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[imawreck]

Loop

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: Max is pushed to the brink of survival in order to break her spirit. Giles proceeds with his plans for her as the main weapon for New Hydra.

Warnings: gore, death, mental torture, starvation and physical abuse, cursing, lots of bad stuff so read with caution!

Author’s Note: Well, if you read the last chapter, you know it’s gonna be terrible awful. Buckle up and grab the tissues home-slices, you’re in for a rollercoaster ride.

Word count: 4,203

Max-

I woke with a start, hands thrashing about and getting caught in sheets. I stumbled off the edge of a bed, mind wild as I took in my surroundings.

Sheets, a bed, no cell in sight.

Confusion crept into my mind as I recalled where I had been mere minutes ago. I swore I had been in a cell, trapped within Hydra's compound just minutes ago...

But everything seemed so real. The coolness of the tile beneath my bare feet, the scent of laundry detergent clinging to the bedsheets that spilled out onto the floor next to me, even the heartbeat down the hall—

A heartbeat down the hall.

I scrambled up from the tiles, bolting for the door and shoving it open. Blinding white light met my eyes, stealing my vision for a moment as I blinked it away in a hurry. Someone stood at the end of the hall, wide eyed and looking nearly as confused as I felt.

"Max?" His voice was like heaven upon my ears, and I felt my eyes sting as I took in his lovely face.

Those same steely blue eyes held me captive with their worried gaze. A T-shirt and jeans graced his body, and his white socks stuck out against the dark floors. He kept walking towards me as I fought to find words, to speak to him.

"Doll, what's wrong? You're scarin' me."

Doll. That single word was my undoing. I ran to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and clinging to him with a sob, "Bucky." His heart thundered in my ear as his arms wrapped themselves around me.

His voice rumbled, "Hey, what's going on? Do-gk."

Glass shattered behind me, tearing my attention to the windows of the small living room. One of the windows were broken, and the red laser of a sniper flickered off from the building next to the Tower.

I tore my eyes from the window as one of Bucky's hands left my hip. I felt something warm drip onto my face, taking my attention back towards Bucky only to be blinded by whatever it was dripping onto my face. I swiped at it with the back of my hand, blinking it away and bringing my hands down to look at them.

They were red. Red as blood.

Bucky stumbled to the side, slamming to his knees on the tiles and clutching at his neck. His breathing was garbled and wet, all the wrong sounds. I collapsed next to him, grasping at his shirt, his shoulders, anything I could get purchase on as he fell to the floor. His blue eyes were wild and scared, searching mine for answers.

"Bucky, no, no, no!" A sob wracked through me, "Tony! STEVE! Somebody, anybody!" I pulled him into my arms, pressing my hand against his own to stifle the bleeding. "Help me!"

Nobody came, no one was coming. There was only the dulling sound of his heartbeat and the splatter of blood on the tiles that met my ears. We were alone, and there was nothing I could do to stop this.

It couldn't be real, surely it wasn't real.

But it felt real. The heat of his skin, the pain in his eyes—

Bucky didn't blink. He... He wasn't blinking, wasn't breathing. A strangled cry left me as I pressed my hand harder to his still bleeding neck, tried and failed to call out to him through my tears. He wasn't waking up.

I slumped to the floor beside him, feeling my heart shatter at the sight of his lifeless eyes. My forehead dropped to his chest as I gasped for air and gripped at his shirt. It felt like I sat there for hours over his fallen body. No one ever came.

I felt something shift, felt my mind wane, and suddenly his body was gone. I straightened up, tears still pooling in my eyes and the tiles steady under my feet. The lights still shone brightly, and when I turned around the window that had been broken was miraculously repaired. I sniffled, swiping my arm across my face. The blood that had coated my hands was gone, as was the puddle on the floor.

Moments later, the elevator tolled and out he strode again as healthy and whole as he had been before. I balked at him, but he just frowned and shot me a confused little smile.

"What're you lookin' at me like that for?" His hands were in his jean pockets and the metal glint of his arm was on full display in that T-shirt like it was before.

I hesitated, eyes flittering over to the window before I pushed up from the floor and tugged him into my room. I clicked the door shut, sliding the deadbolt into place behind me before whirling around to face him. His body stood stalk still, eyes wide as they took me in.

I blinked at him, looking down at myself too. I felt the change, the leather against my skin. The cold metal of a knife clutched in my fingers. The mask pressed against my face and dimmed my vision as I peered at him through the eyes of it. Bucky backed away with his arms held up as if he were trying to get an animal to calm.

I wanted to tell him I wasn't going to hurt him, that I didn't understand what was happening, but my mouth wouldn't move. The knife in my hand caught the light as I swung it, watching it sail through the air and plant itself in the wall beside his head. Bucky had moved just in time to avoid it, but he couldn't move in enough time to avoid the second that planted itself in his thigh.

I wanted to scream, to stop my body from its assault on him. It was like I was trapped in my own body watching as someone else called the shots. Perhaps that was how he felt once. I wondered if he would understand when I succeeded, if he would forgive me.

I drowned out the noise of his screaming with the pounding of my heart. I didn't want to listen. The third and final blade found its home in his heart, my traitorous hand twisting it swiftly to the side until his body stopped moving. Till his hands stopped gripping my arms.

I sat there on the floor with his body, staring at his empty eyes, until the door creaked open again.

"Doll?"

_____

Tony-

I've had my fair share of all-nighters. In fact, nearly every night was an all-nighter for me. I had lots of things to do and such a short amount of time to do them. But now that Max was gone, my nights had begun melding together into one continuous 72-hour day with the occasional nap here and there.

