"I'm sorry,"

"If you're just going to repeat 'I'm sorry' over and over again then I really don't see the point," I inform Bucky, walking into the kitchen and pouring myself a glass of water before leaning against the counter and looking at him again.

Bucky lets out a breath, running his hand through his hair.

"You wanna start by admitting that you're a twat?"

"A massive twat," he agrees, looking up at me with tired eyes. "The biggest twat in the universe,"

"Now, wait a damn second, Barnes," I say, holding my hand up, a slight smile playing at my lips, "that title definitely has to go to Thanos," Bucky huffs a small laugh and shakes his head a little.

"At least I come below Thanos,"

"Who doesn't?"

"I really am sorry though,"

"Was it real?" I ask. It was the only question that needed answering. "Was any of it real? Or was it all fabricated, a web of lies to get closer to me, to make it easier to exploit my weakness when it came down to it? Because guess what, Bucky," I say, lifting my arms up to gesture around me, at the place that I had called my home for much of my life. "You're here. This, here, this is my weakness. Janie, Stefie, James. James is my weakness. His family are my weakness. Fuck, Buck, you were my weakness," my brows are creased in frustration as I tell him.

But unlike the last time we spoke, I don't have tears left to cry. Tears and sadness are not enough at this point. Eventually there comes a time in which you let go of sadness and expectations of apologies, of bouquets of flowers and unrelenting texts. Sadness gets replaced with disappointment, when you realise the one person who you care more about than anyone in the world is human too.

"I didn't want to go back to America," he tells me finally, breaking the few moments of silence that had descended upon us for my words to sink in. "That day, I didn't want to go back, I wanted to stay, talk it out with you. I knew you'd think I lied about... everything," his blue eyes shine when he looks up at me through the long, tangled locks of his hair, "you were the only person who made me feel normal,"

Normal. What people like me, people like us, strive to be. Being normal was something I knew everyone with special abilities wished to be at least once in their lives. Bucky must have wished it every day since he got out from HYDRA's control.

We look at each other in silence for a while, neither of us knowing what to say, what there is left for us to say. Everything and nothing had been passed between us.

"You broke my heart," I say finally. "After James... I promised myself I'd never let myself break like that again. And then you gave me that fucking smile and I was gone," I allow myself a laugh, even though the tears have finally filled my eyes. Bucky's mirror my own, though, and there's a grimace on his face as he tries to keep them inside.

"I'm sorry," his whisper is hoarse, his voice is cracked and I'm just so tired.

"You were the only person who I let myself love," I tell him quietly.

"I trusted you with everything I had,"

"God we're fucked up," I let out a hollow laugh and Bucky chuckles bitterly, nodding.

"But it was real, all of it was real," he says and I give a smile. It's small but it's genuine.

"Even if we got back together," Bucky's head slowly raises to look at me, hope radiating off of him in waves at my words. "You would still be there, I'd still be here," but I've planted something in Bucky now and he crosses the space between us and takes my hand.

"We'd figure it out, work it through. We could do it, Doll,"

"But how do you know?"

"Because I'm not letting you go again," I sigh, placing my hand on his shoulder and kissing him gently.

"You're still a massive twat,"

"The second biggest twat in the universe," he agrees but neither of us can escape from our wide smiles as our lips connect once more.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" I groan and hide my face in Bucky's shirt. The man laughs, rubbing my back with his metal hand and his other hand reaches out towards Stefie.

"I'm Bucky Barnes, ma'am, it's a pleasure to meet you,"

"Stefanie, but everyone calls me Stefie," comes her reply and she takes his outstretched hand. "I'd say the same thing about you, but I've only heard the bad stuff, besides you're hot. She stressed that, I seem to recall," I give another, louder groan and hit my head a couple of times against Bucky's chest, which is shaking through his laughter.

"I hate everything!" I announce loudly. "Janie!" I call, removing my head from Bucky's chest and turning towards the door, which the little girl bursts through shortly after my call.

"Auntie Y/N!"

"Save me! Mummy's being mean," I say and Janie giggles gleefully, standing in front of me in a protective stance.

"Don't be mean to Auntie Y/N!"

"Listen to your daughter!" But Janie goes suddenly shy, grabbing onto my leg to hide behind. "What's the matter kid?" I ask, crouching down. She points her little finger at Bucky, drawing patterns on the floor with her toe.

"Bucky," she says quietly and Bucky crouches down next to me.

"That's me," he smiles and holds out his hand to her. "What's your name?" Janie looks at me for some sort of confirmation. I give an encouraging smile in response.

"Janie, Mr Bucky sir," she says in a small voice and her small hand is completely engulfed by Bucky's.

"Just Bucky is fine, Janie," he says, eyes crinkling at the edges from his wide smile.

"Uncle Bucky?" She asks innocently, looking at me inquisitively and I blush, looking away.

"Not Uncle Bucky, just Bucky," I mutter and Stefie laughs, picking up her daughter with a cheeky grin.

"Not Uncle Bucky yet," she stresses and I groan again.

"You're worse than if Bucky were to meet my actual family," I inform her and Bucky places his arm around my waist, kissing the side of my head.

"Y/N cry," Janie says, frowning and I smile at her. "Y/N sad?"

"Not anymore, sweetheart,"

"And we are your actual family," Stefie says, her eyebrows raised before she turns and walks Janie back outside.

"I'm sorry about them," I say, turning to face Bucky who has a grin on his face. He shakes his head.

"They're fantastic," he assures me and I press a kiss to his lips.

"I'm glad you said that, because Stefie's right, they are my family,"

"Do I get to meet the rest of them?" He asks, and I shrug, kissing him again.

"Depends, do you plan on sticking around?"

"Forever, doll,"