The notice for Natalia is out for weeks. Bucky waits impatiently as more and more memories resurface and he grows closer and closer to Steve, but Natalia is still out of the picture.

He can still remember her hands on him and her mouth meeting his. He remembers her eyes and the way she saved him again and again. He remembers their wittier of conversations, remembers enjoying the time spent with her. He misses her.

He’s beginning to think maybe she just hated him after their conversation in the hotel room. Maybe she really would have rathered him dead. Maybe she never loved him at all. Clearly she didn’t now, or she’d be here.

He tries very hard to put her out of his mind.

Ever since Bucky returned, Steve has been wanting to give him something of a welcome back ceremony. They’d had one all to themselves a few weeks ago, with a small cake and a movie night and just the two of them, but Steve wants to reconnect Bucky with all of their old friends and he’s been excited about it for a while now. So Bucky finally gives in and helps him plan the ceremony. There’ll be food and music and Steve promises that he’s not much of a party person either, so they won’t invite too many people and as they’re making the guest list, Bucky discretely adds Natalia’s name to the end.