you're not alone.

"You're welcome, Bucky." Sofia said, that same smile on her face that she knew would only prove to be fuel to the fire that her grandmother was currently building. But she didn't care. She was actually sort of having a conversation with the handsome, mysterious man who lived next-door. It was the most they had spoken to each other since he moved into the building a few months back, and she hoped that there would be more in the future. She wasn't going to get her hopes up though. He seemed very...guarded to say the least. "I'm sure I'll see you around." She told him before nodding to the bag of fruit in his gloved hand. "Enjoy the plums."

---

"Remind me when we get back from this to add those to my list." Steve told her with a smile. He normally carried the little notebook with him, but he didn't exactly have pockets in his suit for him to stick the pen and mini notebook in, so he'd have to settle for Talia reminding him to add them to his list when he got back to his apartment after the mission had been completed. His eyebrows rose and a faint look of amusement crossed his face at her comment about Sam getting his good taste from her. "Is that so? Well, I'll keep that in mind next time he gives me any suggestions then." A soft chuckle rumbled in his chest. "From what I've listened to, his suggestions have been decent so far."

“Will do,” She smiled, hearing her name be called and turning toward the voice. “I guess that’s for the mission. I guess I’ll see you on the plane?” She said, turning away and heading to her superior to hand off the files.

She felt kind of strange. She was well aware that he was technically her boss, even if she was assigned to keep an eye on him. But she couldn’t deny there was something about him she couldn’t quite place and it interested her. She wanted to know more, though she wasn’t sure what. If that alone could jeopardize her job she wasn’t sure what could make it worse. Not only this but Sam would give her the hardest time for it. And Steve. And she kind of didn’t want to do that considering he seemed to be a decent guy and Sam could play overprotective better than anyone she’d ever seen.

After speaking with her boss she went across the room to prepare to get on the plane, heading to the equipment room to not only suit up, but grab whatever weapons she might need for it. She buckled everything up like she had tons of times before, carrying her bag to the plane. It wasn’t long before she felt eyes on her and she looked up, seeing Steve’s from across the room. Natasha Romanov stood at the base of the plane, and Talía was careful to keep a distance since it looked like the two were deep in conversation.

---

Bucky kept hold of the plums and went back up to his room, nearly forgetting that he had originally gone out to shop for food. Not that he had none but he would soon need more since he had failed in his mission in getting some. He could admit he got distracted, he didn’t expect the girl from next door to be selling plums. Nor did he expect the nearly fiery look of determination in her eye to keep up a conversation. Thirdly the look her grandmother gave them was enough to know that he would be a topic of conversation for a while. Back in Brooklyn he had been no stranger to this, in fact he welcomed it. Times were of course different then, and are more so now and he knew it. Didn’t stop his mind from going back to her: Sofia. Though he’d never act on it and he knew it. He pushed the thought from his mind and went about his day as usual. It went exactly as it normally did, from cooking to dinner, to changing for bed, to waking up at exactly 3am once again from a nightmare. Luckily he didn’t remember anything this time. It didn’t prevent the cold sweat that covered his body as he sat up once again to look out the window as he usually did in hopes of falling back asleep.

Sofia spent the remainder of the morning, and some of the afternoon helping her grandmother. The older woman was relentless from the moment that Bucky walked away from the fruit stand up until Sofia went back to her own apartment to call it a night. She questioned her about how she knew the mysterious man, to which Sofia had responded that she really didn't know him at all and that they had only spoken very briefly the night before. Her grandmother wasn't believing that though, and was convinced that something was going on between the two. Sofia eventually gave up on trying to convince her grandmother otherwise, and figured she'd let the older woman believe whatever she wanted to believe. She had dinner with her grandmother that night after they closed up the stand, and then headed back to her apartment. Although she would never tell her grandmother this, throughout the day her mind would wander back to the steely-eyed, dark-haired man who lived in the apartment next to hers. And when she got back to her apartment, and went about her evening as she normally would, she thought about him then too. Little did she know that it would be several days before she saw him again.

---

Steve nodded. "Yeah, I'll see you there." He said. He didn't know why verbal confirmation had been necessary, a nod of his head definitely would have sufficed, but it didn't matter at this point. He really wasn't at all surprised that he was saying things to her that he didn't necessarily want to say. He'd always seemed to have a case of word vomit around dames back in the day. Always rambling, or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. That was something that the serum hadn't changed, and he doubted it was something that he would ever get better at.

Once he was on the plane, logistics regarding the mission were provided to the STRIKE team, and everyone was debriefed. He stood near the doors of the plane, Natasha next to him as they both stared at the screen, watching as they drew closer to the ship's location. "So, got anything planned for Saturday night?" Natasha asked, and Steve knew where small talk with Nat usually went. "Well, most of the guys from my barber shop quartet are dead so..." Was his only response, though he knew that grim words like that wouldn't deter the redhead in the slightest. He knew she was bound to ask if he was going out on dates or seeing someone. It always came up in conversation now.

Talía listened to her command leader and readied herself to jump out of the plane. She should have been focusing on that, but instead she found herself watching Steve. These were dangerous thoughts, she knew this clearly. But she was curious about him. He seemed both open and closed at the same time. Something about him was familiar, but also very foreign and she hasn’t never been great at minding her own business, especially when it came to people she was interested in. She couldn’t hear what was being said but it was also none of her business and she knew that she needed to stop focusing on him and focus on the fact that she was working instead, even though she didn’t really want to.

They gave the order and she cleared her head, focusing instead on the task ad hand. Later she could go back to these potentially dangerous thoughts and see what she made of it. It ended up moving much quicker than she expected and before she knew it, they were preparing to be rounded up and sent back. She didn’t know where he was but she wondered when she might see him again after the mission, for her jobs sake but also out of her own curiosity.

---

Bucky went over it several times in his head and kept coming up blank. He was awake once again, and he stared at the wall as he normally did until this thought came into his head. He knew she was awake, he could hear movement on the other side of the wall. Would asking for tea be really as hard as it felt like it was? He got up and shoved his feet into his shoes, wondering if it was a mistake. But the times she came over with tea were the ones he remembered the best, and he slept the best after she came by. He knew this, but more than that, he wanted to see her. He was curious and he wondered about her more than he’d like to admit.

He found himself in front of her door seconds later, his hand raised to knock. He lowered it suddenly, wondering if he should just go back before knocking before he could back out. When the door opened, he attempted a smile but gave up half way and cleared his throat. “Uh hi. I was wondering if you had any more of that tea?” He asked, looking into her eyes. “It helped the last times and I woke up again.” He explained, hoping she would be alright because admittedly he hadn’t been the kindest or the warmest to her.