"Y'know, you're gonna give me the wrong idea, just bullin' your way in like that."

Wanda turned to look at Bucky, smirking by the door. She had never been in his quarters before, though she'd imagined it happening, maybe after a polite invitation for a drink or even just a blunt statement of intent. She decided to go with the truth and see where it led. "I did not mean to force my way in, but Steve gave us the afternoon off and you can imagine what's happening across the hall at the moment."

"Done and done." His smirk widened. "Of course, I'm only imagining half of that situation and it doesn't include Steve."

"Don't be a pervert."

"Just a guy who's breathing."

"Men," she huffed with mock exasperation. She glanced around the room, smaller than her own. It was fairly cluttered, but impersonal. The vast majority of clothing tossed around appeared military in style, along with a few historical books likely given to him by Steve. She picked one up and flicked though it casually. "Is it all right if I stay until…well, at least until they get out of the shower. If I can catch them between rounds, I should be able to make a run for it."

"Guess you're here for a good half-hour, then, at least. Lucky punk," he added in a mutter with a glance in the direction of the couple across the hall before realizing Wanda had heard him. He rushed to grab a pile of clothing off a chair. "Uh, do you wanna sit?"

"Thank you." She set the book down on a mostly empty shelf and sat.

"Sure." He tossed the pile he was holding into an overflowing hamper before repeating the process on the room's other chair and taking a seat. "I can put on a movie or somethin' if you want."

"No, it is fine. I was stopping by to find out how you were feeling after this morning, so…you can go into more detail than just 'sore.' If you want to, I mean."

"Well, it's…it's just some bruises." He lifted his t-shirt to display an angry purple blotch covering a substantial area beneath his ribs on his left side.

"Oh." She reached for it on reflex, catching her hand just before her fingertips made contact. "That looks painful."

"Uh-huh. You think that's impressive, you oughta see the one on my thigh." He immediately flushed. "That didn't come out right. I'm not gonna pull my pants down, so…don't worry. Sorry."

"I didn't think that's what you meant. I can see that I was just lucky not to be hit." She pointed to a bag of melting ice on a table beside the bed. "Did that help?"

"Yeah. I was kinda worried about it, but it turns out it's a good thing when there's no diaper involved."

She laughed with him, though the reminder of his potential to become the Winter Soldier at a moment's notice was unwelcome. It hadn't happened in weeks. It was hard to think about when Bucky was sitting there, looking at her with sad blue eyes. "Were you the only one hit?"

"I think Sam took one on the upper arm and Natasha got grazed when she was setting up the crossfire, but nothing too bad." He shook his head. "Those drones'd be pulverized if Steve knew she'd taken a hit."

"Well, the exercise was his decision." Wanda pulled her legs up onto the chair and rested her chin on her knees. "Did you know about Natasha and Dr. Banner? That there was something between them?"

"Not until Sam and I got an earful during the drive back here on Sunday." He ran his metal fingers through his hair, brushing it out of his eyes. "Man, the way he talks about it, you'd think it was some epic romance and not a short flirty thing. Far as I can tell, she never even slept with the guy. Can't understand why Steve's so worried. I mean…it's Natasha. Does he not see the way she looks at him?"

Wanda shrugged. "I don't think he is worried about Natasha. Remember what he said when you told him you were attracted to her?"

"Mmm." Bucky nodded, but refused to meet her eye. He seemed embarrassed. She was tempted to find out why without asking, but resisted. The thought that he was attracted to Natasha was unsettling to her as well.

Taking up another thought, she said, "You have not done much to make your quarters homey."

"Huh? Oh." He looked around. "Yeah. Not like I've got anything to…do, uh, you have any suggestions?"

"Me?" She thought of her own quarters, papered with family photographs she had managed to save from Sokovia, new photos of herself with the team, inspirational quotes, even a sketch of her playing with Freckles that Steve had done. "Well, it is your personal space. You could make it a little more personal."

"How?"

"Put up items that remind you of pleasant things, things you enjoy. Did you get anything at the football game?"

"Just food. I'm really more of a baseball guy." He frowned. "I'm not gonna turn into a Yankees' jerk, but I guess I could get something with the Dodgers? Are baseball cards still a thing?"

"Don't do it to make me happy. Decorate so you can enjoy your space."

"I don't think I need…I mean, I don't…maybe I'm not ready to start making this place too personal yet. It's been a long time since I had my own place."

She knew the feeling all too well. "That is sad."

"Yeah, well…leaving's never a problem if you don't have anything keepin' you someplace." His metal fingers made a strange sound as he tapped them against the wooden arm of the chair. "Might take me awhile to stop thinkin' like that."

"We are not going anywhere." His living hand was warm under hers as she grasped it. "You are home."

"Home…"

Wanda wasn't sure how long the next moments lasted, just that they didn't obey the usual rules of time. One moment Bucky was sitting back in his chair, the next he was leaning toward her, licking his lips. The distance began to decrease more quickly as she began to lean in as well. There was an infinite pause before their lips met. Then…she knew that tongues and interesting flavors and new textures had been involved, but there was no time to properly process them before it was over and he was suddenly standing on the opposite side of the room.

