Heeeyyyy!

Back at it again. Sorry its taking awhile. Motivation has been lacking, but while we're currently back in lockdown, why the hell not right?

Thanks to WiseGirlDivergence46, AliceCullen3, aussieKayz and dhdjjskwba for your reviews. Always appreciated.

And welcome to aussieKayz, livesinasong13, ToddJ27, cullen cult, TheNumbers48, HolyThisNerd, and GammaRays300 and hope you enjoy the ride. Its been a journey lol.

Anyway, back at it.

Enjoy!

Chapter 48

White Wolf

Zemo drove them back to the private airstrip where his plane was being refueled and restocked, pulling up alongside the plane on the tarmac. The butler popped his head out the door, looking alarmed when he saw Zemo and Bucky hurrying to get Lex out of the car.

Bucky didn't like how she looked. She had become pale, and Sam had been doing his best to keep her awake in the car. From what they could see, she had a large gash on her head, and there appeared to be bleeding from somewhere else around her torso.

Zemo shouted at the butler, and he responded quickly, disappearing inside.

"Come on, Lex, up we go," Bucky said, taking her weight from Sam as he pushed her up into Bucky's arms. Zemo led them onto the plane, directing Bucky to put her down on a seat. The butler brought a bag from the galley, opening it to reveal medical supplies.

Bucky set to work immediately, looking at her head. The bleeding had stopped, mostly, but he suspected she may have been suffering from a concussion. Zemo shone a torch into her eyes while Bucky bent down to pull out bandages and gauze.

"Hmm, she definitely seems to be suffering from a concussion from the blast," Zemo said, turning it off.

"A concussion doesn't make you that pale, she's suffering from blood loss. There must be a wound somewhere," Sam reasoned, peering over their shoulders.

Bucky began to look her over, touching her here and there. She groaned as he squeezed her right shoulder, wincing and trying to pull away.

"There!" Zemo exclaimed, and Bucky pulled the black jacket away. Sure enough, she had a shoulder wound, deep red blood flowing from the bullet hole. He leaned over, checking the back of the jacket, before sighing in relief.

"It's a through and through, no bullet." He heard both Zemo and Sam audibly sigh in relief.

"Not getting rid of me that easily," Lex mumbled, a slight smirk gracing her lips. "But why is it always the shoulder?" Bucky frowned slightly, then a memory triggered.

He recalled Lex collapsing as she was assisting Steve to carry himself to escape from the silo where Tony Stark had turned on them. It had turned out she had been impaled by a pole when she had fallen, but the extra component in her blood stream had increased her adrenaline to the point she hadn't noticed the life-threatening injury. He grimaced at the memory, for so many reasons, it was a painful recollection.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Sam demanded angrily as Bucky began to put pressure on the wounds while Zemo called his butler to them.

"Well," she began wincing as Bucky applied pressure a little too much it seemed. He looked at her apologetically. "First of all, you two, were way to busy arguing with each other and I didn't want to interrupt." She took a deep breath, shaking her head once as if she was trying to fight off the dustiness of blood loss. "Secondly, I kind of forgot once we started running again…"

Bucky frowned. He wondered if she had 'forgotten' or if the extra component in her blood stream had kicked in again when her adrenaline had peaked from being pursued and fighting off bounty hunters while under fire. Bucky saw the butler appear from the galley, his hands gloved and what appeared to be a needle and thread prepped. He was going to stitch Lex's wound.

Zemo approached with scissors in hand. "Please don't be offended, but I need to cut the jacket from you, in order to treat you."

Lex moved to shrug, before groaning and leaning forward so her head rested on Bucky's chest. "Owww…"

Sam quickly moved to the galley, coming back with a bottle of bourbon. "This should help," he said, handing it to Zemo. He and Bucky pushed her back up carefully, Sam handing her the bottle. She drank heavily from the drink, causing Bucky to frown at her.

She had drunk about half of the bottle before she finally stopped and lowered the bottle. "Okay, let's do this."

Bucky glanced back at Sam, who was staring in disbelief at Lex. "Yeah, you're forgetting that alcohol doesn't actually do anything to us, aren't you?"

