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ijustreallylovezebras · 6 years

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Corner Dwellers

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Y/N is at one of Tony’s parties. She meets another corner dweller

Requested: No

Warnings: Social anxiety

“You look like you’d rather be anywhere else right now,” I turn, letting out a slight laugh at the man’s sentence. He looks familiar, even though I can’t quite place him.

“Probably because I would,” I agree, “I’m not very good at this,” I gesture around me, “Parties,” I add in case he was in any doubt.

“Neither. May I join you in your corner?” He asks and I move over, making a show of presenting the other side of the seat to him.

“Be my guest,” he sits down next to me. “I’m Y/N, by the way,”

“Bucky,” he returns, holding his empty hand out, which I take, grinning.

“That’s where I recognise you from, then,” I realise and Bucky gives me a tight lipped smile, clearly not appreciative of being recognised.

“I don’t recognise you,” he tells me and I wave him off with a shrug of my shoulders.

“I try to go as unnoticed as possible,” I tell him and his smile becomes a little more genuine at my words. “I work with Bruce, though, and I was told that I had to attend this,” I take a drink from my water and Bucky frowns a little.

“You’re not drinking?” I shake my head, feeling my face heat up slightly at the question.

“I’m not a big drinker,” I say quickly, staring out into the crowd of people.

“How come?” Bucky asks, clearly not catching on to my reluctance to talk about this topic of conversation.

“Just... reasons,” I respond, looking straight ahead, pretending to not notice Bucky’s stare on the side of my face.

“Right,” Bucky says quietly. The two of us sit in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes and, just as it’s beginning to become unbearable, I decide to break it.

“So... you know Mary?” I ask and Bucky frowns a little.

“Works with Stark in the tech department?” I nod. “Yeah, she did a little on my arm once,”

“She’s trying to get with Thor today,” I inform him and Bucky chokes a little on the alcohol in his hand.

“Mary’s trying to get with Thor?” He asks, looking at me in shocked delight with my little piece of gossip. I nod, raising an eyebrow.

“My reaction too, man,” I say and Bucky shakes his head, letting out a chuckle.

“Never saw that coming,” he says.

“Don’t think anyone did. You know that Lizzie’s cheating on her boyfriend too?” I offer, pleased with Bucky’s reaction to my gossip.

“With who?” He asks, scandalised.

“Johny,”

“From health?” Bucky confirms, mouth falling open in shock and I laugh at his reaction but nodding my confirmation.

“You can’t tell people I tell you these things, or they’ll stop telling me them,” I say and Bucky gives a mischievous grin.

“I won’t, but you have to tell me when we’re both stuck at these parties,” I smile at his preposition and put my hand out.

“Deal,”

“You weren’t here last time,” Bucky whines, coming over and sitting next to me. I let out a hollow laugh at his complaint.

“Yeah, sorry,” is all I have in myself to offer and Bucky frowns but before he can press further I start off with the gossip I had least learnt since we were at one of Tony’s parties. “You heard that Jenny has stopped drinking?” I ask Bucky who shakes his head, clearly still distracted by thoughts of what could have been the reason for me missing Tony’s last party. “Yeah, she stopped because Ted threatened to break up with her if she didn’t,” I tell Bucky just as Thor walks up to us.

“Lady Y/N,” He says, grinning and giving me a bow. I stand up, smiling back at him.

“Hey Thor,” I respond, pulling the insanely tall man into a hug.

“Are you feeling better?” He asks, pulling back to hold me at arms length in order to examine my features, concern etched into every crevice of his face. I blush at his worry but nod.

“Much, thank you Thor,” he nods in response to me, clearly unconvinced. “But can you get me some more water? It’s too crowded over there,” I ask, grimacing as I look over at the refreshment table and Thor beams, clearly happy to be of use to me as he nods.

“Of course I can!” He says, grabbing the glass out of my hand and going over to the refreshment table before I can thank him. I smile a little and shake my head at the sweet actions of the God.

“Since when were you so close to Thor?” Bucky asks, his voice sounding a little sour as he poses the question.

“Why? You jealous?” Bucky glares at me and I sit back down, resting my head against his shoulder. “It’s okay, Bucky, you’re still my corner dweller,” I assure him and he smiles, but seems annoyed with himself for giving in so easily.

“So you love me more?”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, bud,” I joke but Bucky tenses up at my words, clearly showing that I had hit a sore subject. “Sorry,” I say quietly, grabbing his hand on instinct, an action that makes him tense up even more at first but he slowly relaxes, squeezing my hand once to show he’s okay. I don’t let go, though, finding some sort of comfort in the action of holding his hand.

“Sam broke up with his girlfriend,” Bucky offers after a few more minutes and I sit up straight, narrowly missing hitting our heads together as I look at him in utter shock.

“Sam broke up with Lizzie?” I ask and Bucky grins, nodding, clearly happy to be able to offer some gossip for once. “But she was talking to me about breaking up with him not that long ago,” I laugh, falling back on my seat, almost missing the soft look on Bucky’s face as he watches me. But I don’t quite and my face heats up when I see the way that he’s looking at me.

“Yeah, Sam overheard and so broke up with her because he didn’t want to be broken up with,”

“I thought you weren’t friends with Sam,”

“We are... deep, deep down. And only on account of both of us being friends with Steve,”

“God, this is so teenage friendships and relationships,” I giggle madly as I listen to Bucky’s retelling of Sam’s break-up story.

