Hello Sergeant (Bucky Barnes)

explanations

James' POV

I looked around the empty rooms, not ready to leave our apartment for the last time ever. It'd been my home since I'd returned to the States – the first home I'd had since before the war.

It was my fault we had to leave it; I was still being actively hunted by Hydra, and they didn't exactly take my defection well. I'd noticed strangers watching our building just after Christmas, so when I'd mentioned it to Steve, we knew we needed to move somewhere with better security because if they were watching me, they were watching Steve and our fiancée.

If Hydra knew she was important to me, they'd stop at nothing to get their hands on her. If they had her, they could get me to do anything, even surrender myself to them - and I'd do it to keep her safe. Not because she wasn't capable of kicking some serious ass on her own – she was – but because I didn't want her to go through the kinds of torture they used on people like us – genetically enhanced super-soldiers.

"Hey James," Sarah said a second before putting her arms around me from behind. I shifted to bring her to my side, putting my arm around her.

"Hey doll," I replied, looking down into her golden brown eyes and seeing concern on her face.

"Everything's loaded. Are you ready to go?"

"No – I don't wanna go." And I didn't, because it meant I'd probably never be back here again with all the good memories that we'd made here together.

"I know how you feel, James, but home isn't really a place, it's with the people we love. I don't care where we live as long as I have you and Steve." She leaned into me, resting her head on my chest and one hand on my heart. "We could live on the helicarrier. You haven't seen it yet."

I ignored her attempt to cheer me up, another question on my mind. "What if I forget again and think this is still home?"

"It always take a while to remember things like that. Ten bucks says one of us forgets at least once over the next week and drives here first instead of Tony's."

I snorted and reached down to kiss the top of her head. "What would I ever do without you?"

"Not have to share Steve?"

"You got me there, doll. I loved him first."

She snorted and leaned up on tiptoe to kiss me gently, her soft lips tasting of hot chocolate and peppermint. "Even if you did have a 90 year head start, babe, doesn't count. I met him first in this time."

"Are you two having this argument again? I thought we were done with that?" Steve grumbled, coming in to find us.

"Nope, never. I'm very competitive," Sarah smirked.

"Yeah, we know, doll," Steve laughed as he put his muscular arms around both of us, hugging us tight for a long moment.

I glanced up at him, meeting his eyes. He wasn't looking forward to this move, either, I realized. Finally, he kissed my cheek and the top of Sarah's head before letting us go to take one last look around to make sure we hadn't missed anything.

"You want competitive? Bring it on, princess," I said, tossing her over my shoulder and heading for the door. "First one to bed tonight gets to be in control."

"Ohh, you fight dirty, Barnes!" She beat on my back ineffectively and I had a solid grip on her legs so she couldn't kick me – again. "Put me down already; I have to check my place yet."

"Not on your own, you're not," I stated firmly. "Steve, you coming?"

"Yeah. Looks like we got everything from this place."