Missing Piece

Bucky was freaking out and truthfully, you were too. You tried not to let it show, Bucky needed you right now, you had to be strong for him. You reached over to him and gently pulled the phone out of his hands. 

‘’Let’s get dressed and then we’ll go see Tony.’’ 

You almost had to pull him out of bed but he was finally up and changing. You quickly went to your room to do the same and met Bucky in front of the elevator. 

‘’FRIDAY?’’ You called out.

‘’Good morning agent.’’

‘’FRIDAY, where’s Tony?’’ You were too on edge to exchange pleasantries with an AI.

‘’Conference room.’’ 

‘’Thank you.’’

As you made your way down to the conference room, you kept glancing at Bucky. He hadn’t said a word, he had big doe eyes and panicked completely filled them. You didn’t know what to say, you didn’t even know what was happening. You needed to find Tony.

The door to the conference room was wide open and you just walked right in.

Finally, you saw Tony.

‘’Tony! What the hell is happening?’’ 

He turned to look at you. ‘’You tell me.’’ He moved towards you quickly, trying to get to Bucky. ‘’What did you do?!’’

You stepped in front of Bucky, shielding him from Tony. 

‘’Don’t you dare.’’ You warned him.

You glared at Tony until he took several steps back. 

‘’You know very well that Bucky wouldn’t do anything like that, and that he’s been here the whole time.’’

Tony’s anger deflated. You were right. None of it made sense. 

You continued.

‘’Someone’s trying to get to him and we need to figure out who, why and if Bucky’s in danger and we need to move fast.’’ 

Both Tony and Bucky were surprised to see how assertive you were being. You were usually very shy, barely ever talked or raised your voice and here you were, giving orders to Tony. He almost wanted to fight you on this, he liked to be the one in control, but he knew better than to try and piss you off when it came to Bucky. 

‘’I already have FRIDAY going through all the supposed footage they have of him planting the bomb and being there when it went off. We’ll try to piece everything back together. It’s safe to say that whoever did this, won’t back down easily.’’ 

You heard Bucky taking a shaky breath behind you, Tony’s words were everything but comforting. You turned to face him.

‘’You should go get something to eat.’’ You suggested, your voice was a lot softer than it had been a minute ago when you were telling Tony what to do. 

Bucky shook his head. ‘’No… I should stay here and help.’’ 

‘’I promise I’ll come get you the minute we know something. Right now it’s just a bunch of footage we have to go through. Go eat, please.’’ 

He could never say no to you. He nodded and went back upstairs.

You quickly closed the door behind him and turned to face Tony.

‘’Is this HYDRA? One of them did say they would come for Bucky and bring back the Winter Soldier.’’ 

Tony shrugged. ‘’I really don’t know. Whoever is behind this is very determined to get to him. They aren’t scared to make a big show out of it, I doubt there’s anything they wouldn’t do. It doesn’t seem to be HYDRA’s type. They usually work more underground.’’ 

HYDRA members were smart. They worked undercover, hid in plain sight, spent months plotting but mostly, they operated without anyone ever knowing about them. It couldn’t be them. But if not them, who?

You turned on the TV and changed it to a news channel to be able to follow the events as they happened while you were trying to understand and hopefully figure out what was going to happen before it did. 

Shortly after you had started to work, there was a small knock on the door as it opened. You looked up to see Steve coming in. 

‘’Is he ok?’’ You asked immediately. 

‘’He’s shaken up but I think he’ll be ok. Have you found anything yet?’’

You sighed and rubbed your hands over your face. ‘’Not a one thing. Nothing makes sense.’’ 

‘’Want me to take a crack at it?’’ You hesitated. ‘’It’ll all be there when you come back, you should go eat something. You need food too, you know?’’ 

You’d probably think better after eating. You quickly explained to Steve what you were doing and Tony was working on so that he could pick up where you stopped.

‘’If there’s anything, call me.’’ 

‘’I will, I promise. Go.’’ He shooed you out of the room. 

