Bucky left you on your own, with a complete fucking mess of feelings swirling round your head as you watched his figure disappear out the doors.

You yelled out. In annoyance. In frustration. It felt like the lights flickered as you screwed your eyes shut.

He was being an asshole. You wanted it. You were so close.

You wanted it.

Well, you obviously wanted... the stuff. Not Bucky himself. If anyone else had said those kind of things, done those kinds of things, you would have wanted it with them. It just so happened that it was Bucky.

Yeah, that's obviously what was going on.

It wasn't Bucky that you liked, it was all the physical bits. Two completely separate things.

After a few minutes of glaring at the floor, you finally got yourself together and headed to your room, determined not to cross paths with the supersoldier ever again.

Bucky, on the other hand, felt like he was in the best mood of his life over the next few days, a smile permanently on his face, and he didn't even notice his muscles aching as he trained. He hadn't heard from you since he you that day in the gym, but he wasn't expecting it. He had all the answers he needed, and knew you would be trying to rationalise the events, and probably trying your best to avoid him.

You'd be back before you knew it.

From the minute he met you in the lab, he knew that there was something about you. Something that interested him. Something he liked. The time he spent with you, even though you weren't particularly willing, just heightened his intrigue, and the last two times he'd seen you in the gym just made him realise that you were also attracted to him, which fuelled the fire even more. Falling into that dynamic with you was just so fucking easy, and he found that he was actually enjoying it. Really, really enjoying it. Now he just had to wait until the inevitable next meeting, and see whether he could get you to finally admit that you wanted him, and finally reveal what he should call you when he gets to fuck you.

He waltzed into the gym in the early afternoon, most of the team already there, and he smiled and waved at everyone. It earned him a few strange looks, but he didn't care. Not when his eyes glanced over at the wall that he had pressed you again earlier that week and he smiled to himself. He decided to use the punching bag today.

After a few minutes, he heard his friend's voice pipe up.

"You alright there Buck?" Steve asked as he walked over, concern etched into his face. Bucky panted, catching the punching bag and looking at his friend.

"Yeah man. Really good. You alright?" He replied with a smile.

"Yeah... do you...need any help?" Steve gestured to the bag.

"Sure! Only if you're not busy punk." He winked at Steve, who paused, and then laughed at him, then placed himself behind the bag, ready for Bucky to punch.

"You seem...in a good mood."

"I feel good." Bucky said, punching the bag, Steve not even wobbling behind it.

"Any reason in particular?"

Bucky quickly glanced up at him before returning to his exercise.

"Just, getting on with things really." Steve nodded at his response, but he knew he wasn't fully satisfied with his answer.

"Okay well we can't be too much longer, we have that meeting in a couple hours." Steve replied.

It was an Avengers team meeting, called by Tony because they had some intel that there seemed to be some suspicious activity down at an old Hydra base off the coast of Peru, so they had to talk about the best move forward.

Bucky had been part of these meetings for a couple years now, and had been attending all the non-combative missions for the last year. He was excited to be back in the field, back at Steve's side, fighting against the enemy, in whatever way he could. It reminded him of the old days, which was strangely comforting at the times when the modern world confused him.

After an hour of exercising, and Sam joining them partway through, they all headed for a shower in their rooms before the meeting. Bucky had apparently spent longer in there then he planned, because he got a five minute warning from FRIDAY when he was still shampooing his hair.

He got dressed, headed to the conference room, took a chair next to Steve, and waited in silence, his mind drifting back to you while they waited.

After a while, everyone was getting restless.

"Why is Tony always late?" Clint asks the room loudly, the others responding with shrugs and various versions of 'I don't know'. Bucky and Steve and Sam were sitting next to each other in a row, swinging side to side in their chairs, trying to hit each other without letting on that they were playing that game.

"I have important plans so if he isn't here in the next ten minutes I am out of here." Sam said confidently, still swinging, trying to hit Bucky's chair with his.

"Going to the bar to fail at picking up women doesn't count as important plans." Bucky snarked back, sticking his tongue out as he swung his chair towards Sam, failing to hit him.

"That is not-"

Silence fell as the door swung open, with Tony storming into the room. Steve, Bucky and Sam stopped moving their chairs, then a second person entered the room.

Bucky straightened as your undeniable figure was striding behind Stark, your arms full of folders, your long hair billowing behind you as you walked. When you and Tony reached the head of the table, and faced everyone, Bucky couldn't help notice the way your eyes immediately found his, before straightening out the folders in your arms. You didn't smile. But Bucky did.

He could sense Sam and Steve either side of him trying to pretend they knew nothing, but also wanting to nudge Bucky to tease him. They wouldn't. Not in front of Stark anyway.