Pepper, bless her, had dragged my half-awake body away from my main computer and scolded me for not sleeping properly. She reminded me I can't get any work done without rest, not anything helpful anyways. So, I had slept restlessly most nights since then. I tried and failed to shut off my brain. I was too worried about missing something, any little detail to tell us where we might find her.

It was a real surprise when Friday notified me that there had been a major power surge smack dab in the center of Germany, the motherland itself.

I had been on my way to retrieve a second refill of coffee when she had told me as much. I fumbled my mug, completely forgetting it on the counter and taking the quickest route to my labs. I had her pull up the data, map it out for me to examine, then called in Vision who had returned recently from his mission.

He had taken into account what had happened and deduced that it was in fact the scepter that had released that kind of surge. As I feared, they had gotten their hands on it. I thanked him, sending him away before I called in Steve.

"They have the scepter, and they're using it for something." I watched him carefully, "I haven't had the opportunity to contact Thor and ask him exactly what this thing does, but I doubt it's good."

Steve nodded, "Why would they use it if they knew that it would tell us where they were? It just doesn't make any sense." He pressed his palm against his forehead as he stared at the blip on the display. "Does he know?"

I pursed my lips, shaking my head. "No, I've only told you and Vision. I wasn't sure how he would react since he's been acting... removed."

In all honestly, I was afraid Bucky would pack up and go directly there without our knowledge. There would be no stopping him if he wanted to. I don't even think Steve could stop him at this point. It had been five weeks since Max had gone missing, and in that time, Bucky had dedicated every minute of free time in the training room. Everyone could tell that her kidnapping had taken a tremendous toll on his mental health. I felt like telling him something so important would be the tipping point that sent him into action.

Steve sighed, pressing his hands against the countertop. "He deserves to know. We just have to deliver the news gently. The team needs to be informed and updated, any edge we can get on them is crucial." He pushed off from the counter and folded his arms across his chest. "What are we going to do?"

The billion-dollar question. "I say we storm it. Sweep in with the jet, scope it out, and take it out like every other mission. It could be a mistake on their part. It could also be a trap." I frowned, "But Max is over there going through hell and there's a limited window of time for us to use this before it's too late."

Steve nodded, "We have to be careful. We're going to need every surprise we have."

"Friday?" I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"Yes boss?"

"Call the team in."

_____

Max-

I had lost all sense of time.

Reality was but a dream, a nightmare, I was unsure I would wake from. Every flutter of my eyelids took me in and out of different pains. My mind was muddled and tired, unable to discern the difference between the hellish plains of my imagination and the solid world that yanked me from it. Even then, the world I returned to was violent and agonizing.

There were flickers between my pain where there was just stillness. I could hear my breathing in my ears, feel something cold against my chest cooling me through the thin hospital gown I knew still hung from my shoulders. Someone smiled, a man I couldn't recognize through the haze, but the image made my blood chill and my body involuntarily recoil.

But the pain was a constant squeezing, burning thing that consumed me. The type that shattered your mind and separated you from your body. Melted you away until you're nothing more than a shell of what you were before. My heart was bleeding, I could feel it in my chest. It was hollow and broken.

I had watched Bucky die so many times. Tried and tried and tried to stop it. I never could. It felt so real every time he smiled at me, wrapped me in his warmth and littered kisses on my skin. But then he was bleeding or screaming in an instant. Every time was different. I never knew how to stop it, and no one came to help. I could feel his blood slip between my fingers, warm and wet as it slicked the floor beneath me. I watched each time as his heart stopped and the life drained from his eyes.

I no longer knew where I was or when I was, who I was when I blinked once more, and Bucky's fallen body disappeared like it always seemed to do. Everything was cold and dull, the metal that chilled my cheek where I laid sprawled out in the cramped cell. I was gasping for breath, my throat raw from screaming. I no longer had a voice.

"Hello again." My eyes tried their best to focus on the man crouched in front of the cell, the dull blue glow from the scepter he clutched in his hand made me flinch. "What did you experience?"

I couldn't tell him even if I wanted to. The images of what I had witnessed made my throat go dry and my heart spasm in fear. I clutched at the fabric over my heart to try and calm it, but it was useless. The man didn't seem satisfied by that. Why couldn't I remember his name?

He stood slowly, eyes watching me as I flinched at his movements. "It must have been terrifying to break such a strong weapon. Look at what it has made you into. Groveling, pathetic little bird." He kept smiling as he said it. "Do you even know what day it is? Where you are?"

I didn't. Not anymore.

My silence must have been answer enough. "Do you remember why you're here?"

Slowly, images flashed in my mind, and I spoke as it came to me. "I got away." My voice was like grinding stones. "You nearly killed me to get me back." I could feel my head clear a bit.

The man, Giles—Yes, his name was Giles, Roman Giles—stepped away from the cell and set the scepter in a black case a few steps away. "Your Soldier will be coming for you. They will have detected such strong power by now."

Bucky, he was talking about Bucky. My voice wrenched from my throat before I could stop it. If he was alive- "Don't hurt him. Please, I'll do anything, just don't hurt him. I can't watch it again."

I knew I had said the wrong thing the moment he spun around, and that wretched smile had doubled in size. "Can't watch it again? Is that what it showed you? Is that what you fear most in this world? How touching, truly."

One of his hands sunk into the pocket of his lab coat and retrieved a small black device. I watched his thumb flick a button against the side before he crouched before me once more. I didn't even possess the energy to move away from him. "Tell me what you'll do to keep us from getting him."

