Author's Note:I've been meaning to do this for awhile now, but as of this point this story will update Friday's not Sundays. Thank you all for your reviews so far, and I hope you enjoy this new chapter!

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"No run with Steve today?" You ask as Sam walks in, pouring the last of the coffee pot into his cup.

"No, not after last night," He takes the seat on the other side of Natasha who's flipping through a magazine, "You punch like a semi truck."

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to train," You roll your eyes and lift another spoonful of cereal to your mouth. You glance up at the sound of footsteps and instantly regret it as he walks in behind Steve.

Maybe you had never given yourself permission to notice before, but the man was gorgeous. The contrast of his icy blue eyes with the darkness of his hair was striking. Then those icy blue eyes meet yours and you immediately rescind your previous observations-the anger behind his glare when you lock eyes takes you off guard with it's intensity. He hadn't looked at you like that since you had first arrived at the compound. Whatever tentative truce the two of you had forged after taking down the HYDRA agents together had dissolved immediately post-kiss. Suddenly the cereal in front of you seemed a lot less appetising. You let your spoon fall back into your bowl and decide to steal one more glance at the soldier; if he was still staring at you you were going to deck him.

"What the fuck are you staring at?" Barnes snarls and without thinking you launch your bowl at him as hard as you can. It shatters as it hits his chest, milk and cereal exploding out from the broken ceramic. Before the spoon even manages to clatter to the ground Barnes dives over the breakfast bar, tackling you to the ground.

You hear Steve let out an indignant cry-Steve had really only seen the aftermath of your fights prior to this-just as your back hits the ground, the wood of the chair splintering painfully underneath you. Barnes pulls back his fist and you can only turn your face slightly so your cheek takes the brunt of the force instead of your nose. Pain explodes in your cheek bone, and you dimly wonder if he broke it as Nat and Sam pull him off of you. You immediately take advantage of the situation and jump up, swinging your own fist into his face; it hits his nose with a satisfying crack before he rips away from Nat and Sam and starts throwing punches at you with a well practiced speed that you're just able to match.

"Barnes! Gale!" Steve roars, trying to force the two of you apart before you do any real damage to one another. Finally he manages to grab one of your arms, and he flings you away from him. You hit the back wall of the kitchen cracking the plaster behind you. He's between you and Barnes now but right now you feel like you could probably take both of them with no problem. As you rise to your feet Nat comes to your side, grabbing your arm tightly.

"That's enough," She says firmly, "It's over." The adrenaline pumping through your veins feels like acid, and you feel like if you don't do something it's going to burn you alive. Your eyes dart between her face and to where Steve is speaking lowly to Barnes, his hand on his chest. Finally you let out an agitated huff and lean against the wall.

"Natasha, Sam, I need to talk to Buck and Gale for a few minutes alone. Can you clear out?" Steve asks, his voice strained.

"I'll be in the lounge," Nat says quietly, "Come see me when you're done." Sam gives you a sympathetic smile as he walks out with Natasha. Once the room is empty Steve sits on the counter, his expression tired as he looks between you and his best friend. You note Barnes' clenched jaw and the towel he's holding up to his bleeding nose with satisfaction. It may feel like you took a wrecking ball to your face, but at least you knew he wasn't feeling great at the moment either.

"Guys, you were both completely out of line. It's only a matter of time before one of you seriously hurts another, or one of your teammates when they try to pull you apart. I don't know what happened on your last mission, but obviously the two of you still have some things you need to work out. As of right now you're both on probation again until I have some kind of proof that the two of you can work together without being a danger to both the mission and to each other." Steve sighs, running his hand through his thick blonde hair, "Buck, you're my best friend, and Gale, you've become an invaluable member of this team, but something's got to give. You need to come to some kind of agreement, because things just can't continue like this." Steve hops down to his feet and moves towards the door, "I mean it guys, fix this."

You stare at the empty doorway after he leaves, anger once again boiling in your veins. Did you really just get suspended again because of James-fucking-Barnes? "What is your fucking problem?" You almost screech, striding forward towards him, "I've never done a single thing to you and you're ruining everything!"

"You ruined everything when you came here!" Barnes hisses, "I can't even stand to look at you-every day I wish you didn't exist."

"Why the fuck did you kiss me then?" The words tumble from your lips before you can stop them. Shit. His eyes widen and his mouth fall open but no words escape. Beneath your anger you can feel another emotion just beneath the surface. Longing. You let out the breath you didn't know you had been holding and try to press a little further. "I think that we were both forced to do some terrible things, and I think we have a hard time trusting other people. But I'm not a threat to you, you know that, I know you do. I'm not a threat to you, or our friends. I don't hate you Bucky," Your fingertips reach out and gently brush the back of his hand. He almost looks confused for a moment before he's ripping his hand away from you, his expression back to angry.

"I'm not going to be your fucking pawn," His anger is more controlled now, and it makes his next words hurt even worse, "I'm nothing like you. You're just HYDRA scum and you'll betray every single one of us when you have the chance." You watch as Barnes shoves past you to the door, leaving you standing in the kitchen alone feeling like the world's biggest idiot. For a minute you thought you had actually been getting through to him. What a joke. You had allowed yourself to open up-just a little-to give him a glimpse of who you really were and he had basically spit in your face.

