Disclaimer: never did and never will own it. Marvel does.
Spoilers: canon until Captain America: Civil War (and the post-credit scenes of Black Panther).
Timeline: supposedly happens between Avengers Infinity War and Avengers 4.

"Sir? Sir? Uh... Sergeant? Sergeant Barnes?"

She was shaking his shoulder, taking care of touching only the right one. He finally let out a groan.

"Sergeant Barnes?"

"Winter Soldier," he muttered. Each time he woke disoriented, it was all he could think of.

"No, you're... you're Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. Bu-Bucky."

"Bucky's dead. The Winter Soldier is all that's left." He rolled on his feet and looked at her. It was dark, but there was enough rays of light to be able to see her face, which was vaguely familiar. Enough light to see her shook her head.

"James Barnes is not dead," she insisted.

The light was also enough to see she was terrified.

"You're scared of me," he stated.

"No-o, not, not of you. Of hurting you."

"Hurting me?" His face betrayed nothing of his surprise.

"I-I know nothing! I could tri-trigger something HYDRA did to you and then you'd feel guilty."

He closed on her. "Guilty for what?"

Strangely there was no more fear when she looked up in his blue eyes. "If you hurt me, you'd feel guilty."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Wait, what do you know about HYDRA?"

"Only... only the decoded thing on Internet and what it is said in New Avengers Facility."

"Oh! So you're one of Stark's. That's where I've seen you."

"I doubt you've seen me," she muttered.

He understood quite well what she meant and had a ghost of a smile. "And you probably have seen Steve Rogers or Thor..."

"No, I've seen you."

He let out a bark of laughter. "Me? The traumatised assassin, the broken killing machine? Not Captain America? You've got to be kidding me."

She came near to him and jabbed at his chest. "Now, you hear me, mister, you stop thinking like that!" she shouted at him. "You stop–" She suddenly seemed to realise who she was shouting at and deflated. "Sorry," she murmured.

"I'm not going to kill you. I'm mostly okay now."

"Yeah, well, that's the mostly I'm afraid of," she replied a bit cheekily.

"You have the advantage on me, ma'am. I don't know your name."

"Since you insist on being the Winter Soldier, call me the Summer Wallflower."

He glared at her but she probably couldn't see as well as he did, so she didn't react.

"Where are we?"

"Caved in."

-o-o-

He rubbed his head, trying to remember what had happened before he woke up next to this... infernal woman. The ground was covered in rubble and the rays of light did not come from windows as he had believed at first but from holes in the ceiling. Speaking of the ceiling, now that they were silent, he could hear it creak ominously. He looked around. No trace of a door.

"How did we arrive here?"

She pointed to a hole in the ceiling, except that it was so high that there was no hope of reaching it. Maybe if he could find something to step on, he could lift her... Now, who was he trying to fool? He knew he could get out. Getting her out was another matter.

"How, Summer?" he repeated. "I mean, that I find myself caved in during or after a battle, I can understand. But you? Did you jump after me? You would have broken an ankle or something. How did you not break an ankle?"

"Em... You sort of... cushioned my fall. You took the brunt of it."

"This looks like a shed. Building in stone. A buried stone shed? How did we arrive here?"

"You really don't remember anything, Bucky?" she asked gently.

He growled. Last time he had let someone he didn't know well call him Bucky, he had turned him into the Winter Soldier.

"Sorry, sorry! Sergeant Barnes. Mr. Stark would be very displeased with me if I were to call one of the Avengers by a nickname."

"If Stark cares a little for you, he would not have you near me at all."

"Yeah, well, there's only so much he can ask from me," she murmured. Didn't she know about his enhanced hearing? She cleared her voice. "We were in the helicopter, Sergeant Barnes, and we got shot."

"What the hell were you doing in that chopper?"

"I was your pilot, Sergeant Barnes."

