hardest to love: bucky barnes

two.

I couldn't tell you how long we spent walking from store to store looking at gowns for Tony's party but it was starting to feel like an eternity. Wanda dragged us into a store where she found a burgundy dress with a slit down her right leg that she loved. Natasha found a little black dress, nothing the redhead didn't already own in her closet. I was still on the hunt.

"So, Are you guys bringing dates to the party?" Natasha asked searching the rack in front of her.

"Vision." Wanda said also avoiding eye contact.

"No, I don't plan to." I said looking at a pink dress.

"Why not?" Wanda asked me.

"You already know why." I said rolling my eyes.

"There has to be someone in the tower that you can ask." Natasha said.

"What about that guy you went on a date with? Starks employee, what's his name?" Wanda said.

"You know his name." I said.

"Ethan." Natasha said walking away from that rack and onto the next one.

"Yeah, he's just not my type." I said as Wanda tried to argue with me in my head.

"What about one of the guys? I'm sure they will take you. I'm going with Steve." Natasha said interrupting our mental argument.

"I guess I could ask someone." I mumbled.

"Ask Bucky." Wanda said nonchalantly.

"Hell no." I said walking away from her onto the other side of the rack.

"Why not? He's always staring at you." She said refusing to look at me.

"I hate him. He's rude and arrogant. I can understand some of it being from his time as the Winter Soldier but we've all proven that we are kind and trustful, so I don't understand his problem." I said then spotted the perfect short brown silk dress.

"So, no date then?" Wanda asked with a giggle.

"No." I said then purchased the dress.

When we returned to the tower, I placed my bags on my room and put the new items away. The dress, some new jewelry and shoes to wear Saturday, and a new pair of ballet shoes.

My father would buy me new ballet shoes every time I was upset or stressed as a child. He kept me dancing at the Academy as a young girl but he was unaware of the pain they caused me. I would often dance for people they worked with like the leaders of Hydra. I started out with a group of five girls till they just started sending me in. They were fascinated by the performances and that's how I got out of failing assignments I was set on.

Most of the time when I performed for Hydra and their leaders, My ballet teacher Ms. Ivanov would let them wipe my memory before I would leave. As time went on I remember small things but nothing useful. I would wake up with new bruises or marks on me and when I would ask Ms. Ivanov where I got them from she would just say that I fell at practice.

From age eighteen to twenty two, I was used as a pawn in the Academy's game with Hydra. When I was twenty three Natasha found the file Ms. Ivanov kept on me and helped me escape. When I did, They went after and assassinated my family. My father, mother and younger brother, Alexander. I had no choice but to follow Natasha to New York. She was my only family at that point and I was hers.

I tried my hardest never let the other know of my past in ballet till I was ready. Quite honestly, I loved dancing. It was peaceful and free but my past still haunted me. Tony was the only one besides Natasha and Fury who knew. He respected my wishes and gave me a small part of the training room to practice when I was ready to return to dancing. He told the others it was a yoga studio for Pepper and they didn't question it.