Rain normally didn’t bother you. Waking up to it drumming against your window in the morning was always a welcome excuse to roll over and pull the blanket back up to your chin. Hearing a crack of thunder during movie nights regularly made you smile. You would shift closer to whoever was sat next to you - which was normally Bucky - until your arms touched. Sometimes he would raise his arm and let you shift even closer, then close it around you. You fell asleep in this position often. Yes, rain was good.
But driving in it was a different story.
It was closing in on ten o’clock on a Sunday night and you were headed back to the tower from visiting a friend. Rain was beating down hard on your car. You were hunched over your steering wheel, straining to see but the windshield wipers were barely able to keep up with the downpour and the fog was so dense that it was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead. The slick roads and strong winds also didn’t help.
Pull over and call someone, you thought desperately to yourself after having to jerk your car back onto the road after hydroplaning. You let out a shaky breath. No one was going to be awake in the tower this late at night. Lightning flashed in the distance and you took your foot off of the gas, allowing the car to decelerate to 25 MPH before reluctantly continuing forward.
You didn’t get far before you hydroplaned again. You cursed and finally pulled over to the side of the road. Bucky was at the top of your contact list and you hesitated with your thumb over his name for a moment, wondering if this was really necessary. You didn’t have that much farther to go. You were also the only one on the road so it wouldn’t be an issue to drive slowly. You could also just wait out the storm...
There was no telling when it would be over though.
You took a deep breath and tapped Bucky’s name. It only rang twice before he answered with a sleepy, “Hullo?”
“Hey…” you said and he must have picked up on the unease in your voice because the next time he spoke, he sounded much more awake.
“Hey. You okay?”
“Um…yes,” you lied, feeling awful for waking him up.
“Where are you?” he asked and his voice sounded sort of far away as if he’d pulled the phone away from his ear to check the time. “(Name)?”
“Oh. Sorry. I’m…not entirely sure. I mean, I’m driving home from (friend’s name)’s house, but it’s raining really bad and I can’t see anything. I’m not far from the tower.” There was silence on the other end for several seconds and you wondered briefly if he had fallen back asleep. “Bucky?”
“Pull over,” he told you, “I’m coming to get you.”
“Oh. You…” You started to tell him that he didn’t need to do that, but then the thought of having woken him up for no reason made your stomach twist unpleasantly. “You don’t know where I am.”
“There’s only one way to (friend’s name)’s house,” he said and his voice sounded far away again. When he put the phone back to his ear after pulling his boots on, it sounded normal again. “I’ll be able to find you."
“Okay. Um…thank you.”
You only had to wait about ten minutes from when you and Bucky ended the phone call to when he found you on the side of the highway. By then, the rain had lessened which made you feel increasingly stupid for having called him for help. Hopefully he wouldn’t be annoyed. While you were staring out the windshield, watching carefully for headlights, someone knocked on your window and you jumped.
You looked over quickly and saw Bucky standing there. He waved and you rolled down the window, confused. You hadn’t seen a car pull up. Did he really just run all the way to you?
“You expect me to climb through there?” Bucky chuckled, reaching in to unlock the door and pull it open from the inside. You noticed that the sleeve of his shirt was nearly soaked. “Move over.”
“Did you run here?” you asked, looking out the back window for a car as you moved to the passenger’s side. There wasn’t one. He dropped down behind the wheel, pulled his ball cap off and shook a hand through his hair. “I thought you would have had Tony or Steve or someone drive you over.”
“Did you really want to be lectured for trying to drive in the middle of a storm?” he asked, adjusting the seat so that he could drive comfortably. He looked over at you when you didn’t answer and smiled. You wanted to return it but felt even worse now knowing that he had run to get you. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” you told him and looked out your window as he pulled out onto the road. The rain and wind didn’t seem quite as bad now that you were in the passenger’s seat, and you wondered if your anxiety about having to drive in it had made it seem worse that it was. Your eyes started to sting a little and it took you several tries to swallow the lump in your throat.
“Your fog lights suck,” Bucky said and you looked at him. He was hunched over the steering wheel like you had been, trying to see. That made you feel a little better. At least you hadn’t exaggerated the fog.
“I know.”
He glanced at you as you were looking away again and next thing you knew, his hand was over both of yours. He gently unclasped them so that he could slide his fingers between yours. You stared at him. He smiled again and the darkness was your friend in that moment, hiding your pink cheeks. Hesitantly, you closed your fingers and relaxed into your seat for the rest of the ride.
Back at the tower, the two of you walked in together and you were thankful for the empty hallways. You didn’t feel like talking to anyone, you just wanted to go to sleep. Halfway to your room, you said to Bucky, “Thanks again.”
He looked down at you.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you called me.”
“Are you?” you asked skeptically, noticing that his shirt was still a little wet. He stopped walking and gently touched your arm.
“Hey.” You stopped walking and faced him. “What’s going on with you? Why wouldn’t I be glad you called?”
“Oh. Um. I don’t know…” you mumbled, playing with a loose string at the end of your sleeve. “I just feel bad that you had to run out there in the rain.”
“Is that why you would barely look at me in the car?” he laughed and you furrowed your brow, unsure what was so funny. He laughed again when you didn’t respond. “I don’t care about that. What I cared about was you calling me for help. You never do that.”
“Do what?” you asked. “Ask for help?”
“Yeah.”
“Well I don’t like to bother people…” you admitted softly. “And especially not over tiny things like that.”
“First of all, that fog was no joke,” Bucky told you. “I could barely see and was only pretending to be calm about it. Steve would be yelling ‘language!’ if he heard what I was thinking the entire way here.”
“That makes me feel even worse!” you cried out, but were able to laugh this time. He grinned.
“C’mere.” Bucky pulled you in for a hug and you shivered when the cold, damp fabric of his shirt touched your skin. He moved back and said, “I know it’s late, but are you up for a movie?”
“Oh. Yeah. Sure,” you answered with a smile.
“I’m gonna go change and make us some popcorn. You can choose something while I do that.”
“Okay.”
You wandered off to the TV room and chose 50 First Dates to watch. You had it paused at the opening scene when Bucky walked in wearing dry clothes and holding a large bowl of popcorn. You grinned when he sat down next to you.
“Best part about it being so late is that we don’t have to share this,” he chuckled.
“Right?” you laughed. “Clint and Peter would demolish this in a minute.”
You started the movie and about the time Henry met Lucy for the first time, thunder rumbled outside. You scooted closer to Bucky until your arms touched like you normally did. He raised his and you smiled, moving closer and curling up against his side. The rain beating against the windows wasn’t nearly as scary now that you were safe inside the tower with an excuse to be close to Bucky. With the exception of driving in it…rain was good.