(Untitled)

[with_diamonds]

Shaken though the arrival of Max's medical records had left her, Lucy couldn't pretend like she didn't still have a wedding to plan, no matter how reluctant she was to go forward with some of it. He wasn't going to be there, plain and simple, and she had to deal with that. It might have felt more than a little wrong, especially to be making

Comments

[onlyapassenger]

With the afternoon to himself, it's rare to find Bucky at home, but far from impossible; he's getting in a workout while Jason's elsewhere (the weightlifting machine he received in one of the island's nicer moments has earned its spot in the common area out of usefulness alone, though it takes up quite a bit of space), when there's a knock at the door.

Secure in the knowledge that there aren't that many people who would pay him (or Jason) the courtesy of not simply barging in, Bucky makes sure he's decent before answering his caller, tugging on a plain cotton t-shirt that clings to dampened skin. He's unsurprised, yet pleased to find Lucy waiting on the porch, and steps back right away to let her in.

"Hey."

[with_diamonds]

"Hey," Lucy said, smiling instinctively at the sight of him as she walked past into the hut, somehow more at ease just for the fact that he was here. It wouldn't really have made a difference if he hadn't been, but she didn't want to wait, not with this one thing, not now that she knew what she wanted. There was no point in unnecessarily biding time, at least with the details if not the wedding proper. "I'm glad I caught you at home. You aren't too busy, are you?"

[onlyapassenger]

"No," he exhales, taking a look outside out of habit before he closes the door behind her. Given his rapidly growing ring of stalkers, he considers it as necessary a precaution as he does an annoying one, though his sweep, cursory as it is, is clear. Attention drawn back inside the house, he picks up a towel he'd left on the table earlier, and slings it over his shoulder; he likes to keep the place clean, but housework hadn't been on his mind.

"What's up?"

[with_diamonds]

"It's about the wedding," Lucy said, "mine, obviously." There was no sense in dancing around the subject, not when she'd come here for one specific reason. Biting her lip through a smile, she rocked from heels to toes and back again, fingers laced behind her. "I...had something I wanted to ask you, actually."

[onlyapassenger]

There were a number of things she might want to talk about in regards to the wedding, though that number dwindled considerably given that she wanted to talk about the wedding to him. Suspicion tempers his natural curiosity for her visit; his eyes narrow, though the set of his brow reads more as confusion than anything else. Sizing her up as he might a card-carrying bad guy, he leans back against one of the chairs, fingers wrapped around the backrest. She seems a little nervous, but not upset; nothing's been canceled, then.

"Okay," he says, slowly, stretching out the vowels. "Shoot."

[with_diamonds]

"I - I need someone to, you know, walk me down the aisle," Lucy said, nose wrinkling a little as she pulled a face, sheepish. It seemed more reasonable to just come out with it, though, when it wasn't like the subject was one easily worked up to. Either he'd agree or he wouldn't, and with what Jason had said, she was hopeful it would be the first. "Give me away, or whatever. And I was hoping you might do it."

[onlyapassenger]

To his credit, he doesn't make any sort of untoward reaction; this is due, in part, to a healthy amount of disbelief. There's a moment where he wonders if he heard her quite right, and unsure of how to proceed without confirmation that she's asking what he thinks she's asking, he stalls by saying, "...sorry, what?"

[with_diamonds]

"I mean, you don't have to, if you really don't want to or anything," Lucy said, practically a continuation of what she'd just been saying, his question registering but only coming as a sign for her to keep going. Talking when nervous wasn't something she typically did, but here and now, she just wanted him to get it (and to agree, but that much was probably self-evident). "But the way I see it... You're probably the closest thing I have to family here. And before you go telling me how crazy I am, yes, I have really thought about this."

[onlyapassenger]

Family. He doesn't disagree with the notion, of course, but given their history together, he would've thought she might be more reluctant to welcome him like that, despite knowing her well enough to realize that she's not capable of reluctance. He pulled a knife on her when they first met, killed her in a messed up dream, made her witness more death and destruction than someone so innocent ought to ever see, and yet she's standing here in his house, asking him to give her away in marriage. Crazy doesn't even begin to cut it, and his first instinct it to say no, absolutely not, that there's got to be someone better she could pick.

But you don't pick your family.

"Never pegged you for someone who thought about much of anything," he says after a long pause, though not unkindly.

[with_diamonds]

Unsurprised by the statement, Lucy let out a laugh, fingers combing back through her hair. "Believe it or not, I can sometimes manage it," she said lightly, shaking her head. Typically, it was true, she acted on pure impulse, but the wedding wasn't going anywhere yet, and considering how much she'd been thinking about her brother lately, she couldn't pick just anyone to do what would have been Max's job, had he still been here.

Shifting her weight, never quite still, she raised her eyebrows a little as she looked over at him. "So? Is that a yes or a no?"

[onlyapassenger]

There's so much he missed in Rebecca's life; her wedding, the birth of his niece and nephew, and of their children, as well. That he's being given the opportunity to make up for what was stolen from him has its appeal, even if it's not quite the same. Not quite ready to give an answer either way, he stalls once more: "Did Jason suggest this?"

[with_diamonds]

Lucy couldn't help but laugh, unwarranted a reaction though it might have been, less because it was true and more just because of the speed with which he'd reached that conclusion. She supposed it made sense, but that didn't make it seem any less amusing. Pressing the back of a hand to her mouth, she shook her head, then conceded and lifted a shoulder. "He asked me if I'd asked you," she said, "and I told him I'd already been thinking about it. He was pretty... supportive, though."

[onlyapassenger]

"Of course he was," says Bucky on a sigh, raking a hand back through hair damp with sweat. Why he tends to attract meddlers for friends, Bucky's not entirely sure; maybe it's payback for the terror he wreaked as a kid, having so many people now who are interested in his affairs.

"What's... entailed in doing this? Do I have to make a speech, or...?"

He's really not good at speeches.

[with_diamonds]

"No, no," Lucy said quickly, shaking her head, trying not to take that as an agreement even as her expression probably conveyed otherwise. She couldn't help it. Unhurried though she might have been, having this out of the way - thinking that he would do it - meant a great deal. "All you do is walk me down the aisle. Or... whatever we have in place of one, I don't know. Something like that."

[onlyapassenger]

"What would you have in place of an aisle?" he asks, still stalling, still dodging, though he's not entirely sure of his motives. This isn't a fight -- it's the opposite of that -- but for all that he wishes he could've played a bigger part in his sister's life, a part of him wonders if it wasn't for the best that he didn't. He's put Lucy through hell since the day they met; what would he have done to Rebecca?

In the same breath, this might be a way to make some of the past year up to Lucy, as well.

"Isn't that the whole point? The aisle, the church, the..." He coughs out a laugh that's half-embarrassed, and looks away. "Flowers?"

[with_diamonds]

"Well, flowers, yes," Lucy said, hand lifting to push hair back away from her forehead. "I'm just not sure where we're having it yet, if it'll be in the church or outside somewhere or something." Technically speaking, they wouldn't even need to have one at all, but if she was going to do this, she meant to do it right. There was more than just that to consider, anyway. Pete was the one who'd been married before, and she wouldn't want to do anything too close to what he did before. "But an aisle."