"You don't have to do this alone."
And the sentiment is touching, though she wouldn't let him get mixed up in a fight with a ghost from her past. The ribbon, the rose … they weren't meant for him. They were a part of her life long before he ever was, and if she had ever banked on them coming back from the dead then her name was Phoebus Apollo.
One spy in the right place at the right time can be worth as much as an entire army. But there are some things you just can't prevent. There are some things you can only do damage control for.
James Buchanan Barnes, I think I love you.
She's loved him for a long time, and that's the amazing part of them. The Winter Soldier and the Black Widow… after everything they'd been through, they still came together with a mashing of lips and mixing of breath. She still fit to him like a puzzle piece, the warmth of his body melting the cold of her heart.
It strikes her that the first time she had ever been in love was different from the way she loves James. Call it age, call it experience. She doesn't lament over the past, but if she did then she might think that she and Nikolai might have lasted, under different circumstances. They never got the chance to find out.
Imus is trying to dredge up her past, in the hope that it would destroy her. But he's going to find that it's a lot harder to kill a Black Widow than merely stepping on her. And she knows that, no matter the outcome, James is going to be there at the end. He doesn't need to do anything other than that — just be there when it's all over, not to help her pick up the pieces, she can do that herself. But she loves him. Does she really need a reason to want him there?
Her hand tightens on the throttle, and her mouth gradually curves into a smile as the wind lifts the weight off of her heart. But maybe that's not the wind.
"I know."
If you recognize this, you may have read this little drabble when I originally posted it years ago on my now extinct tumblr blog. It originated from a prompt I received in my ask box, so I didn't want to make it too long - I wanted it to fit right onto the page as Name of the Rose is one of my top favourite comic runs.
Hope you enjoyed!