A/N

Hey! So I really didn't think we'd be updating for a while, but surprise?! Don't get used to it, but let's enjoy it while it lasts! Another chapter is being uploaded after this one, in the Glimpse series!

The first thing that Bucky noticed when he woke up was that he was waking up slowly . Not because of a nightmare, but due to the lightening of the tent and the sounds of camp being struck. He stretched slightly, then found the warm body in the bed next to him with a bit of surprise before his mind fully returned to him. He huffed slightly and shifted, trying to decide whether to wake her right away or let her wake on her own.

He didn't have long to wait - but not because she woke up on her own. A minute later someone knocked through the fabric of the tent on one of the poles, and she started awake to hear Steve say, "Wake up, Buck- we're leaving soon. Can't believe you didn't hear all the commotion - the camp is so busy right now you could sneak an elephant through it and no one would notice," he said, in a tone of voice she hadn't heard from him before, and Kat glanced over her shoulder to find Bucky awake like herself. "You'll have to hurry though, if you don't want them taking the tent down around you," he finished, and she understood, and blushed. Steve knew she was in here, which probably meant he'd found out last night. Quickly, she sat up, ignoring a twinge in her shoulder, and after touching Bucky's hand briefly with her own slid out from under the blanket and into the colder air to start pulling on her clothes hurriedly. Steve's message was clear: she had a chance that nobody would notice where she'd been all night. If Debbie could keep her mouth shut, anyway.

"Alright, alright, I'm moving," Bucky called back, though his glance at the door was a little bit uncertain. Steve was unhappy about something. They'd talk about it later. He got up and started getting dressed, as well. "Just duck out and into the crowd," he suggested quietly.

"That was the plan, yeah," she whispered back with a small smile, managing the extraordinary feat of putting on her bra without turning it around to look at the latches - a girl had to have some sense of mystery about her, didn't she? She crouched to grab her shirt and then pulled it on as quickly as she could manage without yanking her gauze, and then she stepped over to lean up on her toes and kiss Bucky on the cheek. "Thanks for last night. I mean it. Now can I trouble you to peek out the front and make sure Dugan hasn't spontaneously generated there?"

He nodded just a little. "How's your shoulder?" he asked as he finished buttoning his shirt and combed fingers quickly through his wildly disheveled hair.

Her eyes followed his hand to his hair, and she quickly looked back at his face, fighting back a very amused smile, and nodded a little, shrugging one-shoulderedly. "It's a little better. Scabbing nicely. Getting the gauze off last time was about as fun as the soldiers I help do that have made it look. I'll manage," she replied, and gave him a reassuring smile. "That's not what troubles me, ultimately. I'll be fine, in that regard."

"Find me if you need me," he suggested, before ducking out the tent door and looking around. He stuck a hand back in the flap to motion her out, and then set off on his way to find breakfast at the mess tent.

She slid out behind him with the movements of a person avoiding being seen, and waited until he was a few feet away before she headed back to her own tent, blanket tucked under her arm, and trying to look like she belonged walking around without a coat on this early in the morning.

Debbie was in the process of breaking down their tent, and looked up - clearly relieved - when Kat approached. "Kat. I was worried. I woke up and you were gone- I was worried you'd frozen somewhere! Where's your coat?" she scolded. Then her gaze zeroed in on her friend's neck, and narrowed, before a grin slowly slid onto her face. " Well then..."

Kat cleared her throat, a blush lighting up her cheeks, but a cat-got-the-cream smile following on the heels of the blush. Then her eyes widened, and she clamped a hand over her neck. "Oh fuck, did he leave a mark?" She asked disbelievingly, and then broke down into laughter, hunching over a little to keep herself quiet, and she pointed at Debbie as she fell quiet, eyes mock intense. "Hey. Not a word to anyone, got it?"

Debbie grinned wider. "I'll give you a handkerchief. Well, details!" she insisted, though she returned to pulling tent pegs.

"No, it's okay, I think I have a large scarf that wouldn't look out of place in February snows," she said, chuckling, and walked over to their gathered things to dig through them and pull the said scarf out of her bag, wrapping it around her and pulling on her coat before beginning to assist Debbie. "He's a real good kisser, I'll tell you that. The rest, well," she paused for a moment and mimed locking her lips with a key, looking amusedly smug. "Can't kiss and tell, can I?"

