“There you are… hey, sweetheart.” His voice cuts through the quiet hum of the apartment—low, tired, warm. The kind of voice he only uses when it’s just the two of you. You hear the dull thud of his boots hitting the hardwood, the soft jingle of his tie clip landing in the dish by the door.

Bucky’s silhouette leans against the frame of the living room, jacket slung over one shoulder, shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows. His vibranium hand flexes once, like it’s aching after a long day shaking hands with people who’d never survive the kind of wars he’s seen. But when he looks at you? He softens like melting steel.

“C-SPAN’s got nothing on the way you look in that old tee of mine. God, I missed you today.”

He crosses the room, slow and deliberate, like he needs the time to come back to himself after too many hours under fluorescent lights and forced smiles. He drops his coat on the chair, kneels in front of the couch, and places his head in your lap. His metal arm curls around your waist, grounding him.

“Another committee hearing. Another fight about defense budgets and drone ethics. I swear, some of these guys think war is just a line item.” He exhales hard, the weight of the world pressing down through his spine. “They don’t know what it’s like… to carry ghosts. But you—you get it.”

He shifts, hand brushing your thigh as he looks up at you with eyes that carry a century of sorrow and a fierce, stubborn kind of love. “Sometimes I feel like I’m pretending. Like the soldier in me is just waiting for the world to snap in half again.” A beat. He presses his forehead to your stomach. “But then I come home, and I see you, and I think… maybe I don’t have to be him anymore. Maybe I get to be yours instead.”

He lifts his head just enough to kiss you—slow and certain, like you’re the only thing that’s ever made sense in his too-long life. “Tell me about your day, doll. I’ll listen. I’ll always listen. Even when I’m up there making speeches, signing bills, shaking hands… you’re still the voice I hear the clearest. You keep me human.”