Unexpected

XXXI

Nina woke up in a plane. She knew it was a plane because of the stability of where she was. Nina was very good with flying, and traveling. She could feel the rumble of the machinery underneath her seat, she could feel the air hitting the metal surrounding her, and she could feel the speed of which she was flying. They were very high on the sky, she knew that too.

Her chair was laying way back, but when she opened her eyes, she could see she was in the copilot seat. She looked to her side and noticed that it was Bucky who was flying the plane. He looked to be in pain, since everytime he moved his right arm, he flinched and cringed.

Nina looked down at herself. Her hair was wet and the water was dripping on her shoulders. Her pants were completely soaked, which made her feel very cold. She had a different shirt on, one she didn't recognise. It was a simple white t-shirt, that now had a pool of blood on its lower left side. Then it hit her; she had been stabbed.

Nina subtly raised her seat until she was in a sitting position. She kept looking at Bucky. His icy blue eyes shining in the sunlight. He was only wearing a sleeveless shirt, so she was able to see all of the muscle of his right arm. She was also able to notice that his right shoulder was dislocated.

"Hey," she said, startling him. He then sent up, but relaxed once he remembered it was only Nina. She was quite glad that he felt this comfortable around her, it meant he remembered something.

"Hey," he said back. Nina could see that this was no longer The Winter Soldier. This was Bucky Barnes. This was the man she loved so much. This was the man she had to patch up so many times in the 40's when he went on missions with Steve Rogers, their best friend. This was the man who, only after six months of knowing her, had promised to mary her and make her the happiest girl in the entire world. This was the man who was so goofy, so charming and funny that she said 'yes'. Except... it wasn't him. Not entirely.

"What happened?" Nina said, bringing a hand to her stomach. There was no more knife. It still hurt, but not as much as it did before. All Nina remembered was falling to the water. Nothing after that. She lifted her shirt a bit to see bandages all around her waist.

"I fished you and Steve out of the water and brought you with me," Bucky said. Nina mouthed an 'oh'. "I'm sorry," she then heard a small, low voice say. She looked over at Bucky, who was staring at the ground shamefully.

"I don't blame you," Nina said honestly. "How can I? Hydra was in your head, and I know very well how that is like." Bucky gave her a look and a faint thankful, but sad smile. "Is Steve okay?"

"He's alive." Nina let out a sigh of relief. Bucky had to admit, he felt something when she asked about Steve. I mean, he was right there, but instead of asking about him, she asked about Steve. In a way, he understood her worry. Bucky was a Russian trained super Soldier, and Steve was his mission. But still, how could she no-

"And... are you okay?" She asked him. For a second, Bucky tried to remember if Nina could read minds. He didn't remember her telling him that, no.

"I'm fine," he said. It was obviously a lie, but he was trained to ignore the pain, so that's what he did.

"You're not," Nina told him. " Your shoulder hurts, it's because it's dislocated."

"Its not, I popped it back in place." Bucky said. He was as stubborn as Nina remembered.

"You can't pop your own shoulder back in place," she said with an wtf expression on her face. I mean, didn't he learn that.. ever? No one can replace their own dislocated shoulder. He popped it to the wrong place. "You only made it halfway there, that's why it still hurts," Nina said, standing up from her seat, hands trembling form the cold.

That when she realised her abdomen still hurt like hell. But yet, she still walked to where Bucky was and stood behind him, her left hand on his shoulder and her right hand on his arm. Bucky flinched. He wasn't used to human touch if it wasn't to beat him. Nina held him down, not wanting him to move. She kept there, staring at him, touching his muscles, for at least a few seconds. She couldn't help it, he was a brick.

"Stay still," Nina ordered him. Bucky turned his neck to look at her hands, her nails and fingertips blue.

"You're freezing," he announced.

"My body is colder than a human's-"

"I know. But you're cold," Bucky told her. " Your jacket is wet, mine is behind my seat, put it on," he ordered her. Nina crouched on the ground and grabbed his jacket, putting it on. Her pants were still freezing, but at least her arms and body were warm.

Nina placed her hands back on their original spots, getting back to her job. "This is gonna hurt," she warned. Bucky nodded, tensing up. "On three. One-"

Pop.

Bucky let out a small groan because of the pain. Yet, it quickly subdued and a good feeling took it's place. Only then, he realised that Nina had a hand on each one of his shoulders and she was massaging them. Bucky couldn't help but let his head fall down forward, because it felt so good.

Nina smiled at his reaction. She found it very cute for a master assassin to react that way to a small shoulder massage. Nina had to admit, Bucky's shoulders were very tense. It had been some time since he had slept, she was sure of it.

Nina slowly slided her hands all over his back and shoulders through the neck hole of his shirt. It sent a shiver down his spine when she touched the sepapration between his left shoulder and his metal arm.

Almost by instinct, he grabbed her left hand with his right one, but instead of judo flipping her or something like that, he pulled her gently closer to him. Nina followed the movement and laid on top of him, both arms around his neck and her head on top of his shoulder.

She had definetly missed her Bucky.