As Long As You Want Me
Pairing: Biker!Bucky Barnes x Reader
Summary: You return Alpine to your neighbor after she wanders onto your porch lighting a spark between the two of you.
My entry for @lovelyavengers writing challenge
Word count: 4137
Masterlist
You stumble out your front door with the heavy container of cat food while blocking Zeus your pitbull from running outside. Setting it down in the corner you huff and glance around your glass walled porch. You’re quick to notice the fluffy white cat sitting at one of the food bowls.
“Oh hello, you’re new.” You slowly approach it surprised when it lets you get so close. When you hold your hand out for it to smell the cat rubs against it and starts to purr. “You’re obviously not a stray so who do you belong to?” You scratch around its ears as your other hand searches for a collar to read. “Alpine huh? That’s a pretty name for a pretty girl.” It’s cute that whoever her owner is included her pronouns underneath her name. As you flip the medallion over for an address your eyes widen at what you’re reading.
Alpine belongs to your neighbor across the street. You’ve never spoken to him but you’ve seen him enough in passing or while you’re sitting out here and notice him across the way. His bike woke you up sometimes when he got in late but you didn’t mind it. He didn’t strike you as a cat person though with his leather jacket and scary aura, if anything you assumed he’d be a dog person.
“Alright then Alpine, let's get you back home.” You scoop her up and smile at how loudly she purrs in your ear. James is rushing out of his door and shoving his leather jacket on when you make your way across the street. “Hi! Hello!”
“Sorry doll can’t talk right now.” He’s locking his door so he’s only gotten a quick glimpse of you and didn’t notice the cat in your arms. “I have to go find someone.”
“This someone wouldn’t happen to be a white cat with baby blue eyes and is an absolute angel would they?” He turns and finally sees you standing in front of him with Alpine in your arms.
“Oh thank God! I thought I was gonna have to search the whole neighborhood for her.” Alpine meows at him as he takes her from you. “Where’d you find her?”
“Oh, I don’t know if you’ve noticed the house with the sunroom type of porch with the doggy door but that’s my place. It’s so strays are able to get food and have somewhere warm and dry to go. I walked out today to fill some of the food bowls to find her there munching on what was left in one of them. She let me get close to her without scurrying off or hissing which normally strays do until they get used to me so I looked for her collar and found your address. And badabing badaboom here we are.” You finish your rambling while he finishes unlocking his door and putting Alpine inside. You’re not even sure he paid much attention to it.
“Sorry to cause you any trouble. She must’ve gotten out early this morning when I was working on my car in the garage.”
“Oh it was no trouble at all, I welcome all animals whether they’re strays, outside pets, or even animals that aren’t cats. I’ve gotten raccoons, possums, and a few dogs here and there. The dogs are normally someone's pet that got out and smelled the food. I can get those back to their owners if I’m home. The stray dogs I normally get checked out at the vet before I take them to the no kill shelter. Sometimes I’ll take one in if it’s a pup or a senior.” He just stares at you with an unreadable look in his eyes. “Okay well I should get back to filling up the bowls so I can feed my own pets and get to work. Have a good day James.” You turn with a wave ready to get home.
“Bucky.” His voice stops you from walking away.
“What?” You turn back to face him.
“It’s Bucky.”
“Bucky, alright. Have a good day Bucky! If she wanders over again I just might be tempted to keep her so watch out!” You wink and wave at him as you cross the street to head back home.
Bucky watches as you open the door to your porch and smiles as two cats scurry out causing you to jump a bit. He shakes his head before locking his door and hopping on his bike to head over to the garage.
“I’m assuming this means you found Alpine then?” Sam asks Bucky as he walks into their place of work. He had called him earlier to let him know that he’d be late today due to the whole situation.
“She wandered into my neighbor's porch and she brought her over as I was running out the door.”
“Ah so a girl brought her over? Was she cute?” Sam waggles his eyebrows as he straightens up from the car he’s working on to look at his friend who’s getting ready to slide under the car next to his to start its oil change.
“I guess.” Bucky shrugs. “She kept rambling about her porch and how she has it set up for strays. I think I’ll buy her some cat food as a thank you on my way home.”
“You’re into her.” “No don’t be stupid Sam. This was the first time I even met the girl. I just want to do something nice for her because she brought Alpine home.” As he speaks though he can’t help the smile that crosses his face as he remembers how the morning sun reflected off your hair giving you a kind of halo.
“Alright well I know this pet store that sells in bulk, this chick I met at the bar last week works there. And before you start spouting your only organic food nonsense, it’s for strays they don’t need that expensive bullshit you always buy.”
“Send me the address and I’ll go after work before meeting you at the bar.”
