Chapter Seventeen

Alessia returned to her floor by herself. Natasha stayed behind to talk to Wanda about interrogations, so Alessia made the trip back to floor fifty-one by herself.

The elevator dinged open and Alessia stepped off and started heading for her room. She didn't end up making it that far, however, because on the way there she passed the kitchen, and the sound of something rustling in there caught her attention and she popped her head in.

Bucky glanced up at her from the table where he was eating dry breakfast cereal from the box. The rustling Alessia had heard evidently being the bag the cereal was in. Bucky gave her an icy look but said nothing. Alessia stood in the entrance of the doorway for a moment, debating her next move, before she finally said:

"Are you mad at me?"

Bucky looked at her again, and reached his hand back into the cereal bag, filling the air with the noisy crinkle of plastic.

"I'm not mad at you." He said after a moment. "I just… You kinda acted…" He inhaled heavily and didn't look in Alessia's direction, just staring at the handful of colorful cereal he had yet to eat. "Irresponsible." He said at last, not without some contempt.

"Oh, I acted irresponsible," Alessia repeated back to him. "It was irresponsible to stop them from killing dozens of people looking for me, was it?"

"Well, you didn't have to go and try to sacrifice yourself." He growled, meeting her eyes and closing his hand around the cereal, breaking the pieces into dust.

"That was a stupid thing to do. The kind of bullshit that Steve is always pulling on me. You can't just go around-" His voice was getting louder and more passionate "Putting your own life on the line like no one fucking cares about you. You have friends, you have family, you have a life-"

"Oh what the fuck do you know?" Alessia snapped, her temper ready to break from the stress of the day. "You don't know anything about my fucking life." She had taken a few more paces into the kitchen and was holding the back of one of the kitchen chairs with both her hands. "It's not like I had something great going for me. I only have a few friends, and none of them even know who I am- what I am. My life isn't some idyllic fucking fantasy, I don't even know what I'm doing with my life and I-"

"No, fuck that." Bucky said, standing up from the table, the handful of fruity cereal dust falling to the floor. "You do so have friends who know what you are. Don't fucking act like you're too cool for everyone. Clint fucking cares about you. Sam and I- we care about you, we're your friends, and we don't want to hear about you trying to fucking kill yourself because you can't be bothered to spend five minutes coming up with a better plan than that-"

"No, No, hold the fuck on." Alessia interrupted angrily. "What the fuck do you mean, 'you're my friend'? You barely even fucking know me. No shut up," She snapped preemptively when Bucky opened his mouth to object. "What's my last name? Where do I work? How old am I? You don't fucking know shit about me except that I'm a fucking monster and - no I said shut the fuck up- that's fucking all you know about me."

"Oh, fuck off, what do you mean, just because I didn't bother to make bland goddamn small talk with you?" Bucky asked angrily. He stood up, knocking the cereal box over in the act. "We slept in the same fucking tent for four nights for fucks sake I know what you're like."

Alessia didn't have a retort for this. Instead they just stared daggers at each other from just outside of an arms length away from one another. Alessia crossed her arms and inhaled deeply. She stared at the cereal crumbs on the floor, and tried to cool off.

"My last name is Haddock, I'll be twenty-one in a few weeks, and I work as a figure skating instructor at my local ice rink."

"You-you're only twenty?" He asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah." She said, and then, because she was still pissed off, and because she wanted to show Bucky that she wasn't a complete goddamn idiot, she said. "Your last name is Barnes, and you're like, a fucking hundred."

Bucky's face completely changed, his mouth, which had been set in a straight line, fell open, and his skin went pale.

"Who the fuck told you that." He said. It was a whisper, but somehow more terrifying than his yelling voice. When Alessia didn't answer he said again, more intensely, "Who fucking told you that? Was it Sam?"

"Nobody had to tell me anything, James. I can figure things out for my own fucking self." She turned around to leave, but Bucky grabbed her arm to stop her. She reflexively used the counter Clint had shown her, but because Bucky was using his metal arm, she only ended up hurting the side of her hand.

