A month had gone by since the afternoon you'd brought Bucky to face the whole team. The outcome of the meeting had gone differently from what you'd expected—which was a full-on fight before the Q & A. Once the elevator doors had opened, you and Bucky made way towards the big living room where everyone—conveniently—had decided to chill and chat. Unsurprisingly, Steve was the first one to notice Bucky and you. The chatter that had been going on, stopped the minute Steve quieted down and just seemed to have frozen on the spot he had been sitting on. Of course, Nat had asked him if he was alright, Tony threw in a joke to see if it would snap the Captain out of his daze, but it only made Steve snap out of his shock long enough for him to slowly stand up.
"Steve, what's wrong?" Nat sounded a bit worried now, so finally, she decided to look where he seemed to be staring at. Her eyes landed on you and then on the man next to you; she jolted from her spot and in less than a second her gun was out.
"Nat, no!" Without a second thought, you stood in front of him, trying to cover him—which wasn't protecting the other foot of his height. Of course, Nat's panic made everyone in the room settle in a defensive stance at the sight of the man with the metal arm. Without moving from your spot, you looked up at Bucky and the poor man looked a tad worried. You thought it was because he hadn't had the warmest of welcomes, but he was more worried that he might have to hurt someone if they attacked. Nevertheless, you grabbed one of his hands and gave it a nice squeeze, hoping that it would let him know that you would protect him at all costs. He relaxed and had to fight off the bashful smile that wanted to come out.
"Y/n, would you like to explain why the Manchurian Candidate is standing behind you?" said a dumbfounded Tony who was standing next to the still gaping Captain America.
"He's here because he kind of turned himself in," you said as you gave a bit of a shy smile.
"He turned himself in?" the incredulous voice of Sam almost made you rolled your eyes. "Yes, we talked. He-" you stopped. What could you possibly say to calm them down? You knew that having one chat with a brainwashed ex-assassin wasn't going to cut it, but again, it had only taken you one chat to believe him wholeheartedly.
"He what, Y/n? Don't tell me you honestly trust him?" Clint sounded a bit angry and that alone made you angry.
"I do, I trust him," you said angrily as he stared at the man behind you. "I know him, and he knows me."
That made everyone in the room flinch. You hadn't addressed the elephant in the room since that eventful morning, everyone seemed to not care but their reaction was enough to project the obvious inability to forget the fact that, indeed, no one apart from Bucky, knew you.
"Do you really believe that he's here for a good reason and not because he wants to kill us all?" said Bruce as he looked at you in the eyes. His voice always soft to the ears, it was enough to help you calm down from your initial anger. "Yes, Bruce. He's here because he wants me, us, to help him recover."
Silence filled the room for a couple of minutes before Steve took cautious steps towards where you and Bucky stood. One glance at you, and you knew what Steve wanted. So, with one last comforting squeeze to Bucky's hand, you stepped out of the way and allowed the blonde super soldier to embrace the man that had known him before the serum that now runs through his veins. Steve held onto Bucky, and almost hesitantly, the brunette hugged back before truly embracing his loyal best friend.
From that moment on, life in the tower changed for the benefit of everyone. Having Bucky around helped everyone to be occupied with individual tasks to help with his treatment and training. It had been hard to tell Fury how things had gone down with Bucky and stuff; Fury had almost shot Bucky once he saw him approaching the headquarters. The story was that you had decided to look at the room he had stayed before you and Natasha had been ordered to bring him in, and that having nothing to lose, you decided to look around the other abandoned buildings. You found him when he had just come back from getting some food for himself. Fury didn't look convinced, but you had managed to get him in, so he took advantage of that. Time will reveal the truth, he'd thought. After all, it happened with you.
Bucky had to undergo many tests to see the damage to his brain, to his body, and to his psychological health as the main possible source of his triggering. It wasn't easy, at the beginning he looked terrified when he had been led to a white room with a Doctor by himself. He had asked you to accompany him, but the Doctor needed him alone. So, as much as your heart ached for him, the only way to make him feel secure was that you had waited outside the whole time. Once the results on his condition had been given to Fury, Bucky had been told that his programming had to deal with more than constant brainwashing, but there was nothing they could do if they didn't know what was what triggering his programing. Besides that part of sour news, he'd been clear with everything else, so he was allowed to start training alongside you and the rest of the agents.
Not soon after, Fury had told Tony to keep Bucky in the tower. He had reluctantly agreed, but almost shut it down again once Fury had told him that Bucky's room must be near yours in case he goes rouge. At those news, you had had a hard time keeping down the massive blush that overcame your face. You knew Bucky and you acted as if the other couldn't function without the other, but it was mostly because you had promise him that you would help him transition.
After the first stages of Bucky's transition, the team had fallen at ease with Bucky. You made sure of that, and whenever the air tensed by the mention of anything that could potentially make the Winter Soldier emerge, you were the first one to make sure Bucky was alright. But you never suffocated him with your fears of his relapse, you trusted him enough to tell you if he felt like slipping into those stages. The rest of the group tried to be comfortable, and they were doing great; until they weren't. It did not matter how good his progress seemed to be going, because whenever Bucky would have a nightmare or an anxiety attack, they recoiled back to their defensive tactics.