You were surprised to see Bucky still sitting at the dinner table. He was hunched over the table, his arms crossed on top of it and his chin resting on his arms. When he saw you walk in, he quickly sat up. 

‘’Did you find something?’’

‘’No… I’m sorry Buck. I’ll promise, we’ll find something. We won’t stop until we do. I just need to eat something and then I’m going back. Have you eaten?’’

‘’Yes, I did.’’
You looked at him suspiciously. ‘’Did you really?’’

‘’Yes!’’ 

‘’Mm’kay.’’ You weren’t sure if you believed him but it’s not like you could force food down his throat. 

You went to the kitchen and decided on a bowl of cereal. It was the quickest and easiest to eat. In less than 5 minutes you were done and ready to get back to work. You took a few more seconds to put your bowl in the dishwasher and went back to the dining room.

‘’I’m going back.’’ You told Bucky. 

He stood up and walked over to you. ‘’I’m coming.’’

You opened your mouth to protest but Bucky spoke before you did. ‘’I need to be doing something, otherwise I’m gonna go nuts. Plus, you need all the help you can get.’’ 

You sighed. He was right. You couldn’t keep him away, especially not when it was about him. A small part of you was scared of what you might find. Not because you thought you might find out that he had something to do with it, you knew he didn’t. You were scared of finding something that might trigger him. 

Tony and Steve were still hard at work. They seemed to have combined their efforts and were working together. 

‘’Did you find something?’’ You asked, hopeful. 

Both men jumped, they hadn’t heard either you or Bucky come in as they were too focused.

‘’No, not yet BUT-’’ Steve waved you over. ‘’We finally found the footage they were talking about. This has been recorded on street cams and buildings around.’’ 

Both you and Bucky stood behind Steve, waiting for him to show you what they had found. 

You couldn’t believe your eyes. The man on the videos looked exactly like Bucky. He had the same hair length and the same type of clothes on. If you didn’t know Bucky personally, you could easily be fooled. IF you didn’t know Bucky, which wasn't the case. Though he looked like Bucky he didn’t walk like Bucky, he didn’t stand like him, his jawline wasn’t as defined as his and he was a lot more fidgety than Bucky. Another small detail that the other man had overlooked: Bucky was an ex-assassin. One of the most successful ones. He doesn’t get caught. Especially not on camera.

‘’Is there a way to use facial recognition to find him?’’ You asked when the screen went black.

‘’We tried. Unfortunately he let us see just enough of him to be able to convince us it was Bucky, but not enough to see his actual face.’’ 

You groaned, pinching the bridge of your nose as you closed your eyes. ‘’This man is a serious pain in the ass.’’

Bucky hadn’t said a word. He was busy thinking about all the reasons why someone would go out of their way to make him public enemy number one instead of just coming for him. He moved to take a seat at the table. 

‘’Why can’t we just contact the authorities and tell them that Bucky hasn’t left the compound since he got here? We’re the Avengers, aren’t they supposed to believe us?’’ You turned to look at Tony, both hands on your hips. 

You were chewing on your bottom lip, your mind racing as you tried to find ways to get Bucky out of this mess.

‘’We thought about it but…’’ Steve trailed off, looking up at Tony.

‘’If word got out that Bucky is Captain America’s best pal, his childhood best friend, they might believe us, but they might think that we are covering for him just for Cap. Not to mention that in doing so, we would tell them exactly where Bucky is. They would just come busting through the door.’’ 

Tony made a good point, you couldn’t risk them finding out where he was. You sat down at the chair at the end of the table, one of your legs bouncing as you started to think again.

‘’Maybe I should just surrender.’’ Bucky suggested, so quietly it was almost a whisper.

‘’What? No!’’ Your voice was a lot louder than his. ‘’You’re not going to surrender for a crime you didn’t commit.’’

‘’I didn’t plant this bomb, but there are plenty of other crimes that I should be paying for.’’ He looked down.

