Chapter Six: Santeria

It had taken her a while, but she'd managed to throw their lasagna in the oven and feed them before she collapsed into bed. She bristled. The bed she bought with nazi money. Okay, Bucky had explained that HYDRA wasn't actually a nazi organization, even though many of the members identified that way apparently. He had taken the news a lot better than she had, but she felt awful. Sick. What exactly had her parents done to him? Why did it have to be her parents? Where the fuck had they gone? On the run, being nazis without their kid apparently. She was fine with that. They could go fuck themselves. If she never saw them again it'd be too soon.

She felt sick. Her parents were HYDRA. She was HYDRA by proxy. What the hell was going on? She thought harboring a criminal was her biggest worry. Apparently the fuck not. She felt another hysterical laugh bubble up from her throat and sat up, breathing heavily. She didn't know what to do. What should she do? What the fuck was she supposed to do with that information? Donatella was freaking out. She flipped on her TV, opening Netflix and searching for a movie to calm her down.

Ah, yes. Hercules might help. He was big and strong and always made it through, even when he found out his dad was a literal god. She made it through half of it, turning it way up when she finally got relaxed. She was singing along when there was a knock on the door.

Oops. Bucky had probably been asleep. The clock said two in the morning, and she sheepishly went to answer. He stood there, bleary eyed and confused.

"Why are you singing?" he yawned, stepping in and glancing at the paused movie.

"Because Megara not saying she's in love is a bop." she replied. He moved to her bed, picking the remote up and turning it back down before playing the movie again. He stood there, the colors from the animation lighting up his face in the darkness. She walked back over to him, climbing into bed as the song finished. "Sorry for waking you up." she frowned, and he looked down at her.

"I wasn't asleep." he watched her pull the blankets up to her chin.

"Why not? It's late." she yawned, settling back down and swinging her gaze lazily back to the tv.

"I was worried about you." he frowned as her eyes snapped back to his face. Those damn puppy dog eyes. He sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning back onto his flesh arm.

"I'm fine. Sort of." she waved off his concern. "It's just a lot to take in, you know? I don't even like my parents, but…" she shuddered. "I hugged them. I made them crappy cards and shit. I wanted them to love me." His hand patted her leg through the blanket comfortingly.

"I'm sorry. If I'd never have gone in there, you wouldn't even know…" he trailed off.

"Don't blame yourself. I'm glad I know now. It makes it easier." she shrugged. He sighed, turning back towards the movie. She watched his profile, that strong jaw, pouty lips, sloping nose, surprisingly hot forehead… how the hell did he get blessed with genes like that? It was unfair. He sighed, scooting back until he was resting against the headboard next to her.

"It's really warm in here." he mentioned, and she yawned, a drowsy feeling coming over her.

"I know. It helps me sleep when it's warm." she replied. He hummed and settled into his spot. She turned to watch the movie again, her eyes drooping every few minutes. She tried to shake herself awake, but eventually she just stopped fighting it.

"Goodnight, Donatella." she heard Bucky whisper before she finally succumbed.

….

She preferred the inappropriate dreams to whatever fresh hell this was.

Bucky was sweet as sugar, making breakfast with a handsome grin on his face. His hair was pushed back, revealing his chiseled features. His stubble was trimmed down enough to reveal the cleft in his chin, and as he set her plate down in front of her he smiled before giving her a bone-achingly sweet kiss. She couldn't help her smile, and she couldn't help but grab his face with both her hands, pulling him down for one more as her stomach filled with butterflies. A giggle bubbled from her lips and she patted his cheek as he walked back to the stove.

"Donatella?" she heard him say.

"More bacon please." she replied.

"I don't have bacon." she jolted awake at his words, realizing that dream Bucky wasn't the one talking to her and real Bucky was still in her room. She peered around, bleary eyed and wiping the drool off her face. Bucky was sitting up next to her, and morning light streamed in through the windows, and she realized she slept through the night.