"LET GO OF ME!" Alessia shouted angrily, much louder than they'd been arguing before. Bucky loosened his grip on her arm after sidestepping around her, blocking her exit. "What else do you know?" He said urgently. "What else do you know about me?"

"I don't fucking know anything!" Alessia said desperately, still struggling from his grasp. She heated herself up, but it was no use, his metal hand was not affected.

"All I know is you must have been shady as shit or you wouldn't have the government looking for you."

Bucky's eyes were fixed on hers, hard and searching. She stared back, half glaring, half pleading. She realized too late that if she had wanted him to tell her what his backstory was, she'd gone about in entirely the wrong way. He'd said they were friends, and she'd argued with him. Why the fuck had she done that? Couldn't she use friends right now, more than ever? She'd let every negative emotion that she'd stuffed deep down inside during the course of the day build up and pour out onto Bucky. Bucky who was only mad because she'd endangered herself, Bucky who said he was her friend even though he'd never bothered to ask her basic questions about herself. Maybe, she realized suddenly, it was because he knew that asking her those things would invite her to question him about his own past. A past he was so evidently keen on hiding.

"What's going on?" Sam asked from the doorway. Bucky turned around to face him, letting Alessia's arm go as he did.

"Nothing." Bucky said in a low growl, and he strode huffily out of the room and past Sam into the hallway. Sam watched him go and then turned back to Alessia, eyebrow cocked and questioning look on his face.

"It was nothing." Alessia said, hand grazing her upper arm where Bucky had grasped her. She'd have bruises in the shape of his fingers. But I can just heal myself. Alessia remembered. She bit her lip.

"So everything's cool?" Sam asked, walking in and picking up the fallen over cereal box, rolling down the bag inside it and putting it in one of the cabinets.

"Everything's fucking peachy," Alessia said, with no real energy behind her words. "Life couldn't be better. Goodnight."

Clint wasn't exaggerating when he'd said that it would be the most intense training that Alessia had ever been through. Her training began the very next day, and was overseen by Clint, Thor, Natasha, and Reemanaskel.

"Here," Reemanaskel said, the moment Alessia had entered the gym. It was a water bottle. Ordinary clear plastic. The liquid inside was dark green.

"What is it?"

"Vitamins." He told her. "Your diet on Midguard has been severely lacking, so I went home and got some supplements for you."

It tasted awful. Metallic, bitter, and vinegary, but Reemanaskel insisted Alessia drink an entire water bottle full over the course of every day. It made her shudder every time she took a gulp. She'd never tasted anything worse before.

The training consisted of sparing in turns with her four instructors, interchanged with target practice, using a variety of different weapons. In the afternoon she spent three hours with Reemanaskel learning the advanced methods of manipulating her powers. The breaks between were short, if they could even be called breaks. She woke up at six thirty, drank the protein smoothy Natasha and Clint swore by, trained until lunch, which was her only substantial break throughout the day. Training continued until nine o'clock at night, when she ate dinner, and then fell asleep almost immediately.

After three days Alessia started to wonder if she would even survive the month.

In addition to the vitamins Reemanaskel gave her, she was eating a traditional Muspelian warrior diet for lunch and dinner. The dinner portions were huge, and at first she thought it would be a struggle to get them down, but as the days went on, she started to look forward to the heaping plate of boiled vegetables and meat. It had a musky, earthy taste, and the smell of it was enough to make non-muspelian's wrinkle their nose in disgust, but it tasted delicious to Alessia. The meal was washed down with a mug of Muspelian mead.

Clint and Natasha had been reluctant to include alcohol at first, not impressed by Reemanaskel and Thor's combined claims that drinking Muspelian mead makes a tougher warrior. They wanted her in the best health of her life for the fight and both seemed doubtful drinking mead every night was the best way to go about it.

Alessia had finally been the one to put her foot down when, after a night sans mead, she had fallen asleep to a dream where she was killed by Surmayath over and over again, in increasingly horrific ways. Maybe the reason warriors who drank the mead were so tough was because it chased away nightmares. Either way, when she drank it she never remembered her dreams.

The day after Alessia arrived at Stark Tower, Natasha went to floor fifty-eight and knocked on Wanda's door.