I could feel a sob gathering in my chest as my eyes burned at the memories sweeping in some torturous slideshow behind them. "I'll do anything, just don't hurt him. I'll kill if that's what you want. I'll become whatever you want me to be, just don't touch him. Leave him alone." That traitorous sob forced itself through my teeth, cleaving the silence. "I can't watch him die again, not anymore. I- I can't."

Giles lifted the little box up to his face. "Did you hear that, Sargent Barnes? Isn't she sweet? Sacrificing herself to save you." He laughed, the sound enough to have me shoving back against the cage. "The next time you see her she will be but a husk of the woman you knew. Chow!" His thumb switched off the box and he pocketed it back into his coat.

The door was swung open, the scrape of metal against the floor sent a sharp pain through my head. "The rest of the base has been loaded up sir. We are ready to move the Asset."

I locked eyes with him, doing my best to pull a vicious curl onto my lips. Giles nodded to him, "Then move it. We don't have a lot of time before they pick up on the scepter if they haven't already. Time is of the essence." With that, he slipped out the door and four men replaced him.

All of which held those awful tranq guns.

_____

Bucky-

When Tony called a meeting in the middle of the night, I knew we had to have gotten some sort of intel on Max. I was terrified to have hope, but I could feel it blooming in my chest despite my efforts to stop it. The cool metal of the chair I had claimed at the table seeped into every part of me, chilling my very bones. The team trickled in slowly, too slowly for my liking, but it was in the mere early hours of the morning, and they all had more than likely been sleeping. The only person who looked remotely awake was Tony. Even Steve looked haggard.

"Thank you for coming," Tony started, "I have some news on Max."

That got everyone in the room sitting up.

With a long breath, Tony continued. "There was a large scale burst of power located in the middle of Germany. I consulted with Vision and Cap, and we've come to the conclusion that the only thing that could release that magnitude of power that we know of, is the scepter."

Wanda flinched at the mention of it, drawing my attention. Vision placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and my heart stung a little. Max had done the same for me many times before.

From beside me, Steve began explaining. "We will be mobilizing as soon as possible. There is a limited window of opportunity, and we all know that Giles is intelligent. He will know that we pick up on the surge and he's moving Max if he's as smart as we think. We need all of you on top of it, no mistakes." There was a beat of silence as we all took in his words before he spoke again, "We will discuss the details on the jet, suit up."

I was out of my chair as soon as he finished, marching to the elevator and taking it down to the landing bay where I began to yank on my uniform. I wasn't moving fast enough, nothing was. We had an opportunity to get Max back, and it was shrinking with every second it took for the team and myself to get around. I was the first in the jet, turning on the switches and taking the pilot seat.

Every nerve in my body was itching to take off, leave the rest of them behind and go after her myself. I would be faster, quieter, more effective without them.

But as Steve stepped onto the jet and clamped a hand on my shoulder like he always did when he knew something was bothering me, I knew I couldn't. Perhaps losing Max effected the team more than they let on, I thought, as they all hustled into the hanger minutes after I had. Every single one of them wore a face of determination. They all buckled in and gave me a thumbs up for takeoff. I didn't hesitate, launching the jet from the pad and punching in the coordinates as Tony read them off.

There wasn't much else to do as I set the jet to autopilot and prayed that we would make it in time. I moved to join the rest in the back, taking in their pensive faces as we all moved to seats closer to Tony in order to hear the details of the plan that could possibly save Max.

_____

Max-

I woke up in the dark.

My skin was covered in gooseflesh, and the cold seeped into my very bones. A throbbing headache formed in the forefront of my head, and no amount of blinking or rubbing at my temples got rid of it. Much like before they had knocked me out, my body remained week. Pain shot through every inch of me whenever I braved even the slightest of movements. But I couldn't focus on that now, not if I wanted to have even the slightest opportunity of escape. I still had a sliver of hope, just enough to have me hauling myself into a sitting position.

I curled into myself, wrapping my arms around my knees and tugging them impossibly closer in order to trap any remanence of heat my body possessed. I blinked away the drowsiness still clouding my mind from my unwilling sleep, slowly but surely regaining my senses.

"I read somewhere that due to your lowered body temperature, you move slower in the cold. I found that it was recorded that you have a harder time keeping heat regulating through your body than the normal person when temperatures drop below fifty degrees. You can still withstand colder temperatures more than most, but it severely hinders your skills." My eyes snapped toward his voice, that wickedly egotistical tone he always spoke with grated against my remaining nerves.

Giles remained with his back facing me, away from the cage I still remained trapped in. He wore a turtleneck now, and what looked like a heavy pair of uniform pants along with his white lab coat. He was fiddling with something I couldn't see, but the tilting of his shoulders and his focused air told me it was something that required his full attention.

That didn't stop him from talking to me over his shoulder.

"Don't worry though, you'll be let out soon enough." I turned to me then, a vial of something metallic swirling around clutched in his hand.

I recognized it almost immediately, remembered the way it had burned through my veins and threatened to steal my very mind from me. "Stay the fuck away from me or I'll splatter you up the walls!" I felt the panic welling in my belly, hot and wild and frantic.

Giles merely smiled that awful smile and took a step closer as if to test my threat. "Will you now? Perhaps we haven't broken that spirit as much as I thought we had. Would you like to go for round two? I have a few more bases we can move to before we really have to move things along. The scepter is just in the other chamber, won't be hard for me to get."

He blinked at me like the words that just poured from his mouth were anything but a threat against my life. Like he had just suggested the most normal thing in the world.

