Savage

by awalkerlifeforme

She was everything people feared. She wanted to defend the world but also wanted revenge on those who wrecked hers. The ones who forced her to leave Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. Now she's back and while Steve attempts to get back the woman he's always considered his sister, Bucky hopes to thaw the ice that has formed around her heart. A heart that he had always believed was his.

29. Chapter 29

Most mornings I had come to hating having to peel myself from the bed after a fitful night's sleep. It wasn't uncommon for me to have nightmares about the things that were happening all around the world. But it hadn't happened last night. I'd had one of the best night's sleep that I'd had in a long time. Yawning softly, I rolled slightly onto my side and pried my eyes open. It surprised me slightly to see another pair staring back at mine. Bucky was already awake. He was looking down at me and smiling. One of his hands was tracing over my arms - leaving goosebumps in its path - as the other stroked gently at the bare skin of my hip.

My muscles were tense at the feeling of his hands running over the skin. Bucky brushed back a few strands of hair that had fallen in my face. "Good morning," he whispered.

Like yesterday morning, his voice was muddled with sleep. "Good morning," I replied softly.

Turning into Bucky, I pressed my torso into his side. He removed his hand from my arm to pull me into him. Our bodies crushed together as he ran a hand over my cheek, pushing the hair away. Laughing softly, I leaned upwards slightly so that I could press a kiss against his mouth. He placed a hand behind my neck, keeping the two of us together. His fingers splayed over the back of my neck, making goosebumps rise over my arms. His free hand wound underneath the blankets to continue stroking at the bare skin on my hip. We broke the kiss long enough for me to press a small kiss against the crook of his neck and shoulder.

Almost immediately I felt the muscles in his body tense. His hand tightened on my hip for a moment before continuing to move over the skin. "You might want to stop doing that," I warned softly.

Bucky raised a brow. "Why's that?" he asked.

"Because if you keep doing that, I'm never going to get out of this bed," I said.

Bucky smiled at me. "I wouldn't mind that," he told me.

Blushing softly, I shook my head and turned away from him, laying back against the mattress. I wouldn't mind staying here forever. "I think that your bed is softer than mine. That's not fair," I said, not wanting to admit that I would love to stay here forever.

Closing my eyes, I felt the bed shift. A moment later I popped my eye open and spotted Bucky leaning over me. One of his legs was in between mine and I gently ran my thigh over his own. I noticed the corner of his eyes twitch at the movement. "I knew that there was a reason that you were staying here. It's because you like my bed," he teased.

Smiling at him, I nodded. "You're right. You've discovered my secret. That's the only reason that I stay here," I joked.

"Well if that means that you stay, that's okay," Bucky said.

Grinning softly at him, I used his legs as leverage as I rolled over myself, taking him with me. Bucky laughed as we rolled over so that he was pinned back against the bed with me laying over him. My hair was gently falling over his face as he pushed it back behind my ear. I ran my nails down his chest - feeling his muscles tense - as I slid my hand underneath the t-shirt that he was wearing. My hand slid up his stomach and rested against the muscles. Glancing up at Bucky, I saw that he was smiling at me. He was very obviously trying to restrain himself from doing something very inappropriate. Of course, I would have started it by placing my hand on his stomach, without a shirt between us.

It took Bucky a moment to slide his own hand underneath the shirt, pushing it up over his chest, as his hand wrapped around my own, pushing it down against his bare stomach. "How about we just stay here today and ignore work?" he offered.

Taking a deep breath, I shook my head. That was really the only thing that I wanted. "That would probably be a lot more fun. And I'd much rather do that. But I have a feeling that everyone else might take issue with that," I said.

And it was the truth. We had work to be doing. "The last person that I need angry with me is Colonel Phillips," Bucky said.

"He'd shoot you."

Bucky scoffed at me and motioned to the two of us. "All we're doing is sleeping in the same bed," he argued with me.

Shaking my head at him, I rolled my eyes. Chester knew exactly what it was that would happen if we spent enough nights together. "He was a young man once, too. He knows what you want," I pointed out.

Bucky's eyes widened at my comment. "I sometimes forget how blunt you can be," he said through a laugh.

Shrugging my shoulders at him, I turned slightly and threw one of my legs over his own. "I can be more like a machine than a human. I don't like skirting around things. I'd much rather just get them out in the open. And that does mean that sometimes I forget to hold my tongue," I told him carelessly.

If I had thought that he might be offended with what I'd said, I would have been wrong. He merely laughed. Bucky shook his head and turned over my hand, stroking over my fingers. "I'm still a proper man. I know how to do things. Ring first," he said.

His finger gently trailed off my ring finger. I blushed and gently turned my hand back over, placing it onto his stomach once more. "Planning ahead, are we?" I teased.

"Go on and laugh it up," Bucky said.

A little hint of hurt seeped off of him. I leaned up on the bed, placing my arm on the other side of the bed so that I was hovering over him. "I'm not laughing. I'm not," I said, placing a hand on his cheek. "This is something that I never thought that I would get."

He shook his head sadly and placed a kiss on the inside of my wrist. "Well you have it. And I'm not leaving," he said sharply.

And I believed him. I knew that he would never leave me. Not even after knowing everything about me. Bucky released my hand and grabbed my shoulders. I allowed him to roll us back to the other side of the bed as he placed himself over me. His lips caught my own in a kiss and I smiled into it. I really did love being with him. The moments like this were the ones that meant the world to me. As he laid himself over me I ran my hand back underneath his shirt, pressing against the muscles. I found myself unable to contain my laughter. He pulled back from me, leaning above my body.

His eyebrows knitted together. "Well I didn't think that I was that bad of a kisser," he said, smiling at me.

Not that I had much to compare him to, but I was sure that he wasn't a bad kisser. I certainly liked kissing him. "You're not." He smiled proudly at my statement. "But your muscles are so small," I said through a laugh.

An affronted look fell over his face as he sat upright on his knees, pulling the blankets from me. "That was uncalled for," he said, whopping me in the head with a pillow. I only laughed even harder. "Alright, fine, let's see yours!" My laughter increased as he slid a hand up underneath my shirt, pressing against my stomach. His face fell. "My God, do you have an ounce of fat on you? Your stomach feels like stone."

Actually I did have some fat on me. It was impossible to have no fat on someone. "Three percent body fat," I told him, making Bucky roll his eyes. Reaching up to Bucky's shirt, I yanked him back down to me, placing a small kiss against his mouth. "Keep training with me, I'll get you there."

"I might just get to be a little stronger than you," he teased.

I scoffed at the thought. "You will never be stronger than me."

Bucky merely shook his head and came back to lay himself gently over me. His hand hadn't removed itself from my stomach. "I don't want to ever be stronger than you. I like us just the way that we are," he told me softly.

We might have been a little strange, but I wouldn't have liked to be any other way. "I love you," I said.

Bucky pressed a small kiss against my lips. "I love you too."

His arms were underneath my shoulders as he rolled us over gently. We were laying on our sides as Bucky grabbed the back of my neck, gently pulling the two of us together. I smiled softly and placed a hand against the side of his neck. It wasn't long before one of his hands wound from my stomach to wrap around my waist and land on my back. His hand was underneath the shirt, pressing into the shallow of my back where the spine curved. I smiled as he ran his fingers over my spine, making my breath hitch slightly in my throat. A grin spread across his lips, obviously feeling victorious that he had managed to catch me off guard. It didn't take me long to get him back.

My leg slid gently in between his and I felt his entire body tense. He was always surprised when I managed to act a little forward. But I had never exactly been one to act properly. It wasn't really in my nature. He rolled us gently once more, placing himself over me. My hands wound up his back, underneath the shirt, letting my nails drag back down his skin. I felt his muscles tense and his breathing pick up the pace as his hands tightened against the skin on my back, his fingertips digging in slightly.

His spare hand bunched up the material of my shirt as he finally broke the heated kiss. As he backed away from me I noticed that his eyes were dilated, the pupils blown wide. His breathing was heavy, a thin veil of sweat on his back - all physiological responses to lust. He swallowed a lump in his throat, placing his forehead against my shoulder. I smiled softly at him as he leaned back up to look at me. His face was slightly red and I knew why. He knew that I was smart enough to recognize what was happening to him. The same thing was happening to me, but it was a little less obvious. My hands still rested as his waist.

Very gently, he took my hands and pushed them away from himself. "You might want to stop," he said softly, through a laugh.

"You're not the only one," I said, wanting him to feel not so embarrassed.

His eyes finally turned back to me and he smiled. They widened almost a moment later. "Are your eyes red?" he asked me. They probably were. "You're not angry with me, are you?"

Shaking my head at him, I blinked a few times, trying to get the red tinge out of my eyes. They must have been a darker red than they normally were. "Not angry," I muttered awkwardly.

Bucky laughed softly as he flopped back onto the bed, making it jump slightly. "Well..." he muttered, brushing the slightly sweaty hair off of his forehead. His head turned back towards me. "I'm honored."

"Shut up," I said, shoving him to the side.

We both laughed softly at the other. At least we knew that we both wanted to be together. In every way. "Can you manage to restrain yourself for a few months?" Bucky teased.

Laughing softly, I leaned over and smacked him on the arm. He laughed at me as he rolled onto his back once more. "Can you?" I retaliated.

"I'm trying very hard."

Staring at him for a moment, I shook my head. "No you're not." He smiled guiltily. It was moments like these that I could understand why women married so young. They didn't want to wait. And the war put a damper on things. "What time is it?" I asked after a moment.

Bucky glanced over at the alarm clock. "Just past six," he said.

Letting out a deep breath, I nodded at him. It was time for me to leave, before someone spotted me leaving. "I should head back to my room and get ready," I told him.

"I'll meet you out there."

"Okay."

Leaning over to each other, we shared a quick kiss. It was the wrong time to spend more time together. Maybe later. So the two of us crawled from the bed so that I could leave. He walked over to his dresser as I headed to the door. I had to get ready so that we could get to the base. I was just about to slip out of the room when I glanced back. My cheeks heated slightly when I realized that he had pulled the shirt over his shoulders. To be fair to him, he really did have a fair amount of muscles.

"You wanna stare a little longer?" Bucky asked me, surprising my slightly. I hadn't thought that he'd seen me watching him.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I leaned up against the wall. "You wanna see which one of us has stronger muscles?" I asked.

