A/N: This was requested by @BuckysGirl42 ! Hope you like it! It took a slightly darker turn than I intended but OH WELL! Can also be totally read on its own.

P.S. This is my new favorite gif of Sebastian. How adorable is he?! Unreal. Marry me, please.

Warnings: Stalker ex-boyfriend counts as a warning, right?? Just a bit of that and overall cuteness from protective boyfriend Bucky 

Words: 4K

"I had a lot of fun tonight."

Bucky nods—hands in his pockets as he nervously sways in Y/N's open doorway. She's halfway in and halfway out of the autumn breeze. Her hair has been pulled up in a sleek bun and her makeup done in pretty shimmery shades that sparkle under the stars that hang like the diamonds that are her dazzling eyes. Bucky licks his lips and smiles softly.

"Me too." He leans a shoulder against the doorframe. His eyes flicker around her face before finding her lips. "You were right about that restaurant. It was better than the one we went to last weekend."

"I told you it would be," Y/N laughs lightly. She readjusts her purse strap on her arm and leans slightly closer to the boy in the door. It's been three dates now and the man STILL hasn't kissed her. She can't figure out what it is. He's obviously attracted to her. She's made it clear she feels the same. Hell, her number on the side of his Starbucks cup was the most forward thing she's ever done.

"Bucky?"

Y/N's voice breaks Bucky out of his trance. "What is it, doll?" he dotingly asks.

She smiles. "Are you ever going to kiss me?"

Bucky clears his throat. "Well, I, uh..." He scratches the back of his head with a gloved hand. "It's just..."

"You don't want to?" Bucky's heart breaks at how Y/N's trying to hide her hurt but it's clear that she's offended at something that isn't even true.

"No! No," Bucky awkwardly stammers. "It's just... been a long time."

Y/N studies Bucky's face carefully: the trimmed, clean-shaven jaw clenched and sapphire eyes looking at the planks of the front porch. His hot breath hangs in the air in front of his face and she wonders what his flavor will be when she finally gets a taste.

"So you're..." Y/N quirks a brow as she leans closer, "Scared?"

"No, I—I'm just—I, uh, I..." Bucky loses track of his thoughts as he notices Y/N coming closer. He flinches when he feels her fingertips wrapping around the ends of his coat. She elevates up onto her toes but makes no further moments: waiting until he's taken the lead. She may not know this man as well as she wants to yet, but she knows he's healing from something bad. She doesn't want to push something on him that he's not ready for.

"It's okay." Y/N's smile continues to take Bucky's breath away. He's never seen anything prettier. "Can I at least kiss you on the cheek?"

Bucky nods with a light laugh. He's only quiet when he feels Y/N's warm lips pressed to his jaw. She lingers there—hands gripping his coat—and presses the front of her body against his. When she lowers back onto her flat feet Bucky finally remembers how to breathe.

"Goodnight, B—"

"Nuh-uh, doll," Bucky quickly interrupts her. He's had a sudden surge of confidence. He needs to feel her lips—he needs to kiss her. So that's what he does. He takes the pretty young thing by both cheeks and presses his mouth to hers. For a moment he's afraid he won't remember how to do this, but then he feels her move and it all comes crashing back onto him like a wave that's drowning him in the smell of her sweet perfume.

It's not a hurried kiss. It's soft and meaningful. It's the most romantic thing Y/N's ever been involved with. Bucky's hands hold her by the back of her neck as the kiss deepens and he unknowingly steps all the way into her apartment. She sighs into his mouth when his tongue first swipes along her lower lip. She wants him to devour her.

Bucky pulls away before any devouring can be done, unfortunately. He's smirking down at her with youth and spitfire in his eyes. "Okay—now you can say goodnight."

Y/N giggles. "Goodnight, Becky."

Bucky adores how Y/N's nose wrinkles when he kisses the tip of it. Then he presses one last kiss to her lips before backing out of the door. "Goodnight, sweetheart. I'll call you tomorrow."

