I Read About You In A Museum

 Ellie | Hufflepuff | 24 

[lowkeybuckytrash]

MasterList

Keep scrolling down for Harry Potter :)

Bucky x Reader

Broken (soulmate au) Masterlist

Missed Connection

A Much Needed Massage

Red Wine and Malay (Valentine’s Day Special)

First Snow

Worth The Risk Masterlist   

I’ve Got You

Steve x Reader

Take Your Pain | Part 02   (soulmate au)

Pockets

Drabbles (approx 1000 words or less)

By Your Side  (Bucky x Scarred!Reader)

Coming Soon!

See Also: My Favourites / Fic recs

[lowkeybuckytrash]

Broken {Part 04} - Incomplete

Bucky x Reader (Soulmate!AU)

Prompt: The soulmate clock is actually something breakable and you accidentally break yours or vice versa (taken from this post)

Word Count: 844 +some Warnings: angst but also eventual fluff, I promise

Previous Part | Masterlist 

A/N: SO... This one has been ongoing for too long and while I have the final 3 chapters mapped out... I just don’t have it in me to finish this story anymore. Maybe I’ll change my mind (you never know) but I figure for the time being, I’ll post this little (unedited rip) bit for closure. If anyone still cares, I’m open to posting the chapter outlines/details of the remainder of the story. I’ve included the final notes for this chapter at the end to give you a idea of what that looks like. Just let me know and I’ll post them, but for the meantime we’ll call this the end. 

Bucky couldn’t tear his eyes away from you as you shuffled into the kitchen, loose cardigan over tired shoulders. Another uncharacteristically late morning. You pulled a plate of leftover curry from the fridge and placed it in the microwave, the clink of ceramic on glass making you flinch. You leaned back against the cool counter as you watched your breakfast? lunch? turn. When it finally beeped signaling its end, you grabbed the plate and made your way to the couches where he and Wanda sat. “Hey, YN” the latter greeted sweetly, clearing a space on the coffee table for you to put your plate. You gave her a thankful smile as you took a seat on the couch, folding your legs under your body. There was a pause. A silence you were desperate to fill before someone could ask you- “How did you sleep?” Wanda’s voice was light and casual, hiding her concern. “Fine” you answered, “The usual. How about you?” Your eyes flicked towards Bucky before you could stop yourself and he gave you a pitiful smile. “Fine.” “The usual.” Wanda followed, a smile playing on her lips. “Felt great until I decided to hit the gym with Steve. I don’t know how the hell you kept up with him but these morning workouts are kicking my ass. He-“ Bucky watched you carefully as Wanda continued on chatting. The bags under your eyes were somehow darker than the day before, the concealer you’d tried to use to cover them accomplishing little. You pushed the food around on your plate as you listened to Wanda go on. You laughed as something she said and while it didn’t seem forced, it almost seemed sad. His heart ached as he watched. Wanda had noticed how close the two of you had been when Bucky first arrived at the tower. She’d also noticed how over the last few weeks you’d been more withdrawn from everyone. How you tried to keep up a façade of normalcy while suffering in silence. She noticed too how much Bucky was hurting. How much you meant to him in his short time there. She couldn’t figure out what exactly had happened and she wasn’t sure what she could do to help fix it, but she could leave two friends to talk it out. With a big sigh, she stood up and spewed some excuse involving Natasha and online shopping and free shipping minimums. Before you could think much of it, she was already behind you and the sofa, reaching down over the back to wrap her arms around you. She kissed the top of your head gently and you raised your own arms up somewhat awkwardly to return the hug. She looked to Bucky, raising her fingers in a wave, but he didn’t meet her eyes until a few moments later. Instead, his eyes were trained on your arm where the sleeve had pulled down as you’d reached up. Your clock was covered as it always was, but the skin around the bandage looked unusually red. Raw, almost. He could see where countless bandages had been removed, where dull fingernails had dug into the skin. As Wanda left the room, the only way he could think to bring the clock up was to ask. “Did you ever get to meet Peggy?” Your eyes met his in surprise at the question, then you nodded, relaxing. “Briefly.” You admitted, “ Once with Steve a few weeks before she passed. She was really sweet, and sharp.” Bucky’s eyes softened. “She was. I was so happy when Steve told me he’d met his soulmate. And to find out they got even more time together…” Your eyebrows twitched into a frown. “Except all those years apart. They lost so much time together. It’s kind of funny how this whole soulmate thing has a tendency to not work out.” You didn’t sound bitter but there was a deep sadness in your voice, pain crackling through. “Sorry I-“ he stuttered, fear flashing through his thoughts as he saw the tears well up in the corner of your eyes. “I didn’t mean to force you to… I just –“ his voice softened, “I didn’t want you to feel alone.” Your frown deepened, confusion clouding your eyes. Bucky leaned back in his seat and took a deep breath. Then he rolled up the sleeve to his right arm. Where you expected to see a clock, the skin was white, jagged, and raised. No ink. No numbers. “HYDRA couldn’t risk hope or attachment or questions.” He said with a sad smile. “They took the clock and the memories.” Your eyes met, yours searching and his gentle. You were at a loss for words. “Not that it mattered, Steve says it must have been broken to begin with with how I got around, but who knows.” He chuckled. “My point is, whatever is going on, you’re not alone. Your soulmate clock doesn’t have to define you or your future. I turned out just fine.” “You don’t have a clock?” He shook his head.

