Stars ☆ PARKER

three : crab rangoon

Bucky watched as Anastasia packed her life contents into one bag, and it took less than two minutes.

"You don't have to rush, really," Bucky told her as she continued to carelessly cram dirty shirts into the cloth bag. "Steve and Sam are on a mission, so, there's not anyone waiting on us."

Regardless, Anastasia ignored his statements and continued to scuffle the papers spread out on the floor, layering them quickly into a neat stack and occasionally putting the stack into a folder.

She continued for several seconds before pausing and smiling subtly at the page Bucky had been holding when she first entered the apartment.

She tucked the profile into the folder and crammed the papers into her bag among the rest of the papers, shirts, and her grocery bag.

After waiting in a moment of silence while Anastasia looked at him expectantly, Bucky cleared his throat and asked, "Ready to go?"

"Yes. We're going to your apartment?" She walked stiffly towards her father until she arrived on his right-hand side. She swung her bag steps over both of her shoulders and clipped the buckle across her chest.

"Uh, yeah. The one you were at on Wednesday," Bucky felt he was being suffocated by the silence, but he didn't know what to say to her.

They walked for around two minutes before Bucky spoke up again, "So, Anastasia. It's a nice name. Where did you get it?" Where did you get it? Bucky squinted his eyes at the stupid question but didn't bother to rephrase it.

Anastasia moved her eyes to look at Bucky, who was squinting but still walking. Without breaking stride, she explained to him, "One of the trainers gave it to me. She said Nightingale was no name for a child."

"Nightingale?" Bucky was dreading her response because if it was what he thought it was, he would only feel worse about not knowing about her sooner.

"That's what the superiors called me on missions. I guess it stuck." Though Anastasia never broke stride and continued walking and surveying the area around them.

Bucky noticed she was at least slightly bothered about her past due to her clenched jaw and picking at the nail of her left ring finger.

While trying to avoid the harsh topics of each other's past, Bucky decided to ask different questions. "So, uhm," he was terrible at this, "what's your favorite color?"

It was at that moment that Anastasia finally slowed her walk to a stop. "Look," she sighed, "I appreciate the effort, but you don't have to try this hard. You don't need to know my favorite color, or what animal I think is the cutest-"

"-I didn't ask you that," Bucky interrupted.

"It's an inevitable question. Once we get inside your apartment, You can ask as many questions as you want, but out in the open let's keep them to a minimum."

Anastasia didn't skip a beat as she continued walking down the sidewalk in the direction of Bucky's apartment.

After taking a moment to process what she had said, Bucky walked briskly towards his daughter and met her pace before walking silently by her side to his home.

Her favorite color is red.

—

When they arrived in Bucky's apartment, Anastasia took several moments to walk and look around. Anastasia knew that Bucky was watching her. She kept her back straight like she always did, however, just like their first meeting, she had her shoulders straight and walked on the balls of her feet.

Bucky knew, partially from experience and partially from his years spent as a spy and assassin, that she was prepared to fight, and then most likely to run.