I watched Bucky climb the fire escape to the sixth floor of his apartment building. He was wearing jeans, a red long-sleeved shirt, a dark gray jacket, and a navy blue baseball cap. But, I could tell he'd changed something. He had cut his hair...

I waited until he was on his floor before alerting the others.

"Bucky just entered the building." I said and put my hood up, activating L.I.V. "I'm going in now."

"Be careful!" Loki told me.

"Don't worry, love, I will be. Steve, wait ten seconds before coming in." I kept watching Bucky through the walls, thanks to my x-ray imaging contact lenses. I was waiting for him to enter his room. It would make it far more dramatic when I popped in.

"Wait, you still haven't told me the apartment number." Steve reminded me. I told him on the jet that I wasn't going to give the number out until it was time. Almost there...

"601." I told him when Bucky closed his apartment door and I teleported in.

The, barely there, blue flash of light was his only warning before I flipped him onto the floor, straddled his stomach, and punched him in the face. One hand holding one of his own down, the other pulled back, ready to punch again.

A flash of panic went through Bucky's eyes before he registered me and relaxed. Finally looking him in the eyes again made me fill with so much relief that I started crying. Half that relief turned to anger when I remembered he left all those years ago. He didn't say anything, and neither did I.

We froze, just watching each other for a few long moments. The longer he watched me, the easier it was to let the anger go, bit by bit. The longer he looked at me, the more tears I could see fill his eyes as well.

But, I didn't want to let it go. I wanted to be angry at him. I was allowed to be mad at him for leaving. As I was fighting my mental battle, Bucky broke free and sat up quickly, hugging me to him tightly.

"You're ok." Bucky sniffled, not letting me go. "I saw the paper and..." he didn't have to continue. I knew his fear. I stayed strong for a few more seconds before cracking. I wrapped my arms around him and closed my eyes. I allowed this for only a few seconds before pushing him off and standing up.

"You left!" I hissed at him. "Without saying goodbye, or letting any of us talk you out of doing it."

"I know." Bucky nodded and looked at me apologetically.

"You said I was your family, and then you left me!" I raised my voice and wiped away my tears.

"I know." Bucky repeated.

"And, you used me as an excuse to run, saying it was 'for my own good', and shit." I said. This time, Bucky didn't agree.

"It was and I wasn't the only one that thought that." Bucky told me, taking a step toward me.

"What?" I asked a bit thrown. Not the only one... "Did someone say something to you? Because I'm pretty sure Steve never stopped looking for you. I eventually had to give up. I was driving myself crazy looking for you. But, I knew where you were in the future, and look, it's the future."

"All I'm saying is that boyfriend of yours-"

"Fiancé." I corrected. Bucky froze.

"What?" Bucky asked hesitantly.

"Fiancé," I said and held up the ring. "We got engaged after Sokovia." I explained to him. Bucky looked at the ring for a long minute before nodding.

"Fine... I'm pretty sure your fiancé feels the exact same way. He didn't want me anywhere near you. Leaving was the right choice. It helped your case with the UN and clearly your relationship." Bucky told me, putting his hands into his pockets.

"I didn't win because you left," I said, shaking my head, "I won because we had the footage of my first few months of training. The jury was so disgusted that they couldn't watch more than a couple of minutes or even look at me." I explained before stepping toward him. "You leaving had nothing to do with the trial or my relationship!" I hissed, stabbing his chest with one of my fingers.

A sharp knock on the door pulled my attention away. Bucky stiffened and automatically stepped in front of me. I rolled my eyes and teleported to the door, getting ready to open it.

"Wait! Sammee, don't-" Bucky panicked, but I ignored him, knowing it was Steve at the door.

"You took your sweet time, didn't you?" I asked Steve and stepped aside to let him in. He took a second to look around the room. It was a simple apartment, but only had two pieces of furniture, a metal kitchen table, and a small couch. The windows were covered in newspapers, so no one could see in, and there was a mattress on the floor. It looked like Bucky tried to sleep on it once, but wasn't comfortable. The blankets and pillow on the floor were evidence of that.

"Well, you did only just tell me the room number." Steve countered before pausing and looking at Bucky. "Hey, Buck." Steve sighed in relief at seeing that his friend was ok. "You cut your hair."

"Hey, Stevie." Bucky flashed a quick smile at him. "It was long overdue."

