Disclaimer: Some of the dialogue in this fanfic is from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Series and Black Widow. I do not own either of the two, nor have any connections to the franchise, though if I did, I think that would be pretty cool. :)
Yelena slung her jacket from her shoulders and tied it around her waist. Despite the brisk weather outside, it sent an odd pleasure up her arm when a breeze brushed against the cut along the side of her shoulder. Even with the cloth wrapping she had found in her bathroom drawer, the stinging sensation had gotten a bit much even for her. The vodka she had intended to use for an evening drink had instead been splashed on the wound. Naturally, it hadn't put her in a great mood.
In nothing but her cargo pants and an old tank top she had found lying in her room, Yelena continued up one of the side streets of Brooklyn. Pedestrians bustled by her, keeping to themselves as the usual traffic whizzed by. She couldn't help but release a sigh at the deja-vu feel she got walking through cities like this; most of the time she wasn't walking, more so running after a target with the mission to kill.
Shaking her head to remove her past from mind, Yelena kept her eyes peeled for the bar's address. She insisted that the only reason she was meeting up with him in the first place was to get caught up on everything she had missed while out of town to track down Karil Morganthau - that, and her comrade promised to pay for any drinks she had wanted. Yelena couldn't help but smile to herself at the memory of the slight fear in his face when she had smirked with delight.
Rounding another corner, Yelena evened out her pace again when she finally caught sight of a building up ahead. Easy feel, not too shabby, and the perfect place for a quick drink.
Crossing the street, Yelena poked her head around the corner and glanced in through the window. The bar was already starting to dwindle down and only a few people were scattered around at the separate tables. One of which, she quickly recognized, was her partner.
Adjusting her bag on her shoulder, Yelena took a deep breath before pulling the door open. A small bell chimed from above the doorway, and a few heads turned to look at her. They all returned to their own drinks and dinners when she didn't glance at any of them as she slowly started to make her way towards one of the almost vacant tables in the back. The restaurant itself was quaint and cozy with that touch that only a city could bring. Quiet music played from one of the corners, and she admired the taste the owners had.
"Go ahead and grab a seat, I'll be right with you!" the barista called from behind the counter. Yelena gave a curt nod but didn't turn to look at her. She was focused on the man with two drinks and an empty seat across from him, a small smile already pulling back the corner of his lips.
"Nice of you to drop in." he said, gesturing to the seat across from him when she was close enough to hear. Holding back a scoff, Yelena took her seat and sank forward, grabbing whatever drink it was he had ordered that was now held out towards her. Taking a small swig, she let the taste settle in her mouth before shrugging her shoulders. It wasn't bad.
"To be perfectly honest, I didn't think I really had a choice," Yelena admitted. "Besides, I'm not usually one to turn down a happy hour night when I'm not the one paying for it."
He rolled his eyes and took a drink of his own. "Don't go overboard."
Yelena let out a low chuckle just as the barista approached them. With a few orders in for what was his "usual", Yelena let herself sink back against the chair for a minute and released another sigh for what felt like the hundredth time that night. Across from her, her partner raised a brow at her. It was weird to think a few months back the two couldn't even look at each other without throwing some sort of snarky remark to the other, to where now the two were sitting in a Brooklyn bar sharing a drink while he used what had almost started as their secret code.
Strictly for business purposes. Definitely.
"What's happening in that cyborg brain of yours?" Yelena teased, bringing the bottle to her lips. Her partner shook his head but didn't take his eyes off her. Yelena couldn't help but let a small grin escape as she gave herself just a second to take him in.
James Buchanan Barnes. Formally known as "Bucky" he started as the best friend of Steve Rogers and eventually the one and only Captain America. From there, his life took a turning point where his past, much like hers, really took its toll. She spent a majority of her life inside the walls of the Red Room, her mind constantly amplified with the means to kill as a Widow. He spent a good remainder of his time within what she found out to be an organization called Hydra, turned from soldier to weaponized-assassin with a few mind tricks of their own. Neither of their stories from early life on were pretty…and for some strange fact Yelena couldn't quite place yet, whether she knew or not, she thought that that small fact brought her closer to knowing the bionic-staring machine a bit more each time.
