The next morning, Bucky was hesitant to knock on her door. He didn't want to overstep the one space that she had to herself.
Though it wasn't like he was barging in, yet again, he knew what it meant to have a place of peace and how easily it can lose its sense of amity the more traffic it received.
So he waited. He waited in the lounge area, then he waited in the kitchen, then he waited in the den/ library. Then he waited back in the kitchen again.
He checked his watch and saw it was 7 in the morning. He had already been up for two hours and had done nothing useful besides reading up on the reports Nat gave him over and over again with no change in information.
They would just have to wait until someone was able to decode more of the encrypted drive they had taken.
"I'll be ok. I've had worse."
Bucky turned at the voice he was becoming more familiar with.
"Are you sure? We can go back to the med bay and have them take a look. It looks like it's bruised up pretty nice," another voice came from the hallway he was eavesdropping on.
"It's fresh," she replied shyly, not caring for the attention. It's a lot different from the attention she was used to and a change of intention can be hard to adjust to. "In a few hours, you won't even be able to see it."
They finally came from around the corner and Bucky stood up from his chair, closing the book he had zoned out of multiple times.
"Hey, Barnes," Nat smiled with Y/N by her side. "How long have you been up?"
"A couple of hours. Was doing some research," he replied absentmindedly. His eyes immediately searched for the bruising he heard them talking about. It was hard to miss even when she was actively trying to keep him from seeing it as she looked anywhere in the room but at him. "What happened?" he asked anyway as he was shocked by the black eye she now had.
She looked at Nat and then at him.
"I had a nightmare. Fell off and hit my head on the nightstand," she replied sheepishly.
In truth, she was used to being tied down to a table when she had nightmares, so silk sheets and a bed with no restraints made it easy for her to find herself on the floor the next morning and a black eye for proof of her night terrors.
He looked at the damage as best he could as she tried to cover it with her hair and not bring attention to it.
Before he could make any other comment on it, she excused herself to the kitchen.
"She doesn't like attention, I can tell you that much," Nat whispered as they watched her carefully move around the modern kitchen. Not sure where to start as she had only been there one other time and Bucky was the chef. "Maybe just don't mention it or try to make her feel better about it. She's pretty adamant on not discussing how she got it."
"She doesn't need to say anything. I can imagine what she saw last night," Bucky replied with a deep sigh. "Now let's see what she thinks of on-the-go food."
"What are you doing with her, Barnes? She's barely accustomed to this palace, you better not be taking her to an overpopulated place. She's already on edge about the fact she knows nothing about herself," Nat gave him a raised eyebrow.
"What kind of person do you take me for?" he rolled his eyes. "Obviously I'm not going to put her in a high-stress situation, one day after waking up from a two-day sleep and everything else she went through before."
"I know," Nat chuckled, patting his back. "I'm just making sure." They paused to watch her as she went about the kitchen inspecting appliances and items. "She seems like she'll make it out the other side of the tunnel though," Nat whispered. "She's got some spunk in her, I can tell. We just got to fish it out."
"That's the goal," Bucky took a deep breath crossing his arms.
She was fidgeting with the coffee machine and trying to decipher if the hot brown liquid inside was something she liked before. She had liked the smell, but there were no memories attached to the sense.
"I'm going to take her on a walk of the compound so she can get familiar with it. The more you know about your environment and escape routes with a backstory like hers, it'll hopefully help her tear back some of those walls she's put up."
"Good plan. You may want to help her find a mug though if you want her awake on that walk. I have a feeling she didn't get much rest last night," Nat sighed before moving on to her mission of the day. "I'm going to help Tony maneuver through some of those files we got."
"How's that going?" he asked before she could walk off.
"About as well as your reading this morning did." Her smirk showed that she caught onto his mindless wandering and tricks to look busy as he waited for the new guest to come out this morning. "However, I think it's best to look up some names as well. We can't keep calling her Jane Doe/ that girl we rescued from a terrorist infiltration. Not very fitting for her either way."
"Yeah, I'll make that a goal for today," he nodded. "Keep me updated?"
She was walking away when he shouted his last comment to her.
"Always do," she waved, never looking back.
Bucky took another breath before moving on to his next riddle of the day.
"Need any help?" he asked as she poured some of the coffee into a mug that she had found.
"I'm not sure if I like this stuff," she said back, very focused on making sure she didn't spill any of the coffee. "But it smells really nice," she tilted her head down as she took another sniff.
