The Avenger, The Assassin, and The Vigilante || B. Barnes

"Doesn't it bother you?" Allie questioned her brother, fuming as she watched his annoyed sigh.

It had been over a week since Sam had given up the shield. Sam had made numerous attempts to call her, each time finding that she quickly rejected his call. Bucky had ignored Sam's attempts to reach out, though that was nothing surprising. Bucky hadn't had a desire to speak about the ordeal at all. Allie, however, continued to bring it up, angry at what Sam had done. She was repetitive in her words, telling Steve that he should be angry. It further angered her that her brother seemed to not care one bit.

"Allie, I've told you this over and over again," Steve sighed as he turned to face her. She was angrily setting the table for their lunch, watching as he took their order from the local diner out and placed their food on their plates. "I don't really have a right to be upset about this right now. I gave it to him. It was his choice to make."

"Exactly. You gave him the shield and what does he do with it?" she hissed at him. "He puts it in a goddamn museum."

Steve folded his arms against his chest, shutting his eyes tightly as he thought. He brought his hand up to his nose, pinching the bridge of it as he took a breath in. "He and I talked already. He called me as soon as he was home that night. I understand why he did it."

"Okay, well, doesn't it still hurt?" Allie sat down in her chair, taking a bite of her burger. "I remember you sitting me and Bucky down to talk about it. You were passionate about giving it to him. It's like he's questioning your judgement."

Her brother sat down in his seat, shaking his head. He chose to think of his words carefully, looking to his food and swallowing a small lump in his throat.

"It's disappointing," he began, watching as Allie opened her mouth. He held up a finger to hush her, watching as she took another bite of her burger instead. "But, Allie, it's still his choice. I don't get to make that choice for him. I'm retired now. I'm focusing on building a life that I should have been able to have decades ago."

She let out a huff of air through her lips, shaking her head at him. "I'm building my life too, Steve. But I'm still upset with him. Frankly, I'm pissed at him."

Sighing at his younger sister, Steve shook his head just a touch in thought. "Allie, why don't you just talk to him? Hear him out? You aren't being fair to him."

"Fair to him?" she asked incredulously. "I have no desire to speak with anyone that throws away something so important. That shield had been with us since our days in the Commandos. That shield followed you from World War II to the attack on New York. When you saw Bucky for the first time in almost seventy years, when we found him in Romania. It was with us when we finally stopped the madness that was Thanos. That shield is important, and he just tossed it aside."

"Is that what this attitude of yours is all about?" Steve narrowed his eyes at her. "Allison, it's a shield. I didn't have it when we were all on the run. I can live without it being around."

She swallowed harshly, setting her food back on her plate and wiping her fingertips on her napkin. She wet her lips as she found the words to say.

"Steve, I love him," she shook her head softly and closed her eyes. "I really do. He's a good man. But this isn't something that I can easily get over. You chose him. You didn't choose me and you didn't choose Bucky. You chose Sam. He barely even touched the damn thing before he gave it away. I asked him if he had worked with it and he avoided the answer."

She found her appetite waning as she pursed her lips. She knew Steve wasn't being completely honest with her. It had to have bothered him. That was the shield that he carried with him. It was a symbol. It was protection. He had chosen that shield out of all of Howard's designs. It was more than just a piece of metal to her, and she was certain that Bucky felt the same way.