Saved - A Bucky Barnes love story

Nat, will you come with me?

When I enter Tony's office I see him lying on his sofa, annoyed he rubs his temple. "Are you all right Tony? I heard you swear." He sits up and looks at me. "My housekeeper has just quit. She apparently noticed overnight that she was meant for higher things. However, it occurred to her three hours after her shift had already started. She should actually do something important for me today." "Whatever needs to be done, I could do it," I suggest. I'm bored anyway, and if Bucky isn't there today, I don't mind any distraction. The main thing is that I don't have to constantly think about whether Bucky is putting himself in danger or not. "I can't ask that of you," Tony rejects my suggestion at first. "You don't even ask. I'm offering it to you. It looks like I have nothing else to do and it would certainly distract me from the fact that Bucky is hunting my ex-boyfriend." Tony's eyes soften as he looks at me now. "That would really help me a lot. But you won't go alone. Until we know what Rumlow is up to, whether he's up to something or not, someone will come with you when you go out." "That's ok. I also wanted to go shopping for groceries. No wonder you always had to order food, as empty as the fridge is always. I'll ask Nat if she wants to come with me. Who knows, maybe we'll go shopping when we're already are on the way "I grin at Tony and suddenly I really want to go shopping. "Sounds good. Here," he says as he holds out an envelope to me." It is important that this envelope is delivered to Morgan's kindergarten by four in the afternoon. The director there knows that someone will bring something over." He hands me a car key and says, "You can take my car. But under no circumstances can Nat drive it." I look at him confused. "Let's just say that I entrusted her with one of my cars once and I never got it back." I take the envelope and the car key and Tony wishes me a lot of fun as I leave his office. On the way to my room I stop in front of Nat's room door and knock. "Come in" I hear her call out. Nat lies on her bed and watches TV. Any cartoon series in which a cat is chasing a little mouse. "Hey Nat, would you like to accompany me into town? I'm supposed to do something for Tony and thought we might go shopping afterwards. Some new clothes and some groceries so that your fridge has something to do." Nat is immediately enthusiastic and also in a shopping mood. We agree to leave in ten minutes. I quickly scurry into my room, swap my sweatpants and top for black tights, a pink knee-length cotton dress and black boots. On the way to the elevator I pick up Nat in her room and we take the elevator to the underground car park. There I press the remote control of the car key once to find out which car I will drive today. A matt black Audi TT flashes on my left. "Tony will lend you his car?" says Nat, amazed. I can't help but chuckle. "Yes. And he made it very clear that you are not allowed to drive it. Under no circumstances." As we get in, Nat says, "It's unbelievable that he's still holding this against me. It's been ten years since I wrecked one of his cars." I burst out laughing. It's hard to imagine someone with Nat's reflexes wrecking a car. "What happened back then?" I ask her while I look in the navigation system for the address of Morgan's kindergarten and start the car. "Oh, it wasn't that wild. We were partying and we thought it would be really cool to have a race. Under the influence of alcohol my reflexes are not that good. I hit the car against a wall. Tony almost killed me . That was a lesson to me. No alcohol when I drive." I can very well imagine how Tony must have reacted. Tony loves his cars. Almost as much as Morgan. After a ten-minute drive, we reach Morgan's kindergarten. "You really don't need to go in, Nat," I say as we step through the door of the kindergarten. "Oh yes. If something happens to you while I'm with you, Tony will really kill me this time." We knock on the door of a room that a sign identifies as an office. "Come in," says a nice sounding voice. As we enter we see an older woman in front of us. She wears her long brown hair loose, wears glasses with small round glasses and, as far as I can see, a blue and white T-shirt with a tie-dye look. "Are you" I look at the envelope "Ms. Marks?" "I am. How can I help you both?" I hand her the envelope. "Mr. Stark sent me. He asked me to bring you this envelope." She puts on a radiant smile as she takes the envelope. "Thank you very much. He had announced that someone would come over. Give him regards when you see him." I nod before we say goodbye and go back to the car. "What do you feel like doing now?" I ask Nat. "Buy clothes? We could go to the mall. There we could eat something after we went shopping and then go shopping for groceries before we go home." "Sounds great" we smile at each other while I start the car again. When we get to the mall, I can hardly stop being amazed. I don't even know if I've ever been to such a big department store. We spend hours browsing various shops and presenting each other with outfits that are partly funny and partly really good. In the end, we both have more than enough bags with new clothes with us. We load the bags into the trunk of the car before going back in and looking for something to eat. "How about pizza" suggests Nat. I nod enthusiastically - pizza always works. We sit down in a small Italian restaurant where we are greeted by a waiter. "Good evening ladies. Here are the menus for you. Do you already know what you want to drink?" Nat orders a beer and I choose a glass of Chianti. We study the menus in silence. When the waiter comes back we both made our decision. Nat orders a pizza with pepperoni salami, ham, mushrooms and extra chillies. I order a pizza with goat cheese, dates and Parma ham. When the waiter leaves, Nat looks at me expectantly. "What?" I ask her. "You and Barnes? What's really going on between you two? Do you ... you know." "In case you're asking me if we had sex, no we didn't" I say and don't understand why I blush when I say that. "And I don't know what exactly that is between us. We haven't really talked about it yet." "Sorry, the question was tactless of me. Of course, that's not the first thing you think of after everything that has happened." "You don't need to apologize. Believe me, if I wasn't so mentally broken, it would have happened by now." "You know that Bucky would never hurt you, right? You two are so cute when you are together. And you seem to be good for him. Before you came to us, I never had a night when he had no nightmares." Says Nat before our conversation is briefly interrupted by the waiter who brings our pizzas. "I know he would never hurt me. Whenever I back off at the last second because memories come back to me, he's so sweet and understanding. And believe me, Nat, I want him. But my head is always getting in the way. And as for the nightmares - it almost seems as if we are each other's dream catcher. When Bucky is with me at night, I don't have any nightmares. Before that, every night was just a review of what Brock has done during the day." She reaches for my hand and squeezes it. "It'll be fine. You just have to give yourself the time you need. I'm sure Bucky will wait." We talk for a while about irrelevant stuff, about the new clothes we have bought and swap our pizza. After we have paid we go shopping for groceries before we head home.