Assistant

Part 3

The next two weeks pass, without incident and you've settled into a routine. You arrive early every weekday to make breakfast for everyone. You work the day for Mr. Stark and occasionally assist in the lab taking notes or assisting Dr. Banner with an experiment. When your day finishes, you make your way to the training room to workout and train with Bucky and Nat.

It's Thursday afternoon and you're in the gym with Nat and Bucky. They're walking you through scenarios and how to protect yourself in them. Nat has been having you fight Bucky exclusively the last few days, she reasoned that it would be best to train against someone bigger and stronger. It sounded reasonable but you got the feeling she was setting it up, so that you and Bucky were in constant physical contact.

"Ok, now let's show you how to get an attacker off you once they've gotten you on the ground." Nat walks toward you both.

Bucky shoots Nat a slight look. "Only if you're ok with it."

Now you know Nat is setting it up and Bucky has definitely caught on to it. "Of course. I, I mean I need to know, right? What's the point of having self-defense training like this if I shy away from learning one of the moves that could be the most life-saving."

"My thoughts exactly." Nat smirked at Bucky.

I knew she was putting us in an intimate position on purpose but the information was too valuable, so I let it slide. I'd had some self-defense training before and Fury had given me some instructions but what they were teaching me was real fighting techniques. Stuff that I wish I'd known years ago.

Nat had me lay on the floor and had Bucky position himself on top of me. She showed me where to put my hands and how to follow through with the technique. It was hard to concentrate with Bucky's bright blue eyes staring down at me feeling him on top of me. I could tell being this close to each other was affecting him too. He shifted his hips uncomfortably and looked at Nat.

"Let's run it through. You can critique it after." His voice was a little strained.

Nat smirked. "Ok, you've got your hands in the right position. Go when you're ready girl." Nat backed up to watch.

I gave it a try but instead of knocking his arm out and rolling him off me. I only succeeded in making him fall on me with one of my legs wrapped around him.

"Ufff" I groaned when his full weight hit me.

Bucky jumped back, he and Nat were both chuckling. I laughed with them. "Well that didn't go to plan."

Nat shook her head. "Nope. Your leg was wrong. Instead of going under his body you went to the side of it. So, instead of being able to push him off to the side with your leg and arm when he fell, you actually pulled him into you. When you've got your wind back, let's go again."

"Ok."

We tried it three more times. I almost got it the last time. Nat kept walking me through it and Bucky kept giving me encouragement.

Suddenly, Friday's voice filled the room. "Ms. Romanoff, Mr. Stark requests your presence as soon as possible in his lab."

"Ugh, what could he need at this hour." Nat rolled her eyes. "Friday, please tell him I'll be right there. I'll see you guys later." She was waking to the door while giving us a wave.

I wave back. "Bye Nat. I'm heading home after this, so I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you later Nat. Ok. Do you wanna go one more time?" He smiled at me.

"Sure, let's see if I can get it right this time."

"Ok, but let's start off with me coming at you and you trying to fight me off. You can use everything you've learned together."

"Sounds good. Let's give it a try." You're a bit nervous and hope you don't screw up.

Bucky comes at you. You fight him off a little bit but he takes you to the floor pretty quickly. You can tell he was letting you get in the few hits that you did because when you're falling to the floor, he cradled your head with one hand and had the other on your back. He took the brunt of the fall on one knee. He was looming on top of you and moved his hands to either side of you where they'd need to be for you to practice the move.

"Ok, now what do you do?" Bucky's staring down at you. It feels like he's closer to you than when Nat was watching.

You hesitate for a half second because you accidentally glanced at his lips as he spoke. You hear a noise, a door slamming in another room. It breaks through your daze and just like you had practiced, you went through the motions. This time you did knock him off balance and rolled him onto his back.

Bucky smiles up at you. "Nice."

"Oh my God! Yes! I did it" You reach up with both hands in a touchdown motion excited about what you were able to do. After reaching up, you realize that you're still straddling him and this movement ground your hips into his lap. You look down at him and he licks his lips. You can tell from the bulge forming under you that it definitely effected him. You breath in sharply and quickly start to get off him embarrassed about what you did. "So-sorry. Well that's it for today for me. Thank you." You say in a rush. Bucky stops you from getting up with a hand on your waist, he sits in one swift movement. There are only inches between you and you're straddling his lap.

"Y/N, would you like to go out to dinner? I'd like to get to know you better." He's speaking softly and rubbing his thumb on your side.

You bite your lip. You really want to but you have one rule that came from the worst experience of your life. "Sgt. Barnes, I'm flattered. But I don't date people that I work with." You give him a small smile but you call him Sgt. Barnes to try and put a little professional distance between you. 

Bucky tucks a piece of hair behind your ear and smiles. "Ok, but if you change your mind, let me know."

He lets go of your waist and even though he's under you. Helps you stand. You walk over to where you've left your stuff. You smile and give him a small wave as you leave. "Bye! See you tomorrow."

Bucky smiles and waves as you leave. After you've left and the door is closed, he turns toward the second entrance, glaring at the door.

Steve moves forward out of the shadows to lean on the door frame, he's smirking at Bucky. "Losing your touch I see. I mean you even had her in your lap and she still said no."

Bucky rolls his eyes. "At least I asked! You've been acting like a dip shit the last few weeks. I can tell that you think she's gorgeous, but you're being fucking weird about it. You're either being a jerk or doing a weird staring thing. What is with you?"

Steve shakes head. "Bucky, I know she's hiding something. I just don't know what. I really don't think we can trust her."

Bucky looks at Steve in disbelief. "You realize you sound paranoid. I mean you trusted me, even when my mind was being controlled."

"I know, Buck. But I just can't seem to shake this feeling."

"Well, whatever it is, you need to figure it out. This isn't you Steve. You're the nice guy and right now you're definitely not being one." Bucky claps Steve on the back and the two of them leave the training room.