The two had started out as nothing but bitter rivals the second she had come face to face with him. After a failed attempt on the life of Clint Barton, the one she thought responsible for Nataha's death, she unknowingly became closely monitored under the watch of an infamous group known as the Flag Smashers. Approached by none other than the leader of this world-wide group, Yelena had turned down Karli's proposal to join them at the expense of using her "experience". She had already sworn to leave that life behind, and even if it meant missing the chance or opportunity to put Barton in his grave, Yelena knew she would never go back to it.
She had thought herself off the radar only to be taken into custody the next day through the GRC who believed her to have connections with Karli and the rest of them (led by the new man in stars and stripes himself, John Walker - Yelena hated herself for internally thinking how Alexei would have loved to be in her place). It had taken her hours to convince them otherwise, and it only came down to her release at the expense of her finally letting slip that she wasn't close to the group, but to an ex-Avenger. That sparked some other interests around the GRC that didn't belong to the new Captain America's gang, but to another Avenger, Sam Wilson.
From there, everything spiraled quickly into the next few weeks with new introductions, formed and tentative partnerships between herself, Sam, and another ex-assassin, hunting down Karli and the rest of the Flag Smashers, news on a new serum from an old recipe that could create super soldiers, and finally ending them back here in America with bread crumbs rather than leads. It had gone by so fast, Yelena was still processing the fact she had gone from hating the partner across from her to finding a way to form a truce into friendship with him.
"It's computing," Bucky replied, snapping her out of her thoughts and back into the present. Yelena took a second to bring herself back before nodding in agreement. "Yours?"
"Thinking about things," she shrugged. "Karli, the serum, how many drinks I can order before I finally start to get a little woozy."
Yelena couldn't help but smile at Bucky as he chuckled. "That was a bad deal, wasn't it?"
"Yep." she stated, straightforward and to the point. The two fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, both taking swigs of their drinks and focusing more so on the table rather than at each other. Yelena was about to clear her throat and get on with whatever he wanted to discuss, but Bucky beat her to it, though it wasn't quite a question she was expecting.
"Have you ever gone on a date?"
Halfway to bringing her bottle up to her lips again to finish her last swig, Yelena paused and looked at him with a confused look. "What?"
"Dating," Bucky said casually. "Have you ever gone out with someone before?"
Yelena took a second as she slowly lowered her drink back to the table. "Uh, well…there was a boy that I liked back in Ohio, when I was six. It's kind of embarrassing now because I can't even remember his name."
She chuckled before continuing. "It's mainly just been on and off things here and there. I don't want to call them flings, but it was just…they weren't relationships or anything, it was more so…"
"Out for a drink and never call the number they gave you?" Bucky finished for her, taking another swig of his own drink. Yelena nodded and gestured with her bottle before repeating his motion. "I guess there wasn't a whole lot of time, was there?"
He said the last part slower, with a little less casual feel and a bit more…relation, if she could even call it that. Glancing up at him, she noticed his eyes boring into her own like he could see into her very soul. For the briefest of moments, Yelena could have sworn there was a hint of jealousy behind his steely eyes that she could usually only occasion read. It was gone before she could comprehend if she had made it up or not. She didn't look away from him even when he broke first, but she was determined to get him back.
"What about you?" Yelena asked. "Did James ever manage to get himself a date back in the day, or was he the one to scare them off?"
Bucky rolled his eyes as he leaned forward on his elbows. She didn't notice the-ever-so-faint pinkness to the tips of his ears at the use of his first name she had grown accustomed to, and he had no intention of letting her see it anytime soon.
"I managed to charm a few girls to come to a dance or two with me," he replied. He ignored Yelena's snort at the mention of his "charm". "Once the war started up, it got kind of hard to start finding a date with the idea you might get shipped out across the ocean in less than a week, though."
