Past, Present, Future

Twenty-One

        Bucky groans as he lifts his head, finally waking up. He then looks around the room, spotting his metal arm stuck in a machine.

        There's no escaping.

        "Hey, Cap!" Sam calls.

        They enter the room you and Bucky are in as you step out of the shadows.

        Bucky groans again, shifting a bit.

        "Steve..." Bucky mutters.

        "Which Bucky am I talking to?"

        Bucky continues looking at the floor, "Your mom's name was Sarah...." He chuckles a bit, "You used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

        You beam at his genuine laugh.

        Steve smiles a bit, "Can't read that in a museum."

        "Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam asks.

        "Y/N..." Bucky whispers.

        Your attention turns to him, "Yeah, Buck?"

        "We... We know each other... from the past..." Bucky looks up at you, "Don't we?"

        You slowly nod and take a step toward him, "Yes. Yes, we do."

        "You trained with me... We... We fell..." A smile creeps across his face, "We fell in love... didn't we?"

        "Wait. Hold up. You two knew each other before the Avengers?"

        You turn to Sam, "Yeah."

        "But you were Red Room, and he was Hydra," Steve mentions.

        You nod, "Yes. But they-" You look over at Bucky, "They had him train with us."

        Bucky lets out a pained laugh, "You can say they loaned me out."

        "Yeah... They loaned him out."

        You walk closer to Bucky despite Sam's warnings.

        "Do you remember someone else?" You ask, squatting to meet his eyes.

        Bucky squints, and you can practically see the gears in his head turning, trying to reach for the memory of Natalia.

        His shoulders slump, "I don't..."

        "Wait a minute. You're saying that you two were in love, and you never thought to tell him about that?"

        You look over at Sam again, "No. I didn't want to hurt him. I wanted him to find out on his own... I didn't know how to tell him honestly, and-" You look at Bucky again, "The other person wants him to remember by himself."

        Bucky reaches for your hand with his free arm, "Y/N... What did I do?"

        "Enough." Steve answers.

        Bucky looks down with a sigh, "Oh, God, I knew this would happen... Everything Hydra put inside me is still there." He looks up again, meeting Steve's gaze, "All he had to do was say the goddamn words."

        "Who was he?" Steve asks.

        "I don't know."

        "People are dead. The bombing, the setup. The doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you... I need you to do better than 'I don't know.'"