I'm trying a different type of angle here...bear with me.

Naturally...I don't own nothing but my OCs

Have fun

xo

Legend -

Italics - Another language other than english

Chapter 1

Bucharest

Bucky looked up at the old stone built, apartment block. He had just rented a small studio apartment, it was cheap, furnished and best of all, they accepted cash.

He had managed to get himself to Bucharest through menial cash paid jobs, and finally felt like he was far enough away to find himself a place to stay.

He looked up and down the street, it was a quiet side street, in what might have been considered a shady side of town, depending how you looked at it. Kids ran past him, playing tag, completely unaware of him. That made him smile slightly. He sighed and walked through the entrance.

Climbing up to the third floor, he scanned the doors for his apartment number, he found it at the end of the hallway, opposite another apartment.

He looked at the door and sighed again, he had to admit, it felt good knowing he was hanging around for awhile.

As he went to put his key into the lock, the door across from his opened. He didn't turn to look though, instead pulling his cap down further.

"Oh shit!" A woman gasped, appearing in the doorway. "Sorry, you scared me." Her Romanian was perfect, although he detected a slightly foreign accent, which put him on edge. "Are you my new neighbour?"

"Yes," he replied curtly, before finally unlocking his door.

"American?"

"Yes," he answered curtly again, opening the door and moving to go inside.

She hesitated before speaking again. "Wel- welcome to the building, I'll see you around." As he turned to shut the door he got a quick look at her as she shut her own door. She was tall, with an athletic build and blonde hair. Her features were somewhat exotic along with her tanned skin.

Her dark brown eyes looked at him with concern before she continued on her way.

He shut the door quickly, listening against the door to hear if she returned anytime soon. He knew that there was little chance he would be relaxing even in his new home.

Bucky spent the first few days only venturing out for supplies or the occasional work. He tried to figure out his neighbour's hours of work, so to avoid them wherever possible. The woman across the hall from him seemed to work sporadic hours though, sometimes leaving early in the morning, and coming home in the early afternoon, or working the exact opposite.

Still, he had managed to avoid her for a month since their first meeting in the hallway.

He was on his way out to buy groceries today, hurriedly closing his apartment door and pulling his hat over his head. He turned, walking along the hallway, but as he went to walk down the stairs he felt the hard impact of someone running into him.

The woman, who had apparently been in a hurry, had run into him, falling backwards after making impact with his chest. As she fell back, he instinctively reached out and grabbed her by the arm, catching her wrist.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she exclaimed, speaking a combination of English and Romanian, as he pulled her back onto her feet. His heart was in his throat when he noticed which hand he had caught her with, he had used his titanium hand.

"Are you okay?" he asked in Romanian, releasing her wrist and trying to see if he had done her any damage, without looking too suspicious as she pulled ear phones from her ears. That must have been why she hadn't noticed him.

"Aside from embarrassment? Yeah, I'm fine. Good catch," she answered, straightening her clothes. He looked her up and down. She was wearing what appeared to be a uniform of some sort, perhaps a security uniform but he couldn't be sure. "Are you alright?"

He realised he must have been staring at her, and quickly looked away. "Sorry, I should be going." He went to move around her.

She held her hand up to him hastily. "Hey, can I cook you dinner sometime as my apologies for running into you?"

He raised his eyebrows, surprised by her offer. "That won't be necessary," he said, before ducking his head to keep his face hidden.

"Are you sure? I mean, I'm more than happy to, neighbour," she grinned and tried to look into his face.

"Thank you, but it's fine." He ducked his head quickly, before finally moving past her.

"Oh, okay. Well the name's Lex, if you ever change your mind," she called back, before beginning to walk up the rest of the stairs. Bucky kept walking, looking back at her in the corner of his eye, noticing that she didn't even look back at him as she hurried to her apartment.

A couple more months passed and Bucky had managed to avoid running into his neighbour, Lex.

While the months had passed incident free, it didn't stop him from living in a state of anxiousness. Whenever he heard sirens in the distance, his heart would race and he would wait with bated breath, to see if they would pass him by.

Add to that, the nightmares plagued his sleep. He would often wake in a cold sweat as he relived his past, over and over again, watching as he did so many horrendous things, completely out of his own control. He sometimes wondered if his neighbours could hear him at night, when he occasionally woke up shouting.

Even the sounds within the apartment building would have him on edge, and considering how often Lex seemed to leave her apartment, that meant he was always listening for any suspicious sounds.

Even the bubbly woman had him on edge sometimes, especially after his run in with her on the stairs months earlier. Most women would have suffered some injury from him grabbing their wrist with his titanium hand the way he had, yet she hadn't even flinched, let alone suffered any injury whatsoever, that he could tell.

It was possible that she just had very strong bones, but it wasn't something common in Romanians, especially in their neck of the woods, which was populated with predominantly low income earners who worked hard just to get a roof over their heads.

Either way, he was in a constant state of alert even now, as he stared out the window as another siren blared in the distance, while he wrote his thoughts down in his notebook.

He found the activity cathartic, getting the jumble of thoughts and flashbacks written down in one place for him to go over and try and decipher. He hoped it would help him reshape himself to something familiar, but so far, he'd not had much luck.

