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Bucky doesn’t sleep, save for naps. Sam had said maybe it was his bed; it was too soft. But that wasn’t it; his bed is damn comfortable and he feels lucky to have such amenities. Then Steve had suggested maybe it was the lighting in the room; in Brooklyn, they didn’t have the money to leave on any lights overnight, but there were always lights coming in from outside. After Steve mentions it, Tony takes to rigging the lights, getting it as close as he could. That did help, but not enough. Steve makes another suggestion; for old time’s sake, Bucky spends the night in Steve’s room like they used to do. Bucky only makes it about two hours before he’s jumping out of bed and retreating into the living room to watch late night television.
Things improve after Bucky and Kate start dating, when she gives him an open invitation to sleep in her room. “Any time,” she says, “day or night.” It takes a while for him to finally take her up on the offer. Kate makes him feel calm, at ease. With her, he feels as though he can relax enough to get a few hours of sleep. But now, even when he can’t sleep, he rarely leaves the room, Kate’s bed. Now he just sits up in bed, watches Kate sleep, cards his fingers through her hair.
But tonight, Bucky feels antsy. He slips out of bed, careful not to wake Kate, and heads down to the living room. With a sigh, he grabs the remote control and starts flipping through channels. He settles on what looks like a movie, mostly because he can’t seem to tear his eyes away from the man on the screen who looks eerily like Fury.
“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness.”
Bucky pulls up the on-screen guide, which tells him he’s watching Pulp Fiction and upon asking JARVIS, he finds the passage being quoted is Ezekiel 25:17. He asks to hear more; “For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”
He lets the words settle in his mind but eventually starts flipping channels again. When he pauses to yawn, the television is on a religious network. Bucky’s face scrunches up when he listens to what the man is preaching. It’s a sermon on getting into Heaven and what Heaven can be. Bucky finds himself rolling his eyes.
“Only Heaven I’m gonna get,” he mumbles, “is Kate.”
Bucky probably wouldn’t have let out the words if he knew Kate was standing in the threshold of the room, watching and listening. But Kate’s glad he did. It’s still early enough in their relationship that Kate can’t always tell where she stands with him -- the product of paranoia from previous relationships.
Kate walks over to the sofa and sits down next to Bucky. She leans over him, her hand sliding up his thigh, squeezing just just so. A grin perks up her lips when Bucky lets out a soft groan.
“Heard what you said,” she says, voice low.
“Yeah?”
She nods, leaning closer. “Amen,” she whispers against his lips.