"So we fell from the chopper and then crashed through the ceiling down to the ground and you're not dead?" He walked on her so purposefully that she scuttled back until her shoulder blades pressed against a wall. "I can feel the pain in my back, though not enough to stop me. You don't even have a scratch."

"Who said I fell from the helicopter?" she replied with a small voice, twisting her head against the wall to be able to look at him. He could see her eyes had gotten wide. His hands fell on her shoulders, though he was careful with the left one.

"Now, I'm not known to be very patient. I would like to know what happened before I... accidentally kill you because I think it's a trap."

"What do you remember, Bu– Sergeant Barnes?"

That was the problem. He didn't remember anything, past a conversation with Steve, about a reconnaissance, then, indeed, a pilot, helmet already on. He had not found it strange at the moment. He looked at her suspiciously.

-o-o-

She sighed. "Look, the helicopter got shot, but I managed to land. In the middle of nowhere, unfortunately. You didn't want to leave me behind because the helicopter exploded, so we left together and while trying to find out where we were, well, we fell through the ceiling. My helmet is the corner over there, if you don't believe me. I just thought that... you would freak out less if you saw my face rather than a helmet upon waking up."

Her words triggered some memories, but they didn't look like what she was retelling. Another forgotten memory trying to come to his attention?

"Why did you keep your helmet on after the explosion?"

Her shoulders sagged and she looked down. "I... I was not supposed to be with you, okay? And if we had gotten back easily, I didn't want you to know... well, that it was me."

"Not authorised to be near me, huh? Or not good enough for a pilot?"

"We didn't crash, did we?" But there was no fire in her voice and she still refused to look at him.

"So what? Stark doesn't trust me near you?" He would almost be amused. Almost.

"No." She huffed. "He doesn't trust me near you. Says I'll do something stupid, like–"

"Like trigger the bad memories."

"Yeah."

"It's not that easy to activate the killing machine mode, especially now that I'm getting better. He must really care for you to lie like that. You're Pepper Potts's little sister or something like that? Or is he jealous?" he added, lowering his head to whisper at her ear.

Quick as a snake, she freed one of her hands to reach for his head and she turned up her face to kiss him. He froze.

Immediately she released him and tried so hard to scramble back that she hit her head against the wall.

"Sorry, Bu–sorry! That's why he doesn't trust me near you," she added miserably.

He didn't say anything but lifted his right hand to cradle her skull, checking gently for any wound. He had heard her head hit the wall. He still hadn't given her any space to move away.

"Nobody ever tried that kind of therapy on me," he said softly.

"Yeah? Well, remember I'm volunteering if you decide to follow it." She closed her eyes. "Damn! I did it again."

He was at loss at what to say but then, his ears caught a faraway sound... that was getting nearer. He backed up and removed his left glove.

"Sergeant Barnes?"

"I think we're maybe going to find a way out of here. Stay back." He grabbed her with his right hand and dragged her behind him. He felt a feather touch on his hair but decided he had probably imagined it. Someone interested in the Winter Soldier, but not as a killing machine? Impossible. Since he's been redeemed, no woman had looked his way and in case they had, generally the bionic arm was enough to put them off.

-o-o-

As the ceiling exploded, he felt her retreat in the furthest corner and faced the foe alone. Five men in black came out of the smoke and dust and he did what he had done best for the last few years. No pity, no feeling, only a sense of survival. He fought with the grace of a cat and the deadly moves of a highly skilled predator. Then a sixth man he hadn't seen till now began saying random words in Russian and Bucky froze. He killed the fifth man without even noticing it, his brain knowing what those words meant and unable to stop them. He had already tried. Then he realised that last time he had tried, he had been in a prison pod, which was quite of hindering.

Then suddenly, she was by his side, her backpack on her back and a strange weapon in her hands. She aimed it at the speaking man, yelled "With the compliments of Tony Stark!" and fired. The man fell immediately and the words stopped. Why hadn't he done it himself? Bucky didn't know if she had been there soon enough; what if the sequence had been set in motion? She dropped her weapon and took his face in her hands. They were warm and he was feeling cold.

