Unexpected

XXXII

"I've missed you," Nina admitted, her voice muffled by his shoulder. "I have missed you so much, you have no idea," she said, her voice cracking, as she hugged him harder.

Bucky did miss Nina too. During all those years, when Hydra wiped him out, the first memory, the first detail to come back to him was Nina. He remembered how they had a plan to run away, but Hydra caught him. Bucky absolutely did not blame Nina for escaping without him. He was actually glad she had done so. Before they went to execute their plan, Nina made him promise not to come looking for her if she didnt make it out, so he made her promise the same thing. He couldn't have her being captured again.

Bucky then did something he didn't think he had the guts to do. He pulled Nina's hand around him and pulled her onto his lap. This is what they were like before everything, wasn't it? Before Zola's experiment, this was them, was it not? Why couldn't they just go back to what they were? Why not just pretend nothing happened? This is what he wanted. Nina is what he wanted, what he had always wanted.

She fell on his lap, both legs to his right side. She placed one hand on his leg and the other on his shoulder for stability, even if she didn't need it. Bucky was holding her waist with his metal arm.

He slowly placed a hand on her cheek, using his thumb to wipe out a small tear on her face. One stared at the other like nothing else could be better in the world.

Nina looked at Bucky's face. His baby blue eyes scanning her face like nothing else mattered. His black hair, that was definetly in need of a hair cut, falling onto the sides of his face. Bucky did the same to her. He looked at her green eyes shining in the sunlight. The dark circles under her eyes because she probably hadn't slept much. The freckles all over her face. And her lips, ones he knew were soft because he knew he had kissed them, even if he had no memory of doing so.

The two somehow made a mutual decision and slowly approached their faces. Bucky placed his hand behind her neck and pulled her closer, locking their lips. Bucky was right, her lips were just as soft as he thought. Her hand wondered from his shoulder to his neck, sending shivers throughout his whole body, and Nina smirked in their kiss when she realised it. It was a tender kiss, almost like they were both in need of it.

Nina felt a tingling feeling in her stomach, the famous butterflies flying around.

When they broke the kiss, Bucky rested his head in the crook of Nina's neck. She placed her hand in the back of his head and played with his hair. This is what she would do to calm him down when he came back to his senses back in her days as a Russian killer, and it still calmed him, even if he didn'tremember it. It was hard, waking up and remembering killing all those people, not being able to stop. Bucky always had a hard time with it, but Nina had always been there for him, and him for her.

Nina also remembered those times. Yet, they weren't her favourite memories of the two. They had literally spent more than 50 years together. She preferred those sweet moments they would spend together in between each of the Howling Commandos missions. All of those times Bucky needed to spend as much time with her as he could, because the next mission was soon and he didnt know if he was ever coming back.

Her favourite moment was the day he asked her to mary him. It had been so simple, no ring, no kneeling down. They were laying in bed together, and he just popped up the question. Nina wondered if he still remembered those times, that one in particular.

"So," Nina started, still on his lap. "Where are we going?" Bucky lifted his head and looked into her eyes.

"We?" He asked. "I thought you were going back to your friends," he said. Almost immediately, her phone, that was in the pocket of her jacket over her seat, made a ding. "That's been ringing for hours," Bucky added. Nina stood up and walked to her seat, grabbing her phone.

12 missed calls from Natasha, 16 from Steve. A grand total of 149 texts from lots of people, including those two, Fury, Maria Hill, and for some reason, her teenager neighbour's aunt, asking her if she was still coming in for dinner, one she did not remember planning.

"I'm not going anywhere," Nina told Bucky. "I'll follow you. Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, I'll stay by you. If you want to retrace your steps to try and get your memory back, or simply run away from it, I don't care. I'm not letting you go again."

Bucky looked at her for a moment. He wondered what he had done to deserve Nina. She was always so ready to drop everything and follow him. He loved the fact that she was going to stay with him, but not the reason why. She was letting go of everything for him. Unfortunately, that meant that she believed she had nothing else to lose.