"No bacon?" she echoed, scrubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Uh, no?" he yawned, standing up and stretching his arms above his head. That tantalizing strip of skin flashed again before he put his arms down. "Did you know you snore? Like a lot." he mentioned, a teasing grin on his face.

"Yes, I know, I got my tonsils removed and the doctors don't know how to make it stop." she mumbled, rolling over and pressing her pillow over her head. "My freshman year roommate never let it go. I had to switch to a single room." she called through the pillow. Bucky snatched it off her head, and she rolled over with a pout, crossing her arms over the front of her giant t-shirt.

"If you get up we can have bacon. I'm hungry." he was still holding the pillow.

"I'll get up and come down after you make it." she closed her eyes. She felt him smack her in the face with the pillow, and she sat up sputtering, pushing her mussed up hair out of her eyes. "You dick!" she grabbed her other pillow and brandished it with both hands, rising up onto her knees to threaten him.

"Now that you're up, doll, breakfast?" he drawled, a lazy smirk playing over his lips. Those blue eyes held mirth and his face was open, relaxed.

She preferred real Bucky to dream Bucky in moments like these.

After she thoroughly smacked him with the pillow she followed him down the stairs, tugging her shorts down from where they'd ridden up during their morning shakedown. How the hell an assassin let her get away with that she didn't know, but she wouldn't question it.

"We also have zeppole. Janita brought them over when she gave me my birthday gift." she mentioned and he seemed to walk faster at the thought of dessert for breakfast. She giggled quietly to herself when they entered the kitchen, and the two quickly got to work.

"There's orange juice." Bucky announced, pulling out the carton and shaking it. She appreciated the way his body moved when he did it, and she pulled out some glasses for them.

"Wish we had champagne." she sighed, shaking her head. He gave her an amused smirk, pulling out a bottle without even looking, and she nearly screamed.

"We're having a proper brunch!" she squealed, pulling out the ingredients for pancakes with chocolate chips, eggs, bacon, and cinnamon toast. She split up their tasks evenly and sipped her mimosa with glee, stomach growling in anticipation.

"This is a lot, you know." Bucky looked over at all of the food they were preparing. She shot him a scowl.

"I'm saying to hell with my diet." she shrugged. He gave her a sideways glance as he cracked some eggs to whisk up.

"What diet?" he asked, ducking when she threw her spatula at him. He gave her a wicked grin, holding up an egg.

"If you throw that at me I swear to go-" the egg cracked against her shirt, cold seeping through to touch her stomach. She took a deep breath, letting it out as she stuck her hand in the flour bin, throwing a handful into his face. It mostly puffed harmlessly around him, not really coating him like she really wanted it to, but the damage was done.

"You started it!" he smirked, slapping her wrist with a strip of raw bacon.

"That was the most disgusting thing I've ever felt!" she screeched, furiously running her hand under the hot water faucet.

"Your pancakes are going to burn if you don't hurry up." he called, starting to scramble the eggs once he'd put the bacon in the oven.

"You're a demon, Bucky Barnes." she gasped, rushing to flip her pancakes on the griddle. They were perfect, and she stuck her tongue out at his back while she popped some bread into the toaster. She plated up stack after stack, setting them on the table and buttering the triangles of toast and sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar. They managed to get everything else on the kitchen island without another food fight, and she decided she'd shower after breakfast and get the gross raw food off of her.

"So what did Janita get you for your birthday?" Bucky asked, uncharacteristically conversational. She smiled widely, setting her fork down to pull the delicate chain from inside her t-shirt.

"It's beautiful, I used to steal one just like it from my… mom." she finished lamely. She took a large bite of eggs, forcing herself to swallow them quickly.

"It is very pretty." he nodded, not mentioning the elephant in the room, and she was grateful. She knew he had it much worse than her, but she had been blindsided, and it would be hard to get over it. She poured herself another mimosa, sighing at the taste of champagne on her tongue.