Y/N waits in the doorway for the man to make it down the steps. Then he turns the corner, waving back at her one last time, and she closes herself inside with a giddy grin on her face. She laughs and touches her fuzzy-feeling lips. It's almost as if she's just been charged with electricity. Her whole body tingles madly. Her phone buzzes and she rushes for it—thinking it'll be Bucky already. But her heart sinks when she sees a formerly blocked number pop up on her screen.

Saw you tonight with some random guy. Wanna explain that to me? Or should I come to your house and ask you in person?

Y/N swallows a lump in her throat and sets her phone aside. She glances back to the door that Bucky just left through. Not knowing what else to do, she runs over to lock it. Then she blocks the number again while sending out a prayer that this time her terrifying ex-boyfriend will leave her alone to be happy.

Bucky runs his hands through his hair as he walks back to his car. He can't wipe the smile off his face. His heart is hammering louder than the music playing on the radio during the drive back to the compound. The drastic shift in his overall mood draws the attention of everyone hanging out in the living room at the house.

"What's going on with him?" Sam asks Steve as they play cards at the counter. Bucky just wandered in the room as if he was walking on air—head bobbing around looking silly with a smirk on his face. He'd grabbed himself something to drink before floating upstairs.

Steve smiles. "I think he's in love."

"What?! Why hasn't he said anything?"

Steve laughs and lays down his cards. "Because he doesn't know it yet."

That was two months ago. Now it's December—peppermint mocha season at Starbucks. Y/N's working longer shifts than normal but still finds plenty of time to see Bucky. He takes her out whenever she's free: matinee movies with popcorn and too much candy, ice-skating and bruises from all the falls down, brunch and tea, surprise boxes of chocolate left on her doorstep, a new little present he buys for her every date so that she can always "remember" (as if she could ever forget him), day-trips to the beach and Wednesday night midnight star gazing—the whole nine yards. Y/N's getting the princess treatment. Her new boy loves to show up at her door with flowers and no expectations to get laid. In fact, making out on the couch is as far as they've gotten. Y/N's not really complaining. She likes taking it slow, and Bucky seems to too. Everything is going perfectly for both of them. Are they official? Sure—if that's what the young kids would say. They're dating, they don't want the other to ever go away, and they're both secretly so in love they lay awake at night worrying that things will someday change.

Still, each of them has a secret. They're not small either. They're secrets that they worry will send the other running away. Bucky Barnes has yet to admit that he's a former Hydra assassin with a gleaming metal arm. Y/N hides her fears of her stalker ex-boyfriend that still terrorizes her every day.

Bucky's not dumb. In fact, he's a genius. He knows something's going on with Y/N that she won't explain. But every time he tries to approach the subject she starts to close off. He worries about pushing her away, so he stops it there. He knows there's something going on her in life that should concern him. He knows she's uneasy—he can sense it as easily as he can her presence when she walks into a room. But he also knows that it's not fair for him to be upset that she's keeping secrets when he's keeping the biggest one the world's ever known.

It's on December 15th that everything will change.

"I told you that you'd like eggnog—I don't know why you refused to try it for so long." Y/N slides out of Bucky's car and lands on the balls of her feet at the curb. She hears the locking noise and then Bucky's jogging to meet her on the path towards her front door. Its late afternoon and he's just picked her up from work—hence the sticky apron and tired feet. The two had plans to go to a movie today but Y/N has asked that they stay home and cuddle on the couch instead. Bucky is never one to turn down a chance to spend time with Y/N (especially in such close quarters), so he eagerly agreed.

Bucky moves his red Starbucks cup to his flesh hand. The warmth seeps through this glove unlike the other where he feels nothing at all. Y/N's asked him about the glove, of course, so he told her a version of the truth—he has an artificial arm that he'd rather no one see. Or touch, for that matter. She's only grazed it with her fingers once or twice in the past few months they've been together.

"I know, I know. It just sounds so gross: eggnog. Who would want to drink that?" Bucky laughs lightly as he catches another glimpse of the name BECKY etched onto the side of his cup in Y/N's messy handwriting. She made the drink for him before he picked her up. She still calls him Becky sometimes in public to embarrass him. He loves it, secretly, because she always ends up giggling at herself and he finds that to be the most adorable thing he's ever seen.

