"You're rusty, Dani."

I swing a punch at him. "Sorry if I wasn't capable before. I had other commitments."

Our arms clash, skin on skin. "I think you lost muscle."

"I might've lost weight too since being in captivity." I grunt and shove myself off him. He jumps for me, I sidestep away. My ponytail swishes behind my back, providing me with little air. My brow is thick with sweat. "I kind of miss the muscle."

"Then let's get it back."

I duck and deliver a blow to his gut. He makes it look like I've hurt him, but I know I haven't.

We've been at this for fifteen minutes today alone. We've been at this for a week now, since Bucky isn't too fond of having nothing to do in Europe. Yeah, we're not even allowed to sightsee just yet, not until we're pretty sure we can walk outside our new base without being abducted on the spot or sniped.

Though Bucky aims powerful swings, he doesn't actually connect with my skin. He doesn't want to hit me.

"Seriously, Buck, I'm not a china doll," I snap. "I think I've got a higher pain tolerance now. Just don't make me internally bleed is all I'm asking."

Our room is the arena, us the fighters. Though Bucky is a giant, this is an advantage to me. I can easily dodge his high attacks on me and try and sneak in hits of my own. I say try only because he's right there to stop me just before I can be successful. Whatever training he went through and by who definitely shows that his teacher—or teachers—knew what they were doing.

I throw out a punch, which he grabs easily. I hiss as my arm is wrenched behind my back. I throw my head up to knock him on the chin. I shoot a sharp elbow into his abdomen, hoping I'll have better luck there. I don't.

He swings me around and releases me, sending me tumbling to the mats and rolling. I roll onto my back long enough to grimace as he places a triumphant foot on my stomach. I collect my breathing, plan out a new strategy in my head.

"You need a lot of work," he pants, showing me his famous trademark lopsided grin that sets my heart running. He takes his foot off, bending down to put his face above mine. I keep my breathing even through my nose. "We'll get you in good shape again."

I knock my forehead into his, sending him up on his knees. I launch myself at him, and we wrestle for control. Of course, I lose the battle, and I'm on my back again. He's got both of my wrists pinned above my head with one arm.

"Nice try. You're back to your old tactics, Dani. We've got to teach you modern moves."

"Fine. When can we bring Natasha in to help with that?"

"Whenever you want."

"She's not going on another Hydra hunting mission anytime soon, is she?"

"I'm not her secretary, go ask her yourself."

"I would hit you, but I kind of can't."

The fight in me disappears once he kisses me. All the tension just evaporates from my body, like it never existed. I smile against his mouth.

His hand disappears from my wrists, allowing me to curl a hand in his hair. He's got a hand under my clothing, the metal fingers sending trails of cold up my spine. My other hand creeps along to the one thing I need to win this.

Breathy moans escape as he hits sensitive spots on my neck. I fight through the fog and keep searching. He has it on him now, they gave it back. I know it's here somewhere. My stomach is churning, in the good way.

His mouth moves around the thin chain that holds the dog tags along my neck. Teeth begin to nip on the exposed flesh. My fingers find the small object. Got it.

I make my plan happen. Harshly, I pull Bucky's hair and wrench him to the side. At the same time, I shove my foot down on his bionic arm while I threaten his throat with his own blade. His eyes are wide in surprise, but then they darken.

"You dirty girl," he purrs.

"Oh please, like you wouldn't have done the same," I huff, taking the blade away as I sit up. "If your enemies don't play nice, why should you?"

"A good rule to remember." I drop the knife at our side as I let him sit up. "Though, I could have lived without the hair pulling." He rubs the back of his head. "You've got claws, I swear."

"So, did I win the round or no?"

"Hard to say."

"Bucky."

"How about we call it a tie?" he compromises.

"You call it what you want, but I won."

He sighs.

"This isn't our last fight," I say encouragingly. "Besides, you have more victories than I do." My eyes widen in realization. "You let me win."

"I did not."