Bucky took a second to let out a sigh before continuing. "Recently speaking, I…um, I tried the whole online-dating thing, though. It's pretty crazy."
"Crazy?" Yelena inquired, cocking an eyebrow at him for him to continue.
"Just a lot of weird pictures," Bucky replied. When Yelena still looked a little curious, he said with a slight level of embarrassment, "I mean, tiger photos, to give you a general idea."
Yelena let out a short yet distinct laugh before taking her final swig. Shaking the bottle a little to show it was empty, she gave Bucky a cat-like smile as he rolled his eyes. He gestured to the barista for another round, and a new bottle was in front of her before she could ask for further information on his online adventures.
"I suppose you didn't really get a chance to make any new friends for the past few years," Yelena exclaimed quietly. Neither she nor Bucky knew if she was referring to the blip or the years prior to it. "But there's always a chance to start somewhere new. Nowadays, it seems the internet is the place to do it."
Bucky snorted and shook his head, with a mumbled "not going to happen". Yelena grinned to herself so he couldn't see.
As the time ticked by, and the two once again fell into silence with each other, Yelena's thoughts started catching up with her. Glancing up at Bucky again, she noticed him fixated to a spot on the table and one of his gloved hands gripping his bottle tightly. He seemed to have deciphered which way she meant in saying he didn't have too much time to make friends, or even see any flings he may have had during his time as the Winter Soldier. She instantly realized she may have said the wrong thing, and shifted her eyes down to the spot he was staring at.
She knew from experience now he was incredibly sensitive on the topic about his past. He hated what he had done and what they had made him become. He knew what he did and the people he had hurt. The worst part was that, much like her, he remembered. He remembered all of it, and that's what plagued him worst of all.
"This might be a bad change of subject, but…" Yelena trailed off for a second and refused to meet Bucky's eyes as they flickered back up to her. "...do you remember how you got out?"
Bucky stiffened across from her, and it took a minute before he nodded. Yelena waited for him to say something before she continued. When he didn't, she went on anyway.
"I eventually did, too," Yelena started slowly. "In the course of doing so, I ended up killing the Widow that freed me."
Her voice had almost dropped down to a whisper, and she noticed her partner had had to lean in some to hear. "When she did so, she exposed me to a synthesised antidote of sorts. What Natasha experienced was something similar to physiological conditioning…kind of like you."
Yelena looked down at her bottle, suddenly feeling some of the alcohol bubble in her stomach. She refused to let the sudden discomfort show, but she was quickly snapped back to her thoughts.
"You said Nat went through something like that," Bucky started, his voice low and rough. "What about you?"
Yelena took a deep breath before refocusing her thoughts in order. "I'm talking about more-so chemically altering brain functions. Put together, and in the end, they are two completely different things." She stopped for a second to keep her bearings under control. "You're fully conscious, but you don't know which part is you - I'm still not completely sure."
Mindlessly running the tip of her finger over the cotton bandage on her arm, Yelena finally forced her eyes back up to her partner. He was watching her carefully, almost like deciphering some sort of puzzle that he didn't have all the pieces to.
He could certainly try, but even she knew she didn't even have all the pieces to it yet.
Bucky raised his bottle again and took a long, slow drink. When he finally placed it back on the table, he spoke. "What makes you think you're not done looking?"
Yelena sighed and crossed her arms on the table in front her. "Knowing that I still have some bits and pieces that aren't there is enough to know that I still have some doubt sometimes," she said, pausing for a second. "For example, since the Red Room technically destroyed my birth certificate, I decided to make a new one."
The sad and broken part of her partner that sat across from her flickered for a moment with genuine curiosity. She couldn't help but put on a weak smile as she brought her bottle to rest against her nose. "My parents still live in Ohio. My sister moved out West, and she currently teaches science. She only works part-time, though, ever since she had her son. Her husband renovates houses, I believe. Other than that, it's a pretty simple quiet life traveling the world to see all there is besides a couple Avengers."
The smallest hint of a smile pulled back into a grin on Bucky's face again, and it again, for some reason, lifted the corners of Yelena's lips a bit more into what felt like a genuine smile.
