part time soulmates, full time problem

Take A Breath

"Hey!" You called out to him, following him out the door.

Bucky kept walking.

Catching up to him, you grabbed his wrist.

"Hey!" You repeated. The action of grabbing him had made him stop, but he didn't look at you. It made you frown in confusion. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"Okay." You replied, before letting go of his wrist. "I..." You turned to look briefly at the others filtering out of the room behind you. "Can we talk?"

"About what?" He asked, finally turning his head to look in your general direction, but his eyes didn't meet yours.

"Um...you know. Stuff, I guess. Before it all happened, we had that talk and -"

"A lot's happened since then."

"What's...what's with the tone?"

Bucky just rolled his eyes and started walking again. This time, you pre-empted it and grabbed his arm once more, dragging him round to face you.

"What the hell has gotten into you?" You snapped. "You've barely looked at me since I rescued you, now you're being shitty. What is your deal?"

He let out a mixture between a laugh and a huff, his tongue running over his bottom lip as he looked everywhere but you for a couple of seconds.

"I thought..." You started to say, when he stepped forwards.

"You thought what? That I wouldn't notice?"

"Notice what?"

"We don't need to do this." He shook his head. "You rescued the team, great job. But don't pretend it was all for me when you clearly had other motives."

"Other motives? Like what?!"

"I get it, alright? Message received." He said bluntly, ending his sentence spinning on his heel and storming away from you.

You blinked in utter confusion as you watched him.

What in the fuck just happened?

"What are you standing around for?" Came a voice from behind you, followed by an arm roughly thrown across your shoulders.

Clint.

"I uh...I was just..." You stuttered, going to point to Bucky, but he had already disappeared. "Nothing."

"Everything okay? Do I need to bring over some more tequila?" Clint laughed, taking his arm off your shoulder. Clearly your worry was written all over your face.

"That didn't exactly end well last time." You replied, trying to return the jokey banter Clint was giving you.

"Tequila never ends well. That's why I like it." He winked, before heading down the corridor with Nat, who'd apparently appeared beside him at some point in your conversation.

You stood in the same spot for a couple of minutes, watching the rest of the team filter out of the room. When they passed you, they each gave you that little awkward nod you give strangers on the street, when you don't really know what to say and you're just trying to get past.

Each one of them made you feel worse and worse.

Eventually, you realised that no one else was coming out of the conference room. Then you realised that there were some specific people that hadn't come out at all.

Storming back into the room, you slammed the door behind you, making Tony, Rhodes, Thor and Bruce all snap their heads up to look at you.

"Quite the entrance there." Tony muttered.