“Oh Wanda I wish you could’ve seen her, she was the most beautiful cat I’ve ever seen in person. I mean you could just tell she was very well groomed.” Wanda rolls her eyes but smiles nonetheless as you ramble on about the cat you found this morning again.
“Babes I know, you’ve told me twice already today.”
“Oh, well have I told you that she belonged to my biker neighbor I’ve told you about before. I mean I didn’t expect it but he was so relieved when I brought her over. And he seems so nice, didn’t even seem annoyed when I was rambling on like I normally do.” While you speak you organize the shelves of fish tank decorations. You and Wanda have been on stocking duty for the last couple hours taking turns helping customers when they come in.
“That’s good, more people shouldn’t get annoyed when you ramble, it’s cute.” The bell at the front of the store rings and Wanda walks away to go greet whoever is walking in. you’re walking over to the cat section arms full of toys when you bump into someone.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just so focused on keeping all of these balanced and in my arms that I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings and-”
“Doll?” Your eyes go wide as you recognize the voice of the man you’ve been thinking about all day when you weren’t thinking of his cat.
“Bucky! Hi, what are you doing here? Probably looking for something for Alpine that was a stupid question sorry.” You shift your arms as the cat toy pile starts to seem like it’ll topple over. Bucky’s quick to take the majority of it from your arms and move over so you can keep walking.
“Nah I was actually coming to buy some cat food to drop off at your place as a thank you.” If he wasn’t holding anything he would’ve been rubbing the back of his neck. His words send butterflies to your stomach and you walk ahead of him so he can’t see your smile.
“That’s very sweet of you but you don’t have to. I’m sure anyone else would’ve brought Alpine home if they found her. I was just doing my neighborly duty. Besides, I get all my stuff here at a discounted price. Most of the time it’s more discounted than my coworkers because our owner Stan knows about the whole situation and says he wants to help in any way he can.” As you start to put each toy in its relative spot Bucky follows your lead and helps you. “I was actually gonna get some today before heading home.”
“If that’s the case at least let me help load it into your car.”
“Alright, I’ll be done in like, what time is it?” You look at your phone before he has the chance to respond. “I’ll be done in twenty minutes. I don’t know if you want to hang around here for that long or not. If you don’t want to I get it and you really don’t have to help with moving it or anything really. I don’t want to hold you back from anything else you need to do today.”
“I’ll meet you up front doll, want me to take some food up with me.”
“Oh, um you don’t have to, I was gonna use a dolly to get a few bags up there.” Before you can say anything else he picks up two of the big bags of cat food and balances them on his shoulder.
“I’ll see you in twenty minutes then doll.” As he’s walking away you realize you haven’t told him your name and that’s why he kept using that nickname.
“I’m Y/n by the way, I probably should’ve introduced myself earlier.”
“I know dollbaby, I read your nametag.” You can’t help but let out a little squeal at how this attractive kind man just called you dollbaby. As you walk quickly away from the spot you were just standing in hoping he didn’t just hear that you think about how it’s been a long time since you’ve had contact with a human man, that wasn’t Wanda’s brother or your beloved Odinson brothers, that gave you more than just an awkward conversation. It would be nice to find a new friend in Bucky especially since you’ve already fallen in love with Alpine. And it was hard for you to make friends, people often have enough of you once they get annoyed with your rambles and see just how little free time you have.
You do inventory in the back of the store so Stan knows what he’ll need to order more of soon for the next twenty minutes. You wonder to yourself if Bucky will have actually waited or not and if Wanda struck up conversation with him or if she ignored him and went on her phone like she would do if your other friends were standing around waiting for you to get off. You’re pleasantly surprised when he’s leaning on the counter and talking to Wanda as if they’ve known each other forever.
“Alright Wands, I’m gonna head out. Can you ring me up?”
“I can't, your cargo has already been paid for. I’ll see you later tonight?”
“Yeah of course, do you know if the boys are still coming over for movie night? I haven’t checked my phone for any messages from the group chat yet today. And what do you mean it’s been paid for.”
“Pietro will definitely be there but I’m not sure about the other two. Bucky here paid for it already so just get out of here before you convince yourself to adopt another hamster.”
“C'mon doll face you gotta show me which car is yours.” Bucky picks the bags again and motions for you to lead the way as he opens the door, the bell above singing as he does so.
“You shouldn’t have done that Bucky I could’ve paid for it. It’s my job anyway, I’m the one who decided to take care of strays as well as my own.” You smile despite your words. “I’m right across the street by the way. The red minivan is mine, before you say anything I know it’s a soccer mom car but when you have as many pets that need transport as I do a minivan makes sense.” You’re cut off from saying anything else as Bucky's arm shoots out to prevent you from walking forward anymore. A car whizzes past not far from you, running the red light and if it wasn’t for Bucky's arm stopping you you probably would’ve gotten hit.
