To Go Unseen (A Natasha Romanoff Story)

1 [Washington, D.C.]

Bucky Barnes was just beginning to learn this about himself, but he liked long car rides. It was relaxing, both driving and being driven, and he liked to look out the window and watch buildings and rows of snow-covered farmland and other people in other cars pass by.

The rental car felt new and it smelled new. Natalia, known to the world as the Black Widow and known to Bucky as his girlfriend, had picked it up the night before and they’d taken off that morning, months after Bucky’s escape from Hydra. It wasn’t a threat anymore. Bucky was healing.

He watched Washington D.C. become fuzzy in the horizon behind them. The darkness sinking back behind the rising of the sun was beautiful.

“Steve says hi,” Bucky read texts to Natalia from his cell phone while she drove, sinking into his seat with his knees on the dash. “And he says to drive carefully.”

“I’m a better driver than him any day,” Natalia scoffed and she looked over at Bucky and, smiling, rolled her eyes. “I’m careful. Tell him that.”

“He also says to send pictures of the Grand Canyon once we get there,” Bucky added. “He envies the warmth, I think.”

“We’ll even get him a postcard,” Natalia said cheerfully and then she was looking forward out the window at the long highway in front of them and her smile faded a little. “We’ll only be out a week and a half tops. Tell him that. We’ll be back before he even knows we’re gone.”

“I’ll tell him,” Bucky said and he looked back down at his cell phone and felt a little worried. He’d been feeling worried, ever since they took off, that even though he’d wanted it, maybe leaving wasn’t such a great idea, but Steve swore he’d be fine and Bucky had left him with Sam Wilson and Sharon Carter and had promised to call and text often. There was a quiet in the car then, a contrast from where, ever since the morning, there had been talking, playful flirting and conversation. Bucky swallowed.

It was February now, a few weeks since Steve had asserted to Bucky that he wasn’t going to attempt death and Bucky was proud of him, and so relieved to see him getting better, but he still felt anxious leaving him behind, even if it was only for a week or so. In fact, he still had the stressful nightmares every so often of Steve dead.

“He’ll be fine,” Natalia said too loudly in the quiet and she was reassuring herself as much as she was reassuring him. “He’s doing so much better.”

“Yeah, he is,” Bucky said and he looked out the window and his mouth was going dry. He felt Natalia place a hand on his knee and he looked over just long enough to see her make eye contact with him before she had to turn back to the road.

“You’re supposed to be having fun, remember,” she said and she glanced over again quickly to smile at him. “You need this. And look, if we get the slightest idea he’s having problems, I’ve got plane tickets lined up to get us back there.” The plane tickets were also for him, Bucky knew. Natalia hadn’t wanted to go so far from home yet, she hadn’t wanted to take Bucky out of his comfort zone, but Bucky had wanted it. And just in case, he knew, just in case things didn’t go as planned, they could go home immediately.

The drive was long, and quiet, and there wasn’t much to look at and Bucky had cranked up the car’s heater and now, he leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes and began to fall asleep.

Several hours later, when Natalia shook Bucky gently awake, he opened his eyes and sat up stiffly to find they’d pulled into a gas station.

“My turn to drive?” He asked.

“Not yet,” Natalia said as she unbuckled herself from her seat and pulled the keys out of the ignition. Bucky heard the car hum itself into silence and Natalia pushed the door open and then leaned over and kissed the side of his face. “Would you pump the gas? I’ll get us snacks.”

“Sure,” Bucky said and pulled his windbreaker back on as he watched Natalia walk up towards the convenience store. It was cold as he stood there outside the car, waiting on the gas pump, breathing hot on his right hand before he crammed it back into his pocket and shivered.

Bucky didn’t get out much, which was part of the reason they were taking this trip in the first place, but even though he usually kept to himself in his and Natalia’s DC apartment, he was used to the stares. He got them in the streets, and out at restaurants. People recognized him from off the news or from World War Two text books and they gaped at his prosthetic and made him distinctly uncomfortable. He was stared at often, but that didn’t mean he didn’t notice it then and it didn’t mean he didn’t notice it now.

There were other people with cars standing outside in the cold February air and Bucky felt eyes on him. He looked up. Two people were staring. He stared back, hoping that meeting their eyes would be enough to make them turn, but it wasn’t, and Bucky was finally the one to look away, somewhat disturbed.

He turned behind him. There were more people on the other side of the lot, staring.

Three more to the side.

A couple more by the store.

Bucky swallowed and rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. They weren’t even whispering, or pointing, or making faces. They simply stood there and…

It was cold, and the sky had gone grey, and every single person in the parking lot had stopped to turn and silently, unabashedly, stare at Bucky Barnes.

The click from the gas pump startled Bucky, and he pulled his hands out of his jacket pockets to take the pump from the car and pay the machine. When he turned around, one of the staring men had approached him. Bucky looked at him with a sense of growing unease and backed away. Meanwhile, the man ignored Bucky almost completely and, with his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket, examined their car. Bucky watched him, incredulous, while the man walked up and down and studied the tires. He was the only person in the parking lot to now completely ignore Bucky. However, when he began to peer into the windows, Bucky roused himself from staring in disbelief.

“Can I help you??” He said, half in anger and half in surprise, but before the man could look up and respond, a voice interrupted him.

“James!” Natalia cried and the man in front of Bucky turned around and backed away. Natalia jogged to the car and Bucky noticed her position herself in between him and the man. He wondered if it was purposeful. She looked up at him and smiled, resting a hand on his forearm. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Bucky said and Natalia turned and slung open the drivers side door and slipped herself inside with a strange sort of urgency. Bucky felt that everyone here knew something he didn’t.

“Come on, then,” Natalia called and Bucky hurried around to the other side of the car to join her. The man pulled his shoulders back, stood up taller, and pressed his hands deeper into his jacket pockets. He was still staring at the both of them now, down his nose, and Bucky looked away, unsettled. Natalia fit the key into the ignition and started the car and as soon as it was on, she pressed the gas to the floor and peeled out of the gas station lot. Bucky looked behind them to see all those strange, silent people turn to stare after them and a chill went down his spine.

“What was that,” Bucky said after the gas station had faded into the distance and Natalia looked over at him.

“What was what?” She asked cheerfully and Bucky swallowed and then began to shake his head.

“I guess… Nothing,” he said.