"I'm ready." Wanda pulled the door open, without otherwise greeting Natasha. Natasha nodded and turned to lead the way to the elevator.

Once they were both inside and the elevator was dropping to floor sub-level ten, Natasha said: "Just let me do the talking. I've questioned Loki before. Thor has talked to him since he's arrived, and he said that Loki doesn't seem to know about you. Your abilities. Read his thoughts, and I want you to watch what I do. You never know, interrogation strategies could still be helpful for you, even with your powers."

The elevator dinged and the two stepped out into a long dark hallway, with four guards posted at the door at the end. They walked down the hall in silence, Wanda's combat boots making a soft thump-thump, Natasha's low heeled ankle boots making a clomp-clomp. When they arrived at the door, Natasha hesitated for a moment, then turned to Wanda and said: "If he tries to ask you something, tries to engage with you in any way, I want you to ignore him, alright? Even if he tries to upset you."

Wanda nodded once, and Natasha turned the door handle and opened the door.

Loki was sitting with his back to the door, hunched over a folding table strewn with papers. There was a thick glass wall separating his half of the room from the half of the room that Wanda and Natasha had walked in from.

When the women walked in, Loki's form shifted slightly, perking up at the sound of their footsteps, but he didn't turn around to acknowledge them.

"Morning," Natasha said, cheerfully. Loki turned around finally, lifting himself from the plastic chair he had been sitting in.

"Romanoff," He said. He was surprised and didn't care to hide it. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" he smiled charmingly and his eyes slipped over to Wanda. "And who is this?"

"I wanted to see how your research is going." Natasha said, ignoring his second question.

"Fine," He said, eyes lingering on Wanda an extra moment. Wanda shuddered inwardly. Loki had a slippery, sleazy manner that was far too polite and charming, without being at all genuine. No wonder Alessia had been creeped out by him, she thought.

"You think you have what you need to sway the case?" Natasha asked.

Loki was researching Muspelian law in order to argue the case for Alessia being able to choose the weapon. The folding table he had in front of him was laden with scrolls, books, stone tablets, and odd papers, all of varying ages. Some of the scrolls were crisp and new. A few of the stone tablets were so old and worn that the ancient Muspelian lettering was barely visible on the surface. These were the details Wanda gleaned from the timid dip she took into Loki's mind.

The moment she had entered his thoughts, however, Loki's body seemed to stiffen, and he turned his piercing gaze back on Wanda. Almost as if he could tell she was reading his thoughts. Or maybe she was just imagining it, but it made her so nervous that she withdrew herself from his mind at once. A moment later, when she gathered her courage and probed his thoughts yet again, she relaxed, certain that the timing of his gaze was completely coincidental.

"I think it's great that you're doing this to help Alessia." Natasha went on, seeming casual, except that nothing about chatting with Loki thought five-inch thick glass was casual. "Since you two aren't even friends or anything."

Loki smiled, a bit smugly, but didn't say anything. This was why Wanda was here. Loki was thinking: What is Romanoff doing, asking me about the research, and about Alessia? What is she trying to get out of me? Perhaps she thinks she can trick me into revealing my plan. I shan't fall for that again. Strange she brought the brunette, though.

Natasha glanced at Wanda, who gave the smallest of movements to shake her head. Natasha pursed her lips and went on.

"Or maybe you two are friends. What, did you guys bond over being adopted alien royalty?"

Loki cocked his head. He didn't say anything, but he thought: Did she come up here just to make pointless small talk, or- Here Loki's facial expression changed slightly, as if excited by a new idea. -Maybe Alessia asked her to see if I.. that is, if my plan has worked, and she's falling in love with me, it's perhaps natural that she would ask her friend to see if I feel the same way. A subtle change happened in Loki. It wasn't part of his conscious thought stream. He didn't put a label to it, but Wanda, an observer, was able to see it. At the turn of his thoughts, his mood shifted completely. He wasn't sulking, or even plotting. He was giddy. Excited. Had to fight to keep his face straight a moment later when he said: "What have you come to talk to me about, Romanoff?"

"Just making sure you're still working hard. We're all counting on you, you know."

