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-heads.

^v^v^v^v^v^

"Where in the nine realms are they?" you groaned, shifting impatiently in you civilian clothes. Bucky shook his head, arms folded.

A quinjet had dropped you and Bucky, who was now one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operatives, off at an airfield. It was around midnight wherever you were, and the Bus had been scheduled to arrive an hour after you arrived... wherever it was you'd arrived at. It had been two hours since the quinjet had disappeared back into the clouds in the night sky.

It wouldn't have been as crappy of a situation if you'd been given your mission before getting dumped off in the middle of nowhere, but no, since the Bus was coming anyway to provide backup (which was not very reassuring, available backup meant an extremely dangerous mission), you had to wait for them to show up to get your mission.

Another hour passed, and you found yourself sitting in the grass beside the runway, pulling up the rather long green blades and tying them together while Bucky did a one handed handstand with his metal arm.

"Where even are we?" Bucky asked, his hair rustling in the wind. You shrugged and braided the threads of knotted grass together, making a thin rope, which you proceeded to drape around your neck.

"It looks like an airfield in the middle of farming land," you mused, admiring the grass rope you'd made.

Bucky let down his legs gracefully and flexed his metal arm. You heard it recalibrate softly, a metallic noise that always put you on edge for some reason. "It smells like it. Freshly turned dirt, animal crap... your usual farmlike smells."

You giggled at his comment and lay down in the grass, looking up at the clouded over sky. "I would say the stars are beautiful, but there aren't any around."

Bucky laughed and flopped down on your right. He let out a heavy sigh and took your hand in his. "You know, we might not be able to do all this mission stuff pretty soon."

"What do you mean?" you inquired, shifting so that you were on your side and facing Bucky.

He opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the roar of jet engines in the distance.

The two of you shot to your feet and ran towards the edge of the runway, grass rope abandoned, where the Bus was slowly descending. Those pivoting engines were pretty cool, allowing vertical landings and whatnot. The cargo ramp hit the ground at the same time the wheels did, and Agent Triplett was the first one out.

"Agent (Name)!" he exclaimed, running up to you and giving you a hug. "It's been ages!"

"Yeah it has, Triplett," you grinned, pounding his back and then releasing him.

"Who's this guy?" Agent Triplett asked.

"Antoine, Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier. Bucky, Antoine Triplett, one of the guys I hung out with at the S.H.I.E.L.D. OPs Academy."

The two men shook hands, both regarding the other warily.

"Director Coulson came with us and would like a word with both of you," Agent Triplett said to you.

You nodded in response, took Bucky's hand, and followed him up the cargo ramp into the Bus.

^v^v^v^v^v^

"Age-no, Director Coulson," you corrected yourself as you shook the Director's hand. "It's been too long, sir."

"I agree," Director Coulson said curtly, squeezing your hand. Then he turned his attention to Bucky and offered his hand. Bucky took it after a moment of hesitation. "Phillip Coulson, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.. You must be James Barnes."

"Good to meet you, Director," Bucky replied, clearly wary of the man in front of him. Something felt different about the Director, but he just couldn't figure out what...

"I would tell you to sit, but there aren't any chairs in here except mine," Director Coulson started. "So I'll just get down to the meat of the matter. You, Agent (Name), are here because Agent Romanoff is... indisposed."

You smiled to yourself. Everyone who lived at Avengers Tower knew she and Agent Barton were sneaking off to different parts of the world when they were considered 'indisposed.'

"And you, Mr. Barnes," the Director continued, "are here because Agent (Name) requested you go with her, for strategic reasons. Your mission, both of you, is to infiltrate this HYDRA base." He pulled up a holographic map and indicated a square in the middle of nowhere, approximately two klicks1 from the airfield you were at currently.

"How are we getting there? The quinjet kind of abandoned us," you pointed out.

"You... will be borrowing Lola ," the Director forced out.

All the blood in your body suddenly turned to ice. Yeah, it was an honor to pilot a flying car, but Lola? That was Phil's baby. If you crashed her...

"Director, I don't think-"

"Agent (Name), there is no other way you can get there in a timely manner and remain undetected," Director Coulson cut you off. "I trust you."

"O-okay, sir," you murmured, nervously shifting your weight from one foot to the other and staring steadily at the floor. "When do you want us to leave?"

"Right now would be nice."

^v^v^v^v^v^

After changing into your tactical gear and about an hour in the middle of a prairie, practicing maneuvering Lola, you felt confident enough to start your - flight? Commute? Whichever you want to call it. - to the HYDRA base.

Bucky put his feet up on the dash as the two of you hurtled through the tall grasses, your hand guided by what was apparently the world's first GPS. He was fiddling with something that looked a lot like the grass rope you'd made while sitting in the grass.

There wasn't time to dwell on that, though. Well, no, there was certainly time, but you weren't confident enough in your abilities to pilot Lola to direct much attention to anything but the wheel,

^v^v^v^v^v^

"I KNEW this was gonna be bad!" you yelled over the machine gun fire. You and Bucky were hiding around one corner of a hall in the HYDRA facility. The Bus team was attempting to get to you, but seemingly wasn't having much luck. "The only time S.H.I.E.L.D. sends backup is when they know you're probably going to die!"

"We're not going to die!" Bucky shouted back, peering around the corner and firing three rounds from his P226 in the direction of your assailants.

The standoff continued for what felt like an eon: you peered around the corner and got shot at by them, they peered around the corner and got shot at by you. It was your typical exchange of fire, the kind you would see in movies. A troublesome situation for both sides. It had to be kept constant, or the other side would know something was going on.