‘’Again, you’re not going to surrender for crimes you didn’t commit.’’ Your voice was a lot softer this time. ‘’You shouldn’t pay for what HYDRA did to you, for what the Winter Soldier did.’’ 

He finally looked up from the table, his eyes meeting yours. He could see how sincere you were being and it was a little easier for him to breathe knowing you still believed in him. 

He couldn’t care less about what the man could do to him, he couldn’t care less about the consequences he’d have to face because of him but if he had managed to take you from him? That wouldn't go well for anybody. 

You all stayed silent, trying to come up with solutions and ideas. The only noise in the room came from the TV that was still playing the story, over and over again. 

‘’Should we call King T’Challa?’’ Your question was directed to Tony. ‘’We’ve always had a great relationship with the Wakandians, they need to know Bucky isn’t the one responsible for this.’’ 

‘’It’s already taken care of. They believe it wasn’t him.’’ 

You sighed in relief. Relief that was short lived as you heard the woman on the news talk about Bucky. So far, the entire story has been about him and only him. What caught your attention was when she mentioned Steve. Then suddenly, something went off in your head. 

‘’Shit!’’ You stood up quickly. 

Everyone looked at you at your sudden movement. 

‘’What’s wrong?’’ Bucky asked, and he started to get nervous again. 

‘’Tony you said that we couldn’t talk to the authorities because they would think that Steve was covering for him and that would let them know exactly where he’s been hiding.’’

Tony nodded, not sure of where you were going with this. You extended your arm behind you, pointing at the TV. 

‘’She just told everybody about their friendship. Where do you think they’ll go looking for Bucky first?’’ No one answered. ‘’How about the giant, flashy compound where all the Avengers have been living, including Captain America, childhood best friend to James Buchanan Barnes?’’ You repeated her exact same words.

‘’Fuck.’’ Tony muttered under his breath. 

‘’We need to get him out of here.’’ No one was moving. ‘’Right now!’’ You added, a little louder. 

‘’How much time do you think we have?’’ Tony asked you. 

‘’I don’t know. 20 minutes, 30 if we’re lucky.’’ 

You looked at Bucky. ‘’Go pack a bag, we’re leaving in 5 minutes.’’ 

Bucky did what you told him, not wasting a second. You walked to go to your room to do the same, Tony and Steve were following you. 

‘’Try to take him as far as you can. I’m guessing Fury showed you all our safe houses.’’ Tony talked quickly and you nodded, trying to be quick. 

Steve had left to go get tech that couldn’t be traced.  

You were going through your drawers, putting clothes in a bag, your own gear and a few weapons you always kept around. You checked to make sure all your guns were loaded. You turned to see Bucky standing in your doorway. 

‘’Ready?’’ You asked.

‘’Yes.’’ 

‘’Ok, let’s go.’’ You looked down at your watch, 5 minutes had gone by. You had 10 minutes to get out of the compound. 

You all rushed down to the garages. Steve handed you both comms and a few weapons that wouldn’t fit into your bedroom drawers. 

‘’Are you sure you left everything that could be traced in your rooms?’’

Bucky and you looked at Steve, glaring at him. He raised both hands in surrender.

‘’Sorry. Just wanted to make sure.’’

You held out your hand to him. ‘’Chip?’’

He placed a small device on the palm of your hand.

‘’What’s that?’’ Bucky asked. 

‘’When you put this on the engine of the car, it makes it impossible to track it. Even if they managed to stick a tracking device on the car, it would disarm it instantly.’’ You explained as you moved through the different rows of cars and motorcycles.

‘’You should take my car.’’ Steve suggested. It was a tiny, blue, vintage car that he could barely fit in. 

You stopped walking and turned to look at him. ‘’First of all, there’s no way in hell that Bucky fits into that car. Second of all, we need a car whose engine won’t fall out when we go over 60 miles.’’ You couldn’t help but chuckle as you thought about trying to fit Bucky in Steve’s car. ‘’What we need is…’’ You looked around and pointed at a black Challenger. ‘’This.’’ 

