Lapis | Bucky Barnes.

X. distances shifting

Mess with her, you mess with me.

Keira had decided those were the only words she wanted to think about, that day. They were comforting in a way she would have never expected and, while Fury kept blabbering angrily about responsibility and maturity, she kept replaying the scene in the cafeteria like a broken record. It had felt nice, having someone take her side and defend her, mostly because she would have never expected for it to be even more satisfying than ignoring them as if they were nothing but dirt.

When Fury stopped talking about how this had put both her and Bucky in a very bad situation, she finally directed her attention to him, raising her eyebrows.

"Did you listen to at least a word I said?" He asked, sounding exasperated.

"Sorry, no." She answered, clearing her throat.

"I'm serious, Keira. I'm putting great faith in you because I know you're a responsible person. I trust you to know if Bucky is improving or not, but if entrusting you with hard decisions like making him attend lunch turns out into agents in training with bloody noses every time, I will be forced to change my mind about you."

Keira nodded furiously. "I know, I'm sorry. He still has some problems with managing his anger, and I guess he didn't stand a bully. He did it as Bucky, though. I'm sure he had no intentions of killing him or anything remotely close to it."

"I hope so, I really do. Just remember I'm not the only one monitoring you two, ok? Be more careful next time, you heard me?"

"Loud and clear, sir." Keira stood up, saluting him before walking out the door, sighing in relief.

"How'd it go?" Steve asked, standing against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Better than I expected." She answered, tying her dark hair up in a tight ponytail.

"Well, considering you expected him to throw you away without even letting you explain, I think there were few chances it could go worse."

"True." Keira snorted.

Steve remained silent for a while before speaking again. "I need to leave for a while. Avengers stuff."

He wasn't going to explain further, and Keira understood that, but it still made her heart clutch in panic. She was getting used to having Steve around, not really knowing whether she was developing a crush on him or not, and as much as she knew she could take care of herself, it was nice having him around, being able to ask him for suggestions she couldn't ask Fury or her brother. Still, it was Captain America she was talking about, and she had no right whatsoever to push him back.

"Go and kick ass, Cap. I'll do my best to help Bucky, so don't worry about him too much."

Steve smiled, stopping for a moment to turn towards her. "I can't explain how thankful I am for what you're doing. I won't forget about it, I promise."

Keira furrowed her eyebrows. "You better not."

Steve chuckled, quickly giving her a warm hug before leaving her alone in the middle of the hallway, wondering how she was supposed to feel about the situation.

-

"So... Steve left."

Keira nodded. "How do you feel about it?"

Bucky shrugged, looking over at the girl. "I guess I'm supposed to miss him? We were best friends after all:"

"But you don't."

Bucky shook his head, sighing heavily. She didn't want to push him too much if he didn't feel like it, but after the small incident in the cafeteria he hadn't made many improvements, and it was bothering Keira because she was quickly healing and showing that Bucky had recovered fully thanks to her help could have allowed her to go back in the field.