The Coffee Shop Girl ~ Bucky Barnes

Chapter 17

None of the Avengers knew what words had passed between Katia and Bucky in the interrogation room as Natasha had taken the liberty of asking FRIDAY to turn off all the cameras before leaving the area herself. None of them asked the two what had transpired that day, but they did not miss the way Bucky disappeared from the Compound more often than usual, almost always claiming he was on his way to the café. They didn't bother to question his actions any further as he always returned to the Compound with a variety of different types of bread for them to share.

This led to Tony sneakily trying to give him a credit card on various occasions, but he always found it placed back on the desk in his room, even though he was the only person other than Pepper who had the keycode to the penthouse area. When he complained about this to Natasha, the woman had merely pointed out that the former assassin must be worth millions, with the better part of eighty years of interest having built up in his account whilst he was with HYDRA. He didn't have any family to receive the money and so the government had kept paying a war veteran's pension into the account long after his disappearance, thanks to the fact that they had never found his body and so he couldn't really be officially termed dead. Besides, if Bucky didn't mind spending his money on bread, there wasn't much they could do about it but not complain and as far as Bucky was concerned, it was a good buy.

However, everybody also saw the dark bags which rested almost permanently under Bucky's eyes, clearly the result of more than a few sleepless nights. They also didn't miss the way he studiously avoided everyone's eyes first thing in the morning, refusing to talk until he had consumed the better part of half a litre of coffee and checked his messages, his mood often lightening whenever he saw whichever message Katia had sent him before she had made it to bed the previous night or first thing in the morning before she left for work.

Most of the Avengers were relatively unconcerned about his moody state - though Tony did at one point make a slightly snarky comment about him acting like a teenager - all of them knowing that they had been in a similar state at some point over the last ten years, even if not all of them would willingly admit to it, but there was one who knew that Bucky needed someone to at least try and help and she didn't care if anyone made a stage-whispered comment about her being a mother-spider based on her worry.

"Nightmares?"

The question was short and simple, getting directly to the point in the sort of way Natasha always did when it came to Bucky. His eyes didn't even flicker over to her as he continued to pour himself a cup of coffee, downing it in only a couple of gulps and then filling the mug once more, placing the nearly empty coffee machine back on the worktop for someone else to deal with as he moved to sit at the counter just along from Natasha.

Natasha would have pressed for a verbal response from him, but the single glance he threw in her direction as he dropped down beside her was enough to confirm her suspicions, his dark eyes flickering with flashes of forgotten pain and fear, things she completely understood, even if her situation hadn't been exactly the same as his.

"What about?" She asked next, piercing eyes staying fixed on the mug of coffee sitting in front of her in her best attempt not to pressure him into answering her question.

When Bucky did not respond, she ran a hand slowly through her red hair, reflecting momentarily on whether she thought it was time for a new style before she reminded herself of the situation in front of her and tried again.

"The helicarriers?" She asked, almost hoping that this was the answer as it would at least mean she could do something about it. Though she might not be able to convince Bucky that he was not at fault for what had happened, she knew that it might be good for him to sit down properly with Katia in a no-stress environment and properly discuss everything that had happened during Katia's career working for SHIELD, especially the day that it ended officially - though Natasha was well aware that Katia held more sway at SHIELD than most people who were employed there, having some strange hold over Nick Fury that no-one could explain.