Tony threw the keys at you and you were quick to throw your bag in the back seat and pull the lever to pop open the hood. You placed the chip on the engine, somewhere that was easy access for you without being on display. You closed the hood and walked to the driver’s side. 

‘’Tony, time?’’ You asked, having taken your smart watch off. 

‘’You got 7 minutes.’’ 

You nodded and opened the door. Bucky looked at you.

‘’Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?’’

You smirked at his question. Tony quickly answered for you. ‘’Trust me Barnes, if you want to make it out in time she needs to be driving.’’ 

Bucky trusted you and he knew that if you said you had to be the one driving, then you had to be the one driving. He sat in the passenger’s seat without another word. Anxious to be out of the compound.

‘’Put in your comms. I’ll get Sam to follow you with Red Wing, we’ll be your eyes in the sky in case someone follows you.’’ 

You nodded, finally sitting down and starting the car. Tony opened the garage door and Steve walked over to your side, crouching down to be able to look at you.

‘’Don’t stop for anything.’’ Steve instructed. ‘’You got this, toots.’’ He whispered so that only you could hear him and he kissed your cheek. 

You turned your head to look at Bucky. You pointed at his seatbelt. ‘’You might want to buckle up.’’ 

He quickly did. ‘’Why do I feel like we’re going to be in a scene from that movie you made me watch with all the street racing?’’ 

You put the car in drive. ‘’Dom Toretto’s got nothing on me.’’ You joked, taking your feet off the breaks, speeding out of the garage and quickly down the road that led to the secured gates at the front of the compound. You didn’t even need to slow down, the gates opened in front of you just in time to let you out. 

‘’Thanks, Tony.’’ You said into the mic. ‘’Time?’’ You asked again. 

‘’4 minutes.’’ He spoke in your ear. 

‘’Shit.’’ You whispered. You pushed down your foot, speeding up and alternating between the gas pedal and the clutch as you shifted. 

‘’It’s a tight window but we can still make it.’’ Bucky said to you, his eyes never leaving the road.

He knew you were worried you wouldn’t be able to put enough distance between him and the compound before the authorities, and god knows who else got there. There was a very high chance that you would even cross paths with them and that’s what worried you.  

‘’Sam?’’ 

‘’Red Wing’s catching up, just a few more seconds.’’ 

You kept looking at all your mirrors, so far so good. 

‘’Good news, I can see the cavalry coming. Bad news, they are coming right at you.’’ 

That’s exactly what you had wanted to avoid. 

‘’We’re trying to find you a different route.’’ That was Steve.

‘’It’s taking too long.’’ 

Suddenly, you slowed the car way down as you pumped on the breaks. 

Again, Bucky trusted you but seeing you almost coming to a stop when you were about to drive right next to the people you were running from made him nervous. 

‘’What the hell are you doing?’’ You heard Sam scream. 

You ignored him, changing lanes and pulling in between two cars. 

Sam repeated his question. 

‘’I’m blending in.’’ 

‘’What?’’ Sam asked, confused. 

‘’Right now their sole purpose is to get to the compound as fast as possible. Their whole focus is getting to the compound. What do you think they’ll do if they see me speeding like a maniac down the road? They’ll know exactly what we’re trying to do. Right now, I’m just a car, amongst many others, going through traffic. I’m not doing anything that would get their attention and once you give me the all clear, we’ll be able to drive without being followed.’’ 

Your eyes stayed on the road, never flinching once. Bucky was impressed by how quickly you were able to come up with a solution. No wonder you thought Steve was taking too long finding a different route, you were already two steps ahead. 

Just like you predicted, 10 cars just sped down the road opposite you. They never even slowed down. You waited until you couldn’t see them in your mirrors and spoke up again.

‘’Sam?’’ 

‘’Everything seems clear, Red Wing just going around again to make sure.’’ He paused for a few seconds. ‘’All clear.’’

‘’Thanks guys, now go offline before they walk through the door and find you helping us.’’ 