I couldn't help the curl of my lip, the flash of my teeth, like some primal instincts were kicking in and there was nothing I could do but force words through a body I wasn't entirely in control of. Fear had taken the front seat. "You're a sick bastard. I'll make every second of your death long and agonizing."

He merely sniffed, flicking the vial and reaching over to the table and picking up a syringe bullet. "I'm sure you will. That's only if you ever get out. Which you won't, by the way. Not in the way you're hoping anyways."

I watched as he clicked the vial into the bullet, securing it in place and reaching over again to the side and picking up a gun. "The only way you're getting out of here is if I want you to. And by then you'll be doing anything I want you to do. Especially if you want me to leave your little soldier boy alone. He's useless to me now that I have you, but that doesn't mean I won't put him down if you refuse to cooperate with me. Do you understand that, little bird?"

I grit my teeth, tightening my hold on my legs. Shivers were wracking my body now, and the room seemed to be continuously dropping in temperature. That, or my body just couldn't keep itself warm enough against the chill. Giles's eyes flickered up to mine as he waited for my reply, one I was very reluctant to give.

I rolled his words around in my head, letting them knock against the walls of my skull as I tried to find something else to say, to dredge up any last remnants of fight left in me. But there wasn't any left.

Not as the memories of watching Bucky die began to spill into my thoughts once again. The feeling of his blood slick on my hands wasn't something I could erase no matter how many times I scratched at my skin. Real or not, whatever that scepter had put me through was enough to snuff out any hope or fire left inside of me. I felt broken at the mere thought of him dying.

So, I nodded, agreed to do what I swore I would never do again.

I would become their monster, their puppet, once more.

I would let them ruin me, tear me apart over and over and over again. Let them muddle my mind if they wanted to. Obliterate every last memory I had, the only things I had for myself alone.

If that kept them from harming him again, if my downfall would promise his survival, then I would die on repeat for the rest of eternity.

Tags <3

@imdoingathingmom / @cjand10 / @greatenthusiasttidalwave / @hzdhrtss / @blackbirdwitch22 / @calwitch

[imawreck]

I hope whoever submitted this sees this, but I haven’t forgotten about you! I am still working on your ask, so please do not give up hope! 🫶🏻

Hi, I’ve been going through some serious ✨depression✨ recently. I was wondering if you would write a Bucky Barnes x reader. Maybe somthing like Bucky comforting reader about sh/depression. You can fill in the gaps however you’d like. I understand if you don’t feel comfortable writing this, it’s a touchy topic.

Have a great day ✨

Hi! I am thrilled you've reached out! I normally wouldn't write about this topic (mostly because I don't want to trigger my precious readers or cause any unnecessary spirals) but because you're my first ask and you were so kind with your request, I'll give it a shot! It will be a little while before it comes out, but I'll link it in the Masterlist when it's complete! Again, thank you so much for reaching out <3 I really hope that you're doing well. Keep your head up!

All the love,

Ayden

[imawreck]

Torture

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Author’s Note: Hey 😬, I am alive, fortunately. I’m SO sorry I was gone so long so here’s an update my lovelies 🫶🏻 Thank you SO MUCH for those who left comments! I really appreciate your support and love ♥️♥️♥️

Summary: The avengers are faced with an impossible task; find Max. While their efforts fail each time, the team’s spirit depletes, especially Bucky’s.

Warnings: Torturing, grief, angst, body mutilation, depression, the whole nine yards. It’s rough, y’all, so be warned!!!

Word Count: 5,270

Bucky-

Torture.

That was the first thought that entered into my mind as the screams rang through the meeting room. Everyone flinched, but Roman remained steadfast in his happiness.

They were bloodcurdling. Not even in my time with Hydra had I ever heard screams as terrible as this. Roman waved to his side and a cart was wheeled in behind him, the sight of its contents had most of the team turning away and paling as white as sheets. 

Bones, still covered in muscle and blood, laid atop the surface on a sterile mat. Some were crushed and cracked, shattered completely, while others were still whole sections linked by the bloodied flesh. They... they were spinal segments.

The contents of my stomach spilled out onto the floor beside me as I hurled over the chair. They had gotten one of their weapons back and it wasn't me. Those bones, those screams, they belonged to Max. My stomach squeezed again.

"Ghost had quite the injury. The Hulk was a wonderful test subject for my new toy, thank you for lending him to me." Giles clasped his hands, "I wanted to let you know that Ghost is alive and well." He snickered at that, "For the most part, anyways. I'm sure she will be back up and running in no time. It's her purpose after all.

“The other reason why I wanted to phone you, was to inform you that Hydra will no longer cower from the mighty Avengers. Not anymore. It is far past time for our reign to commence." His smile grew, "You are on the losing side, Sergeant. If you join us once more, your little Ghost will be elated to see you, I'm sure. Perhaps we will spare you if you come willingly, maybe even cease the brainwashing for good measure."

Tony scoffed, "No one wants to join your little terrorist group, Frankenstein."

Giles's gaze remained trained on me through the screen, "Then you all will die." Another one of Max's screams tore through the speakers once more, but Giles remained unfazed. "I'll be seeing you again. We will be such wonderful acquaintances." 

The call cut off and the screen sizzled with white noise. No one moved, I don't even think they breathed as another beat passed. My body shook from the exertion and my empty stomach, from the anxiety and fear seizing control of my limbs. 

Max was with Hydra. 

I felt my breathing rattle in my lungs, "Did you get a location?"

Tony shook his head slowly, eyes vacant. "They had it blocked and pinging around."

