It has been about a month since Natasha and Bucky brought Ekaterina to New York and the girl is adjusting well.

Wanda introduced her to chocolate and now she can't get enough of the stuff. Peter has been teaching her the internet, specifically vines, which they quote all the time. Steve somehow convinced her join him and Sam on their morning jog. To everyone's surprise, she shared Steve's love of running and could perfectly keep up with the super soldier, much to Sam's dismay she adopted Steve's habit of yelling at him as she passed him. She would yell, "On your right!" And Steve would yell, "on your left!" As they passed Sam who was just trying and failing to keep up. As much as she loved the other Avengers she spent most of her time with Natasha and Bucky, she felt like she had finally found a home in them. She could tell that the two adults were getting closer again and she was so happy about it. She wanted them to get together so badly, I think Peter called it shipping.

Natasha talked Fury into letting her train Rina along with the other agents, despite her age she is by far the best out of all of them.

Today Natasha was teaching the agents how to run reconnaissance. Ekaterina already knew how to do this, she had earned top marks in it two years ago, top marks meaning she wasn't punished as severely. They were running through different simulations of how a reconnaissance mission would go, they were trying to observe what they could and report back. The recruits were told to observe what they could about the room and its surroundings and the people in it.

After the time was up Natasha opened the door and the recruits walked out and into the briefing room.

"Ok. Tell me how many people were in that room?" Natasha asked

"Five" one recruit said

"Good. Describe them"

"Three females and two males. The females all had dark hair and one of the males was blonde and the other was wearing a baseball cap and long coat" another recruit said

"One of the females was wearing a wig" Ekaterina added quietly

"What was that?" Natasha asked

She cleared her throat and said louder,

"One of the females was wearing a wig. It was slightly lopsided and didn't look natural"

Natasha smiled,

"Good, Ekaterina"

The rest of the recruits mumbled, Ekaterina was always two steps ahead of the recruits.

Natasha cleared her throat, gaining the attention back to herself,

"Now that you have told me what you saw, I want you to tell me what you observed"

The recruits stared at her like she had three heads. Ekaterina knew what she meant but she didn't say anything. She didn't want to give the others more reason not to like her.

Natasha tilted her head,

"No one?"

They all stared downward.

She scoffed,

"Dismissed"

They all walked out and Ekaterina was about to follow when she heard,

"No, Ekaterina, you stay"

She knew she was going to hear it. Natasha knew what she was capable of and expected the best from her.

The red head folded her arms and looked sternly down at the blonde,

"Yes ma'am?" Ekaterina said politely.

"You know damn well what I'm going to say"

Rina sighed,

"I know. I know. I should have told you but they already don't like me. I didn't want to give them another reason" she said earnestly.

Natasha sighed, she couldn't really fault the girl. She did the same thing in the Red Room, it was the only way she could survive. But this isn't the Red Room anymore. Natasha didn't know how to make the girl know that. That she was safe, that she didn't have to kill to survive anymore.

"Why didn't you tell me? Have they done anything to you?"

The red head was mad now, she was just a girl she didn't deserve to be treated poorly because of where she came from. She started walking toward the door, with the full intention to give all of the recruits hell before the girl stepped in front of her.

Ekaterina reached out and softly grabbed Natasha's arms which were clenched in fists at her side. Natasha stopped mid step. Rina never touched her. Or anyone. Ever.

"I didn't say anything because I knew you would react like this" she said with a smile, the girl had such a good heart, Natasha didn't know how with all she had been through. She had gone through hell and came out full of hope, believing that everyone had good in them, Natasha couldn't understand it.

"I am fine. Really. Next lesson, I'll tell you everything I think. I won't hold back, I promise" she assured her

Natasha rolled her eyes and sighed,

"Fine"

Rina smiled and rubbed Natasha's arms comfortingly before letting go and turning on her heels.

Natasha watched the girl walk away, curls bouncing as she moved. Rina opened the door and was about to walk out but not before she looked over her shoulder and said,

"Three out of the five were armed, the blonde man had a slight limp in his left leg and tell Sam the baseball cap isn't a good disguise"

And with that she walked out leaving a shocked Natasha. The woman let out a small laugh to the empty room, that girl was something else.

That night Natasha walked into her room where Bucky was already lying on the bed. They had been spending more and more time together so Natasha had asked him if he just wanted to move in because most nights they ended up together anyway. Within two days he was all moved in. Her room was more than large enough for the both of them and whether they wanted to admit it or not neither of them had nightmares when they were together.

