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Poppy smirked at him as they settled into bed, "three facts about you that I don't know and I'll kindly return the favor." She leaned forward and pressed a kiss on his lips.
"Okay, three facts. I used to be really good at football, I love motorcycles, and, uh-" he looked at her and let it a breath.
"So I actually have a little sister, but I don't talk about her because she is extremely private and we don't talk as much as we used to. I didn't mean to keep her a secret but I feel like I need to tell you." Bucky looked at her with sad eyes that made Poppy shift to lay closer.
"What's her name?" She whispered.
"Rebecca, Becca we call her. She actually lives abroad in Europe."
"I'm sorry you aren't close anymore, I always envied people with siblings."
There was a silence for a few moments as James runs his hands through her wild spirals.
"So, me? I'm petrified of being abandoned, like absolutely mortified of the possibility anyone could walk away again. I hate crying infront of people, and I make music occasionally." She rolled to lay on her stomach, her head on her arms as she looked at him.
He beamed, "so piano?" She smirked, "yeah, piano and I do love to sing, just not infront of people."
"Alright, confession. I met some guy you used to know tonight...Dean?" he asked quietly, his face etched with worry, making a smirk cross her lips.
"Dean was a fling, yes. He was intense and controlling. He didn't like most of what I did, I don't change for anyone. And you know I'm honest, but he got hooked. There is a reason I feel something changing James. I love you, I don't think I've ever felt the kind of love you give and the feeling I get when I look at you feels like bliss."
The way his heart pounded as she spoke was igniting him, he watched her with wide excited eyes. "Poppy, I love you. I just want to make you happy. Forever."
A pink hue covered her cheeks, "I love the sound of that, and I love you."
They knew they were running into love fast and blind. Falling head first with no parachute, two lost, lonely souls that found eachother.
The pair spent the entire saturday in his oversized bed, cuddling, touching every inch of one another until Bucky's phone rang that afternoon.
He glanced at her as he clicked answer, "hey Steve, whats up?"
'I need you to come approve a few things for a last minute change with the tour. An hour, two tops.'
Bucky let out a deep breath, "be there soon."
Poppy heard the conversation and made her way to get dressed in the skirt and fishnets she left in the small drawer he gave her last time she was there. Tossing on his arctic monkeys tshirt as he walked in the door, she smiled. "I need to go see Nat anyways, I'll call you, darling." He loved the way she spoke, the way her words rolled off her tongue so eloquently in her thick accent.
He leaned in and pressed a kiss against her lips, it wasn't lust, but pure passion and love. As he pulled away he ran his thumb across her cheek, "Prinţesă, I'll see you later. Steve just needs my signature for a few things."
She kissed his cheek, "my powerful man." She squeezed his hand and finished her burgundy lip and quick streak of mascara. He was shocked and beaming, he was her man.
She made it out the door before him and disappeared into the busy Saturday afternoon city streets. She immediately lit a stress cigarette as she strutted towards Natasha's apartment. The two hadn't talked since the day she laid it all out, Nat avoiding her 'little sister' after being caught in a lie.
As Poppy walked onto Nat's fifth floor apartment in China town, she had to admit the stench was potent. Death. All around her felt heavy as she knocked on the door. Immediately met with a deep throaty, "go away! Not today!"
Pouted lips drop ajar at the way her friend spoke, almost sinister. Poppy didn't move her feet but leaned to listen against the door to listen, she swore she heard stifled grunting. "Natasha, let me in!"
Combat boots were rooted in their spot, she heard shuffling in the apartment and the sound of the locks. When the door opened there was an unmistakable smell, the iron of blood. The moment her emerald eyes scan the small room and lock on a man tied up atop of tarp covered in crimson. She stares around and sees Olive smiling with a knife, both assassins dressed in black jeans and tight black shirts.
Poppy looked the man dressed in briefs and a button down. He's tied impressively with rope and ball gagged with duck tape over it. His shirt a tattered mess, cuts peppering his skin underneath.
"What did he do?" Poppy looked into her friends green eyes.