This set-up had been going on for a while now. I had met Bucky five months ago and, since meeting him at that party, I had been attending many more than I used to. Truth be told, I loved spending time with the ex assassin, sharing pieces of gossip we had learnt in the time that we had last seen one another. I told him when I wouldn’t be able to make a party and he did the same, we had a good system going on and I had started to develop feelings for the sweet man.

“I’m glad we’re friends,” Bucky says and I’m shocked by his abrupt words that seemed to voice my thoughts. I grin and move closer to him, nuzzling into his neck slightly.

“Same,” I murmur.

“Are you okay?” He asks, putting an arm around me to pull me into a hug.

“Yeah,”

“Promise?” I give a tight-lipped smile and nod, just as Thor returns.

“Lady Y/N! Your water!”

I sit up, causing Bucky’s arm to fall off of me and I take the water from Thor, thanking him as I did so and taking a sip as Thor walks away.

“Why don’t you drink?” Bucky questions again, the topic had been avoided since the first time we had come to a party together and I sigh, shaking my head.

“I just... I’m not completely right up there, Buck,” I say, tapping the side of my head as I answer. “I have social anxiety an so I hate being in social situations normally and then, you add alcohol to it and - bam - it’s like I’m living in a constant panic attack,” I tell him honestly. “I can’t drink around people who I’m not close to because I get so freaked out about it and... it ends badly for everyone involved.”

I spare a glance at him from the corner of my eye. He looks sad, but its not the pitiful, sympathy filled expression I’m used to receiving when I tell people about it. I let out another hollow laugh.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to put a downer on the evening,”

“Is that why you weren’t here for the last party?” Bucky blurts out and I nod, drinking my water to avoid talking. Silence weighs heavily between the two of us, neither of us sure what we can say to break the new-found tension that lies between us. “I get really bad nightmares,”

“Excuse me?” I ask, taken off-guard. Bucky coughs, face filled with colour as he repeats himself.

“I... I have really bad nightmares and I don’t sleep anymore,” Bucky tells me, scratching the back of his head. “And Steve’s always worried about me,”

“That’s the worst, isn’t it?” I ask and Bucky nods.

“I don’t want him to worry so much,”

“Don’t want to be a burden,” I murmur, sniffing.

“C’mon, doll,” Bucky says quietly, resting his arm back over me and standing up, cradling me under his metal arm as he leads me through the crowds of people who gathered for Tony’s party.

He leads me up three staircases, avoiding the lifts because people were in them and we stop in front of a door. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a key, unlocking it and leading me inside.

“I’ve got you,”

Three months later, in the corner of a party, my safe spot here. With Bucky. He had gotten me water and looked nervous, his hand shaking slightly as he gave me the glass.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, already out of gossip to tell him. We had already covered Jenny and Ted’s continued grievances over Jenny’s drinking habits, Sam still pining over Lizzie and the on-off thing that Steve still had going on with Sharon.

“I have some gossip for you,”

“Do tell,” I smile, making a big show of turning towards him, giving him my undivided attention.

“I have heard rumours of a crush,”

“Who?” I clammer, desperate to be in with the news. Normally it was me with the information, telling Bucky. People told me their secrets, sure that I would keep it to myself because I didn’t talk all that much. I did normally keep it to myself, Bucky was the only one I would ever spread gossip to, because he was like me. He knew how to keep his mouth shut and not judge.

“Me,”

“You have a crush?” I ask, desperately trying to sound excited over the sound of my heart crushing in my chest. “Who’s the lucky girl?”

“You know her,” he tells me, biting his lip. “She’s beautiful. And talented and wonderful.” He says and I roll my eyes.

“That rules out no one, Buck. All girls are beautiful and talented and wonderful and smart in their own way,” I retort, crossing my legs under me on the plush sofa.

“I knew you would say that,” Bucky says, a rueful smile on his face. “But this girl... she surpasses everyone else, she’s perfect,” there’s a distant, almost dreamy look on his face as he speaks about her.

“Who is she?” My voice is barely a whisper and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he hadn’t heard me over the booming music of the party that was still in full swing around us, despite being in our own little bubble away from it all.

“You’ll laugh,”

“Why would I laugh?”

“Because you won’t believe me,”

“I promise on my life that I will believe you and do everything in my power to not laugh,” I tell him, placing a hand over my heart as I say the words. Bucky rolls his eyes and takes a breath, as though preparing to run a marathon. “Dude, you’re being so dramatic, who is it?” I press, pushing his shoulder.

“I like you!” It bursts out and even Bucky himself seems shocked by his direct admission. “I mean-”

“Please don’t say you didn’t mean that,” I cut him off, holding my hand up. Bucky shuts his mouth and I can almost see his brain thinking it all over.

“I like you,” he repeats a little more firmly this time and I can tell the smile on my face is too big as I lean over and kiss him.

“I like you too,” Bucky smiles and pulls me closer so I’m straddling his lap and he kisses me one more before saying:

“Lets be fucked up, corner dwellers together,”

Because I haven’t had time to finish the next part of UKA have a shitty Bucky fluff instead :)

#marvel #marvel fanfic #marvel fanfiction #bucky #Bucky Barnes #Bucky angst #bucky fanfic #bucky x reader #bucky fanfiction #bucky fluff #bucky fan #bucky imagine #bucky imagines #Not a request #please request

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