He shook his head at me and motioned to his own torso. I had to fight to keep my gaze even. "You can see mine," he teased. That was the truth. There were a few lines of definition in my stomach, but it was nothing compared to his.

But that didn't mean anything. Naturally I would have smaller muscles. But I was still stronger. "I can kill you," I shot back.

Bucky smiled and walked up to me, backing me into the wall. I noticed that he didn't bother putting a shirt on again. His arms went onto either side of my head so that he could lean into me. "But you won't," he said.

Smiling softly at him, I shook my head. "No. I won't," I said quietly.

Taking a step towards him daringly, I let my hand gently trace over his arm. He was looking down at me with a smile as my hand went over his wrist. I tightened my grip before ripping it off of the wall and pulling downwards. Bucky was doubled over as I rolled over his back and straightened up, keeping a hold of his arm. It was twisted behind his back as I pushed him into the wall, standing pressed against his back.

"But I will show you just how weak you are," I added.

Bucky was groaning as I let go of his arm, allowing him to turn back to me. "You're a jerk," he muttered.

"But I'm your jerk." We shared a quick kiss as he stepped away from me, allowing me to leave the room. "I'll see you later," I called after him.

"Meet you in the lobby."

He closed the door softly so that it didn't alert anyone that someone was leaving his room that early in the morning. I slipped into my room quickly and closed the door softly behind me. The bathroom door was closed so I assumed that Peggy was getting ready for the day. I quickly slipped into the uniform that Howard had designed. It wasn't the most traditional thing to wear on an Army base, but I wanted to wear it as I didn't know what to expect while I was interacting with the Tesseract. No one had really touched it before so we had no idea what might happen. As I placed my boots on my feet, I saw Peggy walk out of the bathroom.

She was fixing her hair and I smiled at her. "How was your night?" she asked teasingly.

Narrowing my eyes at her, I sighed softly. "Good morning, Peggy."

She ignored me and took a seat on the edge of my bed. Her hands immediately went to fixing the hair that was lying flat down my back. "Where'd you get off to last night?" she asked me.

"Take a wild guess."

Peggy chuckled under her breath. "It's sweet. I'm happy for you both," she said.

Taking in a deep breath, I figured that Peggy was the best person to talk to about the relationship. She was another woman. She understood where I was coming from. "We got to talking about... you know," I muttered stupidly. Her grin widened. I knew that she'd been waiting for me to bring this up. "I was teasing him about it and he mentioned that he was still a proper man. He knows how to do things right. He said that he knew that he had to get a ring first."

Her smile only widened. Every time that I mentioned a ring her eyes brightened. "I think that everyone is getting sick of waiting for him to get you a ring," she told me.

She was right about that. Everyone wanted us to get married, save Chester. But I shook my head at her. "We haven't even been together that long. Not really. And most of the relationship was spent apart," I muttered under my breath.

Peggy let her hands drop from my hair as she turned towards me. "Things are different with the two of you. You've known each other for most of your lives. Everyone knows that you're in love. You let out the secret of your mutation to try and save his life. You committed an act of blatant insubordination to get him back. Sometimes time doesn't mean anything. I'd think that you of all people would know that. Sometimes you just have to forget about time. The two of you belong together. Who cares how long its been?" she told me.

My lips turned up in a sad smile. She was right about that. At my age, most women were already married anyways. And most people were engaged within mere months of going steady. Maybe we hadn't been together that long, but it wasn't exactly uncommon. "Never thought that there was a chance that I could get married," I said softly.

"That's how I felt when I was first engaged. But deep down I knew that something was wrong. I was terrified of being married to him. I felt like my freedom was slowly slipping away," she told me. I sighed sadly at her. She had been trapped in her engagement. I was glad that she had broken it off. "How do you feel, thinking that you might marry Barnes?"

"Scared," I answered almost immediately. "This isn't something that I ever thought that I would have. But I know that I want this to happen. I know that I want to be with him."

Peggy smiled at me. "Then you're with the right man," she said.

Despite being scared of the future, I knew that Peggy was right. I was with the right man. I knew that. "I wouldn't even know how to plan a wedding," I said awkwardly.

So many girls planned out their weddings for their entire life. But not me. I had never thought about what it might be like. "Howard and I will help you. You know that I'd have to go with you to get a dress," she told me.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Because I know you, and I know that you won't get a dress unless I force you to go out there and get one," she snapped.

She was right about that. I wouldn't go wedding dress shopping unless someone forced me. "In case it's escaped your notice, I don't tend to wear dresses," I told her.

Her eyes narrowed at me. "Trust me, it has not escaped my notice. But this is one time in your life that you're going to get to wear a dress like this," she said brightly.

Rolling my eyes at her, I leaned back against the wall. "Honestly, Peggy, five hundred dollars for a dress that someone will only wear once," I said.

"But you'll remember that day for the rest of your life," she argued.

"Remind me to constantly keep you at my side when the time comes that I do get married," I said teasingly.

"Trust me when I say that you're not allowed to plan your own wedding. Howard and I will be the ones to plan it."

Narrowing my eyes at her, I scoffed. "Such faith."

Of course she probably didn't have any faith in letting me plan something like a wedding. "In allowing you to plan an important event that you'll remember forever? No. I have no faith in you." The two of us smiled at each other as she hopped up from the bed, pulling me with her. "Come on, we've stalled long enough. Time to get to work," she said.

The two of us threw back our heads in irritation. Neither one of us really wanted to go to work today. I would have much rather laid in bed all day. Lacing up my boots the rest of the way, I stood back upright and nodded at Peggy. Chester would be furious if we were any later than we already were. The two of us headed into the hall and made our way out into the lobby. Steve and Bucky were already there. I realized almost immediately that they weren't alone. The other five men were there too. They all looked quite tired. I could see a few bruises on them. Laughing softly, I walked up to stand with their small group.

"Good morning, gentlemen," I called.

They all straightened up but looked no more awake. "Morning," they greeted.

Their voices were soft and groaning. "You all sound absolutely thrilled," I teased.

"Tired," Dum Dum said.

"And in pain," Gabe added.

"Lots of pain," Jim added.

"Beaucoup," Jacques agreed.

Smiling softly at them, I placed my hand on their arms. I did feel bad about everything. "Sorry about that, gentlemen. I didn't really take it easy on you last night. But it gets worse. Teaching you like this is more effective. Now you know just what you're up against, you'll train even harder," I told them, defending my actions.

It appeared that no one really minded the way that I had been teaching them. Dum Dum smiled and hooked an arm over my shoulders. He was one of the few that I would allow to do it. "'Course not. Can't let you show us up the entire time," he teased me.

Laughing at him, I gently nudged him in the ribs. He cringed and I realized that he was probably bruised up. "Good luck ever trying to show me up," I told the men.

"We all know that we could never do that," James said.

"What do you recommend for pain?" Gabe asked.

That would depend on where the pain was. They could even take some medicine if the pain wasn't that bad. "Where?" I asked.

"Everywhere," Gabe said.

Smiling brightly at the men, they all began to laugh. Even though it was a joke, I could tell that Gabe had meant it. "Not the most pleasant thing in the entire world, but something that really helps is getting into a bath of ice. Fill the tub up with a little bit of water and then dump in a bag of ice," I told them.

Bucky grimaced at the thought of taking a bath in ice. "That sounds terrible," he said.

"Doesn't feel great, but it will help," I told them.

I'd done a few ice baths before. I knew just how terrible they felt. It wasn't really painful. It was more just extremely uncomfortable. "I'll take that into consideration," Gabe said.

"Are you gentlemen going to be ready to fight me again tonight?" I asked them.

They all exchanged a look before Dum Dum looked back at me with a little smile on his face. "Come on, Victoria. Think that you're scaring us off that easily?" he teased me.

Laughing softly, I shook my head at them. "Then I'll see you all here at seven. Have a good day, gentlemen," I said, waving them off. "Steve, Bucky, come on. Time to work for a living. See you tonight!"

The men all waved us off as we headed back towards the base. I wasn't sure what they would be doing. I knew that they spent a lot of their time preparing for the attacks and going through the plans and maps. Steve, Peggy, and Bucky walked with me back towards the base. We were silent through the entire walk. I knew that we were all so silent because of the tense air of the Tesseract. No one wanted me to touch that thing. I didn't really even want to touch it. It made me a little nervous to touch something that powerful without anyone to help me if things went wrong, but I knew that I had to do this.

We made our way into the base as we were motioned back to one of Howard's labs in the back. We nodded and headed into the small room. Chester and Howard were already there, waiting for me. There were a few monitors and even a chair set up against the back wall. I knew that no one would be looking over me than Howard. We wanted to keep this a secret. No one wanted the truth of the power of the Tesseract to get out into the public news. That could be dangerous for everyone.

Chester looked at me as we walked into the room, closing the door and locking it behind us. "You're positive about this?" Chester asked me.

My heart was beating a little faster than normal. I was nervous about this. "Yes. Let's do this before I can talk myself out of it," I said.

"Please talk yourself out of it," Bucky said.

Turning back towards him, I smiled and placed a hand against the side of his face. Everything would be fine, I was just a little nervous. "I'll be okay, I promise," I told him.

He nodded but was cut off from saying anything else when Howard walked towards me, motioning me with him. I nodded and walked over towards the chair. "I've managed to pull it out of the container that it was in. I'll be standing by in the event that you can't keep a hold of it," he told me.

"Okay."

Howard brought us so that we were standing in front of the chair. "We're going to hook you up so that we can monitor your vitals. If I get any indication that you're physically suffering from holding it, I'll take it back," he said.

But how was he going to be able to touch it? "How can you touch it?" I asked him.

He was pulling on a pair of thick black gloves. "Leather gloves. I can't hold it for more than a few seconds without it burning through them, but it's long enough to transfer the Tesseract between us," he said, motioning for me to take a seat. "Sorry about the straps. It's a precaution."

I waved him off. "It's fine."

We were standing together as I took a seat in the metal chair. Howard was slowly getting me ready for everything. He placed two straps that went over my ankles and two more that kept my hands and arms in place against the armrests. He didn't use the strap that could have gone over my waist. A moment later he placed two electrodes on my chest that would monitor my vitals. A blood pressure cuff went over my bicep as he placed a finger pulse oximeter over my index finger. I leaned back into the chair as Howard walked away and brought over the piece of the Tesseract. It was encased in a metal suitcase.

Howard didn't immediately hand it over to me. "Last chance to back out of this," he said.