"Did too." I stick my tongue out childishly. "You could've used your arm to help you, but you didn't. You gave in." I purse my lips. "Have you been going easy on me?"

"I've been trying not to." He looks away. "But I've got good reason. While we've been fighting...I've been having snippets of things come back to me." He puts a hand against my throat. "I'm glad you're healed, the bruises would have made it worse."

I grab his hand, keep it against my neck. "Why didn't you tell me what was going on?"

"You didn't need to know." He shrugs. "I don't need to worry you."

"Buck, I'm your girlfriend. It's my job to worry about you." I pull his head close to me so we touch foreheads. The jingling I hear is from him messing with the dog tags. I peck his cheek. "We're in this together, you can tell me anything."

"Anything at all?"

I nod.

"The dreams are worse, Dani," he mutters. "I'm just afraid one day one of them will come true."

"But they won't," I say. "Whatever you're dreaming of, it won't happen." My hand slides down to hold his face. "We've been through enough, I think it's safe to say we can endure anything. Come on, cheer up. Think about the good things that have happened. I mean, you remember everything."

"Mostly everything."

"Close enough. Any trace of...you-know-who...is gone. He's a ghost now." I smile timidly.

"You're forgetting a big one. I've got you." He kisses me sweetly.

"I was going to get to that, you didn't let me." I mock pout.

"Of all the things to happen, and it's this." He chuckles low in his throat. "And of all times to fall in love, I choose to when we're in the midst of insanity."

"But we survived it."

"Hey, you know, you've got rooms you can be doing this stuff in," a new voice calls from the doorway.

We both look to see Natasha coming in, practically putting me to shame with her slimming attire. Sharon has tagged along with her. I look away, feeling self-conscious.

"We weren't doing anything," I tell her defensively.

"Yeah, we were," Bucky retorts to me. I look at him questioningly. "We were—"

"No details!" Sharon squeaks. "I don't need to know!"

"We don't need to know," Natasha corrects her.

"You sure?" Bucky asks.

"Positive," the girls reply in the same flat tone.

"I'm guessing you're kicking us out?" I say.

"You're more than welcome to watch," Natasha says. "I'm helping Agent Thirteen."

"I might as well, a gun can't always protect me," Sharon says, half shrugging.

"So, are you sticking around to watch?"

"Nah, I think we'll leave to cool off," I say. "The room is yours."

I climb off Bucky so we both can get to our feet. His fingers press into my side, keeping us attached at the hip.

"Oh, you might want to get a new mat, or get it washed," Bucky says. The girls look at us with wide eyes. I stomp on Bucky's foot, he flinches.

"Come on," I growl as I drag him towards the door. "Stop trying to gross everybody out."

* * *

Since I don't feel like being alone in the room, I follow Bucky around like a puppy. He doesn't mind, our hands are interlocked the entire time. We don't really encounter other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents during our walks.

Around dinnertime, I manage to swipe a tablet for my personal use. It was lying around anyway, I'm sure it's open to anyone's use. I surf the Internet, all while my mind floats to two people: my parents. I go on main social media sites to see if they're on any of them. I have no such luck.

I chew on my lower lip as I try to research them. It's been a long time coming, this idea. They have a right to know. We've kept them in the dark for so long, but they have to know. They don't even know that they lost one of their daughters recently. They're completely unaware that one got caught in the crossfire of an ambush and nearly died. They're oblivious that one is psychotic and needs to be checked for mental illness.

When I get absolutely nothing out of my search, I dispose of the tablet and follow Bucky around once again. My thoughts swim. I can't picture their faces, my parents, but I'm sure I'm an even mix. I picture my mom with the blonde hair, my dad the blue eyes. Maybe Jessabelle inherited the brunette color from Dad. Maybe she's naturally blonde and has had it dyed. It'd be fitting. She wouldn't want to be associated with Vanessa in any way. But my hair remains blonde. There are no traces of dye in it. Had Jessabelle dyed her hair, would she have made me do mine to further pull me away from the Finley name?