"Here, ready for some mind-blowingly good zeppole?" she grabbed the pastry box, pushing it towards him. He nodded, grabbing one and taking a bite, eyes widening.

"I've never had them with custard inside." he revealed, and she grinned.

"Oh, I always loved the custard ones. I refuse to have them any other way." he nodded in agreement with her. She smirked as he polished off two more of the treats before finishing his breakfast, scraping the last of his eggs off his plate neatly. "I still don't understand how you can eat so much." She admitted, finishing her much smaller portion of breakfast.

"Fast metabolism. Need lots of energy." He shrugged. She pursed her lips.

"Do you, like, have to work out, or do you just look like that naturally?" Don gestured to his rippling muscles.

"Uh, both I think. Working out helps to keep everything feeling right, but I haven't really had time to since… you know…" he explained.

"You can use the gym here. It's nothing state of the art, my parents didn't do fitness, but there's like weights and stuff. I usually just do the elliptical and swim laps." She mentioned, gulping the rest of her drink.

"There's a pool?" He jolted to attention, then forced himself to relax with a sheepish look on his face.

"Yeah, it's not huge but it's nice. There's also a hot tub and a minibar. I'm a huge fan of that area." She grinned. "Help me clean up and I'll show you, it's in the annex." He jumped up, quickly loading the dishwasher and putting everything away. "Here's the door, and then you have to go through this creepy hallway and then there's the pool door and the gym door. The gym is upstairs, but you can get to the pool from the gym if that makes sense? And then another door from the pool room brings you to another hallway that leads to the sauna I showed you yesterday." She pointed everything out to him, and he nodded, clearly excited at the prospect of getting to swim. He deflated after a moment.

"I don't have trunks." She chuckled, motioning to a closet.

"I have spares. You wouldn't believe the amount of times people don't bring a pair. It's like normal people don't have pools at their houses." She said sarcastically, walking back to the main area of the house to change. "When you're done please rinse off, I'll be upstairs in the gym." Donatella called to him from the end of the hall. He didn't reply, but she assumed he had heard. After she changed into a pair of leggings and a tank top with a sports bra underneath, she attempted to tie her hair back tightly so it wouldn't fall out. It took her a while, but the braid she did held up alright. She jammed her feet into a pair of sneakers before heading back to the annex.

Don went up the stairs and got onto the one elliptical near the glass panes that overlooked the pool. She could see Bucky doing his laps as she started up her timer. She let her mind wander to the past few days. If she hadn't decided to finish her internship analysis on that night, she never would have met him. How crazy was that? She was glad she had. There was just something about him that was comforting to her. It was nice to be around somebody, to be able to think about more than just herself. Sure, at school she had Karina, and Janita, but they had their own lives and families that she just couldn't relate to. She didn't fit in all the way with them, it was like she was a puzzle piece with the right pattern but she was just a little bit too small to fit snugly. There was something missing from her, something inherently gone that would always seem to set her apart from others. What was it? Compassion? Love? She couldn't quite place it.

She took in a gasping breath as her forty minute timer went off, and she stumbled off the machine with burning legs. Her body felt like jelly, had she really zoned out for so long? She took a deep swig from her water bottle and lifted the hem of her tank top to wipe the sweat off of her face. Damn, she needed to work out more, jogging once a week clearly was not cutting it. She needed a good relaxing dip in the hot tub, and she wandered to the bathroom to pull one of her swimsuits from the cupboard.

She changed quickly, making sure to wash her face to get off any sweat residue, then headed down the stairs to hop into the jacuzzi. Bucky was nowhere in sight, but the jets were already running, so she assumed he had been there recently. She slid into the frothy water, with a contented sigh, the jets working on her already sore muscles like a dream. She stretched her legs out and screeched when she touched something that felt unmistakably like a human limb. She kicked out and Bucky came bursting through the surface.

"What the fuck were you doing?!" she screamed, her heart going a mile a minute. He sputtered, pushing his soaking wet hair out of his face.

