wound around her shoulders and waist. He bit her neck again, causing her to jerk a bit in surprise before she let out an involuntary whimper. Phoenix's back arched into his chest, her breath coming in sharp. Bucky ran his tongue along the skin between his teeth, causing her to jerk at the sensations. He kept a tight hold on her, one of his legs hooking one of hers.
Phoenix was now fully awake as she felt the electricity throughout her body. She didn't know what got into Bucky but at the moment, she didn't care. She wanted to give as good as she got. So the moment he let up on his bite, she twisted herself around in his arms. She grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him, her tongue warring with his. Her hands moved up to mesh in his dark hair while his arms encased her tightly against his body. While she was drowning in the kiss, Phoenix wondered what Bucky's deal was this morning. His kisses were a bit different than the sweet ones they shared the night before. He seemed a bit more...angry? She wasn't sure. He wasn't hurting her or anything but he seemed hot and bothered about something and was letting it out through her.
She felt Bucky getting ready to shift on top of her and beat him to it. She pushed against him and managed to get herself on top of him. Their lips broke apart and the two breathed heavily. Phoenix straddled his hips, hands on his bare chest, while Bucky let a hand come to rest on her thigh as the other ran through his hair. "Damn, doll. Never knew you had it in you," he purred. He reached up to take her face but Phoenix snagged his wrists and pinned them down. "Ease up a moment, James. I need to catch my breath," she said, opting for his given name. She opened her eyes after a moment to look at him. Bucky's face was a mix of smarmy charm and something suspiciously close to triumph. Phoenix blinked for a moment before taking a deep breath and sighing. "What's going on?" she asked.
Bucky cocked an eyebrow, in no hurry to sit up. He was enjoying the view. "What are you talking about, Nix?" he asked, cheekily. Phoenix looked down at him, letting his wrists go. He folded his hands under his head, that cheeky look still on his face. "Are we really going to play that game, Bucky? Something's bothering you. I can tell," she said, bracing her hands on his abs. He deflated. She was good. They knew each other too well at this point and Phoenix had always been able to get a good read on him. "I guess...it hit me this morning that I'm jealous of Seiryu," he responded. The woman froze for a moment. "Jealous? Wait, what?" she stammered. Bucky grasped her wrists. "I know. I know. It's stupid being jealous of a dead dragon but I couldn't help it, Nix. I mean, come on. The guy had you for years. Who wouldn't be jealous?" he replied.
Bucky took in Phoenix with his eyes. Her hair was somewhat messy from sleep, the camisole strap he pulled down hung loosely, her lips were somewhat swollen from heavy kissing. His eyes then fell on her neck where both bites were making themselves very known. His entire defensive posture dropped like a sack of rocks and he buried his face in his hands, sighing heavily. "God, Nix. I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me," he admitted. He felt Phoenix shift a bit but not off him. Instead, she leaned down closer to his face. He dropped his hands to look at her. "Bucky...Seiryu's been dead for a year now. My homeworld is reduced to rubble floating around in deep space. You're all I have left now. I didn't come clean about my feelings for you in an attempt to bury the past. Seiryu will always be a part of me but you're the one who has this broken heart in his hands now," she said.
"What if he was wrong about me?" Bucky said, sitting up and causing her to fall into his lap. His hand set itself on the juncture of her neck where the bites were. Phoenix kept her eyes on him. She bit her lower lip as she felt a bit of panic inside. "Please, don't," she said, her hand slapping down on his chest a bit as she tried to wrangle herself in. "Don't do this to me. He wasn't wrong about you. He can't be," she said. The White Wolf knew he was messing things up. He gently took Phoenix's elbows in his hands. "Look at me, love. You're okay. We're okay. I'm sorry," he said. The woman just nodded and took a deep, calming breath. She let her forehead come to rest against his and Bucky sighed.
