Eunoia [Bucky Barnes]

chapter 9

The amount of soldiers Steve had actually freed hadn't crossed Ava's mind until they were standing outside of the factory. They would smile at her as they walked past while helping each other get ready to depart.

"Hey, Ave!" Bucky called out to her as he finished strapping a man onto a stretcher and walked over to where she was standing out of the way. "I just realised we never did that cliche thing where we were both meant to hysterically cry and you kiss me." He said with a smirk as Ava wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I was more concerned for you being tied down like some crazy experiment, it was just nice to see you alive." She hummed back, propping her chin up on his chest.

"Well, don't leave me hanging now, doll." Bucky laughed at her before leaning down and cupping her face. Ava moved one of her arms from around his neck to now hold his arm, gripping tightly. It was a sweet kiss at first, but the two of them were soon addicted as Bucky moved his hands from Ava's face to hold on to her waist.

Ava broke the kiss as she remembered just what had happened the last time they were this heated. Bucky also leaned back before resting his forehead on the smaller girl's, not wanting to push it. Truthfully, they were just happy to have each other back. Ava noticed a wall a couple of yards away and pulled Bucky's hand towards it. She crouched down before sitting on the ground, leaning against the stone. Bucky joined her as the two watched Steve giving orders to the remaining men.

"He's changed a bit." Bucky pointed out to Ava, still staring ahead. "And I don't just mean physically, I would never have thought the boy from Brooklyn would ever have the bravery that he's shown today."

"But has that changed?" Ava just questioned, causing Bucky to look at her. "I think he's always had this, just now has the physique to make people take him seriously."

"I guess you're right." Bucky said, placing a hand on Ava's knee.

"You stopped writing to me. What happened?" Ava lay her head on Bucky's shoulder as she stroked his hand.

"We were attacked relentlessly for weeks. I guess it was just stress.. what with attacks being so frequent.. I was just never relaxed enough to send you a letter that wasn't just shaky scrawl." He answered, trying to shrug off the obvious trauma the 107th had gone through.

"It's okay. I was just worried, that's all." Ava turned and reached out for Bucky's face, turning it to face her before leaning in for another kiss. She smiled into it as Bucky looped his arm around her back, pulling her up from the floor to his lap.

"You wear trousers now." Bucky stated as he took a breath.

"Yeah, Peggy gave me a pair. Pretty cool aren't they?" Ava asked as she too leaned back to breathe.

"Very cool." Bucky stated before taking in what she'd said and laughing at his own foolishness. "Is Peggy from work the same Peggy Steve was writing to me about?"

"Absolutely! They really are the sweetest, you'll have to join me when I spy on them." Ava winked at him before noticing a lone soldier waving at them, shouting that it was finally time to leave. Bucky stood up with Ava still in his arms before placing her down as they joined everyone else.

"You spy on them?" Bucky asked her with an eyebrow raised, as he scanned the area for Steve.

"Only because Steve struggles with how to talk to her, but I think she secretly likes that about him." Ava smiled once she had spotted her friend at the front of the group. Steve gave the two a nod before telling every man that was not aiding another to pull out a weapon in case of an ambush. Ava noticed that Bucky still had his arm around her as he just kept looking ahead, almost like that last instruction didn't apply to him. "Bucky, that means you as well." She whispered to him as he furrowed his eyebrows and sighed. He reached forward to take a shotgun off of one of the men on a tank right as Steve started directing them out and towards the outpost. Ava made her way up the line to where Steve was and nudged him, making him turn to smile at her. "Nice going, Captain America."