"I was sitting underwater?" he replied, eyes red from the chlorine. "When did you get here?"

"Two seconds ago!" she shouted, finally beginning to calm down. "Why were you underwater?" she groaned, sinking back down until her shoulders were submerged.

"I wanted to see how long I could hold my breath." he shrugged, and she blinked.

"Who goes underwater in a hot tub?" she muttered. He settled back onto the bench across from her, leaning his arms on the lip behind him. One tanned, the other that cool silver. His arms flexed and she swore he was doing it on purpose just to tease her. "Do you wax your chest?" she blurted out. He blinked, brows furrowing.

"No…?" he looked down at himself, seemingly just now noticing he was pretty much hairless in that area. "I've always been like this."

"Hm. Fascinating." she commented, closing her eyes and tilting her head back onto the lip of the jacuzzi. They were quiet then, and she basked in the comfort of just being in his presence. When she cracked an eyelid open to peek at him, she noticed his eyes were closed too, and she took the opportunity to study him. His skin was turning slightly pink from the heat, and his face looked truly relaxed. His lips parted in a silent sigh, and he sunk down further. Her gaze followed a droplet of water that streamed from the side of his face, following the sharp line of his jaw before dropping down onto his chest, trailing down until it disappeared into the water.

She shifted, adjusting her sore legs and stretching her arms above the water. Bucky's eyes slitted open, trailing over her figure before closing again quickly. She pursed her lips, leaning back again and slapping at the control panel on the side of the jacuzzi. A tv slid out from behind the wall and turned on, and Bucky glanced over to it.

"Whaddya say we watch a nice rom com?" she grinned, pressing a few more buttons to bring up the movie she had in mind.

""Miss Congeniality"?" he asked as she clicked on it.

"Trust me, you'll love it. Lots of hot women in bikinis and fancy dresses." she commented as the movie began to play. "I would literally die for Sandra Bullock. I think I've had a crush on her forever." she mentioned at the opening credits.

"Um, I don't mean to…" Bucky began hesitantly. He glanced at her, then turned back to the tv. "Nevermind."

"What is it?" she leaned forward, curious about what he meant to ask.

"I know things are different now, in a good way." he scratched at his chin awkwardly. "And I've heard you make comments before, about… girls." he paused. "Are you…?"

"I'm bisexual." she put him out of his misery. He nodded, clearly relieved that she understood what he had been trying to ask. He relaxed again, and she laughed a little bit. "I'm not, well, I've never had a serious girlfriend, but then again I've only had two boyfriends in my life." she shrugged. "I don't really announce my sexuality anyways, though. I feel like that might be a bit weird, don't you think?" she frowned.

"I guess… I don't know. Back in my time, we didn't really talk about that stuff. I never got it, you know, why people were uncomfortable. Why can't people just love who they love?" he asked. She felt a smile spread across her lips.

"Wow Buck, you were really ahead of your time." she laughed, nudging him with her foot. He pressed his lips together in an awkward smile before turning to focus on the movie again. "Okay, wait for the dramatic reveal when she gets all dolled up, it's my favorite part of the movie." she sat up onto her knees in anticipation, and he leaned on his flesh arm to watch.

"Oh, wow, she looks great." his eyebrows went up.

"I know, right?" she gushed, nearly jumping. "I've always wanted to have a movie makeover like that, where I go from dumpy to gorgeous." she explained, leaning onto her palm.

"You already look pretty." he turned to her, frowning as he studied her face. She felt her ears heat up.

"You don't have to flatter me just because I'm helping you out." she laughed, rolling her eyes. His expression tightened.

"What are you talking about. You are pretty." he repeated. "Do you not think you're pretty?"

"So you agree, you think you're really pretty?" she mumbled to herself quickly, causing him to cock his head in confusion. "Uh, Bucky I appreciate the compliment, but I'm no Sandy." she gestured at the screen, where she was proudly displayed with her gorgeous cheekbones and crazy hourglass figure.