"God, we missed you." Steve told him and quickly took two large steps before wrapping his arms around Bucky. They did the typical guy pat on the back before parting, Steve still holding Bucky's shoulder.

"Don't mean to interrupt your reunion, but you've got German Special Forces approaching from the south." Sam told us.

"Looks like they're starting a perimeter." Loki added. Steve and I looked at each other, knowing there was going to be a fight.

"Alright, James, get your journals, and let's go. We have-" a loud 'meow' sounded as a white cat poked his head out from under the couch. Fear shot through my chest. The cat and I stared at each other as Bucky punched a hole in the floor. He grabbed his bag out of the hole before bending to pick the cat up.

"Oh, Sammee, this is-" Bucky started to introduce the white cat with almost glowing blue eyes, but I cut him off.

"Alpine..." I whispered, still staring at the cat.

"They've set the perimeter." Sam updated us on the special forces.

"Right... in the movie." Bucky nodded as he zipped Alpine into his jacket.

"No," I said and looked directly at Steve, knowing he'd understand the meaning of my next words, "it wasn't in the movie."

"They're in the building." Loki said, referring to the special force team. I huffed before pulling another earpiece out of my pocket and handing it to Bucky,

"Channel two." I told him, placing the earpiece in his palm. "This is going to be a fight. They're going to shoot first and ask no questions."

"That's smart, good strategy." Bucky said, clicking his comm to the second channel.

"I'm compromised!" Sam told us. "Loki is, too. You need to get out of there, now!"

"Sammee, get out of there!" Loki demanded.

"Breach, Breach!" Sam yelled as two grenades were thrown into the apartment. Cap shoved the flash grenade into the wall, but the second one was not some baby flash grenade. We all looked down at it and I teleported it right back outside to explode.

"Sammee..." Loki warned.

"We're fine. We'll meet you outside." I told him and focused back on the situation.

A loud bang was heard as another flash grenade went off right outside the window. Bucky quickly pulled the plain, unused mattress off of the floor to protect his senses from the flash.

Behind the locked door of the apartment were men trying to break in. I could hear the battering ram being slammed into the door. Buck dropped the mattress and grabbed hold of the square metal table with his metal hand. He easily flipped the table and threw it legs first at the front door. The metal legs of the table embedded themselves in the plaster around the door, effectively keeping the door from opening. There was still the back door, but they weren't at that one, yet.

I took out two of my throwing knives and held one in each hand. The windows on either side of the kitchen exploded inward as two men with large guns landed on the tiled floor.

"I got left!" I said as I teleported to the man on the far left. He tried to pull the trigger of his gun but ended up screaming in pain as my blade cut deep into the back of his hand, slicing through the tendons and rendering his hand useless.

Bucky got to the man on the right and grabbed his shoulder, throwing him into the wall hard enough to knock him out. The back door was finally kicked open and Steve was the closest. As soon as the tip of the gun came through the door, Steve guided it up toward the ceiling. Before Steve could strike, Bucky kicked the man back, and the man's back collided with the balcony wall as he sunk to the ground.

"Buck, Sammee, stop!" Cap yelled and grabbed his friend. Bucky ducked under his arm, breaking Steve's grip. "You two are going to kill someone!"

"James," I looked over at him. He was going to jump out the window. "Give me your hand." I told him before turning to Steve. Bucky didn't question me as he took my hand. "We're not trying to get anyone killed. Just staying alive." I explained before closing my eyes and focusing. I could hear the special forces yelling orders at each other and had to work hard to block it out.

By the time our feet left the ground and touched down on the building across the street, I was out of breath and my teleportation limit got cut in half. A two-hundred-pound man and his cat were my limit on teleporting living creatures it seemed. Bucky accidentally locked his knees, so he stumbled when we touched the ground again. An instant pressure headache pounded against my head and I groaned.

"Ow," I grumbled.

"Yep," Bucky agreed, holding his stomach, "I hated that." He half gasped out. While taking a second to catch our breaths, German special forces shot at us from the apartment building's roof. Bucky jumped in front of me to shield me with his arm, but I was faster. I put up a reality barrier, blocking the shots, but not blocking the figure that dove over it.

"Watch out!" I yelled and pushed Bucky out of the way, he had Alpine to protect. I was knocked into by the figure and we rolled over each other. I was finally able to get to my feet and teleported closer to Bucky, but not once did I take my eyes off the figure in front of me.

The Black Panther stared back at us, not intending on keeping either of us alive. Well... this just got interesting.

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