Work Text:
One
His name was… his name was… he didn’t know and for as long as he could remember, he hadn’t cared. He knew who he was, and anyone who needed to address him could call him by his title. But now he wanted to know. So that Natalia could call him by it. Deadly, fierce, loving Natalia, who was equally at ease with pressing her knife against his throat as her lips.
And that was probably a mistake. Because people had names, weapons didn’t. He was becoming human and it was only a matter of time until they found out.
Two
His name was Bucky and everyone but one called him that. Natalia called him James and it was the sweetest sound in the world. Names were important and they carried a lot of weight to those who had gone without them. And his name on her lips was proof of how they’d escaped their old masters.
After all the blood and all the pain, he now had more than he’d ever dared hope for. Natalia, beautiful, lethal Natalia, who loved him as fiercely as he did her. Friends by his side, fighting for more than just survival.
If only it could last forever.
Three
His name was James Buchanan Barnes, but no one called him by that name. Natalia called him Barnes, in the empty manor, surrounded by snow and goons, and it had turned the words in his mouth to ashes.
He willingly bore the burden of remembering everything when she couldn’t. Accepted the pain when it kept her from having her head messed with again. But he couldn’t stay away. Came running every time she needed help. It was all he could do now, keeping her safe from her enemies as well as his own. All he had left to give.
Coda
Her name was Natalia Alianovna Romanova, but no one called her that anymore. She was her own woman, first, last, alway. So why did it feel like a piece of her soul was missing?