Sam put his hand to his face. "Damn super soldiers." Bucky looked back at Lex and both of them chuckled quietly as Zemo and the butler set to work on her.

Lex sat in a seat, while Bucky dabbed at the wound on her head, cleaning it. Now that her shoulder was stitched up, he was focusing his attention to the other minor wounds on her body. Zemo had given her some more clothes that the butler had apparently procured on their stop in Madripoor, and she was now wearing a clean pair of jeans, and a shirt. She had to threaten Zemo to prevent him from trying to force her to wear a sling for her shoulder. Bucky hadn't put up much of an argument, obviously aware of how quickly she would heal.

"You really don't need to fuss over me like this," she muttered, sipping from the drink that Zemo had prepared for her. She had to admit, even she was surprised at the amount of care Zemo had been showing for her. She suspected he viewed her as a means to an end though, or perhaps that was what she hoped was the case.

"It's fine, we need to clean this. We don't know what that lab had in it," Bucky replied, not taking his eyes from the cut on her head.

She rolled her eyes and glanced over to Sam who was pacing up and down the aisle while on a phone call. "Donya Madani. She's a refugee, yeah." He paused, listening to the person on the other end of the call. "Okay. Call me if you get a hit. Thanks Torres." He hung up the call, pacing back towards them and sighing as he stopped beside them.

Bucky finally peeled his eyes away from Lex's wound, glancing up at Sam. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just thinking about all the shit Sharon had to go through. And Nagel referring to the American test subject like Isaiah wasn't even a real person. Just makes me wonder how many people have to get steamrolled to make way for this hunk of metal."

Lex felt a sting on her head as Bucky pressed on her head wound with a little more pressure than necessary, gasping and pulling back. "Ow! Take it easy!" He looked at her in alarm. She snatched the disinfecting pad from him and glared at him, leaning back in her chair and standing up.

Bucky looked back at Sam. "Well, it depends on who you ask. That hunk of metal saved a lot of lives."

Sam sighed again as Lex pulled a mirror from an overnight bag that Zemo had provided her in Madripoor that contained make up and many other small things for her to utilize. "Yeah, I get that. All right. Maybe I made a mistake."

"You did."

"Give it a rest, Bucky," Lex warned, shooting him a glare. He pressed his lips together and looked back at Sam.

Sam grimaced. "Yeah. Maybe I shouldn't have put it in a museum. I should have destroyed it."

Lex looked at Sam in annoyance. She understood Sam's hesitation at keeping the shield for himself, but his self-doubt was getting out of control. "Seriously?"

Bucky sighed and looked at his hands as Lex sat back down across from him and began tending to her head wound herself. "Look, that shield represents a lotta things to a lotta people, including me. The world is upside down, and we need a new Cap, and it ain't gonna be Walker. So, before you destroy it, I'll take it from him myself."

The plane was silent for a moment as Bucky's words hung heavy in the air. Their thoughts were interrupted by Sam's phone ringing again and he answered it. Bucky turned his attention back to Lex, as he reached across to try and take the disinfectant pad from her again. She glared at him, making a shooing movement with her hand. She appreciated the sentiment, but he was way too rough to play medic when he was agitated.

"Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Good work." He hung up and looked to Bucky as Zemo appeared from the galley with plates of food in hand. "They found Madani… Dead. She died in Riga, a city near the Baltic Sea."

"I have a place we can go," Zemo announced, leaning down and placing plates down in front of each of them.

"Of course, you do," Lex murmured with an eye roll.

He smirked slightly, before straightening. "I, for one, am looking forward to coming face to face with Karli." He grinned at Lex, before turning towards the cockpit of the plane. "Oeznik, we're changing the course." He moved and sat in his seat, before motioning to their food. "Please eat."

Lex eyed the food before them and then narrowed her eyes at Zemo. "And you?" she asked in Sokovian.

Zemo raised his eyebrows at her, before a look of realization crossed his features and he smiled at her. He reached across and took a small piece of meat from her plate, popping it in his mouth and closing his eyes, appearing to savour it. He opened his eyes again and looked back at her with a smile. "Delicious. The plane was refreshed during our stop in Madripoor."

Satisfied, Lex nodded, taking her plate of food gratefully.

