INDY

The team and I had only been living together for about two months. Long enough to understand certain patterns of behavior, or to make decent assumptions about each other. Not quite long enough for me to feel comfortable parading around them in my pajamas. So, rather than heading to the kitchen for breakfast immediately the way I used to when I lived alone, I started getting ready for the day.

I tried to work over how to handle last night’s little development as I pulled on my usual business-casual clothes and pinned my thick hair back. Bucky was standoffish at the best of times. Last night had been something else. There had been an undeniably unsteady vibe coming off him as he'd stood in his bedroom doorway.

So, when I entered the kitchen to see him already there, his back to me as he buttered a slice of toast, I slowed my pace. My footsteps faltered only for a second before I shook myself and continued on. I wouldn’t let him intimidate me. Even if he couldconceivably flatten me with one hand.

“Good morning,” I said to the room at large, just as openly as every other morning.

Kate and Yelena called hellos from the table, both leaning in toward the newspaper like they had been discussing it.

Bucky didn’t look up as I stood next to him at the counter, but I saw the slight blue shift of his irises to the corner of his eye. “Morning.”

My eyebrows lifted a tiny bit. Not exactly an enthusiastic response, but it was more than I was used to from him. I didn’t linger on it.

I poured myself a cup of coffee and as I was turning to grab the sugar canister, Bucky slid it wordlessly toward me, still not looking up. I glanced from him to it uncertainly, but finally took the canister and started scooping sugar into my cup.

“Thanks.”

“Mhm.”

He picked his plate of toast up and walked away, toward the table where Kate and Yelena were sitting. I eyed him in confusion for a minute before stirring my coffee and snagging a banana.

I headed off to my office; both because I was unsure about whatever weird transition in attitude Bucky seemed to be in the middle of and because I still had a mission report to finish. Granted, at some point I was going to need Bucky’s account before I could consider it truly “done”. But I was planning on putting that off as long as I could.

He wasn’t the biggest asshole I’d ever met, but he definitely wasn’t what I would consider an easy person to be around. He made me feel tense, what with all the hard stares and obvious mistrust.

I settled down at my computer and began typing out the details of the mission from the beginning, starting with the details Sam had given me the previous night of their arrival in Lancaster.

BUCKY

I looked up at Indy’s retreating back and frowned. She usually ate breakfast with the team. She disappeared inside her office on the other side of the living room, her door still just slightly ajar.

Sam and John soon joined us in the kitchen, but didn’t stay long. Everyone began breaking off to head to the training room. I stayed where I was. Sam threw me one last curious look, but didn’t drag me along after him.

Once everyone was gone, I couldn’t put it off any longer.

Oh, screw it,I thought exasperatedly. I was making a bigger deal out of this than it needed to be. I could just say I was sorry and get it over with.

I blew out a sigh, rubbed a hand across my jaw and went to Indy’s office door. I lingered awkwardly, unsure whether I should knock or just ease the door the rest of the way open and go right inside.

“You can come in, you know?” Indy said from the other side. Her voice was slightly amused, but the ridiculously quick tapping of computer keys didn’t slow.

I rolled my eyes and went inside, leaving the door open behind me.

Her reading glasses were on her face, fingers moving so quick that the nearly bored expression on her face seemed out of place. Behind her were volumes of binders and file boxes on a wide shelf. Among the more practical, work-related items on the shelf were a few picture frames that I slid my eyes over cursorily. I saw a small statuette of an elephant, a snow globe, and what looked like a decorative cigar box, among other things.

“Need something, Sarge?” she asked, looking up as her fingers continued pistoning away at her keyboard. Her lack of true focus on the task was unnerving. How was she doing that?

“Could you… not do that for a minute?” I asked stiltedly.

She raised an eyebrow, but stopped typing and lifted her hands to slide her glasses on top of her head. She was acting completely normally, like last night hadn’t happened. Maybe I should do the same.

After an awkward pause, I forced a small smile. It felt too angular and disjointed from the rigidity of my stance, the uncertainty in my eyes.

Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward. “Are you okay? You look a little… in pain.”

I rolled my eyes and huffed out a sigh, putting my hands on the back of the chair this side of her desk. Forget the pleasantries, just get it done.

“Look, I wanted to say I’m sorry. I know I haven’t been the easiest person to work with.”

Her eyes widened, surprise obvious in the way she quickly straightened in her seat.

“And,” I continued, looking away. “I also wanted to thank you. For the food.”

The pause before her response was almost imperceptible. “Yeah, of course. Anytime.”

I looked back at her, ready to tell her goodbye and get myself out of the uncomfortable pressure in the room. But she was already speaking again.

“I actually needed to talk to you, anyway. The mission report is only lacking your account of what happened. I can type it up if you can just give me a general idea of what you want to say.”

Her words remained casual, but her eyes widened meaningfully on mine as she spoke. It took a moment for her double meaning to sink in. She was giving me the option of disclosing as much or as little as I wanted about the details of my altercation with Riley. My knee-jerk reaction was to mistrust her motivations. But layered beneath my cynicism was another wave of gratitude I wasn’t prepared for.