Natasha took the gun out of her waistband and set it on the dresser, she then took out the gun from her thigh holster, then two knives from each of her arms, then a larger knife from her waist.

Bucky stared at her, amused.

"Barnes get that smirk off your face"

He laughed,

"I thought you were just training today? Why such heavy weaponry?"

She tilted her head, confused,

"This is light weaponry" she called over her shoulder as she went to brush her teeth and change.

He chuckled and when she finished and turned out the lights and got under the covers as well. She snuggled up next to him, putting her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her.

They lied there in comfortable silence, staring at the darkness when she broke it,

"I got mad at Ekaterina today" she admitted quietly

He only shifted to look at her, waiting for her to finish.

"She was holding back during training today and when I asked her about it she said she was holding back because she didn't want the others to dislike her anymore".

She felt him tense and she knew he was mad too but he didn't admit it.

"She probably just wants to fit in. She never been able to be herself before. She needs to find who that is, Nat"

She nodded, he always knew what to say.

"She's a good kid, she'll figure it out. And anyways she has you"

"And you" she added

He quietly laughed,

"Yeah... and me"

Bucky didn't feel like he was much help. Natasha always knew the right thing to say to her, to calm her down, to make her laugh, she just always knew what to do. But him? He had no idea. He tried, he really did but he didn't feel like he was making much progress with her. One of the things he loved doing was drawing, but he didn't tell anyone. One day the girl caught him and asked him to teach her. So almost everyday they spent an hour together in the park drawing whatever they wanted. Rina had finally found something that she was not very good at. Bucky would draw a bird that she would try to copy and then they would laugh as he tried to help her fix the strange shape she had drawn on the page. That was the only time he saw her except at meals and occasionally at training.

Despite this, he was happy that the blonde and the red head had taken so quickly to each other. Even if she wouldn't admit it he knew Natasha loved that girl something fierce and deep down he did too. She represented the light that had come out of something dark in both of their pasts. She is teaching them to love again.

He felt Natasha's heavy breaths as she slept. His thoughts were racing and he couldn't sleep. Some time in the dead of night he couldn't stay still any longer so he got up with the intention of going on a walk around the tower.

He closed the door and began walking when he heard muffled cries and shouts. He immediately reacted and found that the sound was coming from Ekaterina's room. He quietly opened the door and found the girl thrashing and crying in her sleep.

"Hey hey hey Rina it's me" he said softly kneeling by the girl's bed.

She didn't seem to hear and continued thrashing and sobbing in her sleep. It broke his heart. She was so young to have such nightmares so he tried again,

"Rina. Wake up, dear"

It didn't work again.

He decided to try something different. He reached out and put a hand on the girl's shoulder while softly saying,

"Екатерина, это я. ты в порядке" (Ekaterina, it's me. You are okay)"

She seemed to calm a little, she stopped thrashing and the crying was not as loud.

"There you go. It's Bucky. You are safe now"

Her moving stopped and she was quiet for a moment and he was about to leave when the girl turned over to face him, eyes still closed.

"Bucky? Are you there?" Her quiet voice came from the dark

He rested his hand her small one that was stretched out towards him,

"Yes, yes I'm here" he said as gently as he could,

"Nothing can ever hurt you again, Rina. Я не позволю этому случиться" (I won't let it happen)

She only gave his hand a squeeze in response. He sat with her for a few moments hand in hand. Finally when he thought she was asleep, he let go of her hand and began walking away, he was suddenly overwhelmingly tired.

As he opened the door he could have sworn he heard her small voice in the dark,

"Спасибо папа" (Thank you, Dad)

He first thought it was his imagination but found himself smiling and hoping it wasn't. He shut the door and made his way back to the room and quietly got back into the bed trying not to wake the sleeping red head next to him. As he stared at the ceiling, he smiled and a warm feeling filled his chest. He didn't think it was possible that he could feel like this. He felt whole, filled with purpose.

As he closed his eyes he reached out and grabbed Natasha's hand as she slept and he decided that she and the sleeping girl down the hall were never going to have to worry about anything ever again because he was going to take care of them.

Until his dying breath.

Ahhhh. Ok I'm sorry for the short chapter. I'm sorry for the cliche twist but Bucky needed a cute moment with Ekaterina and that's all I got lol. There will be a new chapter soon since this one was so short. How is your day/night going? Oof the last few days have been a little rough for me. Oh and can we just talk about the new Endgame trailer??? I'm not going to survive this movie I can tell y'all that right now. If they kill any of my favorites I'm dying with them. Because I'm with them til the end of the line (please tell me you get that reference lol).