"You don't think you've had coffee before?" he questioned, grabbing his own mug and refilling it.
"Not that I can remember. I know it's called coffee and I know it helps you stay awake, but that's all I know about it," she shrugged, about to take a swig of it.
Bucky watched as she hesitantly brought the warm drink to her lips. She took a small sip and her face scrunched up at the potency.
"Yeah, you may be better off with some cream and sugar. I make it a little stronger," he noted, looking at the nearly empty pot. "I can make another batch if you want," he offered.
But she waved him off, placing the mug down and going to the fridge for the creamer he had mentioned. She was at least knowledgeable about where the creamer would be. So perhaps she had done normal things in her past.
A human lab experiment wasn't one to know where household items are generally kept. At least the ones that have never seen a light outside fluorescent bulbs hovering over them. It was a small new detail about her, but a detail either way.
"Do you want sugar?" he asked, grabbing a few packets.
She nodded, taking the packets and thanking him before stirring them all together. With a quick look at him, she silently communicated with him a "here it goes," look before taking a new sip.
Her face didn't scrunch this time and instead, she had a look of realization.
"Do you guys have any..." She was trying to find the word. One she was sure she hadn't used in a long time if it was taking this long to come to her. "It's a spice," she said, hoping he would pick up on it.
"Spice? Sweet or savory?" he asked, going to the cupboard to search for something that would blend well with coffee.
"That one," she pointed out.
He turned and followed her finger seeing she was talking about the cinnamon.
"Oh, cinnamon?" he asked, pulling down the small jar and handing it to her.
She took it and examined the label. She turned it around in her hand a few times and carefully opened the lid.
"Is this sweet?" she asked, looking up at him.
"I guess you can call it that. It does go well with coffee though. The Parker kid has talked about it before," he said more to himself.
"Parker kid?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah. He's a member of the team," he answered. "He's pretty young and has school most of the time, but when he isn't there, he's here annoying us."
It was true. Peter Parker was the second little brother Bucky didn't plan on gaining in his life. Though he made himself useful when Bucky needed a pop culture explanation. Especially when Tony would drop them casually in conversation just to annoy Bucky.
"School? You have a kid on your team that's still in school?" She was slightly concerned.
"Don't worry, he's a smart kid," Bucky leaned against the counter. "He'll be studying for his college classes and hunting down a criminal during his snack time."
"They have snack time in college?" she tilted her head genuinely curious.
"He may be a teenager, but compared to me, he's a toddler. Plus, he gets hangry when he doesn't get his 1:30 snack."
"For someone who seems annoyed by the kid, you're awfully in tune with his schedule," she smiled up at him.
Bucky couldn't help but return it. This was the longest they had talked and he was learning she was quite observant.
"He's the little brother I didn't want, but I can't help but look out for the kid," Bucky shrugged, adding a sugar packet to his black drink before indulging in it.
"Sounds like a recurring action of yours," she said slyly as she took a sip with the cinnamon now in the drink.
Bucky took note of that spark of spunk Nat had mentioned and couldn't help but grin that it was coming out so soon.
He watched her reaction after she took a few more sips and her eyebrows lifted.
"I think I like cinnamon," she realized with a small sense of pride in her comment.
"Add it to the list," he grinned. "How do you feel about walks?" he asked next.
"Walks?" she asked, confused at the action. "Like just walking around?"
"Uh-huh," he answered, taking the last bit of the coffee in the pot and transferring it to a travel mug. "We can take that to go, or we can wait until you're finished."
"I'll take it to go," she nodded, holding it delicately in her hand.
"Ok, let's get you set up and we'll head out."
_________________
They grabbed a jacket from the closet in her room, even though it was bigger on her, she rolled up the sleeves and was comfortable in the brisk fall air.
Bucky started her off in the immediate meeting area. Showing her where the den and library were, where the living room and movie room were, and anywhere else she would have access to in the living space.
She was quiet for most of the tour and was taking in the mass amount of resources and activities they had at their fingertips. All she knew when it came to free time was being put to sleep and thrown into another room before more procedures were done to her... At least that's all she remembered so far.
On their way outside, he motioned to where the training room and gym were. A place she could go to if she needed to find anyone for help. There was a decent chance that there was at least one person who could help her there at any time.
Once outside, they took the scenic route around the compound. Keeping their distance from the hustle and bustle of agents and aircrafts taking off and leaving for missions.
