Steve cleared his throat as he woke. Stretching off the sleep he let out a soft sigh, registering the emptiness of his arms and the dreaded sense of history on repeat. His eyes opened to the soft glow of morning light and he glanced around the room for her, only to find emptiness in her place. Taking a deep breath he shook the feeling of uncertainty from his mind, the pain of memory and loss, and focused on the things he knew.
He knew he had held her in his arms as she drifted into a dreamless sleep. He knew he had listened to her breathing as her head rest against his heart and her fingers gripped the t-shirt he wore. He knew he had remained awake for hours, watching her as she slept, feeling her pull closer to him in the night, re-learning the dips and valleys of her beauty as he held her cradled against him. He knew she had found rest in his arms and he had, for the first time in a long time felt the softest semblance of security.
The light lilt of her laughter danced in the air as he walked the corridors of the compound, following the sound to where she was. She was beautiful and calm as she sat on the couch, her legs stretched out across the space and a small bowl of fruit in her hands. Her head was thrown back in contented amusement and a soft smile held its place on her lips as Bucky, draped casually over her legs, his own bowl resting on the arm of the chair, grinned over at her with childlike wonder. Steve paused in the doorway, his focus her and her alone and he felt tension he did not know he was carrying leave his muscles as he leant against the door frame and watched her relax into easy conversation as the Avengers all moved quietly around her.
"Okay," she giggled, looking back to the man crushing her feet, "but I still don't understand why he went along with it."
"Why does any man do anything Widow?" Bucky smirked as he wagged his eyebrows at her, watching as her blush burned and her eyes dropped to her bowl.
Steve smiled as he drank in the peach of her blush, transfixed by her in this moment, and wondered what tale Bucky was spinning to make her smile like that.
"Right. Anyway." She popped a grape into her mouth as Bucky shuffled in his seat and bubbled with laughter at her reaction. "So I'm like your best friend?"
"Yeah." Now it was Bucky's turn to look away. He picked up his bowl and began to push the fruit around with his spoon, avoiding her inquisitive eyes. "Something like that I guess."
Talia waited patiently, smiling up at him as her brow furrowed and she continued to pick away at her fruit. She sat unaware of the audience in the corners or the way they all seemed to watch her as if she were a dream that would disappear in a mist of smoke and dust should she be disturbed.
Steve simply revelled in her presence and her beauty. He watched her with wondrous adoration and his mind danced with memories and moments he longed to share. Vision watched her intently too; processing her behaviour, looking for any signs of discomfort or worry. He analysed her and scrutinised her so that he could anticipate her needs as he once had before. He had missed knowing her. But it was Tony, sitting at the kitchen island, out of place in the soft warmth of morning, whose eyes were most altered by her presence. Tony watched with wonder and with sadness. The irony that he trusted her now, when she was most likely there to complete a mission, and not when she had arrived before - a ghost in the garden, broken and bleeding in desperate need of help - was not lost on him. But he could not deny he trusted her. He wanted to trust that Talia Romanoff was somewhere beneath the stormy sea of her eyes and watching her now, he congratulated himself on his assessment. She was in there alright. She was just locked away.
Talia's attention did not stray from Bucky. Instead she sat and listened, glowing from the wealth of information Bucky had already given to her and intrigued by what else he seemed to be holding from her.
"I mean," he rambled, "Steve is my best friend, you know, because we grew up together, fought together, all of that stuff. But yeah, I'd say you're up there. You're definitely in the top ten."
By the time Bucky dared to glance up at the woman sitting beside him his cheeks were burning and her smile was soft with amusement. She shook her head as she laughed and reached to the table, placing her bowl down.
"Okay, maybe the top three if you play your cards right." He shrugged.
"Why do I feel like there's a story you're not telling?" She raised an eyebrow as she pulled herself back to a seated position and grinned.
"Because," Bucky chuckled, "there's a story I'm not telling you. And until those memories of yours come back to you, I plan on keeping it like that."
Talia kicked swiftly, careful not to use her full strength but eliciting a shocked groan from Bucky as he clutched his side before laughing heartily.
"Ow, Talia." He grinned as she pouted.
"You are mean."
He winked.
"So what do you guys do for fun around here anyway?" Talia glanced over the edge of the sofa to where Nat and Bruce stood in the kitchen, tracing her eyes over to the balcony where Thor sat with a thick book of something she couldn't quite make out and Wanda practiced her force fields.
"What?" Bucky feigned confusion as he spoke, pulling his hand up to his head and scratching comically. "You mean other than convincing homicidal amnesiacs to come home with us? That wasn't enough for you?"
Her laugh was like that first patter of rain on the window after a year long drought, overwhelmingly beautiful in its rhythm and musicality, and Steve moved towards it, desperate to bask in the glow of her.
