Winter (A Bucky Barnes recovery story)

8. Snow

Bucky wakes and walks into the kitchen. He looks over at Natasha who had started to make a habit of coming over and hanging out or crashing on his couch and to be truly honest he didn't mind. He enjoyed her company.

She was always complaining how many holes he'd put into his clothes though. He walks to the window and looks out. He stares at it in awe, everything was covered in snow.

He sits cross legged on the kitchen counter and stares out the window.

Natasha wakes up nearly and hour and a half later, she stands up quietly and sees Bucky. "James?" she calls softly, he doesn't reply so she walks over to him. She puts a hand on his shoulder. "James?" She repeats.

Bucky practically jumps up in the air and then falls of the counter backwards his legs tangled up and his arms to stiff to be of much use. He hits the floor and stares up at Natasha. He coughs then says. "You scared me."

"I scared you! James you scared me! why didn't you reply?!" She shouts, he looks away.

"I didn't hear you." He mumbles, she sighs and then sits down on the floor next to him.

"Why where you so quite. Where you remembering something?" she asks, she pushes a strand of hair from his face.

"Well... Somewhat, I was remembering being cold. Really cold." He says, then shivers as if the feeling still lingered. She nods.

"Maybe Steve would help you make sense of that." Bucky nods stiffly. "Are you okay?" She asks, feeling guilty.

"Fine." He replies.

"Then here, let's get you up." She says, offering him a hand. He shakes his head. "Why not? Are you hurt?"

"Well no. I'm not hurt but both of my legs are asleep." He says, gesturing to where his legs remained tangled together. She laughs, "It's not funny." He whines, trying to mask his pain. A small headache was beginning to blossom.

"Are you sure you're okay James?" she looks at him worried. He nods but then clutches his head. "No you aren't. What's wrong."

"I get headaches. When I remember." he says softly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" she asks, looking at him in frustration.

"I don't want to bother you guys anymore." He says quietly, feeling like he wants to disappear.

"James. You really need to stop doing this." She says, "You can't just not tell us things cause you think you're a burden. You need to open up. Were here to help."

"Okay. Fine." He replies pushing himself into a sitting position.

"Can you stand on your own or do you need help." She asks, standing up.

"I think I'll need help." he replies, accepting her hand. He nearly falls over again but Natasha supports him.

"How long were you sitting there for?"

"An hour and a half. Possibly two." He shrugs.

"You sat there like that for almost two hours! You didn't say anything or even move!" She exclaims, he shakes his head.

"Nope. I want to go out today. Can we?" he asks, stretching his legs and then looks at her excitedly his headache nearly gone.

She nods. "What do you want to do?" He shrugs.

"I don't know."

"What about ice skating?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Ice skating?"

"Ice skating." She says nodding.

"Okay. I guess, I'm gonna go get dressed."

"I'll call Steve." She picks up her phone and dials the number. He nods and disappears into his room. "Steve. Were going ice skating."

"What?" He mutters groggily, from the other end of the line.

"We're going ice skating today. You have ten minutes to get here." Natasha says then hangs up after she hear's sure from Steve.

Bucky walks out wearing a black leather jacket with a white long sleeve shirt and a pair of black jeans.

"Nice." Natasha says doing a once over. He just nods, they wait out front for Steve. Steve shows up and they all get into a taxi. When they reach the outdoor ice rink they put on their skates Natasha leads Bucky out onto the ice.

"See not that hard." She says, standing in front of him.

"Yeah. I wish." He mutters, stepping forwards. He slips and falls with a frustrated grunt. Natasha laughs and skates over to him and gives him a hand. She pulls him up to his feet.

Steve comes up behind them with an armful of snow. He dumps it on Bucky and Natasha. Bucky turns around muttering curses, Steve laughs and races away. Bucky grabs a fistful of snow and molds it into a snowball he throws it at Steve and hits him directly on the shoulder.

Natasha takes some snow and puts it down Bucky's shirt. He jumps nearly a foot in the air then falls again. Natasha skates off in the opposite direction and disappears as Steve tries to pelt her with snowballs.

Bucky pulls of his ice skates and stands bare footed on the ice. He chases after Steve and finds him. He waits silently then pounces, he lands on Steve then white washes him. Steve flips Bucky over and he lands on his back with a huff.

"Here you go." Steve says, as he whitewashes Bucky, returning the favor. Bucky kicks and squirms, then breaks free and chases after a small flash of red hair.

Natasha turns on Bucky and hits him with snowballs. He throws up his arms to protect his face, Steve comes up from behind him and throws at Natasha. Bucky takes this as his opportunity and sprints off away from them.

He hides behind a bush and catches his breath. Then he realizes he can't feel his feet. He looks down and sees a bloody foot print. Then he looks at the bottom of his foot and sees the bottom of his foot is cut up and bleeding.

Natasha looks down and sees bloody foot prints in the snow. "Steve, look at this."

Steve looks to where she's pointing and sees the footprint. "Follow it." He says. She nods and follows the foot prints until they see Bucky behind a bush.

"James!" Natasha exclaims, kneeling next to him.

"What happened Buck?" Steve asks, looking at his bare feet.

"I took my ice skates off." He replies quietly.

"Why didn't you put your shoes on!" Natasha says, looking at him stunned. He shrugs.

"Whatever, let's just get you home." Steve says, him and Natasha help Bucky up. "Get on my back."

Bucky stares at him as if he had two heads. "No. I can walk."

"James, just do it." Natasha says, huffing at his stubbornness.

"No." He says, shaking his head.

"Fine." Steve sighs, he picks Bucky up and slings him over his shoulder. Bucky let's out a surprised yelp then glares at Natasha who just shrugs.

"It for your own good." She says, he sends her one last glare then slumps against Steve. They grab the shoes and ice skates then get into a taxi. They reach Bucky's apartment and Steve carries him up the stairs.

Natasha wraps bandages on both his feet. He shuffles to the bedroom much to Steve and Nat's dismay. He curls up under the sheets and falls asleep.

Natasha says goodnight to Steve when he leaves and then sleeps on Bucky's couch.