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Bucky likes to drive me to class. Every time he drops me off and glares around at the other cars like an overprotective soccer mom I offer for him to come inside but he always says no.
And then waits for me to get inside the doors before driving off.
Because he’s Bucky.
He’s also always on time to pick me up (no surprise there) and the first time he did this I spotted him in the parking lot and walked over to his junky looking truck that nevertheless runs better than brand new, but that didn’t seem to sit well with him.
Of course, it took nearly three days of angst and pouting and ‘wrong? No nothing’s wrong’ for me to pry it out of him, but hey. It’s still progress, right?
Right?
So when he actually managed to use his words and ask for what he wanted, it turned out that that was for me to wait at the doors for him to pull up in the truck so I wasn’t risking myself by walking across the parking lot.
Which is sort of ‘awww,’ right? But it’s also kind of ‘level blank stare at Bucky until he acknowledges that I am an adult and can walk across a safe college parking lot.’
I usually do both, just to cover my bases.
Besides, it’s possible that Bucky was worried about more than just me getting hit by a careless driver—say, Hydra? Or any of the other enemies that he was fast accruing in his partnership with the Avengers.
So after aww-ing and glaring I hugged him and kissed his cheek and promised to always wait at the doors for him.
Because I’m the sensible one in this relationship.
Sometimes I still have to drive myself when Bucky gets called in but do I sigh quietly to myself and mope the whole way there on those days? No—no I do not and anyone who tells you differently is a lying liar.
Jamira, Ana, and Monica always notice the days that Bucky’s gone because—and I quote—‘you look like you couldn’t stop someone from kicking a puppy and now you blame yourself.’
Why on earth did I make friends with these people again?
And since Bucky’s schedule was unpredictable and he was gone a lot I got a fair few questions about what he did for work that made him leave all the time.
Gulp.
My standard response was ‘business trip.’ Lots of business trips.
And when pressed for what kind of business it was I responded with, ‘Well, they kind of send him in as a troubleshooter when things go wrong, and when things go wrong they need to get fixed kind of fast, you know?’
You know?
Actually, what I did know was the hell-storm I was in for when Bucky found out that I was describing his job as ‘trouble shooting’ but I didn’t care. Because that’s literally what he does. He goes places and shoots trouble.
Heh.
What? You have to have a sense of humor about these things, or they really drive you crazy, trust me.
So today Bucky drops me off like usual since he’s not ‘away on a business trip,’ and I squeeze his hand before I leave the car and walk through the doors to go to class. Sometimes I’d like to do just a little more PDA—not much, but a little—but Bucky still tends to be hyper-aware whenever we’re in public so I try not to distract him. Sometimes if he’s feeling calm enough he’ll pull me in for a quick hug or a kiss but I try to let him initiate. In public at least. Private’s a whole nother story. Ha.
I play with my avengers charm bracelet as the class fills up, knowing that Bucky will probably be checking up on me every so often, and the thought fills me with warm fuzzies.
He likes me, he really really likes me!
Class is interesting as always. Today we’re learning more about the nervous system and how our nerves actually work. Fun stuff! Since class is two hours long we take a short break in the middle for everyone to get up and stretch their legs. Ana and I head to the water fountain for a drink and on the way back we run into a worried cluster of our fellow students and a couple faculty members.
I tap one of the students on the shoulder and he turns to look at me. ‘What’s going on?’ I ask.
‘Someone saw something suspicious in the parking lot and the teachers are wondering if they should call the police.’
A hard knot forms in my gut. I swallow hard. ‘What kind of suspicious?’ I ask nervously. Odds are it has nothing to do with me, but then, the odds haven’t always been in my favor this past year.
‘Don’t know,’ the guy answers me, so I nod and eel my way through the crowd until I can get to someone who hopefully knows something more.
Meanwhile my thoughts are racing. Is it Hydra? Something else dangerous? Should I call Bucky? He could take care of it—the only trouble would be keeping the damage to a minimum if he thought I were in danger.
