Chapter Text
"Agent Romanova."
When he slid into the chair on the opposite side of the café table, Natasha didn't startle only because that reflex had been trained out of her many years ago.
"Captain America." She set her cup on its saucer and stilled when the red laser dot appeared on her shirt precisely over her heart.
"Bucky's understandably annoyed with you at the moment, but he won't pull the trigger without my signal." His face shifted to its trademark painfully earnest I-really-don't-want-to-do-that-but-I-will-if-I-must expression. "So let's not make me do that and ruin the day for all these nice civilians, okay?"
Right. Because a bullet through her heart wouldn't ruin her day at all. "What do you want?"
"I thought I wanted to know why, but now I'm here I realise why doesn't matter." A hard, bitter laugh escaped him. "The first thing Bucky did when he broke his programming was try to find me. Fury must have thought all his Christmases had come at once when he got to him first."
"Steve, the Winter Soldier isn't the friend you grew up with-"
"Don't call him that! " Retribution burned in that voice. "All Bucky wanted was to come home and Fury told him I wouldn't even see him. But hey-" and here he dropped into an imitation of Fury that would have her in stitches under different circumstances- "'if you're a good little soldier, one day you'll earn enough redemption through being the Fist of S.H.I.E.L.D. for him to forgive you.' And you were right at Fury's side the whole time, using me to control Bucky while you pretended to be my friend and told me nothing."
"No matter how much you want it to be otherwise, your friend is gone. He's never going to be anything other than a weapon. It was the best option short of putting him down."
"So, no regrets then." He slid a manila folder across the table. "When you've read that, I hope you still feel it was worth what it's going to cost you."
She glanced at the file and when she looked back up he was already gone.