"I know you wanted to be friends. It would have been nice," Natasha agreed, and even agreed gently. Bucky had tried in his way, and she'd tried in hers. If circumstances were different, if there had been slightly more time without a ticking clock and a guillotine hanging overhead, maybe they would have even been able to actually end up there. It was nice to think about, at least. And there didn't have to be a reason that she couldn't let herself believe it had been true, not at this point. Possibility was enough to count as a good memory. She had done a few nice things for him, he'd done the same for her, and even if they were all rapidly exiting the world where favors were currency, that could still be a good thing. It was enough to know he'd intended for them to be real friends.
And if nothing else, she did like the idea of knowing that, if it was impossible to square up all of her accounts, this one could be settled.
She smiled at him, when he made his offer. He meant it; she understood that he meant it, and there was something sweet about it. She remembered meeting him when she was a teenager, suddenly, the night in the garden when she'd briefly imagined a different kind of future for herself. Hadn't lasted through his own Games, of course, because nothing ever really did, but it had been a good handful of hours, even if the lesson she'd taken away from it was to count on nothing until it was in front of her.
She could try to be kind in return.
"No. Please don't send me anything at all," she said, and tried to think of the best way to soften it. "It's...you've been in the Arena, Bucky. So you understand. It's a zero sum game. You can't pick multiple favorites. In the end, only one person is ever going to come out. You've got your person, and it's not me. The hard math on that says that maybe you don't want to watch me die. But you're ultimately willing to if it means he lives." Her voice was still gentle, but it was matter-of-fact. "It's okay. I don't begrudge you that, I've done this before, I understand it. But please don't send me gifts once it begins."