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“Aw, score!”
Your voice rang out from somewhere under the fluorescent lights of your local Walmart, your utter excitement like that of a kid on Christmas receiving the one gadget they’d begged their parents for all year. Bucky looks up from the four brands of bread he’s been inspecting to follow the sound of your voice into a different aisle.
He finds you among rows and rows of hundreds of candies, crouched in front of several different variations of ring pops, scanning them with the efficiency and focus he’s always wished you’d give to his political jargon. But no, you are utterly picky about where you chose to spend your energy. It seems that, for today at least, these small, useless ring candies were what you'd chosen to spend your energy on.
“Indecisive?” He hums, crouching beside you and picking a blue raspberry Ring Pop up, turning the loud little package over in his hand to examine it.
“No.” You reply, squinting at all the packages like it might make you focus better. “I can’t find the Cherry ones. Those are my favorites.”
You’ve always been a fan of cherries, always opting for cherry flavored deserts, picking cherry themed accessories, even fantasizing about trips to D.C. or Japan to see the cherry blossoms. Of course you’d want the cherry flavored ring pop.
Sharp eyed Bucky immediately reaches forward and plucks the cherry flavor from about twenty other flavors packed neatly on the shelf.
You beam as he hands it to you, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek.
He stood, helping you up as well. “Why not just get a normal cherry lollipop? You’ll get a whole big pack of them for the same price as this.”
You scoff, rolling your eyes and tossing the treat in the basket you’ve been carrying through the store, among the rest of the groceries you’re buying. “You can't wear a regular old lollipop, Buck. Keep up!”
With that, you skip away, heading for god knows what aisle, leaving Bucky to mutter to himself, “But it’s two dollars…”
-
Despite his mutterings about the price, considering the fact a single Ring Pop likely cost less than 30¢ to manufacture and was sold at $2.36, it sort of became a thing for him to buy you a ringpop whenever he saw one.
Like Pavlov’s dog salivating at the sound of a bell, Bucky pulled his wallet out whenever he saw the familiar little packaging and those blue lined letters at the bottom of it that spelled out “Cherry”. Always cherry.
Unlike Pavlov’s dog, it didn’t take multiple repetitions over days, weeks, or even years.
Your dog had been trained into it the second you giggled to yourself when you popped it into your mouth in the passenger seat of his car.
Because yeah, maybe it was stupid that a little candy cost $2.36. And maybe it was dumb to buy one every time he saw one. But coming home to you, sitting beside you on the couch and pulling it out of his pocket, watching your face light up like he’d just handed you something precious rather than some over-priced sugar… Well, that was worth the dent in his pocket.
Your smile, the tender kiss you’d press to his lips, watching you put it on and wave your hand around like he’d slipped a diamond ring onto your finger—that was something he’d pay millions for. The fact he was getting it for two bucks every few days was the biggest steal in the universe.
-
Despite being attached at Bucky’s hip, you’ve never been with him to D.C. Whenever he had to go from “James” to Congressman Barnes, you'd hang behind. You didn’t see the point in following him. You’d be better off in your Brooklyn apartment with your white cat—Alpine.
But this trip is different.
It’s March. Bucky had been called to DC for a budget hearing that you hadn’t bothered to ask about. The cherry blossoms are in bloom.
So when Bucky was sitting in bed beside you, his laptop open to the American Airlines website, you reached over and upped the number of passengers from one to two.
He’d simply leaned down to press a kiss to your temple and moved on.
-
The trip was only a three day affair—and Bucky’s schedule was packed. He’d leave early in the morning, send you quick texts whenever he could, and come back late, a cherry ring pop tucked safely in his breast pocket like it was something he had to guard.
Obviously, he didn’t have the time to sightsee.
So, for the first two days, you avoided them. You sat on the balcony of your room in the Courtyard by Marriott, sipping champagne and enjoying the perks of a “work from home” job while trying hard not to look at the scene across the street.
On the third and final day, Bucky stirred beside you in bed dark and early. He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close—burying his face in the crook of your neck and mumbling, “Ready to go see the trees?”
You gave a soft groan, tilting your head down to smush your face against his scalp and mutter something about five more minutes.
He chucked and gave your butt a soft smack to wake you up.