I cleared my throat and looked down at the chair my hands were rested on. “Should you really be offering to do my half of the work for me?”

She knew what I was really asking: Won’t you get in trouble if they find out you’ve left something like this out?

She shrugged, leaning back in her desk chair with an easy grin that seemed at odds with the keen light in her hazel eyes. “I’m always willing to help the team. Within reason.”

Apparently, keeping sensitive details out of mission reports for my personal comfort fell within that reason. Temptation pulled at me. Indy would back me up if I fudged the details. It would keep Fury and whatever shady board of directors ran this semi-operative group from feeling the need to keep a close watch on me. I’d finally gotten out from under that suffocating regime of surveillance. I didn’t have a strong desire to go back to it.

But the distinct method of Riley’s method of suicide was certainly already discovered by whatever forensics’ team swept the place after we’d come through. Not that it was trademarked by Hydra or anything, but it would raise several red flags; everyone involved in the power station incident were supposed to be civilians. No typical civilian had a cyanide tooth.

Indy had already done enough that I felt somewhat in her debt. This felt like too much. I shook my head. “Alright. I’ll tell you everything.”

She nodded and lowered her glasses in front of her eyes again, fingertips settling against her keyboard as she looked over at me with a pleased smile. “Ready when you are.”

INDY

After the day Bucky and I finished the mission report, we seemed to have put our guarded attitudes behind us. Mostly. There was only so much I could really expect.

The change to his behavior was subtle. He didn’t interact with me much more often than usual, but when he did, he was just… neutral, rather than openly hostile. I’d take whatever win I could get.

Honestly, now that he didn’t give me the impression that he wanted to strangle me every time I spoke, I was much more willing to wait for camaraderie to come naturally. I was pretty sure I’d even seen him crack a smirk behind his hand once when I’d picked on Sam for his close relationship with Redwing. With our first mission behind us and the report filed, all any of us could do for now was wait on another assignment — or an update on the loose ends mentioned in our report.

“You know,” Bucky muttered one morning, sitting down across the table from me with a cup of coffee in his hand. “For all the hell you give the rest of us about eating a balanced breakfast, you don’t seem to be too concerned about your own nutrition.”

I glanced down at my own mug of coffee and the small stack of butter cookies on the napkin in front of me. “Your bodies are weapons. Mine is a living notepad,” I shrugged, taking a sip of coffee.

“If that’s the case, why don’t you have more tattoos?” Sam asked without looking up from the newspaper.

I shot him a look he didn’t see.

“More tattoos? You have tattoos?” Bucky asked, his surprise evident in the upward hitch of his eyebrows.

I scowled at Sam, who was definitely hiding a grin behind his paper. “I have a tattoo. Singular. And I will not be taking any follow-up questions.”

I refocused myself on enjoying the view out of the window, but found it hard not to be distracted by the atmosphere. Sam was shooting me smug looks. Bucky’s curiosity was palpable in the thick silence. I felt itchy.

“Oh my god,” I sighed. “Fine. Ask.”

“What is it?”

“A flower.”

“Where is it?”

I chuckled at the slightly hesitant way he asked, like he thought it might be an insensitive question.

“It’s on my back.”

He turned to look at Sam in confusion. “How did you-?”

“Her shirt came up when she took her sweater off one day,” Sam explained idly, still flipping through the newspaper.

“Yeah, and he said he didn’t see anything,” I accused, staring hard at the side of Sam’s head.

“I didn’t!” He held his hands up defensively, though his grin was sly. “I thought you meant… you know, other stuff.”

Bucky’s face then was priceless. His eyes were almost alarmed as he looked from Sam over to me.

What’s with the look? Did he not realize I was woman before now?

I chuckled with Sam and took another sip of my coffee while Bucky continued to look between us, perplexed. I guess casual banter wasn’t quite so suggestive in the 40’s.

“Indy. Boys. Good morning.” I felt Yelena’s powerful presence before I saw her in my periphery, taking the seat to the right of mine.

“Morning,” the three of us responded.

“Where is Kate?” she asked, already pulling a knife from her vest to cut a stray string off her sleeve.

“In a meeting with Fury,” I said, glancing back out at the sky outside the window. Maybe if I finished work early I’d have the opportunity to go out and enjoy the nice weather.

“Is it-?” Yelena’s eyes met mine.

Eleanor.

I nodded somberly.

Bucky and Sam watched us with thinly veiled interest. They had no knowledge of Kate’s personal issues and, currently — for security purposes — it needed to stay that way. This team was just a metaphorical closet full of interwoven skeletons. I wasn’t a huge fan of secrets, but my job required that I manage both their integrity and all these half-truths and careful evasions.

It wasn’t long after that that Kate stepped off the elevator and into the living area. She looked a little more pale and subdued than usual, but tried to give us all a smile when she approached the table.

“Any news?” I nibbled the edge of a butter cookie.

“We have our next mission,” she said unevenly, still attempting to force a smile. “My mom busted out of prison.”