Say you'll remember me

22. Tea and talking

Half and hour past and Natasha now found herself in Steve's private quarters with a cup of warm tea in her hands sat on his sofa.

They'd been sat in silence for a while but it was finally broken when Steve eventually spoke.

"You know him."

It wasn't a question.

"You know him from before, I heard you call him James. But no one other than his closest family called him that and they all died centuries before you were even born, Natasha. You were born in 1980. You are thirty years old, I checked your file", Steve explained.

It was obvious he was extremely confused.

Natasha sat quietly looking at the now empty cup in her hands while Steve was staring at her intensely.

She had to tell him.

"I'm not thirty, my file is fake", she told him.

Steve frowned.
"Why would Shield give you a fake file?"

Natasha sighed.
"To protect the truth. I'm nearly the same age as you Steve, and Fury decided very early on that the world was only ready for one man out of time and that is in fact yourself."

Steve looked at her agape.
"I...I don't understand."

"I was born in 1925, cryogenically frozen in 1950. I was let out only to complete missions until Clint came to kill me and made a different call", she told him.

Steve sat in shock.
"How come we didn't know about this before?"

She shook her head and shrugged.
"Shields choice, not mine. Either I kept the secret or got my memories wiped. The choice was obvious."

Steve nodded, taking in everything he had just leaned.
"I still don't understand. Bucky died in 1945", he exclaimed.

"He can't of, I met him in 1947, two years after you were frozen."

Steve slowly put the pieces together and began to understand the confusing situation.

"So if you met him after him after I was frozen, hydra had got to him before that?"

Natasha nodded.
"He ran away from them, he had no ideas or memories of who he was before the fall. That's how I didn't know he was your Bucky. I didn't even know he was ever called that and nor did he. He was James, that's all he knew", she said.

Steve exhaled loudly, sighing as he slowly understood. They both sat quietly for a few moments, thinking of the chance that this had actually happened. Natasha's eyes were fixed on the bare rug when Steve looked over to her.

Steve once again was the one to break the silence.

"How did you know him?"

At first he wasn't even sure if Natasha had heard his question, she just remained still, staring at nothing.

"I..we..we knew each other", she replied.

Steve frowned at the non specific answer.

Natasha suddenly shook her head and sighed.

"Sorry, that was a stupid answer, sorry, I just..."

She closed her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair.

Steve watched her closely.

Natasha never showed emotion like this, ever.

It was clear to him that whoever Bucky was to her, it was still a part of who she was.

Steve smiled and guessed he wasn't the only one who thought of Bucky everyday.

"It's okay, you were close to him?"

Natasha couldn't help but let a small smile form on her lips as Steve said that.

She wrapped her fingers around the star shaped necklace and turned to face Steve.

"Yea, we were close", she whispered looking straight at him.

Steve tilted his head side ways in wonder.

"How did you meet?"

Natasha smiled and began to tell the story of how she met James and how they slowly became friends and eventually fell in love.

She poured her heart out and Steve listened to every word she said in wonder.

He had never seen Natasha look so happy as she did when she spoke about Bucky, or James as she referred to him.

They sounded perfect together, the whole story appeared magical to him, like it was something he had read in one of his many books.

Natasha told him the story right until the end when they were brutally ripped apart.

"That night on the roof, the night I lost him, was the first time we said I love you. He gave me this necklace", she spoke softly.

Steve suddenly understood why she never removed the chain from her neck.
"A red star, like the one on his arm?"

Natasha nodded and smiled.

Steve smiled back before laughing to himself quietly.

"What?" Natasha asked.

"He always did have a thing for red heads."

They both laughed until a robotic voice spoke to them from the ceiling speakers.

"All members of the Avengers report to medical bay immediately", the voice spoke.

Natasha and Steve looked at each other before racing out the room together.