(1) Wild Cat (B.Barnes)

Chapter Eleven

Bucky lays on his front on the bed, picking at the food on a tray at his side. Tati stands at the window looking out over New York, her eyes soft and sad. This was her home once. She's not sure it is anymore. She barely slept the night before. Tossing and turning. He knows she is going to have some trouble getting used to normality again, and chances are, it is all about to be turned upside down again when they leave. She should be resting. But she will not do as she is told. Steve's going to just love having her as part of a team.

"I wonder where they buried him" she muses, Bucky frowns a little. "Abraham" she explains.

"You don't know?" he asks, she shakes her head.

"No" she admits. "No, I wasn't allowed to go to his funeral, and no one told me where he was so...I guess they assumed I wouldn't be able to leave to see him anyway" Bucky clenches his jaw a little and pushes back on his anger. Not at her. But at those people. She takes a breath and then leans up to make her way to the food cart. Her fingers grasp a bread roll before she moves on. "What is this?" she asks, Bucky glances to her and then to where she is looking. The case Howard had given them when they'd left. The case for her. Tati takes a bite of her bread roll as he grabs his own toast from the tray.

"Howard handed it over" Bucky answers as he bites into his toast, Tati cocks her head and traces the top of the case. "It's for you" he assures her. Bucky's eyes watch her. She unlatches the locks and then opens it. She cocks her head staring into the case.

"It's a..." she frowns. "I don't know what it is" Bucky moves to her side, his hand soft on the small of her back as his eyes follow hers.

"It's a suit" Bucky offers. "Like the one Steve has" he touches the fabric and lifts it out of the case revealing an all in one black catsuit. "What do you think?" he asks holding it closer to his own body. "Black my colour?" She laughs and then looks down.

"I don't think you have the cleavage for it, Junior" She comments as she reaches for the zip on the suit, he smirks, glad to see her smiling and laughing again. She takes the suit from him and looks over it as Bucky glances into the case, there is a letter sat there with Tati's name on it. Her real name. Tatiana Kyle.

"Tati" He states, she hums and turns to him. "It's for you" she glances at the letter and then snatches it out of the case, Bucky blinks a little at the speed. She sets the suit down and tears into the letter pulling it from the envelope. He waits for her to read it.

"Abraham, he...asked Howard to make me the suit" she reads, her eyes turning sad as she sits on the edge of the bed. "He thought I might need one that could better protect me when I was..." she smiles a little. "Prowling" Bucky smirks. "He says it should move better with me, that they'll be less wear and tear" she ends on a whisper. "It even matches my goggles"

"These?" Bucky asks lifting her goggles from the case and setting them over his eyes. She nods.

"They were my mothers" she answers. "They are all I have of hers" Bucky lowers the goggles and gives her a sad smile.

"Did she bike?" he asks as she moves towards him.

"No" she shakes her head and takes the goggles from him. "She used to like climbing to the tallest point of a town or a city and just...." she lets out a breath. "Watch the world go by, but the tallest points could be....dusty, so she wore these to protect her eyes" she runs her thumbs over the goggles. Bucky gives her a sad smile knowing that she was too young to have lost her mother when she did, and having nothing but a pair of goggles to remember her by is horribly lonely. He can't imagine what it's like for her. To have family stolen from her, time and time again. She takes a deep breath and looks at Bucky. "Thank you" she offers, he raises an eyebrow. "For looking after me" she gives him a sad smile. "You and Steve, you didn't have to..."

"Of course we did" he argues. "We weren't going to leave you in that place"

"So what happens now?" she asks him. He takes a breath and moves closer to her.

"Steve will talk you through it" Bucky assures her. "But..basically he's putting together a little team, and we're going to kill some Nazis" She laughs a little and looks up at him. "We want you to come with us"

"You do?" she asks him, he nods. "To use my abilities?"

"If you don't want to fight, then you don't have to" he assures her. "I'd feel better if you were with us, at least then I would know you weren't locked away somewhere" she glances at him.

"Okay" she whispers. "I'll go with you" she clutches to the goggles in her hands. Bucky crouches in front of her and touches her knee.

"If this is not what you want, Kitten" he whispers. "You can say no" she lifts her eyes to meet his. "People have been telling you what to do for long enough....and yes, you might have to follow Steve's orders now and then, but it's not to control you, it is to keep you and us safe, and to protect other people" she nods a little.

"I can do that" she assures him. "Using my abilities for good" she offers, he nods. "I can do that" she repeats. He smiles softly at her and nods proudly. "I think it's something Abraham would have wanted"

"Yeah, he'd be proud of you" Bucky assures her, they share a look, he leans closer and brushes his lips over hers before he stands. "Now eat up, we have to meet Steve in an hour"