"I'm just going to come out and say it, Nix. I hate the guy. I know he threw you out of your homeworld to save you but from where I'm sitting, it's like you were discarded without any care as to what you wanted," he said. Phoenix pulled back to look at him curiously. She remained quiet, knowing he had more to say. Bucky took her hands. "One thing you always told me was that you had chosen the end of your life to be the day you left Seiryu. Because he was always meant to outlive you as he had so many others. But when push came to shove and the end of the world was coming, what did he do? Forced you away from him. He didn't let you die with him as you would've wanted. I hate him for being the reason you're hurting so much," he finished. Phoenix's expression saddened.
"Hate him all you want, Bucky. Even if he were alive now, he wouldn't care that you do," she said quietly. She met his gaze and slowly brought her hands up to his face. "I knew Seiryu well enough to know that if you were able to say it to his face, he'd agree with you. But he was so ancient and powerful...how could you expect him to feel guilty about doing what he felt he had to do? He was a High King, Bucky. That's not just some title that was given to him willy-nilly. He carried a fifth of the world on his shoulders. He lived all of history from the Primordial World of Century Zero all the way to the end. He had to make harder calls than saving my life," she explained. A muscle in Bucky's jaw twitched and his hard eyes kept locked with her own. "Damn his titles. Some things were more important than them," he said.
Phoenix just shrugged. "What's done is done. The world ended, I was cast out, and you're the one holding a grudge against a dead dragon. Please, Bucky. I can't afford to question if your feelings for me are genuine or if you're just using me to spite him. Seiryu carried unimaginable regrets his entire life but I don't think saving me was one of them. Yes, I wasn't able to die on my terms but the funny thing is that life doesn't always turn out the way we want or expect. I mean, look at you. Long ago, did you go to war expecting to be imprisoned by HYDRA and turned into the Winter Soldier? Of course not. You didn't want or expect any of that but life threw all that at you regardless. You're 108 years old, you've done a lot over the decades, gained and lost so much," she explained.
Bucky took a deep breath and sighed, looking down. His eyes were brought up to meet hers again. "Do you remember what I told you ages ago in Berlin? I told you I would keep following you until you gave me a reason not to. I still haven't found a reason yet and my condition would make it difficult for me to survive in this world as I am now without you. I know it will take time, but you have to let any resentment for Seiryu die. There's no greater waste of time and energy carrying negative feelings for someone who isn't here to take it. I've put him to rest so I can fulfill his last wish," Phoenix said. Taking his face in her hands, she leaned her forehead to his. "He wanted me to live life to the fullest and to learn how to love again. From now to the rest of our days...I'm yours, James Barnes," she said in a whisper.
Phoenix's world suddenly rolled as he pinned her under him. "God, I love you, Phoenix," Bucky said before going in for a kiss and letting his weight rest on her. Her hands came up to his sides before encircling his back. Bucky broke the kiss and moved to lay his head on her chest. Phoenix reached up to gently card his hair through her fingers. "Sorry, Nix. I didn't mean to make you doubt me," he said. The woman just hummed. "I think we can both agree that I'm exactly where I need to be now, Bucky. I think he knew that you needed me as much as I've needed you," she responded. They let silence fall for a moment before the White Wolf sighed and got to his hands and knees. "Let's go back to the park. I think both of us could stand to get some clear heads," he said with a grin. Phoenix smiled back and sat up.
While Bucky got changed in his room, Phoenix went to the bathroom and pulled on a sleeveless, collared shirt to hide the bites and a pair of jeans. The stipend from T'Challa had helped pay for her wardrobe since she couldn't shift back anymore. She still had the outfit she had arrived on Earth in when she lost her magic and wore it from time to time. Bucky came in while she was brushing her hair and pulling it back into a ponytail, a hairstyle she had seen countless times but had never tried out for herself. When she was done, Bucky dropped something over her head. Phoenix looked down to see his dog tags hanging around her neck. She turned around to look up at him questioningly. He just smiled and gave her a quick kiss. "Consider them a gift. You always did like playing with them," he said.
The two left the apartment, this time with Phoenix's arm hooked in his. The ever lingering pain of loss was lessened a little as the former chimera looked up at Bucky from the corner of her eye. She didn't know what life had in store for her now but at the moment, she was content by his side. They passed a couple of women and she couldn't help but overhear them whispering judgmentally about her. Phoenix suddenly felt self-conscious. No one could see her eye color unless they were looking right at her long enough to notice but her hair was a different story. She was fully human now but her hair had remained completely unchanged and made her stick out. Sure, humans had wilder hair in terms of color and style but her stripes were unusual enough to make people take a second look.