I shook my head at him. "No. Just make sure that this thing doesn't kill me," I said softly.

"Of course not. I've got a wedding to plan."

He hadn't said it quietly enough. I noticed that on the other end of the room, the corners of Bucky's lips turned upwards. "Shut up," I muttered, blushing softly.

Chester walked over to me as Howard took a step backwards. "Is there anything that we can do for you while you're in there?" he asked me.

I shook my head at him. There wasn't anything that anyone could do other than wait for me to come back. "Just ensure that no one touches me without that glove. If someone touches me when I'm holding it, the power will be transferred to them. It's like an electrical shock. And watch those vitals," I added.

Chester nodded at me. "We can do that. Be careful in there, alright?" he asked me.

"I will."

Steve stepped forward as Chester backed off. "We'll keep an eye on you," he promised.

There were already enough people that were keeping an eye on me. I'd be fine. "Don't worry about me. I have to beat you boys up again tonight," I said, earning a laugh from him. "I don't know how long I'll be in there."

"Is there a time that we should take you out?" he asked me.

I didn't want to risk them taking me out in the middle of something so I shook my head. "No. Not unless it's getting to be nighttime and I still don't look close to coming out," I told him.

Steve nodded. "Alright," he said. He leaned down and pressed a kiss against my forehead.

The moment that Peggy walked up to me, Steve nodded at her and stepped away from me. She grabbed my bound hand. "Don't worry about finding anything out. If you find yourself in danger, get out of there, alright? We won't be disappointed in you," she told me.

Nodding at her, I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Thanks, Pegs. I'll be fine," I said.

"You're out of your right mind."

Grinning at her, I shook my head. "To be fair, I don't think that I was ever in my right mind."

It wasn't just the two of us that laughed, everyone that was in the room laughed. "We'll be right here, watching over you. If we see anything strange happening, we'll get you out," she promised me.

"Thank you."

Finally it was Bucky's turn to say something to me. They gave each other a polite nod as Peggy stepped back towards the others, letting Bucky lean down in front of me. He looked immensely bothered by the fact that I was strapped into the chair. "Still one last chance to get out of this. I won't make fun of you," Bucky told me.

Not that I blamed him for being concerned. I would have been concerned if it was him doing the same thing. "I've gotta do this, Bucky. And no one else can do it. I'm the only person here that can touch it. Hell, I might be the only person in the world that can touch it," I said, hoping that wasn't the truth.

I wasn't sure how much I liked the idea of being powerful. Things were getting a little too strange a little too fast. "You make me want to tear my hair out," Bucky laughed.

"Don't. I love your hair," I said.

"Then stop doing things like this."

The two of us smiled at each other as he leaned up and placed a kiss against my mouth. I noticed that the others were looking away respectfully. They wanted to give us as much privacy as they possibly could. "Don't worry about me, okay? I'm going to be okay. I promise you that," I told him honestly.

We stared at each other for a moment. "One of these days you'll stop risking your life, right?" Bucky asked me.

"Considering that I can't really risk my life..."

"Fine. Risk giving me a heart attack," he conceded.

Laughing softly at him, I nodded. "There's a few things that we need to do before giving you a heart attack," I told him sweetly. He smiled at me and leaned up to press another kiss against my forehead.

Bucky stood upright and smiled down at me. "We'll keep an eye on you, okay?" he offered.

"Thanks for that. See you all on the other side," I said.

Everyone was standing back slightly. I was sure that as much as they wanted to see what was going to happen, they didn't want anything to happen to themselves with the Tesseract. Howard brought me the silver box and opened it. There was only a tiny piece of the Tesseract. It was barely the size of a grain of rice. Howard picked it out of the box and handed it out to me. I could already see that it was smoking through the glove. I sucked in a breath and gave Howard a reassuring nod before reaching out and grabbing it from him. A harsh jolt went through my body - that felt almost like pain - before the world went black.

Bucky's P.O.V.

Along with everyone else, Bucky watched as Vika reached out to the Tesseract. His heart was thumping in his chest as she took it out of Stark's hand and wrapped her own fingers around it. He watched in horror as her body gave a large jolt. She jumped back into the chair as her head snapped upwards. Her eyes sprang open. They were unfocused, staring up at the ceiling. Bucky took a step forward, suppressing the urge to touch her. Her eyes were no longer yellow. Her eyes were a brilliant blue, taking up the entire visible portion. Silver dots were spread around, almost like she was gazing up at a starry night.

"Stark! Is she alright?" Colonel Phillips asked.

Stark ran behind the monitor and began reading over it. He nodded and Bucky felt a huge weight being lifted off of himself. She was fine. "Vitals are normal. For her, at least. Ninety over sixty. That's low for an average person but it's fine for her. That's about what it normally is. Internal temperature is one hundred and two. She runs warmer than us. That's about right for her. Respiration rate is nine. Again, low for an average person, normal for her. Pulse is sixty-two. That's a little fast," Stark said.

"That's fast?" Agent Carter asked, surprised.

Bucky didn't know much about health or anything like that, but he'd always heard that somewhere around sixty was actually on the slow side. "For her, yes. She's normally around thirty at rest. She's probably nervous," Stark said.

"Can you blame her?" Agent Carter asked.

Stark shook his head. "Absolutely not," he said.

Bucky walked forward, forcing himself to keep a slight distance from her. "Is there no way that we can see what's happening to her?" Bucky asked Stark.

"Not without touching that thing. And I wouldn't recommend anyone to touch that thing. She'll be fine. I'm keeping an eye on her," he said.

They all nodded. "Might as well get comfortable. We might be here for a while," Colonel Phillips said.

That was all that it took. As much as everyone wanted to just watch her, it did get a little boring. Considering that they couldn't see what she was seeing and she made no movements, it was a rather lackluster day. So they all went about their business. Stark sat behind the monitor so that he could keep a close eye on Vika. Bucky was grateful for it. Stark was stitching something together. It appeared to be their new suits. He was rather amused to see that Howard Stark could sew. Agent Carter sat near Vika, obviously having a hard time not touching her. Bucky was doing the same thing. Colonel Phillips was currently spreading out paperwork for Agent Carter to go over.

Nearly thirty minutes had passed since she'd first touched the Tesseract. Steve came to sit next to Bucky as Agent Carter went to look over the paperwork. "You alright?" Steve asked quietly.

Bucky ran a hand over his face. "I wish that I knew what was happening to her in there," he muttered.

Steve nodded. Both boys were worried for her, but they knew that she could take care of herself. "Don't worry about her. You know Vic, she's not exactly the type to let something get the better of her," Steve said.

Bucky laughed softly and nodded. She had let someone get the better of her once. He was sure that it would never happen again. "Do you ever get worried about her? Vika?" Bucky asked.

They were silent for a moment as Steve thought over his answer. "Believe it or not, I'm always worried about her. I know that she's indestructible. But it scares me that she knows that, too. She can be pretty reckless about things," Steve said.

With all of his heart, Bucky wished that Vika didn't know that she was indestructible. She got a little too daring. "She's got a knack for being reckless. She always has," Bucky said.

"I worry about her, too. She's like my sister."

"She thinks of you as her brother."

The two men glanced at each other before Steve took a breath. "And she thinks of you as a lot more than that. While we were on the USO Tour, I know that she was always thinking about you. She was beside herself when she found out what had happened to you. I thought that she'd lose her mind. She's tried so hard to keep the secret of being a mutant for all of her life. But she was willing to give it all up if it meant even getting your body back. She wasn't willing to just leave you there," Steve told him.

Bucky twitched slightly. He knew that she had been desperate to keep that secret, but the moment that she had found out that Bucky was in danger, she couldn't have cared less. "There isn't a single woman in the world that would do something like that. No one would be willing to risk everything just so that they could save someone. Even if it is their significant other. There's never been any doubt in my mind that she's the person that I wanted to marry. But if there was, it would have been gone after that," Bucky admitted.

He was keeping his voice down so that Colonel Phillips couldn't hear him. But he was sure that he could. "Keep a close eye on her, Stark. I'll be back in a little bit. Call out if anything changes with her," Colonel Phillips called out.

"I will."

The Colonel left the room a moment later, giving her one last look. Bucky glanced over at Vika and smiled. He hadn't noticed before that around her dog tag was the Murano Glass necklace that he'd bought her for her last birthday. "You haven't bought a ring yet, have you?" Steve asked, breaking Bucky's thoughts.

Bucky shook his head. "I've been trying to save up some money. Never had a lot in the bank," he muttered. When the time came that he did go to get her a ring, he'd bring Steve with him.

"You could get her a paperclip and bend it into a ring and she wouldn't care," Steve said.

He was right about that. There weren't many ways that Bucky was still traditional, but that was one of them. He wanted to get her a real ring. "Still wanna do things the right way," he muttered.

"That's good of you," Steve said.

Bucky nodded at his best friend. They both had a few things that they were still traditional with. "They're just expensive. A few hundred dollars," he groaned. Bucky could never understand quite how expensive wedding rings could cost. "I don't have that much money right now. I'm hoping that I'll have it soon."

He wasn't Stark. He didn't have money saved up like that. "You're not going to have enough money to get her a ring by the time that we go on the first mission," Steve pointed out.

That was something that Bucky had already realized. "No. It'll be a few more months, at least," Bucky agreed.

Steve sighed at Bucky sadly. "Before I went to training at Camp Lehigh, I went rooting through some of my old things. I know that you want her to know that you intend to marry her. But just in case... she should know," Steve said. Bucky watched curiously as Steve reached down into his pocket. "Here."

Bucky noticed that the two others that were in the room were watching them, pretending that they weren't. Bucky stared at Steve as he pulled his hand from his pocket, turning over his hand. Sitting inside was something that looked very much like a wedding ring. In fact, Bucky knew that it was a wedding ring. It was Steve's mother's ring. It was white gold and rather small. There were three smaller diamonds on each side of a slightly larger square-shaped diamond. He could remember Mrs. Rogers losing the ring from time to time whenever she was cooking.

"I know that you want to get her a ring that's hers. But that's just in case. Think of it as a placeholder," Steve said.

Steve pushed the ring towards Bucky, who almost immediately pushed it back. That meant a lot to Steve. He didn't want to take it. "This was your mother's. Steve... I can't take this," Bucky muttered.

Steve shook his head. "Mom loved Vic. She always knew that you were in love with her. She knew that the two of you were going to be together one day. No one is using the ring right now. It's just collecting dust. She would have wanted you to have it, considering there's no one that I'm planning on giving it to," Steve argued.