"You did just kiss and tell," Debbie said, amused. "Which suggests a whole lot more than kissing. I take it he was good?" she prodded, starting to coil tent lines.

She smirked, taking the tent pegs and packing them into their box. "I certainly wasn't disappointed, I'll tell you that," she hummed, giving Debbie a knowing look and then laughing again. "Made my night a hell of a lot better."

Debbie laughed, too. "Good. I'm glad to see you smiling. it's been a rough few days on everyone, you especially." She kneeled to start rolling up the canvas tent tightly.

"Oh, I don't know. At least I didn't get grabbed. You did," she pointed out, though somewhat softly, cautious of bringing up such a bad topic. She still smiled though, and stepped over to help get the canvas roll straightened. "How have you been sleeping?"

She nodded. "I've been alright, at least. It isn't anything I can do anything about, is it? Just have to keep pressing on." She strapped the tent roll tightly and picked it up. "What else can we do?"

"Nothing, I guess. You're right," Kat sighed, then shook her head slightly. "Well, we can be there for each other."

She nodded at that. "As much as we can be in this god-forsaken place. Until then, though, breakfast. I'm starved, and I'd bet you are too," she said with a teasing grin. "That is, unless you got your fill last night?"

"Oh, you rascal," she laughed, reaching over to mock slap Debbie's wrist. "I'm starving, actually. Let's get this done and get some food."

The next week or so was a reprieve Bucky didn't know he'd needed. Kat kept him distracted - during the day with glances and his own wandering thoughts, and at night with.. well. She spent more nights in his tent than not. But the mood started to sour as he realized that whatever this was, it was beginning to bother Steve. He did his best not to be frustrated - Steve had been the one to encourage this, after all - but it was a building tension that he knew was going to come to a head at some point soon.

Steve was majorly conflicted. He'd realized the third night that the two were together that Bucky was more invested than he'd really intended - and this both bothered and comforted Steve. It bothered him because Steve missed Bucky's time - and it comforted him because Bucky smiled more often, and he slept. Hands down, Bucky was sleeping again. He didn't know how long it would last, but it was a precious commodity. And then there was the fact that it was Kat that Bucky had his eyes on, and Steve could admit to himself (even if it was begrudgingly) that he liked Kat. A lot. More than he should, when his attentions were supposed to be on Peggy.

There were several problems with the Peggy situation, if he was being honest. One was that she had no idea of the depth of the relationship between him and Bucky, and Steve wasn't sure if he could give up his longest love - not like that. Not forever. Not if he could help it. Another problem was that that woman at the SSR HQ had laid one on him just in time for Peggy to walk in and see, and their relationship (their 'haven't even held hands' relationship) hadn't quite recovered. The third problem was that the more time he spent, watching Kat and Bucky from the fringes, the more he felt... longing. An unidentified longing - one he couldn't pin down. Maybe it had to do with the nights they kept him awake. Either way, the thought of doing any of them wrong sat poorly with him.

Kat was pleased with the arrangement she had going with Bucky - and somewhat weirdly enough, Steve, who miraculously had kept any of the men from discovering her with Bucky. She was a little embarrassed, knowing that he knew exactly what she and Bucky were getting up to the nights she stayed with him, but he never said a word to her about it either way, so she took his cue and kept pretending that nothing was different. Still... the times she sat with Bucky at the mess hall, Steve acted differently than he used to. He was a little more quiet, a little more subdued. He cracked less jokes. Truthfully, she missed his slight rambunctiousness, missed the man who had teased Bucky for having to pull his pants down in front of a strange woman. She wasn't sure what to do about the matter, though, until one morning in the mess.

Bucky had just left his seat to go get a report he'd left in his tent, and Kat watched Steve's eyes follow him until he disappeared from sight, and the pragmatic, self-sacrificing part of her took charge of her mouth before she was really ready for the words that followed. "Steve," she started, looking at him across the rinky-dink table, her hand resting on the edge of it, next to her scraped-clean food tray. "I'm going to step back. From... from this uh, thing I have with Bucky. I.. Fuck," she sighed, rubbing her eyes once before looking back at him, ignoring his surprised expression and forging ahead, "I like him a lot. But what you guys have seems more important than that. I don't wanna get in the way. I'm telling Bucky tonight."

