Winter Widow

"A long time ago, Natalia Romanova made me remember what it was to feel human."

- Bucky, Captain America #27

Winter Widow is the het ship between Natasha Romanoff and Bucky Barnes from the Marvel and Marvel Cinematic Universe fandoms.

Earth-616
While under the control of the Soviets, Bucky helped train Natasha at the Red Room Academy, and they fell in love. He often snuck into her room sleeping quarters to see her. Their relationship began to break down his Winter Soldier programming. As a result, they were forcibly separated from each other, and Bucky was put back into cryostasis.

Fifty years later, they were reunited and rekindled their romance. Eventually Natasha was captured and her memories were altered. Bucky is able to rescue her and retrieve her old memories, but the ones of their relationship were erased.

THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA

Bucky takes out the vehicle transporting Steve's shield and goes to get it out, but the person inside kicks him in the face. As he backs away, the person gets out of the car and he realizes that it's the Black Widow. Bucky says she didn't know she was working for Shield, but thought she'd be a lot older by now. She's says no luck and asks why he wants the Shield and who he's working for. He tells her that he doesn't work for anyone, and that he's here for a friend. Nat realizes that they weren't rumors and he was Bucky. She tells him to leave, since she doesn't want to hurt him, he tells her that he was about to say the same and the two fight. As they fights, Bucky thinks about he was the one to train her in the Red Room, and how she used to make him feel human before they were punished for it. He's able to go get the upper hand and knock her out, before leaving with Steve's shield.

Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Winter Soldier attacked and shot Natasha while she was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. She searched for him after the incident, but found nothing.

Five years later, she fought against the Winter Soldier in Washington, D.C. alongside Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson. He shot her a second time.

She fought the Winter Soldier a third time two years later at the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre Building in Berlin. As he strangled her, she asked him to recognize her.

Captain America
ISSUE #27
 * Bucky considers fighting Natalia a punishment.
 * Nat thinks back to her and Bucky's time in the red room as lovers.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

 * Natasha tells Steve that she'd encountered the Winter Soldier once before, and he'd shot her.

Captain America: Civil War

 * Natasha and Bucky fight while he's under brainwashing. She asks him if he could recognize her.
 * Bucky takes Natasha's gun in Siberia. He keeps it, as seen in Avengers: Infinity War.

Quotes
"I was their secret weapon in the Cold War...or at least I was one of them. The Black Widow was another. Something about her touched what was left of my humanity. Buried under all that programming."

- Bucky, Captain America & Bucky #624 "I might have put a bullet in my brain to quiet the ghosts... if not for Natasha..."

- Bucky, Captain America & Bucky #624

"Going after him is a dead end. I know. I’ve tried."

- Natasha to Steve about Bucky. "(In Russian) She's mine."

- Bucky about Natasha.

Behind the Scenes
"Don't beat around the bush. It's the one where he takes over for Cap and sleeps with Natasha, right? And then he's dating Natasha- come on, you wanna kiss Scarlett."

- The Russo brothers on Sebastian Stan's favorite Bucky Arc. "But I wouldn't mind a little Black Widow/Winter Soldier story happening."

- Sebastian Stan. "There's a comic book story line where Black Widow falls in love with Bucky. Have you all read that?"

- Sebastian Stan as the crowd cheers. "It's why she says, "Don't you recognize me?" she's still thinking about him [Bucky]."

- Sebastian Stan on Natasha. "They fight beautifully together."

- Anthony Russo about Bucky and Natasha. "No matter what I do I keep ending up in between Black Widow's legs. Pretty tough job."

- Sebastian Stan. "Selfishly, I would love the BuckyNat situation."

- Sebastian Stan. "[…]It was during this period that he (Bucky) met Natasha Romanoff, whom he helped train in combat while she was undergoing espionage training at the Red Room Academy, where the Russians promoted the Black Widow Ops Program and the corresponding male project, the Wolf Spider Ops Program. They fell in love and James often snuck out into her sleeping quarters just so he could see her."

- Marvel Comics. "Natasha Romanoff and Bucky Barnes have a history as long as war, companions since the Widow's earliest days in the Red Room when both were trapped in service to the wrong side. It's one of the greatest- and most tragic- love stories in the Marvel universe."

- Article on Bucky and Natasha. "I don’t usually do the pro photo ops (unless it’s @therealstanlee!) but I made an exception for @imsebastianstan at @wizardworld. I asked for a #buckynat look, I guess Bucky feels pretty intensely about Natasha 😉"

- the.queen.bee.cosplay on Instagram. "Bucky Barnes & Natasha had a healthy relationship, only ending due to her death during secret empire."

- CBR about Bucky and Natasha. "The Winter Soldier had a whole backstory with Black Widow, I don't care what anyone says."

- Sebastian Stan at Wizard World. "Bucky Barnes' love interests are few and far between in both the MCU and the comic book pages. One of the few serious relationships that Bucky built outside of the MCU was with his love interest Natasha Romanoff. The two had a fascinating partnership, as Barnes was initially her trainer in the Red Room. Despite it being off and on several times, their relationship lasted years in the comics and is commonly considered one of Marvel's best couples."

- Screenrant on Winter Widow. "Following the assassination of Steve Rogers during Marvel's Civil War, it was Natasha who rekindled her relationship with a no-longer-brainwashed Bucky Barnes, and who convinced Bucky to take up the mantle of Captain America. The two continued to work together, tracking down and neutralizing sleeper agents from the Red Room and Hydra. They remained together until Natasha's untimely death at the Hydra-controlled Steve Rogers's hands during the Secret Empire event."

- CBR.

Fanon
As the ship is comic-canon, many fans would like it to be in the MCU as well. Otherwise, fans like the ship because of their involvement in the Red Room, as well as the way their personalities interact. Natasha is portrayed as stoic and Bucky is portrayed as a man not to be crossed.

Many fans speculate about one of Natasha's lines in Civil War. She and Bucky fight against each other while he is in Winter Soldier mode. As he is strangling her, she says to him, "You could at least recognize me." Fans usually interpret this to mean that Bucky helped train Natasha in the Red Room as he did in the comics.

On AO3, Winter Widow is the second most written ship for Natasha and the fourth most written for Bucky.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Bucky/Natasha (Avengers Movies) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Bucky/Natasha (Marvel Comics) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Bucky/Natasha (Avengers Cartoon) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Bucky/Natasha (Avengers Cartoon) tag on FanFiction.net

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Natasha is one of the few people to call Bucky by his first name, James.
 * On Earth-555326 Natasha's son is named after Bucky.
 * Sebastian Stan is a BuckyNat shipper and has expressed numerous times how he wants Bucky to marry Natasha.

Variations

 * Cap Quartet refers to the ship between Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Bucky and Natasha
 * StuckyNat refers to the ship between Steve Rogers, Bucky, and Natasha
 * WinterIronWidow refers to the ship between Tony Stark, Bucky and Natasha
 * WinterWidowHawk refers to the ship between Clint Barton, Bucky and Natasha