"So, we have nothing?" Bitterness laced my words, "We don't even know vaguely where she might be?"

Another shake of his head.

The rest of the team sat with their heads slumped and eyes staring at anything but the screen or each other. I shoved up onto my shaky legs, stumbling out of the meeting room and slamming the glass door so hard behind me that it shattered in my wake. I marched to the elevator and punched the rooftop, letting the doors close me off from the rest of them. 

The silence was nearly suffocating, so unlike the many times I had allowed it to sooth me when things got too much. The elevator tolled and I shoved out onto the paved rooftop. Car horns and the soft thrum of traffic drifted up from busy downtown New York below, and the lights of the buildings around us illuminated the night and snuffed out the stars above. I was tired, but my body moved to the edge, leaned itself over to take in the people meandering the walkways below. 

I recalled the day I had wandered up here to find Max, sitting with her while she cried. I remembered the way my sweater had swallowed her up and fell from her shoulder. She had smiled at me like I was the best thing in the world. That was one of the first times I had felt like a hero, a real one. Her smile was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Now... now she was gone, and we didn't have the faintest hint where she could be.

I leaned my elbows against the cold concrete, letting it chill my bones along with the emptiness in my heart. I had failed her. I thought she had died, and the last thing I had said to her was so filled with hate. 

I curled my fingers into my hair, tugging at it as I let the tears fall once more. Max was in pain and suffering because we were too ignorant. I was too consumed with false hatred to prevent her from this. I had—no, needed— to make this right. The ache in my heart turned into something hot and burning, angry.

I was going to get her back, no matter what it took.

_____

Steve-

A week passed quicker than it ever had before. With the team wrecked by the Hydra attack, we all were more stressed and overextended than ever. When a mission came up, the least number of avengers needed were sent out and the rest of us were ordered to look over known Hydra locations or rumored movement.

Tony had gone into overdrive trying to find Max. He was constantly in front of a computer screen tracking any indication of weapons movement or any hint of action from them. He was determined nothing was going to get past him.

Since the attack, the security had tripled. More SHEILD agents walked the halls and monitored the building like hawks on a wire, watching and waiting. It was nearly suffocating. 

I had plenty of time to wallow in my own guilt as well. There wasn't a moment my own narrow-minded distaste towards Max didn't haunt me and torture me in every waking moment. Sure, she was the embodiment of my complete opposite. Ruthless, cold, and unrestrained. She was selfish when it came to Bucky like I was. Protected him. It was her sole mission when she sided with Hydra, and she had stuck to it even after leaving them. There was nothing she wouldn't do for him. Nothing, no matter how bad or wrong it was.

Max would save him over anyone else.

I had hated her the moment I realized that. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that she would let hundreds die, innocent people, in order for one person to live. I loved Bucky. He was my oldest friend, but the lives of those innocent people mattered more than one man. Bucky would want them to live. 

Max didn't care though. She would kill all of them if it meant he would live, no matter how much he would hate her afterwards.

But she cared. Even though she would kill and maim those innocents, she would mourn them. I had seen her display her kindness with that young boy and his mother so many months ago. Even as her face remained cold, her eyes gave her away. She wanted to protect people. The way she cared for the team was apparent in the way she laughed with them, checked on them when something would happen, or a rough mission shook them up. 

She was simply human like the rest of us.

Guilt swelled in my stomach at the memory of my harsh words, the slight flicker in her eyes as they hit home on her heart. I had been kind to her in the beginning. I had encouraged her to pursue a relationship, friendly or more than, with my best friend. I'm sure my change in heart was jarring to her, perhaps it stung.

It was always on my mind no matter what I was doing.

Bucky had been avoiding me along with everyone else. He began filling his time with training every chance he had. He had only gone on one mission since the video broadcasting, and it had been ugly. Bucky had slaughtered every agent that had come in contact with him. Every single body laid out on the dirt was mangled in some way, evidence of a slow death on each and every one of them. Tony refused to let him leave on another when he requested again.

He trained and trained. I was sure he was going to cause Tony to go bankrupt due to the number of punching bags he had destroyed just this week alone. Max's absence was taking its toll on him, and everyone could tell.

He never spoke, and when he did it was short and clipped and vacant. It was like part of him had been ripped out when she was taken.

Today was no different. When I walked into the training room, Bucky was already pounding into a bag strung up in the middle of the room. Sand was piled on the floor at his feet and the pile of discarded bags told me he had been at it for several hours now. It was only 6:00 A.M.

I steered clear of him, giving him his space as I grabbed my own bag and strung it up alongside him a safe distance away. The echoes of his fists hitting the bag was the only sound other than his occasional grunt and the heavy breaths leaving his body with the effort. His metal arm hummed and shifted with each powerful movement. I was sure it was hurting him, but he showed no sign of pain as he continued his onslaught.

I began my own training, keeping an eye on him as I went. I tried not to make it obvious; I knew that it made him anxious when we watched him. He didn't acknowledge me for the two hours I remained in the room with him. About an hour after I arrived, he took to throwing knives much like how Max used to. He used the metal dummies, moving fast and precise the same way she did to send the blades flying hard into the metal. Often, they clattered to the floor, but some found their home in the targets.

The week after that one went much like the first. Whenever any of the team members would visit the training room, Bucky would be there. He never stopped training, and it was beginning to show. Due to the serum pumping through our veins, it was easy for us to gain muscle faster. Bucky was growing at an alarming rate, and it seemed he was doing it on purpose. 