"Well, today he decided to follow Olive home and sit outside our building." Nat looked at Olive and back at Poppy.
Nat kicked him, "but before that he was a super creepy one. Young girls...kinda his pervert MO." Olive kicked him, "dude had underage shit on his phone."
Olive sighed, "we need to take him to the warehouse Nat. I'm not about a dead body in this apartment. Ew."
Natasha looked at Poppy, "you can still drive right?"
Poppy's eyes widen, "Nat, I don't-"
Olive smiled and locked eyes with Poppy, pure kindness etched in her face. "Curly, you don't have to. But it would be very awesome if you could so we can sit in the back with this one." Olive's Canadian accent popping through as she spoke and slid a knife across the quivering man, making Poppy smile.
"Fuck it, one ride and then I'm ubering home." Poppy breathes out with her hands up in defeat. "Where do you want me to park?" She picked up Natasha's keys and turned to look at her.
Nat beamed at her friend, almost mischievously. "Out back, in the one way alley, I'm parked infront of Madam Dimitri's store."
In fifteen minutes, Poppy's combat boots was pressed against the gas of Natasha's white Volvo that she never seemed to drive. She pulled in between the buildings and watched Olive and Natasha force the tall man into the backseat between them.
"Drive, Tiny!" Nat yelled, "to the big warehouse you made that murder movie joke about a few weeks ago."
The laugh that fell from Poppy's lips was almost menacing. "Oh my gods. Irony...Are you gunna kill him?" She looks at Olive through the rearview, who only smirks.
It was a quiet drive, not as tense as Poppy felt it should have been. The two people she'd been closest to for years are contract killers, she was driving them to kill someone. Atleast she was nearly sure they'd be killing him.
The moment Poppy parked the car where Natasha told her, she let's out a fluttery nervous breath. Olive opened her door quickly and Nat pushed the man to the ground behind Olive. He let out a grunt as he hit the gravel.
Natasha smirked at her younger friend who watched them with a curious stare as they brought the man into the abandoned building far from the city.
"You can call an Uber but just wait thirty minutes, and I can drive you home?" Natasha let Olive get him inside as she looked at her friend with hopeful eyes.
Poppy looked over Nat's shoulder at Olive dragging a large man behind her, a small smirk on Poppy's lips. "I'll stay here, go do your thing." Natasha smiled and grabbed Poppy's hand, giving it a squeeze. "I owe you a drink!" Nat smirked, Poppy watched her walk toward the warehouse, adding, "you owe me alot more than a drink, Red!"
Natasha laughed and gave her a thumbs up, she was so happy Poppy didn't completely turn away from her, she'd grown so fond of their bond.
Her tiny fingers twirl spools of coiled orange around as she hears the faint sound of pounding and moaning. She fights her natural urge to smirk, she pulls her phone out to distract her monstrous thoughts.
[James♡]: My beautiful doll. Finishing up soon.
[James♡]: Call me when you're done at Nat's. Ily.
She smirked and tucked her hair behind her ear, she walked towards the large broken down building. Her curiousity pushing her instincts to the back of her mind. When her eyes peak in through the opening in the large doors, she sees Natasha with a gun in her right hand, relaxed at her side, and Olive with a long knife standing next to the man, nearly dancing around him.
She watched as her brunette friend sliced the man's throat with a sinister smile. As shocking of a sight it was before her, she was drawn in from the moment she saw the crimson color of his blood in her best friends apartment. Her body moved forward mindlessly as she saw the life leave the man's body, in a short moment everything shifted inside of her.
Natasha looked up from the sight before her to see her small friend walking towards them with a vacant stare locked on the dead man before her. "Poppy, you didn't have to-" Poppy put a hand up and planted her feet, tilting her head to stare at the man, studying him with a curious pressed brow. She stood for a few moments, Olive and Nat staying silent and still, waiting to gauge their young friends reaction.
Poppy wasn't scared or concerned, she was only curious. Something about the way she took Ian's life all those years ago still haunted her. But in this moment, as she watched the gruesome sight before her, the felt washed over with relief. She didn't know why but something clicked.
