A Heart Break In Time

Yeah. Just Like That.

I pulled into the address I found and knocked at the door. Steve opened it, with a shocked look on his face. I unlocked my phone and showed him the picture of the shield, covered in blood.

"This what you wanted? Is this worth your retirement? The entire legacy of the shield, destroyed in four hits. You happy now?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "Talia. You're being a bit dramatic, this isn't my fault."

I felt my body tense up in anger. "You're joking me. How is this not your fault?"

"I didn't give him the shield. I gave it to Sam. It's out of my hands now." He turned and walked away into the apartment but I followed. "How did you even find me?"

"You never turned off Find My Friends."

"Turned off what?"

I shook my head. "I am not here to teach you how to use your phone today, Steve."

"Then why are you? I retired, Talia. I'm done. There's no Captain America here." He opened his arms wide.

I stared at him in shock. How could he just not care about this? I opened my mouth to talk again but there was a knock at the door. "Just come on in." Steve yelled and Bucky walked in. His eyes looked from me, to Steve, back to me.

"The kids? Sarah?"

"Still in the air."

He sighed. "You saw."

"I saw." I nodded. "I thought someone would have some kind of reaction to this but apparently nothing's his fault."

Bucky nodded but didn't reply. The three of us stood there for a moment until Peggy walked in talking to Steve. "Who was at the door, dear?" She froze when she saw me. "Oh, Talia. What brings you here?" She smiled but was fidgeting with her hands, obviously nervous. I looked at her fingers and saw a familiar ring on her left hand.

"Steve. Tell me that's not my ring." His eyes flashed to me and then at Peggy's hands. She tensed up and closed her mouth. Bucky took a step closer to me. "Steven Grant Rodgers. Tell me that she is not wearing the engagement ring I gave back to you two fucking weeks ago."

"Talia..." Steve started to talk but Peggy interrupted.

"He proposed. Spur of the moment. It's not... it's not permanent. Just a place holder, until we can get another."

The words hit me like a bullet. "That's painfully fucking accurate, isn't that? Just a place holder, huh, Steve?" I glared at him and Bucky walked up next to me.

"Talia, we should go." Bucky whispered. "Talia. Come on." He placed his hand on my arm but I didn't break my stare from Steve.

"Listen to your boyfriend, Talia." Steve spoke sarcastically. "Or, I'm sorry. Is that Sam? I can't keep track."

I stepped closer to him, yanking my arm from Bucky. "Ex-fucking-cuse me?"

"You've been all over both of them since the day you met them. Openly flirting with Sam in front of me-"

"We weren't even together! We had two dates!"

"-And then you kissed Bucky right in front of me."

"You had just made out with Sharon right in front of me! Are you kidding?" I screamed. Bucky grabbed me again and talked but I wasn't listening. "You were half there for our entire relationship! I was all in, I can name ten million times you screwed me while we were dating, but you bring up two things before we were even together that meant nothing. You're pathetic."

Steve gave a harsh laugh. "Oh, meant nothing? Why don't you ask Buck over there if the kiss meant nothing?"

I turned suddenly and Bucky moved away from me. "Buck?" He shook his head but I persisted. "Bucky, come on. What's he talking about?"

Bucky sighed and looked at me but refused to meet my eyes. "Well, it was my first kiss... since before Hydra."

I felt my heart drop to my feet. "Shit, Bucky. I'm so so sorry. I didn't know, I wasn't thinking." I grabbed his hands in mine. "Seriously, I'm sorry. I wish I'd known, I didn't-"

"No, no. It's fine." He shook his head.

"Yeah, sure. Fine. You only talked about it for-"

"Shut the fuck up, Steve." I snapped at him before looking back at Bucky. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Embarrassing."

I squeezed his hands. "I'm sorry. I really hope you know that. And it was a good kiss, even if it was for the wrong reason. So you definitely didn't lose your touch if that means anything." I winked at him and he gave me a small smile.

"Thanks, doll. It was good for me too."

"Yeah, this is great. What did you come here for, Buck?"

Bucky pulled his left hand from mine but kept his right hand holding mine. "Well, to update you on the Walker situation but I'm sure Talia here did. But to inform both of you... We got the shield back."

"Great. Tell Sam to keep it this time. You two can show yourselves out." Steve grumbled as he walked away.

"Where to now?" I asked Bucky as we walked to the door.

He held it open for me as we walked out. "Can you call the jet? Sam wants his family home."

"Sure thing."

Flashback

"Sam is great," I said to Steve after we walked Sam to his apartment. "I see what you mean about the guy. He's really easy to get along with."

"Yeah. He is." Steve replied with an even monotone voice. I noticed he'd been mostly silent on the walk home. I tried to ignore it but it started to really bother me. I spent the rest of the short walk spewing in my own annoyance, so by the time we got back I was ready to argue.

I stopped as he opened the door for me. "Steve, I don't know what the hell your attitude is about but-"

"It's about you." He interrupted.

"I- what?"

Steve closed the door and turned to me. "It's about you. I didn't like how Sam was looking at you, how you were looking at him. It bothered me."

I thought about that for a moment. Steve was jealous? It didn't make sense to me. He barely even seemed interested in me. "I'm just confused.  We've kissed all of what, five times? But you're possessive over me?"

"I don't really know how to do this whole 'dating' thing. I'm trying to... take it slow, I guess."

"Oh." I honestly felt speechless. I thought this was more of a casual thing, that's how it felt.

"Do you not want that?" He tilted his head and looked me up and down.

I thought about it. I did really like Steve. And god, was he hot. I mean, duh. But I just really loved being around him, too. "No. I don't want to take things slow. If you're really interested in me, if you want me... I need you to show me 'cause-"

I was cut off by Steve abruptly slamming his lips against mine. All of our kisses up until this point felt soft and sweet, this was anything but. His hands immediately went to my ass, pulling me as close to him as I could get. This was all need, all want. His hands slid to my thighs and he broke our kiss to whisper in my ear, "jump." I jumped, he grabbed me and held me up, kissing me again. We kissed our way into my room, I was thankful no one seemed to be around on the way.

*

"Did you find Zemo?"

Bucky looked at me. "Yes. He's gone."

"Good."

"Mind if we make a stop after dropping them off?"

"Not at all. Where we headed?"

Bucky gave me a small smile. "Wakanda."