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You are quite proud to say you have successfully survived any and all encounters with one James Buchanan Barnes after that. 

He frequents the diner normally with Steve, or his sisters or – and the most disappointing of them all – his dates. 

And, you learn against your will, that Bucky indeed goes on lots of dates. Which, you suppose you should’ve known.

You never serve him when he comes in with a girl because when he comes in you're either on a break or you haven't clocked in yet or you're just ending your shift, and you're thankful for it. 

You know that you wouldn’t be able to be the friendliest you could be when he brings girl after girl through those double doors and orders milkshake after milkshake. 

It doesn’t take you long to come to the conclusion that the tiny little crush you harbored for him turned into a not-so-tiny-and-little crush. 

It was big, bigger than anything you've ever felt for a man, for sure. 

So every time Bucky Barnes came in with a new girl under his arm, you could feel yourself deflate just a little more. 

They’re never the same girl. 

Every few weeks Bucky comes in with a new one tucked into him. 

One thing you do notice is that it seems Bucky just likes women, they have no particular similarities; blondes, brunettes, girls with hair as black night. Wide brown doe eyes, siren-like blue eyes, and everything in between. Bucky just really seems to appreciate women. 

“Just thinking about how much fun it will be to tease Yukimura about being a father,” I answered, still snickering.

Shingen laughed as well. “Lucky for Mariko, he’s a fast learner,” he said. This was true. Yuki might have been an awkward idiot, but he was sincere in everything he did and if it meant pleasing his wife, he’d go to the ends of the earth to do it. “It’s such a shame,” Shingen continued, still chuckling, “I have this goddess in my presence, yet she’s thinking of another man. I must be losing my touch.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re so corny.”

“Perhaps.” Shingen placed his tools to the side and opened his arms. “Come here. I suddenly have the need to hold my angel.” His cheesy lines made my face heat, but I slipped into his lap without hesitation and lay my head against his shoulder. Everything this man did, he did with the sole purpose of making me smile.

A purr of satisfaction rumbled out from his chest, coursing through me in the most delicious way. It would be so easy to distract him with a kiss; to drag him back to our bedroom and spent yet another day wrapped up in each other. Though as much as I would’ve enjoyed it, the sunshine was too warm and wonderful to ignore.

“Tell me, my love,” Shingen said, his fingers coursing through my unbound hair, “what is it like to raise children in your time?”

“I don’t really know,” I answered. We’d talked about kids a lot over the last year since returning from the future, but despite Shingen’s best efforts, it hadn’t happened yet. “The birth process is much easier thanks to modern medicine. Painkillers, a couple of days in the hospital, and you’re home. I imagine it’s easier to care for a baby with things like electricity and refrigeration. If a mom can’t produce breast milk, there are easily available alternatives. A modern kitchen definitely helps when preparing a little one’s food.”

“That kitchen of yours certainly was a sight to behold.”

“You know, of all the things I miss from the future, I think I miss my kitchen the most.”

Shingen’s hand stilled in my hair. We often talked of the future, but not of the things I missed. I chose not to dwell on the conveniences I’d given up. When we first returned, Shingen asked me often if I regretted leaving and I always told him no. To mention something I miss meant I had his full attention.

“What makes you miss that kitchen so much?”

“You’ll think it’s silly.” I turned my face into his chest to hide my embarrassment and laughed.

“Nothing you say is silly. Tell me what you miss.”

I hesitated and he pulled me back by the shoulders. Shingen made me look at him despite the burning redness in my face.

“The raised counters,” I admitted, mortified. Shingen’s forehead creased and a small half-smile appeared on his lips.

“The counters? Why ever would that be the thing you miss most?”

“I…I can’t tell you that part.”

“My angel,” he started, his gaze darkening as he stared at me, “you must remember that I am a master of information. I have ways of extracting it from you.”

Ways I’d enjoy, no doubt…

I leaned back against his chest, wrapping my arms around him so I didn’t have to look at him. His arms slid back around me, cradling me against him like I was the most precious treasure in the world.

“So, there’s always this scene in romance novels where the heroine is in the kitchen and the hero comes in to see what she’s doing.” A hysterical giggle escaped my throat. I couldn’t believe I was telling him this.

“If you feel that way about it, it must be a particularly good fantasy.” His lips land on my forehead and his fingers work back into my hair, calming me.

“Well, yeah…it really is.”

“Tell me about it. What happens after he finds her in the kitchen?”

“He interrupts whatever she’s doing by coming up behind her and putting his arms around her. Then…”

“Go on.”

I take a deep breath. “He’ll distract her by kissing her. And then he’ll put her up on the counter and…”

“And then he ravishes her?” Shingen asked, entirely too interested in my little fantasy world. I nodded against his chest and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing again. “That is quite the fantasy, Princess. I understand why you would miss your counters so much.” There was a note of…is that jealousy?…in his voice. His shoulders tensed and though he didn’t say anything, I could tell he wasn’t pleased by the thought of me doing something like that with someone else.

“Shingen…” I inhaled again and leaned back, steeling myself against the surprising coldness in his gaze. When I touched his face with my fingertips, he didn’t lean into it like normal. “I…I’ve never actually done that, you know. I’ve just read about it and…”

And all the hardness in him melted away, replaced with a new, almost predatory determination.

“I see,” he replied. An indulgent smile appeared on his lips. “You miss the idea of raised counters because you think it means you’ll never have the chance to know how it feels for yourself.”

“Yes.”

“Then I shall give you your modern kitchen. I can think of nothing more arousing than my beautiful wife in her dream kitchen making sweets for me.”

“You always turn it around, don’t you? You make everything about you.”

“Of course,” he answered with a grin. “Now that my mind’s eye has shown me you in the kitchen, your belly rounded with our first child while you make those wonderful molasses dumplings of yours, I cannot unsee it.”

He pulled me close and kissed me, his skilled lips and talented fingers teasing over me and breaking down every inhibition I had and making me totally forget my witty retort about his various appetites. By the time he let me go, I was a quivering mass of need. He did such wonderful, horrible things to me. The jerk prided himself on it.

“Perhaps, my angel, I can assist in creating some new fantasies until that kitchen is ready.” He rose from the ground, lifting me in his arms like I weighed nothing, and turned for our bedroom, his lips finding mine again.

Death is one of the few things in this world that doesn’t discriminate. Death doesn’t care whether the person they are removing brings light to the world or shrouds it in darkness. Death truly is a strange phenomena, why is it that you only remember the things you wanted to tell someone after they’re permanently gone?

Peter Parker is a man all too familiar with death and grief. Perhaps it was a matter of misfortune. Perhaps he was cursed, doomed to wander this earth with the ones he loved dropping like flies until his heart finally gave in. 

Tony Stark’s death had hit him hard, so hard in fact that he had resolved to stop letting people in. That had lasted about six months until her.

Y/n L/n had slowly broken down each one of his walls over the course of those six months. He hadn’t even realised he loved her until that fatal moment where he watched the light leave her eyes.