track suggestion to listen to for this chapter: sunshine

»»————- ★ ————-««

( two. familiar face )

»»————- ★ ————-««

"I'll be back before noon."

"Okay, mama."

"There's still some leftovers in the fridge, heat it up if you two get hungry."

"Yes, mama."

"And remember—"

"Don't go out of Brooklyn, take Anne for a makeover and shopping, and don't annoy her too much. Yes, mama, I got it."

Natasha let out an amused chuckle at her witty response. 

Becca rolled her eyes, before crouching down to give her daughter a kiss. "Alright, fine. I'm the overprotective mother." She murmured through her hair, making her let out a giggle. "You sure you're fine? I could just take off from work today."

This time, it was her turn to roll her eyes. They've already discussed this three times now and she convinced her that they were going to be okay. Ellie seems like the type of kid who's smart enough to be on her own, well, not smart enough to trust a stranger like her but she wasn't complaining. She enjoyed her company, regardless.

"We're going to be fine, Becca. Ellie would be a good tour guide, won't you?"

She grinned widely, jumping excitedly, "Yes!"

"Okay, don't have too much fun." Becca reminded, then finally, leaving them be to go to work. 

Natasha figured that she could just apply for the job tomorrow, spending her time today to get to know the place a bit. 

"Are you ready to go, princess?" Ellie asked.

"Lead the way, sugar."

Becca had been nice enough to lend her one of her dresses for the meantime. Yet it still wasn't enough to stop the others from staring at her- particularly, her hair. She assumed bright hair colors wasn't a common thing at this time, their hair dye must be pretty bland.

They first stopped by at a clothing store. With the help and advice from Ellie, she bought herself the appropriate outfits that would suit her and blend in smoothly. She bought two dresses, a skirt, two blouses, and a pair of black pumps. She didn't know how long was she staying here, but she had to make sure she was prepared that she was going to be staying longer than she intended to be.

After finally getting enough clothes, they went to the salon after. Even though changing her hair wasn't a new thing for her, she still gets a little wrapped up in choosing a hairstyle that would change her looks but not her. Normally, she'd stick to a color similar to her natural color but this time, she wasn't going to take any chances.

She would need to look completely different.

So, she settled on the most common hair color of women—blonde.

She tried to sit still while the hairstylist was working her way through her hair, and she had to swallow down the feeling of anxiety when the scissors cut her strands to a shorter length. After trimming it, they were starting to dye her red hair. 

Ellie was being a patient little girl by reading a magazine on the couch while waiting for her to get done. Natasha smiled at the sight, she really was something.

About half an hour later, they finally washed her hair. What was formerly a bright-fiery red color, was now a soft shade of blonde. Of course, her eyebrows were dyed to a darker shade of it too. They curled the ends of her hair until it reached above her shoulders.

Once they were done, she took a look at her reflection in the mirror, tilting her head and angling to get a good view of her new look.

It wasn't half bad. It was definitely not her style but she looked good, really.

"Wow," She turned around and saw Ellie gaping at her with twinkling eyes. "I think you even looked more of a princess than before."

She wasn't sure if it was a compliment or an insult, but she took the former one. "You'd fit a better princess than I am, Ellie." She smiled, kneeling down to her level and poking her nose.

The dress shopping and makeover already spent half of their day and she and Ellie spend the remaining hours walking around the streets of Brooklyn. Ellie turned out to be a pretty good tour guide, just as she predicted. She showed her she goes to school and told her about an amusement park she called as 'Coney Island'. 

  ————————————————————————————    

After reaching almost noon, they finally decided to call it a day and head home.

They were surprised to see Becca already on the entrance doors of their building, but what was even more surprising was that she was talking to someone else, a guy in particular. And Natasha could make out he was wearing a uniform fit for a soldier, a soldier. It must be her husband. So, her husband was a soldier while she was a nurse. It would make sense.

But she felt all breath left her lungs when Ellie released her hand and ran towards the man's arms. "Uncle Bucky!"

Well, this was just heavenly.

The man turned around just in time to catch her in his arms, lifting her up. "Hey, sweet pea! Jeez, you're getting taller every time I see you."

Ellie laughed, "You're getting shorter."

Natasha didn't move, staring at the man's face completely dumbstruck. Her mouth went limp, recognizing every feature of his face and didn't even need an actual introduction to know who he was. She was too troubled by the fact that the man standing in front of her was indeed none other than James Buchanan Barnes.

Steve's best friend. The Winter Soldier.

And her past lover.

Fuck.

