It's Forbidden

As It Was

The next day Aspen had decided to go talk to Steve. To try and really have a conversation with him. He was in the training room hitting a punching bag. Several actually. He hit them until they busted, then got a new one. And he did this until whatever he was trying to work through got better and then he stopped.

When she walked in, he was so into his mind and hitting the punching bad he didn't see Aspen walk in. Even after he had broke one and put a new one up. She let him hit it a few more times before announcing herself. She had a feeling he was thinking about her and Bucky, even though there was no her and Bucky.

"Hey." She said walking closer to him. He looked over, stopped hitting the punching bag for a moment, "hey, what're you doing here?" He asked. And then he continued to hit it. He didn't use as much force as he had before. Obviously trying to seem a lot more cool and collected now that Aspen was here.

"I came to talk to you." she said. "About what?" He asked. As if he didn't already knew. What else would she have wanted to talk to him about other than what had happened yesterday morning? A lot because he was her brother, but what would she interrupt his training time for other than that? "About yesterday morning." She tells him.

He stopped hitting the punching bag and looked at her, then looked away. "What about it?" He asked. He walked over to his gym bag, clearly done with his training now that Aspen had interrupted him, and the topic she had interrupted him with. "You just left after. You didn't say anything." Aspen says.

Steve starts unwrapping his hands. Medical tape and pre wrap on his knuckles so he wouldn't bruise or injure his knuckles as he hit the punching bags. Not that he cared but it wouldn't look great if Captain America walked around with bruised and cut up knuckles, even though his job was to fight bad guys.

"I didn't think you needed me. You had Bucky." Steve said bitterly as he went to unwrap his other hand and throw the tape and pre wrap into his bag. "Steve don't be like that." Aspen told him. Steve looked at Aspen frustratedly. "You're the one who told me I don't understand and Bucky does. So I left you alone." Steve said. "You and Bucky."

Steve had been even more hurt than he was before. His sister telling him she didn't tell him about things because she didn't think he understood. And she was right, he didn't understand. But he could still be there for her, and he could still listen. He could still try to be supportive. Not all of him wanting to be there for her was just him not wanting her to go to Bucky. He did care about her. She knew this. But it was hard for her to open up about everything just like it was for Bucky.

Aspen felt anger rise in her whenever Steve talked down on her and Bucky, about talking to each other, about being anywhere near each other. Anything. If Steve had a tone in his voice when he said something regarding her or Bucky, she got upset. "Why do you hate it when Bucky and I are together? We're not dating. He's my best friend." Aspen says.

Quickly, almost to quickly, Steve snaps back. "He was mine first." He says. His and Aspen's eyes snap to one another's at his words. And it was true, Bucky was Steve's best friend first, but he had introduced Bucky and Aspen and for the longest time, before the war, before all of it, they were all best friends, all three of them. There were no complications. None like this.

"That's what this is? You're jealous?" Aspen asks him. "Do you remember what we discussed when we first started hanging out together? Do you remember what you promised me?" Steve asked Aspen. And she did remember. And if she was being honest, if she could go back she would take back her promise. Not because she wanted to be with Bucky, but because how often Steve held it over her head even if it was irrelevant. "Steve that was forever ago." Aspen said.

*

As Aspen and Steve walk down the street to meet Bucky, Steve looks to Aspen. It was her first time meeting Bucky despite him and Steve being friends for so long. Steve had never introduced them for this reason and he was waiting until Aspen was over twenty one because they mostly drank and went to parties when they hung out with Bucky, even if Steve didn't do much partying.

"Aspen he's my best friend." Steve says. " I get he's good looking but don't go there with him, please." Steve asked her. And Aspen agreed, because she could never have imagined anything that would happen just a few short years later. "I won't. I promise." Aspen says as she locks eyes with the one and only James Buchanan Barnes.

He waves with a giant smile on his face. They meet, standard introduction, until he gave her a look she would never forget. And Aspen knew why he was forbidden, his charm, his smile. Not just because he was Steve's best friend but because he was very much a ladies man.  "I see which one of you got the good looks of the family." Bucky says to Aspen. "I see you trying to flatter me sergeant. And it's not going to work." She says to him with a smile.

*

"I'm not saying I want to be with him, but even if I did Steve, everything is different now. It's not the same as it was." Aspen tells him. And she was right. Everything was so different now. "It's not, you still promised me Aspen. And this is why. Not only are you taking over my best friend but I  don't want you getting hurt." Steve says.

He didn't think Bucky would intentionally hurt Aspen, but both of them were so broken, so damaged, especially Bucky. He was afraid Bucky would self destruct and if Aspen was close enough, he'd take her down with him. And he hated that idea. More than the idea of them together. "Bucky would never hurt me. And jealousy isn't a good look on you Stevie." Aspen tells him before walking out of the room. Their argument not resolved, and it wouldn't be, not anytime soon anyway.