𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓪𝓰𝓮𝓼 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓶𝓪𝔃𝓲𝓷𝓰, they filled me up instantly and replenished my energy. But, because of the long day I was pretty tired. It was beginning to seem like the day would never end. Not that I wanted it to. My body was ready for sleep, whether it was time or not. Just as I'd finished washing up Bucky and I's plates there was a loud noise, resembling an explosion from the south. I picked up on worried thoughts all over the Avenger's Facility. Beside me Bucky tensed. I felt his metal arm go rigid. Quickly I ran to the window. It was slowly getting darker, being nearly 6:30 p.m., but even then I could see a few building's in the distance were facing something. There was a bit of smoke coming from a tower.

Again there was a noise. This time it came from below us. Far below, like the garage door was opening. I ran into Bucky's bedroom. He put the plates away and followed me. Inside his room I jumped onto his bed and pressed my hands against the window, watching as Iron Man took off towards NYC with other Avenger's pursuing in various vehicles.

"What is it?" Bucky asked.

I gestured for him to see. He got onto the bed, kneeling, and shuffled over to my side. He bit the inside of his mouth and turned away from the window.

"Hero time." His voice was hollow, he sounded sad.

"Why aren't you out there with them?" I asked, though I knew the answer.

Bucky couldn't be seen. Pizza runs and grocery shopping were different. Most people didn't care and didn't think the Winter Soldier would risk being seen buying plums again. But they did think that he was out there, waiting with the remnants of Hydra to attack citizens: and the Avengers. It was a miracle that Cap was forgiven for the whole Sokovia Treaty issues. Bucky wasn't supposed to be here. No one knew. It was a secret. Tony and Cap had taken a long time to figure it all out.

"I'm not a hero. Not to them."

Them, everyone. The world. I took a breath. I'm the world too though.

"Well I think you're a hero. But if you don't want to be, that's ok. Cause I'm not either. But we're both good people." I turned around and sat next to Bucky, our shoulder's touching. "It's good enough."

"Steve always says, "You don't have to be a perfect soldier, just a good man." He's both. So, I guess fate smiled on him." Bucky looked at me forlornly.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "I'd say your both of those two. I'm not a soldier, AT ALL. But I'm also not a man, so I broke the mold."

Bucky laughed and playfully shoved my hand off his shoulder. "How do you do that?"

"I think you've starved yourself of joy, Barnes, that's what."

"Stop making me laugh, I'm going to have a heart attack."

"Sorry, I forgot you're a Senior Citizen." I teased.

Bucky turned on me and grabbed my waist and started tickling me. I laughed and screamed a little as I fought back. My attempts were petty. Soon enough I'd ripped up all the blankets and smashed each pillow into Bucky's face. He was laughing too. I rolled over and finally let up. He was hovering over me, his hair hanging down like a canopy. I licked my lips and waited for something to happen. But we both just stared. It made me laugh. Then Bucky laughed too. It took a minute for us to regain control of ourselves.

"Bucky, I think you need a haircut." I pointed out. "This," I touched his hair. "Is a little much. And a giveaway. No one trusts dudes with messy hair."

"Don't you like it?" Bucky asked, giving me a cocky grin.

I sat up, forcing Bucky to get up too. "Don't turn into Tony. He's enough to deal with already."

"I'd rather be dead in the valley in Europe then be Stark." Bucky said.

"If you were dead I'd be sad." I told him. "Cause...I like you, a lot."

There was an uncomfortable brief silence. I cleared my throat and peeked out the window again. Bucky laid down on the bed, tucking his hands behind his head. His eyes looked tired, but there was a joyous light in them. In his head he was chanting: She likes me. It was adorable, my laughter was barely containable. I like her back. I wonder if she knows that. She's probably reading my thoughts. But I don't care.

Great, now I'm going to blush, I thought as the exact prediction occurred. My cheeks turned red. Bucky's eyes flickered to me. He blinked.

"Your eyes are blue...again. I thought it was a one time thing...but-"

"Yeah, me too. I'll look into it." I promised, getting off the bed to grab my book.

"Where-oh, are you going to bed?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah, I'm tired." I replied. "You can stay up though."

Bucky patted the spot beside him on the bed. I looked down in embarrassment and complied, taking my book with me and laying down next to him. Bucky turned on the lamp. It brightened the bedroom. It was only a few weeks since I'd started the book, but I was halfway through it. I began to read in my head, Bucky looked at the words.

"What is it?" He asked.

"'The Silmarillion.' It's the history of the books 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings.' Ever heard of them?" I asked.

