Lark

Hidden Sparrow

Bucky's POV 12:20 PM

He saw Aria see him and Steve sitting at the dining room table eating their lunch and immediately turn around and walk right back out of the kitchen. This was the third time today she's done that. After she ran out of the gym this morning he'd barely seen her and when he has she literally runs the other way. He didn't understand what it was that he could have done to upset her. The only thing he could think of was last night. Bucky thought things had been going well at dinner. Steve and her were laughing and joking most of the time. At his expense sure, but he'd take it if it meant they were finally being friendly. Something must have happened after he left. "What happened last night?" He abruptly asked his best friend once Aria was out of sight.

Surprised by the hard tone of his voice Steve looked up from his book and over to Bucky confused. "What do you mean?"

“I mean,” Bucky turned in his seat to fully face Steve after setting down his fork. "What happened between you and Aria? She seemed perfectly fine last night when I left. Now she's avoiding us and not like before. She looks freaked out and I don't know what, but I don’t like it. So what happened?"

Shaking his head Steve pushes his empty plate away, marks his place and closes his book, setting it down. Thinking about last night had him practically bursting with happiness at how much Aria had opened up to him. "Things were good last night. Love the new nickname by the way, Bucket." He grins at Bucky and wiggles his eyebrows at the new nickname.

Bucky rolled his eyes in exasperation and got back to the serious conversation he was trying to have. "Come on, something must have happened. She was fine yesterday and now she won't even look at me or you without running away."

Bracing himself by resting his forearms on the table, Steve gives Bucky his full attention with a frown when he realizes he’s right. "Nothing bad happened. After you left we finished our food and I let her drive the Softail." Bucky raised his eyebrows in surprise. Steve never let anyone, including him, drive his bike. Aria loved motorcycles and would have been ecstatic in getting to drive both of their bikes. "She didn't want to come back right away so we stopped back over by the river to talk before coming home. It was a really good talk. We apologized to each other and agreed to be friends. Then we came home..."

Steve trails off remembering something. "You came home and then what?" Bucky was desperate. He had just gotten them to a good place. If Steve had done something else to hurt her he was going to have to punch his friend out and he’d really rather not do that.

"Nothing bad. I swear. She touched me, is all." Bucky raised his eyebrows at that. Aria had willingly touched Steve? This was a big deal for her, but that still doesn't explain today. He knew she had issues with touch like he did. Granted, her issues were a lot worse than his, but he had seen her working through it. Bucky saw it in the ways she sought out small touches with him, Tony and Peter. Allowing them to touch her in return. Hugs, briefly holding her hand, letting her have the occasional piggy back rides. She wouldn't admit it but she loved piggy back rides, that's why he offered them as often as he did.

Continuing to explain, he forced himself to pay attention. "When we rode up to the kitchen in the elevator she put her arm around me so I put my arm around her shoulders. She seemed fine with it. But when we came into the kitchen Nat, Clint, Vision and Pietro were there. She kind of froze and pushed me away. Then she hugged me and ran to her room." Steve didn't look upset, just confused. "Maybe she wasn't ready for people to know we're friends now? I don't know. Aria seemed fine when Tony and I saw her having her breakfast this morning though. She actually smiled at me instead of giving me her, 'I want to punch you, Rogers' glare."

Something wasn't right. Maybe he had done something to upset her. Could it have been because he ditched them? He knew she didn’t always do well with abrupt changes in plans. Pushing his chair back, Bucky got up to go find Aria. He was going to get to the bottom of this to fix it. She couldn't shut him out again. His chest tightened at the thought that he could lose her after working so hard to get her to be his friend.