Juliet
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"Do you think it worked?" I asked Bucky after he'd finished explaining to me what Wanda had done to try and make Cam stay with them in the compound.
"I don't know, I thought it would, but even Wanda is getting nothing from her." He signed, shifting uncomfortably on his side of the bed.
He wasn't supposed to even be out of bed and he'd started his day at three am sitting on the floor on the roof of the building and hadn't stopped until he'd almost passed out trying to get back downstairs from Cam's bedroom. Wanda had forced him into his room, her hands had glowed a dangerous red as he tried to protest.
"She told me that Cam has like, a super strong shield that she didn't even know about?" I made my statement sound like a question, wondering if he knew anymore than I did about it.
"Yeah, she's not sure if that's the reason she got nothing or if she's so determined to leave she's pushing everything so far back that it won't effect her decision. I don't know, I don't want to talk about it anymore." He sighed as I felt the familiar anger that I'd felt from the moment I'd woken up radiate around him again, ebbing and rising throughout the day my body was getting used to it.
"Can we talk about how I'm sapping all of your super duper solider powers so I'm rendering you essentially as useful as a newborn kitten?" I asked, behind everything else that had been happening it had been eating away at me since Tony and Bruce had told us.
"I'm at least up to the strength of an adult cat now, so it's fine." He chuckled, twisting his head to look at me, my head resting against his other pillow.
He looked at me, assessing how he thought his next words would effect me, I could tell that's what he was doing, but his eyes raking over my face made heat start to rise over my body.
"You don't want to break the connection yet?" He said, making it sound like a question, needing an explanation for my thought process.
It wasn't as easy as a one track decision and it wasn't thought out before I'd blurted the words out in the lab but I sighed, trying to organise my thoughts enough to explain the basic need that had driven me to make the decision, and without his input.
"If we hadn't gotten out of there, if we were still there, they'd be working to find them, to get them shut down, but we got out and we're back and everyone has just stopped looking, they're concentrating on what's happening in front of them, and it's just giving The Red Room chance to regroup, to maybe take someone else, to try and keep going, and I think we need to focus everything on that first, while this thing between us isn't hurting anyone." I looked him over, "Well, technically not hurting anyone, aside from the whole adult cat thing." I tried for a smile but the guilt I felt for rendering him next to useless wasn't ebbing.
"Stop." He muttered, grabbing a finger from my uncasted hand to make me look back up at him.
"I'm fine lending some serum energy for a while." He left no room for doubt, there was nothing behind his eyes, or that I could feel inside him that didn't mean his words, he didn't mind that I was sucking some of his healing, he didn't mind he was left weaker than he usually would be because of me.
The guilt didn't subside though and I knew he would feel it, if he couldn't already he would.
"You're also worried you'll go back to hating me if we break it now?" It was meant to be a statement but again, it sounded like a question, he was unsure of himself.
He was however, absolutely correct. I bit my lip and just nodded.
He surprised me when he just rolled his eyes. "What, it's a valid concern." I gently shoved his arm, making sure I didn't jostle him.