Bucky sensed Phoenix get a bit tense. He pulled his arm from hers to wrap around her shoulders and draw her to his side. "Ignore them. You're beautiful. Tap into the chimera you used to be, the one that didn't care what others thought. Never let that side of you go," he said in a low voice. Phoenix mutely nodded and took a deep breath. She gained a bit of confidence in her step. She figured the only reason she suddenly cared what people thought was because she had been blinded in the past by her situation. She and Bucky had gone out together many times over the past year but her mind had been preoccupied with her circumstances too much to notice any judgemental stares and whispers. Then her growing feelings for Bucky provided another layer of distraction. With their feelings for each other out in the open and her slowly accepting her new life as a human, Phoenix had started taking more notice of the world around her.
Bucky felt Phoenix's arm around his waist tighten a bit as they passed a group of guys. He noticed them staring at her a little too intently and shot them a glare worthy of the Winter Soldier. The guys moved off quickly. Ever since she had become completely human and whenever they had gone out, a skittish side to her had appeared. Phoenix used to possess a certain confidence when she was a chimera because she had more than a few ways of defending herself. There was also a small sense of superiority she once had because she had been, by all metrics, a dangerous animal. She wasn't as easily threatened by humans back then. Becoming human had reduced her strength by a lot and she lost access to her primary weapon. She had once said that the thing she missed most was being her true self.
Bucky didn't blame her. Phoenix was born an animal and that remained true even now. He decided to broach the subject of training her to fight like a human eventually. She no longer had her tail and horns to rely on and learning to use the body she had now would help bolster her confidence. The two eventually reached Central Park and started walking. Phoenix loved this place. It was a vast green space that helped her forget she was in the middle of a large bustling city, even though the noise wasn't so easily forgotten. She felt the most at peace there. Phoenix pulled out of Bucky's arm to take his hand, turning to face him while she walked backward. "Thank you, Bucky," she said. The man just smiled before pausing and bringing her hand up to kiss it. "Anytime, sweetheart. Are you feeling okay now?" he asked.
"Very much. New York may be a jungle of concrete, steel, and glass but at least this place exists. It's the closest thing to home I have," Phoenix responded. Bucky pulled her into a slow kiss and she fell into it wholeheartedly. They pulled apart and suddenly, Phoenix heard what sounded like a meow. "Did you hear that?" she asked, looking off the beaten path. Bucky looked curiously in the direction she faced. Without waiting for a response, Phoenix pulled away and headed off the path, following her ears.
"Nix?" she heard Bucky call as he followed. She kept her focus on the meowing, which sounded both muffled and a bit off. She rounded a corner and came to a stop. The meowing was coming from a sack that was tied shut. Phoenix closed the gap and knelt down to set her hands on the sack as Bucky caught up. "Is that a cat I hear?" he asked. "Yep. Help me get it out," Phoenix responded. Bucky came over and pulled his knife. He cut the sack open and out popped a white cat with blue eyes. She meowed oddly and Phoenix's face broke out into a smile. She rubbed the cat's head before tearing the sack open more to pull her out. The cat clung to her, shivering a bit. Bucky set a hand on the woman's back and grinned. "Who could've done this and why?" he wondered. "The cat's deaf. I can tell from how she's meowing. She clearly doesn't know the sound of her own voice. And white cats with blue eyes are prone to deafness. It was the same in All World as it is here," Phoenix responded.
She looked up at Bucky as she stroked the cat. The White Wolf just grinned. "You don't even have to ask, Nix. Of course, we're keeping her," he said as if reading her mind. Phoenix's face lit up and she leaned into him. "You're the best. To be honest, I thought you'd be more of a dog person," she said as they stood up. "Dogs are cool but so are cats. I love cats. And we have more space for a cat than we would a dog," Bucky said, leading the way back to the path. The cat was still clinging to Phoenix who ran her hand over her fur. They cut their outing short to get the cat home. As they walked, they started bouncing names off each other and eventually settled on Alpine, since her fur was like snow on an alpine tree.