Utterly reluctantly, but overly excitedly, you pull yourself from his arms and out of bed.
You both get dressed and head on a quick minute walk to a coffee shop called Greenberry’s for breakfast.
Fuel in hand, you walk to Rawlins park and sit on a bench to eat.
-
The scene truly is cinematic. In your opinion, none of the pictures or stories have done it justice. It is absolutely breathtaking.
The pale concrete is covered in a sea of pink petals—the wind gently carrying them off the trees and away. A view straight out of a movie. Beautiful in a way you just don’t have the words to describe.
Bucky doesn’t seem to be enjoying the view as much as you. His focus was elsewhere. On you.
He reaches forward and wipes crumbs from the corner of your mouth, a gentle smile on his face. “Let’s go take some pictures, yeah?”
He stood and helped you off the bench. Hand in hand, you begin walking—you intensely scouting good photo spots while Bucky watches the sunrise reflect off the tidal basin.
Eventually, you stop to pull out a folded tripod from your purse, which tells Bucky it’s time to take pictures.
While you do your setup, Bucky looks around and marvels at the beauty of it all. Sure, he’s been to DC many times before, and at this point, he’s walked or driven past the cherry blossoms more times than he could count, but it really isn’t enough to see them in passing. They really are so beautiful when you take them in.
Your prancing back to his side pulls him out of his admiration. You look down at your hand to orient the little remote you hold in it. One button is for pictures, the other for videos; so you have to make sure you know which one you’d be pressing.
Pictures were first. A few shots of you kissing, a couple silly shots, at some point you even sent him behind the camera to get a few solo shots of you with the exact composition he knew you liked.
Then, “Alright, now let’s get a video of us just standing here watching it all. Backs to the camera.”
“Seems interesting.” Was the only reply as he walked to stand by your side. He heard the click, watched you stuff the controller in your pocket. Then, your head tilted into his arm. So he pulled you into his side. A gentle breeze blew by, stirring fallen petals around and past your feet.
The silence was serene, and it lasted long.
At some point, Bucky turned to you. “Got something for you.”
You lift your head in interest and watch as he sinks down to one knee. A crinkling sound comes from his pocket, and your lips quirk up immediately—because you already know what this is.
What Bucky pulls out is exactly what you expect. A cherry ring pop packaging, already opened for quick access, though the actual lollipop is tucked back in for safety.
He reaches his fingers in and pulls it out. He reaches forward and takes your hand.
“Will you be my cherry lovin’ sweetheart forever? Or at least until the next ring?”
A giggle and a nod later, he’s sliding the candy diamond onto your ring finger. And then you see he’s sweating.
But before you can ask, he goes “Oh! Wrong one.” and reaches into his pocket to produce a velvet box.
“Sweetheart…” He starts, voice shaky. And it seems instantly that the server is experiencing some lag, because everything goes blurry.
Which is to say that your eyes are, in fact, VERY teary already.
“I’ve been to D.C. so many times. Saw the cherry blossoms many times before I ever met you. But it wasn’t until you that I appreciated their beauty.”
The big blink and thick swallow that proceeds those words makes you give a wet giggle. At least you’re not the only person struggling to see here.
“There’s a lot of things I didn’t appreciate before I met you. Like the joy in a little novelty item like that ring pop, or the simplicity of a quiet morning. You’re the only person in this world that could make the mundane look pretty and feel good. And I want to stay by your side to hopefully keep finding the hidden beauty in what is simple.”
At this point, he’s crying. His hands are shaking as they clasp both your own and the ring. And you’re in about the same shape. In fact, you’re kinda sobbing.
“As long as you keep showing me what’s beautiful in this world, I promise to keep spending two dollars and thirty six cents plus sales tax every time I see a ring pop.”
A full body laugh takes over you at that. You double over and nearly trip to your knees along with him. “You really memorized the price!?”
“Baby, I’ve been buying them at least once a week for two years!” He laughs in reply, squeezing your hand and wiping his eyes with his free hand.
“So, will you marry me?”
You stared down at him for so long it made him nervous. Then,
“Yes. Of course I’ll marry you, Bucky.”
At that, he leaps to his feet and kisses you—and he can already hear you planning how you’re going to find a way to marry him under cherry blossoms.