A little numbly you wrap a towel around some ice from the fridge and hold it to your face as you walk to the lounge. Natasha is sitting on the couch waiting for you, and you sit next to her.

Something in your expression must have clued her in to your internal struggle because her first words are "Gale, are you okay?"

"I don't know," You admit, and to your embarrassment a tear runs down your cheek from the eye that isn't currently swelling closed. You don't even bother to brush it away and instead let it pool at your chin and then drip onto the fabric of your jeans. Natasha's eyes are wide with concern and you swallow thickly. "I haven't cried since I was a kid and HYDRA first captured me. Not when I made my first kill, or when I lost my virginity for the sake of a mission. I didn't cry when I regained my memory for the first time, or when they forced me back in that chair and wiped my mind again. I didn't cry when they made me kill my parents. And now I'm crying over Bucky-fucking-Barnes."

"Gale...What happened on your mission? Things were so much better and then you came back and things seem worse than ever."

You set down the ice and examine your face slightly with your fingertips, ignoring the pain that flares under your touch. You were going to have one hell of a shiner, but you were pretty sure it wasn't broken. "We got in a fight on the mission," You say softly after a few seconds, "It wasn't serious or anything. He made some snide comment about me killing the guard, implying that I'm a fucked up person or whatever." Nat rolls her eyes and mutters something under her breath that sounds like "hypocrite of the year award", and you smile a little. "I don't really even know what happened, I got pissed off or something, and shoved him, and he shoved me back against the wall, and then the next thing I know…" You pause, wetting your lips before you force the damning words out, "...he kissed me."

Her eyes widen at your words, her lips parting in surprise. Whatever she had been expecting you to say sure as hell hadn't been that based on her expression. "He kissed you?" You nod. "What happened afterwards?"

"He looked at me like I was literally the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. Like eight tentacles dropped out of my tac suit. Like I slaughtered a room full of puppies and babies in front of him. And then, I don't know. And then he just seemed...pissed."

"What was the kiss like?" You give her a look and she holds her hands up defensively. "What? I'm just trying to get all of the details here so I can wrap my head around what is literally the biggest plot twist in history."

"Natasha," You groan and bury your face in your hands, "It was literally the hottest thing I've ever experienced in my entire life. He was so angry, and I was so angry, and-Jesus, I've never felt like that before. I would've fucked him right there in that office, no questions asked."

"W-o-w," Natasha drags out the word and your finally raise your head to look at her again. "Sounds intense." You groan loudly and throw your head back to rest against the sofa.

"I literally can't stop thinking about it," You murmur quietly, staring at the ceiling, "I never even considered it-never even thought about something like that happening-but now because of that fucking kiss all I can think about is him pounding me into the wall or me pounding his face in."

"Well, obviously he's attracted to you," Natasha starts, and your mouth drops open.

"Natasha, he hates me."

"I didn't say he was in love with you. But he must be attracted to you or he wouldn't have kissed you." She explains slowly.

"I just feel so stupid," You sigh, "For a second earlier I actually thought-I don't know. Obviously I was wrong. It doesn't even matter because I'm done. I'm done fighting with him, I'm done thinking about him, I'm just done."

"Gale...You're not thinking about leaving are you?"

Were you? "I just need some time to think or something," You shake your head, "I'm not going to take off, don't worry," You say in response to her worried expression, "I just need to clear my head. I'm fine."


After the longest run in history of runs you finally make your way back to the compound, pulling your earbuds from your ears. You can hear the whirl of machinery from Stark's lab and you push open the door to see him welding something on a table, sparks flying off in either direction. When the door closes behind you he turns around.

"Well hello there," Tony grins, setting his welding mask down on the table.

"Thought I'd come down and see if there's anything I can do to help out." You trail your fingertips along a work bench as you walk towards him.

"Mmm, and that has nothing to do with the fact that this room here is the room least likely to house the Winter Soldier?"

"Added benefit," You mumble sourly, you were hoping Stark hadn't heard about that yet.

"Yeah, I bet," he snorts, "Hand me that wrench." You hand it over with a roll of your eyes and sprawl out in his office chair. You start fiddling with a screwdriver and try to suppress your tumultuous thoughts. You realize after too many seconds that Stark had stopped working and was watching you, a slight frown pulling down the corners of his lips. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," You respond immediately, tossing the screwdriver back into the disarray that was Stark's desk. He starts to turn away and the words spill from your traitorous lips; "Do you think Steve's going to ask me to leave?"

"You're worried Righteous Rogers is going to throw you on the street? That would be the day."

"He almost tore the Avengers apart over Barnes' once, I'm just one person."

Tony almost looks sick as he takes in your words, "Gale… Do you honestly think that any one of us would just let you go quietly?" He clears his throat, "Now, I'm gonna get mushy on you for a second, so bear with me; Gale, you're family now. And family means nobody gets left behind."

"Was that Lilo and Stitch?" You ask to hide the fact that for the second time today you were fighting tears, "You're so lame." You punch him lightly on the shoulder, and he smiles at you.

"Don't worry, you're not going anywhere kid."