Bucky walked along beside Lex, with Sam on her other side. They were following Zemo as he led them through the streets of Riga. He noticed Sam look around in awe at the stunning infrastructure of the European city, with its stonework streets and stone buildings. It was a stunning city, however, neither he nor Lex found things like that impressive anymore. They'd seen many cities like Riga in their time. And he didn't have many fond memories of those cities anymore.

He noticed Lex seemed distracted, her eyes darting along the ground or up into the branches of trees and he wondered what had her on edge. He brushed against her arm with his, careful to keep it subtle, so as not to attract attention from their companions. She looked at him, and he raised his eyebrows, asking a silent question. She answered it by rolling up her sleeve and exposing a string of tiny beads that was on her wrist.

He recognized them. He glanced to the ground as they walked and suddenly, he understood why Lex was nervous.

"I heard what became of Sokovia," Zemo began to talk. "Cannibalized by its neighbors before the land was cleared of rubble, erased from the map. I don't suppose any of you bothered visiting the memorial?" Zemo glanced back at the three of them. No one answered. "Of course not. Why would you?" He began walking towards one of the buildings. "We are here."

Bucky and Lex both slowed to a stop as Zemo and Sam continued. "We're gonna go on a walk," Bucky said. Sam and Zemo turned to look at the pair expectantly.

"You guys good?" Sam asked, looking between the pair. He looked between the two before a smug look crossed his expression.

"Yeah. We'll see you guys in a bit," Bucky replied, waving them off.

"Oh, I see, first date?" Sam asked, smirking at them.

Lex smirked back. "Don't be jealous, Sam, there's enough crazy to go around," she said with a wink before they turned and strode away, shaking her head while Sam and Zemo quietly chuckled as they headed into the building.

Bucky and Lex walked back a little further down the street from which they had come, looking around again. He spotted what he was searching for in a crack of a wall, a dull light pulsing from it.

"You know," Lex piped up as he reached over to pick up the small ball. "They're going to be pissed off that he's out, and even more if they know you helped."

He analysed the bead in his hand. "Yeah." Bucky sighed and shoved it into the pocket of his jacket. "I know."

They turned the corner, walking into an alleyway. Bucky heard a subtle movement behind them, and Lex stopped as did he. They glanced sideways at each other, neither looking behind them. Bucky noted Lex seemed to be doing her best to restrain a smirk.

"You dropped something," Bucky called out, shoving his hands back into his jacket pockets. "I was wondering when you were gonna show up."

They both looked behind, and Bucky couldn't help the tiny smile that appeared on his lips when he saw Ayo standing there. Even though he had spent many days training with Ayo, enduring many sessions of deprogramming with her and Shuri, and bonded with her and the other Dora Milaje, he still felt intimidated by her presence.

He saw her eyes dart from him to Lex and back again. Her face was void of any expression.

"I'm here for Zemo," she said bluntly in Xhosa.

"Yeah, we kind of figured that," Lex replied, moving to lean against the wall. "Never thought I would run into you outside of Wakanda, Ayo."

Ayo's gaze slid to Lex, and for a moment he thought he saw her gaze soften as she took in the female super soldier. Lex had regaled him about her time in Wakanda when he was thawed from being cryogenically frozen after their fight in Leipzig and Tony Stark. Including her regular training sessions with the Dora Milaje. He wondered if perhaps they were some fond memories for the Dora Milaje too, but Ayo's expression hardened once again, and she turned her attention back to Bucky.

"How could you free him?"

Bucky looked to Lex, but she all she did was blink. He frowned at her, she was throwing him under the bus. He supposed it was only fair, he hadn't exactly told her or Sam what he had planned to do. He simply did it, and she didn't resist as much as Sam. Bucky looked back Ayo. "We need his help."

Ayo began to walk, circling Bucky with her hands behind her back, never taking her eyes from him. "With time, will, and the resources, the Winter Soldier programming was removed from you like a rotten fur."

How could he forget? The sessions he did with Ayo, in particular, were some of the most nerve-wracking and dangerous sessions he had endured. Not for him, but for her. She had been utilized as the tester for Bucky whenever Shuri wanted to see how well his deprogramming had come once Lex had left Wakanda. She may not have had Lex's super strength or speed, but she was still the strongest Dora after The General, Okoye, who was often tasked elsewhere. "And I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for everything you and Shuri have done…

Ayo interrupted. "Zemo murdered our King T'Chaka at the U.N. The man who chose us. Who chose me to protect him."