Staring at it for a moment, Bucky took the ring and held it in his hand. He smiled at the sight of it. "We'll give it back as soon as I can give her a new one," he promised.

Steve waved him off. "Don't worry about it."

Bucky stared at the ring for a few moments before smiling to himself. "She'll know what this ring is," he told Steve.

"Yes. She will," Steve said with a smile.

It wasn't long before Agent Carter walked up beside the men to look at the ring. She had a small smile on her face. "That's a gorgeous ring. She'll love it," she said.

"You'll keep it a secret?" Steve asked, looking up at her worriedly.

Agent Carter gave a sharp nod. "Of course." Bucky assumed that as close as the women were, this was a secret that she would have no problem keeping. "Give it to her tonight. And don't worry... I won't tell her when the day comes that you do get her a ring. Although I want to see it before you give it to her," Agent Carter told Bucky.

He nodded at her. A woman's opinion was always a good thing to have. Not that Vika was very picky. She probably wouldn't care what the ring looked like. "I can do that. Thank you, Agent Carter," Bucky said.

"Just Peggy, please," she said.

Bucky gave her a little smile. He knew that Vika would appreciate that he and Peggy were trying to be friendly with each other. He was about to tell her to call him Bucky when Vika's eye gave a little twitch. He wasn't the only one that had seen it. Every head in the room turned towards Vika before glancing back to Stark.

He waved them off. "She's fine. You might see her body react to things that she's seeing from time to time," Stark said. They all nodded, feeling better that nothing was wrong with her. "By the way, she'll like the ring, Sergeant Barnes."

Steve patted Bucky on the back. "No one mentions this to Colonel Phillips until I'm ready to give her the real ring, please," he said.

"Absolutely not," Peggy agreed.

Steve glanced over at Bucky and laughed. "Not ready to die yet, huh?" he teased.

"He'll still die even when he asks Colonel Phillips for her hand," Stark put in.

Despite the tense air of everything that was happening with Vika - without knowing what was really happening to her - they all managed to laugh. It was a rather funny thought. They all knew that Colonel Phillips would be a grouch when the day came that Bucky asked him for her hand. Bucky had thought about it before. Vika's birth father was dead. There really wasn't anyone that he needed to ask for her hand. But he would. Because Colonel Phillips might not have shared any DNA with her, but that really was her father. So he was going to ask Colonel Phillips' for her hand the moment that he was ready. He just hoped that day was soon.

Victoria's P.O.V.

The feeling of touching the Tesseract was terrible. It felt like someone was sucking me through a tube that was about ten times too small for me. It felt like someone had jammed steel rods through my body so that I was unable to move. There was also the strangest feeling of emptiness. Like there was nothing inside of me. Almost like my soul had been sucked away. It took a few moments before I was finally able to move away. The darkness faded to light and I was left in something that looked like the vastness of space.

Almost immediately, a hint of fear seeped into me. Was I going to be stuck in space for the rest of my life? Was I going to be here for all eternity? I was trying desperately to find a way out of this place but nothing was working. I wasn't sure how long had passed, but someone finally appeared in the darkness. The figure of the being was blurry. It was almost like I was looking at a map of the cosmos written across their body. They wore a tattered blue cloak, but like the rest of themselves, it was covered in the stars. They had no hair and their eyes were black, stars twinkling in them. I couldn't tell whether or not they were friendly.

It was almost impossible to see how tall they were. The figure was watching me. At least, I assumed that they were. "Who are you?" I asked.

The figure ignored me. "Why are you here?" it asked.

The voice sounded almost male. It was loud and echoed throughout the stars, without seeming like it was deafening. I attempted to read his mind, wanting to know who the figure was, but I was blocked. My surprise was evident. Some were harder than others, but I could always read someone. Why couldn't I read this person?

"I can't read you..." I breathed out.

"No. You cannot," the figure responded.

The figure gave a small tilt of the head. The stars and planets that surrounded the body seemed to twinkle with each little movement. "Who are you?" I repeated.

"One of the few beings that may surpass you," it answered me. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Obviously this being was stronger than me, but just one of the few? "Why are you here?"

"To learn," I said honestly. "Will you show me?"

"Yes."

The figure didn't move to touch me. It merely waved a hand as the view of the expanse of space changed rapidly. It felt like I was being sucked through that same tube as we were thrown out into something that looked like it belonged in a fairy tale. The figure spoke to me in my mind, making no noise to disturb the peaceful creatures that surrounded us. We were on Alfheim. It was the world inhabited by the Light Elves. It was a kingdom of enchanted forests, beautiful gardens, and rivers of wine.

It was far too soon that the figure ripped us from the peaceful land of the elves. We were transported to another of the Realms called Muspelheim. It was the realm of eternal fire. The figure watched me with something akin to an amused glance as the flames erupted over my fingertips. I wanted to know if there was a chance that I descended from these creatures. The figure immediately put down those thoughts as it showed me the home of the Fire Giants. The surface of the world was covered in pools of lava and giant flame pits. I listened curiously as the figure explained to me the history of the Nine Realms - the places that it was showing me.

Ginnungagap was a vast, primordial void that existed prior to the creation of the manifest universe. In the northern part of Ginnungagap lay the intense cold of Niflheim, and to the southern part lay the equally intense heat of Muspelheim. The cosmogonic process began when the effulgence of the two met in the middle of Ginnungagap. It was rather amusing that it literally translated into yawning abyss. That was what the black tear in the sky looked like. That effect created the Nine Realms.

The moment that it had finished explaining the history of the creation of the Nine Realms to me, I was shown Niflheim. It showed me the homeland of primordial darkness, cold, mist, and ice. The rime flows combined with the flames of Muspelheim to form water, which the gods used to create all of Midgard - our home. It was also the home of Hel, which served as the home of the dead that were neither honored nor dishonored. I was extremely grateful when we were finally taken from the region.

The figure brought me to a place called Nidavellir. It was the home of the dwarves. The dwarves were master smiths and craftsmen who lived beneath the ground. Accordingly, the land was an underground labyrinthine, a subterranean complex of mines and forges. They had large forgers utilizing the flames and heat from beneath the surface to create weapons used by the dwarves and their allies. Dwarves were apparently the race that had crafted the most powerful weapons in the Nine Realms, including Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, which was apparently real.

It wasn't long before the figure whisked me away to Vanaheim. As the name implied, it was the home of the Vanir - who were a tribe of deities, who tended to be somewhat associated with fertility and nature. It was beautiful. It was mostly dense woods where tribes were scattered, living together in peace and harmony. When we were finally taken away, I found myself missing Vanaheim.

We were transported to a place called Svartalfheim. It was the home of the Dark Elves. It was located in a star system that was almost completely corroded with dark matter, both Svartalfheim and the Dark Elves inhabiting it had developed under a more diverse table of elements. The only source of visible light for the world was a black hole. The ground was a deserted wasteland. As the figure had explained, a battle waged between Asgardian forces and the Dark Elves nearly three thousand years prior had resulted in the near-extinction of the race. The planet was long-since deserted.

I was rather glad when we moved on. But my relief didn't last long before we were brought to a world called Jotunheim. It was the home of the Frost Giants. Nearly one thousand years ago, there was a battle between the Frost Giants and Asgardians. The Asgardians had won and Odin - the ruler of Asgard - had taken the Casket of Ancient Winters. Without the Casket, the realm was decaying and breaking apart. The figure made an offhanded comment about it not being the only thing that was stolen during the battle, but had otherwise remained silent.

By the time that we were once more ripped away from the realm, I felt my head spinning. I was glad that I had the ability to retain all of this information. I was extremely surprised when I was shown Earth. Midgard, as the figure called it. The figure was strangely silent as it showed me the very room that my body was currently trapped in. Steve was twiddling his thumbs while Peggy and Bucky were speaking softly. I noticed them both looking at me from time to time. Chester was pouring over paperwork as Howard stared at the monitors.

Finally we were ripped away from Earth. I didn't need the figure to tell me where we were. I knew that we were on Asgard. It was the home of the Asgardians, a powerful race recognized by the galaxy as honorable and brave peacekeepers. This was the place that the Tesseract once belonged to. Asgard was located in the sky and was connected to Midgard by the Rainbow Bridge that lead all the way to the Bifrost. They had been watching over us since the beginning of time. I wasn't sure whether I thought that it was nice or creepy.

The aerial view of Asgard was incredible. I found myself stunned and at a loss for words. It was so beautiful, so much more than any of the other worlds that the Tesseract and the figure had shown me. It looked like what I almost imagined the Middle Ages should have looked like. Just, a lot nicer. Towers and castles rose on each side, but in the dead center of the city was the Asgardian Palace. It looked almost like the pipes of an organ. Just as I was about to ask the figure what it could tell me about the Tesseract, I felt my body dropping. I was barely able to gasp before I was dropped into what I assumed was the palace.

We had been invisible throughout the tour of the Nine Realms, but I immediately knew that I was visible once more. Cursing the figure that had put me here, I backed into a gap in the wall. I glanced into a room that looked almost like the one that my body was sitting in. There was a large group all around a table. I flashed through their minds, trying to find out who they were. There was a blonde-haired man with a wide smile. A charmer. And a warrior, at that. His name was Fandral. He sat next to a heavier-set red-headed man. He held a battle-axe in his hands and seemed to have already been drinking. His name was Volstagg. There was an Asian-looking man next to them. He was one of the Vanir. To my surprise, there was even a woman. A warrior, just like the men. Lady Sif.

It seemed that even though they were the great Asgardian race, their minds were untrained. They all seemed to be over a thousand years old. There was a man with blonde hair laughing louder than any of the others. Thor. The to-be king. Not for many years, though. He was holding Mjolnir in his hands. I then looked to the black-haired man. There was immediately something different about him. He was not like the others. Loki... What else did Odin take from Jotunheim? There was something familiar about the signature coming from Loki.

There was no more time to ponder the question. The moment that I went into his mind, Loki's head whipped back to me. I ducked into the shadows, narrowly avoiding his gaze. "What is it, brother?" Thor's voice boomed.

"There is a prior engagement to which I must attend. Good evening," Loki's smooth voice called back.