Steve stared at her for a moment, his spoon in his hand bending slightly as he fiddled with it absently. He glanced to either side, then frowned. "Kat... That wouldn't be a smart decision. No point in doing that."

Kat grimaced, looking down at the table. Of course he had to make it hard - that was just the pig-headedness Bucky always told her Steve had. And damn her, but she found it wildly endearing. She shook that thought off. No need to even stray there, not when she was planning to direct Bucky back Steve's way. "Isn't there? There's nothing stupid about it, certainly - nobody would bat an eye if me and Bucky didn't work out. Not every battlefield romance is meant to last, you know? It's fine. I just... can't... stand in the way like this." She looked up from the table, meeting his eyes. "I'm not the kind of person to get in the way of.. something like that."

He sighed and stood up, picking up both of their trays to clear the table. "Care to take a walk?" he asked, nodding to the tent around them meaningfully.

She sighed, but nodded grimly and stood. "We better make it quick. Bucky's report can only be so lost."

"We can be more lost than his report, if need be," he retorted casually. They exited the tent with a brief detour to return their trays, and he walked down a row toward the edge of camp.

Once they were far enough from prying ears, he turned to her. "What you're referring to... There's no real future in it. Not more than we've had. There just... Can't be. You and I both know that. So don't give up something that is making both of you happy because of some misplaced sense of justice."

She scrunched up her face a little, stubbornly, shaking her head. "I don't know about all that, Steve, but I... I don't know. I'm not comfortable pushing you out of your space. Because of me you've seen less of Bucky around. I know it bothers you."

He shrugged. "What it does to me is my business. Not anyone else's. There's no reason that he shouldn't be happy. And you know as well as I do that there's no future where things work out the way you're suggesting."

She put her hands on her hips, the stubborn ramping up a notch. "You're telling me that nobody's ever succeeded with it, Steve? I got an aunt that lives with her best friend, has for years. Never got married. She and Mary live by themselves and the family - well, it's none of our business, and they're welcome to all the holidays, and the birthdays, too." She paused, letting out a huff of air and looking down at her feet, hands still planted on her hips. "I know, looking at them, it can be done. You're just afraid of trying. Rightfully, maybe. But you are."

Steve studied her for a while, mulling over whatever it was about that statement that bothered him so much. Finally he said "It doesn't matter if I'm afraid of trying, or not. It doesn't matter if it can be done or not- maybe it can, maybe it can't. What matters is that he's happy with you. He smiles. He sleeps . I can't give that to him. You can. Don't take that away from him on the off chance that some day he and I can... Exist ."

She clenched her teeth in frustration, staring down at her shoes and trying to figure out a way to let everyone be happy. She couldn't be responsible for Steve's unhappiness, she knew this concretely. It wasn't like she knew him that well - it was certainly not as long or deep a relationship as the one he had with Bucky - but she liked him, a lot. He was kind, and trying his hardest to do right by everyone. He didn't have the demons Bucky carried, but he had his own share of worries, of troubles, and who the hell was she to add another stone to the scale? So what did she do? He was flat out refusing to accept her gracefully stepping aside - she bet a month's wages on him intervening if she tried to go ahead anyway. Shit, maybe it was time to throw in something batshit - something as unconventional as the whole damn fucking situation.

She looked up from her shoes, a funny look on her face, and met Steve's deep blue eyes. The color of deep water. Bucky's were more the color of thick winter ice. "Okay, Rogers. You're a stubborn son of a gun, I get it. But here's the thing: as stubborn as you are, that's not where your fame comes from. And I'm not talking about the broad-shouldered 'I can pick up a motorcycle thing,' I'm talking about your Man With A Plan persona. Steve, we-" she half turned away, breaking out in incredulous laughter at herself, and continued as best as she could through it, "We'll make a strategy. Or arrangement - whatever you want to call it. We'll..." She stopped laughing, shaking her head slightly. "We'll do whatever is best for Bucky. You don't want me stepping aside because Bucky sleeps? Fine, I suppose I can't argue with that. But I'm not going to let his best friend distance himself. I'm still talking to Bucky. I'll just... Make it clear he's not," she cleared her throat, "you know. Uh, bound to me?"

