Bucky was in the gym a few days later, training with Steve and Sam. Sam was on the skipping rope, and Steve was holding the punch bag that Bucky was hitting.

Bucky was thinking about you. About who you were, your name, and why you were so...angry towards him. Maybe you did hate him? But he didn't remember doing anything particularly bad towards you, now or in the past. He barely knew you. But there was something there, behind the defensive wall you had up, and it was something that really intrigued him. What also intrigued him was the fact that you were apparently not allowed out of the lab.

"BUCK!"

Bucky blinked back to reality and looked up at Steve, who looked concerned.

"Are you okay? You were barely hitting it properly." Steve commented. Bucky looked back to the bag and stood up, out of his stance.

"Uh, yeah sorry. I was just thinking about stuff." Bucky replied, starting to take the tape off his hands.

"If you were a normal person," Sam teased across the room. "I would say that faraway look only happens for one reason - a girl." He smiled, stopping his jumps and heading over to them both as he chugged some of his water.

Bucky didn't reply.

Sam took the bottle from his lips, regarding his friend.

"Is...were you thinking about a girl?" Sam asked, the grin on his face getting bigger.

"No." Bucky muttered as he turned to shove the tape in his bag and get his own water bottle. Sam and Steve exchanged a look between them.

"It's okay to tell us, Buck. Did you meet someone?" Steve said, in his perfectly smooth, charming voice that Bucky knew he used all the time to get information from people.

Bucky sighed as he turned to face the pair. There was no point hiding it from them - they wouldn't give up until they knew anyway. They'd try and beat it out of him through awkward questions.

"Who is she?" Sam asked, his grin now threatening to eat his entire face.

"She's...she works with Stark." He finally answered, realising he couldn't give them your name seeing as he didn't know. He also still wasn't entirely sure what you did for Stark, other than help fix metal arms.

Sam whistled either way.

"She's Stark's assistant. I think." Bucky continued.

"Stark doesn't have an assistant?" Steve frowned.

"That's what they told me." Bucky shrugged."An assistant, personal ... secretary, or something."

"Why do we not know anything about an assistant?" Sam looked at Steve, who shrugged, his face giving away that he was trying to rack his brain."Wait, they told you?" Bucky nodded.

"Yeah, she works with Stark. I had to fix my arm, went to his lab, she was there, helped...fix it. With Tony. Now I seem to keep...running into her." Bucky rushed to explain, as his friends' eyes narrowed at him.

"So you were with this mystery girl, that no one has seen before, she fixed your arm, and Tony said she was his assistant?" Steve questioned, his voice in distrust of his story.

"Yup."

He could tell his friends didn't believe him. Hell, he wouldn't believe himself if he heard it. Steve had worked with Stark for a long time, and he would have remembered seeing someone working with him at some point. Bucky could tell that that's what Steve was trying to work out now.

He knew there was a weird...thing between Stark and you, with you being around people, about you going out and being safe. He kept you a secret all this time, and that must have been for a reason. But Bucky thought that Steve and Sam wouldn't do anything to threaten that, and it's not like Bucky knew your name to give them, so your identity was still technically a mystery.

"Stark doesn't need an assistant." Sam finally said. "He's the smartest dude ever. What would he need help with?"

"Well, he still only has 24 hours in a day. Maybe he got someone in to split the workload." Steve reasoned, his eyebrows still furrowed in confusion on how he missed someone working with the most famous part of this team.

"I think we should go and find out." Sam said, clapping his hands together suddenly. Bucky's eyes widened.

"No, no need. It's not even a thing. She just seems interesting. Not important." Bucky said in a panic, but he could tell his friends weren't convinced.

In fact, they were so unconvinced that they headed to the door. Bucky tried to call after them, to stop them, but they continued briskly walking down the hallway.

"It honestly isn't worth your time, it's just some ...engineer...person-" Bucky huffed as he ran after them, but Steve gave him one of his looks.

"There's a girl that can fix metal arms, works with Tony, and has been in this compound for a while without anyone knowing. Doesn't that seem suspicious?" Steve asked him calmly. "We do kind of deserve to know what's going on."

Bucky didn't have an answer to that. Steve was kinda right. Maybe he shouldn't have opened his mouth about you.

They turned the corner and headed to the lab, and Bucky felt his heart speed up. He couldn't envision a situation where this ends well, or where Tony doesn't yell at him. He still didn't know exactly why this girl had been kept a secret, and was restricted to the lab, but Stark knew that Bucky knew about it, so finding out he'd spilled the beans to Steve and Sam wouldn't be well received.

Bucky was once again dragged out of his thoughts by his friend yelling.

