Avengers/X-Men One Shots - The Blood/White Phoenix Saga

ONE-SHOT XL: Seeds of Attraction (Sequel to ONE-SHOT LXXIX and LXXX)

Set shortly after Blood Phoenix 6 (a day or two after ONE-SHOT LXXX)

Adelaide Lehnsherr

I watched Bucky, through the window, effortlessly swinging the axe as he chopped up the firewood. He was wearing one of the black tank tops that Mandy had given him while we were here, hiding out in the woods at her place. The muscles in his right arm rippled, all the way up to his shoulder. I was so distracted in watching him that the soap suds and the wet, dirty dishes were all but forgotten in my hands.

'I can tell you like him,' I heard Mandy say. I jumped, nearly dropping the dish, but I managed to keep a hold of it, depositing it in the sink and throwing the towel down onto the kitchen counter.

'What? That's impossible.'

'Don't deny it. The look in your eyes, the way you smile slightly when you talk about him, how that much more relaxed you are when he's near you - all the signs of attraction are there.' She walked to the kitchen counter and poured herself a mug of coffee. 'It could be good for you, ya know. Him.'

'I don't know. He and I are -'

'Are what?' she asked, frowning. 'Good together? Don't pull the 'it's complicated' bullshit with me.'

'But it is! We don't even know what we are. And I know, I told you, I slept with him in Milan, and I've kissed him, but that was an entirely different person.'

'No, that was Bucky, but with a different personality. He has the same condition you do. The two of you are very complicated people, but you clearly have devotion for each other, and he would obviously rather die first than see you die. You were partners for four years, lovers for about that amount of time - he really loves you, Adelaide.'

'I don't know. I don't know where we are with each other. At the moment, I'm just tagging along, the friend trying to help him regain his memories and live a life on the run.'

'Look at me,' she said, forcing me to put down the mug in my hand and look at her. She was leaning against the counter, staring at me. Putting her mug down too, she spoke. 'One day, far off, hopefully, you will have to choose between two things. Doing what the world says, thinking what the world thinks - which if the government sees anything wrong with what you've been doing as an Avenger, their view is obviously bullshit, but God knows what could happen. But you'll have to choose, either the world, doing what they want so you don't land in jail, or worse, a super-max facility, and Bucky. And I know, nine times out of ten, you'll choose him. You'll find a place, you'll run and hide. The both of you.'

'Is that good?'

'Sometimes, running and hiding is all we can do. You guys had no other choice, and to stay after the helicarrier incident in D.C. would have meant that you might have imprisoned along with the Winter Soldier. Somehow the world has a jaded view of what 'aiding and abetting' actually is and means. If you hadn't of run when the two of you did, you might not have seen me again. And God knows how much you needed a pep talk from me.' I turned back to the sink and continued scrubbing the mug gently. 'You haven't been sleeping well again, have you?' she asked.

'No,' I said, still scrubbing the mug, rather furiously now, and keeping an eye on Bucky still chopping the wood. 'Not since I started going on the run. Steve and Natasha always helped me with my nightmares, but now that they've come back again - and I'm looking after someone else who already gets nightmares, I've just either had little sleep or just stopped sleeping altogether.'

'And I think in that respect, you help each other with your very similar problems. You help heal each other.'

'I don't know if he and I are...' I said, pausing. Almost as if he heard me, he looked back to the window, meeting my eyes, the axe hanging limp by his side, the bottom part of the red star on his metal arm showing through the short sleeve on his t-shirt. He thrust the axe down on top of the chopping block and began to walk up to the house, his gait more than compensating for the ridiculous weight on the left side of his body. I put the mug in the drying rack and looked towards the back door as he opened it and stepped inside, the heavy footfalls from the large, newly cleaned combat boots the first indicator of his presence. He brushed a lock of his thick brown hair out of his eyes and gave me a short smile, then abruptly stepped up behind me and hugged me around my waist from behind. I nearly jumped again. 'That's new...' I mumbled, leaning into him slightly.

'Thank you,' he said softly. 'This is a nice place.' He touched me, carefully, so as not to aggravate my still tender side. 'How is your injury mending?'

'Well, thank you. Yours?'

'Pretty much healed. It was just a scratch.' He leaned forward slightly, his breath tickling my ear, and gave me a kiss on the temple.

'You're being oddly affectionate today, Winter,' I remarked. 'Any reason?'

'No. None. I just like your company.' I hummed lowly in response.

'Thanks for chopping the wood,' Mandy said, breaking him out of his short stint of affection towards me. He blushed slightly, looking nearly terrified of the woman, looking like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

'Remind me who she is again,' he said to me.

'Amanda Parks. My therapist. But you can just call her Mandy.'

'Riiiiggght...' he said, dragging out the word. 'In that case, you're welcome, Mandy. It was my pleasure. I'm going to go get into the shower and change,' he added, kissing my temple again and walked down the hallway. I caught Mandy's look, as she ran her teeth over her bottom lip, hiding a smile.

'Don't give me that look, Amanda.'

'You like him, don't you?'

'Maybe...'