That evening, Bucky came in with numerous cat supplies. He had left Phoenix and Alpine at home as he did. While he had been away, Phoenix watched as their new feline companion slowly grew brave enough to explore the apartment. It had saddened the woman a bit that she couldn't understand animals anymore. She wondered what Alpine's story was. She had put the couch bed away while Alpine was sniffing around the kitchen and she grinned when the man she loved walked through the door. "How's she doing?" Bucky asked as he set the bags down. "She's gaining confidence," Phoenix responded. Alpine meowed and trotted up to Bucky, rubbing against his legs. "She likes you," the woman laughed.
Bucky stroked the cat with his metal fingers. He then started setting things up. He got the necessities, some toys, and a cat bed. He set it up under the window while Phoenix opened up a can of wet food and plopped it in her food dish. Alpine scarfed it down as Bucky came up and wrapped his arms around Phoenix's middle. "Seems we started a family," the White Wolf said, laying a kiss on her shoulder. "Seems that way," the former chimera responded. She rested her arms on his and sighed. "Looks like this is as good as it gets. After all, it's not like I could give you children," she trailed off. She squeaked when Bucky suddenly dipped her and claimed her lips. He pulled back to give her a grin.
"I don't want you getting preoccupied with that, Nix. You may be human now but one thing that shouldn't change is the fact you've been at peace with your sterility your entire life. The only thing I want from you is your heart. Besides, I don't think I'd be a good father. I have too many skeletons in my closet and too much baggage from my past as the Winter Soldier. I'm more than satisfied with what I have now. I have you and we now have Alpine. I couldn't ask for more," he assured her. Phoenix smiled as Bucky stood her up straight. The two sat down to eat while their new cat continued exploring.
Later that evening, Phoenix and Bucky were sitting on the couch watching TV when she yawned. Bucky smiled softly at her. "It's getting late. I'm ready to follow Alpine's lead," he said, pointing towards the window. Phoenix looked and smiled when she saw the white cat was passed out in the cat bed. She had had a trying day from being tied in a sack and abandoned in Central Park. Bucky stood up from the couch and stretched. He headed for the bedroom while Phoenix went to the bathroom. She switched into her camisole and pajama pants and took off Bucky's dog tags. She smiled at them softly before placing them on the sink. She grabbed her brush, pulled her ponytail out, and ran it through her tresses. Bucky came in, wearing his grey sweatpants and no shirt, and the two brushed their teeth.
Phoenix put her toothbrush up and sighed a little. She started heading out to the living room again when a hand closed on her wrist. She looked back at Bucky. "And where are you going, darlin'?" he asked, his old Brooklyn drawl coming out. "Um," she responded, dumbly. Bucky just shook his head with a chuckle. "Honey, you're my girl now. Far as I'm concerned, my room is now our room. I don't want to sleep another night without you next to me," he said. Phoenix's face went warm but she nonetheless let him pull her to the bedroom. Bucky closed the door behind them and pulled her into a kiss. She responded and they soon broke apart. Stroking her face, Bucky went to his side of the bed and pulled the covers back. Phoenix followed suit and settled next to him. The White Wolf turned the lamp off and took her in his arms.
"I'm really lucky, Nix. Thank you for giving me a chance," Bucky said. Phoenix just smiled as she kissed his cheek. "Same for myself. I know I still have dark days to come but I think I can face them as long as you're with me," she said. The former Winter Soldier just cracked a smile as he pulled the covers over them. "I love you," he said. "I love you, too," she responded. One last kiss later and silence fell between them. Bucky was the first to drop off. Phoenix looked at the profile of his face, reaching up to brush his temple with her fingertips. "I think...I think I can live life again, Seiryu. You knew what you were doing when you decided you didn't want me to die with you. You wanted what was best for me and that was being here with this man. He has the most beautiful soul and he knows me so well. So thank you, Seiryu, for giving me my life back. I can only hope you finally found peace in the Afterworld," she thought. Phoenix lay a light kiss on Bucky's cheek before sleep claimed her.