𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 | 𝑩𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒚 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒔

Six

The stars are bright, but clouded with smoke from where I lay out in the open with a cigarette in hand. I know that my body won't let me sleep until I'm in a safe location, but I'd spent many sleepless weeks making my way across Europe with Katya, so one sleepless night is nothing.

Steve and Bucky lay nearby, having talked for the past few hours considering the months they have to catch up on, but nothing's caught my attention until now.

"Tell me about her."

"About who?"

"Ada," Bucky says and I'm careful not to move, not to give away that I've heard anything. "Who else?"

"You mean the Russian spy you tried to take home at the expo?" Steve says and I press my mouth together, anxious to see where they take this.

"So, she's mentioned me then?" Bucky says and I hear the smile in his voice.

"After knowing her for nearly six months yeah, she mentioned it eventually," Steve says, still a little offended I kept it to myself. "Did you miss the Russian spy part?"

"I won't lie, I'm a little surprised but seeing her pull a pin out of a grenade with her teeth." He whistles in a way that has my face going warm. "That was something."

"Don't tell me you've got your eye on her."

"Why, do you?"

"Oh god no," I hear Steve say, and I'm offended almost as much as I'm relieved.

"You're telling me that you've spent six months with her and there's nothing there?" Bucky asks a little incredulously. "I mean, you've seen her right?"

The exasperation in Steve's voice is loud and clear. "Yes, I know she's pretty, but I can promise you that there's no attraction there. Besides, we couldn't be more different."

"So go on, tell me about her then," Bucky says, trying to goad him into giving his honest opinion, and that is a frightening prospect.

"She's brilliant, good at what she does, but even after knowing her for this long, I... I still know nothing about her." My smile falters slightly at the distrust in Steve's voice. "I'm grateful for what she's done, coming here with me to rescue you, but... even now she still feels like a stranger. The only time I've seen her take a half genuine interest in someone it was Howard Stark, but even then I can't be sure of what's going on there."

"She's with Howard Stark?" Bucky asks and my mouth opens, wanting to refute that but I continue lying there with a dying cigarette in my fingers.

"No, but he's got his eye on her. That much is obvious," Steve says before clarifying "Look, I'm not saying anything bad about her, just that I don't really know her. We've been out there performing together for months and we've bonded over that, but then I hear stories. Colonel Phillips and the rest don't trust her because of her history."

"So what if she spent some time in Russia?" Bucky says, as if it's a complete non-issue. "We're allied with them remember? I mean they might be Communists but they aren't Nazis"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean they're our friends," Steve says, repeating the viewpoint of most of the officials we deal with. Even if the president believes in upholding a good relationship with Stalin, the same can't be said for a generation that was raised to fear communism. "And they were happy enough to work together until they weren't."

"Alright, so what are you getting at?"

"She didn't just spend some time in Russia Buck, she worked directly for Stalin. I don't know the specifics but... it was bad."

There's a beat of silence before Bucky speaks. "Or was she forced to work for him?" My heart stops as he defends me, and I blink away tears as I look up at the sky. "She told me that- that the things they did to me they did to her, then there was everything else that Nazi was saying. Whatever she did before she ended up here, I don't think she did it willingly."