"What makes her any better than you? You look really similar, now that I think about it." he scrutinized her, and she squirmed under his gaze.

"Do not." she whined. He gave her his look and went back to watching the movie.

"You're so unnecessarily difficult sometimes." he commented without facing her. Her mouth dropped open.

"That was unnecessarily rude!" she scoffed. He glanced over at her, that look still on his face, but he didn't reply this time. The movie continued to play, but she didn't really pay attention, her mind wandering once again. She was sitting in a hot tub with a brainwashed soldier… how had her life come to this again? How had she managed to befriend him? He was not friendly, he was nice enough she guessed… but like, what the actual fuck? He just let her do whatever she wanted with him. Well, not whatever she wanted, there would be a lot less clothes on if that were the case… but that was irrelevant.

It was like he was a lost little puppy that she didn't have the heart to bring to a shelter. Should she bring him to a vet? Make sure he has all his shots? She smiled to herself at her mental joke, glad he didn't turn to look at her. He probably would have thought she was crazy. Well, he must already think she was crazy. She was insane, bringing this dude into her house. But, like he'd said, they were friends now. She couldn't imagine not hanging out with him and his cute ass, honestly. And, yes, she was physically attracted to him, but that somehow didn't really play a factor in their relationship. She could keep that part to herself easily. After all, she did have great practice of hiding her feelings from the people she was in love wi-

Shit.

In love with? Why did she think that? There was no way she had fallen for the soldier. She shot him a panicked glance, but thankfully he hadn't noticed her internal dilemma. He was rude, crass, surprisingly sweet sometimes, super hot, annoying…

Oh god. She was in love, just like Meg with wonder boy. Shit, shit, shit. Of course she'd fall for a fucking criminal on the lam. She had the literal worst judgement of anyone she'd ever known. Did she seriously think anything could come from having these feelings for him? Of course not! Their relationship had to strictly be short term, they had to figure out how to fix the mess he was in, get him in contact with the right people… but who exactly were the right people? This was a unique situation, it wasn't like this was high school and he was a naughty boy that was going to get shipped off to boarding school if he didn't clean his act up. This was a trained assassin for crying out loud. The cops would just arrest him, SHIELD was defunct now that it had been revealed as a part of HYDRA, and who else could they call? Donatella was sure that Bucky didn't know where to go next, either. Hell, his idea of going somewhere to hide was Bucharest. How were they supposed to get there? She realized he'd never told her. Could he even get through customs with that arm?

"Um, Buck…" she trailed off, and he turned, raising his eyebrows. "How exactly are we getting to Bucharest? Not that I'm doubting your trip planning skills." she finished quickly. He smirked slightly, settling deeper into the water. Her fingers were beginning to prune from the moisture, and he wasn't answering. "Hello, earth to Sergeant Barnes." she waved her hand in front of his face to snap him into motion.

"It's a surprise." he replied mysteriously, and she groaned. Her stomach twisted with nerves and she leaned forward.

"Okay that really isn't helpful and you know it. Do I need my passport? Or are we doing this illegally." she frowned. His face fell into his signature "are you stupid" look and she cringed. "Okay, yeah dumb question we definitely can't go anywhere… legally right now I guess. Where are we going to stay when we get there? I can shell out some pocket change for a fancy hotel." she offered.

"That's too high profile. I have a safe house there, difficult to trace. It's not fancy, but it'll work." he replied. She sighed, turning to face the tv again, surprised to see it was rolling the credits. She really needed to pay closer attention to what was going on and stop getting lost in her thoughts.

"When are we leaving?" she asked.

"Tomorrow."

We're finally getting somewhere with their relationship! I could've smashed them together a long time ago, but it just felt way more natural to wait with them. Bucky's a cautious guy, and this just felt right to me. Thanks for favoriting and reviewing! We're reaching the climax of the story!