It took every bit of her strength to walk towards him and not melt to the ground. Her knees were shaking and her heart was beating faster. It wasn't because she still felt something for him. Oh, wait, she did. She still felt something.

Yes, rage, fury, and pity. That's what she felt for him.

Rage — for him being the reason why she became this goddamn monster. When she spent every single day of her childhood being trained by him. He made her an assassin, he shaped her to be one. She loathed him.

Fury — for leaving her behind, for playing with her, for toying with her feelings. She didn't exactly know what were they before, but she knew they at least had something. They felt something. All those years training in the Red Room, it had only been a matter of time before they—as disgustingly as it sounds—fell for each other. It wasn't love, no, she had never loved someone but it was a deep attraction. She didn't know if James—if the Winter Soldier, was actually capable of having emotional feelings, but being the stupid and naive girl she was at that time, she only wanted to have someone. So, she convinced herself that he was real, that they were real... but then he left her like she was nothing to him. They went on their separate ways, killing and murdering people. She guessed that's all they were after all, brainwashed or not, spawns of the devil.

And pity — for being a victim like she was. Sometimes, she wanted to think she wasn't a monster, that she wasn't bad, that she was merely a victim. And the same goes for him, maybe she was too young and foolish to understand that as a child when she met him, but it was the only truth she could see. At least she was given a chance to go down a different path but him? When she saw him on that highway, seeing how much he had hurt Steve with the realization that he didn't know him, his friend, his brother. She felt pity. She felt sorry for him. For not remembering how good and close to perfect his past life was before HYDRA took him in.

But still, among all that, it was hatred that won. She hated him for hurting her, for hurting Steve. Steve didn't deserve that. Any of it.

She stood there, putting up the best neutral look she could muster and hoping that her skills would pay off this when she needed it to work the most.

"Oh, hi." He finally noticed her, a short smile forming on his lips.

God, how that smile seemed so real but it did nothing to lessen her conflicted emotions over him. "Hi." Her voice sounded strained.

He didn't seem to notice it, fortunately.

Becca stepped in to introduce them. "Anne, this is my brother, James Buchanan Barnes." Bucky groaned in distaste at the mention of his full name. "Bucky, this is Anne Klein." 

Oh. So he wasn't her husband. She reminded herself next time that it was advisable to get a person's last name to avoid surprises like these again.

She didn't even know Bucky had a sister.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." His 40's charm was showing through, from the way he spoke and held his chin up, and giving her a smile that she was sure worked on most girls. But not her. Well, not anymore that is.

She nodded curtly, forcing a small smile.

"Anne here is trying to find a job and I told her that the SSR is in demand for nurses, right? I was planning to take her with me tomorrow." Becca told him.

"What about me?" Ellie asked, frowning.

"You have school tomorrow, dear."

"That sounds like a swell idea, but I'm afraid we haven't met before, don't tell me you're one of her book club friends?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Becca slapped his arm. "No, she is not. I'm being a good person by giving her a place to stay. She's not from around here. Ellie took her out for a tour."

Bucky's face suddenly lit up. "If that's the case, say, why don't I show you around? Get you to be familiar with the place for a bit?"

Natasha turned pale. "Uh..."

Becca seemed to take her reaction as a bad sign and gave her brother a good glare. "Don't push her."

Bucky rolled his eyes, ignoring her, "There's an upcoming expo tomorrow to be showcased by Howard Stark. It's just down in Queens. If you're interested, you're more than welcome to come."

"But I just told you I'm taking her to apply for a job!"

"Relax, sis. The expo's not until in the evening." He turned to look at Natasha, smiling, "So, what do you say?"

She didn't know what to say. Not with every pair of eyes looking at her and waiting for her answer. "Just... the two of us?" She wasn't asking it in a hopeful way, she was asking it as if she was uncomfortable with the idea.

Bucky seemed to understand why she was so hesitant about it. "Oh, no, no." he chuckled shortly, "I'm sorry I didn't clear that out. I already have a date and my best friend's coming too."

Natasha's heart skipped a beat when she figured who he was talking about.

"But I doubt he's gonna be interested, anyway, I might have to literally drag his ass over there."

Becca glared at him, scolding his language with the look on her face while there was a child present. He looked at her apologetically.

He got back to her, continuing, "So, yeah, either way, you're not going to feel out of place. I promise."

Natasha wasn't clear on what made her accept his invitation when it was only adding more things to worry about. And she was right about time being cruel to her because she didn't know if she was supposed to be glad or nervous about the fact that she's going to see Steve again.

Probably both.

  »»————- ★ ————-««  

Sorry if this was a short chapter!