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Bucky was seated at a table for two waiting for her at a restaurant Steve recommended to him. Steve. This was all Steve’s idea. He said it was already time to move on from Dot, so he set him up a blind date.
Y/N Y/L/N. You were Natasha’s friend from work, and you were a single mother. That’s all he knew about you. At least, you won’t be bothered about the fact that he had a kid too. Little Rebecca was his whole world. She was the only good thing he got from his relationship with Dot. When being a mother got too much for her she just packed her stuff and left. She also said it was Bucky’s fault. That he didn’t look as good as he was in college, and she didn’t want to be with someone like him, among other hurtful things. None of Dot’s words said that day did anything good to his self-esteem. They only increased his self image issues.
What if you didn’t like him? What if he wasn’t what you were expecting? What if you thought the exact things as his ex-wife? His mind was betraying him and he already regretted agreeing to this.
“James?” a soft voice pulled him out from his thoughts. He looked up and for a moment he thought his eyes were betraying him. You couldn’t be real. You were the most gorgeous woman he ever laid his eyes on. “Are you James Barnes?”
He blinked back to reality and cleared his throat. “Bucky. You can call me Bucky,” you smiled and took the seat in front of him.
“Nice to meet you, Bucky. I’m Y/N,” even your smile was radiant. “I’m sorry I’m late, Thomas insisted on me reading to him before he went to sleep,”
“It’s okay. Rebecca is the same,” he brushed your worries away.
You got divorced a little after Thomas was born, you had been on a few dates after that but none of them turned into something. The moment you brought Thomas into the conversation they would always make up some lame excuse to leave, or bluntly said they didn’t want a woman who was carrying the baggage of a six year old kid.
That’s when Natasha talked to you about Bucky. She said he was Steve’s childhood best friend and that he was a single parent too. So, trusting in your friend you decided to give the dating thing another chance.
She persistently told you about this guy she wanted you to meet. He was a divorced single father, and you were going to be his first date in years. She didn’t give you any details but sensing how nervous and tense he was his ex-wife must have really done a number on him.
“Isn’t it weird that our friends are married and we have never met before?” you tried to initiate a conversation he would feel safe in. You knew that if you brought up Steve it would be a little easier for him to relax.
And you were right, as soon as the words left your mouth he loses the tension in his shoulders and his face relaxes a faction.
He lets out a chuckle and you feel your heart skip a beat at the sound. His laugh is beautiful, you thought..
Everything went great from there, you talked, you flirted… being with Bucky brought you so much happiness, and it was the same for him. He hadn’t been this happy in years. There was something about you that nurtured every part of him.
You both noticed the chemistry from the start, the spark between you. This wasn’t just a blind date, this was the first time you both had felt completely captivated from another person in years.
You had had a good feeling about him, he was what you had been looking for all these years.
“I can walk you home, if you want,” he didn’t care how far you lived, he didn’t want this night to end. You nodded and linked your fingers with his.
As you started walking you fell in a comfortable silence. You couldn’t remember the last time you were this comfortable with someone.
“Are you cold?” he asked you when he noticed you starting to shiver. Although it was summer, the cold air of the night wasn’t pleasant. He took his jacket and put it around your shoulders. “Thank you,” you whispered, like it was a secret just for the both of you.
Bucky didn’t pull apart from you after giving you his jacket. Instead he brushed a piece of hair off your face and tucked it behind your ear, caressing your cheek in the process. As a sigh left your mouth you closed your eyes. His hands were so soft. This reaction gave Bucky confidence enough to do what he had been wanting to do the whole night.
He slowly leaned in to brush his lips against yours, giving you the chance to push away. But you didn’t. Instead, you wrapped your arms around his frame, standing on your tiptoes in order to close the small gap that remained between the two of you.
Your lips were softer than he had imagined, they were like biting into cotton candy. For you, kissing him was like floating, weightless in the water. It was sweet. So effortlessly sweet.
Bucky was serenity, he was the home you had been looking for all these years. And you were his.