InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "If you strike me down..."

james buchanan barnes (whatthebucky) wrote in valloic,
@ 2020-12-07 23:03:00

Entry tags:

₴ inactive: bucky barnes, ₴ inactive: nyx ulric

WHO: Bucky Barnes & Nyx Ulric
WHERE: Their Home
WHEN: December 7th, 2020
WHAT: They both propose.
WARNINGS: N/A
STATUS: Complete

It was a quiet night. The goats had been tucked in for the night and the girls were off doing whatever it was that they did when they weren't home. It was just Nyx and Bucky and a cheesy movie on Netflix, which sounded boring, but was pretty much all Bucky ever really wanted. He had enough excitement in his life that it was these quiet moments that he really relished.

It was one of those moments, this moment, that Bucky knew he was going to remember forever. Because it was in this quiet moment that he planned to finally ask Nyx to marry him.

It had been obvious to him for awhile now that they were headed in this direction. The drunken proposal and subsequent conversation had just made that clear. It had been all too easy to say yes to getting a house together as well. So why were they waiting? Why not ask now? Because Bucky had no doubt about spending the rest of his life with Nyx and he was almost certain Nyx felt the same. So it only made sense to quit wasting time.

It wasn't to most romantic of places or times, but neither one of them were like that, didn't need it to be a special setting. All Bucky needed was a little courage and a ring and he had both on hand. He was just waiting for the right moment

The movie they were watching was rolling credits and so Bucky got up and stretched, asking, "Want me to refill the popcorn and queue something else up?"

Nyx tended to mark his life in befores and afters. Before the Empire invaded and he lived as some dumb twenty year old kid without much thought for the future or what it might mean. To who the idea of settling down felt like a lifetime away and a plan for any day other than the one in front of him. The after when he'd been forced to grow up in an instant. In a way that no twenty year old kid should be forced to grow up, a fact he'd really only realize later. And whatever far off maybe one day thoughts that might have come now and then about settling down, getting involved with anyone past a few fun nights, were shoved aside. After all how could he possibly ask that of someone when his life was nothing but fighting a war and leaving on a moment's notice never knowing if that would be the time he didn't make it back.

Before he knew the lengths of corruption in the ranks of the Glaive, and after. The having to live with the knowledge that the family he'd found in the midst of battle, near half of them traitors in the end, and their reasons for it. There was before he died. And then after. Ten years almost to the day and waking up in the middle of the ruins of Insomnia, another home left in the rubble. Before and after he knew who his father was, before and after all that magic awoke him in. Things that haunted him still, woke him up in the dead of night in cold sweats.

And then there was before and after Bucky. Not Texas, not Vallo. But Bucky. A marker he hadn't even realized had become one until he'd found himself in Vallo and suddenly missing something that had become so damn important to him without him even realizing it. Somewhere alone the line Bucky Barnes had gotten under his skin in a way no one ever really had before and Nyx knew he was better for it. Even if he hadn't necessarily been able to pinpoint that, instead just finding himself unable to let go, even when Bucky popped up without memories of those months they'd spent in Texas.

He knew now though. Knew why it had been impossible to just walk away when it had been clear Bucky didn't know him, why he'd still fallen into that easy sort of friendship that had always existed between them and why, after everything, they were here. In some ridiculously domestic evening that the concept of had felt so foreign to him for so long, hard to imagine when every day had been a fight. An evening that now meant so much in its quiet simplicity. That like Bucky, he would be more than content to repeat every night for the rest of his life.

Nyx sat up as Bucky got up and rubbed his hand against the back of his neck to alleviate the kink from spending too long in one spot. He looked up at Bucky and smile lazily, warm affection in his gaze. He reached a hand up for Bucky's and tugged Bucky into his lap. "Or..." he started, a smirk on his lips as he slipped a hand behind Bucky's neck, "we could start in on the 'chill' portion of Netflix and Chill," said with a soft laugh as he pressed a few kisses to the side of Bucky's neck. Though there was nothing demanding about it, not rushing to some arbitrary finish line, just an excuse for a simple moment of affection.

It would have been very easy to stay cuddled up on Nyx's lap and take advantage of the fact that they were alone. And it was tempting, with those soft kisses up the side of his neck and the feel of Nyx's arms around him. "We could, but then we won't get to watch the next Christmas movie on our list." As hilarious as it seemed, Bucky had a fondness for terrible Lifetime like movies and his Netflix queue was full of them.

Despite his words though, he turned his head and captured Nyx's lips in a proper kiss, getting lost in it for awhile because there really was no rush. It felt like, in that moment, they had all the time in the world for each other. And even though some days everything felt too fragile, like it could fade away any second, it was hard to imagine a life without Nyx when he was so warm and solid under him right then.

Pulling away before they got carried away and Bucky's plans were dashed, he gave Nyx one final peck on the lips and got up. "Get the next movie ready, I'll be right back."

Nyx was more than content to linger in that kiss, hands roaming as he tugged Bucky in closer. It was far too easy to get lost in it, in the gift of time to linger there. No immediate threat always in the forefront of his mind, instead just - this. Making out on the couch with his boyfriend between the terribly cheesy movies said boyfriend had queued up.

There was a noise of protest as Bucky pulled away, but Nyx still smiled up at him regardless. "Can do," he said as he reached for the remote.