‘’We’ll be back later. Be safe.’’ Steve said before you were disconnected. 

You took advantage of the fact that the compound was getting raided to accelerate and put as much distance as possible between you and them before they have a chance to realize that Bucky isn’t there. Thankfully, the compound is huge. It should keep them busy for at least an hour, if not more.

The following 30 minutes were spent in silence, both you and Bucky were on edge. You tried to keep all your focus on driving, especially at the speed you were going, and Bucky seemed to be keeping an eye on your surroundings. You decided to avoid the highways and take the back roads instead. There were fewer chances of getting stuck in traffic and becoming a sitting duck, and fewer chances of getting pulled over by the police for speeding. 

Bucky seemed to be relaxing a little, leaning back against his seat. 

‘’Where are we going?’’

You glanced at him quickly, then looked back in front of you.

‘’Safe house. I don’t know which one yet, I’ll try to get us as far as possible before we need to stop.’’

He didn’t answer but you could see from the corner of your eye that he was nodding. 

‘’Are you ok?’’ You asked hesitantly.

You felt silly asking him this question, of course he wasn’t ok but you needed to hear it from him.

‘’I guess… I’ll feel better when we’ll catch whoever’s been doing this. If we catch him.’’ 

‘’We’re gonna catch him.’’ You said quickly. You truly believed that you would. 

‘’I’m sorry you had to go on the run with me.’’ He said to you after a few minutes in silence.

‘’Don’t apologize. I want to be here. I wouldn’t have let you go on your own. Plus, I know you would have done the same for me.’’ 

It was true. Bucky wouldn’t have hesitated for even a second. 

‘’Where did you learn to drive like this?’’ He turned his head to look at you for the first time since you had left. 

You shrugged. ‘’I always loved driving. Fury made me take a class in precision driving in case I needed to get him out of a sticky situation and it just stuck. The rest is just pure improv.’’ You laughed softly.

‘’Well, that’s reassuring.’’ He chuckled. 

He was still looking at you, admiring your profile. He bit his bottom lip a few times and cleared his throat.

‘’Why did you come with me?’’ He asked you, genuinely curious. ‘’You could have let Steve take me instead.’’

‘’Would you have preferred Steve to come with you?’’ You looked at him for a few seconds, then turned your attention back to the road.

‘’No. I just didn’t think you would want to spend that much time alone with me. Who knows how long we’ll have to hide out.’’ 

You stayed silent, not answering him right away. He was even starting to think you hadn’t heard him.

‘’You’re the one who pushed me away, Bucky. Not the other way around.’’

You heard someone coughing.

‘’Well, this is an awkward moment to say that we are back.’’ Sam spoke in your ear. 

You looked down at the time on the dashboard. You had been driving for almost an hour.

‘’Are they gone already?’’ 

‘’No. They are doing floor by floor. They are in the garage and the gym, next they are going outside to look through the entire yard. You should have at least 30 minutes left, maybe more.’’

You sighed in relief. 

‘’Thank you Sam.’’

‘’Anything else you need, darling?’’ 

Both you and Bucky froze up at the nickname. 

‘’Darling?’’ Bucky repeated, not being able to stop himself.

‘’What?’’ Sam asked. ‘’You’re the only one who’s allowed to give her cute pet names?’’

‘’Yes, please stop.’’ 

You couldn’t help but laugh at the over dramatic gasp Sam let out. 

‘’I don’t need anything else.’’ You decided to answer quickly before Bucky and Sam had a chance to continue bickering. ‘’I’ll let you know if I do.’’

‘’Ok, darling. I’ll talk to you later.’’

‘’Please stop.’’ You laughed.

‘’What you don’t like darling?’’

‘’No.’’

‘’Why not?’’

‘’Because I’m not 90 nor am I british.’’

‘’Says the woman who just used ‘’nor’’ in a sentence.’’ Sam mumbled.

‘’Hey! I heard that.’’ You rolled your eyes. ‘’Just let us know when they leave the compound. Bucky and I are gonna have to stop for gas soon.’’ 

