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“Haha very funny Derek,” the blonde bombshell on the screen slowly creeps through the dark cabin, flashlight in hand as the old wood floors creak with each step, “okay Derek stop it!”
The blonde approaches another door, having already checked every other room for her m.i.a boyfriend. The second she swings the door open a body falls out, knocking her to the ground. It only takes a moment before she shrieks, struggling to get the lifeless weight off her body. She keeps screaming as she backs away before sprinting to the telephone but just as she reaches the phone loud eerie knocking comes from the front door. The woman freezes with the phone halfway to her ear, the faint beeping sounding out the speaker.
The knocking stops and the blonde stands frozen, body trembling as she stares at the front door. Then the door bursts open and she shrieks again as she sees a big shadowy figure in the dark doorway, the outline of a knife in their hand.
You’d jumped when the door got kicked in, pieces of popcorn flying out of the bowl in your lap. The metal arm around your shoulders tightens and you can see Bucky shifting in his seat out the corner of your eye.
Wanda’s sat across the room with her hands over her eyes as Natasha tries to comfort her. Tony’s laughing at the insanely predictable horror, Sam’s joining in with his own commentary about the movie. Who thought an Avengers Halloween horror movie marathon would be great? It’s only movie one and you’re thinking about jumping in Bucky’s lap and hiding your face in his neck.
The blonde on-screen is running around trying to hide from the terrifying murderer stalking her. She’s hiding in a closet, breathing heavily with her shaking hands clamped over her mouth. There’s a silence, heavy footsteps have disappeared and so she slowly moves her head to look through the small crack between the doors. The screen shows nothing in the room and the woman takes a shaky breath before leaning her head back against the wall. It’s only a few more seconds of dead silence before an arm breaks through the wall, right next to her head. Again she takes off screaming and running like a headless chicken.
The arm breaking through the wall made quite a few of you jump, even Steve clutched his chest in fear. Just seconds after that scene Bucky hastily gets up from beside you and storms out of the room. He knocks your shoulder a little in his quick escape and everyone watches him retreating out of the room.
“Horror movies too scary for the Winter Soldier?” Tony taunts only after Bucky has left the room completely. In unison both you and Steve throw a pillow at the billionaire, giving him a stern look when he looks at you both in shock.
Silently you hand off your bowl of popcorn to Steve and follow after your boyfriend. The movie and your group of friends are long forgotten as you search the halls for the super-soldier. Finally, you end up at his bedroom door, softly you knock a few times before opening the door a crack, just enough to stick your head into the room.
“Buck?” You quietly call into the air, you finally see him hunched over on the edge of his bed with his face in his hands. Slowly you slip fully into the room, closing the door behind you. As you approach him you see his shoulders shaking slightly and you hear a quiet cry.
Immediately you hurry toward him, you say his name again as you kneel in front of him, your hands brushing down his forearms.
“What happened honey?” You keep your voice quiet, scared you might startle him. Bucky sniffles before he removes his hands, revealing wet cheeks and red, bloodshot eyes. “Oh baby,” you feel as though someone is squeezing your heart, it hurts to see the way he looks so sad and broken.
You stretch up to wrap your arms around his shoulders, pulling him into your embrace. Straight away Bucky buries his face into your neck and another broken sob vibrates against your skin. His arms go around your waist and you both awkwardly hold each other until Bucky’s crying stops. Quiet sniffles echo around the room before you speak again, “you okay?”
One of your hands rubs the back of his neck, gently your nails scratch along the surface as you wait for a reply.
“It’s okay, my love. You’re safe with me.”
His head lifts and he removes his hands from your waist to aggressively wipe the tears off of his face. Your hands fall from his shoulders to rest on his thighs and you comfortingly run your hands against the thick muscle.
“I-I thought I could handle it.” His voice is gruff and low, he sniffles again when your hands gently replace his, soothing the puffy skin under his eyes. “I wanted to do it because you were so excited about watching movies with the team and I just thought I could do it,” his eyes finally look up at yours and you can see the pain that lies behind them. He sounds like a broken child who’s trying to justify to their parent why they’re upset.
“I didn’t want to let you down. I’m sorry I’ve ruined your night,” his sad eyes fall back down toward his lap where his hands lay and you feel that squeeze on your heart again like someone’s trying to rip it out.
“Baby, you haven’t let me down, not in the slightest.” Your hands smooth over his face as you tilt it back up in an attempt to get him to look at you again. You shuffle as close as you can, slipping between his legs so he has no choice but to look at you.
“I just thought I could get through some stupid movies without it triggering anything,” finally you start to understand what this was all about, “these flashbacks just started and I can’t turn them off.”
Bucky starts to visibly get upset again, his waterline gathering more tears and you even capture his lip quivering a little. Not many people have ever seen Bucky Barnes, former Winter Soldier, in quite an upset state. But he almost feels comfortable, or as comfortable as he can be, being like this in front of you.
“You never have to do anything just because I want to, Buck. You gotta take care of yourself.” You keep your voice even despite the bubble that forms in your throat as another tear rolls down his cheek. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think about how something like that could trigger you.” Your hands smooth back all the loose strands of hair sticking to his face.
“I just want to make you happy,” it’s almost a whisper when he speaks.
“I’m happy when you’re happy, bub. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable just to make me happy,” his eyes finally return to look into yours. His bottom lip sticks out and you hold back a smile because it looks so damn adorable. You can’t help but place a chaste kiss on his lips and when you pull away there’s a faint smile there.
“What d’you say I convince everyone to put on Hocus Pocus?” You tuck his hair behind his ears in an attempt to keep it out of his face, “we’ve watched that one before so you know what happens, would that be okay?”
Just as he opens his mouth to speak again, you interrupt him, “or we can stay up here and cuddle or something.”
A small smile forms on his teary face and he leans forward to capture your lips with his own again.
“I think forcing Sam and Tony to watch Hocus Pocus could be fun,” your lips curve into a smile. Your hands on either side of his head pull him close and you can’t help but kiss him again.
“Do you need a minute before we go back down?” Your thumbs graze against the faint stubble coating his jawline and he sniffles once again before nodding. “Okay, I’ll wait right outside for you.”
You press your lips to his again before placing your hands on his thighs and hoisting yourself up. As you go to turn to exit the room Bucky catches your wrist in his hand. Immediately you turn back to him, thinking he’s changed his mind and preparing yourself to jump straight into the bed to cuddle with him.
“Thank you,” Bucky holds eye contact with you for a moment before dropping to watch his hand slip into yours and give it a little squeeze, “I love you.”
You return the squeeze to his hand with a bright smile, “I love you.” Ducking your head you place a soft kiss on the back of his hand before slipping out of his grasp and walking to the door, “to the moon.” You call and just before you exit the room you hear his happy reply.
“And stars.”