That derailed his vision for this conversation thoroughly. He looked over at her, taking in her expression, confirming that he wasn't misinterpreting what she'd just said. He frowned.

"You don't..."

He stopped, unsure of how to phrase the question, then started again.

"That wouldn't... Bother you?"

She gave him an exasperated kind of shrug. "I don't know, Steve - I don't think so. For Pete's sake, I did go into whatever the hell I have with Bucky knowing about-" she made a hand motion his way, indicating his relationship with Bucky, "So I... don't think it would. I mean, it's not exactly cheating if we're not really together and I know about it, is it?"

That flummoxed him, and his brow furrowed. "I... No...? I don't know." He shook his head, his ears flaming. "The point being you aren't going to leave him on my behalf. Right?"

"No! No, you won. We both won, I guess," she said, rubbing at a cheek flushed with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. Oh, Jack would really have something irritating to say about her morality now, she was sure of it. She let out a big sigh, dropping her hands to her sides. "Alright, well, I'll talk to him tonight. Just, not about what I was planning to," she said, looking at Steve. She was a little pleased that she was getting to see a side of Steve that was able to be flummoxed.

He nodded slowly. "I want you to promise me something, though, Kat. Can you?"

She furrowed her brow a little, cautious. "Depends what you're trying to rope me into, Rogers, but probably, knowing you."

He nodded. "I want you to promise that you won't presume what will make Bucky happy," he said, his bright blue eyes fixed on hers, gentle, but piercing. "Let him decide that for himself."

She chuckled a little, looking away and shaking her head slightly. Not disapproving, just amused at the situation. "Believe it or not, Rogers, but I wasn't actually thinking that hard about Bucky's happiness in regards to this. I was thinking about yours. But yes, I promise."

"Well, certainly don't presume what would make me happy," he says with a small smile. "No offense, Kat, but you don't know me well enough for that."

She looked a little embarrassed, but shrugged again. "No, maybe not. But I think I know you well enough to tell when you're un happy. That was what prompted me. Maybe you wouldn't be happier, but you seemed to be getting worse, so I-" she sighed, turning her palms out in a brief helpless gesture. "I just didn't want to be responsible for another weight on you. That's not me. I don't want it to be, anyway."

His gaze softened slightly at her discomfort. "I'm sorry," he sighed. "That was harsh." He looked up, and caught sight of Bucky near the mess tent, looking bemused. "We should go."

She followed his gaze and snorted softly, nodding once. "Yeah. Let's go. I bet we can get back into the tent without him noticing, really prank him good, yeah?"

He laughed, a full warm sound, and motioned for her to lead the way.

Bucky seemed not very surprised to see them back in the mess hall where he found them, though she suspected maybe it was difficult sneaking around him when he was already looking for them. He seemed to take their word on their disappearance being prank-related. But as dinner wrapped up and Steve slipped away on the excuse of finishing a report, she found herself at the edge of camp with Bucky, as about as private as they could get under the circumstances. "Bucky, can we talk?" Kat asked suddenly, interrupting the comfortable silence. "About Steve?"

Bucky had been watching the woods beyond their camp as they walked, absently searching for threats, but he turned his focus to her as she spoke up. Her question set him on edge, but he tried not to let it show on his face. "Alright... What about him?"

Kat took a deep breath, stuffing her hands in her coat pockets so she didn't fidget them nervously. This was not a conversation she'd ever imagined happening. But still, the only way out was straight through. "Steve's lonely, and it feels like.. like my fault. I know it's not, really, but it also kind of is..." she shook her head a little, trying to get on track. "The point is, you should spend more time with him. Like you used to. I'll still be here, 'course, just..." she shrugged, kicking at the snow on the ground. "I don't wanna push Steve out just by being here. I promise I'm not a jealous woman."

He frowned at that, glancing toward the camp. "Did he say something?"

"No, not really," she shook her head, "But I'm around the two of you often enough to see it. Can't you?"

He shrugged a little. "I can," he agreed. "I guess I'm not surprised you did too. He's a horrible actor." He gave a bit of a wry smile. "I just don't know how to fix it."