‘’Roger that. Be careful.’’

‘’Always am.’’

‘’All right, G.I Jane.’’

‘’See now that’s an appropriate nickname.’’ You teased. 

You heard Sam groan, then he was gone.

‘’When we stop for gas, we should buy some food and drinks. We’re gonna be on the road for a few more hours.’’

‘’Sounds good.’’

There was some tension between you and Bucky. Sam had cut off your chance to talk with Bucky about what happened and now the moment had passed. 

About 20 minutes later, you were finally able to find a gas station and stopped quickly. You put the car in park and reached behind you in the back seat to grab a pair of sunglasses, a baseball cap and some cash. You took off your seat belt and grabbed all your hair, twisted it on top of your hair and put the hat on. You made sure that your hair wasn't showing, then you pulled up your hoodie and threw on a pair of sunglasses to hide your eyes. 

‘’There seems to be one camera behind the register and that’s it. I’ll pay to make sure he doesn’t recognize you. What snacks do you want?’’

‘’I don’t know… You know what I like, just go with whatever they have. We need to be quick.’’ 

He was starting to put on his own baseball cap and sunglasses, you quickly stopped him by putting your hand on his arm. 

‘’What are you doing?’’

‘’I need to pee.’’ 

You chewed on your bottom lip. ‘’We can’t both go in there looking like this. They’ll know something is up.’’

You took off your sunglasses, pulled down the hood from your hoodie and freed your hair from the baseball cap. You took off the hoodie and reached behind you again, pulling out your leather jacket. You put it on and ruffled up your hair a little bit. 

‘’Hopefully, that'll keep him distracted long enough for you to slip in and out.’’ 

You grabbed your sunglasses and put them back on. 

‘’Ready?’’ You turned to look at Bucky.

He nodded quickly. He had been staring at you the whole time, and now he felt like he was a creep for being so distracted by whatever just happened. 

You both got out of the car and worked quickly. You made sure the tank was full, went inside to pay, took a quick bathroom break yourself then came back out, grabbed as many snacks as you could and a couple bottles of water and went to the front of the gas station to pay for everything. You chatted up the man behind the register long enough for Bucky to tend to his business and when he was back in the car you grabbed the bag with all the food and walked out. 

You sat back down in the driver’s seat, you gave the bag to Bucky and quickly switched your jacket for your hoodie. 

‘’Want me to drive?’’ Bucky offered.

You shook your head, smiling at him. ‘’No, it’s ok. Thank you for offering though.’’ 

Bucky’s heart melted in his chest. This was the first sincere smile you had given him in over a week. God, he had missed seeing it. 

He quickly trapped his bottom lip between his teeth to try to hide the grin that was rapidly forming on his lips. 

An hour after you had gotten back on the road, Sam had reached out to tell you that everyone had officially left the compound. Which meant that now they knew Bucky was on the run and they were coming for him. You had managed to give yourself a little more than a two hour head start. You’d hope it would be more but it was still better than nothing. 

You drove until it was dark outside, stopping one more time for gas but this time there wasn’t going to be a bathroom break. You were almost there and you didn’t want to risk Bucky being caught on camera. An hour later, you had finally reached the safe house. At least the one for tonight, you probably shouldn’t stay in one place for too long. 

It was a tiny house in the middle of nowhere. To anyone else, it looked like an old abandoned farmhouse  but it was actually the closest thing to a fortress you’d ever see in your life. Tony went all out with the security measures. Retinal scans, fingerprints, passcodes to get onto the land then more passcodes to get inside the house, all windows were bulletproof and the walls were made out of cement and reinforced steel. You’d be more than safe for the night. 

You parked the car in the garage and waited until the garage door was completely closed before getting out. You jumped out of the car and stretched your entire body. 

Bucky got out of the car and looked at you, amused.

‘’You okay over there?’’ He laughed softly.

‘’My butt is no numb.’’ You groaned. You gave a few gentle pats on the roof of the car. ‘’She’s a sexy beast, but she is not made for road trips.’’ You sighed.

