"Buck!" Steve shouted from Bucky's dark living room. It was 5 AM and he'd completely forgotten to text his best friend to let him know he might not be joining him for their usual morning run. Steve had a key to his apartment, so he could get in when he needed to which in his friend's opinion was often. Steve was a worrier.

"You okay?" Steve called before marching right into the bedroom door.

Steve started to say something else, saw that he was spooned up behind Marley, and stopped. Then, in typical Steve fashion, he turned his back to the couple in the bed. "Sorry. I am so sorry."

Bucky wasn't concerned since Marley was mostly covered up and fast asleep. Easing himself out of bed, he tucked his pillow behind her back and pulled the covers up over her shoulder. Marley didn't even flinch, just kept sleeping on as she had since they'd had sex the day before.

"Give me a minute," he muttered to Steve who walked back out into his living room. A run would really be good, he decided. Bucky put himself together quickly, grinning as he stopped to press a kiss into Marley's hair, and heading out with his friend.

The air was cool and crisp, and Steve didn't say anything until they started on their normal path.

"So," Steve started setting an easy pace. "How are you?"

Bucky smiled. "Pretty damned good. How are you, Stevie?"

Steve's answering smile was bigger than his own. "So, you and Marley?"

"Yeah," Bucky admitted.

Steve waited for only a beat. "Yeah? You look happy."

"I feel happy," Bucky kept pace with him. "I'm a lucky bastard. She's gorgeous, Stevie. Sweet. Doesn't mind that my head is all fucked up."

Steve's expression grew serious. "I haven't seen you with that swagger in a long time. Back in Brooklyn, you had girls fighting over you. You remember that? Constantly. Then they'd come bug me when you stopped talking to them."

Bucky huffed out a laugh as they ran. "I'm remembering some of that. In bits and pieces. I don't remember anyone like her."

Steve ran alongside him quietly, so he continued.

"And it's not just how she looks. It's nice. It's just when I'm with her…"

Cocking a brow at him, Steve waited for him to continue.

"It's peaceful. I can just be with her. There are no expectations, you know. Because if you think about it, she's... We're not so different."

"Give or take seventy years," Steve threw in.

Bucky punched his arm lightly. "Shut up, punk. I don't need the reminder."

Steve shrugged as they turned a corner. "It's not like she doesn't know that."

"Nah, there's not a lot she doesn't know actually."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"She's a mind reader. Like Wanda."

Steve paused. "Seriously?"

Bucky nodded. "She told me yesterday."

His best friend seemed to consider that as they ran along. "Is there anything else?"

"Nah, that's it." When Steve was quiet, it got his attention. "What?"

"It's just… are you going to be okay with all of this?" Steve was in Captain mode, he could spot it from a mile away. "As of right now, we're training her to be one of us. She'll go out on missions and face the same dangers we do."

Bucky had thought of that. "I don't want her sent on a mission without me."

"I can't guarantee that Buck," Steve told him. "I want you to be happy and if she makes you happy, I'll do everything I can to help you keep her safe. But if something happened to her…"

Bucky knew where Steve was going with this. Steve was worried that if something should happen to Marley, what impact it would have on him.

"I can't think like that, Steve."

They ran along in silence before Steve changed the subject, telling him about a fight Clint and Sam had gotten into yesterday in training. Bucky hated that he'd missed Clint getting the best of everyone's favorite pain in the ass. Yet he wouldn't have been anywhere else. As they finished up their laps, he'd realized he'd rather be back in bed with his girl.

Maybe he could make it back before she had to get up and get ready for training. That reminded him…

"What's the status on Loki?" Bucky asked as they headed back to the compound.

"He's going to be around," Steve explained. "Thor is one of us, but he promised to help us monitor his behavior. We'll watch him around Marley. I didn't like the stunt he pulled the other night."

Bucky was furious, but he knew he had to control both thought and emotion as much as he could. Until he could come up with a plan to deal with the so-called god.

Nick Fury waited on them as they walked into the lobby and they covered the intel that Thor had brought them on the new threat that Thanos posed. By the time they broke away from that conversation and Bucky reached his apartment, he walked into his bedroom, disappointed to find his bed empty.

