𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝙰𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚗

Chapter 29: The Setup

(Bucky's P.O.V.)

The past couple of days have been excruciating for me. Angela could be extremely enticing at times, and I found that it was hard not to think about her. Everyone was in the dining quarters for breakfast. Claire and Angela offered to make pancakes, which of course, no one objected. Carol Danvers decided she'd better head back into whichever galaxy she left from so she didn't stay for breakfast. Since it was Sunday, Steve decided to give the weekly meeting speech.

"This week's patrol partners in the order of each shift is as follows," He says loudly so that everyone can hear him. His eyes glance down to a sheet of paper on the dining table. "Clint and Wanda; Vision and Nat; Bucky and Angela-" My eyes snap to Nat who's already looking devilishly at me. I shake my head at her and in return she mouths a 'you're welcome'. "-Sam and Peter; Claire and Thor. Tony has been working on new suit upgrades so please see him at some point. As for Director Fury's status, we still haven't heard from him." Damn. It's already been three-and-a-half months and he hasn't contacted us yet? That's odd. Angela leans close to my ear from next to me.

"Did I hear that correctly? I'm on patrol duty?" She asks.

"You sure are, Doll." She scrunches her nose at me.

"Why?"

"Because we trust you," I say with a shrug. She gives me a hopeful look.

"Does that mean I can finally get rid of these?" She holds up her wrists to me, showing me her black bracelets. I had forgotten she even had them on in the first place.

"Let me see if I can convince Steve later, okay?" She nods her head and turns back to her plateful of food. After breakfast, Ange is whisked away by Tony to make her a suit of her own. Nat and Steve are loading the dishwasher when I bring my empty plate into the kitchen. The redhead barely glances up at me before speaking.

"So how'd it go? Did my plan work?"

"How did what go?" I ask, trying to play dumb. She raises a brow at me as she hands a plate from the sink to Steve so he can load it onto the bottom rack of the washer.

"I heard some commotion in your room last night."

"Jesus, I'm not sure I'd classify you as a spy. Stalker is more like it." She shrugs as she continues handing Steve dirty utensils.

"The walls here are thin."

"That's no excuse," Steve chimes in with a small chuckle. "However I am interested to know what happened now." With a sigh I hand Nat my plate then cross my arms.

"We just talked."

"Bull," Nat says snarkily. "Did you bang?"

"Oh my God, no!" Steve laughs as he closes the dishwasher and leans on the counter to face me. "We just both couldn't sleep so we talked for a little while." Nat and Steve glance at each other with disbelieving expressions. "And almost kissed. Three times." Nat jumps up and down like a kid and punches my arm while Steve only smiles widely at me. Then Nat's smile falters for a moment.

"Wait, what do you mean almost?"

"She's still hesitant, and I don't blame her. The encounter wasn't exactly... trivial."

"What in God's name is that supposed to mean?" Steve asks.

"It means the timing just wasn't right. Everything will happen when it should, as it should." Nat rolls her eyes, Steve and I watching her as she slides past me.

"You men confuse me."