I'll Be Seeing You

@ frank castle.
(I know this isn't really the longest of posts. But I didn't want to ramble about nothing. If I'm going to give you a long post, it's definitely going to be a good one)

Bucky smirked as he walked over to Steve and Lucy, “What a dame.” He said with a grin as he folded up the piece of paper and slipped it into his pocket. He looked over at Steve with a grin, “I’ve got me a date Friday night.” He said happily. He glanced between the two of his best friends with a small smile, “I figured I would wait one date before asking if she had friends for my two best friends.” Bucky explained. He usually set Steve up with friends of the girls he would go on dates with, but Lucy usually would deny the offer. Bucky never really though twice about why she didn't accept his offers, he usually just figured it was because she didn't want to go on a triple date with some stranger that he had set up for her. He never took any offense to it either because he knew that a lot of the times Steve only accepted because Bucky pushed more on Steve than he did Lucy.

“So, what were you two punks up to while I was gone?” He asked curiously as he clapped his hands together. Bucky had been best friends with Steve and Lucy for as long as he could remember. He considered both of them family and wouldn’t trade them for the world if it came to it. Bucky couldn’t think of a time when the three of them weren’t together. ‘The Three Musketeers’ that’s what his mom and sister called them. He had never been as close with anyone as he was with Lucy and Steve. They could tell each other everything, and often times he would tell them everything.

[Your post was fine!]

Lucy had to give it her all not to roll her eyes as she watched Bucky ask some redhead out dancing. She didn’t know when it started, it never used to bother her, but she soon found the green monster building up inside of her. She didn’t know why she was jealous, Bucky and Steve had both always been like brothers to her, but at some point things had changed.

“Ya know, you could always just talk to him about it.” Steve’s words took her out of her own thoughts and caused her attention to shift away from the redhead and Bucky and over to her small blonde friend. Unlike Bucky, who was totally oblivious to the brunette’s change in demeanor whenever he went to ask another girl who’d caught his eye out on a date, Steve noticed it. This wasn’t the first time he’d suggested that Lucy talk to Bucky about it, and it wasn’t the first, or last, time that Lucy would shoot his suggestion down.

She sighed, shaking her head. “It’s not that simple, Stevie.” She mumbled, green eyes trained once more on the exchange between her friend and the redhead. Steve just didn’t get it. She couldn’t talk to Bucky about any of what she was feeling. She didn’t even really know what she was feeling herself. He’d always been nothing more than one of her best friends, but she didn’t think that was the case anymore, and she honestly didn’t know how she was going to handle it.

“You’re makin’ it harder than—“ Before Steve could finish what he was going to say, Bucky was walking back over towards them. Lucy shot a look Steve’s way, signaling for the blonde to drop the conversation for the time being.

“Count me out.” She said, pursing her lips slightly. Steve might have allowed Bucky to drag him along on double dates, but she never had, and she certainly wouldn’t now with whatever was going on with her still not sorted out. She refused to tag along and watch her friend put the moves on some girl. She just wouldn’t do it.

“Just waitin’ on you, Barnes. As always.” Maybe she wasn’t masking everything as well as she normally would, but she was honestly just starting to grow fed up with watching Bucky go on date after date with different girls and never once even considering that she might want that too. It was clear that he only saw her as one of his best friends, and nothing more, and she was honestly kind of bitter about it.

“Boy, I could really go for an egg cream right now.” It was clear that Steve was trying to change the subject, and Lucy didn’t even bother trying to hide the eye roll this time.

@ frank castle.
Bucky rolled his eyes with a laugh when Lucy refused his offer, as usual, “Lucy, if you don’t ever accept these offers, how do you expect a man to come sweep you off your feet and woo you? Shootin’ down my offers aren’t going to help you find someone.” He teased with a small chuckle. Lucy was a beautiful girl that was for sure, inside and out, and that why was Bucky never understood how she wasn’t in a relationship.

When Lucy spoke again with a bit more attitude than normal, Bucky raised his eyebrows in surprise. He wasn’t sure what he had done to make her upset. Steve spoke soon after trying to change the subject and put things on a lighter note. Bucky put his hands up in defense, “Damn. Well maybe we shouldn’t be working on finding you a guy to go steady with. Maybe we just need to get you laid. You seem a little tense, Luce. Is that what you need?” He asked, clearly not letting up on his tease just because she was upset.

