Clara didn't like the feeling of being watched, which was exactly what she was feeling currently. It was like every eye at the gym was turned on her, despite the fact that they weren't. But it certainly felt that way with the paranoia she had over the man she'd seen earlier in the morning. She had a bit too much to think over, and there was a crawling sensation in her skin.

Thankfully, the gym was a safe haven from all the worrying. It wasn't often they got new faces in the gym, and there wasn't that many people in attendance for her classesーshe'd know if there was a new person, especially if it was the same man from the morning. That, and teaching provided her with a focus in which to channel all the worry.

When her small class of five came in and greeted her, Clara felt immense relief. She was safe, albeit temporarily.

"Okay guys, let's start off with a warm up. Don't want any strained muscles," Clara instructed.

Soon, she got into teaching her class members one on one while they practiced. Her favourite student would definitely be Costel. Unlike everyone she taught, he was a teenager verging on the point of adulthood. He was the youngest as well as the smallest, but he made up for it in agility and spirit.

Clara smiled at Costel as she observed him. "Make sure that your arm isn't too twisted when you punch, okay? Otherwise, you're doing really well."

Costel stopped for a moment and nodded at her.

"I'm going to go take a bathroom break, okay? If anyone needs help, I want you to help them."

"Got it," Costel said.

So Clara left the room and went into the foyer of the gym. It was a tiny entry way that probably needed to be re-done, but it kinda gave off a retro feel to the place. Not her style, but then again, it wasn't her gym. She just worked there.

Clara waved at the girl working at the desk before heading down the hallway to a bathroom. She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the door squeak open and a man dressed in black athletic gear came inside. She definitely hadn't seen him before as he had ginger hairーa colour nobody at the gym hadーnot to mention, it was the same damn man from earlier!

Clara then hurried to the bathroom in an almost speed-walk pace that would have looked very odd to anybody passing by.

Just who the hell was that man? At this point, Clara didn't think that he was following her because he came to investigate her. No, he must have been following her for other reasons. Which only made it that much more creepy.

It probably was best she didn't go to the bathroom anyways, so she turned around to go back to her class. Maybe if she acknowledged the man's existence, he'd back off and stop being so creepy. Hell, maybe he'd even introduce himselfーanything would be better than him following her around.

"Hi there, I'm Clara," She waved at the man in an effort to get him to talk or introduce himself. Sure, it was one of the most daring things she'd done, going face to face to with a stalker, but it was better than not knowing him.

"Nice to meet you," was all he said, his eyes not quite meeting hers, before going off to some other gym room.

Yep, definitely suspicious.


Clara had managed to reach the end of the day without seeing the creepy stalker man again, so that was an accomplishment. However, she had yet to walk home. That definitely left room for him to follow her home, not that she would allow him to come anywhere near her. Boxing certainly helped her when it came to self-defence, not to mention, she'd been learning a bit of martial arts from another instructor. The creep didn't stand a chance against her.

So Clara specifically made sure that her hood wasn't drawn up so she could keep alert for the man. If he was walking anywhere near her, she wanted to see him coming because she couldn't rely on the people around her. There weren't many people out and about in her neighbourhood, so there would be nobody looking out.

But, on the bright side, it was beyond sunny and the weather was calm. It was no problem to hear or see the man coming. It was only a short, seven-minute walk home, so really, how difficult could it be?

The first five minutes had gone by quickly and without a complication, but once Clara was nearly home, she saw him again. Maybe she would've never noticed him if she wasn't so paranoid. Otherwise, he was terrible at trying to stay hidden.

He was sitting on a park bench, covering his face with the newspaper, yet it didn't help in any way. Clara recognized the black clothes and his skinny build.

She just couldn't shake him, could she?

Either way, the rest of the walk home was easy.


Bucky's day had been the same as always since he arrived to Bucharest. Wake up, go to work, get home mentally exhausted and then try to figure out the confusing puzzle pieces that made up his memory. There were memories constantly coming back to him, papers were scattered about in his apartment, and he had an encyclopedia lying on the tableーthere was lots of history that he had to catch up on.

Pouring over a certain passage in the book about industrialization, Bucky became so immersed that he jumped when a sharp knock sounded at his door. It was probably Clara.

Bucky hadn't forgotten about the person following her. In fact, he'd been keeping an eye out just in case somebody was following him. So far, all was good. There wasn't one suspicious person that he could noteーit was difficult to keep track once he was on busy streets, however.

Bucky left the book open but gathered up the scattered papers. Clara would definitely be curious if she so much as got a glimpse of them.

"James, are you home?" She called, fear edging in her voice.

Instead of verbally responding, Bucky rushed to the door and opened it slightly.

