Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

One year later…

“Alpine, please!” Rowan said as Alpine curled up on her keyboard. She couldn’t help the laugh she let out before she picked up the cat and set her down on the floor of her and Bucky’s apartment. Alpine meowed in opposition. “I know, baby, but I have to finish this. You can sleep on my keyboard all you want when I’m done.” Alpine jumped back onto the couch, but settled behind Rowan’s head, leaning against her hair. She did her best not to move as she finished typing up the last of her essay.

In the year since she and Bucky made their relationship official, Rowan could say she had never been happier. They moved into a beautiful new apartment when Bucky showed her he had been looking and found the very rooms she sat in. Larger than her previous apartment, as well as Bucky’s, it gave both of them the space they had so desired. Settled in a little quiet nook of Brooklyn, it was closer to her university. And, of course, pet-friendly (Bucky would have had a tantrum if he couldn’t bring Alpine with them to their new home, which Rowan wholeheartedly agreed with). 

Her classes were coming to an end and it was almost time for her to graduate with her master’s degree in hand. All she had to do was finish the last of her thesis for her final class, and she was done. Her wrists ached from the amount she had been typing and her eyes were tired from staring at screens and volunteering at the elementary school centered in Midtown Manhattan. Kids were difficult , but by God, she loved them. Alpine meowed from behind her, rubbing her cheek against Rowan’s and nearly knocking her glasses off.

“Good God, whenever Bucky’s gone, I swear you become more clingy than me,” she said, laughing as Alpine nearly tumbled off the edge and into her lap. But she soon jumped off the cushions and ran to the door, meowing in circles as Rowan heard Bucky’s familiar footsteps echo in the hallway before he swung the door open.

She forgot all about her thesis and jumped into his arms before he even had the chance to drop his bags. Rowan knew he would catch her, he always did. She soon felt his tight grip wrapping around her, his head buried into her neck as he said, “I missed you too, Red.” Kisses were pressed to her neck before she leaned back and kissed his lips, dropping to her feet to hold him properly. “I’m sorry I’m late. We ran into a few… er, speed bumps,” he said, and she looked back to see the bruise that blossomed along his cheek.

Cupping his face in her hands, she said, “I told you to be careful. What happened?”

“Rookie agent forgot to watch his six. I had to push him out of the way of a grenade,” Bucky said. Rowan stood back and crossed her arms at his sheepish shrug. “I couldn’t let him just walk right into it, Rowan.”

“I know. I just hate it when you come back black and blue,” she said, feeling his arms go around her waist. “You always gotta be a hero, don’t you?” she said with a cheeky grin.

“Nah, I’m just the one making sure Sam gets back to Dahlia in one piece,” Bucky said.

“And who makes sure you come back to me in one piece?” she asked as she placed her arms around his neck. 

“My overwhelming need to come back to your side does that job for me,” he said, leaning in to kiss her. He pulled her glasses from her nose before deepening the kiss, urging her back to the couch as he peeled his jacket off his shoulders and pushed her down onto the cushions. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” she said. Bucky pulled back, brows raised in question and concern. “It’s movie night.”

He blinked, still hovering over her as he leaned down and said, “Red, I haven’t seen you for two weeks. To say I missed you would be an understatement.”

“Aw, I missed you too,” Rowan said, pushing against him with her foot. He pouted as he sat up on his heels. “I’m still not missing making you watch Good Will Hunting for the first time.”

“Is it really that good?” he asked, running his warm right hand along the skin of her leg as he set it on his shoulder. “Better than this?” Bucky kissed her ankle, slowly trailing his lips further and further up to her knee and thigh.

“I mean, it’s pretty damn good,” she said, her voice wavering just enough for him to catch it. She could tell from the smirk on his lips. “I promise you, James, I will let you continue this and literally anything else you want tonight after we finish this movie.”

“Anything?” he asked.

“I can sense I’m going to regret this, but yes. Anything ,” she said, meeting his baby blues.

He gave her back her glasses by slipping them on over her nose. “These are staying on all night, first of all,” he said, pressing a chaste kiss to her flushed cheek. “The rest I’ll save for the rest of the night. I’m going to go shower. I’ll be back in ten.”

Before he could pull away, Rowan grabbed him by the back of his neck and pressed a heated and wild kiss to his lips. He paid it back in kind, his hand tangling in her red hair as he pressed forward, only for her to slip away with a sultry smile. “I love you,” she said.

His smile was almost dopey as he replied, “I love you too.” With a chaste kiss, he stood and said, “Ten minutes, tops.” True to his word, as Rowan finished up the last few words of her thesis, Bucky returned with wet hair as he pulled on a plain shirt. In the year they had been together, he had let his hair grow longer, just enough for Rowan to grab when she felt like teasing him. “You want to hear something crazy?”

“A lot of what you say is crazy, but do continue,” she said as she shut her laptop. She still had to edit the entire paper, but that was a process for much later.

“Har har,” he said as he dropped beside her. “Sam said I should run for Congress.”

Rowan blinked. “Congress? As in… become a congressman? In politics? In the public?” With each question, Bucky nodded his head. “What brought this on?”

He shrugged. “I was just thinking out loud, saying how I wanted to show the world I’m not the same man I was ten years ago. And I know that the veterans here are treated with little to no respect and I want to help some of them out if I can. They’ve been to hell and back and they deserve at least some compensation for the horrors they had to see. And perhaps I could, I don’t know, uncomplicate some of the problems we’ve got. Maybe some old-fashioned thinking is what the world needs right now.” She was stunned, more than anything else, but when he saw her silence, he shook his head and said, “Yeah, maybe it was just a stupid idea. I probably wouldn’t win anyway.”

“No, no, Bucky, that isn’t…” she began, laughing a little before she continued. “I was just surprised. I mean, you weren’t exactly the most outgoing man when I first met you. But running for Congress? Honestly, I think it’s a great idea.”

“Really?” he asked. He leaned in close to her, excitement coursing through his eyes. 

“Yes!” she said with a nod. “I know I’m not the most communicative of women when it comes to politics, but what you said is true. And I think nobody would handle these problems better than you, Bucky.”

“You’re not just saying this to back my crazy idea, right?” he asked, pulling her into his chest. 

“Never. Think about it,” she said as she grinned up at him. “‘Future Congressman James Buchanan Barnes’. It’s got a nice ring to it.”

He beamed, saying, “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” His hand ran up and down her arm. “I’ll just have to figure out how to campaign for that.”

“You’ve literally got Captain America on your side, Buck,” she said. “I think he’ll help you out there.” He kissed her temple as she said, “You’ve got my vote, too.”

“The only vote that matters to me,” he said, leaning down to kiss her lips sweetly. “Okay, we’re watching this movie, right?” Alpine jumped up on the couch and curled up in Bucky’s lap, his hand instantly moving to pet her fur.

“Absolutely,” Rowan said as she leaned forward to grab the remote. “Matt Damon wrote this when he went to college. It’s what made him and Ben Affleck so famous.”

“I don’t know who either of those men are, but okay,” he said.

Rowan pulled a blanket over their legs as she snuggled up into Bucky’s warmth. Alpine sat pleasantly between them as the movie started. If someone had told either Bucky or Rowan five years ago that they would be where they are today, neither would have thought it possible. But as they sat together in the comfort of their home, the blinking lights of New York’s Brooklyn shining outside their window, it was the only life either of them could imagine going forward. It was just them, Alpine, and their own little world. 

Bucky would thank God every single day that he stumbled upon the Velvet Vixen, and Rowan would thank Rich for the rest of her life for giving her that job. For it led them to one another and true happiness neither of them had felt for years.