"Again," she pushed Bucky gently with her foot and he shook his head lightly, "so mean."
"Don't worry Runaway."
Talia's heart stumbled before picking up into a sprint as her head turned to his voice and her eyes trailed up over his grey joggers and tight white t-shirt.
"He was the homicidal amnesiac before you." Steve smiled softly as a wide grin split across her face and lit up her eyes.
Disengaging her feet from Bucky's side Talia shifted so that she could look at him clearly without craning her neck. Biting the soft skin of her bottom lip she took a deep breath and tried to remember how to think straight. Her eyes trailed over him, she drank in the easy smile and the way his eyes seemed to whisper secrets to her that she couldn't quite hear. She sighed contentedly as she smiled and moved so that he could come to sit beside her.
"Good morning Mystery Man."
*
The light and airy music of Talia's laughter rang through the room as the majority of the team sat around, casual conversations barely holding their attention as they watched her with curiosity and amusement. She grunted as the weight of Thor pushed against her and she stumbled, almost toppling over, saving herself with just the tips of her fingertips spread across the coloured sheet before her, and she grinned enthusiastically at him as she glanced back over her shoulder.
Sweat was beading on his forehead as he twisted his leg in an angle that screamed of discomfort and once again tried to slip it beneath Bucky as he arched over the mat.
"This is much more difficult than it looks." His muscles rippled as he once again attempted to shift his weight without falling from the colours he had already been assigned. "Natasha, are you sure it is yellow?"
When Talia giggled Natasha did too. They glanced towards each other as Thor continued to struggle with the simple complexity of the game and Natasha rolled her eyes, eliciting a grin from the woman stuck in a strange yoga-esque position before her.
"Yep," she grinned wickedly as Thor slipped, his leg catching between Talia and Bucky as he tumbled to the floor. "Okay, Munch. Left foot blue."
Talia giggled as Thor got up with a groan and a grunt and she slipped her leg under Bucky's torso, angling herself with grace and poise as she got into her new position beneath him. She couldn't help but laugh as his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
"How Talia?" Bucky watched as she twisted her hips, her legs awkwardly crossing as she placed her foot on the only blue circle she could reach on the mat and came to a stop with her body under his. "Did the new version of the serum come with a flexibility add on none of us knew about or something?" He shook his head as he struggled to keep his position steady and groaned as she simply shrugged at him, a smirk on her lips and a toying glint in her eye.
"She's always been flexible."
It was instinctive. It slipped out in a way that was beyond his control or understanding. It had been meant as a simple observation, but now, spoken aloud, hanging in the air between them all, Steve's words were a suggestion; a claim.
His eyes darted up from the sketch book he had been lost in for the last half an hour, and his pencil hovered lamely above the page as he met the wide eyes of the entire team. Talia's face burned crimson as she looked over to him and silence stuck in her throat, like toffee that wouldn't shift.
Turning slowly, Sam cocked his head to the side and smirked as Steve sat with his mouth open and no words left to say. Natasha grinned at Talia who stared awkwardly at the ceiling and Bucky who, while still grinning down at his awkward competitor, was nodding in appreciation of his friends slip of the tongue.
"I'm sorry." Amusement bubbled in Sam's tone. "What?"
Steve turned a shade of crimson none of them had ever seen before as he snapped his book shut and tripped over his tongue.
"No - I - oh come on. I didn't mean - you know I didn't mean that. Don't do that."
Another silence came and Talia glanced over to Vision, sitting quietly in the chair by the window with a softly amused smile. As she opened her mouth to say something, anything, a low grunt broke the silence and Bucky crashed down on top of her, pinning her to the floor as he groaned. Bubbles of laughter burst from her chest and soon the whole team was laughing with her, staring over at the two of them pinned to the floor, Thor standing proudly over them.
"Get the damn hammer off of me Thor!" Bucky punched at the ground like a child in a tantrum as he lay against her, his muscles straining as he desperately attempted to remove his body from hers. "I'm crushing her!"
Talia laughed again as she looked up at Thor. He stood grinning at her. There was a sense of pride in his actions, his smile growing as Bucky became more and more agitated, using his metal arm to keep the full extent of his weight off of her. Slowly, he leant in to lift Mjölnir from the centre of Bucky's back, winking at Talia as she mouthed a silent thank you to the God of Thunder who had just singlehandedly diffused a very awkward situation for all involved.
"So sorry Barnes," Thor's laughter bounced from the walls, "I must have slipped."
He flicked the hammer effortlessly, as if it weighed nothing at all.
"Yeah, right." Bucky grunted as he rolled off of Talia and crashed to the floor beside her. As the air rushed back to his lungs and Talia coughed her way through her laughter she reached for his hand and squeezed.
Bucky simply smiled.