Loki gave the two women his slippery, charming smile, and Wanda found herself twisting the ring around her forefinger with her thumb. She only noticed it because Loki noticed, and was pleased with her obvious nervousness.

"You von't hurt her, vill you?"

Even though Natasha had told her not to speak, Wanda knew exactly what she was doing.

"Hurt who?" Loki asked, turning his entire focus onto Wanda now.

"Alessia. You von't hurt her vill you? Because she's counting on you. She trusts you."

Loki's thoughts after that gave Wanda everything she needed.

The fourth morning of her training and Alessia woke up feeling sore and exhausted. The non-stop sparring combined with the extremely draining nature of Reemanaskel's training made her feel limp and sluggish from the time she woke up until she fell asleep at night. It wasn't that any of her trainers were mean. Natasha was strict, and Thor didn't pull punches, but they all meant well. It was that she was tired, and most mornings she didn't feel like she could drag herself the distance from the bed to the dresser, let alone draw a bowstring or fight hand-to-hand.

She lifted herself from the bed at last, every muscle in her body screaming in resistance. She shuffled to the pile of clothes heaped onto one of the armchairs in the corner. She lifted a few garments up, giving them a quick sniff test and before settling on the cleanest combination of clothes she could manage at the moment. A thin pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt. She threw on her sneakers and twisted her hair into a bun without bothering to untangle it first. She looked like shit, and she knew it.

She dragged herself out into the hallway and started heading to the elevator, looking forward to the minute and a half ride down to the eighth floor, because it would be the only part of her day that she wasn't expected to be on her feet and active until lunch.

Shuffling along groggily, she was surprised to hear a strange whimpering sound. For a second she wondered if she had imagined it, and brushed it off. But the sound came again, followed by the sound of a door opening, and Alessia turned around to see Bucky stepping out of his room with Buttercup on a leash.

Bucky's room was immediately adjacent to Alessia's, but because she'd been spending most of her time on the eighth floor training, she hadn't actually seen him since their fight.

"Oh." Bucky hesitated when he saw Alessia. "Hey." He stood awkwardly in the door frame while Buttercup yipped excitedly and ran over to Alessia.

"Hey sweetie." Alessia cooed, dropping to her knees to pet Buttercup. The dog hopped and barked excitedly, snapping her jaw playfully at Alessia's fingers.

"Hey, um, I'm sorry." Bucky said. Alessia looked up, surprised, Buttercup still yapping and darting on and off Alessia's lap, oblivious to their conversation.

"Sorry?" Alessia asked, somewhat confused.

"The other day. When we- when I yelled at you. And … your arm."

Alessia put her hand to the spot Bucky had bruised. She'd found herself making excuses again and again every time she intended to heal it with a lighter. She was still mad at herself for the things she had said, and somehow it seemed right to keep the bruise as a painful reminder. The tee shirt she'd put on this morning was short sleeved and displayed the bruise in all it's purple and yellow glory. Bucky gave it a guilty look, and Alessia regretted wearing something where it was visible. Bucky didn't know about her healing abilities, and it was clear that he felt awful about having hurt her.

"Don't worry about it." Alessia said, heaving herself up and ignoring the screaming pain in her legs as she did so. "You were right anyway. I acted like an idiot."

"Well- no, I think that was harsh." He said. He tugged at Buttercups leash, reeling the over-excited puppy back in. "Anyway, I just um. I wanted to apologize."

"Thanks." Alessia said, brushing some blonde fur from her sweatpants. "Um, you heading down?" She gestured to the elevator. Bucky nodded. Alessia pressed the down arrow button on the wall.

Despite feeling dead tired and not at all in the mood for conversation, Alessia wanted to make sure Bucky knew she wasn't mad at him.

"You taking her for a walk?" Alessia said, trying to force herself to sound interested and awake.

"Yeah, I want to get her leash trained." Bucky replied.

The elevator arrived and they both stepped on. The past few days, Alessia had ridden in the elevator sitting on the ground, with her legs stretched out in front of her, but she didn't want Bucky to think she was lazy, so she just leaned against the wall as they plummeted down.

"So, what's the training like?"