"Shit, I…I'm sorry. I…I don't know what…I shouldn't have…you should go."

"Bucky, I…"

"Please go!"

She wanted to tell him that everything was all right, that he hadn't crossed any inappropriate lines. She wanted him to know it hadn't been a Code Winter. Instead, she backed out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her. She stood in the hallway for a moment, breathing deeply. It didn't take much thought to determine that this wasn't something she would be able to pretend had never happened.

More than anything, she wanted to talk about it. When Bucky didn't answer her repeated requests, she turned to the opposite side of the hall. What was the point of having girlfriends if you couldn't rely on them in moments like this? "Natasha?" She pressed the buzzer again. "Natasha? Please?"

The door opened to reveal Natasha with damp hair and a towel wrapped around her midsection. "Everything okay?"

"I kissed Bucky," Wanda blurted out.

Natasha nodded slowly. "And where is he now?"

"His quarters, but why…?"

Her hand disappeared for a moment somewhere over the door and came back flicking out a long switchblade. She glanced over her shoulder. "Steve, take care of Wanda while I…" Wanda was unable to act before Natasha had punched an override code into Bucky's door and caught him by the neck as she rushed in. She was immediately shoving him back into the room with her knife at his throat. "What. The. Hell?"

"I…I…I…what?" He continued to back up until he was against the wall.

"You thought that you could take advantage of Wanda?" Natasha didn't notice that her towel had fallen to the floor halfway across the room. She continued to press her knife into his neck, causing a small rivulet of blood to run down his throat. "You thought you could just get away with messing with one of my friends and not have to deal with me?"

"Natasha, that's not what happened!"

She didn't relax her hold on Bucky. "Then why were you knocking on my door all freaked out?"

"I wasn't…"

"You were."

"Well, I didn't expect you to…"

"You buzzed me like an epileptic mosquito to tell me Bucky kissed you and you thought I would calmly stand and listen to you?"

Bucky's terrified stare flicked to Wanda. "You went straight to Natasha to tell her we kissed?"

"You shut up!" Natasha pressed him harder into the wall. "Wanda? Explain?"

She looked at the floor to avoid Bucky's hurt gaze. "We kissed and I…I needed to talk to someone and he asked me to leave so I thought…can you please stop threatening him?"

"Relax, Nat." Steve, who had been present but quiet up to this point, wrapped the towel back around Natasha's torso as he came up behind her. "Let's just relax and talk about this."

She slowly pulled back at his touch, maintaining her threatening posture as she did. "I'm keeping my knife."

"Sure, babe, sure. Just step back, okay?" Steve wrapped an arm around Natasha while holding up his own towel around his hips. "I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for this, right?"

Although he still appeared to be himself, Bucky's eyes were now darting around the room. "Naked women aren't supposed to be terrifying!"

Natasha lunged forward, prevented from inflicting damage only by Steve's embrace. "I'll get dressed and come back with a fucking machete!"

"I wanted to kiss him!" Wanda shouted.

The only sound in the room for the next few moments was heavy breathing. Natasha eventually said, "Steve, you can let me go."

"You're not going to try and kill Bucky?"

"No promises." She held her knife up and retracted the blade before handing it to Steve. "But you can hold onto that."

He took the knife, but didn't release his hold on her waist. "Wanda, Bucky? Do either of you have anything to say?"

"I am afraid this is all my fault," Wanda said. "I just…I wanted to talk about it right away and I didn't think about what you would think when I said that we had kissed and…it wasn't like what happened in the gym, Natasha. It was…"

"Not a Code Winter?" Natasha asked.

"No."

"Good. Work through your own shit and leave Steve and I alone until tomorrow morning unless the world is literally ending."

She grabbed Steve's hand and dragged him back across the hall, leaving Wanda alone with Bucky. She felt her face burning with shame. "I…I don't know what to say."

"Most people would start with 'sorry,'" he spat, pressing a wad of tissues to the small wound on his neck. "'Course I never kissed a dame who immediately put a hit on me, so maybe things are different nowadays."

"I didn't…I am sorry." She wrung her hands until her joints began to protest. "I just…you wanted me to leave and you didn't want to talk but I had to talk to someone and…I didn't think it through."

"You couldn't'a given me a couple of minutes to get my head together and come after you?"

"I…I should probably go."

"Yeah, just not across the hall."

"I am sorry." She paused before opening the door. "Can we agree to talk about this? Tomorrow, maybe?"

He grunted in response. She nodded and left, returning to her own comfortable room.

Bucky didn't join the team for dinner. Of course, neither did Steve and Natasha, leading to a spirited argument about where Freckles should sleep until Natasha appeared at the tail end of the meal to grab two plates and the excited dog. Before leaving, she gave Wanda a significant look. Wanda chose to ignore it. She skipped an invitation to watch a movie and cried herself to sleep, feeling very much like the kid everyone seemed to think she was.