I never asked how many weapons were hidden in his truck and he never said, but boy oh boy I hoped it never caught on fire or something because the resulting explosion would probably take out everything in a fifty-yard radius at least.
The fact that that made me feel safe is something that should possibly be examined at another time. Maybe. If there was nothing else to do.
I got close enough to hear one of the teachers speaking.
‘That’s what the police are for. One of them can come check it out and even escort the students to their cars if they still don’t feel safe.’
‘Excuse me?’ I spoke up. The cluster of teachers looked at me, slightly exasperated at probably having to explain the situation to someone else. Again. I asked anyway. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Nothing to worry about,’ the teacher said with as false a smile as I’ve ever seen. ‘Just go back to class and we’ll—‘
I shake my head. ‘Please. What’s going on.’
He heaves a breath in annoyance. ‘A student spotted someone in the parking lot who looked suspicious. She told her teacher about it and now we’re going to call the police to handle it. There’s nothing to worry about.’ He gave me his false reassuring smile again. I gave it right back to him.
He blinked at me as I said, ‘Thank you, but what did this suspicious person look like?’ If I had to call Bucky I wanted to be able to give him some details. The teacher balked for a second before I added a heartfelt, ‘Please.’
Everyone loves a good please.
He stepped a little closer to me and lowered his voice, looking around nervously. ‘She said she saw some guy in a truck staring at her as she walked from her car to the building, and it made her nervous. That was all she said.’
A horrible suspicion bloomed in my gut, taking away my anxiety and replacing it with exasperation. ‘Did she mention what kind of truck?’
The teacher narrowed his eyes at me but he still answered. ‘Something older, a bit junky looking.’
And yep—ding ding ding! Suspicion confirmed with bells on. I struggled hard to keep my expression even, but it was difficult.
The suspicious man in the parking lot was Bucky. Big surprise. But why was he there? It could be for no reason at all, or it could be for a very big reason…
‘Can I talk to her?’ I asked the teacher. ‘Just for a minute, I have a quick question I want to ask her. I might know what’s going on,’ I added, hoping to grease the wheels and get this over with a little quicker.
The teacher looked confused but a little relieved as he ushered me over to a young looking girl being questioned by one of the other teachers.
‘Sarah,’ The teacher I was with interrupted. ‘If you could answer a quick question for us…’ The girl nodded nervously and I smiled reassuringly at her. It was way better than the teacher’s, and it helped her relax a touch.
‘Hi, my name’s Lily, and I just need to ask you a quick question.’ She nodded at me and I went on. ‘He said you saw a guy in a truck, kind of lurking in the parking lot.’
Sarah nodded again, almost violently. ‘He stared at me as I got out of my car. It was really creepy.’
Mm-hm. We are going to talk about this later, Bucky…
‘I just need to know…what kind of lurking was it?’
‘What?’
‘I mean, on a 1-10 scale of lurking, one being ‘you hardly noticed him but now that you did he’s slightly suspicious,’ and ten being ‘Distance is no obstacle to your death,’ what level would you say he’s at?’
She blinked at me. ‘Three? No—maybe…two?’
‘That’s all right then,’ I said with a relieved smile. ‘I’ll go talk to him, tell him to stop being so creepy.’
Everyone just kind of stared at me. The teacher who’d brought me over cleared his throat.
‘Right,’ He said nonplussed. ‘That’d be…great.’
I smiled happily at all of them and about-faced to walk in the direction of the parking lot. I could call Bucky on my cell phone, but some things were better handled face-to-face.
Oh Bucky, you were going to get it…
I determinedly pushed open the metal and glass doors at the front of the building, doing my best to ignore the whispering staring students peering out at the semi-distant truck in the middle of the parking lot. I knew that as soon as I stepped out of the doors that Bucky would be able to see me but I didn’t wait just outside the doors like I did at the end of class when he was picking me up.
No, I stalked over to the truck and glared at him as he hastily opened the door and stepped out. I stopped a few feet away from him.