"Bu– Sergeant Barnes! Look at me! James!"

He said something in Russian. She shrugged impatiently. "I don't speak Russian. Look at me, please," she implored. "It's over, you're not the Winter Soldier. You're Bucky, my Bucky. I mean, you're Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes."

Slowly, he leaned forward until his forehead was pressed against her. "I thought you knew nothing about what they did to me."

She snorted but her arms slid around his neck to hold him near. "True, but one doesn't need to be a genius to understand what those random words were supposed to do, especially when they sounded Russian." She was caressing his hair now. "Are you all right?"

His right arm circled her waist to bring her closer to him and he closed his eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be a freaking pilot?"

"Have you ever known Tony Stark to do things for only one reason? Figures he would do the same when hiring someone. I am a pilot. It doesn't mean I can't shoot."

He opened his eyes. "I'm sorry you had to witness... that."

"I would have been sorrier if they had killed you," she replied flippantly.

He laughed. It was rusty and strange, but it was indeed a laugh. He didn't remember last time he had laughed like that. He could see her smile. Delicately, in case she freaked out, he put his bionic hand on her back. Her smile widened. But he knew he had no right, even if he was taking advantage of every minute of it.

"That's what I am," he said, tilting his head toward the dead men.

"Nope. That's what they made you be, but that's not what you are, though you've known war most of your life."

"Obstinate."

"Look who's speaking."

Regretfully, he stepped back and turned to the men. He started piling them, putting the 'speaking man' under all of them.

"Here's the plan. I climb that pile, lift you to the ceiling, you get out and find a way to get me out too." In his mind, he added If you want to. On the other hand, if she didn't want to, he could get out by himself.

"No way. You climb that pile, you jump to the ceiling, and don't try to tell me you can't do it, and then find a way to get me out of it."

"Why?"

"Because if there are some HYDRA agents out there, I don't stand a chance. Maybe I can take one down, but five of them? I'm out of my league, there."

It made sense. But that was not what he had asked, rather why she trusted him. But he would not ask the question a second time. There was a chance he would not like the answer and there was another chance she would get annoyed.

-o-o-

He climbed up the pile and jumped on the wall, then toward the ceiling. His right fingertips grazed the edge but his left hand grasped it firmly. He half-lifted himself out at the strength of his arms and looked around. Nobody. He released his effort and let himself hang again by the fingers.

"Climb and jump. Grasp my ankles," he ordered.

"Are you crazy? I'm gonna make us fall."

"Do it. I can get us out."

She grumbled some more but he could hear her climb. Then her hands closed around his ankles and he pulled on his arms. It was a bit harder, but her weight was hardly a bother for his enhanced muscles. As soon as he was leaning outside on his elbows, she shifted her hold to only one of his ankles. He lifted his free leg on the edge and lying on the broken stones, he extended his hand to catch her. Belatedly, he realised it was his bionic arm. He should have lain on his other side. But she caught it as if nothing was out of the ordinary and he lifted her up to him.

"Thanks," she said as she scrambled up.

He did the same, looked at her and tapped a finger against her helmet.

"I know who you are now."

"Property of Stark company. Never leave any material behind if it can be avoided."

"About that. When you shot, you said 'with the compliments of Tony Stark'. Mind to explain?" he asked, starting to walk, his eyes scanning around.

"You mean you don't know? Every one of us who knows to use a weapon is required, if possible of course, to give his compliments each time we kill a HYDRA agent."

"I am a HYDRA agent."

She sighed in exasperation. "No, you're not. You're a HYDRA victim and if Mr. Stark could connect two brain cells from time to time, he would know it too."

He couldn't help it and smiled. That his pilot would treat the self-proclaimed genius like a brainless idiot was vastly amusing.

