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An hour later, Bucky and Rosemary were smack-dab in the middle of an emergency Avengers meeting.
"What the hell do you mean you don't know who they were?" Tony asked for the millionth time. Steve rolled his eyes at him from across the table and Rosemary answered the question again.
"I mean they were just guys, Tony. By the sound of it they were hired on by someone else. He said they were supposed to mess with me a little bit, to scare me but not kill me. They didn't know Buck was home."
She squeezed Bucky's thigh underneath the table as she spoke, almost able to feel the anger quietly radiating off of him. She knew he was upset that they were in a meeting instead of making any progress on figuring out who the guys were working for.
"How did they get in?" Tony asked, and Steve rolled his eyes again. Natasha Romanoff watched Rosemary, a smirk on her lips at Tony's repetitive questions. Part of Rosemary wondered if he was just repeating himself over and over again to try and get Bucky to calm down before any action was taken. If that was the case, it didn't seem to be working.
"The first three, I don't know. The one after that broke the window," Rosemary said, and Tony shrugged.
"You don't have any enemies you can think of?" Natasha spoke up, and Rosemary was glad to be addressed by someone other than Tony.
"No," she told her, shaking her head firmly.
"They weren't here to get to her, not really. They were here to get to me," Bucky said under his breath, glancing around the table like he was challenging someone to argue with him. Unsurprisingly, Steve did.
"You don't know that," Steve told him, and Bucky was nodding before he even finished speaking.
"Yes I do know that," he told Steve, his voice angry. "Rosie doesn't have any enemies. She's never pissed anyone off in her life. I don't think she's capable of it. You all know her, you know that," Bucky continued, full on ranting. "They were here for me and we all know it. The fact that we're going to pretend they weren't is bullshit."
Bucky rose from the table, his chair flying behind him as he did so. It hit the floor with a bang and everyone in the room watched as he stormed out the door and down the hallway.
"I'll get him," Rosemary mumbled to Steve, who was already halfway out the door. She put a hand on his shoulder and he put one on hers in return, nodding slightly.
"We're going to figure this out. No matter who they were here for or because of, we're going to find out," Steve assured her, and she nodded.
"I know," she told him, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek before jogging off after Bucky.
"Buck! Hey!" she yelled after him, catching up to him. She planted herself in front of him, gripping both of his shoulders to stop him.
"I knew this was going to happen. I knew it," he said, his eyes refusing to focus on her. He was bad at eye contact when he was angry.
"Listen to me, James. Listen," she said quietly, having realized shortly into their relationship that calling him by his given first name tended to snap him to attention, probably because he was so unused to hearing it. "Look at me," she instructed him softly, and after a long moment, he did as she asked.
"I don't care, Bucky. I don't. I don't care if there are a million assassins after me because I'm with you. You can help me polish up my combat skills and we'll take them all on together. I don't care," she told him. He made to argue but she shook her head, putting a finger to his lips. "Listen to me. I don't care because I love you, James Buchanan Barnes. I love you so much I can't even stand it and you can play the gruff soldier act all you want to try and drive me away or whatever your plan was, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere because I love you so much, James. So much," she told him, realizing halfway through that her eyes had gone misty with happy tears. She'd never spoken words she meant more.
Bucky studied her, his face a storm of quiet emotion. He was seemingly thinking hard about something and he left her hanging there for what felt like an eternity before wrapping his bionic arm tightly around her and raising his other hand up to her face, caressing her cheek gently.
"I love you too," he whispered, making a tear slip down her cheek. "I love you so much, and if you're sure you want to be in this with me, if you've really thought it all through, I promise I won't shut you out," he told her, his voice small but sure.
"I've thought it all through. I wouldn't be here if I hadn't," she said, smiling up at him.
"I love you," he repeated, smiling back at her.
"I love you too," she replied, kissing him passionately as he held her close.