"But you like it, which makes me right." Y/N cheekily grins up in his direction.

Bucky notices that her heavy bag is starting to slip off of her shoulder. Before it can fall to the ground he grabs it by the strap with his concealed metal hand and takes it for her. He strings it up along his own back with ease.

"You were right, doll—you always are." He shoots her a smirk and a wink.

Y/N jogs up the steps of the front porch of her duplex apartment. "Don't forget it!" she laughs over one shoulder. Bucky can't help but stop there and admire how beautiful she is just in everyday life. Her hair is sort of messy but it's cute stuffed under the cap. When she smiles a dimple appears and her nose scrunches adorably. There's a happy little chiming noise that hangs in her voice and makes her sound like twinkling bells when she talks. And her eyes—god, her eyes—Bucky longs for nothing more than to be able to stare into those eyes all day long. He never had a favorite color until he saw her eyes.

Y/N turns back around to start searching her pockets for her house key. The noise draws Bucky out of his staring. Then out of normalcy his mind switches to soldier mode when he first notices the front door mat askew. The brightly colored foot rug is always perfectly aligned with the door. Y/N even had little slip-grip strips glued underneath so that it wouldn't slide around under her feet. She's always very careful to straighten it before she leaves.

Then, in the same few seconds, Bucky notices there's a light on in her bedroom window. One in the kitchen, too. And the curtains... they're all closed. Y/N always opens them after she wakes up.

"Stop, stop." Bucky has his metal hand wrapped around Y/N's wrist before she can unlock the door. She gawks up at him curiously.

"Why? What is it? Did you forget something?"

Bucky asks, "Were you in a rush this morning?"

"What?" Y/N's terribly confused. Her eyebrows are gnarled. "Bucky, why...?"

"Were you?" His tone is serious and Y/N doesn't understand, but she knows she doesn't have to question him. If he's asking, he surely has a reason.

"No, I wasn't. I got up on time and even managed to get in a jog before I left..."

Bucky takes Y/N's keys gently from her grasp. "Go back to the car."

"Why?" Y/N doesn't move so Bucky does it for her—holding her by the shoulder and placing himself between her and the door.

"Take my car keys and lock yourself inside." Bucky tries to switch her keys for his but she won't take them.

"Bucky, I don't understand." Her eyes are pleading as she looks up at him. "What the hell are you doing?"

Bucky doesn't want to scare her, but she isn't getting the point. And the longer they wait out here the less likely it is that whoever has broken into this house is still inside. So he finds no choice but to drop his tone and grit his teeth. "Get in the car, Y/N. I'm not going to tell you again..."

"Oh my god—you don't scare me!" Y/N shakes her head. "Tell me what's going on, or so help me god, I'm going to wring your neck."

Bucky grunts under his breath. "Someone broke into your house. I need you to go back to the car while I check it out."

Y/N's pretty eyes widen. "Wh-what? Bucky, how do you...?" She looks around as if she can find the proof for herself. "I don't understand... but I don't want to go back to the car, either. Let me see for myself."

Bucky opens his mouth then realizes that they're wasting too much time. He sighs: closing his eyes and nodding. "Fine. But stay behind me."

Y/N nods. She stays close behind his broad back as he goes to unlock the door. Sure enough, it's already unlocked—meaning someone has indeed been there since Y/N left for her shift this morning.

There's noise coming from the house when Bucky first steps inside. He doesn't have any weapons, damn all things, but he knows that if he needs to fight that there's no one that could stop him.

Unless it's Hydra.

No—he shakes his head to clear that thought. Hydra wouldn't be this messy about it. They wouldn't make it so apparent. And besides, if Hydra wanted Y/N, they'd already have her.

Y/N lightly touches the back of Bucky's metal arm. For once he doesn't try to stop her. He lets her hold him there while they walk quietly into the seemingly empty house.

