Riley's Girl

Thanks for the Memories

-Sam's Perspective-
"You're an idiot Sam." Bucky says, as he goes to sit on the sofa, sighing as he spoke.

"I'm inclined to agree with the soldier Samuel." Zemo says.

"Back off. Both of you." You snap back, anger taking over. "She-She said something that threw me off." Your voice lowering to a whisper.

Bucky sighs as he throws his head back against the back of the couch, he furrows his brows "Wait... the rustle thing?" Be sceptically questions.

Sam remains stoic, nodding replying simply "yeah." As you feel the colour drain from your face.

Bucky shakes his head at you "Gonna need more pal."

"It was a thing we said to her. Every tome we went on a mission." You feel the lump forming in your throat as you try and choke the tears away.

You hear Bucky and Zemo sigh and can practically hear the judgement swirling in their heads. "Look, I know there's a lot of gaps in what's happened between us." You exhale "but... it's complicated. It's too much to go through with you both, right now."

Taking a minute you watch them both closely, both wearing unreadable expressions "just please trust me. I trust her. I know her."

Zemo has walked to a cabinet behind you, pulling out s small golden container, he shakes his head "whatever you say." He pulls out a small silver wrapper "Turkish delight?" He offers towards you, when you give him a look that can only be described as what the fuck man, he offers it to Bucky, who mimics your expression perfectly.

You shake your head and turn towards the kitchen island, leaning on its counter top, your mind wanders through the first time you'd ever heard those words...

-Sam's memories-
"Riley behave yourself on this mission, you hear me?" Y/N's voice was stern, but you could hear the faint smirk through the authoritative tone.

"Doesn't he always?" You jest back to Y/N.

"I mean it." She asserts, this time grabbing your attention "both of you. Please. Come back home safe." The earlier smirk or slight joking had vanished, the worry in her voice spoke volumes.

"Of course we will." Riley finally responds, comforting as he could manage. "Just listen for the rustle of my wings as I fly home to you, my girl." Riley rarely took anything seriously, this wasn't an exception. He understood why this was important to Y/N but he wasn't one for PDA, affection, reassurance. So the smirking and cringe feeling he felt was evident in his voice... but only to you.

But that's all that mattered.

Once you hear the relieved chuckle in your ear, that familiar chuckle that made you smile, you knew it worked. She leans in for a kiss before you both take off on your mission, Riley obviously accepting it, a quick peck, enough for them to not get in any trouble with the big guys.

"You're a dork, you know that right?" She whispers, a smile plastered on her face.

You smirk and take your run to set off "you're just jealous you don't have wings." You joke with her.

You suddenly hear a voice "Sam?" "Hellooooo?" "Hey man." "Sam!" You're jolted from your memory to the recognition of Bucky's voice. You turn to face him, "Hey Sam, you good?" The genuine concern through you off.

The normal brooding face didn't shock you, but the break in his voice as it trailed off. How deep did in your own head did you go?

You clear your throat "yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Just a lot of memories. Er-" you take a breath, as you feel a lump forming in your throat "a lot of pain." You gulp trying to dislodge the lump blocking your airway.

You turn back towards the kitchen island, the catch your breath, gather your thoughts and just compose yourself.

"She doesn't know, does she?" Bucky asks, rather delicately, surprisingly for him.

Nearly giving yourself whiplash and nearly falling backwards off the stool, you face him again "how did yo-?" You're cut off.

Bucky groans and closes his eyes, like he was in pain "because as much as I never wanted to admit this. I know you better than you realise Sam." That explained the pain-like expressions.

It was painful to hear.

Your miss takes you back to when you had that kind of familiarity with someone. With Riley.

-Sam's Memories-

Later whilst on the mission, you take a dive off the roof of the building you were using as surveillance, tailing a suspect vehicle known for trafficking - anything you could move, they would move. That's all needed to be said about them.

As you flew to the roof of their first drop off point, Riley comes on in your interpersonal comms with him. "Hey man, I owe a beer for that line." He chuckles "it helped ease her so easily." He chuckles agains, you could hear the smile and amazement, the disbelief that it worked.

"How did you come up with that? Listen for the rustle" he repeats the line, once again in utter disbelief it worked. "Genius."

Something in your gut drops, twists and rises to your throat like a volcano begging to erupt. "Just had a feeling she'd find it funny, so it'd distract her." You shrug it off as a hunch, a lucky guess, but you were lying.