Dark Arrow

Chapter Fifteen

I woke up to Loki with his arms around me. It felt oddly comforting, yet I couldn't help the guilty feeling that washed over me.
We hadn't done anything other than talk until the early hours of the morning. Yet having another mans arms around me felt weird. He was a friend and I shouldn't care, yet I couldn't help but wonder what Steve's reaction would be to this.

Crawling out from his embrace, I quietly got ready for the day. I planned on spending the morning training, it would keep my mind occupied. Overthinking wasn't something I felt like doing today.

I walked into the training room, loading up the program that Tony had assured me he'd updated. Again.
I was sweating, out of breath but yet to miss a target. It was nice to have a challenge for once.
I was concentrating so much, I hadn't noticed Bucky walking into the room and turning the program off. On instinct I shot an arrow in his direction. He caught it effortlessly.

"Shit. Bucky bear, sorry." I walked over to the weapon rack behind him, placing my bow and quiver back.
"If you keep shooting arrows at me, I may rethink our friendship." He teased.
"In my defence, you walked in mid training program."

Honestly, what else had he expected to happen?

"We need to talk. Sit." He gestured to one of the benches outside of the glass box I'd been training in. I opened the door and went over to one, taking the bottle of water he was holding out to me.
"Right I'm sitting. What's crawled up your ass today?" He was annoyed at something, and it definitely had nothing to do with arrow I'd shot at him.

He sat down next to me, an unsure look on his face.
"Look, it's about Steve so let me finish before you go all Rain on me." I couldn't even me annoyed at that, I was known throughout the compound as the hot headed one.
However the last thing I wanted to talk about right now was Steve.
"Can I turn the hearing aids off and pretend to listen?" I half joked.
"Rain, just stop."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." I gestured for him to continue.

"The kiss you saw between him and Sharon."

At least I know who it was now.

"Has absolutely nothing to do with me." I snapped at him.

He gave me his signature glare. Telling me to shut up without actually saying the words. I held my hands up in surrender so he could finish what he was saying.
"You missed the part where he pushed her away."
I was expecting him to defend the kiss, to say that there was nothing between Steve and I. The last thing I expected was to hear that I'd missed something.

The problem was I was done letting people in. Whenever I considered letting people in, I got hurt. Especially when it came to Steve. We we're better as colleagues and nothing more. We could make it work that way.
"I don't care Buck." I lied. "I'm done caring okay? It's not worth the hurt anymore."

He took my hand in his. "You can lie to yourself doll, but you can't lie to me. You already care about him and that irritates you."

I hated that he knew me so well. I stood, not wanting to be close to him at that moment. I was feeling vulnerable and I hated it.
"I'm not lying Buck."

Yes I am.

"I just can't afford to let my guard down anymore."

He sighed, shaking his head slightly. It wasn't often we disagreed on things.
Leaning forward on his knees, he looked up at me.
"You let it down for me."

"That's not fair."
I remembered back to the mission where I'd found him. The broken look I'd seen in his eyes when I'd found him in the run down apartment. I knew the look because I'd seen it in my own eyes. The feeling of guilt and loneliness.