It was the first that I had heard him speak. His voice was quiet but commanding. He must have been able to talk himself out of anything. The others at the table bid Loki a goodbye as I sank back into a large room off of the chamber. I was trying everything to get the Tesseract to bring me back to Earth, but I couldn't figure out how. I touched the wall to see if I was still a shadow and could pass through it, but it was solid. Loki had already seen me. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest as I backed into the wall, knowing that I had to do something.

Bucky's P.O.V.

A few more hours had passed since Vika had touched the Tesseract. As worried as Bucky had once been for her - and he was still a little worried - he found himself more bored than anything else. Other than the occasional twitch, Vika didn't move. Everyone was still sitting in their places. It was pretty obvious that no one was thinking that Vika would be back anytime soon. The monitor that Vika was hooked up to began to beep softly. Everyone hopped upright to see what had happened. Bucky stood and immediately walked over to look at it. He noticed with a hint of horror that sweat was beading on her forehead.

"What's happening?" Bucky asked.

"Her heart rate is rising," Stark said.

Bucky's stomach curled painfully. He didn't like the sound of that. "What is it?" Colonel Phillips asked.

"Ninety-six."

"Is that high?" Colonel Phillips asked.

It didn't sound that high to Bucky. "For her? Yes. Something is happening that's making her nervous. She's sweating. That's not something that she ever does," Stark explained.

Obviously Bucky wasn't the only one that was unnerved. "Then get her out of there!" Peggy shouted.

It seemed that Stark was torn. He shook his head at them. "She'll kill me if I take her out of there before she's ready. That's still a healthy heart rate. I'm not going to start worrying unless she gets near the two hundred mark," Stark said.

Bucky was sure that that was far too high. "Can she even manage that?" he asked.

Stark nodded, not taking his eyes off of the monitor. "She once told me that her heart rate went up to two hundred and nine. She can handle this," he said.

"She's going to be okay," Steve told Bucky.

Bucky nodded at him, stepping over to the other side of the room, trying to keep from grabbing onto her hand. "I know," he said softly.

Victoria's P.O.V.

The most that I could possibly do was sneak as far off of the room that I could. Not that I knew my way around the palace. I had managed to sneak into a room off of the hallway that led to the chamber that they were in. I was hoping that Loki might not find me in here, but I knew that he would. I could hear his footsteps echoing through the hallway, despite the fact that they were extremely soft. It would take someone as well trained as I was to be able to hear him. He turned the corner into the room that I was in before I acted.

Giving him no time to react, I reached up and grabbed him across the throat, shoving him back into the wall, letting the flames flow across my other hand, holding it up to his face. "Scream and I'll melt your vocal chords," I warned softly.

Loosening my grip slightly, I allowed him to speak. "You invade the Asgardian Palace, eavesdrop on a war room conversation, and threaten a crown prince of Asgard? A daring woman you are," he told me.

His voice held a teasing note to it. Sensing that he wouldn't make a noise, I gently let my grip from his throat drop, allowing him to step away from me. We stood a few paces from each other, just looking at each other. He wore a leather suit that was black and green. There were gold accents that fell along certain parts of his costume and a rather large chain that was around his neck. There were gloves on his hands and I glanced back up to his face. He was grinning at me, his blue eyes shining. He wanted me to catch him.

"A Midgardian, aren't you?" Loki asked.

"I feel like that's meant to be derogatory," I shot back. He took a step towards my side and I repeated the action on the other side. I took us only seconds to start circling each other.

"Your kind is weak. Their life is like a blink of an eye to ours," Loki countered.

A small smile fell over my face and I shook my head at him. "Not me. I'll live a whole lot longer than you, and I'll keep my looks the whole time," I teased.

Loki's slightly amused grin widened, showing his teeth. "You look not like a Midgardian," he commented.

"So I've heard."

"What are you?"

Well that was rude. Narrowing my eyes at him, I shook my head. He wasn't going to get anything out of me. "You're so smart, figure it out," I said, recalling that Loki was always supposed to be one of the smartest Norse Gods.

Loki nodded as he continued to circle me. I stopped walking, allowing him to give me a once-over. "You appear to be mortal. You speak like a mortal." I scoffed at him. I was no idiot. "You even dress like one. But you are not. I can feel it. There's something very different about you," he told me, curiosity seeping into his voice.

"You have no idea," I laughed.

"Please," Loki said. He widened his arms in a welcoming movement, taking a seat on a bench across the room.

Staring after him for a moment, I nodded and walked towards him. "I'm what my people call a mutant. Our species is called Homo sapiens. I'm from an advanced subspecies, Homo superior. Still somewhat human, with a genetic mutation. More powerful than the average human, stronger, in most ways we are better. We're feared by much of our own race, forced to hide. It's called the X-Gene and it rests on the thirteenth chromosome," I explained to him, unsure if he understood the science.

The Asgardians focused more on magic. Did they understand science? "You come from a world where science and magic are two different things. They are not. Asgardians understand this," Loki told me, almost like he knew what I'd been thinking.

Maybe he had. "My people can hardly understand what I am. I can only imagine the time that they'd have trying to understand that we aren't alone in the universe. There are other beings," I said softly.

Loki nodded at me. "Far beyond just Asgard and Midgard," he said.

It was right then that I realized that the Old Norse legends were more than just legends. They had been the truth. "My people once revered yours as gods. Why would you leave?" I asked.

"We are the peacekeepers of the Realms. But your people started to take advantage of their position with us. It was decided that Midgard was best left to its own devices," he explained to me.

I supposed that that was as good of a reason as any. "Well we try to be peacekeepers, but it's in human nature to pick a fight," I said.

"Your world is at war, last we saw," Loki commented.

So they were still watching after us. "What else is new?" I scoffed.

The corner of Loki's mouth quirked upwards. "You work to end the war," he said.

Nodding at him, I took a seat on the bench across from him. "Most of us work to end the war. No one wants all of the fighting. Millions are dying every year. People will always die but it doesn't need to be like this. Your people... You were the Norse Gods. Once upon a time you were on Earth and you helped. You kept the peace. Isn't that the point of the Asgardians?" I asked.

Loki laughed a humorless laugh and shook his head at me. "Your people stopped believing in us and began looking at us like monsters," he sneered, almost angrily.

Perhaps there were a few things that the two of us had in common. "Trust me when I say that I know what that feels like," I said softly, earning a strange look from Loki. "But there were people that still believed in you."

"If we came to Midgard to cease all of your pathetic fights, we would have no time to deal with the true battles of the universe. Midgard is weak, best left to its own devices to implode on itself," Loki said.

"Well-spoken from a man that wants to be king."

The corner of his eyes twitched in irritation. He was the younger brother, and that meant that Loki would have no claim to the throne unless something happened to Thor. It must have been an area of contentment. "Asgard will not come to your defenses," Loki snarled.

Rolling my eyes at Loki, I waved him off. "We don't need you. We've managed quite some time without you and we will continue to manage without you," I sneered.

"Strong words for someone whose world is on the brink of collapse."

We weren't going to collapse. Just because we were having issues now didn't mean that we always would. "We're more resilient than you might think. This is only temporary. We know how to get ourselves into problems. But we tend to be quite good at getting out of it, too. We can manage," I told him sharply.

Loki once more stood from the bench. I kept myself seated at the bench across from him. He crossed his hands behind his back. "Which begs the question, how did you manage to get into Asgard?" he asked. I stayed silent, unsure of what I should say. "Not through the Bifrost."

"The Rainbow Bridge?" I asked.

Loki's eyebrow quirked. "You read," he commented.

"I do."

His gaze turned a little more scrutinizing. I assumed that there weren't many people that stumped Loki. "You have managed to get past Heimdall." The Gatekeeper and Watcher, if I remembered the lore correctly. "A feat easier said than done," he said, almost complimentary.

"I believe that the Tesseract was once a relic that belonged on Asgard," I said slowly.

It had earned his attention. He was obviously surprised that I had even mentioned the Tesseract. "It was lost centuries ago," he said.

"Well we've found it," I snapped. Not that it was his fault that the Tesseract was on Earth. His eyebrows knitted together. "Not the people that I work for. The ones that I'm fighting against. They found the Tesseract in Norse ruins. A man named Johann Schmidt is using the Tesseract to make weapons to take over the world and rebuild it in his own image. We've managed to recover a small piece of it. That's what got me here."

Loki was silent for a long time as he processed what I had said. "It takes a being of immense power to hold even a small portion of the Tesseract," he finally said.

"I know that."

If he had seemed bored with my presence before, I knew that he wasn't any more. "Can all mutants hold it?" he asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I watched as Loki took a step towards me. "I don't know. There aren't many mutants in the world. Most are in hiding and there are very few as powerful as I am," I said. Loki nodded at me as I came to a stand. "That's not what I'm here for."

"Why have you come here?"

"I need you to tell me what the Tesseract is. Schmidt is using it to build weapons but obviously it does something much more. No mortal man should hold it," I told him.

The corners of Loki's mouth tilted upwards. "So we agree." He came to stand at my side and I watched as he waved his hand in front of my face. A green flash emitted from his hand as as image began to form in the air. Six images came up in front of me as Loki explained. "Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots." There was a bright blue flash as six stones came into being. Loki placed a hand over my shoulder and turned me towards another image. "There were the four Cosmic Entities. Death, Entropy, Infinity, and Eternity," he said, pointing to them.

It was something that looked like four figures carved into a deep green stone. In the center were six colored chunks that the figures surrounded. They must have been the Stones. "Tell me about the Cosmic Entities," I said.

"Very little is known. This is Death." He motioned to the figure on the top right. "Death can manipulate reality, time, and space. Immortals such as yourself are immune to Death's ability." I quickly glanced over at Loki. It seemed a little strange to think that people could really outsmart Death. "Death is a dark-haired woman. That is Entropy." He motioned to the top left. "Entropy came into being at the beginning of time along with his father Eternity. Entropy's purpose is destruction: this drive pits him in a constant struggle with Eternity whose goal is creation. Together they keep the cycles of creation and destruction in balance. Entropy is frequently known to utilize the Power Stone to kill anyone and everyone in his way.

"Infinity represents all space in the universe." He motioned towards the bottom right. "Infinity and Eternity are in constant competition with Death who attempts to reduce life while Infinity and Eternity expand life. She is the sister of Eternity." Finally he motioned to the bottom left. As I looked at the stone figure of Eternity, something familiar struck within me. "Eternity is the timeless representation of the universe and has unlimited control of reality. As Eternity is timeless this means the passage of time does not affect him, meaning he doesn't age," Loki explained.

