*WARNING: Contains 'Captain America: Civil War' Spoilers!
"We need him," I said down the phone, pleading. We needed as much help as we could get.
"I'm not finished with him yet. We don't know the extent of his powers," Hank Pym responded, clearly exasperated.
"He shrinks and can maintain his normal-sized strength. He's our secret weapon, no one else knows about him. We need him!" I repeated.
"I don't want him getting into any trouble."
"He's a criminal, he'd be in trouble whether he was helping us or not. At least this way, he's got a whole crew of heroes to back him up," I argued, holding my breath as I waited for Pym's decision.
"Fine," he said begrudgingly.
"Thank you!" I exclaimed. "Someone will be there to pick him up soon!" I hung up quickly, not giving him a chance to change his mind. We'd already recruited Hawkeye and Wanda – having Scott Lang on our side gave us a real chance if it came to a fight between Steve and Stark.
"Ready?" Steve asked, poking his head around the door. We needed to get to Siberia, to stop the evaluator from breaking the other Winter Soldiers free. If he did, he could take down the world as we know it and there'd be nothing we could do to stop him.
"Ready," I replied, following him out of the door and into the street. "Where's our getaway vehicle?" I wondered aloud.
"Right here," Steve said, pointing me in the direction of an old school VW beetle.
"Really?" I asked, my face dropping. I'd hoped we could have tried out a really fast sports car, something that wasn't even allowed in the States yet. "You couldn't have got something with four doors?"
Steve chuckled, opening the driver side door and pushing the seat forward so that I could slide into the back beside Bucky. I scowled at him before crawling awkwardly in, realising that there was a lot less room in the car than I originally thought. My whole body was pushed against Bucky's; I could feel his chest rising each time he breathed.
"Where are we going?" Bucky asked Steve.
"To get our weapons back," Steve answered, starting the car.
"I'm sorry for... all this," Bucky said to me in a low voice.
"Stop apologising," I said automatically.
"But you're doing all this for me – I feel so guilty."
I placed my hand on top of his metal one, entwining our fingers and holding his tightly. "I'm doing this because... you don't deserve this, any of it. You're innocent and kind and sweet and... amazing," I trailed off, looking into his eyes. "And I'm going to do everything I can to protect you." I promised. He said nothing, staring into my eyes. Then he leaned in, placing his flesh hand under my chin and pulling me closer towards him. I closed my eyes...
"I can see you!" Falcon said from his seat in the front, watching us in the rear-view mirror. "No kissing!"
"We're adults!" I reminded him, amused.
"He's dangerous!" he argued.
"You're overprotective!" I argued back, rolling my eyes.
Despite his protectiveness, it felt good to have someone from my old life looking out for me. I leaned into Bucky, resting my head on his metal shoulder and eyeing Falcon with a grin.
"He's watching us," Bucky said from above me, his body stiff.
"He said 'no kissing', remember?" I reminded him, feeling like a teenage girl who was trying to convince her boyfriend to defy her parents. Bucky physically relaxed, putting his metal arm around me so that I could lean on his chest, which was much more comfortable. I didn't know how we got to this point, where protectiveness had turned into romantic entanglement, but leaning on him felt right, holding his hand felt right, almost-kissing him felt right. My only worry was Stark. What would he do to Bucky if he found out that we liked each other? Would it be worse than what he was going to do to Bucky anyway? Would it be my fault?
"I can feel you thinking, worrying," Bucky said. "You're agitated. What's wrong?"
"I'm worried about you," I said honestly – there was no point keeping anything from him. "I don't want anything to happen to you."
He pulled his arm tighter around me. Without saying anything, I felt my eyelids grow heavier, and for the first time in ages, I couldn't keep myself awake.
***
When I awoke, the sun was just beginning to come up. I sat upright and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, before looking around. We'd stopped.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"6am," Steve answered sleepily as a car pulled up in front of us. Steve got out and greeted Sharon Carter.
"Open the windows!" I urged Falcon, who automatically complied. I leaned as far forward as I could get without making it obvious that I was eavesdropping on their conversation.
"This stuff tends to draw a crowd," she said, opening her trunk and brandishing Steve's shield and Falcon's wings.
Bucky shifted around uncomfortably. "Can you move your seat up?" he asked Falcon.
"No."
I rolled my eyes, but decided to stay quiet. After all, Bucky had tried to kill him more than once. In response, Bucky sighed and moved closer to me, putting an arm around my shoulders and resting his other hand on my knee so that we were facing each other.
"I said no kissing!" Falcon reminded us from the front of the car.
"Can you move your seat up?" Bucky asked again, a glint in his eye.
"No," Falcon answered again, this time with more spite. Bucky grinned, leaning forward and kissing my lips softly. My whole body leaned into the kiss, surprised at how easy and right this felt. We broke away and he rubbed his nose against mine, making me giggle.
"They're gonna come looking for you," Steve said to Sharon. I turned away from Bucky to better hear what they were saying.
"Fury's keeping me pretty hidden," she responded.
"Thank you, Sharon," he said sincerely. She nodded, smiling at him. Then, without warning, she leaned in and Steve instinctively took a step back. She moved away from him quickly, her face red with embarrassment.
"I'm sorry," she said, cheeks glowing even redder than before.
"No, I'm sorry," Steve said, forever the polite soldier. "It's just... there's this girl that I really like – and I'd hate to ruin things with her," he clarified with a side smile. I made a mental note to tell Nat his exact words when we next saw each other.
Until it hit me. The next time we saw each other, we'd be fighting against each other. One of us would win, and the other would lose. Either we'd safely get to Siberia and stop the evaluator from releasing the soldiers, or Stark and his team would stop us, and we'd all be thrown in the Raft for the foreseeable future. I grabbed Bucky's metal arm and held it tight without saying a word. He kissed my forehead, reasserting what I already knew – I'd die before I'd let anyone get their hands on him...
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Thank you for reading! Come back next Saturday to see what happens next!
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