Bucky was solemn for a moment. He remembered the time well. It was what had caused him to be forced out of hiding. Zemo had framed him for King T'Chaka's death. It was what had led him to find out Lex's true identity as a fellow super soldier. "I understand."

"Very little, if anything, of our loss and our shame."

"He's a means to an end," Bucky replied in Xhosa.

Ayo stopped circling Bucky, staring at him intensely, before her gaze shifted again to Lex, seeming to consider her. Bucky couldn't help but notice, throughout their whole exchange, Ayo didn't seem to want to engage Lex at all, but now, she looked to Lex, who stared back at her silently. Lex finally raised an eyebrow expectantly at Ayo.

Ayo looked back to Bucky. "Eight hours, White Wolf. Then we come for him." She held her hand out, Bucky dropping the Kimoye beads he had found in her palm. She closed her hand, glancing at Lex once more before striding out of the alleyway without looking back at either of them.

Sam paced the large apartment that was styled like it was straight out of an old movie set in the Middle East. He wouldn't usually worry about two super soldiers loose on their own, but he got the feeling they were hunting something. Or someone. He may have joked about them going on a date, but he could tell from Lex's behaviour that it wasn't quite the truth.

Zemo walked out of the bathroom in a dressing gown and pants, his hair still wet and looked around. "Some date they must be having," he teased with raised eyebrows as he toweled off his hair.

Sam gave him an icy look. He knew that Lex and Bucky had been through some stuff together, and while they both had their checkered past, he believed they both deserved something good in their lives, and he swore, that good was each other. Sure, she could be a little psycho at times, and really enjoyed fighting way too much, and he was definitely not mentally sound, but they both lived to redeem themselves and cared for their friends and each other more than either would ever admit. He definitely didn't like anyone joking about whatever it was the pair had together, unless of course it was him.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps and the apartment door open. Bucky held the door open for Lex, who entered with an appraising look around the apartment, Bucky walking in behind her, removing his jacket. "Well, the Wakandans are here. They want Zemo. Bought us some more time."

"Uh, pretty certain I bought us some time," Lex countered, following Bucky towards the bar.

"You didn't even say anything," Bucky argued. He walked behind the bar, taking a bottle from the selection on the shelves, while Lex reached over behind the bar and grabbed two glasses.

"Were you followed?" Sam asked, looking from Bucky to Lex and noting they didn't appear concerned about their confrontation with the Wakandans.

"No," Bucky answered, opening the bottle and beginning to pour the drink into the glasses.

"How can you be so sure?" Zemo demanded narrowing his eyes at them, before looking out the windows he was standing nearby.

"Seriously?" Lex asked, looking incredulously at Zemo.

"'Cause we know when we're being followed," Bucky retorted back at Zemo with a look of disdain. He looked back to Lex, who rolled her eyes in response.

Zemo grimaced slightly, before turning away from the window to look towards the pair. "It was sweet of you to defend me at least."

Sam glared at Zemo, annoyed at his audacity. "Hey, you shut it. No one's defending you. You killed Nagel."

Zemo gave a small smile, which Sam found really grated his nerves. He clearly had no regrets of his actions. "Do we really have to litigate what may or may not have happened?" Zemo reasoned, walking towards the bar to pour himself a drink.

"There's nothing to litigate," Sam retorted, sitting at the bar next to wear Lex stood. "You straight shot the man." He noticed Bucky looking at mobile device in his hand, and Lex's attention also seemed to be on her own phone screen too.

"Sam," Bucky interrupted his argument with Zemo.

"What?" he asked in concern, seeing the serious look on Bucky's face.

Lex turned her device for Sam to see the screen. "Karli bombed a GRC supply depot." There was footage of an explosion, followed by photos of the damage. It was chaotic.

"What? What's the damage?"