Relief flitted across her features. "Oh okay, good. I wanted to ask you if you felt like going out for supper tonight."

"Do you still think that man is following you?" Bucky asked her.

"Yeah, I saw him today. He was at the gym and I said hi, but he didn't really say anything to me. Then I saw him again on my walk home, why?"

Bucky relaxed his grip on the door slightly. "I was worried. It's not exactly comforting that my jogging partner is being stalked," he joked.

Clara positively beamed at the attempt for humour. "Imagine how I feel," she laughed.

Oh, Bucky could imagine alright. In fact, he was probably more worried than she was. Somebody was after him and he wanted to know who it wasーit was too coincidental that the man had started following Clara around the same time Bucky had started to talk to her. Though, oddly enough, Bucky didn't see anyone following him throughout the day. Or maybe they were better at staying hidden.

But he had yet to answer her invitation.

"And yes, we can go for dinner. Just let me grab my jacket," Bucky told her, opening the door further and retreating into the apartment to search for the jacket that had been tossed somewhere. He silently thanked himself tidying up the place so that it looked like the home of somebody leading a somewhat regular life. (Even if the encyclopedia and multiple papers were scattered about on the counter).

"Doing a bit of research?" Clara asked curiously, peeking into the apartment a bit.

Bucky shrugged. "Just looking up some stuff I didn't know."

"And you couldn't do that with the Internet?"

"I don't have a phone."

"What?! How do you live? Do you keep in touch with your family through mail or something?" She asked incredulously.

Those were tough questions that didn't have an easy answer, considering Bucky had no idea what had become of his family. He wished that he could see his mother and sister one last timeーat least to say goodbye. He didn't remember a ton about them, but whenever he thought about them, it brought about a sense of comfort and happiness.

Then, without warning, another memory came back.

Steve's mom was laughing as Steve gave the leftovers to Buckywho apparently had the appetite of a horse. Bucky thanked her by name and- oh god. Her name was Sarah. Sarah with her head on the table in a pool of blood. Shouting and screaming and crying and-

"James!" Clara yelled, stepping into the apartment.

Bucky realized he had backed up against the wall. He knew well enough they weren't the same Sarah's, but it was still a terrifying sensation.

"Hey, you okay? You sure you're getting enough sleep? Maybe if your insomnia is really bad you should see a-"

"I'm fine," Bucky mumbled, cutting her off.

Clara stepped a bit closer. "I don't mean to get into your personal life, but you don't really seem okay. You wouldn't respond to me for a minute and it really started to freak me out."

"I skipped breakfast and lunch today, I just think I need something to eat," Bucky lied. In fact, he felt sick to the stomach. But he needed a distraction from the thoughts threatening to take over his mind. Clara was the perfect opportunity to get away from all of those.

"Okay, you good now?"

Bucky nodded.

"Then let's get going. I was thinking that we should go to the restaurant a few blocks down. I went there once and they make some amazing pizza," Clara suggested.

"Yeah, let's go there," he complied. He'd never been to any of the restaurants or cafés around, so he was glad that Clara suggested something, otherwise, he'd be clueless as to what to recommend.

So Bucky followed Clara down the stairs, wondering what exactly to talk about. He used to be great at making conversation, and probably still would be if he had more to talk about. But he didn't exactly have much of a personal life anymore, and the life he had before wouldn't be relevant. Sometimes Bucky wished he could talk to Steve, but he knew that coming out of hiding would only cause problems. Hydra or somebody would come for him.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier, I'm just so used to people having phones I guess," Clara said.

Did she think he was actually upset about that? Obviously, she couldn't know what he was truly upset about, but getting offended by her comment was beyond stupid.

"No, it's okay. I just remembered something I didn't want to remember," he told her, looking down at the ground.

"Oh. Well anyways, I was thinking about what to do with the creepy guy that's following me and I think that he'll back off if he sees you. You're kinda intimidating. I'd try and get rid of him myself, but I don't exactly have the scariest face,"

"Why haven't you gone to the police?" Bucky asked. A good question, because most girls would have gone to the police long ago. Hell, Bucky was starting to think she was fearless what with the stalker and bluntness. She didn't seem to be fazed by anythingーin fact, when she had first told him that she thought somebody was following her, she didn't even seem all that broken up about it.

"The police are useless. Haven't you heard how terribly they treat these kind of issues? They just don't seem to care," Clara said nonchalantly, waving her hand in dismissal.

"So you're just expecting him to go away?"

"No. But if he comes anywhere near me, he'll get a taste of my new martial arts skills. Besides, he's a pretty skinny guy."

She really didn't know who was watching her. Maybe that was a good thing, as Bucky didn't think they would ever go up to her. Maybe he should keep an eye out for the guy she was talking about.