Staring at the figure of Eternity, I found myself wishing that the figure that had shown me the Nine Realms would return. "I think that I saw Eternity," I said softly.

The comment seemed to have struck Loki as funny. "Eternity still exists. He will always exist," he said lowly.

"Do they ever come forward and show themselves to anyone?" I asked him.

Loki was silent for a moment before shaking his head. "No. They have no care to step out of hiding. They are designed to watch. If Eternity took the time to show himself to you... You will mean a great deal to him in time," he told me.

An unsettling feeling sank into my bones. "Meaning?" I asked.

"I know not."

Knowing that I would get nothing more about Eternity from Loki, I glanced back towards the image. "What did these Cosmic Entities do?" I asked him.

Loki once more turned me back. Each one of the small circles that Loki was showing me seemed to be one of the Stones. The one nearest my head was the Tesseract. "They created the Infinity Stones. These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength," Loki said, giving me a quick look. "These carriers can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field."

The image that was focused on the purple stone changed to a being the size of a skyscraper slamming down a staff, the purple Infinity Stone locked inside of it. The moment that it hit the ground, a wave of energy shot across the ground, dissolving the men and women that were running away from it. All of those lives... gone. The Tesseract needed to get off of Earth.

"Your Tesseract is one of them. Inside of the Cosmic Cube lies the true power. The Space Stone. It is capable of controlling space, providing the user instant access to any location throughout the universe if used correctly. Hence how you find yourself here. These Stones are completely indestructible and are unparalleled in their destructive capabilities," he told me.

The images faded as I turned back to Loki, well aware that we were standing close together. "How many people know of them?" I asked him.

"Not many. People have tried to harness them since the beginning of time, but very few possess the power. You are one of the rare ones," he told me, moving to circle me once more.

It was an intimidation tactic, but I was not afraid of him. "There's no way to destroy them?" I asked.

"No."

"So storing them someplace safe is really the only option?"

"Or using them," Loki suggested.

Whipping my head around to look at him, I began to shake my head. "I have no intent to use this thing," I snapped at him.

Loki's brows rose. "Truly?" Once more I shook my head. "Look at the power of the Tesseract. The power that you control. You can bend space to your will, travel throughout the cosmos without limits, and destroy any enemy," he said, as if it would change my mind.

"No one needs power like this," I argued.

That obviously struck Loki as funny. "So typical of humans. To only scratch the surface of greatness," he sneered.

Something must have happened to him to make him so determined to harness a power like this. "It doesn't matter to me. The only thing that I'm aware of is that I want this Tesseract thing off of my planet. Like you said, Earth is best left to its own devices. We might get to the point one day that we can believe in other realms and life outside of our planet, but that won't be for a long while. Johann Schmidt doesn't understand this thing. I want him dead and then I want it gone," I told him.

Seemingly understanding that I didn't want anything to do with the Tesseract, he nodded at me. "Does he possess the Cosmic Cube?" he asked me.

"I believe so."

A nasty grin spread over his face. "Allow him to keep it." My jaw nearly dropped. That was the worst plan that I'd ever heard. "If you truly want him dead, allow him to touch the Tesseract with his bare hands. He will be disintegrated with its power and sent to the darkest corners of space," he told me.

Nodding at him, I found myself wondering why he had actually bothered to help me. "You're the God of Mischief. Why are you offering your help?" I asked curiously.

Loki shrugged his shoulders. "Why not? Like you've said. I do enjoy mischief. Your people slaughter each other in droves. Your minds are small and weak. The power of the Tesseract is best left out of mortal hands. You slander the truth of its power by making those pitiful things that you call weapons," he said sharply.

"Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine?" I shot back.

To my horror, the door to the room that we were standing in sprang open. Loki and I jumped backwards to spot Thor bumbling into the room. "Brother!" he boomed. His gaze quickly turned towards me. "Who are you -?"

"Leave. Loki is in the middle of a meeting with the palace guards. You should be training in the yard," I ordered.

Thor merely stared at me for a moment, his eyes glazing over, as he turned back and left the room, closing the door gently behind him. Loki was watching me bemusedly as we stood in silence for a moment. "Powerful enough to control a god. Can you teach me to do that? I'd love to make Thor obey my orders," Loki said.

A small smile turned up on the corner of my mouth. "Probably best that you don't know how to do that. It's a mutation. Part of what makes me so dangerous. I can read and control minds," I told him.

"And mine?" he asked.

His mind took more work to look through than the average person. It was like I had felt when I'd first started trying to read minds. I could see his burning jealousy for his brother and desire for mischief. Those were easy. The rest... That was harder. "You're harder than most. But, yes. I can still read yours," I told him, earning a disbelieving look. "Your brother appears to be a fool, but he is a fool that loves you. Bear that in mind. It is a treasure to have a family that loves you."

Loki took a step backwards, narrowing his eyes at me. "I'll have to learn to block you," he said lowly.

But we were never going to see each other again. I had gotten what I'm needed. "We'll never see each other again if I have it my way," I told him. He smiled at me as I looked back and forth. I'd gotten what I'd needed. But how did I get back? "Can you - Uh - Can you tell me how to get back to my body?"

Loki let out a laugh at my predicament. "Close your eyes. You can trust me," he said.

"I highly doubt that."

Loki merely grinned at me. There wasn't much that he could do to me, so I figured that I would close my eyes at his order. My eyes slipped closed as I heard him walk up to me. There was barely an inch separating us. "What is your name?" he asked in my ear.

Rolling my eyes behind my closed lids, I had to suppress the urge to push him away from me. I still needed him to get me back home. "You may be a god, but you're a man just like all others. Not a chance," I snapped.

Even with my eyes closed, I could feel his grin widen. "Best of luck, mutant," he hissed into my ear.

A moment later I felt his fingertips press against my temples. They barely grazed the skin there before I felt a strange tugging sensation in my chest. My feet felt like they had been yanked out from underneath me as I was ripped back through the cosmos before slamming back into my own body. My head snapped back to the floor of the room as I jumped upright, ripping myself from the restraints in my chair. A scream very nearly tore from my throat as I pushed past Bucky and Steve - who were both trying to come towards me - and slammed the Tesseract back into the case. Once Howard had shut it, I kneeled over, placing my hands on my knees, breathing heavily.

It was a second later that Bucky came to stand in front of me. "Vika. Vika, hey. You're alright," he told me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I leaned backwards and collapsed to the floor, trying to calm myself down.

As I glanced back upwards, I saw that despite the fact that everyone was alert with my sudden return, they all looked very tired. "How long was I in there?" I asked.

"Almost ten hours," Peggy told me. I raised a brow. It certainly hadn't felt like ten hours. "It's five in the afternoon. We were getting worried about you."

"What did you see?" Steve asked, kneeling in front of me with Bucky.

"Everything..." I muttered.

They all exchanged a look before Howard stepped forward. "What was that?" he asked me.

Jumping up from my spot, I gently pushed past Steve and Bucky, heading over towards the table. "We're not alone in the universe," I said quickly, earning strange looks around the table. "G - Give me a piece of paper. It showed me the Nine Realms. Okay. The Tesseract is called the Space Stone. Remember those Infinity Stones that I was talking about yesterday?" They all nodded blankly as I drew out the map of the Nine Realms on the top of the page, and the Infinity Stones on the bottom. "It's one of the six. The Tesseract is actually a protective barrier around the Stone. A - Uh - A friend that I met explained everything to me."

For whatever reason, I really didn't want to tell them that I had met Loki. "You met someone?" Howard asked me.

"I'm getting there."

"Someone saw you?" Peggy asked, sounding horrified.

"I'm trying to talk!" I barked, effectively silencing them. "The way that they explained it to me was like this. Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots. There were the four Cosmic Entities. Death, Entropy, Infinity, and Eternity. They created the Infinity Stones. These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength," I said, motioning to myself.

Not that I knew whether or not I could hold them all. As far as I knew, I could only hold the Tesseract. "These carriers can use the Stones to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field. Inside of the Cosmic Cube is the Space Stone. It is capable of controlling space, providing the user instant access to any location throughout the universe if used correctly. These Stones are completely indestructible and are unparalleled in their destructive capabilities," I explained, finishing my drawing to show the others.

They were silent for a long while. Howard was the only one that looked like he might have believed me. "This is crap out of legends," Chester finally said, placing the paper down.

Fury settled in me. "I was just there! The Stone showed me the Nine Realms. We are one of them. Midgard. I was brought to Asgard. They're considered to be the most powerful of the Nine Realms and the protectors. They are the people that we once thought of as Norse Gods. When they last came to Earth, the Tesseract was left behind," I told him.

"Who told you all of this?" Chester asked, still not believing me.

"Loki," I answered awkwardly.

Obviously that meant nothing to them. Howard was the only person that looked like he might have known who Loki was. "Who's Loki?" Bucky finally asked.

The others looked grateful that he had said something. "In Norse mythology he's the God of Mischief," Howard explained, giving me a long look. I could tell that Chester still didn't completely believe me. "He is known to be extremely malicious and tends to lie about anything for his own purposes. He could never be trusted."

Chester glanced over at me with a look that might as well have been asking me if I'd lost my mind. "And you take this guy's word for it?" he asked me.

"Oh don't be stupid!" I barked at him. It was very obvious that Steve and Bucky had no clue what we were talking about. "I know who Loki is. I know what he is."

To my surprise, it was Bucky that stepped forward and spoke next. "Does it really matter who this Loki guy is?" he snapped at the others. I glanced over at him and smiled. It was nice to see that he was standing up for me. "The only thing that matters is that you know what the Tesseract is now. You know what these things are."

"Bucky's right. Loki won't repeat our discussion. I know that he won't," I said.

There was no worry of Asgardian forces coming to Earth. I knew that just by having a brief conversation with Loki. "How do you know that?" Chester asked, not sounding totally convinced.

Smiling at them, I shook my head. "Because he wants it. And he's not going to risk someone stepping in the way of getting the Tesseract," I told them. It was easy enough to see that Loki wanted the Tesseract. That was why he had explained the way that it worked to me. Because he wanted me to hand it back over to Asgard. "It doesn't matter. We can deal with Loki when the time comes. All that matters is that I believe what he told me. This thing could kill everyone. Howard barely grazed a piece of it and it nearly blew him up. We have to get rid of this thing. Schmidt must know not to touch it if he's still alive. I know how we kill him without getting too close to him."