Tony waved his hand, focusing everyone, as if their focus wasn't already on them.

"Listen up." He said bluntly."I'll make this as painless as possible."

Bucky could see everyone leaning forward in his peripherals, and he was adamant it was because of you. Sam and Steve are the only people that have met you so far, he was sure of that.

"This is my assistant." Tony continued, a small ripple of discussion following throughout the room.

"More like the other way around." You said, not looking at Tony, and silencing the noise. Bucky fought a smile. No one interrupted Stark. He watched Tony's jaw tense.

He just waved his hand forward, which was apparently a gesture for you to start handing everybody a folder, clearly choosing to ignore the remark. You were walking round the table, towards him, and Bucky started feeling antsy.

You walked behind Sam, leaning over his shoulder to drop a folder on the table in front of him, and Bucky heard Sam whisper a thank you. He was next. He breathed.

He heard your footsteps get closer, the shift of the folders sliding over each other as you picked one out of your arms, then he felt your body grazing over his right side, your arm stretching in front of him and presenting a folder.

He turned to look at you.

That was a mistake.

You were probably centimetres apart now. He watched you look down at his lips, making him smile. Your eyes shot back up to his, and for a second he got distracted by the shining colours he was quickly finding that he was always distracted by. The sound of the folder dropping onto the table resounded in his left ear, jerking him out of the trance. You moved away, and he busied himself by pulling the folder closer and flipping through the contents. He watched you out of the corner of his eye, making your way around the table, barely stopping as you threw the folders haphazardly in front of the others.

"Now you're probably wondering where this intel came from," Tony spoke loudly, bringing back everyone's attention. "And - yes Clint?" He asked as Clint's hand went up in the air.

"What's your name?" Clint asked directly to you, making your eyes widen slightly. Everyone around the table straightened.

"Amy." You finally said, glancing quickly at Bucky, which made him want to laugh. He could see the team nodding, but he knew full well that not all of them bought it. Especially Nat. That didn't seem to phase you, or Tony.

"Are we done making eyes at my assistant?" Tony snapped, and everyone shrunk back in their seats a little. "Great. As I was saying, this information came from a - what is it Romanov?"

"She's not in the database." Natasha said plainly, holding up her tablet to show everyone that she had just gone into the employee files.

"She doesn't need to be."

"You hired someone that doesn't have a file? No digital footprint? No background check?" Natasha challenged as she raised an eyebrow at Tony, daring him to tell the truth. She knew all about aliases and ghost employees. And she knew Tony didn't like them.

"Look, she's good, now if we can move on -"

"It is odd that you would hire a staff member who isn't on record Tony. The others had to give their blood for clearance." Vision pointed out, making the others nod. Tony pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You gave blood so we could test you for infections, serums, and any other bad crap. Also," Tony looked back up at them all. "Last time I checked, I own this building, and pay for every employee in it? You don't get to judge me for who I pay to help me rebuild the gajillion machines and weapons and suits that you guys need replacing every other week."

The team shut up. Bucky looked over at you standing next to Tony, expecting you to look uncomfortable, but you just looked....bored? Staring at your fingers and picking at your nails. Definitely bored. It made Bucky think that you had heard this conversation before.

"Now, this Peru base." Tony started, pulling up the diagrams and fiddling with a 3D base that showed a pretty typical Hydra base layout. "We've been told that this building had been dormant for a decade, and last week, someone picked up a heat signature."

"Probably an animal." Rhodey shrugged.

"A heat signature that went up to the door, entered a code in the keypad, then took the elevator to the sublevel?" Tony retorted. Rhodey chewed his lip. "Since that heat signature," Tony continued. "There's been an increase in radio interference. Nonsense static at the minute, but definitely new. The theory is that someone is trying to contact the other bases."

"We weren't actively monitoring this base.Where's the intel from?" Steve said, fully in Captain mode and flicking through the folder.

"Well now that's a funny story." Tony smirked, glancing back at you before addressing the room again. "An old friend happened to be in the area."

You frowned at Tony. He hadn't told you this bit. He just told you to carry the folders and sit in the meeting today. You'd been so sick of the same four walls (since you were taking a break from seeing your chaperone), that you jumped at the chance to leave the lab without really thinking why he had offered.

The door opposite Tony opened, and one by one, everyone's eyes turned to face the person standing there.

You gasped.

"Nick!" You smiled as you started running over to him, jumping into his arms and hugging the crap out of him.

The team watched the interaction in utter confusion. They didn't know who you were, and they didn't know who this Nick was.

Bucky certainly wanted to find out.