"This is officially the best day ever," she announced. "I made you laugh and smile. I'm so damn proud of myself."

"You know, ever since Steve became Captain America, I've been used to become invisible. It didn't improve with what I had become. Especially with a bionic arm. Nobody cared if I smiled or laughed. Except Steve," he added after a thought.

She shrugged. "Their loss."

He couldn't understand her. He was the Winter Soldier, a killer, not a woman's dream!

She growled at herself. "Sorry yet again. I'll stop being all over you. Someday."

If he was honest with himself, he had to admit that he was interested in her only because she wasn't repulsed by what he was. He didn't court rejection; that was bad for his mental health. She glanced at him.

"Don't worry," she said softly, "that 'someday' will be soon if this thing deigns to work." She tapped her helmet. "As soon as we're back, Mr. Stark will put me under so many restraints that you won't see me for the rest of your life even if you live for another hundred years."

"I told you about the invisible thing, didn't I? Maybe I like it that I'm not invisible to you."

She had a bitter laugh. "You, a hero, and me, a little nothing? Ha!" She cut off any retort he could have made by adding, "Ah, now that we're outside of this shed, it receives the signal. Um. New Avengers Facility, do you copy?"

He could hear the reply in her helmet. "We hear you."

She glanced at him again and her lips twisted. "Winter– Sergeant Barnes and pilot. We're down. Do you get our position?"

"Yes."

He turned around as he heard sounds behind him. She imitated him, saw armed men running toward them and yelled, "Then get us out now!"

-o-o-

This time, she didn't let him push her behind him and took place by his side, her weapon in her hand. "I know you don't need me," she announced, "but it will speed up things if I help you."

He dispatched his first man between two breaths and replied, "Do not think we're not going to speak about this 'little nothing' comment that you made."

Three more men down, then he got rid of a fifth one before he checked on her. She turned around, grinned at him from under the helmet and fired twice. "I forgot to ask you if you wanted to finish your recon."

"I think we found what we were supposed to," he said while taking care of the last ones.

Only they weren't the last ones, because as he was putting down the third one, he heard her scream, "Bucky!"

He turned around. Two men held her up and one of them had a gun pointed to her head, her helmet on the ground. He could hear the sound of a helicopter coming, but he didn't know if it was one of Stark's or one of HYDRA's.

"You are awaited," one of the men said. "Come with us nicely and we may let her live."

Bucky growled as he noticed blood running down her temple.

"Drop the guns," the second man instructed.

She struggled and the first man pulled her head back by the hair and pressed the gun more firmly against her jaw. Bucky dropped the guns. Unnoticed by the assailants, he grabbed the knives tucked in his pockets just next to his hands and he threw them immediately. His aim was true and for a brief moment, she looked at him, bewildered, then at the two men crumpled at her feet. He stepped forward, recovered first his guns, then his knifes and only when he had put his weapons away, did he look at her wound. She escaped his gentle hold as soon as he touched her.

"It's nothing!" she said, bending down to take her helmet and putting it on in a hurry.

Now she realised who he truly was, he thought, and of course, she was horrified. She looked up at him and seemed to understand what was going through his head.

"Oh, for the love of–" She came to him and hugged him. "Thank you." Then she stepped back and turned her back to him. "I... I don't take pity well," she explained.

"Pity?"

She hugged herself. "I know you were in a relationship with Black Widow, so maybe just right now, you're feeling a bit down for whatever reason, but still I know I don't compare with her and..."

A ladder unrolled in front of their nose. He grabbed her under his arm, seized the ladder and let the helicopter take them up.

"I don't know where this comes from, but don't think this conversation is over," he said as he pushed her in front of him so she could climb the ladder. The pilot glanced at them as they closed the door and returned to whatever conversation he was having.

"Winter Soldier and pilot recovered," he announced. "No wound apparent."

Upon seeing the grim line of her lips, he thought that there were hidden wounds and they were due to him.