"So there are more people that work here than just your avenging group?" she asked, hands in her jacket pockets as she tugged it closer to her body.
The way she worded the group's name made him laugh.
"We're a whole organization. Tony Stark, who's the one who pays for all this and the one who had your room all set up, is also one of the Avengers," he explained. "Steve, who you know as the man with the shield, is also known as Captain America. Well at least that's his superhero name and rank, but he's just as much of a dork as the Peter kid sometimes."
"And the Peter kid is the spider boy, right?" she asked
"Yes, Spiderboy. Hmm mm," he hummed, not correcting her as he had described him as that, to begin with.
"Nat seems really nice too. She also has superpowers?"
"Nat is enhanced, but she doesn't go as far as to classify herself as a superhero personally. She was a very well-known spy for a long time before joining this life."
"What about you?" she turned to him.
"Me?" he repeated.
"Yeah, do you have any powers?" She looked at the trees around her as she asked. Taking in as much of the greenery as possible.
"Steve and I's enhancements are pretty similar. Why and how we got them couldn't be more opposite, but I guess you could say I have powers..." he shrugged, looking over at her before following her eye line.
A few seconds of silence went on before she turned to him with a look of confusion on her face.
Though she had noticed the metal arm all the way back to when they first met, she had never stared or mentioned it like others were quick to. Never questioned or hinted at wanting to know what the backstory to it was, but something in her gut told her his answer to her last question has some sort of association with the arm.
Again, she didn't push. She just continued to walk as she processed everything in her own time. Bucky was really just there to answer questions and guide her around. He was intrigued by her story just as much as everyone else that was on that mission, but like them, he was waiting for answers to arise.
"Hey," he spoke up after a few minutes of silence passed. "I know I told you I'd let you sleep on it some more, but any chance a name has come to you."
She took his question and processed it for a second.
"Not really," she replied. "I heard some things that-," she paused, not sure what to call her captors. The memory of them was not one she was interested in looking back on, no matter how helpful it would be in the long run. "They called me..." she finished. "But never a real name."
He knew what she meant. Being used as a lab rat meant that a name that holds emotional ties and connections to an individual was not common in this situation. She was likely given a code name, or a number, or called slurs the majority of the time.
"Well, consider it another thing you get to choose," he continued in a way to make the conversation less upsetting. "Is there anything you would want to be called?"
She thought about it as they rounded the nature trail they were on. But eventually, she shook her head.
"I guess that's a pretty big decision." He placed his hands in his front pocket as they made their way slowly back to the living space. "I have an idea," he reached into his back pocket and fished out his phone. "I'll pull up a list of names and you can see if any of them sound fitting for you. And if not today, maybe you can do some research of your own and find something you like."
"Ok," she nodded, taking his phone that he had quickly searched up girl names on. She scrolled for a bit but didn't seem intrigued by any of the names she had found. After a few mumbles, as she read to herself the options, she stopped. "Wait, this one," she pointed, lifting the phone for him to see.
"Y/N?" he asked, testing the name himself. "You like that one?"
"I think so, but..." she paused and closed her eyes. "Something seems familiar about it."
"You have a connection to it?"
She again tried to think back on it. Her nose scrunched up as she closed her eyes trying really hard to remember why it was clicking somewhere. Something he had noticed she did anytime she thought hard about something.
"I'm not sure," she eventually sighed. "But I like it. Do I seem like a Y/N?"
"I don't see why not," he smiled. "I like it."
She smiled back, though he could tell it was slightly forced in an attempt to cover the frustration on why the name sparked something in her mind, yet she couldn't place why.
"Y/N it is," she said.
_________________
"I'm telling you, it's the only answer to what you're asking me," a voice echoed through the hall as Y/N and Bucky made their way back for lunch after a long and eventful walk around the compound.
"I'm not saying it's the wrong answer... I'm just saying it's-"
"It's an answer," a third voice was heard, with a hint of uncertainty.
"Wanda! Don't side with her."
"What's happening in here?" Bucky asked, turning the corner and putting a face to all the voices he had heard.
Sam was on one side of the counter, sitting on a bar stool. Natasha was in the fridge grabbing a cooled bottle of wine, and Wanda was in the middle of cooking what smelled like a nice roast or soup.
