Little Ballerina (A WinterWidow Story)

Ch. 15 Something about the stars

Papers were scattered about everywhere. Natasha couldn't look at them anymore, she had to get away, think about something other than how Rina was out there somewhere with her crazy ex-husband and his probably equally crazy son. She got up off the floor, she wasn't making any progress on finding the location where Alexi was hiding out.

She made her way to the kitchen, sighing as she swung open the heavy door. She grabbed the bread and peanut butter from the pantry. Peanut butter sandwiches had become her only source of substance because she was always to busy searching for Rina to make anything more. She was spreading the peanut butter on the slice of bread when she heard footsteps enter the kitchen. She didn't look up, only continued making her sandwich. She felt a metal hand take the knife from her, she looked up and saw two sad blue eyes staring back at her,

"Come on, you can't live off of peanut butter sandwiches" he said with a slight smile before sadly continuing, "she wouldn't want you to"

She scoffed,

"No if she were here, we'd be eating chocolate" she half joked but it didn't close the hole in her heart that threatened to tear her apart.

He set the knife down and wrapped his arms around the red head. She buried her head in his chest, they'd hardly seen each other, she had locked herself in the office to work on finding where they had taken Rina while he searched the as many bases as they could find, talking to people, seeing if anyone had seen the small, blonde girl. Neither had much luck in the past 6 months.

"Oh my god, I've missed you" she murmured into his chest as they stood in the kitchen, holding each other tightly as if they stooped they would fall apart.

She felt his body shake as he laughed and ruffled her hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head,

"I missed you too, Natalia"

"I just can't believe she's gone" she whispered

"I know, I know the Tower feels so empty without her here" he admitted softly

"I just hope she's ok, it's the not knowing that's killing me, we haven't heard anything. Sometimes I wish that we would know if she was... if she's..." her voice finally cracked as she imagined the possibilities.

He held the back of her neck and pulled her even closer,

"Hey, hey" He said comfortingly, "if she was, we'd know but she's tough, tougher than most so if anyone can get through this it's her"

They fell into a deep silence, the only sound was their hearts beating and they didn't even hear the footsteps approaching the kitchen,

"Jesus, get a room you two" Sam remarked as he opened the fridge.

Bucky tried to pull away from the hug, not sure what else to do because while they weren't shy about their affection for each other, the hadn't put a label on their relationship yet. But to his surprise Natasha held on, her arms tightening around his waist.

"Wilson" She grumbled threateningly

"Chill out, Red. We all know" he said, a box of cereal in his hand

At that moment Steve walked into the kitchen, oblivious to what was going on. Sam stopped him and said,

"Come on, man back me up. Tell Red it's not a big deal that her and metal arm dig each other"

Steve's eyes widened at Sam's blunt comment. He cleared his throat,

"Uh... well we all noticed it and uh..." he stuttered unsure what else to say.

"We all approve" Wanda finished for him walking into the kitchen from where she was eavesdropping.

The brunette took a bowl from the cabinet and took the cereal from Sam to pour some for herself.