Lovers in Arms | Bucky Barnes

Part 3

The upcoming weeks are filled with fighting and battles. Against enemies or helping innocent civilians. Since they were stationed in Italy they haven't had any rest. Many battles they have fought, and always without any casualties on their own team. The unit has become a close-knit group. Especially Bucky, Dugan and Karol make a tight group. When they weren't fighting, they got to know each other well and they trust each other with their lives. 

Bucky does his job well as a sniper but is also good in close combat. Dugan can fire anything with bullets. A gun or a tank? No problem! And Karol saves their ass regularly with her pistol or her set of razor sharp Katanas.

"Damn Smitty, you're brutal with those things." Exclaims Dugan as he sees her wiping the blood from her blades with a cloth and slides them back into their sheaths.

"Kill or be killed. Next time you should pay more attention... Dum Dum..." 

Bucky and Karol are growing really close. After sharing the kiss at the bonfire they tell each other almost everything. Bucky talks a lot about Steve and his family. Karol doesn't talk much about her family, she only told him they died years ago in an accident. They become close friends and sometimes a bit more. They secretly have shared a kiss or two in the last few weeks, but due to the circumstances never more than a kiss.

Karol trusts her unit and they accept her. Her dry humor fits right in with the men, and she's a real fighter. She doesn't need a man in her life to defend herself, she can take care of herself.n Because of their trust she tells them about her fear for water. But she never tells them the whole story.

"Fear of water? So you can't take a bath?" Dugan jokes. Bucky shoves his elbow hard in Dugan's side.

"Not like that, Dum Dum." She says with emphasis on her nickname for him. "It's more like...like not knowing what's down there in the dark water. The unknown." Shivers run down her spine just when she talks about it. "Drowning also plays a role. Doesn't seem fun to me either, ya know."

In a quiet moment between battles, Karol sits on a rock with one of her Katanas in her hand resting the end of the blade on her knee. The other still in its sheath, sharpening it with a special stone. Grinding the wet stone slowly over the length of the blade. Bucky admires her from afar. The concentrated look on her face, makes him chuckle. Her tongue resting between her lips out of concentration, not yet sticking out. 

When she looks up at Bucky, she beckons him to her. Unable to suppress a smirk, he walks over to her. "Would you like to learn?" She asks him. He is surprised. He is very interested in the long 40" swords and agrees to a lesson. 

"You have to be careful, these girls are very sharp."

"Girls?" he asks jokingly.

"M-hm." She hands one to Bucky. "What is your dominant hand? Right?" Bucky nods. Karol helps position his hands on the handle as they should, his dominant hand in front. She kicks his legs apart and in place until they stand in the right position. She leans close to him, her short body pressed against his tall, broad back, knowing exactly how this makes him feel. She feels audacious.

Bucky feels her body heat against his back, he sighs and tries to pull himself together. After all, he has a very dangerous weapon in his hand. "It's lighter than I thought." He brings out to distract himself from her body. Hmm those curves...

A small tree stands in front of them. "Now, you raise the Katana above your head..." Karol instructs. Bucky does as she says, slowly raising his arms up. "...now you're going to slice your target at a 45-degree angle, fast." He swallows. Being a bit nervous by the sharp blade in his hand, he does what she says. He quickly hits the tree with the Katana. He didn't feel any resistance, did he miss it? Before he can finish his thought, he sees the top of the tree slowly fall to the ground.