Written in the Stars: Bucky Barnes

31. Falcon

"Stells wake up!" a loud voice boomed from beside her causing her to jump up quickly and fall straight onto the floor. Steve roared with laughter clutching his chest causing his friend to pelt him in the head with a pillow.

"That was rude, there are other ways to wake a person than screaming at them and giving them a heart attack. Your lucky I didn't light you on fire."

"You were sleeping too long we were going to miss our run. Get dressed."

Stella got dressed and the pair made their way their way to the National Mall. Their run started out uneventful Stella could keep up easily with Steve, but he always ended up running far longer than her. They saw another man running as well and Steve looked at his friend with a smirk, a tell tale sign he was up to something. Withtin a few strides he caught up to the other man passing him with ease.

"On your left."

Stella laughed and did the same passing him on the other side, "on your right."

They kept it up for several more laps obviously getting under the mans nerves with their playful jests.

"Don't say it! Don't you say it!" he said.

"On your left."

"On your right."

Stella ran up to the trees letting Steve know she was done and to go ahead without her. The man jogged up to her sitting under a tree next to her.

"You good?" she asked with a small laugh.

"Yeah, not all of us have super lungs," he looked over with a smirk "so what's the famous Purple Storm and Captain America doing in D.C.?"

"Firstly it's Stella, and the proper name is NIghtingale."

"I saw, Purple Storm was pretty lame after all. I'm Sam Wilson." he extended his hand to her and she shook it. "What's with Nightingale though seems like an odd choice."

"It's a long story."

Steve joined them a few seconds later asking if Sam needed a medic.

"I need a new set of lungs. Dude, you rwo just ran like thirteen miles in thirty minutes."

"We got a late start, someone refused to get out of bed today," Steve replied causing Stella to stick her tongue out at him.

"Oh, really? You both should be ashamed of yourselves. You should take another lap." Sam said with a laugh looking down at the ground before looking back up. "Did you take it, I'm assuming you just did."

Stella and Steve both laughed and she raised her hand looking at him summoning small flames at her fingertips "maybe you just need someone to light a fire under your ass."

"Don't you dare, Purple Storm." she frowned and dropped her hand letting the flames disappear, Steve only laughed harder.

Stella got up letting the two men get acquainted while she checked her phone a smile spreading across her when she saw a text from Nat. See you in five. It had been too long since she saw her good friend. Stella walked back over to the men as a sleek black car pulled up at the curb. She was a little miffed that she wouldn't be joining her friends for this mission, but tried to remind herself a few days off wouldn't kill her.

" Hey, fellas. Either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil. Hey Stells we need another lunch date."

"Hey Nat, I'll set something up and tell Nick your busy." the redhead responded.

"How you doing?" Sam asked Nat with a smirk leaning down.

"Hey."

"Can't run everywhere, bye Stells stay out of trouble."

"Me? I'm always an angel."

Steve shook his head with a small laugh and got into the car before Nat sped away.

"Sam I hate to tell you, but that's never going to happen. I can't tell if you were drooling over her or the car more." Stella said nudging him in the side. "Want to grab lunch?"

Sam and Stella made a plan to meet in an hour downtown at a small restaurant Stella frequented during her time off missions.

She made her way into her and Steve's shared apartment taking a short showing and getting dressed for the day. She put on her favorite pair of jeans, a dark green tank top, and shrugged on her brown leather jacket before walking out the door. She met her neighbor Kate in the hall nearly running directly into her.

"Oh, I'm so so-" Kate started before looking up realizing her she'd run into "Oh, it's just you."

Stella looked up and down taking note of her pantsuit she was currently wearing, "Fancy suit for someone who changes bed pans." Stella said with a smirk brushing past her.

AN: Slightly shorter chapter sorry! Thank you again for nearly 500 reads! Love you all!!