His shirts began to cling to him a little tighter, and more and more agents began to whisper about the way his frame filled the doorframes a little more, how hard it was becoming to avoid bumping into him in the slim hallways. 

I had begun to worry more. He still had not talked to me, not unless he had to for a meeting or update from Tony. He isolated himself in his room more often, and frequented Max's empty rooms in the middle of the night. Friday had reported to Tony one evening when he had asked her to locate Bucky. The AI had reported that he was in her rooms, admitting that he was there most nights and often went through that poetry book she always clung to. 

One particular afternoon, Tony went as far as asking Friday to pull up camera feed of Max's room. He never used those camera's unless it was necessary, respecting our privacy unless it could be harmful and with the way Bucky had been acting these past few weeks... all of us were on edge.

Bucky was laid out on Max's bed, a small blanket discarded on the floor next to one of the pillows missing from the delicately made bed. Max's poetry book was clutched in his metal hand as he ran his flesh one over the faded cover, ever so gentle with it. A single pressed flower was set on the corner of the nightstand next to a hat that I was sure he had given her. Max wasn't one to buy things that weren't necessary, but she cherished anything given to her regardless of its usefulness. 

We watched him set on the bed, the mattress dipping as his weight settled into it. For a long while he just stared at the cover, dragging his fingers over it every once and a while and turning it in his hands. When he opened it, every movement was made as if it might disintegrate in his palms. I could tell from the glimpse of the page as he shifted and flipped through them that nearly every page held delicately printed notes, some covered in more than the others. He read them, mouthing them to himself as he traced them over with the pads of his fingers. 

I felt like I was intruding on something private, intimate. "Turn it off," I muttered as I turned away from the display and leveled my gaze at Tony. It seemed that he too felt like he shouldn't be seeing it as he instantly sent the feed away, a grim expression set on his face. 

His fingers tapped on the keyboard as he spoke to me. "He goes over that book every night."

"You shouldn't stalk him, it isn't right." Even as I said the words, I knew I would do the same.

Tony sighed, "He hasn't ever acted this way, even when he was worried sick about Hydra taking him back, he hadn't been this bad. I'm just concerned he might do something reckless."

I knew the feeling all too well, but even I couldn't bring myself to confront him about it. "He loves her." We all knew it. Even if he hadn't yet admitted to himself how he felt about her, we knew.

Tony just nodded. The two of us remained quiet for a long while. I sat and went through files containing new reports, all of which held nothing useful in finding Max. Tony continued to type away on his computer for who knows what, but it was obviously as fruitless as the papers lying on the desk before me.

We both jumped when Friday announced that the tower was receiving another video call.

Tony was instantly ordering her to call the others and it wasn't long until we all surrounded the table in front of the monitor. Bucky had been the first through the doors, eyes steely and trained on the empty screen. 

The team waited in utter silence as the feed fizzled to life minutes later and my stomach dropped at the display. A cage took up most of the screen, and a body slumped in the center of it clad in a dirty hospital gown.

Giles entered the screen moments later dressed in a crisp clean button up shirt and his lab coat, that jarring smile plastered across his features. "Hello again, did you miss me? I certainly missed you." He stepped aside to let us see the body again, "We have a guest with us today. She's a little tired though, some guards had some fun with her earlier."

Bucky's arm whirred as his fist clenched two chairs down from me.

Giles's smile only widened. "These meetings will occur every two weeks. I want to keep you updated on our progress with our lovely little Ghost."

"You won't get very far, you sick bastard." Giles turned around at the sound of her voice, gruff and low in the speakers.

The scientist just laughed. "Silly girl, we will break you. It's what I do best."

"Come a little closer and I'll show you what I do best." Max snapped her teeth, and I swore I saw them lengthen as they caught the light. Something whirred steadily in the background.

Giles clicked his tongue, "You shouldn't threaten me. I've been kind."

Her scoff grated against my ears, vicious and filled with violence. "When I get out of here, I'll return that kindness." Max lifted her head, eyes flashing behind hair that was still covered in the dirt and blood from the mission two weeks ago.

Tony spoke up, "Get on with it."

Giles tsked, shaking his head. "So impatient, Mr. Stark." There was movement on the other side of the camera, echoing from where none of us could see before a group of soldiers flanked the sides of the cage. Max watched them with a guarded expression, taking each of them in. I glanced at Bucky, watching the way his shoulders rose and fell a little faster. Panic bloomed in his eyes as they all gripped the guns slung across each of their chests. Giles grabbed a syringe from off screen, the silver liquid churning inside it. "This will be our first test of the serum on a Super soldier. The Hulk was an excellent test subject, but Ghost is something else entirely. She was made to withstand many outstanding elements, and her healing capabilities allow her to burn through medication more rapidly than anyone else. We altered her that way so she would not be able to be contained like we're doing now. We've taken some extreme precautions, of course."

One of the guards raised his gun, pointing it straight for her and fired. My heart dropped to the floor and Bucky leapt to his feet as he shouted out. Giles chuckled as Max cursed quite colorfully, yanking out the tranquilizer from her thigh and launching it back at the guard. It sank into his neck, and he fell to the floor. Bucky planted his hands on the table in front of himself and let a breath loose. I could hear his heart pounding a mile a minute from where I sat.

Max swayed in the center of the cell and her lids seemed to grow heavy as she desperately tried to blink away the gloss on her eyes. 

"The strongest sedatives we have," Giles commented, "still cannot take her down. Remarkable, isn't it?" At his words, her body swayed and slumped to the ground. Giles's smile faltered only a little as he motioned for one of the guards to check on her.

