𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 | bucky barnes

8: Library

They spent as much time as they could together. Cat understood Bucky, even in his silence. She just knew him — and they had only known each other for a week.

Bucky, though quiet and reserved, liked Catarina's company. He still wasn't totally used to the peace; much of the time, he'd have to go to extreme measures to hide, whether that be staying inside for long periods of time, or having to really sneak around. But here, he was hidden just by the surroundings. They wouldn't be able to find him for a long time.

Catarina didn't mind giving Bucky time to think. Knowing his past, he would need a lot of that. Cat could understand that. She was taking a liking to Bucky. She had already liked him, sure, but she was starting to see him in a different light.

Former assassin or not, he was pretty attractive. She was sure he was a ladies' man in the 40s.

But Catarina didn't know how to tell Bucky this. So she didn't.

"Hang on," said Bucky, a couple of weeks later, while at the library. "If you can use your computer to look up all of this stuff, why are we always going to libraries? Don't you need to stay hidden?"

"Well, firstly," started Cat, "I'm pretty sure everyone's forgotten about the article by now. I'm not an international fugitive, so they don't have to have me."

Bucky raised his eyebrows, unimpressed with her "international fugitive" comment. Cat just smiled at him.

"And secondly, I like books a lot better than I like looking stuff up on the computer. Plus, I thought it would be more familiar to you."

That made sense to Bucky.

Cat didn't know if Bucky knew that all of HYDRA's information was open to the internet. Of course, not all of it was decoded, but people online had done the work for some of the pages and posted it online for people to see.

"Do you know who Natasha Romanoff is?" she asked him. "The Black Widow?"

"I do..." answered Bucky. "Yeah."

"And you know that all of HYDRA's documents — including your records — are on the internet?"

Bucky looked down at the table they were sitting at.

"I do."

"I can't decode them, they have an extra layer of that protection... but some people can. And they have. Some of your records — they could be decoded."

"And you could find them?"

"Only if the decoded version has been posted. And by your records, I mean mission reports, your history... procedures they did on you."

"Yeah, I know."

"We don't, um.. we don't have to find them. But they are there."

Bucky nodded, then closed the book beside him. He was quiet.

"You know what?" said Catarina. "Let's get out of here. We can watch a movie."

Bucky nodded. "Okay."

Libraries were a great place to think. About anything. There were things Bucky didn't like thinking about, though. Cat liked to watch movies with him to keep his mind off things.

Bucky didn't think Cat had noticed when he'd started calling her that. But she did.

She loved the nickname. None of the friends she had made ever knew her long enough to start calling her by a nickname. She always felt the need to tell people her secret, because they would most likely find out sooner or later. But whether it was sooner or later, whoever found out about her abnormality always ended up not seeing her again.

Cat was more thankful than anything for Bucky. She didn't say anything about her like for him, because she didn't want to ruin the one friendship she'd had, ever. She also wasn't totally sure about it. Was it just a little crush? He was the first person who had ever been actually nice to her. Maybe it was just because he was the only one.

"You'll like this one," said Cat, as soon as they got to her place. "It's one of my favorites."

She picked up her computer from the table as Bucky took a seat on her couch.

"Then I won't fall asleep during it," he said. Cat rolled her eyes playfully. "What's it called?" he asked.

"Grease," she said. "It's a seventies movie, but it's set in the fifties."

"Hmm," said Bucky.

They sat there for the length of Grease. Bucky had immensely enjoyed it. Though, he didn't get any more excited to Cat. Yet somehow, she knew anyway. Bucky's fridge was broken — so he had left leftovers from their dinner yesterday at Cat's place.

Bucky hadn't brought Cat to his apartment yet. Besides, it had much less furniture, and it was darker, as Bucky had covered all the windows with newspapers. Cat wouldn't want to be there. Bucky didn't even really like it there.

Even when he wasn't with her, Bucky spent free time at the library. When he was alone, he would bring the notebooks he wrote his memories in, hoping to write new things down. Things that were maybe stuck deep down in his memory, but reading something made them resurface.

That had happened a couple of times. Cat liked to go to different libraries all around Bucharest. Some were small, but some were big, city libraries. Different books had different details of World War II in them. They searched multiple books about people of WWII, and most of them had biographies on who James Barnes really was. Used to be.

——— ✪ ⍟ ✪———

Catarina Palmer never knew anyone enough to call them a friend. She had met multiple people she had hoped to call friends, but it never happened.

Cat wanted to be more than friends with Bucky.

She knew him so well. Not just because there were books about him. But she could almost tell what he was thinking, when he needed quiet to think, or when he just needed someone to be there with him.

She felt happy when he felt like he had remembered something. She liked to listen to him talk about things, whatever it was, and she thought he looked cute when he was concentrating on reading.

She smiled at him when she wasn't looking.

Cat didn't know it, but Bucky smiled at her when she wasn't looking.

a.n.:

guys!!!! there's only one more chapter after this and then you get act 2!!!!

there are more characters in it, it's so good, and I'm so excited

cat has a crush hehe

i really hope you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to vote!

bestie molly