“Slow down asshole!” He turns to look at you then as if checking for a hair out of place. “Are you alright? Some people need to retake their driver's tests I swear.”
“I’m good thanks for being my knight in shining armor Buck. Alright this is me, you can just throw the food in the back seat.” Once the two of you reach your car you swing open the side door for him. “Thanks for buying it too, I’m just now realizing I didn’t thank you. You must think I’m so rude but I’ve never really had someone be nice enough to buy me this much cat food. I mean Wanda and the guys will sometimes buy me small bags of pet food here and there or maybe a new toy or two and Stan helped me set up my porch with the fake grass and cat trees but that was mainly just him giving me those things for almost nothing. So thanks again for the food and the whole preventing me from being run over thing. Oh god am I rambling again sorry.” You look down at your feet watching as your toes kick at the concrete of the sidewalk. Bucky tilts your head up with two fingers under your chin.
“Hey you don’t have to apologize, there’s nothing to be sorry for.” He steps away from you then and shuts the door of your car. “I’ll see you back at your place alright? I’ll get the food inside for ya.” All you can do is nod after being left speechless before getting in the driver's seat and heading home trying to not get too distracted by the motorcycle in your rearview mirror.
As you pull into your driveway you realize the mess he’s probably going to walk into. This is it he’s going to take one look around your house, at your pets, and turn around and never look back like most people do. He’ll realize that there’s no point in trying to be your friend because you’re the crazy cat lady even though you don’t actually own enough cats to be one. And you can probably forget about whatever attraction you have to him too. Taking a deep breath to calm yourself you get out and open the side door just as Bucky’s walking up to you.
“You know you don’t actually have to carry these all the way in. You can just leave them on the porch and I’ll take them in myself.”
“It’s fine, I don’t have anything I’d rather be doing than helping a pretty girl carry cat food into her house. Besides you’ve met Alpine it’s only fair I get to meet your pets.” He picks up the bags again and waits for you to lead the way while you sigh and close the door.
“Alright, just, be prepared because it’s not just like a couple pets okay? And I’m not just saying that because it’s more than two, I mean I have four dogs and three cats and then there’s all the others. So just be aware that when I open this door it could be complete chaos and I’ll completely understand if you don’t want to be around it.”
“Doll, don’t worry about it. Nothing could be more chaotic than my friend Sam's apartment, it's truly a mess and I go there at least once a week.” You take one more deep breath before opening your door. The sound of barking invades your ears as the dogs start to run at the door.
“Hi babies! I’m home!” You distract them off to the side while Bucky walks in and shuts the door behind him. He doesn’t move any farther than the doorway, looking around your living room and taking in every detail. The couches that have been scratched up in the back, the different cat and dog toys spread out on the floor, the shelf of movies next to the tv stand, and the different photos that hang on your walls and live on shelf space. “The kitchen is this way, if you want to follow me.” As you lead him through the dining room he notices the shelves of puzzles and board games and how you have a table big enough for a family of six even though he’s pretty sure you live there alone. There’s a giant fish tank against one wall and an almost completed puzzle on the table. There’s even more pictures on the walls of this room and Bucky can’t help but notice that they seem to all be of the same people. “You can just put them on the floor or the island. I don't really care, it's just gonna get dumped into containers anyway.” As you fill up the food bowls for the dogs at your feet a corgi comes into the room and goes straight for Bucky’s feet. He crouches down to pet him and you stand up and pet the cat that’s hopped up on the counter next to you.
“That’s Thorgi, I lost a bet with Wanda’s twin that he got to name the next dog I got so he named this one after our friend Thor. I rescued him after someone surrendered him claiming he was too much work than he’s worth. The pitbull is Zeus. He was set to be put down at a pound because he was ‘too aggressive’ but he’s just a big ol sweetheart. The boxer who I’m sure will be all over you after he eats is Jax. I took him in when he was still just a puppy, an old family from down the street didn’t have the time to take care of him and knew about how I take in animals and asked me if I could take him instead of giving him to a shelter. And the shy dachshund behind my legs is Penny. Once she gets used to you she’ll be less timid but her last owner would beat her, at least that’s what the shelter said.”
“Did you rescue all of your animals?”
“I wish I could say yes. All the dogs were but only two of my cats were, Leo my maine coon and Shadow the tortoiseshell were. Tigger, my tabby was adopted from a pet store. And I didn’t rescue any of my fish, they were all purchased. My rabbits were given to me by a family member. I rescued one of my ferrets but the other one I bought because they’re social creatures and get depressed alone. And my hamsters were bought too.” He’s just crouching there staring at you and petting the two dogs at his feet. “Alright c’mon tell me I’m crazy.”