We all watched as he stepped up to the cell, nearing the bars and leaning into peer over her body, attempting to catch a glimpse of her face under the locks of hair. It didn't take but a few seconds for her to snap up, gripping the front of his uniform and pulling him into the bars. He screamed as she sank her teeth into the skin of his jugular. It was quick, and then she shoved him away and watched on weak legs as he fell to the ground and began to thrash around. The other guards had raised their guns, eyes wide and flitting between her and their fallen comrade. Someone came to drag his body away as he continued to choke.

Blood dripped from her mouth, slipping down her chin and splattering on the floor of the cage as she turned her cold eyes to Roman who merely shook his head as if condescending a child for acting out. "Come closer Roman, since you want to play so badly." Her smile made my blood run cold.

"That's no way to act in front of them." He pointed lazily at the camera, "They will think so lowly of you. What will your beloved Sergeant think of the way you're acting?"

The smile on her face didn't hold at his words, but her eyes still held him as she came to his side of the cell. Her fingers gripped the bars as she pressed her face between them, eyes catching the lights once more as the pair of moons glowed in the lense of the camera. "They already think of me as a monster. There is nothing you can do to lower their opinions of me. I was simply a strong asset to have around like I've always been." She paused, only for a moment, and pain flickered in her eyes under the blank mask of indifference she held up. "As for Seargent Barnes... He hated me more than all of them combined."

I swore I heard Bucky make a sound, something like pain, but when I looked over I could only find coldness on his features.

"They will not come for me. They will not try and save me. The Avengers will protect those who are helpless from any and all threats. It won't matter what you do to me, you will not capture them. They will kill me just like they do any villain and terrorist, and then once I no longer stand between them and you... They will slaughter you too." A wave of grief passed over the room as we all soaked in her words, the belief held within them. Max really thought we would not come for her, that Bucky would not spend his every waking moment looking for her.

Something cracked, sending our attention towards the left side of the room. Parts of the table where his hands had gripped crumbled from his clenched fists. Giles took note of the noise, his eyes lingering on the screen where we knew he was soaking in the reaction. "I don't believe you are correct."

Giles handed the syringe to one of the guards closest to him, politely folding his hands as the guard loaded it into his gun and cocked it. Max pushed away from the bars, every inch of her displaying the exhaustion I was sure ate away at her. She remained standing though, unwilling to waver under their hateful eyes.

I admired her bravery, I realized, and perhaps I had envied it while she stayed with us.

Tony leaned over towards Bucky and muttered something I couldn't decipher, but whatever he had said had Bucky's fists relaxing and his face returning to that void mask. The team watched with dread as Giles nodded, and the guard shot her once more. Max tried to catch it, to deflect the needle, but her limbs moved too slow. The needle sank into her side and the contents were already halfway drained by the time she managed to pull it from herself. It clattered to the floor as she began to shake her head, her eyes seeming to focus and then blow wide as she blinked rapidly. 

Max careened into the bars of the cell, her bones clanging against the metal hard enough to make me flinch. Silver swirled in her irises and Giles watched her intently. A snarl tore through the speakers and Max bared her teeth savagely at him as her eyes flickered solid silver and back to normal, shifting between the two rapidly. Her hands came up to grip the sides of her head as she cried out, collapsing to the floor with a cry of anger as she folded into herself and kicked as if she was fighting against some invisible enemy. 

Perhaps she was, I thought, none of us knew what that serum really did.

I risked another glance at Bucky only to find him stalk still. I wasn't even sure he was breathing as he beheld what was happening on the screen. Tony was vigorously typing away on his arm under the table beside him. Bucky didn't even spare him a glance as Max let out another shout of pain, slamming her fist weakly against the concrete right as I turned my head towards the screen too. She clawed at the ground so hard blood trailed after her fingers. 

Giles echoed from the other side of the bars, "Just give in, it'll be less painful, dear."

Max only snarled at him, tugging the strands of hair between her fingers. Her back heaved up and down under the thin layer of the hospital gown and it finally dawned on me that she was walking and standing like her spine hadn't been shattered just two weeks ago. I studied her crumpled form as close as I could through the screen, noting the sharp bumps that lined down her back. They shifted with her body as she writhed on the floor, nothing noticeably wrong.

After a dragging twenty minutes, it seemed that Max had cleared her mind of whatever the serum had done. She hauled her body up once more, stumbling over to the farthest corner and slumping against it. Her eyes were unfocussed as she side eyed the camera, her expression grim, before they snapped over to a very disappointed looking Giles. "Better luck next time." But her words didn't hold the same ferocity as they had before, and her breath was still bated. 

Giles sighed, shaking his head. "How disappointing. I really wanted to put on a show for them." He whipped towards the camera, "Anyways, no matter. We will improve for next time. Did you enjoy seeing your beloved Ghost, Sergeant?"

Bucky didn't grace him with a response, not a verbal one anyways. He only stared the man dead in the eyes with the burning embers of rage igniting in them.

Giles didn't seem to mind. "Ghost, say goodbye to our guests, would you?" He stepped aside to let her come into frame again.

She had curled up against the metal, the gown had rose enough to allow us a glimpse of the bruises littering her legs. Bruises that we all knew shouldn't be there. Max's eyes lifted from the cage floor and held the camera with her stare, waves of emotion finally breaking through on her face. Pain, longing, sorrow, and anger. But mostly fear. I had never seen Max afraid, and it unsettled something deep within me. When her mouth opened, her voice was soft and broken. "If you get the chance, kill me before I can hurt anyone else."

