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“I could take them out,” Bucky whispered, eyeing the robbers.
“Shut up and don’t move,” Natalia (Natasha, according to her cover) hissed back.
There were only three of them. With the redhead at his side, Bucky (no, it’s James now, a fairly common name that doesn’t attract attention) was pretty sure they’d be done within seconds.
Bucky and Nat could talk, more or less, trusting the cry of the infant at the other table will mask their voices while the cashier hastily tried to empty all the cash to the bag offered to her.
“Who robs a restaurant, anyway?” Bucky grumbled.
“Desperate people,” Nat said, and started to hum. Bucky, his gloved hands still on his nape, turned incredulously.
She hummed the James Bond theme song.
“What the f—“ he hissed, but Nat’s elbow hit his side to quiet him. She watched the robbers sharply. He continued anyway. “I’m not allowed to talk but you can croon?”
“They do as well,” she answered between breaths. “Look how they move!”
And as he started to obey, he started to notice it as well. The way they waggled on their feet, the way they got around each other. They totally imagined some music like they were in some fucked up heist movie.
“What the fuck,” Bucky repeated.
“Amateurs,” Natasha answered. “It’s their first time, probably, and they're high.”
“We can take them out, easy,” he continued to persuade.
“You don’t do anything,” she commanded. “We don’t need local hero to get into newspapers. You have to lay low, remember? I’ll take care of this.”
And she did exactly that.
Bucky just watched in helpless awe as she effectively distracted one of the robbers, then took out the other two, and finished the remaining one as well. He wanted to help, he really wished to step up, be at her side, but she was right. It was her job to protect him during the Witness Protection Program, and Bucky swore to his mother’s grave to be good and obey her instructions.
He didn’t expect it to be this hard. But he didn’t expect to fall in love with her FBI agent, either. But watching her light on her toes, dancing around the confused robber and evicting his weapon, exactly that happened.
He couldn’t not stare as she stood above him while three unconscious bodies littered the floor and the other customers only started to understand the events. And of course she caught him staring.
“You run your mouth, you wind up dead, James,” she lectured, hands on her hips.
Bucky swallowed hard, and averted his gaze.
The next weeks seemed to be even more complicated already.