“You’re crazy. But it’s in the best way possible doll. I don’t know anyone who would take on the responsibility of taking care of so many animals.”
“Yeah they’re a handful and it can get a little overwhelming sometimes but I love them and I have friends like Wanda who will come help take care of them if I need it. Not that I actually have that many more than Wanda, it’s a little difficult to have a life outside of these guys but that’s okay. It just means that I’ve lost friends because I can’t go out all the time or I have to cancel or change plans last minute because something happened with them. But these guys and my support group are all the friends I need so that’s okay. And I discovered pretty early on that there’s no point in dating if they can’t understand that all of what I do here is important to me. It’s the first thing I open up with when I’m set up on dates or I start an online conversation. Y’know just ‘hi I’m Y/n and I have four dogs, three cats, rabbits, ferrets, fish, and hamsters.’ Normally they say I’m crazy and never message me again or if it’s an in person date they say that’s cool and will ask me questions about them. But really the more I talk about them the more people realize that taking care of them is really all I do not to mention the strays, and they decide that’s not for them. I get it though, I’m never too upset about it. Besides, I don't want to be with someone who can’t get behind it or doesn’t want to help out. There’s a strange look in Bucky’s eyes when you look away from Tigger at him. “I’m rambling again aren’t I? Sorry.”
“I thought I told you not to apologize for that.” He stands up and makes his way over to you as he speaks. “I like your rambling. I’ve always been more of a listener anyway. And even if I wasn’t I would still like it. It’s cute and part of who you are.”
“You better watch out Buck, you keep saying things like that and I’ll fall in love with you.”
“That wouldn’t be too bad now would it pretty girl?” Just as you’re both nose to nose your phone begins to ring. You reach into your back pocket to answer while Bucky only backs up a little bit.
“Hello?”
“Lady Y/n!”
“Sir Thor! What do I owe the pleasure?” Your nicknames for eachother started when you were kids running around playing slay the dragon with fake swords and a hammer Thor always carried around. Bucky watches as your face lights up as you answer the phone and smiles at the sight.
“Movie night is still on at your place tonight right?”
“It sure is. Are you and Loki coming?”
“Of course! We’re actually at the store picking up snacks now, wanted to make sure we had the place right.” You can hear Loki saying something in the background. “Well then you should’ve called her yourself. Loki’s trying to get me to give him the phone even though he didn’t want to call at all. I’ll let you go though, you probably want to clean up all the toys even though we’d all be fine if they were still there.”
“Alright, I’ll see you guys in a bit. Bye!” After you hang up you see a message from Wanda telling you she’ll be on her way over after she stops at home.
“So movie night tonight?”
“Oh, we do a movie night at least once a week and a game night every other week. Most times we do either one of them more than once though. Because as much as they’re my only friends they’re also basically each other's only friends. Thor’s the only one who has a friend group outside of ours, they’re nice though I’ve met them a few times. They all get together once a week to play D and D. His friend Sif said she’d teach me but our schedules never line up. Anyway movie night is tonight, yes. Do you want to stay for it?”
“I’d love to stay for it. Let me call my friend Sam to let him know I won’t be at the bar tonight.”
“I didn’t know you had plans already, you don’t have to stay y'know. You can still go to the bar.”
“I want to stay, Sam will be fine. I go with him every night. I’ll be right back pretty girl.” He kisses the side of your head before walking away while pulling his phone out leaving you there with butterflies in your stomach. You focus your attention on Penny as you pick her up and wait for Bucky to come back. “Hey doll, you care if Sam comes too he won’t leave me alone about it now. The man is blowing up my phone with texts even though I already told him no.”
“Yeah, he can come.”
“He’s an annoying fucker though, I gotta warn you. You’ll like him I think. I hope so at least because if I’m gonna be sticking around for a while he’s bound to be around.”
“You’ll be sticking around?”
“For as long as you want me to doll.”
Bucky Taglist: @koressecretidentity @stevieintheimpala @unmagically @peachytea01 @the-chocoholic-writer @perksofbeingatrex @rachmmb @quokkatrash @vanillamaa @strawb3rrydr3ss @that-sarcastic-writer @spideyycents @dissectiontime @aiyanalevina @mooncaffeine @fanofallthefics @yoongisdumplingcheeks @sailormajinmoon @sophielovesbarnes @collywobbl @alina02 @toothhurtyam @the-lady-vanora @eliwinchester99
Marvel Taglist: @its-the-autism-innit-luv @milkiane @rorysreallyrandom @lieswithoutfairytales @sugarbutterbailey @1-800-ch3rry @amelia-song-pond @neenieweenie @officiallyunofficialperson @rocketxgirl @fluffy-bnny @bunnyweasley23