His nightmares were as regular as anyone can anticipate from a person with PTSD, so Fury had made Tony set up a sleep tracker in Bucky's room. They had told you; they have to as you told Fury that everything involving Bucky must go through you before any final decision. The downside was that you couldn't tell Bucky some things for the benefit of his recovery. And the sleep tracker in his room was one of those things. You knew that if he was aware of them, he would not sleep at ease. If anything, it would only add to his stress. But whenever he had nightmares, you would receive an alert on your phone—thanks to Tony—that way you could be aware of his distress.
Those nights were always something that helped you understand the man better. The first night you barged into his room because he had woken up with a shout of you name, waking most of the team with a jolt. While your mind didn't understand the situation, once inside his room, your instincts took over. Not sooner you saw him upright, breathing heavily, sweating, and at the verge of a panic attack, you were next to him clutching him. And as he tried to regain composure, your mouth open before you could stop yourself.
"Помни, я всегда рядом," you stopped rocking with him as soon as those words came out, 'remember, I'm always next to you'. His body didn't tense, but he stopped making any type of noise, even his soft sniffles had ceased.
After a minute of quietness in the room, Bucky's raspy voice broke the silence softly, "Я в порядке."
And that was the reassurance you needed to know he was truly okay. Since that night, the conversations, and the soothing words were all in Russian. It was the only times when the language was used. In other settings it was English. And that's not changed since the very first day.
It was a Saturday morning, and like every Saturday you were working out. The only difference was that Steve had joined you. It was normal for the blonde super soldier to join in every other session. The two of you had gotten closer ever since the day Bucky had walked through the elevator doors. He never fails to thank you for bringing his best friend back. He's always finding ways to somehow show his appreciation, no matter if you insist that it's okay and that he doesn't have to always be so willing to do any favor you may ask.
Steve had proposed for a harder session, meaning he wanted for you to not hold back on your punches. And you, like the good friend you are, obliged. Within the hour of hardcore training, you had managed to win one round while Steve came out victorious for the other nine.
By the end of it, you were heaving on the floor, practically in a pool of your own sweat. Steve was just lying down as he laughed at your soft curses. With shaky legs, you got up and grabbed your towel to try and dry off the sweat on your forehead when the doors opened breaking the tranquil ambience.
"Hey you two!" Bucky greeted as his eyes landed on you and then on Steve. A small grin on his face as he approached Steve who still lied down on the mat.
"Hey Buck!"
"Hi!" you gave him a tired smile while Steve said his greeting with almost no hint of exhaustion.
At the sound of your tired voice, Bucky raised an eyebrow as he set his stuff down near yours and Steve's. Then he turned to look at Steve and you, "Just finished training?"
"Yeah, we're about to leave. I promised Y/n that I would take her out for breakfast if she beat me at least once. Gotta keep my promises," Steve said with a smile at you as he grabbed his bag and water bottle.
"You better because I'm starving," you replied with the same smile as you got ready to leave. You knew Steve was now trying to keep you from sulking about Natasha and Clint as they were the ones who would normally be your breakfast buddies before everything happened. He had tried to be sneaky about it the first couple of times, but you caught up fast enough to understand. You hadn't mention it to him, but you were grateful for it.
"Oh," Bucky raised an eyebrow before he started to make way towards the weight equipment. He set his water bottle down as he spoke, "Well, I'll see you guys later."
"See ya later, Buck." Steve and you replied. Steve lead the way out as you peered back to look at the brunette. And with a single thought in your head, you walked out of there with Steve.
"So how are things with you and Bucky?"
After taking a needed shower, Steve had taken you to his favorite diner. A change of scenery he'd said. It was only fair as he normally went to the one you liked. The diner was small but it felt comforting. The food was good, and even though you had just come from working out, no one could stop you from ordering a side of French fries. You regret nothing.
"Mhm? What do you mean?" You felt a little weird at the question. You shouldn't, but the fact that he had asked after Bucky had acted weird back the training room, it made you almost flinch at the implications.
"Oh, come on, Y/n. The 'I'll see you guys later' from Bucky was off. It's like you forget I know how he gets when he is jealous, and that was his I'll-pretend-and-I'm-cool-with-what-just-happened-while-I-sulk-alone-in-my-misery voice," Steve was grinning like he had caught you off guard and was now rejoicing in the results.
You were staring at him with wide eyes. And Steve took that as a sign that he was right in guessing that he'd caught you off guard. "Doll, none of us is blind. The two of you are always together, whispering to each other, and looking at each other with gleaming eyes. If I, the oblivious of us all, can see it, we all can."
"Look, It's not like that. We are not dating or anything," you said as blush dusted your cheeks. "We are just close because, I mean, we have some share experiences. We kind of just trust each other in this weird, comforting way. But that's it! We are friends."
Steve huffed a laugh and was about to say something when his phone started ringing in his pocket. Grabbing and looking at the caller, he glanced at you before he accepted the call.
"Rogers... She's here... Okay…. Yes…. Got it. We'll be there."
As you looked at him putting his phone down and grabbing his wallet, you asked, "who was that?"
"Fury. Last minute mission. Sam, Wanda, Vision, Bucky, you, and me." He put the money down next to his unfished coffee as he got up. "Let's go."
"And here I thought it was going to be a quiet day for me."