"Eleven injured, three dead. They have a list of demands and are promising more attacks if those demands aren't met," Bucky answered, scrolling on his device. Sam saw his jaw clench, and he also noticed Lex bite her bottom lip. Both were their ways of showing concern without actually saying anything. And the fact that they were both concerned, was concerning in itself.

Sam sighed, beginning to doubt whether or not Karli was just the disenfranchised kid he thought she might be. Maybe she was too far gone to save from the wrong path.

"She's getting worse. I have the will to complete this mission. Do the two of you?" he asked, looking from Sam to Bucky.

"She's just a kid," Sam retorted. She was a hurt and misguided kid. She had probably lived a good chunk of her childhood with war, then the blip and then the chaos of the return. The thought of everything that had happened had messed him up, he couldn't imagine what it could do to a kid.

"You're seeing something in her that isn't there. You're clouded by it. She's a supremacist. The very concept of a Super Soldier will always trouble people. It's that warped aspiration that led to Nazis, to Ultron, to the Avengers."

Bucky stepped away from the bar and Zemo, moving to stand on Lex's other side, and Sam wondered for a moment, if he had moved to either stop Sam from hitting Zemo, or maybe it was to stop himself from hitting Zemo by putting Lex between him and the irritating Sokovian.

"Those are our friends you're talking about," Sam warned.

"Technically, that's some of us, he's talking about," Lex added, her face void of any expression, reminding Sam of her performance in Madripoor and making him feel on edge again.

"The Avengers, not the Nazis," Bucky added quickly, earning a look from Lex, which Sam ignored. He was riled up by Zemo right now. He needed to set the Baron straight.

"So, Karli is radicalized, but there has to be a peaceful way to stop her."

Zemo sighed, looking sympathetically at Sam. "The desire to become a superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideals. Anyone with that serum is inherently on that path. She will not stop. She will escalate until you kill her." He paused, and Sam sat up, staring at Zemo as he considered Zemo's words. "Or she kills you."

He looked sideways as Lex leaned against the bar, placing her hand on her chin and looking at Zemo thoughtfully, while Bucky leaned back against the window-sill beside the bar. These two super soldiers beside him both had the very serum, or something very similar, to what Karli had. While at some point, both had done some very bad things, there had always been a reason. Either they were under someone else's control, or they were trying to right a wrong.

Sam stared at Lex for a moment. Was Lex that much different to Karli during her time of vengeance against the Red Room? He had heard snippets of what she had done many years ago from Steve, and from her on occasion, not much, but enough to know that she wasn't always the nicest person in the room.

"Maybe you're wrong, Zemo. The serum never corrupted Steve," Bucky said, looking pointedly at Zemo.

Zemo smiled softly at the mention of the former Captain America. "Touché. But there has never been another Steve Rogers, has there?" he said pointedly.

"And Bucky?" Lex asked, drawing everyone's attention to her. Her eyes looked at all three men around her. "Come on, he definitely does not have supremacist ideals in that head of his. The only one's he's ever had were the ones put there by big bad men, like you," she said motioning to Zemo as she swirled the alcohol in her glass, making the ice chink together against the glass.

Sam glanced at Bucky. She was right, to a point. He had noticed that Bucky didn't have that urge to kill now, but the fact that he was still one to hit first and ask questions later, still made him question whether the serum might have corrupted him ever so slightly.

Zemo grimaced slightly at her point, before nodding. "You may have a point there, but he is the exception, not the rule, isn't he, Alexia?"

Sam raised his eyebrows as he saw Lex narrow her eyes at him. "You got a death wish?" she asked icily, causing Zemo to raise his hands in surrender. Sam reached across, putting a hand on hers and shaking his head. She wrinkled her nose in annoyance, getting up from her spot at the bar and moving away.

Bucky was quick to interject. "Well, maybe we should give him to the Wakandans right now."

"And you'll give up your tour guide?" Zemo retorted as he moved to a cupboard and pulled out a large jar from one of the upper shelves.

"Yes," Bucky answered without a second thought. Sam raised an eyebrow as he watched Bucky walk away into the lounge area, collapsing onto one of the lounges and resting his head on the back.

Sam sighed. Bucky was getting frustrated with their lack of results, and frankly, Sam could understand the frustration, however, he was starting to understand the importance of having Zemo help them. "From my understanding, Donya is like a pillar of the community, right? So, when I was a kid, my TT passed away."