Without a word she looked from Olive to Nat and back at the limp body, tied to a pole. She smiled, turning on her heel, "I'll see you tomorrow Nat, breakfast on me. Good luck with that mess." Poppy chuckled on her way out, reaching into her purse and unwrapping a grape lollipop as she waved back at her stunned friends.
"Love you Curly," Olive yelled as she started to prep for disposal.
"Bye Pops, love you."
The tiny redhead tossed up a peace sign as she walked away.
Natasha shook her head, "it seemed like she was intrigued, right?" She chuckled as they started their cleanup process.
Olive nodded, "yeah but we're gunna keep her to ourselves right? Malick can't get his hands on that one." They agreed then and there that Poppy would remain their asset. Nat nodded, pulling out her tools, "Poppy is too important to let Hydra taint...she's ours. I just need to get in to see Stark."
Poppy walked down the side of the street with racing thoughts. She liked the sight, she enjoyed the tension of the moment when Olive took his life. She remembered the day Ian lunged at her, attacking her, she always thought she was sick, mentally, after that day. He had his hands around her neck. The life draining as she reached aggressively for the knife. The moment she plunged the knife into his chest, she remembered the euphoric feeling that followed the second his eyes dimmed. Poppy remembers feeling high after he took his last breath in shock, now she knows she is sick.
After a mile walk toward the city she ordered an Uber, sat on a bench, and picked up her phone and called him.
'Babydoll, how're you?' She could hear the smile in his tone. She blushed, "waiting for my ride. I'm exhausted "
"Come let me take care of you," He flirted and she heard his friends making teasing sounds nearby.
"Tell them I said hello. If you're busy I won't bother you," she got notified her ride would arrive in a few minutes. She listened to him talk to them for a minute.
'Are you coming back over?' He asked in a pleading tone which sent a flutter through her but she bit her lip.
"I'm gunna go home and get some sleep. I'm still tired from last night. Call me later."
She heard the way he sighed into the phone, 'text me when you make it home, baby. Be safe.'
Poppy smirked, "I'll do my best, Sir." Her uber pulled up, "my rides here, gotta go. Love you."
'And I love you.'
When Bucky hung up Steve and Sam were giving him mischievous smiles, "you love her? When did you two drop the L bomb?"
Bucky rubbed the nape of his neck, "a few days back. I know it's fast, but I've never felt like this before."
Sam chuckled as he finished his drink. "Yeah, you've never been addicted to anything either," he deadpanned as Steve nudged him.
Bucky was quick to change the subject, "so, Clutch wants Poppy to be more involved in their production."
Steve smirked, "okay. Segway much? Didn't we already agree on that?"
Bucky nodded and rubbed the base of his neck, "yeah, but Chris asked her out that night we went out."
Sam pat his friend on the shoulder, "get used to sharing her time, it's about to get busy for all of us, Buck."
The group drank well into the night, Poppy texted James but he didn't see it until he was walking out of the bar.
[Poppy♡]: home safe darling. wish you were here.
[Poppy♡]: heading to sleep. xxx
He waved for a taxi and took it right to her NoHo apartment building, he stumbled up to her callbox and clicked her button a few times. It was a few moments before her groggy voice came through the speaker, "whoever you are, you better have a good reason to be pressing that button.."
He smiled as the sound of her groggy thick accented voice. "It's me babydoll, I needed to see you," he leaned against the wall as she pressed the button to let him in.
As he stumbled through her unlocked door, he is met with the tired face of Poppy, her groggy eyes staring through him like daggers.
"My perfect flower," he slurred as he hobbled over to her. She kept her arms cross while he wrapped his around her.
"I'm an angry flower, we'll talk about this tomorrow," she wrapped her small hand around his large inked hand and pulled him toward her small bedroom.
The two drifted off to sleep that night thinking about very different things, yet completely enthralled in one another as they became more tangled together.
Poppy couldn't shake the worry about her impulsive desire to see such a disturbing sight again, while he just fell more inlove with her as she swam in his drunken mind.
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