"I had a sister," Bucky finally said, mimicking her pose and crossing his arms in front of him on the table. "Four of them, actually."
Yelena nodded. "Do you ever miss them?" she asked quietly.
He didn't answer right away, but slowly nodded his head while taking another swig of his drink. He didn't have to use words to show that he did miss them. The siblings he had by blood. She didn't have to use words either to show what she had felt for Natasha. The two weren't blood; she had learned that a long time ago.
But they might as well have been.
Yelena turned her head upon hearing a high-pitched life from outside. A family of three strolled by the window, a young girl that looked nearly identical to her when she was young held each of her parents' hands. Bucky followed her gaze there, and the two watched them go by with a slow comfortable silence returning.
"Did you ever wish for kids?" she asked, turning to face her partner again. Bucky looked slightly taken aback by the question, but shrugged off his surprise with another drink.
"Yeah, it would have been nice," he replied. "Back during the war, I thought it would be fun to bring them home to Uncle Steve's house, and he could cook us his signature canned meat and veggies."
Yelena scrunched her nose at the mention of his gross canned 40's food he had mentioned in the past, but it quickly formed into a grin when Bucky chuckled at her reaction. "You?"
"Honestly, I want a dog," Yelena replied with all honesty, as she tilted her head from side to side for a second until she heard a satisfying pop. "Maybe take him on all these crazy chases. Might help to have a strong nose out there, anyways."
"Certainly what we could use right now," Bucky conceded. He was about to continue his sentence before the barista came up beside him with a steaming plate of food for the both of them. With another round of drinks ordered, and Yelena's realization of how hungry she was, the conversation in regards to Walker, the Flag Smashers, and Karli was gone before it had even started.
Plates cleared and stomachs now full, Yelena was on her last drink of the night as instructed by Bucky. The liquid was starting to burn going down, and even she knew when her limits started kicking in.
Leaning her head against the palm of her hand, Bucky didn't notice her lingering eyes on him as he went up to the bar to pay. When he finally turned around to come back to the table, he noticed her squinted eyes and almost, dare he say, pouted lips stuck out at him as he took his seat.
"What are you doing?" he asked with a small grin. He really couldn't deny it to himself, whenever she started to have a few too many drinks before she went overboard drunk, it was nice to see Yelena loosen up a little.
"I'm deciding if you're about to give me some big hero speech," she decided, leaning back up with an easy grin. "I'm leaning towards sure, but I honestly can't tell."
Bucky chuckled and shook his head again. "And that's when you know we've got to stop the drinks tonight."
Yelena smiled as she held her now empty bottle out to him. "Partners?"
He raised his own bottle back and gently knocked it against hers, resulting in a satisfying clink. "Partners."
Maybe it was all the drinks she had that were running back through her system.
Maybe it was the fact that, despite coming here on strictly business purposes, she had enjoyed the time she had spent with Bucky just talking to him like she would a friend.
Maybe it was that she had actually gotten the chance to talk to someone about some of the things she had been keeping bottles up for a while now.
Maybe she was being a bit overboard here.
But at the back of her mind as Bucky led her back out of the bar and dropped her off at the door of her apartment before heading back down into the streets of Brooklyn, a lingering thought jumped out at her. Bucky was her partner, and she was his.
But if there was a day where maybe, just maybe, he had any desire to ever want to be more than partners with her…
Maybe…just maybe…
Hey guys!
I hope you guys enjoyed this short one-shot to Bucky and Yelena who I am now really invested in!
I honestly think they're one of my new favorite Marvel ships now (whether you do or don't agree, either way is perfectly fine!), and just everything about them together would kind of line up in a way, and maybe its just me, but I think seeing them together would actually be really cute!
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed, and as always to you lovely readers out there, I hope you have a spectacular morning, afternoon, evening, or night!
-Summerwinds
P.S. I actually don't know if Bucky has four sisters (or even any siblings at all), I just wanted to put it into the fic so if that is incorrect, I apologize!