Daybreak Bucky Barnes [English Translation]

TWELVE

" ashes to ashes
dust to dust "
_______________

I'd just pulled James Barnes close to me to hide him from the mercenaries view - an ancient but very effective trick - and yet I suddenly realized that I was leaning into the kiss a lot more than I actually had intended.

My hands were on the collar of his jacket and I pulled him towards me with decisive force so that his lips almost merged with mine.

I wasn't sure if he was kissing back; I was too busy panicking that someone could see us in the shadow of the room divider.

His metal hand tried to push me away, and I broke the kiss. "Play with or we're both dead," I hissed, pretending to whisper something romantic in his ear.

I could already feel the mercenaries looking at us and the possibility of identification on our part seemed to spur even Barnes to maintain our cover.

Before I could even react, his lips were back on mine.

Neither of us seemed like a particularly gifted kisser, but what we lacked in skill we made up for with false passion.

His metal hand was on my waist as he lifted me a little so I wouldn't have to contort to get to his lips.

It was more makeshift than romantic, but it seemed to be working; seconds after we were targeted by the bounty hunters, they lost interest in us.

As soon as I was certain that they had left the shop through the main entrance, I broke away from Barnes, who was looking down at me with a mixture of confusion and anger.

"I'm sorry," I said truthfully. "That's the only thing that came to my mind."

His blue eyes, which for the first time seemed not only cold, did not reveal any emotion, but I found it strangely difficult to evade their spell. For a fraction of a second we stayed in our pseudo-familiar position until I stepped back from him, embarrassed, and picked up the waiter's change from the counter, which I had left there earlier.

I was halfway out the door when a cool metal hand grabbed my arm. I spun around in surprise.

He was standing in front of me, a strange look in his eyes.

The cool metal of his hand, strangely, didn't feel a bit strange on my skin, and I looked up at him in surprise.

"Barnes?" I asked concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I-" he began, before pausing for a moment. "We should get back to Steve."

"That's exactly what I was planning to do," I replied, irritated and the grip of his fingers slackened as I freed my hand from the metal and walked along the path out of the shop towards the parking lot.

My lips still felt strangely rough; the unwanted kiss was undeniably upon them, and no matter how hard I tried to distract myself, my thoughts reliably returned to the moment when he'd drawn me to him.