Bucky had gotten worse from Lucy before. Plus it was kind of his job as one of her best friends to piss her off as much as he could. He hoped that she knew he meant no harm behind his words. He never really tried to make her really upset. He usually stopped when he felt like he was going too far. Bucky just like to see how many of her buttons he could push until she went off.

"Who says I want to be swept off of my feet?" Lucy countered, crossing her arms. The only man I want to have to do that is completely obvious. She thought bitterly to herself. She knew that she kept her emotions in check most of the time, but Steve had picked up on her feelings for Bucky long before she'd told him about it, so she figured that she had to be obvious enough about it, but clearly she wasn't obvious enough if Bucky hadn't picked up on it. Or so she assumed anyway.

His later words caused her mouth to fall open slightly in both shock and outrage. Whether he was teasing her or not, the comment was one that had definitely gotten underneath her skin. Normally, it wouldn't have, but that wasn't the case today at all. It had definitely bothered her, and she was sure that he wouldn't be that oblivious as to not notice it too. "Listen here, James Barnes, if that was actually the problem, and I want to get laid, I'd find a man myself! I don't need you to do it for me." She seethed, pointing a finger at him.

"Why don't we head on over to the diner on 5th? They have the best egg creams there..." Again Steve was trying to change, and failing at doing so, the subject. His words caused the petite brunette to fixate her emerald gaze on him briefly. "Apparently I'm too tense, you boys have fun. I'm going to go spread my legs for the first guy who asks me to." She said, shooting a harsh glare Bucky's way before she turned and started off down the street.

@ frank castle.
Bucky raised his eyebrows at her words. He could tell that he was clearly making her angry at what he was saying, but he didn't expect her to blow up on him as much as she did. He had honestly expected her to come back with a witty comment as they normally went back and forth with, or at least only get a little angry that he knew he could make her laugh later, but when she started yelling at him, he knew he had done it big time.

He was about to reply when Steve had cut him off, clearly trying to change the subject or lighten the mood like before. Bucky was surprised to say the least at Lucy's words, seeing that she was obviously upset. He felt bad that he had made her so upset. He thought she knew he was only joking. Once she had walked away, Bucky looked over at Steve, "What's her problem today? I was only jokin' around." He complained. Steve looked up at his best friend and raised his eyebrows and shook his head, "What am I missin'?" Bucky asked, obviously confused.

"I tried my best to change the subject, but you have this talent of pushing things too far. I'm not going to get in the middle of this. You need to talk to her tonight, Buck." Steve said, "Give her time to cool off, but you two need to have a serious conversation to which you need to not be your usual self and don't push her buttons." he added. Bucky was majorly confused, but nodded anyway, "I'll go after dinner." Bucky stated. He didn't know why Steve was being so vague about this one, but Bucky had a feeling eh would find out later.

Lucy knew that causing a scene like that probably wasn't the best idea. She knew that she'd blown things slightly out of proportion, but she'd kind of, honestly, just snapped. Normally, she tried to be a bit more levelheaded when it came to dealing with Bucky's latest conquest of sorts, but her jealousy and his comments sort of just added fuel to the fire. Maybe she shouldn't have snapped like she had, but there was no taking it back now. That's why she'd stormed off when she had. In her jealousy induced haze she realized what she'd just done and knew that sticking around with the boys wasn't the best idea. She needed to get away from them before she punched Bucky in the face or something equally as drastic and regretful.

She ended up heading back to her apartment. She could have been reckless and gone to some bar and flirted a few drinks out of a few desperate men, but she chose not to. She was normally a very rational person, and despite her outburst earlier, she knew better than to put herself into that kind of a situation. She was alone, she didn't have anyone to get her out of a bad situation if it led to that, so blowing off steam another way was probably for the best.

@ frank castle.
Bucky dropped the conversation for the moment with Steve, since his friend had said he didn’t want to get involved. Bucky had no idea why Steve wanted to stay out of this one, but the small blonde’s words kept going through Bucky’s head, You two need to have a serious conversation. A conversation about what? What needed to be said? Bucky knew that he had to apologize, but he didn’t know what else needed to be discussed. Yeah he’d been an ass, that much was obvious, but that also wasn’t anything new. Bucky was searching his brain for what possibly could be Lucy’s problem.