remainder of Part 04 notes:

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 Tags: @james-bionic-barnes​ @lilasiannerd-blog​ @andyl394​ @silent-yet-significant​ @andabowlofpetunias​ @shieldagentofthemonth​ @loverofthosebands​  @snuggleducky​ @andaesthetic-blog​ @cojootromuelle​ @assbutt-son-of-a-bitch​ @whatsbetterthanfantasy​ @kaaatniss​ @a-book-pressed-rose​ @ninjayjumper​ @kewlgrly​ @cassandras-musings​ @societalfailure​ @neeadinghugs​ @maha-pambata-is-my-patronus​ @melconnor2007​ @greeneyedgirls4​  @swtltlmrvlgrl​ @kapolisradomthoughts​ @flowercrownsandmetallicarms​ @huntermichelle​ @steggy4ever​ @hawaiipeople-blog​ @johnmurphys-sass​ @sumafamouxx​ @kazuha159​ @brokeinflight​ @xxxunluvablexxx​ @somethingwitty-somethingsweet​ @2017booklover​ @britty443​ @superunnatural23​ @swissgirl10​  @urie-bowie-mercury​ @fantasy-on-parchment​

[lowkeybuckytrash]

Broken {Part 03}

Bucky x Reader (Soulmate!AU)

Prompt: The soulmate clock is actually something breakable and you accidentally break yours or vice versa (taken from this post)

Word Count: 2266 Warnings: angst but also eventual fluff, I promise

Previous Part | Masterlist | Next Part - Coming Soon!

A/N: And how many years later do I actually post the next chapter?..  ____________________________________________________________

“How about you, Barnes? Got a special someone? A date?” Steve’s head snapped towards Tony at his question, before drifting to Bucky. “Oh come on. Entertain us more than Y/N at least.”

Bucky’s shoulders tensed, so slight that Steve would have missed it if he wasn’t trying to read his friend.  ,Bucky put down his fork, resting his forearms against the table in front of him. 

“I don’t really care about the whole soulmate clock thing.” 

“You’re kidding.” Tony egged on.

“Whole concept’s probably faulty.” His voice was too even, too controlled as he spoke. 

“Unlikely.” Vision protested, just as Bruce let out a “You don’t know that!”

Bucky’s face remained emotionless. Tony huffed, obviously disappointed by his lack of response. 

“Whatever.” He waved Bucky off, “You’re just as boring as Y/N..”

The conversation on soulmates died down after that, quickly moving on to the recent rumours and gossip that had been circling around the tower. Once Bucky had cleared his plate, he lingered at the table a little longer, then excused himself politely. You focused your eyes on Wanda as she spoke and tried to ignore his retreating figure. Steve excused himself as well.