The noise from the living room is the TV. It's turned up full-blast on volume while it shows static on an unavailable channel. Y/N reaches to turn it off but Bucky stops her—knowing that if someone else is still in the house they'll notice the lack of noise and know that they're here.

The two walk the house together. Nothing is out of place as they check the kitchen, bathroom, and stairs. Not until they get to the bedroom does Bucky hesitate. He goes to open the door when he first pauses.

He smells blood.

"Y/N, please—" He breaks the silence with a whisper.

Y/N shakes her head. She won't leave.

Bucky's torn between wanting to reach back and hold her and needing both hands in case of an attack. Deciding her safety is better than comfort, he pushes into the door with both hands free—ready for whatever it is that he will see.

What he could never prepare himself for was hearing Y/N scream.

The fluffy white bedding is soaked red with blood. The smell suffocates her perfume out of the room that's been trashed completely. Her clothes are strewn out all over the floor with splatters of carnage staining every article. Handprints in dripping red shapes smear along the walls. The mirror has been thrown to the floor and smashed into a hundred thousand pieces. And at the foot of the bed—the source of all the blood—is the shredded body of a floppy eared dog.

"No, no, no..." Y/N whimpers. The scream that shattered Bucky's heart is still ringing in his ears. His arms move to trap her in his embrace when she tries to run closer to the scene. It's an automatic human reaction to want to run closer, especially when there's a victim they've known, but it's too late for anything. Bucky holds her to his chest just as she starts to fall apart.

"He—he killed him—he took him, he did it: I knew he did it... he killed Bruno," Y/N sobs. She turns her face away to hide in Bucky's arms.

Bucky can recognize the dog (or what's left of it). There's a picture of the pooch taped up on Y/N's fridge. Her phone is filled with pictures of him. And on the street lamp outside there's still a reward poster advertising a whole month's wages for his return. Y/N loved Bruno more than anything. He went missing before Bucky even came into the picture, but that doesn't mean that Bucky never heard his name.

Bucky's moved them out of the blood decorated room and into the hall. There the smell still lingers in their nostrils but the presence of it is not nearly as strong.

"Who, Y/N? Who are you talking about?" Bucky tries to get her to speak but she's not listening. She can hardly stay on her feet while her brain fights to process what she's just seen. It's the goriest, nastiest sight Bucky's witnessed since he left Hydra. There was no mercy to that creature, and the set-up of the room was meant to scare Y/N senseless.

It looks like it worked.

Y/N's shaking in his embrace. He doesn't know what else to do besides hold her. He strokes her hair and makes soft noises in her ear. It takes ten minutes for her to calm down slightly. When she finally does she still refuses to move out of Bucky's arms. So he holds her, not wanting to let go, as she mumbles into his chest.

"It—it was Evan."

"Evan who?"

Y/N's started shaking her head. Bucky pulls her back by the shoulders to look at her. "Tell me, baby. I can't help you if you don't tell me."

"N-no one can help me. It's been too—too long. I don't—there's nothing I can do." She shakes her head again and more tears start to fall. "He's going to kill me. H—he told me he would." She makes a lame attempt to dry her raw eyes.

"No one's going to hurt you." Bucky draws the girl back to his chest. With his hand on the back of her head he stares at the ceiling. "I'm not going to let anyone touch you, sweetheart. You're safe with me."

"You're just—you're just saying that!" Y/N pushes him off of her while she yells. She turns away and starts down the hallway—having to stop to regain her balance before going the rest of the way. She hears Bucky jog to catch up behind her. "That's what everyone says. But no one can help me."

Bucky reaches for her just as she starts her descent of the stairs. She trips on her own feet but before she can fall Bucky has her lowered into a comfortable seat at the top step. Angrily she yanks her arm out of Bucky's grasp. "Look what he did to Bruno because of me. He—he tortured that poor puppy because of me. Because I was stupid enough to think I could break up with him."

So it's an ex—a stalker, serial-killer potential ex-boyfriend, Bucky realizes. "How long ago, Y/N?" He wants to touch her, comfort her, but she's huddled away and averts his every attempt. She's scared and confused and doesn't want him yet.