"Oh, hey!" Nat smiled, seeing that their new guest was somewhat hiding behind Bucky at the new people. "You guys are just in time for our lunch date," she smiled kindly to the woman before turning her attention to Bucky. "How was your walk?"
Bucky smiled, walking into the room slowly, checking behind him to see how close Y/N was following him. Not to his surprise, she was at least a foot away to give him some form of space, but close enough to feel like she had an anchor around the new crowd.
"It went well. We stayed on the hiking trail most of the time, but she should have an idea of the place a little better now," he answered. "What do you have going, Wanda?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sam stood up from his chair. "You're just going to act like there isn't a guest here? Where are your 1940's era manners?"
No one noticed, but her eyebrows knitted together in curiosity at the specifics of his question.
"Cool your jets," Bucky was quick to block her from him as he knew she was already skittish with everything going on, let alone new people. "She's who I mentioned was going to be staying with us for a little bit until we get some things figured out."
"Right," Sam remembered. "Sorry, I just got back from a long mission. I forgot all that happened while I was gone. And I've only been informed about pieces of what happened." He walked over to where Y/N was next to Bucky, but still behind him in shelter. "Sorry for my manners," he emphasized. "And his too, but I can only take credit for my own actions."
That got a small snicker out of her. Sam was good like that.
"Shut up," Bucky rolled his eyes.
"You first," Sam responded instinctively, before ignoring him and looking at her with a kind smile. "I'm Sam. Sam Wilson. I don't believe I've caught your name yet, sweetheart."
She could feel a sense of trust toward this person. The same she was slowly realizing she could easily give with this group of people she was gradually being introduced to.
"My name's Y/N," she replied softly. "It's nice to meet you, Sam."
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well," he grinned, before turning to the side and motioning to the empty bar stools in front of the chef herself. "Want to watch Wanda work her magic on the stove? She's got a gift for comfort meals on cold and dreary days like today."
She looked to Bucky once again, looking for something to tell her the coast was clear. He nodded his head once showing he'd be right behind her.
After the three sat in front of where the auburn-haired woman was adding the last bits of spices to the pot, Natasha walked up next to Wanda handing her a glass of wine.
"So, Y/N," she stretched out the name, sending a smirk showing she was happy to have a name to connect to her. "Bucky's not giving you any trouble, is he? Cause I can set him straight if need be."
Bucky once again rolled his eyes at the teasing from his teammates.
"Nat, aren't you supposed to be in a meeting with Stark right now?" He attempted to divert the conversation.
"Nothing that can't be sent in an email. He'll be fine," she waved him off. "Find anything interesting out there?" she asked, only looking at Y/N.
"Um," she started but wasn't sure what to follow with it. "It's a nice place."
"We have a billionaire to thank for that," Wanda winked, sipping her wine before introducing herself. "I'm Wanda. It's nice to finally meet you, Y/N."
"Wanda?" she echoed. "Wanda Maximoff, right?"
Eyes widened at her comment in surprise, except for Buckys. It didn't take a lot to realize she was very good at picking up and remembering things given the space and motivation to do so.
"That's me," she smiled. "Bucky's been helpful enough to fill you in on the team's roster I assume?"
"I have a lot of questions that need to be answered, but I'm learning I don't necessarily know the type of questions to ask," she replied, hands in her lap and body language showing she was still shy and reserved. "But Bucky has helped make me feel like I have some kind of grasp on this place and the people in it."
The group looked at him, in what you could say was a surprised way, but as much hell as they gave him for being the quieter one of the group, he always had a heart for those who needed it.
"We're glad you're here with us," Wanda spoke up with a comforting smile. "You're with the right group and person," she looked at Bucky, "to figure out who you are. Now, I'm guessing you're hungry after that walk. How do you feel about a pot roast?"
____________
By the time lunch was over, Bucky noticed that Y/N's black eye had slight discoloration, but for the most part, was healed.
She did well with the small group of friends, though it was likely the most interaction she had had in a while on a friendly basis. With each passing hour, he could see her relax little by little as her new environment was proving itself consistently safe.
Nat laughed at how Sam was quickly already trying to spread his music taste to the new member and took a bite of the scrapes of bread left in the basket in the center of them all.
Her phone vibrated on the table and her smile dissipated just enough for a trained eye to see. Bucky happened to have that trained eye and noticed once she looked at him after receiving the message.
She excused herself and gave him a look that showed where his thoughts had gone were correct.
They had an update.