"Its uh… It's rough. Especially learning Breneshtad. The technique for controlling my powers. It's really… I'm just tired, you know?"

Bucky nodded knowingly.

The elevator doors opened on the training floor, and Alessia reluctantly stepped forward.

"Um. I guess I'll see you around, then.." She said.

Bucky smiled warmly, and nodded, but didn't say anything as the doors closed.

Everyone was so preoccupied with Alessia's training, Loki's plotting, and the imminent battle that it seemed they had forgotten all about Bucky. That was just fine by him. Steve made sure to check in with Bucky at least once every day, but he was also preoccupied. Loki claimed that the only thing stopping the Muspelian army from launching an attack on earth was the Malngang contract Alessia had enacted. This meant that Tony and Steve were spending a lot of time working out a strategy in case Alessia lost.

Even though Bucky was staying on the same floor as Alessia, Sam, and Scott, he rarely saw any of them. Instead he found himself left to his own devices for the greater part of the day, and chose to spend his time training Buttercup.

He had been looking up tips on dog training on the laptop Steve had gotten for him, and found out that people actually train dogs for PTSD. After reading several articles on it, he found out about a book that taught you how to do it yourself. He decided to get it, but wasn't sure how to go about it.

There was a website that said it would deliver it if he ordered it, but Bucky didn't have a credit card or a account, so that wouldn't work. It would also be delivered to Stark tower, and Bucky didn't like the idea of someone else seeing that he ordered a book about PTSD. No, online ordering would not work. Bucky would have to buy it in person if he was going to train Buttercup.

Friday morning he got up and put on his shoes. He had found five bookstores in walking distance to Stark tower. Surely one of them would have the book he wanted.

He put Buttercup on her leash and stuck his wallet in his back pocket. It was early, dawn was still lighting up the skyline outside his windows. Bucky always got up early, had ever since he enlisted. It was a second nature to him now.

He stepped out into the hallway and was surprised by the sight of Alessia. It had been two days since they had last run into each other, and that had been because Bucky had timed his exit to get the chance to say sorry to her. He was normally out of bed after her.

She was wearing tight black pants and a tight blue shirt, along with sneakers. What girls wore to work out in. Yoga pants, that's what they were called. Bucky couldn't help his gaze from traveling down from Alessia's face. Of course they were meant for working out, but surely they didn't have to be so tight?

Bucky forced himself to look back at Alessia's face to greet her. That was when he got a look at her bloodshot eyes, dark circles, and absolutely frazzled appearance.

"Hey," she said listlessly.

"Morning. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes yes yes I'm fine." Alessia snapped irritably. "I'm just late is all. Overslept by accident. You going down?"

She had crossed to the elevator and pressed the down button for herself. She stood tapping her foot impatiently as the elevator was summoned.

"Yeah, I'm taking Buttercup for a walk. How's training going?"

Alessia took a swig from the water bottle she was carrying, wincing at the flavor of the green liquid she gulped down.

"You know what I found out yesterday? On Muspleheim the sun takes like, almost a thousand days to make a full rotation, so their years are like, three earth years long."

"Cool. How is training?"

"It's…" Alessia was stalling for time, and Bucky could tell. She opened up her water bottle again, but her hands were shaking. She didn't look in Bucky's direction and just stared at the elevator doors. They opened suddenly and Alessia made a dash to enter, but Bucky put an arm down stopping her, standing in front of her so that she had to look at him.

"Are. You. Oh. Kay."

Alessia looked up at Bucky helplessly. She made another desperate attempt to dart past him into the elevator, but Bucky stood his ground. At their feet, Buttercup looked curiously from one to the other. The elevator doors closed. Alessia broke down crying.

"I'm just so-so- tired." She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders heaving. Her hair, tied messily up in a bun, spilled out of the elastic that held it. Bucky gently took her water bottle from her, screwing the top back onto it so that it didn't spill. She was still crying. Hesitantly, Bucky put his hand on her shoulder. His flesh hand, because he didn't want to intimidate her. She responded by glancing up into his eyes.