He sighed, closing his journal and looking at the time. He needed to duck out again today, but he hadn't heard Lex leave her apartment yet.

As he stood to pack away his journal, he heard her door open and her footsteps exiting her apartment. He quickly and quietly began to gather his backpack and cap, slipping gloves on his hands to cover his titanium hand.

He waited a few minutes to make sure she was definitely gone before leaving himself.

It was a dark day outside, clouds hung ominously in the sky, threatening rain, but it didn't bother him. It meant less people in the street. He kept his head down and slung his back pack onto his back, before stuffing his hands into his pockets and began walking to his favourite market.

As he walked along, he heard some voices from an alley, and one voice in particular, piqued his interest.

"Come on," Lex's voice floated to his ears. "You're being ridiculous right now."

Bucky slowed and looked around, trying to pin point exactly where her voice was coming from.

"I told you, you'll learn your place, Woman," a man sneered, before he heard a scuffling sound. Bucky considered what to do for a moment, looking up the street towards the market. He finally sighed and walked down the nearby alleyway.

What he found when he walked to the end was Lex, surrounded by about six men. Two currently had hold of her by her arms and were handling her roughly.

"Seriously guys, all this because I told you to fuck off?" she said struggling against the two that held her.

"You don't disrespect us, woman, we run these streets," one man said walking towards her. He was tall and well built, but Lex didn't seemed perturbed by that, as she laughed at him.

"Man, just you saying that makes me want to laugh." That earned her a slap across the face. "Ugh, you even hit like a woman."

"You think you're so tough," the man said, before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a flick knife. "Hold her so I can teach her a lesson."

Bucky stepped out from the shadows and grabbed the man directly to his right with his titanium arm, easily throwing him into the nearby wall.

It drew the other's attention to him and gave Lex the chance to free herself from the two men holding.

Bucky busied himself, shoving another man into a pile of rubbish before the man with the flick knife ran towards him. Bucky stepped back to avoid the knife, before ducking from a wild swing.

As the man swung his arm back again, Bucky grabbed his knife hand easily and twisted, making him drop the knife, which Bucky caught with his free hand.

"I think you need to learn how to talk to a lady, pal," Bucky muttered as the man struggled in his hand.

"Let me go."

"Say sorry," Bucky ordered, twisting his hand further.

"I'm sorry."

Bucky looked back to Lex, to find her kicking the last of the men holding onto her into a wall fiercely. He was impressed, all three remaining men that had either been holding her or close at hand had been subdued or knocked out.

"Let him go, they're just a bunch of kids anyway," she said with a careless wave of her hand. Bucky raised an eyebrow, she had to be barely a couple of years older than them herself, but did as she said and released the man's hand. He looked at Lex angrily before looking back at Bucky, who glared back at him.

The man was quick to take off, his friends slowly getting up and going after him.

Lex moved to sit on a crate gingerly, Bucky watching her for a moment. He considered turning and leaving, but he noticed she was bleeding from her mouth and head.

He sighed to himself before moving to kneel next to her. "Are you okay?" he asked in Romanian.

She gave a tired nod. "Once again, I think I'm more embarrassed than anything else," she answered in English, touching her lip. It was split and swelling from where she had been hit at some point. Bucky spotted a cut on her forehead too. "Thanks for the save."

When she spoke English, she had an accent that he couldn't quite place, it reminded him of an English accent. "Don't mention it," he replied. He watched her for a moment as she rested, before taking his bag from his back and opening it and pulling out a water bottle. "Here, you're bleeding."

He took off the glove from his normal hand and wet it with the water, before dripping water onto the cut above her right eye. She pulled a face as he did so, but didn't pull away.

"Thanks."

"Why were they bothering you?"

"It's just one of the local gangs, because I work security at one of the local bars, I'm always kicking them out or stopping them from coming in because they're disrespectful shits," she said in an offhand manner. "I guess they figured out I lived somewhere in the neighbourhood."

"You going to be okay?" Bucky asked, hearing sirens in the distance and feeling slightly anxious. He'd already been outside longer than he would have liked.

She waved off his concerned question. "Whatever happens, happens. Don't worry about me."

She stood up quickly, but began to sway slightly. Bucky quickly grabbed her to steady her. "Whoa, did you take a knock to the head?"

"Maybe, can't remember. I'll be fine, I'll call in sick and head back to bed for the day. I'm sure you've got things to do," she said and turned to walk away. "Thanks neighbour."

Bucky watched her walk away, considering what to do next. He sighed and quickly slung his backpack across his shoulders before hurrying to catch up to her. "I'll take you back, I can always come back out."

"You don't need to."

"It's fine." He didn't look at her, his ulterior motive for going back with her was because he was quite anxious at who had seen him fighting with the men, and whether they would report it to the authorities. He continued to walk beside her, keeping to her pace, which wasn't hard because her stride seemed to match his exactly. "And it's Bucky."

"Huh?" Lex asked in confusion, looking at him.

"My name, it's Bucky."