Bucky frowned. "Y-Your TT?"

"Yeah, my TT, yeah." He looked around at the others, trying to garner some understanding. Lex looked mildly confused and shook her head.

He looked back at Bucky, who had now raised his head, so he was now looking over at Sam. "Who is your TT?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Fine. When I was a kid, my aunt passed away and the entire neighborhood got together for a ceremony. It was like a week long. Maybe they're doing the same thing for Donya."

"Worth a shot."

Sam looked back to Zemo as he reached into the jar and pulled out what appeared to be some type of candy. "Your TT would be proud of you." He smiled, before lifting the bag. "Turkish delight." He threw the candy to Sam, who caught it in surprise. "Irresistible."

Lex showered, looking into the mirror to check over her injuries. The gash on her forehead was already looking pretty good, but it was going to leave a little scar, she could tell already as she pulled the tape off. She pulled the corner of the bandage off her shoulder, seeing that the stitches there still looked to be intact, and the wound didn't appear infected.

"Mmm, better change the dressing," she murmured to herself, pulling the dressings off the front of her shoulder carefully and discarding them. She checked through the bathroom cabinet, but couldn't find any medical supplies, so quickly put on a dressing gown and decided to track down Zemo to find her some new dressings. She quickly stepped out of the bathroom and ran straight into Bucky.

He looked down at her in surprise, putting his hand on her shoulders to steady her. "Hey, where's the fire?" he asked. She stepped back, grimacing slightly from the pain in her shoulder, making his eyes widen in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just need to redress my shoulder," she answered, being careful to hold her dressing gown in place as it threatened to slide off her shoulders.

The movement appeared to catch Bucky's eye and he quickly stepped back, giving her space. "Come on, I've got the first aid kit in my room." He turned and motioned for her to follow him down the hall. She hesitated, but the slight twinge of pain in her shoulder encouraged her to follow him.

He led her to a room down the end of the hallway, opening the door and standing back for her to enter ahead of him. She walked in, looking around as Bucky shut the door after her. The room was well-decorated, as standard for all of Zemo's locations it seemed. On the king bed sat a duffle bag, which Bucky walked towards, opening it as Lex looked around the room.

"Zemo sure likes his opulence," she commented as she strode towards Bucky. He grunted in response, pulling out the first aid kit and moving his bag aside. He motioned to the spot on the bed he had just moved his bag from, and Lex quickly moved to sit on the bed sideways, facing Bucky. She looked at him skeptically as he began pulling dressings from the first aid kit. "You gonna be more gentle with me than you were on the plane?"

He grimaced slightly. "Sorry about that." He turned to look at her. "You want to…uh…" he motioned to her shoulder.

She felt her cheeks heat up, realizing she wasn't wearing anything under her dressing gown apart from pants. She carefully rearranged herself so that her whole right shoulder was exposed, while making sure nothing else was exposed.

Bucky set to work, cleaning her entry wound carefully, before putting a clean dressing over it. Lex was careful not to look him in the face, focusing all her attention on keeping her dressing gown in place. "That okay?"

She nodded, clenching her jaw slightly as Bucky moved around to address the exit wound on the back of her shoulder. "Couldn't reach the dressing on the back," she said ruefully, making Bucky chuckle. He carefully moved her hair from her back, draping it over her shoulder. His fingers barely grazed her skin, but the feeling gave her goosebumps and she had to use all herself control not to jump at the feeling. He began peeling the dressing off carefully, before cleaning the wound.

"They made a mess of the back of your shoulder when it exited."

"It'll heal," she replied, with a tired sigh. "It always does."

His gentle fingers replaced a clean dressing, and he carefully pulled the dressing gown back up and over her shoulder. "There. It's healing pretty good. How's your head?" he asked, moving to sit in front of her.

"It's fine, it's nearly done," she answered, as he reached out to her face, moving her hair back so he could see it more clearly. She did her best not to react to his touch yet again. "I should probably stop being reckless in my old age and let you young guys take some more bullets."

Bucky chuckled, grabbing a disinfecting swab and proceeding to dab at the wound on her head. "You're not that much older than me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Um, I'm pretty certain it went, me, Steve and then you, young'un."