Well, she'd be back in it tonight, he decided. He called to request housekeeping services, showered, and headed down, anxious to see her.

He found her training with Natasha and getting solidly thrown around in a way that had him wincing. She had to be sore from yesterday. Natasha repeated the move, taking his girl down to the mat a second time as he stood and watched through the glass. When Nat helped her up, she spotted him.

Marley smiled at him. She only smiled at him that way and made his heart speed up. Marley was beautiful, and she was with him. He struggled to wrap his mind around that.

Bucky let his gaze move down her form in her training clothes, thinking that he couldn't wait to get her back out of them. He'd be gentle with her, take care of all of those aching, delicate curves.

He had to laugh at the blush that darkened her face. So, she could gather his thoughts from a distance? That could come in handy.

He'd disrupted their training enough to draw Nat's attention. Nat turned and flipped Bucky off and he laughed harder, particularly when Marley caught her off guard and took the red-haired spy down just the way she'd been shown.

Heading down the hall to find Steve to see what was scheduled for the day, he spotted Loki heading down the hallway towards him. When the raven-haired man passed him without any acknowledgment, he blew out a sigh of relief.

Until he saw Loki stop to stand pretty much where he'd stood, watching Nat spar with Marley. It made his blood boil. But he trusted Nat, knew if there was a problem she'd deal with it in any manner she could.

Finding Steve, he went on with his day. At lunch, Nat, Wanda, and Marley weren't in the cafeteria and that gave him pause. He needed to get Marley's phone number, so he could reach her when he needed to. Putting that on his to-do list, he had lunch with Steve, Sam, and Clint.

Bucky was anxious to get to the cell for Marley's training, he hadn't seen her for hours at this point.

"Buck?"

Steve called to him from further down the hall. "Fury's called a meeting on Thanos. We're heading to Tony's office."

Nat walked briskly past him in Steve's direction as his friend motioned him to follow.

"Where's Marley?" Bucky asked.

Nat stopped and turned around. "She's heading back up to her apartment," she told him. "She's fine."

Bucky nodded, and he started to follow them, but his instincts stopped him cold. Until he could get a way to contact Marley when he needed to, he was just going to make sure everything was okay. Hitting the elevator, he headed up to their floor. Marley didn't answer the door to her apartment and she wasn't in his.

Something felt off.

Heading back down, he went to the cell where she'd normally be to train.

Marley was there but she wasn't alone. Silencing his mind as much as he could, he crept into the cell to see her crowded against the far wall and Loki standing before her.

"I need to leave," she told him, her voice shaking slightly.

"This is your customary training time, is it not?" he said, dressed in jeans and a sweater like he was just another guy from earth. "Why not let me help with your education?"

Oh, but he was something else entirely. As Bucky moved around the edge of the room behind the shields, he noted the deceptive smile plastered across his face as he talked to Marley. His body language, though, that betrayed his intent. Loki wanted to appear to her to be friendly, helpful, and at ease. His tensed-up form showed otherwise, tight as a coil.

"I have plenty of help. But thank you."

Loki laughed. "But none like me. Captain Rogers is an old soul, as you would say here on Midgard, but not qualified to help a creature as magnificent as yourself. He had no conceivable idea of your true potential."

Marley's blue eyes widened slightly in fear. "I'm not… magnificent. I'm just trying to learn to use whatever it is I have so I can maybe help others."

"Help others," Loki scoffed. "Why help others when you can become a queen?"

"I don't want to be anything," Marley's voice sounded small.

Bucky's fought to keep his mind quiet. He had to figure out a way to get her out of there safely.

Loki took a step in her direction. "Don't you? You could be so much more. So much more than the fools who created you ever dreamed up. Do you really think you'll truly be happy fighting alongside the brave Avengers and your precious Captain Rogers?"

Marley's brows knit. "Steve? But I'm not…"

Loki stopped at that moment and glanced over his shoulder, his gaze meeting Bucky's.