"What does he look like?"

"He has ginger hair, a pale complexion, always wears black and he's pretty damn skinny, it seriously looks like someone stretched him out or something."

That didn't sound familiar to Bucky, but he'd make sure to see if he could spot the man she described. With any luck, he'd find the man and figure out who he was. The only problem was what to do with the man when he was confronted. Bucky couldn't just kill him, that would cause a scene and an investigation. No matter what HYDRA believed about Bucky being the world's most deadly assassin, Bucky didn't feel that way about himself. He didn't want to kill anyone else if he could help itーthe nightmares and memories were already enough.

"Hey James, you keep spacing out. You sure you're fine?"

Bucky focused on his gloved hand that was gliding along the railing. "Yeah, it's just been a rough couple of days."

"You want to talk about it?" Clara asked.

Bucky shook his head. "Nah, it's a bit personal."

"Okay, I've had a bad day too. The creepy guy, I think I'll call him tree man. Anyways, he was at the gym and that was really weird. Then one of my students accidentally knocked me over and I hit my knee really hard so that sucked."

Well, at least Clara kept talking, even if he didn't say much. Didn't she have other people to talk to or something? Why him? Not that he minded; he was starting to really like her, despite how eccentric she was. It was actually pretty refreshing.

Reaching the bottom of the stairwell, Bucky put his cap back on and made sure his hand was coveredーsubtly of course.

And then they began to walk to the restaurant.


Clara found it nice to be around James. She kinda ran her mouth a lot, but it was nice not to hold back on anything. She was still herself around othersーthe same personality she retained from back homeーbut she found that she didn't have much energy or care to talk to some people. Especially since she was away from anybody she had ever cared about back home. She missed her best friend, her parents, her older brother and really, she missed everyone. Hell, she even missed her old job as a coder.

Coding and boxing were two very different things, but she'd always wanted to try something of the like and the perfect opportunity to try it came up when she moved to Bucharest.

At least the restaurant had some good food and was warm. She'd told James that he should order pizza because the last time she had it, it was delicious. She didn't know how good the rest of the food was, considering the condition the place was in. There were cracks up and down the walls and what seemed like millions of chips in the wooden tables.

The pizza was good, though.

"So are you originally from here, or did you come from another country?" Clara asked him.

"I'm from America," he answered.

America? He was a long way from home. How in the world did he end up in their shitty apartment complex anyways? From what Clara knew about Americaーwhich was a considerable amount considering how much America dominated in the mediaーmost Americans only knew one language, sometimes two. She hadn't met many Americans in her lifetime, and most of the ones she had met were tourists.

"Really, where from? You don't even sound like you have an accent," Clara remarked in surprise, then took a bite of her pizza.

"I'm from New York," James told her, then added on; "My grandparents were from Romania so they taught me some of it when I was growing up. Where are you from? You're not Romanian, not with your accent."

"I'm from Hungary," she answered, not elaborating. He didn't need to know what city, and she couldn't exactly lieーthat, and she was more interested to know about him. "So why'd you move here? It's not like there are lots of reasons to."

James shrugged. "Thought I would see what it's like in Romania. My grandparents talked about it all the time."

If Clara's grandparents had done the same, she still would've stayed in Hungary. She really missed her home, but hey, she wasn't James. It was his life to do with what he wanted. It was just so odd he moved to Bucharest by himself.

"So what do you do for a living? As you already know, I teach boxing."

"Construction work. It's nothing special," he answered blandly.

"Isn't that-" Clara stopped talking when the bell for the restaurant rang.

The guy with the ginger hair walked in, or as she so elegantly put it, tree man walked in. Did he not know when to stop? Maybe this time, he'd see her with James and then he'd leave her alone for good because with whatever he wanted from her, it wasn't going to happen. She was too hyper-aware of herself and the environment around her.

"James, that's him," Clara leaned across the table to tell him, nudging her head in the direction of the table he sat down at. "Should I go say hi? I introduced myself at the gym earlier. Maybe he'll stop being creepy."

"I'll go with you," James said. Clara wasn't expecting that, but she certainly wasn't bothered by it.

And yeah, going up to him was weird, but him following her was just straight up creepy, so he deserved it.

"Hi there, we met at the gym earlier and I didn't catch your name," Clara said, causing him to look up from his menu. He smiled at her before his eyes widened slightly when he noticed James. She knew she made the right decision by asking James to go with her.

The creepy guy didn't stand a chance now. Only one question remained, would he back off?


AN: Man, another longer chapter. I normally write 2000 words, but lately, I've been writing 3000 and it's great.

Thanks so much to artemis7448 and harleyquinn87 for reviewing last chapter, It means a lot to me and brings a smile to my face! : )