Bucky chuckled again, shaking his head as he began putting away the first aid kit. "That may be the case, but I'm still the next oldest here to you," he teased.

She smiled. "Yeah, we're just a pair of old ducks," she said, readjusting her hair and then her dressing gown. "Just need my hair in rollers and a walker for you."

"Don't forget the false teeth on the bedside," he joked as well. They both began laughing heartily at the thought.

When they finally calmed again, he reached toward her face with his hand, pushing her hair back to look at the wound on her head. "That's going to scar," he said, moving his face closer to look at it.

Lex licked her lips, feeling her heart begin to race at their close proximity. "What's one new scar for the collection?"

His gaze dropped to meet hers. "You should be more careful, Lex."

"I should be many things, Bucky. Yet, here we are."

He smiled at her, before leaning forward and placing his lips against hers. She jumped slightly, but his hand moved down to hold the back of her head gently. The warmth of his hand calming her slightly and she began to respond to his kiss in kind, closing her eyes and enjoying the moment. He pulled away slowly from her lips and she slowly opened her eyes to look at him. "Yes, here we are, doll."

Lex narrowed her eyes at Bucky. "Don't call me that." She gave him a shove, before smiling and laying back on the bed with a sigh.

Bucky felt the shadowy edges of sleep start to leave his mind, feeling a warmth resting against his body and wondering when was the last time he had such a sound sleep. He slowly opened his eyes, seeing the mass of dark hair resting against his right arm, her back flush against his chest as he laid on his side.

He took a deep breath, taking in the beautiful smell of vanilla and fresh flowers. He moved his left hand, carefully wrapping his vibranium arm around Lex's waist in order to hold her tighter to him. He would love to not move from this position, but they had places to be today. He could already hear Zemo pottering around in the kitchen of the large apartment, and he knew Sam wouldn't be far behind.

Worse yet, he could imagine Sam would probably barge into his room at any minute. Not that he was ashamed about his relationship with Lex, he would love to have everyone know how close he and Lex had gotten, but he was more concerned about how pressured she might feel.

He felt her stir under his vibranium arm, beginning to move so her face could look back at him. "Hey," she murmured sleepily.

"Hey," he replied with a smile, pressing a light kiss to her forehead, careful to avoid the wound there. It was very nearly healed, but he still avoided it in case it was still sensitive to the touch. As she began to turn, he was quick to grab the dressing gown and pull it up, so it continued to cover her body. They had talked all night, Lex eventually falling asleep in his arms, and him watching her sleep for at least another hour after that.

"Sorry, I fell asleep on our convo. Where were we?"

He chuckled, squeezing her a little tighter. "Going to have to come back to that, Sam and Zemo are already up, won't be long until they-"

Suddenly, the door swung open, and Sam walked in, with a cup of coffee in hand. "Hey, Buck, you seen Lex this morning? She wasn't answering her…ooohhhh." Lex's head whipped around as Sam came to a halt just past the threshold of the room, while Bucky glared at him.

Zemo's head appeared from behind the door and his eyebrows raised. "Well, that explains why she wasn't answering her door."

Sam's look of shock broke into a grin. "Well, I can see I'm intruding. I'm just gonna…" he motioned for the door, taking a few steps back towards it.

"Hey, Zemo," Lex called out, not moving from her position in Bucky's arms. "I like my eggs sunny side up."

"As you wish." Zemo's head disappeared.

"Sam." The American stopped and looked at Lex with a look of concern. "White with two, thanks."

"Oh, right. Yeah, I can do that." Sam winked at Bucky, before he was quick to hurry from the room.

Bucky chuckled as Lex pushed herself up into a sitting position. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, fine, why?" she asked, putting her hair up into a ponytail, looking nonplussed as her dressing gown fell slightly to one side, exposing her shoulder. It was a very enticing look, but he was careful to focus on her face. He looked at her pointedly, making her roll her eyes. "They were going to find out eventually. And its not like we did anything, anyway." She smirked. "This time." She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips, catching him by surprise, before getting off the bed and leaving Bucky to his awe in silence.

xo

Krayzee Aussie