Tears had made her eyes glassy and red. Her nose was pink and her cheeks wet. A look of exhaustion and despair crossed her features and Bucky didn't stop his urge to hug her. He pulled her small frame to him and wrapped both arms around her. He noted that she felt lukewarm. Not hot, which was unusual because half the time he had been able to feel heat radiating off of her just from sitting in the same car.

"When do you get a day off?" He asked gently, rubbing her back a little as her sobs started to subside. She shook her head into his chest. Her breathing was still coming out as irregular gasps. "Don't you have a day off? You've been training almost a week, haven't you?"

"Can't take breaks. Whole planet. Need me. Their Queen. Can't lose." She forced the words out between gasps.

Bucky squeezed her gently, but firmly, hoping it was reassuring. "What floor do you train on?"

"Ei-eight."

Bucky rubbed her back one more time and then gently broke away from her. "Take Buttercup to your room." He said, handing the leash to Alessia. Alessia sniffed and accepted the leash with a confused look on her face. "Why?"

Bucky pressed the down button beside the elevator again. "Go ahead. And drink a glass of water." He turned her gently by the shoulders to point toward her room.

"But why? What-"

The elevator arrived.

"You're getting the day off today." Bucky informed Alessia. He entered the elevator and pressed the button marked "eight." She turned around, as if to argue with him, but the doors were already shutting closed.

Alessia watched as Bucky was closed off by the sliding metal doors. Off to tell everyone that she was a failure. Alessia thought for a moment of running after him. She could call another elevator. She could run the last few flights of stairs so that she got there first. She'd show Reemanaskel that Queen Sinrutha was still ready and willing to train. She'd show Thor what a strong, resilient warrior she was. She'd prove to Clint and Natasha that she wasn't giving up just because she was a little tired.

But she wasn't just a little tired. She was exhausted to the very core of her bones. So she followed Bucky's instructions and went back to her room.

She kicked off her sneakers and yoga pants and put on the corduroy pants she'd gotten at goodwill when she was with Loki. Then she tugged on a flannel button-up shirt.

She sipped her vitamins. She shuddered and fell back onto her bed. Buttercup climbed in beside her. The puppy sniffed and licked at Alessia's face, no doubt enjoying the salt from Alessia's tears. Alessia tried to keep her eyes open, but they just kept slipping shut. Buttercup settled in beside Alessia and both quickly dozed off.

When the doors to the training room opened, Natasha looked up with a smile, expecting to see her pupil. She faltered for half a second at the sight of the winter soldier.

"Where's Ally?"

"She's not coming in today. You guys have been working her too hard. She needs a break."

"She gets a break tomorrow when the Malngang is negotiated. And why didn't she come here to tell me this herself?"

"You call negotiating a battle a break?" Bucky asked incredulously. He had stepped out of the elevator into the training room. Natasha was wearing the same sort of tight yoga clothes Alessia had been wearing, and had tied her red curls into a ponytail. She stood with her hands on her hips appraising Bucky.

"She doesn't have the luxury of taking weekends off." Natasha said cooly. "The fate of two planets depends on the outcome of this battle, she has to be ready."

"Well, she's not going to be ready if the pressure of saving two planets and training twelve hours day has her cracking up." Bucky retorted. No wonder Alessia was so stressed. Had everyone been drilling the importance of this fight in her? Bucky recalled the way she'd gasped about being Queen. The pressure was killing her.

"Where is she? Why didn't she come down this morning?" Natasha asked.

"She's having a nervous breakdown because you people are working her to death. She's taking the day off."

Bucky was getting pissed. He'd read the files. Romanoff was a former assassin, not unlike himself. She should know what it felt like to be pushed to the breaking point, at least if her training had anything in common with his. How could she subject someone else to that kind of physical and psychological torment?

Steve strode in, with Clint at his side, and the two caught sight of Bucky, poised against Natasha, and stopped, their conversation halted.

"Hey Bucky," Steve said uncertainly, looking anxiously at the two deadliest people he knew staring daggers at one another. "What's going on?"

"Where's Alessia?" Clint asked, glancing around the training room.

"You guys need to give her a day off." Bucky said firmly.