After dinner Bucky walked Steve back to his house then headed toward Lucy’s apartment. He figured she’d had enough time to cool off and wouldn’t be as mad at him anymore. Once he arrived, he quickly headed to her door and knocked, “Luce? You in there? It’s Bucky.” He called through the door. He knew that if she was still mad that she might not open the door, but he also knew that she usually left her window open to her bedroom, so he knew he could go up the fire escape and through there if needed, but for now he would stick with the door so he didn’t make her even more mad by just going through her window. He knocked louder, “Doll, open the door, we gotta talk.” Bucky said once he had finished knocking.

Lucy knew that a confrontation with Bucky would happen eventually. She'd acted completely out of character and gone off on him for the smallest of comments, and she knew that he'd know something was off. He might not equate it to jealousy, why would he ever equate it to jealousy when he clearly only saw her as a friend, but he would definitely know that something had been off about her. He wasn't that oblivious and thick skulled not to pick up on something like that, that much she was certain of, but what she didn't expect was for him to show up at her apartment only a few hours later.

She was half-tempted to pretend that she wasn't there or that she'd already gone to bed, but it was too early for the latter of the two, and the former of the two didn't matter anyway because she wouldn't put it past him to climb in through her window or something. Sighing, she got to her feet and made her way over to the door, pausing for a moment to rake her fingers through her hair, before she opened it. "What are you doing here, Barnes?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

@ frank castle.
Bucky smiled slightly when she opened the door, "You know why I'm here, Luce." He replied, his face going back to a frown, "What the hell happened back there?" He asked her curiously. Bucky pushed himself through her doorway and walked into her apartment so she couldn't shut the door in his face and send him away, "I know I pushed you too far. I'm sorry about that, Doll." He said before he looked her in the eye and sighed, "But you've never reacted like that before." He finished.

"Steve told me that you and I needed to have a serious conversation. What do we need to talk about, Lucille?" He asked, using her full name to show her that he was serious and really needed to know what was going on. Steve's words had scared him slightly. Bucky had no idea what he and Lucy needed to talk about and he had been wracking his brain trying to think of possibilities. None of the answers he had been coming up with were even close to what the actual answer was, but of course he was too oblivious to see what the obvious answer was, even though it was staring him straight in the face.

As much as Lucy wanted to, she wouldn't have slammed the door of her apartment in his face if he hadn't pushed himself through her doorway. She might have been pissed off still, but she wasn't going to be a total bitch to him. Bucky was still one of her closest friends, even if he was beyond infuriating sometimes. "I know...I just--it's nothing, alright?" She knew that it didn't seem like nothing though, and he likely wouldn't take that as a plausible answer either, but she figured it was worth a shot anyway.

She frowned slightly at his later words. Of course Steve had said something to him. She shouldn't have been as surprised as she was. Steve had picked up on her feelings for Bucky long before she even realized there was anything that wasn't entirely platonic there. He'd been trying to convince her to talk to him about it for months now. Of course he'd tell Bucky there was something serious that they needed to talk about. Of freaking course he would. "Steve needs to keep out of my business." She mumbled.

@ frank castle.
Bucky shook his head at her words, knowing that they were bullshit, "Lucy, you know I'm not taking that for an answer. Now tell me what is going on." Bucky said and crossed his arms. He wasn't planning on leaving her apartment until he got the answers he needed. Bucky knew that she knew that he wouldn't leave either, he was just stubborn like that, "You might as well save yourself the waiting and just tell me so we can talk about it." He stated and took a seat on her couch, looking up at her. He needed to know what the issue was, or else he would be killing himself thinking about what the possible answer could be and why it was so important that he seemed to be the last one to know.

"It's not that simple, Bucky!" Lucy exclaimed as a frustrated sigh fell from her lips. She never wanted this confrontation to happen. She knew that it would eventually, but she hadn't expected for tonight to be the night that it did. How could she possibly go about telling him the truth? How could she tell him that she saw him as more than a friend and she had for a while now? She was obvious enough about it for Steve to pick up on it, and she knew that others had too, but Bucky hadn't. He was completely oblivious to it all.

