Stars Stripes and Metal

Watched

Bucharest, Romania. April 2015

Bucky stands in the shadows behind a vendor stall, eyes trained on the target. She's becoming predictable, he shakes his head disappointedly. She knows better than that. It's the fourth day in a row she's come to the same Cafe, sat at the same table and ordered the same thing. She stays for 5 hours - people watching- before slowly wandering around the market, talking to everyone in flawless Romanian. She blends in completely, like she was born here.

He follows her every evening into run down bar at the edge of town, where he sits three tables behind her at the bar. Close enough he can read her lips if she talks but far enough away he won't be spotted. Tonight she ordered whiskey on the rocks. Not her usual.

She holds the glass in her hand as she rubs her ring finger across her cheek, gathering the lone tear that fell. She sighs and sweeps her finger across her bottom lip before throwing her head back, finishing her drink. Bucky watches her hold the glass of ice against her temple. Her eyes are closed, he's struck by how beautiful she is. He watches the ice in her glass melt too fast, much too fast. He smiles. Hello my love.

He's been following her for two weeks. At first he thought he was seeing things, he thought he was finally losing his mind when the crowd broke in from of him two weeks ago and a short woman, petite but with curves that called to him immediately. He knew it was her. He knew her walk, her body better than anyone. Her hair is different, much shorter than he remembered. A new tattoo, the outline for a single 5 point star, under her left ear he noticed when the wind blew the short black strands away from her face. Angelic features brought to life by two impossibly green eyes. Eyes that flashed in his direction without meeting his gaze quickly before she covered them with sunglasses.

His heart nearly exploded seeing her. It had been two years and one month since he pushed the button and erased himself from her mind, praying her heart would remember for her if her mind couldn't. 766 sleepless nights, 767 painfully long days. And yet there she was, 30 yards away. He was so sure he was imagining her, he started following her until she gave him a clue that it really was her.

And there it was, finally the clue he needed. Only his Ana had the ability to super heat the glass to melt the ice in seconds without the glass exploding. It was her, if he could he would fly. Now to approach her, how? He watches her dig in her small bag and pull out a vibrating phone. She looks at the named displayed and her sees her shoulders move up and down dramatically, she's sighing. Clearly not wanting to talk to whoever is on the other end. She shakes her head and lift the phone to her ear.

Bucky watches the one sides conversation in the mirror in front of her, reading her lips. A sense of longing washes over him while staring at her mouth. Focus!

"Hey."

Long pause.

"Yes, I'm fine."

She looks down, "no I haven't found James."

James? She's looking for me. There is a God!

Another long pause, "If I don't find him soon, I'll come back."

She nods, "I know 6 months is a long time."

"No, I don't want to see Rogers."

"I sent you that information to help you find Rumlow, not to make up with Cap."

"I don't care Nat. I'm so close. I can... I can feel him."

"Maybe."

James watches a bartender approach Ana, seeing her on the verge of tears and offers her another drink. Ana nods, accepting. She throws it back like it was water.