Who Am I? » [Stucky]

39. Deal Breaker

Natasha and Steve were staring each other down with stone cold loathsome glares, their eyes locked in a battle of intimidation and nerve, unblinking and unmoving. They sat on seats perpendicular to each other, Steve and Bucky on the double seater, Natasha on a singular armchair, not saying a word and breathing silently. They were stiff and poised with abhorrence for one another.

Meanwhile Bucky was holding an icepack wrapped in a damp kitchen towel to his black eye and hanging his head, focusing his eyes on the floor, the bludgeoned one covered.

Complete silence remained throughout the soundless commodious flat, the air was thick with tension - cool and undiluted.

Natasha blinked slowly with condescension, sizing up to the man opposite her, proving she wasn't feeling threatened in the slightest by Steve's unfaltering gaze, and her eyes were trained on him unwaveringly.

Steve's brow was lowered in resentment and he was sat forwards, leaning towards her in anticipation as if he was ready to pounce on her and tear her to shreds like some kind of wild cat, like a lion, valiant and loyal and willing to protect his pride if so much as a finger was lain upon them.

She had her head jerked to a jaunty angle arrogantly, proving she didn't care, indignant and unbothered by him completely.

The both of them were caught up in a game of trying to one up each other without so much as saying a thing.

"I'm going to go and get a drink..." Bucky's hoarse gravelly voice broke the silence for only a second as he spoke and once again the silence resumed its vacant spot.

He wandered around the sofa and wandered to the fridge, scanning through it for some kind of refreshing drink, something clear his head and quench his thirst and perhaps reawaken his numbed mind.

"Why is he here?" Natasha finally spoke, using clear diction and not taking her eyes off Steve for a second.

"I'm looking after him now," Steve replied with certainty. "Call it a charity project.

"You don't see him as a threat?" She took a patronising tone with him and raised a questioning eyebrow and smirked in amusement at his gold hearted naivety.

"No. I don't." He tipped his head down further. "Have you seen him?" He was the first to look away, sparing Bucky a quick looking and saw him turning around with a can of soda in his hand.

"That's why I'm concerned," she uttered, accusing him of bad judgement.

"He's harmless."

"He's an assassin."

"He's not anymore," Steve bit out, his fists clenching.

"People don't change that easily," Natasha spewed the words poisonously.

"Clearly you haven't... You haven't changed a blind bit since I last spoke to you!" He growled, his voice raising slightly.

"Because I'm right not to trust him!" She declared, holding out a hand to point to him.

"You don't even know him!" Steve shouted back.

"And you think you do?! He's not the same man you knew when you were growing up, Steve! He's been brainwashed beyond all recognition! There's nothing left of your friend in that empty shell!"

The abominable words hit home with Bucky like bullets being fired straight at him, and ached like the insults had buried themselves in his skin.

"You would know!"

"Yes I would! Which is why you shouldn't trust him!" She stood up and yelled her lungs out at him, her voice straining as she wailed.

"Perhaps I should be questioning if I trust you!" Steve stood and shouted pointedly at her, leaning forwards.