"I just---I don't get it. I don't get how you haven't picked up on any of it yet. I'm so obvious about it all the damn time!" She shook her head, a humorless laugh escaping her lips.

@ frank castle.
Bucky raised his eyebrows slightly at her exclamation before he let her continue. He stood and walked to her slowly, it still not registering in his head what she was talking about, "Doll, you're going to have to be more specific. I'm quite oblivious to a lot of things." He admitted. To most people, he would have just looked plain stupid for not understanding what she was trying to tell him, but the thought hadn't even crossed his mind. Why would it? Lucy had always been one of his best friends. Of course he wasn't going to lie and say he had never thought about her in that sense, she was gorgeous and a great girl, but she was his friend. She had always been just that. He never really thought she would want to be more than just friends. So, he never did anything to get them to the more than friends point.

"I've noticed." Lucy mumbled darkly. Truthfully, she really didn't know how to respond to his words. She didn't know how to just come out and say it. She had feelings for him. She had for a while now. It was so easy for her to think it, but to actually admit it to him out loud was a different story entirely. How the hell was she supposed to go about this when she was absolutely terrified to come clean about it? Sooo...she tried to change the subject instead. She didn't know what else to do, and she knew that Bucky wouldn't take the bait and drop the conversation like they hadn't started it at all. "Don't you have better things to do right now? Shouldn't you be figuring out where you're taking that redhead?" The hostility behind her words probably didn't help her case much at all.

@ frank castle.
Bucky rolled his eyes at her words before she tried to change the subject, "You know that you can't change the subject like that, Doll." He said with a frown and sighed before he placed his hands on her arms, "Lucy, just tell me what is going on. You're starting to worry me. You know I don't like it when I don't know what's going on. So, please, just tell me. It's not going to do any use changing the subject or avoiding this because I'm not leaving until you tell me and I'm not budging from the subject, so just give it up, Luce. There's not getting out of this."

Lucy swallowed visibly when Bucky placed his hands on her arms. Her gaze shifted downward for a moment before she looked back up to his face. Having him this close to her wasn't make any of this any easier for her. Part of her just wanted to blurt the truth out, but there was a larger part of her that was crippled by the fear of rejection. What if he only saw her as a friend? What if he laughed in her face when she confessed her feelings for him? There was just so much that could go wrong with this situation right now. So much. She knew that she couldn't let that hold her back any longer though. She needed to just tell Bucky the truth. Make it quick. Rip it off like a bandaid. Or she could just lean up and kiss him. Which was precisely what she did.

@ frank castle.
Bucky watched as Lucy went back and forth in her head on whether to tell Bucky what her issue is. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she thought about what to say to him. He was just about to open his mouth to ask her if she was going to say anything, when she leaned up and kissed him. To say he was shocked was an understatement, but he didn't pull away instantly. After a minute of recognition of what was going on, Bucky pulled away and looked down at Lucy, "Luce...how come you never told me until now?" He asked her. Bucky wasn't upset by any means, he was just confused. He never even noticed, and he felt like an idiot for never realizing it.

Lucy couldn't believe she'd just done that. Why did she think kissing him was the best way to go about this? That was one of the worst things she could have possibly done. That was how she saw it anyway. He hadn't exactly kissed her back or anything, so that should have been enough of an answer for her. Shaking her head slightly in response to his words, she scoffed. "When was I supposed to tell you, Bucky? You're always taking some girl out dancing, and you've never even looked in my direction. I get it. Just forget that this happened, alright?" She averted her gaze to the wall behind him, afraid to look him in the eye and see the expression on his face. The one that was likely one of rejection. He didn't see her that way, and she knew it now more than ever.

@ frank castle.
Bucky frowned at her words, "I didn't look in your direction because I thought you didn't want me to, Luce." He defended before shaking his head, "I'm not going to forget that it happened. Why would I want to forget this?" He asked. He took her chin in his hand and angled her face up so she had to look at him, "Lucy, I will never be able to forget this. You know I'm not upset right?" Bucky questioned, "I'm just angry at myself for not realizing your feelings sooner. All of those broads I wasted my time on because none of them were you and I thought you didn't want anything like that with me, but all along I was just too stupid to see that you did."