"Still can't believe you got me into these cheesy ass movies" Nyx called out as he scrolled to the next movie. Though really, he was less into the movies themselves and more into the excuse to cuddle on the couch.

“You can keep saying that all you want, but I know you like them,” Bucky called from the kitchen, as he found the popcorn and tossed it into the microwave. At least, he knew that he liked them enough to pretend to watch them for a bit before hands started to wander. As the popcorn started popping, Bucky reached into his pocket and looked at the ring box he had been carrying around.

The day that Becca had shown up as a not-ghost, he had gone out to a jewelry shop with her and found this ring for Nyx. Because she had talked sense into him that day, had made him see that there was really no point in waiting around for the right moment for this. There would never be a perfect moment because those didn’t exist, but any moment could be the right moment, because it would be the moment that he proposed at and hopefully got a yes answer.

So, he had bought the ring that day and had taken to carrying it around until he worked up the courage. And you know what? That moment was now.

Ignoring the beeping of the microwave, he headed back out to the living room. Coming up behind Nyx, he touched his shoulders and said, “Hey, can you close your eyes for a second?”

"Like might be an overstatement," he called back, a warm tease in the words. Truthfully he had no strong opinion one way or the other outside the fact he liked what surrounded movie nights. The quiet, the warmth of squishing on the couch with Bucky.

He settled back on the couch as he waited for Bucky, smirked a little as he read the description of the movie. "Hey in this one she's an overworked magazine editor, so completely different than the last one's overworked book publisher," he informed Bucky.

"You forgot the popcorn?" Nyx asked as Bucky walked back into the living room, brows raised as Bucky moved behind him. The slight confusion shifted to a cheeky smirk though as he did what he was told. "Sounds promising."

“You always got sex on your mind?” Bucky asked with a snort, the amusement clear in his tone as he walked around the couch and checked to see if Nyx’s eyes were closed. Once he was sure he couldn’t see him, he pulled the ringbox out and got down on one knee.

Clearing his throat, he said, “I actually wanted to start this off by telling you how I’ve come to realize that I’m pretty much head over heels for you. I’ve known it for months now and multiple people have confirmed that this is the happiest they’ve seen me in a long time. And when Becca showed up and heard the way I talked about you...well, she called me an idiot for waiting so long to do this.”

He paused for a moment, gathering this thoughts. “I kept telling myself that I was waiting for the right moment, that it had to be special, but then I got those memories of us back in Tumbleweed and I knew that those were just excuses, just dumb reasons to keep myself from moving forward in my life. Because I was scared back in Tumbleweed, to get into anything serious after Blackpoint. But now? I’m not scared, I’m so sure of what I want. Because I don’t want to lose a second of my time with you, to lose any chances to make the most of out of our lives together.”

Opening the ringbox, he reached out to touch Nyx’s hand with his free hand. “You can open your eyes.”

Nyx was half tempted to reply with a joke, a throw away comment that yes, he almost always had sex on his mind (and really could he be blamed). But then the mood shifted and it wasn't hard to clue in that the conversation was taking a serious turn.

Despite having his eyes closed, his attention was focused on where he could hear Bucky in front of him. He wasn't really sure what to expect when Bucky started talking, but only a few words into it his breath caught in the back of his throat as it became quickly apparent what exactly was happening. He smiled softly, the words wrapping around him, that kind of warmth that spread through every part of him.

He let out a slow breath as he opened his eyes, taking in Bucky's face in front of him first before his gaze moved down to the ring nestled in the box. A playful smirk as he looked back at Bucky, nothing but fondness in the gaze.

"So… funny story," he started as moved from the couch to kneel on the ground next to Bucky. A ringbox of his own appeared in his hand in a little flash of blue. Like Bucky, he had been caught up on the right moment, some perfect plan when really - they were anything but. And that was why they worked, so now that the moment was suddenly there, how could it be anything but right. He'd worked through a hundred different speeches in his head that in that moment all failed him.

But that was okay. Maybe it was better, truer, just off the cuff. "I - uh - I'm pretty damn crazy about you too," he started, a bit of a laugh. "I mean I started this whole thing twice over." He took a quick moment to collect his thoughts. "I've been scared too. I spent so long not letting myself get too close to anyone, let anything get too serious. Putting my life on hold really," he shrugged a little, smiled at Bucky. "And then I met you. And you made it so easy, to start feeling again, to stop feeling like I had to keep this, I don't know, distance? You reminded me that I was a person, that I was worth more than what I could do in a fight - that I could feel something other than just surviving." He paused. "I never in a hundred years could have expected finding you when I woke up on that damn ship - but I'm so glad I did."

He opened the ring box in his hand. "And well, I will if you will?" he asked with a playful grin. It was kind of a rhetorical question really, given that Bucky was kneeling in front of him with a ring too.

Bucky hadn't stopped smiling like an idiot since Nyx had taken his own ring out. God, what had been the chances? They were both idiots, truly, for having gone this long without doing this. Because now more than ever it was obvious where their relationship had been heading this whole time, they had just been too blind to see it until recently.

"I think I'd look pretty stupid if I said anything but yes, I want to do this with you." He reached out and pulled Nyx to him, pressing a kiss to his lips, pouring all the feelings he couldn't verbalize into it. Any hint of fear was gone, all he could feel was love and warmth, a happiness deep in his bones.

This was the perfect moment, a moment he would never forget for the rest of his days.