Natasha breaks away from the fighting for just a moment and wonders to herself how it all came to this.
She's just catching her breath when a shadow falls on her.
'Natalia.'
He speaks with the same, familiar drawl that he did then, when he'd whisper in her ear when they sparred, or when he growled it out through gritted teeth between the sheets in her quarters. Natasha stills at the sound of his voice, and suddenly it's as though the fighting all around them is millions of miles away.
She turns.
'So you do recognise me,' she gathers, pulling her feet together and standing tall.
The breeze plays with the flecks of hair falling over his eyes. She notices the way he's squinting at her, as though trying to recall some distant memory, like something doesn't quite add up. From somewhere to their left, Natasha feels the thrum of Wanda's powers closing in on someone. Natasha thinks about looking to see. Bucky doesn't move.
'Some parts,' he admits, still, despite the haze of red nearby and the rush of air as Sam flies somewhere overhead, Rhodey on his tail.
'It comes back in pieces,' she explains. He furrows his brow just slightly, and Natasha shrugs.
'You're not the only one they filled up with something not themselves.'
Bucky nods. He understands. He knows.
'Natalia,' he says again, like it's the first time in a long time. Then he licks his lips as if the word tastes foreign on his tongue. It shouldn't, she thinks, but it does and it will for a while, until the hazy parts start fading back and he can remember them all over again.
A blast lands near him. They both start. Natasha reminds herself that distractions are mistakes, and that there isn't time for mistakes.
Bucky is watching her with a quiet curiosity.
'What, are you two having a staring contest or something?' Sam yells as he flies close, evading shocks from Rhodey's blaster. Natasha looks up at them for a moment. Only a moment.
Suddenly he's closer.
'I remember,' he tells her. His hand - the flesh and bone that is his own - twitches at his side. She remembers his tick. He would twitch before reaching out for her, aware of the eyes that were always watching, knowing that if he broke the rules it would cost not only him, but her too.
Another blast lands, too close for comfort, and Natasha's not sure whose side it even came from. She's pretty tired of being on opposite sides to Steve, to Clint... And to Bucky. His gaze has trailed down her face, fixed now on her lips. He looks like he did all those years ago.
He remembers.
'James,' she says, and it's a name she hasn't spoken in far, far too long. His eyes snap up at the address, and Natasha has startled herself too. It's a name she hasn't breathed since she left her days in the Room behind. Even before then. Since he left her behind.
'Now's not the time,' he says, anticipating her. Reading her the same way he did all those years ago.
She nods.
'Later,' she agrees.
'If there is a later.'
He moves around her, their arms passing, quietly, just centimeters apart. He lingers, and then he moves off. Natasha's sure she heard him take a deep breath as he went.
'See you on the other side.'
She doesn't see him smile, but she's pretty sure it's there.