"No....wait," He paused and I propped myself up on my elbows expectantly. "'The Hobbit', I remember reading it. With the wizard, and the mountain-"

"Yeah! Wow, so you read it when it came out?" I inquired.

"I guess so," Bucky replied, as shocked as me. "What about the others? When did they get written?"

"Seventies? So...you were all wiped and stuff." I gulped. "This book is a little hard to grasp, but you've read 'the Hobbit' so you should be fine-."

Bucky gave me a funny face. "I don't care. Can you read it, to both of us?"

I smiled. "I'd love to."

The story I'd reached was the tale of Beren and Luthien, a mortal Man, who'd lost his people, and a fair elf maiden. Every word that left my lips seemed to hold Bucky in a spell. He lay close to me, his head nearly on my shoulder as I read out loud. Soon the sky darkened, no sounds of the Avengers reached the facility. My consciousness began to slip from me. Beside me Bucky reached up and tried to take the book. But I held it and continued, I often fell asleep while reading, I was sure we both would if I went on. In fact, we both did doze off eventually. Together, on Bucky's bed, with the book throughout the night.

When I woke, it was expected that the lamp would be on like it was when I fell asleep. But Bucky must have turned it off. The blanket was over the both of us, though it appeared I had stolen it from him a bit. Yawning I rolled over and saw Bucky flipping through the story, his metal hand holding the volume firm. With the soft sunlight pouring on him from behind, Bucky looked like a photograph. It was so perfect I wanted to reach out and touch him. I shifted around again and Bucky's eyes flickered towards me.

"Morning." I said quietly.

"Hey," Bucky said. "You lost your spot, I was trying to find it."

I rubbed my eyes. "Thanks."

The past two nights I hadn't really knotted my hair while sleeping like I usually did. Of course, the first night ended up being me and Bucky on the couch. The second was me on the pallet on the ground, which must have had some magic in it to keep me from waking all tangled. But I could tell I had my hair frizzled, my skin seemed to tell me itself.

Bucky lifted his hand and pushed a piece from my face.

"It's a bit messy." I said, running my hands through my hair before hitting a knot.

"You look ok." Bucky stated. "But it's a little funny."

"Just a little?" I questioned.

Sighing Bucky rolled onto his side facing me. Again he touched my hair, his metal finger's made a mechanical noise as he moved them. I wiggled so I could be closer to him. There was electricity about the air.

"I slept, no nightmares. It's like you can save me. At first I was afraid, like you were some stranger I might hurt. That you would want to leave." Bucky got closer. "But now I don't want you to leave. Even after this short time. You keep me stable."

"No, Bucky, you are stable. I'm your friend. Friends help each other. But I'm not doing anything really. I'm just...here." I said.

"Will you...stay, sleep in...the bed with me? If you don't want to that's ok. It's just, I don't want you sleeping on the ground. But we were ok. I guess it could work." Bucky stuttered, his eyes were begging.

I smiled and brushed at his hair. "Sure, no one will understand, but who says we have to say anything? Nothing's happening anyway. It's odd. Like Nancy and Jonathan."

Nancy and Jonathan, Bucky's mind repeated.

"You need to cut your hair though." I reminded him.

He scoffed. "I don't trust barbers. They ask too many questions. If you want this to change you're going to have to cut it yourself."

"I can try."

"If you cut my hair, I'll find a way for you to see your horse more." Bucky offered. "Deal?"

I took his hand and shook it. "Deal."

Then the blasters on Tony's armor began to draw near, I could hear his busy mind ticking away. Bucky noticed my change and then sat up and looked out the window. Motor sounds were coming up the road. The Avengers were back. Bucky's head whipped back towards mine, we both must have had such curious, intense faces that we lost control and burst out laughing. I tried to hide my smile, I couldn't hear much in the Avenger's minds but one thing I did pick up was the eerie, confused emotions which shouldn't exist with laughter.

"Come on." I said, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and rushing out of Bucky's room. He hurried behind me, both of us still in our clothes from yesterday. I hadn't been wearing jeans thankfully, those were never comfortable for sleeping in. I stabbed at the elevator door control and tapped my foot impatiently for them to open. Bucky slid beside me, he was breathing fast. There were concerns flooding his thoughts. Every fear of something happening to Steve or to anyone because of what he'd done in the past was at the front of his mind.

Just before the elevator doors opened I slid my hand into Bucky's and telepathically reassured him.

It's going to be ok.

Bucky pulled me with him into the elevator. He ordered FRIDAY to take us to the main floor. The A.I. had slipped my mind in our panic, since I'd never in my life expected to live somewhere with an artificial intelligence. But, it made me wonder...