That caught everyone's attention. It was obvious that people were desperate to know how to end things with Schmidt and Hydra. That was the reason that everyone was now paying attention. "How?" Chester asked, finally breaking the tense silence.

"We get Schmidt to touch it without those gloves." He wore black leather gloves all of the time. We had to get him to take them off. Or at least touch it and keep a hold of it. "If he does, he'll be disintegrated with its power and sent to the darkest corners of space. I have a plan," I told them.

"Go ahead," Chester said.

Taking a deep breath, I motioned to the maps that were laid out on the table. "Carry out the plans to destroy the Hydra bases. We can't risk them attacking people with those weapons. Loki mentioned that powerful beings search out these Stones to use for whatever purposes they want. If Schmidt starts using the Tesseract, creatures all over the universe are going to come for it. And we can't stop them. So we destroy the bases. Destroy all of the weapons that we can," I told them all.

We really needed to destroy Hydra and keep the Tesseract locked away for the rest of eternity. No one needed anything like that. The others were nodding along to the plan. "As for Schmidt?" Chester asked.

For a moment I hesitated. We had to kill him, but I didn't really know how to do that. "Someone's going to have to go after him. Get him to touch the Tesseract with his bare hands. He's kind of impervious to bullets and knives. But he sure as hell can't stand up against that," I said.

The others were silent for a while as they processed everything that I had told them. It was hard to think that we were actually making some progress in the war against Hydra. Bucky laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "I can't believe that you got all of that," he told me.

Glancing over at him, I smiled softly. "Told you that I had to hold that thing," I said, unable to resist giving him the I-told-you-so speech. I turned back to the others. "We need to get our hands back on the Tesseract. The whole thing. And it needs to go into storage. Far away from where anyone else will ever see it. No one needs that kind of power."

Chester nodded and turned to Steve, who was on my other side. "Rogers. How long until your team is combat ready?" he asked.

Steve looked to me. "How long do you need to train us?" he asked.

Honestly I could train them for the next year and it probably wouldn't have been enough time. But time was not something that we had the luxury of. "Give me two weeks," I finally decided on.

There were dozens of those bases. We didn't have time to take months or even weeks to train the men. Chester nodded at us. "Rogers. Victoria. The two of you are going to plan that first attack on the Hydra base. Understood?" he asked us.

"Yes, Sir," Steve said respectfully.

"Sure thing," I added.

My head spun for a moment and I placed my arms down on the table. Almost immediately Bucky and Steve wrapped their arms around me to keep me steady. "Victoria, you're sure that you're alright?" Chester asked, reaching out for my arm.

Nodding weakly at him, I gently pushed Bucky and Steve away from me. I would be fine. "I'm fine. I think that I need to eat something and lay down for a while, but I'm fine," I told him. The others started to move about their business as I walked over to Howard. "Thanks for watching out for me while I was in there."

We exchanged a quick hug as Howard grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him. I knew that he was looking me over. "My pleasure. Take some time and recover. Even though you can handle that thing, it takes a lot out of you," he said.

Once he had let me go, Peggy almost immediately came to take his place. "You're sure that you're alright?" she asked, grabbing my hand.

"I'm fine." I gently took my hand from out of her grasp. Just in case. "Can you do me a favor?" I asked.

She looked a little surprised, but nodded at me anyways. "Sure," Peggy said.

"Can you train the men tonight?" I asked her.

It looked like she was still surprised that I had asked her to take over training the men. I had a feeling that I wouldn't be very useful tonight. It still felt like my mind was in the Tesseract. "Not a problem. Are you coming at all?" she asked me.

Staring blankly for a moment, I eventually nodded. "I'll come for a few minutes to tell you what I want to teach them, but I'm feeling a little out there tonight. I'm not sure that I'll really be that effective tonight," I admitted.

She nodded at me. "I can teach them as long as you show me what you want to teach them," she said.

"Thank you."

Turning to grab Steve and Bucky, I was cut off by Peggy reaching out and grabbing my arm. "Wait." She pulled me back to her and I raised a brow. "Why don't you and Sergeant Barnes go out tonight?" I stared at her, surprised by the offer. "Steve and I can train the men. The two of you barely get to go out together. Enjoy a night to yourselves," she told me.

That was surprising. "You're sure?" I asked her slowly.

She smiled at me and nodded. "Positive," she chirped.

"Thanks, Peggy."

We gave each other a quick hug before I turned and walked off to where Steve was waiting. He walked up to me and smiled. I stared at him curiously, wondering what he was smiling for. "Overheard the tail end of that conversation. We can take over for the night. You and Bucky should go and do something. I think you've earned it after that," he told me softly, so that no one could hear us.

Of course he thought that the two of us should do something together. Everyone seemed to be trying to get us as much time together as they possibly could. "They might like you training me a little better than they like me training them," I teased him.

"Well considering the fact that no one can even get a hit in on you..."

"So tonight maybe they'll stand a chance," I shot back.

He laughed at me. Even though he wasn't quite as strong as I was, he was definitely stronger than the other men. "I'll see you tomorrow, Vic. Enjoy your night," Steve said, giving me a quick hug.

"Thanks. Don't you dare take it easy on the men!" I shouted after him.

He turned so that he was walking backwards away from me. "Never. I'd much rather deal with them than an angry you," I told him, sending him a quick wink.

"Good choice," I teased.

Having me be angry with him was not a wonderful idea. Steve politely offered Peggy to go with him and I watched as they left the room. Howard walked out a moment later. Chester grabbed the remainder of his paperwork, shot a nasty look at Bucky, and left the room. It left the two of us alone. Bucky walked up to me and I smiled, grabbing his hand and pulling him with me.

He chuckled softly as I yanked him with me. "Come with me. I want to show you something," I said.

"Where are we going?" he asked me.

It was easy to see that Bucky was stumbling over himself to keep up with me. I tended to forget that I walked a little faster when I got excited. "Back to your room," I said, earning a surprised look from him. I realized a moment too late that my comment probably didn't come out right. "I want you to see what I saw. Bucky... It was incredible."

"Everything that you saw?" Bucky repeated.

Nodding at him, I smiled brightly. He would love it. "The Nine Realms. I thought that it was just something from legend. But you should have seen it. It's all real. It's not just legend. These Norse Gods are real. They're called Asgardians. And all of these other species... We're not alone," I told him.

There was a small smile resting on his face. "This fascinates you," he commented.

I wasn't so sure that it was the fact that it fascinated me rather than the fact that I was amazed that I wasn't the strangest thing in the world. "I've always been the freak, Bucky," I told him.

"Not to me," he said sharply.

Smiling at him, I ran a hand over his cheek for a moment. "I know. You're good that way. You're good in every way," I said. He smiled at me and pressed a quick kiss against my temple. His arm wrapped itself tightly around my waist. "But if our world ever opens up to the idea of other beings and creatures in the universe, maybe people will stop looking at me the way that they do," I muttered.

"That's all nice. But what about me?" he asked.

I knew that he was asking me about the way that he looked at me. That was something that I would want to see forever. "I never want you to stop looking at me the way that you do," I said softly.

"Don't worry. I won't." We walked together in silence for a moment before Bucky reached out for my hand. "Let me see your hand." I raised my brow, wondering why. I handed it over to him anyways. He gave it a once-over before deciding that he was satisfied that there was no lasting damage. "You might be able to hold that Infinity Stone or whatever it's called, but I don't care. I'm glad that you don't either," he told me softly.

It was pretty cool that I could hold something like that, but it wasn't what I wanted. "This stuff is incredible. I'm glad that I found this all out. But I don't want that. I want as normal of a life as I can possibly live. I don't know how normal my life is ever going to be. But I want to give it a try once this is all over," I said, my hand gently resting on Bucky's hip.

Bucky glanced down at me and pressed a kiss against my cheek. "Tell you what, I'll give you a normal life," he said.

"You need to know what you're giving up to be with me -"

"Not a damn thing," he interrupted me angrily. I silenced myself, not wanting to push him. "I'm not giving up a damn thing to be with you. You're the only woman that I ever wanted. You're always going to be the only woman that I want."

His hand tightened slightly on my back. "You really see a future with me?" I asked him.

"That's the only future that I can see," he said softly.

Laughing softly, I shook my head. "You're out of your mind."

"I'm not the one that can hold some powerful space rock thing," he teased. I smiled at him, rolling my eyes. He was such a brat. "And what about you? Do you see a life with me?" he asked after a beat of silence.

"Can't see one without you," I answered honestly.

Bucky smiled down at me and nodded. We were silent for a moment before he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Then we're settled," he said.

It was a way to say what we were going to do in time without having to promise anything. "I'm gonna get changed first and then I'll be back," I said, disentangling myself from Bucky.

"Okay."

We walked down the hallway that our rooms were in and I watched as Bucky slipped into his room. He seemed a little out there. I thought about going into his mind but decided against it. Whatever he had to say to me, he would say it in time. I slipped into my own room and pulled off the uniform, grabbing my pajamas. I pulled on a pair of the cloth pants and grabbed a black t-shirt, slipping it over my head. Once I placed the uniform back in its drawer, I turned and headed back towards Bucky's room. He was sitting on the bed in his own pajamas.

He smiled at me as I closed the door and crossed the room, sitting on the bed. "I want to show you what I saw," I told him softly.

"Good. I want to see."

Grinning brightly, I moved towards him and gently placed my fingers against his temples. His eyes glazed over like mine did as I began showing him the memories of myself when I'd seen the Nine Realms. I kept out the memories of the figure that I assumed was Eternity. His face was even as I brought him back through the memories. We must have spent hours as I showed him everything. He was fascinated by the sight of the Nine Realms. I could tell that he didn't want to leave Asgard. But I did cut off the memory before he could see the exchange with Loki. I had a feeling that he wouldn't be overly-fond of the black-haired god. Finally I brought us out of the reverie and let Bucky look back at me.

As he came back to reality I brought over a piece of paper and drew out the tree of the Nine Realms, taking time to explain everything about them. I even managed to explain to him about the Rainbow Bridge and the Bifrost. It was nice to see that Bucky was actually interested in hearing how our version of the Norse Gods were actually the Asgardians. Maybe he wasn't actually that fascinated as he was just to enjoy hearing me talk. I even mentioned to him how the Asgardians were the ones that had held the Tesseract down in their vaults for millennia.

I was positive that hours had passed by the time that I finally stopped speaking. There was no dead gaze in his eyes. He seemed just as interested as he was before. "Can that all really be real?" Bucky asked me.