She gave him a sympathetic smile. "I didn't either. Maybe still don't, depending on what you think of my solution. Steve is game, if that conversation went how I think it did - but it's really up to you. Uh, seeing Steve again, that is. Like I said, I'm not a jealous person." She huddled into her coat as a breeze picked up, catching a flyaway from her bun and waving it around lazily. "Though maybe if you're going to, you might want to give Steve a few acting lessons."

His expression stiffened as she spoke, brow tightening. "See... Him. Kat..." He sighed. "We can't. Even a stolen moment is a risk, as you well know."

She scoffed, leaning back a little in offense. "So if you'd never asked me out, you would've stopped seeing Steve? Look, I'm not suggesting you marry the guy, Bucky, I'm just saying don't treat him different than you were before me. Is that so unreasonable?"

He bristled a little at that. "No, I wouldn't have... I..." he sighed. "Fuck, the two of you are alike."

That forced a bit of a smile out of her. "Sorry. I know one of us was probably enough on your plate," she chuckled.

He shook his head a little. "It's fine. Apparently I have a thing for meddlesome martyrs," he said grumpily, though it was teasing.

She kicked some snow at him, laughing quietly. "I guess so. Poor you."

He dodged her kick with a laugh, bending to pack a quick snowball and lob it back at her. "Why bring this up all of a sudden?"

She dodged most of the powdery snowball with a yelp, then shook her head. "I don't know. It was bothering me, so I talked to Steve today, and now I'm talkin' to you."

He nodded, walking over to grip her shoulder, studying her face. "You're alright with this?"

"Yeah," she nodded, trying to be as certain as possible about it. "I went into this thinking maybe you and Steve weren't, you know, stopping anyways. It's not much of an adjustment."

He reached up to touch her cheek, studying her eyes for a moment. "You are something else, Kat Lewis," he said quietly.

She blushed deeply, and cleared her throat to try and avoid fidgeting on the spot. She smiled a little, and reached out to flick his shoulder lightly through his jacket. "Guess you're lucky to have me or something, huh?" She teased, blustering through the vulnerable moment, and leaned up on her tippy toes to give him a kiss on the cheek.

He turned to kiss her properly, and smirked. "Not sure I'd go that far," he teased, but he pulled her into a hug.

She returned the kiss and then wrapped an arm around his shoulders, burying her face in his neck for a moment. "That's because you're a foolish man who apparently doesn't know what's good for him, just like Rogers. Makes me being your nurse a nightmare, trust me," she teased, grinning up at him from under his chin.

He laughed, and didn't argue. "You know, you can blame Steve for all of this. He was the one who pushed me to ask you out."

She nodded a little, looking a little mystified. "Yeah, I remember you said he told you to ask me out. Though," she side-eyed him, "I think I remember there being less talk of pushing before."

He raised his eyebrows. "Did I say pushed? I meant inspired," he assured her, smiling.

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "Uh huh. Very convincing. Now I see what the reputation is from," she said sarcastically, voice somewhat dry. She was still smiling, though.

He bent down to kiss her again. "You know where my head was at," he said quietly. "You've proved me quite wrong. Happy?"

"Yes, strangely enough," she said back softly, looking up at him with her big green eyes. "Despite where we are, I'm happy. Does that make me a bad person?"

"Maybe a little bit," he conceded, inclining his head. "But few people here are good people, so that's a pretty good reason to be a bad one."

She gave him a gentle smile, but sighed as she looked off into the woods. That feeling of fear at not belonging bubbled in her stomach. "We're all stuck here becoming worse people by the hour, and I still rather be here than permanently rooted at home," she murmured. Maybe Jack had had a point. She looked back up at Bucky. "I'd prefer to remain as good a person as I can, honestly. I... I don't know. There's got to be a reason I'm the way I am. Restless, and what have you. I'd like to think it's to help people escape this hell with their lives."

He followed her gaze back to the edge of the forest. "I understand that," he said quietly after a little while. He pulled away, shoving his hands into his pockets. "What do you want to do, if we get out of all of this? Will you want to go home? To the farm?"