Lex blinked, taking in what he said. "Oh, thanks, Bucky. Appreciate it."

After that day in the alley, Bucky wasn't too bothered about running into Lex. She was a nice girl, always offering him a smile and a hello. She didn't try and engage him in conversation most days though, he figured she must have known he wasn't comfortable talking much.

It was strange though, he started to find it comforting to see her in the hallways whenever he left to go shopping, or even to hear her apartment door open and close as she went off to do her day to day errands.

One day, he ran into her as he was returning home from a small job in the city, as she was returning home from work too.

"Oh, Bucky, how are you?" She asked as she rummage through her bag for her keys, continuing to walk up the stairs towards their floor. She had a tendency to continue to speak Romanian to him when they were in the hallways of the apartment building, which he could appreciate. For him, it meant they didn't draw attention.

"Good, how are you?" He asked politely, as she pulled them out. "Busy at work?"

"Not really, thankfully." She began unlocking her door, but stopped and looked at him as he unlocked his own door. "Hey, don't suppose you want to come in for a coffee? I've got cake too? I never did get to thank you for helping me out."

He glanced back at her, thoughtful for a moment. She had been awfully nice to him, and he was curious about certain aspects about her, like how it was she came to be in Bucharest, when quite clearly she was a foreigner. "Sure, I'd like that."

Her eyes went wide and she looked stunned. "Re-really?" He furrowed his brow and looked at her nervously. "Sorry! It's just, you shut me down so quickly last time, I thought you'd do the same this time. Come on, it's chocolate cake." Bucky was slightly relieved at her reply.

She opened the door and walked inside, holding it open for him as he entered behind her. Her apartment was exactly the same as his, except she had added a few small homely touches to it, like a lamp here and there or a framed picture.

She turned on a lamp here and there as she made her way to the kitchen. She motioned to the small dining table. "Have a seat, how do you like your coffee?"

"However you have it is fine," he replied, carefully pulling out a chair and sitting down. Lex furrowed her brow and looked at him for a moment, before turning back to her kitchen.

"With a shot of vodka, it is," she replied. Bucky raised his eyebrows in surprise as she turned back around with two plates of cake in hand. She grinned. "I'm kidding, of course." She placed one of the plates in front of him. "I only use rum."

Bucky gave a small chuckle, accepting the spoon she handed to him. She was always smiling whenever he saw her, and it seemed like her sense of humour was a constant fixture too. He noticed her eyes lingered over his gloved hands in a state of confusion, but she didn't say anything, instead returning to the kitchen to prepare their coffees as the water boiled.

He pressed his lips together as he waited for her to return, looking at his hands. When he was outside, no one really gave him a second look, but, of course, inside it was considered strange behaviour. He started debating if accepting her offer was such a good idea, as she returned with his coffee.

"Don't wait for me, buddy, dig in," she ordered, motioning to his cake.

He gave a small smile, before picking up his spoon and breaking a piece of cake off. He slipped it into his mouth and was delighted by the rich chocolate taste. It reminded him of something else, from long ago, but he couldn't quite recall it. He was quiet as he tried to pin point what the cake was reminding him of.

"Bucky?" He was drawn from his thoughts by Lex, looking at him with concerned eyes and her head tilted to one side as she looked at him. "Is there something...wrong?"

"Oh, no, it's really good," he replied quickly, looking back down at the cake quickly. He wasn't used to people looking at him the way she did, it was unnerving.

"Really? Because the way you were looking at it made me wonder if I poisoned it," she retorted. He looked back at her to find she was pouting with her deep brown eyes narrowed at him.

He was mortified. "No, not at all! It's really good, it's been awhile since I had chocolate cake."

She smirked at him and lifted her coffee to her lips. "If you say so."

"It just reminded me of something, sorry," he said ruefully.

"Of what?" she asked with interest, taking a bite of her own. "Something your Mum made?"

He was quiet for a moment. Was that it? "Yeah, something like that." She furrowed her brow at his answer for a moment, but quickly gave him a small smile and didn't push the subject.

He decided to change the subject. "So you're...English?"

"What?" She looked offended. "Australian." She shook her head and sighed. "I get your confusion though, we were founded on English convicts after all." She grinned and he couldn't help but give a little laugh at her own jab.

"Sorry."

"What for? Confusing me for English or that I'm most likely the descendant of a criminal?" He laughed again as he picked up his coffee cup and went to take a sip. "You should laugh more, Bucky, it looks nicer than that broody thing you're always doing."

He coughed as he nearly choked on his drink. Lex laughed heartily as she handed him a napkin. The sound of her laugh had him looking at her in surprise. It was a pleasant sound, but was one he wasn't accustomed to.

"Sorry, that was mean," she finally said when she had calmed down.

He pressed his lips into a thin line, before he let a small smile escape. "Maybe a little."

"It's true though, people in the building think you're some scary dude, because you never smile," she explained, finishing off her cake.

"Perhaps I am."

"Nawww, why would you say that? You're alright."

He sighed. "Thanks." He didn't believe that one bit. He knew what he'd done and he knew that if she knew, she wouldn't believe it anymore either.

xo

Krayzee