Steve quickened his pace, not wanting to call out for his friend and draw attention, and made it just in time to slip into the elevator after Bucky. The doors shut and the elevator began to move. They stood in silence. 

When the doors opened once more, Steve followed Bucky down the corridor towards the gym and sat on one of the benches as Bucky grabbed some weights. 

“Buck…” he began.

Bucky didn’t answer. He trained his eyes on his form in the mirror instead. 

“Bucky, come on.” Steve tried again. “Let’s talk about it.”

More silence. “Why did you lie?”

“Who says I was lying?” Bucky breathed out, eyes still fixed on anything but his best friend. 

It was Steve’s turn to ignore the question. Bucky dropped his weights to the floor with a huff and snatched the towel in Steve’s outreached hand. 

“You know my watch has always been broken. It didn’t matter back then and it doesn’t matter now.”

“It didn’t matter then because the countdown was so long but, Bucky, it all makes sense now. It isn’t broken. Maybe, it never was.”

Bucky flung the towel across his neck and turned to face Steve. Wrapping his metal fingers around the hem of his compression sleeve, Bucky peeled the fabric off his arm. He held it, fist clenched, as the bare skin of his forearm was finally exposed. 

Steve frowned, his eyes flickering towards the bare skin. 

“What-”

“It’s gone.” Bucky’s voice was flat, emotionless. “It was on the arm I lost.”

The breath caught in Steve’s throat as his eyes flickered back up to Bucky’s. He didn’t know what to say.

“I don’t remember what it said. I spent all those years trying to distract myself from it. I don’t even have a guess for when...”

“That doesn’t mean they aren’t out there.” Steve began, but Bucky cut him off once more.

“They aren’t. It was broken then and it’s broken now. After everything I’ve done, everything HYDRA did, there’s no one out there for me.”

His voice was so cold, so sharp, that Steve didn’t fight him further. 

Once everyone had bored themselves of the gossip, you finally retreated back to the silence of your room. You’d tried to find Steve first. Had waited outside his bedroom door, fingers fidgeting and picking nervously, but he hadn’t been there. You could have asked FRIDAY or tried the gym, but you didn’t want to risk facing anyone else. Instead, you slipped inside your room, locked the door behind you, and sunk to the floor. 

As soon as you did, the dam broke. Everything you’d been holding back rushed forward at once. You gasped as the tears flooded down your cheeks, soaking the sleeves of your sweater with salt water and snot. You hugged your arm to your body, fingers digging in to the soft skin. All these weeks you had been holding on, believing him to just need time. B now you knew that he hadn’t wanted you at all. Your own soulmate didn’t want you. And it felt like your heart was being torn out of your chest. 

Once you’d exhausted yourself, tears finally starting to slow, you fumbled through your bedside table with shaking fingers. The cotton gauze you used to hide your clock all these years was kept there. You pulled one loose and shoved up your sleeve. Round and round you wrapped it, binding it as tightly as you could without cutting off your circulation completely. You smothered  the black ink, strangling the source of all your pain. 

The ache of fabric digging into your flesh was a welcome distraction from the pain in your chest. Exhausted, you peeled back the duvet on your bed and crawled in. Hidden under the sheets and blankets, cocooned in their warmth, you began to drift off to sleep. Sleep, you decided, was better than the pain of rejection. Anything was better than facing the hurt of being unwanted by your own soulmate. 

You woke up hours later. The sun streaming through your blinds lit up the wall above you and painted stripes in shadows across your skin. Bleary eyed you turned your alarm clock towards you to read the time. It was 5:35pm. You’d slept through the better part of the day. 

Your arm itched where the bandage was still wound tightly around, the skin red and irritated from where you must have been rubbing earlier. Slowly, you peeled the too tight gauze from your skin, letting the skin breathe once more. Staring down at your skin, a feeling of dread dropped into the pit of your stomach as you remembered all that had been said over breakfast. 