I think I'm getting way too deep into the reason behind Jessabelle's hair. I don't know why I think about her at all. She may be my sister by blood, but she's anything but. She's Hydra. She's more the traitor to our family than she claims I am to Hydra, or Vanessa was to the family.

"What's on your mind?" Buck asks.

"Hmm? Nothing."

"Dani." He stops and blocks my path.

I look up at him. "Daydreaming."

"Lying."

I purse my lips. "I've got my parents on the brain."

"Here. Let's get back to the room first."

I nod and follow him once again. We're in his room that he shares with Rogers now. All our rooms are the same, with the same plain dark walls and the same uncomfortable-looking cots. The same small bathroom. But it's nice that both of us have a roommate. Being alone would drive me crazy, I know it'd do the same to Bucky.

Once we're inside, I sit on his cot while he shrugs off his shirt, exposing the top half of him. I keep staring at his left side, where the veins of scarring are on his left shoulder.

He smirks at me. "Enjoying the show?"

I laugh. "Are you going to put another one on?"

"Camera shy."

"I meant a shirt."

"I'm debating." He sits beside me. "Okay, so, about your parents..."

I shift so that I'm cross-legged beside him. "I'm trying to see if I can find them. I've had no luck. I know they're not dead, I would have known somehow by this point." I pick at my nails. "I know S.H.I.E.L.D. knows where they are."

"Why are you so interested?"

I sigh through my nose. "I miss them, Buck." I let my hair fall into curtains around my face. "I just want to see them again, catch them up. I don't want them to believe Vanessa is still alive when she isn't anymore." My chest tightens at her name. "They deserve to know everything."

He rubs my knee. "You want to see if you can get their location."

I nod. "I just want to tell them, that's all. And see how they're doing of course."

"Danielle."

"Yeah?"

He grabs my hand and pulls it to rest on my knee. My heart sprints in fear. Why do I get the feeling he's about to tell me something bad?

"I've had something on my mind for quite a while too," he admits. I hold my breath. "It's nothing bad, I promise, so you can relax." He watches me. "Come on, relax."

I slowly let my shoulders slump.

"I've thought since the first time I recovered my identity that I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life: hunt Hydra down and get vengeance for what they put me through. I could see it so clearly, and I was sure I wasn't going to do anything else. But that all changed when I met you and went through all this."

"Should I feel blessed?" I half joke.

"You sent me on a better route. Even though we went through our hardships, we're still here." He squeezes my hand. "And...well...I guess this thought goes back further, more towards our hiding days. I don't want to lose this."

"Buck—"

"Let me finish," he says gently. "Before Jessabelle crashed our place, all those times we went out, we were almost normal." A smile twitches on his face. "It's made me think that there's a life without S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra. There's a life without our lives being threatened, without paranoia. There's a life that involves none of this."

I raise an inquiring eyebrow. "What are you getting at?"

He exhales slowly through his nose. "I've...I've been considering wanting that life, Dani. With you."

I blink, try to absorb what Bucky's saying. It takes me a while to connect the dots in the awkward silence. "You...you want to leave this all behind."

He nods.

"Wow, that's a big thing to keep from me."

"I know, I know," he retorts. "But it was just an idea back then. It's grown into a possibility. I'm kind of steering towards it."

Before I can get a word in, the door opens, and Rogers comes in. He looks almost embarrassed to be stepping into his own room.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asks.

"Not at all," I say, smiling at him. "I was just heading out." I look at Bucky. "We'll talk about this another time." I peck him on the cheek and nod towards Rogers before I head out the door.

I don't head for my room; I press myself against the wall to listen in.

"Is everything okay with you two?" Rogers asks.

"Yeah," is Bucky's meager response. "We're just talking some things over."

So, not even Rogers knows. At least I'm not the last person to know that this has been on Bucky's mind for a while now.

Now he's got the idea stuck in my head. A life without S.H.I.E.L.D. A life without Hydra. A life without having to watch my back. A life with Bucky. A life where we can be out in public and not have to worry.

Something of an ordinary life.