"Hellooooooo?!" Sam yelled through the lab, which he had barged into. Bucky had a quick scan around the room but didn't see you.

He did, however, see Tony coming out of the back room.

"What are you all doing here?" Tony asked, before turning to Bucky. "Did you break your arm again?"

"So he was here before, and you fixed his arm?" Sam said, pointing his finger at Bucky.

"Uhh..yeah.." Tony replied, his eyes narrowing as he looked between them.

"So we know half your story is right." Sam smirked at Bucky, who tried to hit him on the shoulder, but Sam was too quick and dodged out the way.

"Bucky mentioned that you had someone working with you." Steve mentioned, and Tony's demeanour completely changed. Bucky noticed. Tony's eyes hardened. His back stiffened. His shoulders tightened. He looked at Bucky.

"What did you tell them?" Tony asked, in a certain tone of voice that made Bucky want to leave the room. Bucky swallowed, keeping his mouth shut and he held the billionaire's gaze.

"He mentioned that there is a lady person who is your engineer assistant. Said she helped with his arm." Sam answered for Bucky, smiling as he folded his arms over his chest.

Tony paused before answering. Then he turned to Sam and plastered a blasé expression on his face.

"Yeah, I do have an assistant." Tony replied.

The room fell silent. Sam and Steve were clearly not expecting that response, because Bucky could practically see the cogs turning in their heads on how to reply.

"If that's all, I have stuff to be getting on with." Tony announced, stepping forwards with his hands out as if to shoo them out of the lab.

"What I don't get," Sam said, as he finally found his voice, making Tony freeze. "Is that if you have an assistant, how come we've never met her?"

"She's always around." Tony shrugged. "Bucky's met her."

"I've been in this compound for 3 years and not once heard you talk about an assistant." Steve interrupted, his eyes slightly narrowed as he regarded Tony. "What's her name?"

Bucky perked up a little at that. This whole time, since meeting you, he never once learned your name. He hoped Tony would change that.

He saw Tony looking flustered.

"It's... I don't really use her name." Tony replied after stuttering for a few seconds.

"Tony." Steve said, in his signature Captain America voice that basically said 'you're full of shit.'

"I don't. Can't remember. You'll have to ask her yourself." Tony shook his head.

"Alright, where is she?" Sam asked stepping forward to scout out the lab, but Tony stepped in front of him, warningly.

"Not here."

"Then if she's 'always about', she'll be at the party tomorrow, won't she?"

Tony stared at Sam, whose smile was challenging Tony to counter him with some excuse. But no excuse came. What did happen, was that Tony nodded.

"Great, we look forward to it." Sam clapped a hand on Tony's shoulder, then turned and headed out the door. Steve followed after a couple of seconds, leaving Bucky and Tony standing across from each other,with Bucky avoiding eye contact.

The door shut behind Steve and Sam. Then Tony spoke.

"I thought you witnessed our conversation about the fact that she wasn't allowed out of this lab." Tony growled. "I figured you were smart enough to also understand that she also isn't supposed to be known about."

"I didn't know." Bucky replied, then realised that that wasn't entirely true. "I mean yes I heard the conversation and I... I thought that might be the case but I -"

"If you thought that was the case then why are you talking about her to other people?"

"I just, I didn't think it was a big deal!" Bucky said, finally looking up at him. "I don't even know her name so neither do they!"

"Well you can shut down any further mention of her before this gets out of hand. And she won't be going tomorrow. I'd appreciate it in future if you stopped talking about things you don't even understand." Tony said, the bite under his words telling Bucky that it was the end of their conversation.

Bucky breathed in. Usually, when people spoke to him this way he would fight back. But with Tony, well, Bucky was still trying to earn his respect and his trust after Stark found out about his parents. Bucky knew arguing back would not help with that.

So he left.

He walked out of the lab, shutting the door behind him, then stood in the hallway taking a deep breath.

Why were you such a sensitive topic with Tony? It must be something bad, because Bucky had never seen the guy this protective, nor to the point he literally hid the person away.

Bucky knew the first time he saw you that there was something that intrigued him. Every interaction he'd had with you since just interested him more. And every interaction with Tony fueled the fire. Like knowing he wasn't supposed to...make him want to do it more.

One thing that Bucky did know, was that if you wanted to go to the party tomorrow, Tony wasn't going to stop you. You'd make that clear when you snuck out to see Thor. And he figured that you were lurking in the backroom while they were all just talking, which meant that you knew there was a party happening.

Bucky suddenly felt a little flip in his stomach at the thought that he might actually see you there, and he started smiling.