"Well, who do we have here? Captain America's heroic sidekick, Sergeant Barnes." The raven-haired god laughed again, glancing back to Marley. "So this is your true paramour?"

Marley watched Loki warily, not saying anything.

"No, my dear, it's not my business," Loki said meaningfully, obviously reading her thoughts. "Though I must say the Winter Soldier here is a much better choice for you than the brave, naïve captain."

"That's not who he is anymore," Marley told Loki in the steadiest voice she'd used so far. "The Winter Soldier is gone."

Stepping back so they were both in his field of vision, Loki grinned.

"Are you certain of that, my dear?"

Bucky made his way to Marley, placing himself between her and Loki.

"How gallant." Loki's gaze locked with Bucky's. "The brave, tragic former assassin. You know better than anyone that Marley is fit for finer things than all of this."

"Yeah, and what do you want her for?" Bucky demanded. "You're not here for her. That much is obvious."

"Perhaps not," Loki answered. "Even though it's true, I have a purpose in mind for our powerful beauty here, I can still offer her far more than you ever could. You and your pitiful band of Avengers can make her into one of you, but she'd be a mere shadow of who she truly is. She has a power you can't imagine and can't hope to control or harness for your pitiful uses."

"What if I don't want to be more?" Marley asked from behind him.

"Oh, but you will want it, Marley," Loki promised. "You will."

"We're leaving," Bucky told him. "And don't you ever put your hands on her again."

Loki's mirth didn't budge even the tiniest bit. "We're still on that are we?"

Going back to put his arm around Marley's shoulder, she was trembling, Bucky glared at him. "I'm serious. Stay away from her."

Loki's smile faded. He marched towards Bucky with a menacing scowl forming on his face.

Before he could reach Bucky, Marley stepped away from him and sent a streak of fire in Loki's direction. Leaping out of the way, Loki rolled to the side and crouched before her. The next streak of flames she sent was twice as large, again he easily dodged her attempt. Before he could settle the second time, Marley sent an incredible volley of flames hurtling at him, striking him and sending him flying back across the room with an agonizing scream.

Marley watched Loki use his magic to put out the flames, to right himself. Bucky knew she meant to hit him again the next instant, his vibranium arm shooting out to block her from heading in his direction.

Marley turned to glare at him.

"He ain't worth it, doll," Bucky told her, fearful of what she might do next. "Make it back off. Can you do that? For me?"

Some of the anger faded from her face. The waves of heat rolling off her had sweat popping out on his skin.

"For… for you," she muttered as Loki shakily climbed to his feet and Thor followed by Steve, Sam, and Nat burst into the room.

It took Steve about two seconds to size up the situation. He glared at Loki. "Thought we told you to leave Marley alone."

"Brother," Thor called in his booming voice.

While her attack had left Loki a little worse for wear, Bucky found it particularly satisfying that his black hair had smoke rolling off it. Loki broke into his trademark grin.

"I will, Captain," Loki executed a theatrical bow. "I will wait until your little firebird comes to me."

Looking directly at Bucky, he said, "And she will."

Bucky felt the power gathering in her, knew she meant to make another strike. "Marley, no," he whispered. "You could hit one of them."

He felt her struggle but with several determined exhales, she got it to back off, to fade.

As Loki left the cell with an angry Thor on his heels. Steve's gaze met Bucky's. He was concerned.

Honestly, so was Bucky. They were watching her powers grow by the day and her body was adjusting to the use of them. Her attack on Loki would have had her fading on the floor only a few days ago. At the moment, she showed no sign of fatigue.

Her expression was one of anger, rage.

"I'm going to get her back to her room," Bucky told them.

"I'll go with you," Steve told them. "I'll catch up on the meeting."

Nat nodded and headed out with Sam behind her. Sam stopped, looked back at Marley.

"That was bad ass," he said with a wink before catching up with Nat.

"You okay, doll?" Bucky asked as Steve came closer.

Marley nodded, looked dazed.

"Let's get you back to your room, okay?"

Marley nodded mutely, her temperature dropping. Steve and Bucky exchanged a look before Bucky wrapped her metal arm around her and gently guided her out of the cell.