‘Goodness gracious, Bucky, could you be any creepier?’ I asked him, exasperated. He blinked at me. ‘You scared that poor girl half to death and the administration was this close—‘ I held my thumb and forefinger only an inch apart ‘—to calling the police on you before I found out what was going on.’ I sighed deeply and only a little dramatically. ‘You know, I’ve offered for you to come inside with me.’
Bucky shifted uneasily. Ha.
‘If I remember, I’ve asked you ever single time you dropped me off if you wanted to come inside, but nooo. Somebody has to be all creepy and lurk in the parking lot scaring innocent college students.’ My voice turned mocking but I couldn’t keep the smile from my eyes. Bucky narrowed his at me but before he could say anything I reached out and grabbed his hand.
‘Come on. You want to be creepy and lurk you can do it inside.’
I pulled with my full strength but Bucky didn’t budge for a moment before he reluctantly allowed himself to be moved. I gave his hand a shake and I smiled reassuringly at him. ‘Hey, it’ll be okay.’ We got almost to the doors before Bucky gently pulled me to a stop. I cocked my head in a question at him.
Bucky shook his head and smoothed a hand across his face. I waited. He tried to speak several times but he couldn’t seem to get the words out. I smiled and gave a half-shake of my head as I stepped in close to him and rested my head against his collar bone.
‘Love you,’ I whispered.
There was suddenly a fierce pair of arms around me giving me a bruising hug and I happily stayed there until I felt Bucky relax on a long exhale.
I butted my head against his shoulder. He released me but I grabbed his hand again.
‘Come on, you’ll make me miss my class.’
I stayed hand in hand with him past the curious students at the front doors until we were almost back to my classroom. We came upon the same cluster of nervous students and teachers that I’d left five minutes ago and I walked right up to them with a determined air.
They fell silent as we approached and I smiled kindly at them.
‘Hey everyone. This is my boyfriend. He’s really sorry for being creepy and lurking in the parking lot. He didn’t mean it.’ I didn’t hear Bucky snort but I could almost feel it. I went on. ‘He was waiting for me to get out of class but I told him if he was going to hang around and lurk outside, he might as well lurk inside where it’s more comfortable.’ I got a couple snickers from the assorted students at that and the atmosphere shifted to a more relaxed one.
I smiled a bit wider. ‘He also promises to not be any trouble and he’s very sorry.’ I said that directly to the girl he’d freaked out, but she didn’t seem to need any more reassuring. She was staring at us with a slightly sappy look on her face and it confused me terribly because what?
Then I looked slightly behind me at Bucky who was staring at me like I was his whole world and he was so lucky to be standing right next to me.
Oh.
My heart jigged. I blushed and glanced down. Bucky shook our joined hands and when I looked up at him he was smiling.
I could nearly hear the ‘aww’s’ that I was sure everyone was keeping tucked right behind their teeth.
I shook off my embarrassment and squared my shoulders as I pulled Bucky down the hall to my class, but he stopped me before we went in.
‘Love you too,’ He said, as he kissed me gently, the friction of our lips sending tingles throughout my entire body. I beamed at him and pulled him into another hug. I felt him chuckle and his hand came up to smooth my hair. ‘Now come on, you promised me a comfortable spot to lurk.’
I laughed. ‘Only the best for you, I swear.’
Bucky’s eyes burned with some bright emotion as he looked at me. ‘Only the best.’
Class went well, with Bucky sitting quietly in one of the back corner seats. I stole a look at him every once in a while and his eyes always smiled at me even when his face was solemn. He became a regular fixture in the class whenever he wasn’t away on a ‘business trip.’ (the first time he came back from one and Monica asked him how it went, saying that she knew he did trouble-shooting, Bucky recovered from his shock quickly and aside from a side-long glance at me he chatted with her easily about his fake job. Later he pinned me to the couch and growled at me until I couldn’t breathe for laughing)
Bucky often brought coffee and doughnuts to share and the rest of the class adored him with the singlemindedness that only comes when you give a college student free food.
He always made sure I got the double chocolate sprinkle one, though.
Best boyfriend ever.