"Already? It's only been five days." Steve said, but quaked under the look Bucky shot him.

"I don't know what you guys have been putting her through, but she's earned the day off from it." Bucky said icily. "And you better not try and make her feel bad about it either, she was planning on coming down here to train even though she was having a meltdown, so if I hear anyone giving her shit, they're going to have to answer to me." He gave Natasha a meaningful look before turning around to storm into the elevator.

Alessia was awoken by the shuffling of another person in her room. She sat up at once, startled, and relaxed when she saw that it was only Bucky, untangling Buttercups leash, and clipping it back to her collar.

"How long was I asleep? Is it too late to go back and practice?"

"You're going to take a rest day, Alessia. I talked to Romanoff and Steve, they said it was fine."

Alessia rubbed her eyes and looked out the window. Dawn had crept over the city, but it was still early in the morning. A quick glance at her clock confirmed that her nap had barely lasted fifteen minutes.

Bucky had finally wrangled Buttercup and was striding across to the door when Alessia asked: "Where are you going?"

Bucky hesitated, hand on the doorknob, before he answered.

"I'm going to go shopping. For a book. And give Buttercup some exercise."

"Oh," Alessia said. Shoulders slumping. She knew she had no right to be disappointed, but she didn't want to be alone. Not knowing what tomorrow was.

"Why?" He asked, still standing by the door. "Did.. did you want to come with me?"

Alessia perked up at once, and nodded, trying to sound casual as she said. "Yeah, I've been really excited to see what the city is like and I haven't gotten the chance yet."

"You mean you've been in New York for almost a week, and you haven't even left Stark Tower?" Bucky asked incredulously, dropping his hand from the doorknob to give Alessia his full attention. Alessia nodded, and Bucky shook his head in mock disappointment, a poorly repressed grin twisting at his lips. "Well, I don't think we have a choice then. Go ahead and get ready, we have to get bagels."

First, she and Bucky got bagels, slathered with cream cheese and with thick slices of bacon sandwiched between. Then they went to Barnes and Noble, where Alessia got an ice coffee, much to the barista's amusement, on such a chill October day. She sipped it happily while browsing the fantasy section. Bucky had disappeared for that stretch of the outing, and when he found her he was holding a bag with a book in it. Alessia felt his nervous energy, and decided not to ask what he got. Maybe something embarrassing. Alessia couldn't imagine what sort of book Bucky would be embarrassed by. What sort of books are embarrassing? Alessia might not want someone to know that she read romance novels from time to time. But the thought of Bucky reading one of those cheesy bodice rippers was hard to imagine. What was a guy guilty pleasure novel? Alessia wasn't sure.

Whatever it was, Alessia didn't ask. Instead she animatedly chatted about her favorite authors, lamented that the new Anne Rice book looked awful, and asked him if he ever read any of the Game of Thrones books. Meanwhile, she eyed up Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology," but thought better of bringing it up, or letting Bucky see her interest in it. Part of her, secretly, wanted to read it just to see what it said about Loki, and then find him and read every bit of it aloud just to see what he'd say. No. It's not that. It's that I like Neil Gaiman, Alessia told herself. Then she asked Bucky what he likes to read in his spare time. He gave the shelves a long, almost sad look and said "You know, I honestly haven't read much in a while."

Alessia left with a copy of "the color of magic" and Bucky still carrying his book in the opaque barnes and noble bad. As they walked to the dog park in Central Park, Alessia broached the silence to say. "Thanks. For getting me the day off. And taking me out."

"Don't mention it."

Silence again. Not uncomfortable. Alessia was still sipping on her iced coffee, not caring one lick that she must look weird drinking it in the freezing weather when everyone else is wearing sweaters and jackets, and all she has is a tank top with a flannel over it. Buttercup trotted happily between them. Bucky's nose had turned red from the cold. His lips pink. Alessia was struck with the urge to kiss the cold off of them. Shut up brain, she chastises herself. She looked down to distract herself, at Bucky's hand holding the leash. She broke the silence again.

"Can I ask you a personal question? And you can totally say no."

Bucky gave her a fleeting glance. "What's the question?"