I nodded at him. "It is real, Bucky. Isn't that incredible?" I asked.

"Do you think the day is going to come that people are going to know about the Nine Realms?" he asked.

Was the day going to come? I hoped that the day would come. That would definitely make me happy. I wanted people to stop being so close-minded about everything. "I hope so. But people can barely deal with the fact that I'm real. They're not going to want to know about aliens and other races. Other planets and even other dimensions," I muttered under my breath.

Bucky reached over to grab my hand. "Anyone who doesn't have you in their life is just missing out on something great," he told me.

My eyes turned a pale pink at his comment. "I wish that I could take you into Asgard," I said.

Bucky smiled at me and shook his head. "Those places are beautiful. I can't even believe that they're real and that they're out there somewhere. I'd go in a heartbeat if someone told me that I could go there." I smiled and nodded my agreement. "But I like my home here. That's a hell of a view up in the clouds. But I've got a much better one in front of me," he said, giving me a pointed look.

Blushing once more, I leaned in and pressed a small kiss against his lips. We had barely touched when there was a knock at the door. We both jumped backwards and I made a move to head into the bathroom. But Bucky motioned for me to stay where I was. I hesitated for a moment but merely sat back on the bed. Bucky walked towards the door and opened it, grabbing a tray from a man at the door. He seemed to be from something like a catering service. I laughed as Bucky seated himself back on the bed, showing me the food.

It was a plate of chicken that looked better than anything that I had eaten since my dinner with Steve. "What is this?" I asked.

Bucky smiled and plopped himself onto the bed. "Well I can't cook, and neither can you, so this is my pathetic attempt at a romantic dinner," he teased.

And he was right about that. We were both miserable cooks. It was probably because neither one of us had ever bothered to try and learn. "It's perfect. Better than either one of us can cook," I said teasingly.

He laughed softly and nudged me as he began to split the food between us. "I'm a better cook than you are," Bucky said brightly.

"And what does that say about either one of us?" I shot back.

"That we're nowhere near the traditional couple," he admitted.

And we really were an entirely different couple. There was no one that was really anything like the two of us. And that was okay. I didn't mind being different. We smiled and ate together in peace. It was rather nice for the two of us to be together doing something as simple as having dinner. We ate together in a peaceful bliss, the two of us laughing about everything and anything under the sun. It didn't feel like we were in the middle of the war. It felt like we were just two people having dinner together. It wasn't long before we finished out dinner and placed the plates on the desk. Bucky leaned back into the bed, grabbing me around the waist and pulling me with him.

My hand was on his chest as I leaned over him. Bucky looked down at me and I smiled softly. His hand was tucked underneath my chin as he gently pushed my head up to meet his. Our lips met in a soft kiss as he rolled us over slightly so that I was underneath him. His hands were tucked onto my hips as I laughed softly. He moved away from my mouth, pressing a kiss underneath my jaw, only making me laugh even harder. After a moment I grabbed his face, turning it towards me once more so that we could meet in another kiss.

The moment that it started to get a little heated, I felt Bucky pull back. To my surprise, he looked a little bothered. I raised my brow, wondering if I had done something wrong. "This isn't the moment that I wanted to do it, and it's not really official," he told me. I shook my head, not understanding what he meant. "But we're going to be going on the first mission soon. We don't know what's going to happen."

"Bucky -" I interrupted softly.

"Let me talk, please." I sat there for a moment before nodding. "We don't know what's going to happen, Vika. We don't." My stomach curled as I realized just what it would do to me if I lost him. "I've been trying to save up money but it's hard to come by sometimes. Soldiers aren't paid too badly. But it's not like owning a company or something. So, in the event that something happens, I wanted something to kind of serve as a place keeper. Just in case. So I wanted to give you this to hold onto," he told me.

Slipping his hand down into his pocket, he pulled out something circular. My heart lodged into my throat when I realized what it was. "A ring?" I asked weakly.

"It was -"

"Steve's mothers. I know. I recognize it," I said truthfully. Once or twice when I was a child, she had given it to me to try on. Bucky let go of his grip on the ring long enough to let me look at it. "Did he give this to you?"

Bucky nodded at me. This must have been why he had seemed so out of it. "Yeah. He gave it to me because he knew that I was saving up money." I smiled at him. He wasn't proposing, this was just in case, but I knew that he would. In time. "Do you have your dog tags?" he asked. I nodded at him. "Give them to me." I reached down for the dog tags and handed them to him. His mouth turned up when he saw that the Murano Glass was wrapped around it. He unclasped the chain and slid the ring onto it. He reached back around my neck and I allowed him to place it back around my throat. I smiled and fingered the ring. "Until the day comes that I can get you a real one," he promised.

"It's perfect. Thank you," I told him.

I'd gotten a fair amount of presents in my lifetime, but this was the best one by a long-shot. There would only be one that would ever be better. I was sure of that. "I'll get you one of your own someday soon. I promise," he told me, running his hand over the dog tags.

Shaking my head at him, I leaned over so that I was half-laying on him. "It's okay. Take your time," I said.

I didn't want him feeling guilty that he couldn't get me a ring. This was enough to tell me that he intended for it to happen. At least I knew. "Not too much time," Bucky teased.

My heart gave a soft flutter. No... I didn't want him taking too much time. It was the same way that I had felt for a long time. If there was ever one person that I didn't mind being weak for, it was Bucky. We smiled at each other as Bucky grabbed my shoulders and gently rolled me back in the bed. He pressed a kiss against my mouth and I laughed, letting his legs fall in between mine. They tangled together as I kept one foot hooked behind his own knee. It was gently keeping him in place.

It was moments like these that I wished that he would hurry up with the ring. I was sick of feeling like I was doing something wrong. Bucky's hand wrapped around the back of my neck as he pulled me flush against him. His lips parted slightly and I smiled into the kiss. His hips very gently grazed mine as the two of us rolled once more. He was on his back as I laid over him. My mouth briefly detached from his as I leaned down and pressed a kiss underneath his throat. I felt him growl softly, almost animalistic.

His hands wound around my back as it slipped underneath my shirt. His fingers dug into my back to the point that I assumed that it might have hurt someone else. My shirt began to ride up slightly, coming to a rest underneath my chest. I could tell that Bucky was trying very hard not to make things any more heated than they already were. My leg came to a rest in between his as I ran my hands through his hair, the nails gently grazing across his scalp. His spare hand came up to my hair so that he could pull my head backwards. It was easy to hear his breath hitch in his throat. I could feel that his muscles were tensing as he pressed into the small of my back, his fingers almost dipping too low.

My hand came to slide underneath his shirt when I realized that it was slightly damp. I broke the kiss with Bucky to look down at him. He almost looked irritated that I had broken the kiss. "Are you sweating?" I asked him.

Bucky's face went slightly red as he ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry. You're kind of hot," he said through a laugh.

"Thank you," I said teasingly.

He laughed at me and swatted me on the arm. "Watch that big head," Bucky teased me.

Feeling a little guilty that I was definitely warmer than the average person, I scooted slightly away from him. "I don't have to stay here if I'm too hot to lay next to. I know that I run warmer than the average person," I told him softly.

"No! No - No." Bucky grabbed my hand and kept me against him. "If you want to stay, I'd like for you to stay. But..." He pulled the sweat-stained shirt away from himself. "Do you mind?" he asked awkwardly.

Smiling softly at him, I shook my head. "Trust me when I say that I don't mind," I said.

We both smiled as I leaned away from Bucky, allowing him to pull the shirt over his shoulders. He tossed it onto the floor and laid back on the bed. I smiled at his muscles before looking away abashedly. Bucky laid back on the bed and grabbed behind my back. I hesitated for a moment before letting him pull me up onto his chest. My shirt was riding up around my stomach as Bucky pressed a hand into the small of my back. I placed a kiss against his bare shoulder, feeling his muscles tense before looking back and pressing a kiss against his mouth.

His hand dropped down so that he could grab mine. His fingers twined with mine as he gently pressed them back. He broke the kiss to gently graze his finger across my ring finger. "Soon. I promise," he said softly.

Nodding at him, I leaned upwards and pressed another kiss against his mouth. I knew that he would get me a ring the moment that he could. But it still made my heart flutter with nerves when I thought that he was going to propose to me one day. I would still be terrified when the day came. Bucky's hand was behind my neck, keeping the two of us locked together in the kiss. I laid my hand on his chest, gently running my nails over his skin. I could feel how tense he was. We stayed locked together for a long while before Bucky finally released me. My head pressed down into his shoulder as I fingered the ring on my chain. One day soon... It would be real. It took almost no time before I managed to fall asleep, a small smile resting over my lips.

A/N: It was tough, writing Loki's dialogue. It's hard to get that Shakespearean kind of talk correct. I tried! Anyways, I hope that you guys liked this one! I had a lot of fun writing the trip through the Nine Realms and the earlier introduction of the Infinity Stones. Thanks for all of the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

Quick note here: Much of what's seen and explained in the Asgard scene between Victoria and Loki stems from the comics. These characters and objects have been slowly hinted at and are going to be expanded upon in the upcoming movies. (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers 4, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, and perhaps Thor: Ragnarok.) Just so you know that I'm not just making this stuff up!

rebelforcauses: Thank you! She will meet up with some other mutants while she is with Steve and Bucky. I haven't decided on which ones yet. Not Wade, considering he's not alive yet. Maybe Logan. Hope that you liked this one!

Ebrithme: Thank you! Bucky is trying to propose as fast as he can. Unfortunately he grew up without money and still doesn't have much money. But he's working on it. Can't tell you whether or not they'll marry before the train scene. Sorry about that! Thanks so much! I hope that you like this one!

racefunhorse: I work really hard to make the fight scenes sound realistic and make sense. There will be another good one in the next chapter since this one didn't have one. I plan out the major scenes and some details and fill in the gaps. I also make notes to myself to expand on certain points in the story. It's mostly planning the bones of the story ahead of time and filling things like dialogue in as I go. That's okay, my first story on here was terrible! Sorry that this chapter took a few days to get out, I got a little busy over the past few days. But always check because sometimes I update every day and other times it takes me a few days. Thank you so much! Hope that you liked this one!

kuppcake: Thank you! And you're welcome. Everyone is going to mess with them quite a bit when it comes to their growing relationship. Thanks so much! Hope you liked this one.

.2017: Thank you!