Winter's Soulmate | Winter Soldier ✔

Chapter Twenty Eight

~Amelie's POV~

I pulled my knees to my chest, watching as Winter shuffled a little in his sleep, burying his face into his pillow.

A sliver of early morning sunlight peered around the crack between the curtain and wall, and illuminated the room enough for me to see his arm flexing as he let out a tiny snore.

I didn't have the heart to tell him about the visitors he had. I was called to meet them in the reception, but by the time I got back upstairs, T'Challa and Shuri were waiting to discuss the new arm and healing methods.

It had been two days, and I hated not telling him. He needed to know.

He had a whole family out there, and he didn't know.

An older teenager and a young girl had been sitting on a sofa in the reception  with a large box of possessions between them. They were kind, and explained that their Grandmother had grown up as a friend of Steve Rogers, and since she had moved into a nursing home they had discovered a box of his belongings. They knew he lived at the Tower and hoped someone could pass them on.

The box was heavy, and I made it halfway to Steve's door when the bottom of the box broke. Scattered on the floor were sketchbooks filled with drawings, a thin tie, a small comb, and a handkerchief with SR stitched in baby blue in the corner.

As I was fixing the box and putting everything back, a small photograph slipped out the back of a sketchbook. Steve was stood beside a younger teenager, smiles big and stretched across their faces. He looked so different, it must have been taken before his serum.

Beside them was Bucky Barnes. Not my Winter, how he is now. But Bucky stood proudly next to the girl, his hand pressed against his chest as he laughed along with the others.

I slid it back into the book of drawings, and noticed on the front page, Bucky's name.

These weren't all Steve's.

I asked the children before I headed to the lifts for their names.

Tom and Jules Barnes.

I needed to tell him. Today.

He yawned, and rolled onto his back, shuffling towards me as he slowly woke up, eyes fluttering as he stretched his arm above his head. "Good morning." His voice was thick with sleep, rough and scratchy as he rolled onto his side.

We lay facing each other, eyes moving across the others' face. He smiled, and lifted his hand to my cheek. The contact warmed my skin, sending a shiver down my spine.

"You're awake."

"I am," I wrapped my arms around my pillow, moving closer under the covers.

"Are you okay?" He mumbled, eyes searching mine as he cupped my chin, his thumb stroking my hair off my face.

I nodded. He was always alert when he was with the others, or outside of this room. I would let him wake up, and tell him later. "I'm good. I have work today though, what are you going to get up to?"

He smiled as I spoke, his eyes meeting mine for a moment as he paused, "I'm going to find Shuri before she leaves."

"You mean-?"

He nodded, smile nervously growing larger, "I'm going to have the arm. She told me there's ways to remove it, and I can give someone a remote that can detach it from a distance, just in case. I want you to have it."

I snuggled back further down the bed, wrapping my arm around his waist as I moved closer to his chest. "I'm sure I will never need it."

"Have it anyway." His lips pressed against the top of my head, his hand trailing my hair through his fingers.