"How-" How did you get on a national wanted list? How come Clint called you Winter soldier? How come when you google winter soldier it's a bunch of government conspiracy theorists talking about an assassin who's been active since the fifties? How come you make my stomach tingle when you look at me? How is it legal for your eyes to be so goddamn blue?

"How come…. Your arm… is. Um. Metal."

They kept walking along in silence after Alessia asked the question. In fact, it had been so long since she asked, that she'd assumed he decided not to answer, and had almost forgotten she'd even posed the question until he said: "I lost my real arm. It was a long time ago. I was…" A long pause here. "I was… working with some people. They gave me this one. They needed me to be strong to… do the job."

"Who were they?" Alessia asked, and regretted it the second she did. Why did she need to know exactly who and what he used to be? Didn't she know enough? He'd done something bad- probably killed people. All she didn't know were the specifics. Who kept him alive all this time? If the U.S government wants him, does that mean he was employed against them? Or does it mean he worked for them, and now knows too much?

But what difference did that make? Wasn't the important thing who he was now? He was her friend- at least, she hoped that was still true.

But Bucky never answered her question. They let Buttercup socialize with the other dogs. They sat on a bench and took out their books and read, Bucky still careful to conceal the cover, and Alessia careful to seem uninterested in it.

When they left, Alessia put the Barnes and Noble receipt in between her pages to mark her spot, and Bucky did the same, and she accidentally caught a glimpse of a dog on the front of the book. What's so embarrassing about reading a book about dogs? But he hid it again before she could read anything. When they walked back Bucky brushed his arm against hers often, striding closely to her. At first, Alessia thought maybe it was because he wanted to be close to her, but then she wondered if he was just cold and walking so near because she gave off warmth.

Alessia now lay on her bed, book in hand, wondering if she should have asked Bucky more about the stuff he liked. What movies does he like? What T.V shows? Foods? What's his favorite time of year? Favorite holiday? Would he share Alessia's love for fast approaching Halloween?

She was just about to doze off when a knock came on the door. Thinking, or maybe hoping, it was Bucky, she called out cheerfully: "Come in!" We can make popcorn She thought, excitedly. and watch movies.

It was Natasha, followed by Wanda.

"Oh." Alessia couldn't help the disappointment in her voice. "What's up?"

"Have a fun day?" Natasha asked.

"Yes." Alessia answered too quickly. Natasha cocked an eyebrow.

Alessia blushed, but Natasha ignored this and said: "By the way, I wanted to apologize. Reemanaskel told us that with the Muspelian training he's been giving you, you've more than earned this break. Clint, Thor, and I didn't realize that the work he was doing with you was so exhausting."

"Oh." Alessia was a little taken aback. "Um. Yeah. No problem."

"Wanda?"

"Right. I vent wid Natasha to Loki's interrogation." Wanda looked uneasily at Natasha before continuing on. "He.. has a plan vorked out."

"How so?" Alessia asked, sitting up in bed, and then, realizing her rudeness, said quickly. "Oh, guys, please sit down." There was a pair of arm chairs flanking a small reading table in the corner and the two women settled themselves into them before Wanda continued.

"Loki vants nothing more than a kingship of his own." She said carefully. Alessia nodded. That sounded right. "And… You have a Queenship." Wanda added.

Alessia stared at Wanda. She felt chills erupt all over her skin and an icy coldness flood her blood. It was like her body realized what Wanda meant before her brain did.

"So he. Wants. Me."

"Vell. Yes."

"He.. wants to.."

"See, de thing is." Wanda went on, interrupting Alessia's train of thought. "It's not just dat. I mean… It started out like dat, but he… thinks fondly of you. I don't know how else to say. He's worried. Because of the… well you know. And not just because it would ruin his plans. He… He likes you."

This revelation did not makes things any easier for Alessia.

"What... What do I do?" She looked helplessly at Wanda, and then to Natasha.

"Play along, for now." Natasha said. "You're gonna see him tomorrow at the negotiation. Make him feel like you trust him. For all intents and purposes, you do have to trust him, for tomorrow atleast."

Alessia laughed nervously. Yes, tomorrow. When her fate would be decided.