"July—it was July..." More tears stumble down her red cheeks. "And he took Bruno in August. I knew he did it—I knew it was him. Bruno was the only thing I loved before..." Suddenly her eyes widen and fill with more fear as she finishes her thought, "Before I met you."

It's obvious in her eyes that it's not only the death of her canine friend and her own life that she fears for now. She looks at Bucky like he's got a gun to his forehead.

And she's just admitted that she loves him.

"Hey, hey, hey—don't be scared." Bucky reaches for her again. This time she lets him take her in his arms again. He relishes in the warmth she brings to his chest as he cradles her there. "Nothing's happening to either of us." He can hardly believe what he'd seen on her face just then. There's only one person on this planet who's ever cared about Bucky enough like that and that person is his best friend.

"He's going to kill us! He calls me and texts and he knows—he knows we're together. He follows me, I can feel it, and he says things... Evan's going to kill us."

If Bucky weren't so torn up over Y/N's misery he'd probably laugh. The thought of some low life psychopath stalker killing the Winter Soldier is nearly comical. No way in hell would that ever happen.

"That's not going to happen, honey..."

Y/N starts up again before Bucky can even explain. "He's strong though, Bucky. He used to pick up the table and throw it—throw it right at me. And, and he'd pull me around by my hair and—and he'd break the windows with his fists..."

"Shh, shh..." Bucky doesn't know if he's silencing Y/N for her benefit or for his. The utter fear in her eyes is reflected as hatred and rage in his. He hasn't seen anyone this afraid since... well, since someone was afraid of him.

"He's not going to hurt you," Bucky's voice is low and slow as he begins. He draws Y/N's eyes up to his face with a finger on her chin. "I'm going to protect you with every single ounce of me." He swallows a lump in his throat. Then, without another word, he pulls off his glove. He holds his shiny metal hand out for Y/N to see.

The tears momentarily dry in her eyes. Y/N's shaking fingertips reach out to touch the metal—to linger on the cold hand she's never seen.

"I can keep you safe," Bucky's voice breaks through the static in her brain. "There's no one else in the world scarier than me."

Y/N can't get her mind to slow down enough to properly speak. She recognizes the arm. And as she looks up into her dear Bucky's face, she recognizes him too. He's on TV. He was wanted for crimes. He's been pardoned because he's friends with Captain America. He's a known assassin that they make documentaries of for crime-frenzy loving freaks to see. He's dropped off the face of the earth since the Avenger's got back together. He's the one they call the Winter Soldier.

But more importantly, he's Bucky Barnes.

He's the man she's fallen in love with.

Y/N takes Bucky's chilling metal wrist. Then, with her eyes trained on his face, she guides his palm to her cheek. Gently she rests it there while she leans into his touch—letting her sticky tears press against his silver skin.

"I love you, Bucky." Her whisper is like a bullet in the dark. It's like he's been shot in the chest with the realization that there's nothing to be afraid of anymore. All he can feel now is relief.

Bucky leans over to kiss her soft forehead. He breathes in the smell of her shampoo to try and block out the scent of blood that lingers in the air. "I love you, too." He paws at her cheek with his thumb—the metal one. "And I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you."

Y/N nods. She finally believes.

"Come on," Bucky says as he helps her to her unsteady feet. "We need to leave."

"But this is my home..."

"It's not safe here anymore," Bucky has a hand on the small of her back and one grabbing his car keys as they speak. "You're coming home with me."

"But I don't have anything. I don't—I don't..."

"Hey—look at me." Bucky stops her on the front porch. He grabs her hand and holds her close. "You have me, okay? And we'll figure this out together." He tries to comfort her with a smile despite how hard his heart hurts to see the tears still hanging in those pretty eyes. "You and me."

Y/N manages a small smile in return. "Me and my Becky."

Bucky lets out a long breath, wraps an arm around her, and helps her down the rest of the stairs towards the car on the curb. "That's right, doll: you and your Becky."