She took in a deep breath. A stall tactic, maybe - she wasn't sure herself. "I don't know," she said, after a moment, and looked back at him. "I worry, you know? That the farm won't be right for me, after all this. After what happened with Debbie, and..." she shook her head a little, looking down at her feet briefly. "But what choice do I have? I'll have to do what's expected of me. Even if I'm fucking... screaming inside the whole time."

He rolled up onto his toes, then back onto his heels, an absent movement, before planting his boots a little more firmly. "I understand that feeling," he agreed. "Sometimes I think that it might be better..." He trailed off, then shook his head. "I don't know. Come on, let's go get coffee or something. It's cold."

"Yeah, alright," she agreed quietly, turning back towards the camp. "Coffee."

For once, it was Bucky waiting for Steve at the tents, not the other way around. The captain wandered up, clearly tired, and gave Bucky a once-over, before nodding to his tent. "Come in." Bucky stood out of the crouch he'd been resting in- the ground was peppered with snow and he didn't feel like damp pants- and followed him inside.

"What's up, Buck?" Steve asked as Bucky followed behind him, walking over to his cot to sit and unlace his boots.

Bucky turned and closed up the tent behind them, tying the flaps shut. He turned back to Steve, taking a knee and taking over unlacing the boot. "We should talk."

Steve let him, though he looked wary at his words. "What about?"

"About Kat," he said as he pulled the boot off, moving on to the other one. "And about the fact that I miss you, and that you're an idiot."

Steve felt like his breath might catch in his chest like it used to, when he was small and sickly, but when he tried to speak it was easier than it had once been. "Used to being called an idiot by you, you're gonna have to be more specific," he pointed out.

"Fair enough," Bucky agreed, setting the other boot aside and kneeling up, pushing Steve's knees apart and shifting between them. He reached up, grabbed the bigger (now) man's collar, and pulled him down to kiss him.

Steve felt the heat rise in his gut before Bucky's lips even touched his, and he leaned forward to meet him, a hand grabbing a fistful of dark hair, his lips deepening the kiss like a starving man.

They stayed like that for a long time, kisses and touches so much more than they would have been months ago, before they'd had to hold back, before the war. Now every brush of their lips felt like connecting a livewire. Bucky knew they should be more careful, knew that they were risking far too much by doing this, but he was sick of these stupid stolen moments, of a touch as they passed, a kiss in the darkness, of fear. He pushed himself up against Steve, every movement as silent as he could make it, breaths controlled, but warm.

Some part of Steve was surprised Bucky wasn't using this moment to tell him See what an idiot you've been, keeping us apart? but the rest of him was too busy being consumed by desire. He pulled Bucky hard against him, with more force than he would normally enact on a person he wasn't trying to hurt. He couldn't help it. God, he'd missed him. Still, after a while of kissing and groping, he pulled back a little, reluctantly. "What were you going to say? Or was this it?"

"Shut up, twink," Bucky breathed, grinning a little and starting to undo Steve's shirt. "Can you be quiet, do you think?"

Steve's heart did a hard ka-thump in anticipation, and he swallowed hard as he nodded silently, already trying to play the game, his hands already shooting up to get Bucky out of his shirt. He was nearly shaking with the effort of not just ripping it.

"Ah ah ah..." Bucky scolded softly, batting his hands away and pushing Steve's shirt open, before working on his belt. "Let's start slow, shall we? I still haven't seen the goods, and hell knows we aren't both going to fit on this cot." He unzipped the fly of Steve's trousers, and shimmied them down.

"I was willing to try," Steve muttered petulantly, though his eyes were so big and dark there was no doubt that he was entirely under Bucky's thumb at the moment. His hands he kept in tight fists by his sides. Nobody could say he wasn't an obedient little soldier when he felt like it.

"Stop whining," Bucky mutters, pulling down Steve's boxers as well and pausing, before letting out an appreciative whistle. "You weren't kidding, hm?" he asked, before looking up at Steve and grinning. "That'll be fun."

Steve managed to keep himself far quieter than Bucky was expecting, which was reassuring, in a way. Maybe they could do this. Steal moments like this, risk a little. It was worth it.

He left Steve sleeping- he looked like he needed it- and left for his own tent, rinsing his mouth with a little vodka before he climbed into bed, closing his eyes and resigning himself to the darkness until morning.