A knock sounded at the door. You realized then that it was the second, the first having woken you up seconds earlier. You threw the tangle of bandages back into your drawer and pulled on a loose cardigan, wrapping it around your body and holding the ends of the sleeves in your fists. Your hands felt weak but you held as strong as you could. The last thing you wanted was for it to be pulled up, your red skin and still ink exposed. It didn’t exist beneath the cotton, you told yourself, drowned beneath fabric it disappeared. 

It was Steve waiting patiently outside your door. He must of heard you coming because his eyes were trained on yours as soon they appeared. You offered him a small smile, knowing he wouldn’t miss the puffiness of your eyes and unkempt hair. 

“Did I wake you?” he asked gently. 

“It’s ok.” 

“… Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” You lied, “I just dozed off for a bit… Didn’t sleep well last night. You don’t need to worry.”

You knew that if you were honest it would all come out with a new steady stream of tears. 

Steve nodded, looking unconvinced. 

“Would you like to help me with dinner?” he asked instead of pressing further. 

In the kitchen, Steve pulled out the large pot from the cupboard, some onions, celery, and a bag of carrots. As he started with the onions, you began to chop the rest of the vegetables on the opposite counter. That was the deal the two of you had: he took the onions and stove while you chopped and prepped the rest. A comfortable silence settled between the two of you as you worked your routine, only the soft hum of music filling the space. 

You dumped another handful of carrots into the bowl resting on the island and the sleeve of your sweater fell down covering your hand once more. With every downward motion of the knife, every handful dropped into the bowl, it fell. It covered your hand and the base of the blade, getting in your way. You let out a small huff and glanced briefly to Steve. He was working on your right, standing on the opposite side of the island. You knew that from where he stood, if you were to roll up your sleeve just a bit, he wouldn’t be able to see. But he did see. 

When Steve finished chopping the onions, he carried them back to the stove top and dumped them in the pot. He turned back towards the island to fetch the garlic and paused for just a second. That second was enough to spot the red blotchy skin running up your arm. Your usual bandage was gone and a tinge of black peeked around the edges of your cardigan as you reached for your bowl. Steve grabbed the press and garlic from his cutting board and turned back towards the stove in silence. 

He felt his heart soften and break. He’d never thought that the talk about soulmates bothered you that much. You kept it private, that was all. Yet here you were hurting.

 After dinner, against the will of every bone in your body, you went for an evening run with Steve. It was the last thing on the planet that you felt like doing, but you did. Because you knew that you would only feel worse lethargic and holed up in your room.

You were still breathing hard as you peeled off the shirt and leggings sticking to your skin and threw them in the basket on the opposite side of your room. When you stepped into the shower, you breathed in the warming air and revelled in the feeling of hot water pelting against sore muscles. It streamed over the zeros in your skin and you traced the lines with your finger, thinking of how a part of you wished the ink would wash away. You sighed and covered it with your hand, closing your eyes and focusing once more on the water. You felt lighter, your head clearer, having spent time with Steve, but there was still a dull ache in your chest. 

You remembered how you used to spend your evenings. Before you met Bucky, you would slowly remove the gauze, tracing gentle fingers across the numbers as they steadily receded, and imagined what your soulmate would be like when you finally met. It was only kept a secret because you cherished it, them, so much. It felt too intimate to share, even with your closest friends. You used to love that part of the evening - the tenderness, the anticipation. Now you dreaded it. 

Once you changed into a clean pair of cotton shorts and old t-shirt, you patted your arm dry for a second time and smoothed the large adhesive bandage across the skin. It bothered you less than the gauze. You noticed it less. And the further out of sight, the further out of mind, the less it hurt. 

You tried crawling into bed then, but you weren’t quite tired enough to sleep. Having rested most of the day, you only laid awake as your thoughts began to spiral. After tossing and turning for what felt like forever, you decided to go find somewhere where you could sit distracted and undisturbed. You ended up down in one of the breakroom kitchens on the office floors. You could sit  there with your tea uninterrupted. The novelty, being away from home, was distracting enough. 