So when the HYDRA operatives who were down the hall stopped shooting for a little longer than usual, you and Bucky became extremely suspicious and on edge.

The exchange of fire started again and went on for a few more minutes, placating yours and Bucky's suspicion. However, when it was your turn to peer around the corner, you were faced with something far more scary than a bullet.

You retreated behind the corner again, pushing Bucky down underneath you and covering your head as the RPG hurtled through the air and struck one of the walls that made the corner you were hiding behind.

The explosion's shock wave assaulted your ears, making it so that you couldn't hear temporarily. Rubble and your body flew through the air. You hit your head on something hard, which made your consciousness waver.

As you struggled to remain conscious, knowing that drifting away would probably put you in a coma, you were vaguely aware of Bucky dragging you back to cover and shaking your shoulders.

"(Name)! Wake up! God dammit, (Name), please wake up," he howled. A tear fell from his eye and landed on your cheek, and you opened your eyes a little wider.

"Bucky...?" you groaned, blinking hard. You saw two of him.

"Don't fall asleep, (Name)," he begged you. The gunfire started again, and he took his eyes off of you momentarily to shoot at the advancing HYDRA operatives.

"I can't stay awake, Buck," you murmured, your vision starting to fade to black.

"Please, (Name), don't die on me!" Bucky shouted, but his voice was no longer enough to keep you from falling into the darkness.

Before you blacked out, you saw a sudden flash of green light and an oddly dressed man appeared in the haze of your vision. You felt a hand touch your temple, and then everything faded as you fell unconscious.

~Epilogue~

"You may kiss the bride."

The crowd went nuts when yours and Bucky's lips met. You were in a lacy white dress that contrasted nicely with Bucky's tuxedo. 2 His hair was still as long as it had been when he was the Winter Soldier, and for the occasion, it was tied back in a tiny ponytail, while your (hair color) hair remained down and simple.

It had been six years since the coin flip and two years since that mission in the middle of nowhere, where you'd almost died.

"I've been waiting five years to do that," Bucky muttered when the two of you broke apart.

"I know you have," you whispered to him, smiling radiantly. "Perhaps we should go down to the reception?"

^v^v^v^v^v^

You and Bucky were, of course, were nearly crushed with well wishes at the reception. So many people had been in attendance at your wedding, and you were starting to regret the amount of people you'd invited. You'd only invited your colleagues at S.H.I.E.L.D. (including Director Coulson) and the Avengers, but the attendees still totaled up to be around a hundred people. Every single person had brought a gift.

Getting married was overwhelming.

"Should've kept the invitations down to 50 people," you muttered, sipping champagne.

"I still say we should've just went to the courthouse and not bothered with any of these... formalities," your husband chuckled, leaning in and kissing your forehead. He'd undone his ponytail to let his hair hang loose around his cheeks, which, in your opinion, looked better than a ponytail. "You were the one who wanted a 'real' wedding."

"And I'm regretting almost every second of it," you sighed. At least the guests had stopped coming up to you and-

"Lady (Name)?"

Okay, maybe not.

You turned around and found yourself staring at the God of Mischief.

"L-L-Loki?" you spluttered, almost dropping your champagne. Bucky's eyes narrowed upon seeing the guest, and he excused himself, using his desire to talk to Steve as the reason.

Loki smiled sheepishly at you when your mouth fell open. His black coat that rested on his shoulders over his suit looked amazing. A green and some sort of animal patterned scarf hung around his neck. It didn't suit the summer weather, but it looked wonderful nonetheless.

"What-" you started, but Loki waved his hand and cut you off.

"I know you didn't invite me," Loki sighed. "You didn't really have a way of doing so, therefore, I don't blame you. I simply wished to congratulate you on your marriage to the dear Soldier."

"Th-thank you, Loki," you stammered, definitely surprised. Since the coin flip, you and Loki hadn't said more than ten words to each other. You knew he was jealous, but he had done the mature thing and pulled himself out of the situation altogether.

Though there was one event that you had been suspicious about.

"Loki, I have a question that Bucky won't answer," you stated. "Two years ago, my husband and I were in what seemed like a suicide mission, one that S.H.I.E.L.D. had expected us to perish during its execution. An RPG blast sent me flying and I hit my head hard on some concrete. That caused a severe contusion3, which made me pass out. Right before I passed out, I saw a flash of green light and a man materialize from said light. The next thing I know, I'm in a hospital bed, hooked up to a billion machines. One of the doctors said that I would've died, but something stabilized me enough to keep me out of a coma and alive."

Loki exhaled heavily, realizing where this was going.

"Was the green light from you?"

"Yes," Loki muttered. "I saved your life two years ago and made your husband swear that he would never tell you that I did."

"But why?" you questioned him. "I thought you had bigger fish to fry on Asgard."

"I did," Loki responded, "but the fact remains that I love you, (Name). Even if I couldn't have you, I couldn't stand to see you die until your time had truly come."

You were stunned by his response. Emotion rose in your chest, emotion that had never really gone away despite Loki's absence.

"I... I still love you as well, Loki," you faltered. "Not in the way you want me to; that feeling has gone away. But I miss you. It's sucked to not be able to talk to you, even if it was for the better."

"Trust me, (Name), I know," he whispered, putting a hand on your upper arm. "Now, however, is not the time to lament a lost future. You have a life with James ahead of you, and you should cherish that."

Unable to put your emotions into words, you simply pulled Loki into a hug. You felt Bucky's eyes on you from across the room, but you didn't care if he saw or what he thought; not right now. The coin flip had made you lose a friend, and you needed the comfort of still having his friendship.

"It's good to see you again, Loki."