Buried Knives (A Bucky Barnes enemies to lovers story)

Part 21: Making The Effort

The creek of machinery and deep, heavy breathing surrounded them.

Alex was stretching beside Bucky. Reaching her arm over her head. Then behind her neck.

After the whole scenario with the test things had been weird, tense. She might have been laughing but Bucky could tell she was annoyed.

And he felt bad. Surprisingly, he really did. It irked him that she wasn't meeting his eyes. That it was his fault. That he pushed her in a way that made her uncomfortable.

So he decided investigating Hydra could wait an hour. They needed to burn off some steam.

So they went to the gym.

He'd managed to lose his phone at some point yesterday so while Alex was in the bathroom getting changed he'd slipped down to the reception to ask where the nearest one was. The lady at the front desk hadn't been very welcoming, grunting answers to his questions and silently pointing to her computer screen instead of actually telling him where to go.

It was worth it for the way Alex's eyes had lit up, even if it was just for a second. She munched on the pastry on the way there. Practically skipping down the road. The mornings events semi forgotten.

Now she was shaking her arms out, glancing toward at him skeptically. "Is part of your stocky hero thing that you don't allow people to see you work out? Make them think you were just born with wash board abs."

He rolled his eyes but she was already walking away.

"You should stretch," she called behind her. Flicking on a treadmill and starting to walk, slowly building into a run.

Bucky followed her. Claiming the treadmill to her left.

She had already reached quite a speed, pumping her arms. He followed her lead. They ran for a few minutes.

Bucky glanced over at her. Her long hair was up in a ponytail, pulled through the back of a black cap, her hair bouncing against her back with each step. She was wearing a grey sweater, sleeves pulled up to her elbows. But her legs were covered in dark leggings, showing off the powerful muscles as she ran.

She looked over at him and he looked away. Back at the buttons of the treadmill.

"So..." she began, "the winter soldier?"

"Sshh." He hissed, looking around so make sure no one heard.

"We are literally the only people in the gym right now." She gestured to the almost empty gym. The only other people were far away on the other side of the space. She looked back at him. "I'm curious. You're a legend."

"We'll I don't want to talk about it." He grumbled, turning up the speed on the machine. How the hell was she going so fast? And not even breaking a sweat.

"Come on. Want to do a thing for a thing?" She glanced at him hopefully.

"What?" He blinked.

"I say I thing. You say an equally traumatic thing. We bond over being messed up."

He rolled his eyes.

"Please." She begged, adjusting the gradient of the treadmill so she was running up hill. "You owe me for being an asshole earlier."

He stayed silent.

"Barnes," she whined.

He shook his head, sighing. She continued watching him expectantly. Not even paying attention to her legs or the treadmill under her. How she didn't trip, Bucky had no idea.