"FRIDAY, can you tell us who left the building and who returned?"

"Certainly. It appears everyone except for Wanda and Bruce went on this mission, all returned. They are mostly well, cuts and scrapes are obviously unavoidable."

"Thanks FRIDAY." I replied, feeling much better. To be absolutely sure I closed my eyes and focused on the present thoughts surrounding me. I drowned Bucky's worries out and settled on Tony, Steve, Rhodey, Nat, Vision, and finally Sam who was in a mood. From the brief memories Bucky shared with Sam I concluded that the Falcon was a fun, but passionate person, though he usually was passionate about the right things.

Finally we got to the main floor where the Avengers were spaced out, some sitting and attending to wounds, others getting something to drink. The only person who was still was Steve, who was deep in thought. His brain was reviewing everything they did, wrong or right, what they could have done differently, and who it was they were up against. The uncertainty in the room was stunning, it made me feel uncomfortable. Usually thoughts clarified the unknown, not masked it.

I watched Bucky look down at the ground, his whole body dropped. The excitement had drained itself from him. Now there was only solemn anxiety.

"What happened?" He asked.

Natasha looked up at us both and folded her hands into one fist, her elbows propped on Stark's glass table. Everything she'd just experienced formatted itself into a simple summary before she opened her mouth to speak.

"Someone bombed a building, Tony successfully secured it, more are fixing it now, and we evacuated most of the victims."

"Most?" I asked.

"Ten casualties." Rhodey replied, his eyes on his glass of water.

Steve ran his hand over his shield, it's metallic colors of patriotism were marred with dust and some rusty blood stains. "We could have done better."

This caught on Tony's already worsening mood, spurred on from an anxiety inside him because of the Sokovia ordeal. I listened with a sore heart as he hopelessly reminded himself that he did his best, that there was only so much. He and Cap had settled the unrest about Bucky, but they still strongly disagreed over the government's control of their missions and tools.

"Better? We could have done better? How! How could we have done better? Oh, maybe if the 'New SHIELD' you proposed had actually alerted us of incoming danger! We were right here, and yet, no message Steve. We had to hear the bomb. We lost ten-" Tony's voice broke, he clenched his fist, his face leaking his everything fuming within him.

"I know," Steve said. "We...we did what we could."

"Did we though?" Tony asked, his voice dripping with anger.

I swallowed hard but didn't hesitate to step forward. Despite Bucky's hand, which he reached out to hold me back, I walked in between Steve and Tony and looked back and forth from one to the other.

"What's done is done. You could have never gotten there, you could have lost hundreds. You did something. But the pressing matter is really what to do now. No one here knows who bombed the building. Start there. Maybe you can save ten more people with that information."

There was silence. Tony turned away and slowly made his way to the sink where he'd left an empty cup. From across the room Bucky flashed me an affirming smile, which made me feel like a member of the team. Maybe I didn't know how to shoot a gun, throw a knife, kill a man with my thighs. But I knew how people worked, how teams needed to work. So maybe I could stop any more civil wars from happening.

"You make a good point Quin," Sam began, "But this could have been a simple terrorist attack, one of those idiots who wants to blow something up and take as many down with them."

"It could, but did you see anyone escape? Did they die?" I asked.

"No, we didn't see anything. All we saw were some strange cars driving in the Facility's direction." Rhodey replied. "I followed them but they changed course."

Hmmm, suspicious, I thought, catching some similar thinking from Natasha.

"Are we sure it's not HYDRA?" Bucky asked.

"No, I don't think so." Steve said. "But we have to be careful. You shouldn't go into the city Buck, not until we figure this out."

What about Quin's horse? Bucky wondered. I elbowed him playfully and gave him a reassuring smile. He didn't have to come with me, it was for his own safety.

"For starters, let's get the footage from Rhodey's suit and track those cars." Tony proposed.

"Good idea, you two do that, I'll contact Fury." Steve replied.

As Rhodey and Tony got up to leave everyone else felt an immense burden lifted from their shoulders. Now they had a plan. Whether it gave them a head start or denied a suspect didn't matter. As long as there was something taken away from the idea. An idea I gave them...kind of. Wow, I'm helping the Avengers. I can't get over this.

"You know," Tony shouted as he got into the elevator. "You should complain to Fury about...communication. Every relationship needs it."

"Have you talked to Pepper lately, that's a relationship that needs communication." Sam joked.

The room exploded with laughter as the heavy doors of the elevator snapped shut in front of Tony's displeased face.