Hello Sergeant (Bucky Barnes)

Ouch

Sarah's POV

"Nothing's wrong! I'm perfectly fine, James," I ground out, not wanting to admit anything to him - or to myself. I could come up so many reasons why it would be better for James to live with Steve, but my heart didn't want to listen to my brain right now. There was absolutely no logical reason why I should be upset about it, but I was. Stupid teenage emotions.

"If that were true, these wouldn't be here." James rubbed the pad of his thumb across my cheek and showed me when it came away wet. "Try again - the truth this time. Why are you upset, Sarah?"

He held me firmly in his arms, and I knew that he wasn't going to let me go until I answered him. I thought about saying that I was overtired, which was true, but I quickly settled on something that would be believable.

"I think I'm just surprised by how quickly this change is happening," I said slowly, pulling back from him. I'd naïvely thought I'd have more time before things changed this drastically. James and I had just started to settle into being comfortable around each other as well, and I didn't want that to go away.

"You don't think I'm ready?" he asked quietly, searching my face.

"No, I don't," I answered honestly, thinking about how radically different he'd acted last night. "But I honestly hope you prove me wrong, James. Maybe living together like you used to will help bring back your memory of Steve for good."

"I hope so, but I still need you too, Sarah – more than you'll ever know."

"I'm going to go shower now."

I didn't want to have this conversation right now, so I gave him a quick hug and kissed his cheek, stepping past him to go into the bathroom. A little while later, I wrapped the towel around myself so I could go get dressed. I stepped out of the bathroom, shaking my wild hair out of my face and rebounded off a hard male body again, slamming my nose into his chest again, a lot harder this time.

"Ouch! My poor nose," I groaned as I shoved my hair back and looked up at James, my other hand going to my already tender nose.

"I'm sorry, Sarah. I was just going to tell you – Sarah, you're bleeding!"

"Shit!" I said as I felt warm blood roll down my face.

James' face went white and I glimpsed panic in his eyes before I ran back to the bathroom to lean my head over the sink until it quit bleeding. The coppery tang of blood was strong as I breathed through my mouth. I heard the door open as James went to go get Steve. I pinched the bridge of my nose, holding the spot that usually helped it quit faster. I'd hit James harder than I thought to give myself this bad of a nosebleed.

"Sarah, are you okay? I couldn't understand what Bucky was trying to tell me; he lapsed into Russian." Steve said worriedly, coming into the bathroom and stopping in the doorway. I glanced up at him as he assessed the situation.

"I'll be fine. I hit my nose really hard on James." I would have laughed if I knew it wouldn't make me bleed more right now.

"Is it broken?" he brushed my hair back behind my ear so he could see my face better.

I could touch it and the initial pain of impact had faded already, so I told him, "I don't think so. It doesn't hurt like it is."

He blinked at my reasoning, visibly concerned that I was still bleeding as much as I was. It had finally slowed to a drip instead of a stream, at least. "I've never seen you bleed like this from a hit to the face, and I've seen you take some hard ones before."

"It was like walking face first into a brick wall; my hair was in my face and his chest is as hard as yours." I grinned at him, making light of it. "You better go calm down Bucky before he gets too upset and tell him I'm not mad at him or anything; it was an accident."