Broken Glass (Book 4)

1.5

We had been practicing Romanian all day. He wasn't fluent yet. But I could tell the longer we practiced, the more distracted he got by the little things. A fly buzzing around the apartment. The little string that had come undone from his shirt. Sometimes he was just staring off into space, not paying any attention to what I was saying. I saw him glance outside, seeing the sun bounce off the windows. This was one of the rare times that it wasn't cloudy in Romania. I put my hand on his knee and his head snapped back to me. "Let's try something else." He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "What if you taught me some Russian. I don't know much."

Bucky nodded, but even then I could still see how much he yearned to leave the apartment, to go outside. I had to ignore it; he wasn't ready yet. There were still wanted posters and his face was still big on the news. Until he wasn't news anymore... he had to stay hidden. "Здравствуйте." He started and despite not knowing what it meant, I tried to follow his pronunciation. When I pronounced it wrong, a small smile broke out on his face and he shook his head. "Здравствуйте." He repeated, saying it a little slower. I tried again, but I still mispronounced it. Sighing, I shook my head.

"What am I even saying?" I asked him, shaking my head.

"Hello." I started laughing. Why was the Russian word for hello so long and complicated? "Ok fine. Let's try it again."

After a couple more tries, I finally pronounced it right. I felt like there were butterflies flapping wildly in my stomach every time he taught me a new word. He would stare at my lips every time I repeated it back to him. If this had been my Bucky, we would've already been kissing. But he's not my Bucky and I have to be careful around him.

Hours went by and time seemed to move quickly. By the time we were done for the day, I was able to have a short but full conversation with someone in Russian. "Здравствуйте." {Hello.} "Как ваши дела?" {How are you?} "Меня зовут Clara." {My name is Clara.}

When I looked outside, it was dark. I wasn't exactly tired, but I could see the darkness under Bucky's eyes as they dropped a little. He was exhausted and it looked like he hadn't slept in days. And he probably hadn't. "Do you want to go for a walk?" I asked him, looking outside to see that the moon had finally risen. Bucky looked at me confused. He hadn't left the apartment since we got here months ago. I was worried it wouldn't be safe. But he would have to leave at some point, right? "Yeah. Let's go for a walk." I nodded, pulling him to his feet. He was taller than me by quite a lot but it didn't stop me from wanting to wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him. I wanted to... but I didn't.

I slipped on a sweatshirt that hid the fact that I had a gun hidden under there, just in case. You can never be too careful. When I came out of my room, I saw Bucky standing there in a red zip up sweatshirt. He smiled at me and offered me his hand. I took his hand in mine, feeling my stomach erupt in butterflies as I led him out of the apartment. Andrei wasn't at the front desk but I knew that it was after hours and he had probably gone to bed.

It wasn't too cold when we stepped out into the dark night of Romania. The winter weather had started to end a couple of days ago as the temperature started to get warmer but nights were still chilly. I didn't mind though. The cold never bothered me. It just always reminded me of nights by the fire with Bucky. We were silent as we walked through the city. I showed Bucky where I did some of the food shopping at the market, which was empty but in the morning I knew it would bustle with business. As we made our way out of the city part of town, we found ourselves at a small lake. We could hear the crickets and croaking of frogs. Every once in a while, I would catch Bucky staring at me but I didn't think much about it.

The moonlight was reflecting on the rippling water and some of the trees around us swayed. I was sure that a spring storm was coming. And when we looked up, the stars were visible. Back in New York, you couldn't see the stars because of all the lights. But here, the stars shined so brightly that it didn't even compare to a night in New York. I looked up at Bucky and I saw him still staring at me. A blush rose to my cheeks and I looked away, looking back at the sky. And then I saw a shooting star. I turned back to Bucky. "A shooting star. Make a wish." Bucky looked up, just catching the shooting star before it passed by. He looked back down at me and stepped closer, closing the space between us.

I could feel his breath on my skin as he leaned closer to me. "You want to know what my wish was?" He asked, looking into my eyes.

"If you tell me your wish it won't come true." I whispered to him, not knowing if I could even speak any louder. A small smirk appeared on his lips as he wrapped his arms around my waist, closing the gap between us completely. Our lips molded together like they always had but this time it was different. Not bad. Not bad at all. But there was more passion. We both needed this. I needed this. I missed him. My hands flew up to his hair as they ran through it. His hands were around my waist and I was positive he could feel the gun that I hid in the sweater.

We only pulled apart for air but we quickly latched back onto each other. I needed him. More than ever. So we went back to the apartment.