Infatuation | Bucky Barnes

Chapter Nine

Catherine did not speak to James for three days since their little...incident. In fact, she had hardly left her room. It helped that Karpov had given her a few days off to recover from her fight. He had visited her room a day after the fight to inform her how proud he was of her and that she did well. It had been a while since he had given her a genuine compliment. Still, he gave no indication what was next for her and that made her nervous.

Her feelings for James also lingered in the back of her head. It shouldn't have. There was no way the two of them could ever be together. They were assassins and assassins didn't fall in love. They killed and lived lonely lives. A knock on her door prompted her to finally get out of bed. Her body was still aching, but she felt well enough to at least walk around. She opened the door to find Artem standing there.

"Karpov wants to see you in his office." He told her.

"Do you know why?" Catherine asked.

Artem raised an eyebrow at her. "You and I both know better than to ask questions."

True. She closed the door behind her and began her walk to his office. She had no idea what awaited her in his office, but she stopped when she saw James standing inside. Did they know about their kiss? There was no way. No one else was in the room when it happened. She swallowed dryly and walked inside. When she did, James' eyes flew to meet her's. He was nervous as well.

"Catherine, how are you feeling?" Karpov asked.

"I'm fine." She lied.

"Good." He said. "I have a mission for the two of you in Berlin, Germany. I know you've been on a few missions with the Winter Soldier, Catherine, but if this one is successful, then you can go out on your own. It's a simple arms deal. The money is already at the hotel. You attend a gala. Meet with the buyer. Check the integrity of the weapons. Buy them. Return here with the weapons. Easy as that."

He slid two files to the both of them. Inside contained their target, IDs, passports and bank cards.

"Daniel Porter. Diana Porter." James said. "We're...married?"

"Yes. Two arms dealers that are married. How romantic? Inside are a pair of rings." Karpov said sarcastically. "I want you two to be packed and gone in an hour. You'll take a car to the airport and from there fly to Berlin. Any questions?"

They both shook their heads before standing up to leave. Neither one of them said anything as they parted ways to get ready. Once inside her room, she pulled the gold ring out of the file and slipped it onto her finger. It felt foreign having a piece of jewelry on her hand, but she would have to get used to it. She had been trained to have a bag packed at all times which made packing easier. All she really needed to do was put her ID and passport in the proper spots and change. 

She found James leaned against the car they were to take to the airport. He didn't say a single word to her. He just tossed her bag into the trunk and got into the car. She was confused. He couldn't have been mad at her, right? It seemed in the moment that he wasn't opposed to kissing her. Then again, Catherine was a sheltered nineteen year old and James was God knows how old. Still, the silence was almost excruciating.

Even when they checked into their flight, he didn't speak a word to her. Only if it was necessary. For a married couple, they were acting rather off. The last thing she wanted to do was have James screw up their mission, because he was being a child about a simple kiss. The only thing providing some joy to her was the fact that she was able to escape from the base for a few days.

"Are we going to talk about what happened? I mean, we have to talk. We're on a mission." Catherine finally asked quietly.

Silence.