Over those next few weeks, that break room became your refuge. Since Bucky’s confession the nights had felt longer, darker. In the familiarity of your room especially, it was too easy to fall deeper into your own sorrow. The view from your window and the feeling of your sheets were so known to you that they seemed to slip away into nothingness. So now, more often than not, you found yourself tea in hand, perched on a plastic chair, staring out across the glowing city from a window different from your own. 

You enjoyed the silence. The solitude. Your thoughts would wander but it didn’t feel quite as all-consuming as it did at home. You thought about how horrible the last near century must have been for Bucky to reject the idea of a soulmate altogether. You thought about how you wanted to take that pain away for him, what you could mean to him, how he would hold you. And then you would remember all that you were trying to hide from and a feeling of emptiness would fill you once more. 

The nights began to slip away that way. Your mornings began later and groggier still. You started to skip the morning coffees you used to treasure so much in favour of a few more hours of restless sleep. Heading down to the gym for a mid-day workout or sparring, you still smiled at Bucky in passing, still exchanged niceties. You made small talk in the halls and kitchen and joined the movie nights with friends. You did everything that you could to muster some sense of normality. But your weekly trips to the library stopped, always some excuse coming to mind – a non-existent report that was overdue, a headache, a book you conveniently wouldn’t finish until Bucky was busy. Lashing out would be selfish, you thought. And even if it sometimes seemed easier to ignore him or wish him gone from your life, you knew that you would never be able to leave him. You were drawn to him and you would care for him always. Even if it tore a hole through your chest. So you let the gaping hole widen and grow. 

------------------------------------------------------------- Tags: @james-bionic-barnes​ @lilasiannerd-blog​ @andyl394​ @silent-yet-significant​ @andabowlofpetunias​ @shieldagentofthemonth​ @loverofthosebands​  @snuggleducky​ @andaesthetic-blog​ @cojootromuelle​ @assbutt-son-of-a-bitch​ @whatsbetterthanfantasy​ @kaaatniss​ @a-book-pressed-rose​ @ninjayjumper​ @kewlgrly​ @cassandras-musings​ @societalfailure​ @neeadinghugs​ @maha-pambata-is-my-patronus​ @melconnor2007​ @greeneyedgirls4​  @swtltlmrvlgrl​ @kapolisradomthoughts​ @flowercrownsandmetallicarms​ @huntermichelle​ @steggy4ever​ @hawaiipeople-blog​ @johnmurphys-sass​ @sumafamouxx​ @kazuha159​ @brokeinflight​ @xxxunluvablexxx​ @somethingwitty-somethingsweet​ @2017booklover​ @britty443​ @superunnatural23​ @swissgirl10​  @urie-bowie-mercury​ @fantasy-on-parchment​ 

[claraoswalds]

STRANGER THINGS, S04E03 The Monster and the Superhero

[claraoswalds]

#they are everything to me

[lev-calder-deactivated20230421]

What say you, Eddie the Banished?

Stranger Things S04E06: The Dive

[night-eyes1]

Me after Stranger Things season 4 vol 2 Finale:

[lowkeybuckytrash]

i managed to go TWO WEEKS without seeing Stranger Things finale spoilers because i need to finish my exams and i have 30 hours left until i get to watch it and was like i need a break to browse social media AND I SPOILED IT

[maria-taiwin]

[carlav-blogs]

Happy Birthday to George Weasley and George Weasley only.

Dont hate me

[muffinshark]

painted some thoughts re: steve rogers and illness

[s1utforfictionalcharacters]

[dailybuckybarnes]

SEBASTIAN STAN, CHRIS EVANS Behind the scenes of ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ in 2010

[thewinterclown]

Bucky Barnes & Alpine FALCON & WINTER SOLDIER (2020) #1

[dailywinterwidow]

THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER (2021)

[smol-bean-buchanan]

therapist: *takes out the notepad*

bucky:

[5ummit]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier + Letterboxd Reviews + Bucky Barnes