You grabbed your things from the back seat of the car and walked up the stairs that led to the door that connects the garage to the house. You unlocked the door with yet another passcode and finally, you were home. 

At least what would be home for you don’t know how long. 

Bucky took his own bag and followed you inside, amazed at all the technology that protected this place.

You waited until he was inside before shutting and locking the door. You set the alarm that would alert you if any doors or windows were open or broken. 

It was a one story house, it was small but cozy. There was a small kitchen with a dining table that was big enough for two, a living room that was the same size as the kitchen. It had a TV and a loveseat, then down the hall from those rooms there were two small bedrooms; one on each side of the hall and a bathroom that was separating them. 

You dropped your bag on the floor and took off your boots. 

‘’You can choose whichever room you want, I’ll take the other one. Bathroom is at the end of the hall, you can take the first shower.’’

You walked around, closing the blinds and turning on a few lights. The windows were completely blacked out but you still didn’t want to take any risk. 

‘’I know it’s late but do you want me to cook something? Tony usually has pasta laying around.’’ 

Bucky was glad you had been busy walking around with your back turned to him, that way you missed how disappointed and sad he looked when you said you were going to take the room he wasn’t in. With everything that had happened this morning, he didn’t get the chance to have the talk he wanted to have with you. A small part of him hoped that sleeping with him last night meant that you were going to do it again every night like you used to do. He had been wrong. 

‘’I’m just really exhausted, you must be too. I’ll take a quick shower and then go to bed. You should get some rest.’’

He took off his boots and placed them neatly next to yours and walked down the hall to the rooms. He went into both, comparing escape routes in his head and chose the one that gave him the least chance of getting out. He’d rather get caught while you ran away than the other way around. He grabbed whatever he needed for his shower from his bag and locked himself in the bathroom. He made sure that he was quick and to leave you plenty of hot water. He put on his sweats and a shirt, tied his wet hair in a bun and walked out of the bathroom.

He looked into the room opposite his, finding you on the bed. You seemed to be talking to someone and from what he could hear, it was Steve. 

When you saw him standing in your doorway, you ended the conversation with Steve and told him you’d check in again in the morning. You took off the ear piece and put it in a small case to let it charge. 

‘’Shower is all yours.’’

‘’Thank you.’’

You got up and took the small pile of things that you had placed on your bed as you were waiting for it to be your turn. Bucky nodded at your thank you and walked into his room as you walked into the bathroom. 

Bucky left his door open. He was laying on his bed, his head propped up with pillows to be able to see you when you walked out. He was trying to gather the courage to talk to you. 

He didn’t want to have ‘’the talk’’ here. If it went sideways, it would make everything even more uncomfortable, but he needed to have some kind of talk with you. He needed you back, he needed his best friend back. You were right there and yet he missed you as if you were hundreds of miles away, and in a sense you were. Maybe it was selfish of him to try and fix things now. Maybe he should give you time to heal on your own terms and let you come to him when you were ready, but he couldn’t take it anymore. 

He wanted to hold you again; at night or during the day or whenever he felt like it, he wanted to be able to kiss you again; on your cheeks, your forehead, your neck and the tip of your nose. He missed the way your nose would scrunch up whenever his lips would brush against it. 

He wanted to feel whole again. He needed to feel whole again. Without you he was missing a piece of himself and it hurt. 

When the water stopped running, he sat up on his bed and waited for you. His eyes were glued to your doorway, scared that if he blinked you might walk right by and he wouldn’t have the chance to talk to you. 

That’s how nervous he was. 

When the door to the bathroom opened, he thought his chest was about to beat out of his chest. He couldn’t stand the idea of spending one more minute being at odds with you, but he didn’t know what he would do if you turned him down and pushed him away for good. It would break his heart.

Which would be fair because he broke yours and you are the last person in the world that he wanted to hurt. 

He waited until you were in his sight and called your name.

You turned around to look at him.

"Can we talk?"