Pleading, her eyes were pleading for just a moment and then it was gone. She curled back up against the wall and said nothing more.

Giles scoffed, "So dramatic. They'd never kill you." He turned back to the camera, clasping his hands, "It was a good talk, friends. I look forward to seeing you in two weeks' time." With one last smile, the video feed cut off.

_____

Max-

I was never left alone, not truly. The guards' heartbeats thundered right outside the closed door, and I was certain that they listened to everything I did. I had been here for a long while, the only real telltale marker of my time was the video's Giles forced me to participate in. So far, there had been two to my knowledge. The recent one... and one I had not been in the room for. I wasn't sure I had even been fully conscious the first week here. Hydra kept me heavily drugged, hardly able to keep my eyes open. 

I remembered the pain, the scalpels and the scent of alcohol in the air. I remember the echo of metal and the cutting, screaming pain in my back. They had not been kind enough to numb my shattered spine before they cut it away. They had machines to do it, to avoid severing anything important, but there were others there too. I had listened to them when my mind wasn't completely consumed in my own agony, when the nerves went numb for a few moments before the IV they had inserted replenished my stores of energy to heal enough to feel the pain all over again.

I still woke up on the cold floor with the echo of pain skittering over my skin.

They had done something to me, changed something about me I couldn't see. I could feel it though, hear it click with every move I made. It nearly drove me mad. I had tried to reach it, to trace my fingers over the base of my neck, the place just where my shoulder blades began, but I couldn't. The thing just whirred, adjusted, and clacked together. I clawed at the skin, uncaring whether the skin bled or scarred, I just wanted it off, off, off.

Giles would leave me in the cage for days without food. He only ordered a loaf of stale bread be brought to me once every three days. The cup of water that was sat on the rim of the cell floor at the end of every day was the only liquid I was allowed for that day. It was hardly half a cup. The grey plastic rolled next to me on the floor empty. 

I was spent, completely and utterly spent. After my little show during the last video to the Tower, Giles had punished me with no water and a harsh beating by the soldiers who now guarded the door. My body ached with the bruises that still tried to heal on my arms and legs, but Giles had ordered them not to touch my back.

Everything was cold, and the lights above the cell were dim and hardly did anything to illuminate the room. Someone laughed in the distance, a cruel sound. I sat with my knees tucked into my chest and focused on the absence of feeling where my back touched the bars. When I moved, something scratched the metal. Metalic, whatever they had done to me was metalic.

The door cracked open to reveal the pair of soldiers there, and another body made its way down the bright corridor behind them. I knew by his lanky frame and blonde hair that caught the white lights that it was the madman himself stalking towards me. I didn't even have the strength to push off from where I sat slumped against the far wall.

In his hand hung a long slim case. He muttered for the soldiers to close the door behind him, and they obeyed immediately. I shuffled away from him, trying and failing to ignore him when he spoke.

"I hope you are faring well." His fingers unclicked the latches of the case one by one. A taunt if there ever was one.

I hardly recognized my voice as it left me, "Go to hell."

Giles shook his head, his hair falling over his eyes before he brushed them back into place with a sweep of his hand. "That's no way to treat a superior."

I couldn't help but snarl at him, "There is nothing superior about you."

He tsked, "I happen to think the opposite." The case flipped open, and a blue light emitted from whatever was held within it. I couldn't see what it was from my spot on the floor. "You should have seen the look on your poor Sergeant's face. It was priceless, darling."

A sound foreign and inhuman tore at my throat. Giles just chuckled at it and pulled the glowing thing from its place in the box and let the lid fall shut. The grin on his face was nightmarish as he beheld the metal handle of the scepter that I knew to be Thor's brothers'. It was otherworldly, and I knew that it was powerful. I could feel it emanating from the blue hue from the orb held at the tip of it.

"I hope you're ready for some fun. It made those two siblings so powerful and different. Who knows what this will do to you?"

I could hardly breathe at his words.

He took a step forward, then another, fear holding me in place with the exhaustion that felt like lead in my limbs. 

No, not this.

 I couldn't even form words.

 Please.

But there was nothing to be done, not as that scepter glowed brightly and Giles placed it upon my chest.

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[imawreck]

i miss you 🥹🤍

I miss all my lovely readers/followers! I’ll be back very soon!!! 🫶🏻

[imawreck]

Where are you gurllllllllll? 🥲

I’m so sorry! I’ve been juggling work and college but I will be making a prompt return to writing very soon with more chapters! 🥹🫶🏻

[imawreck]

Unsaid Goodbyes

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: You should read it, then you’ll know.

Author’s Note: Heyyyy… I’m sorry okay 🙏 forgive me. Also, I'll be back on schedule with posting tomorrow, but for now this is all you get. Please, if you're interested, vote on my poll!

Warnings: Wounds, violence, shit ton of angst, Death

Word Count: 5,422

Max-

Hulk's roar rattled my very bones as I fought to find a way out of the cell. The solid wall of Vibranium-lined glass caged me behind it and refused to waver. I had no idea what was going on outside or why the security measures hadn't been tripped the moment that prisoner escaped as I pounded on the glass, eyes frantically searching for a weak point.

This glass was stronger than that of my cell, but maybe I could get through-

The thought died out of my head as an ache ran through my body from my side straight to my arm, resonating over my torso. No, I couldn't get out, not in this state. I was too weak. There wasn't enough time to take in what was going on outside the glass either, not with an enraged green giant trapped in a confined space with me.

Natasha's red hair caught my eye as another bone rattling roar tore through the cell. I stared wide eyed as she held her hand out, muttering something soft under her breath towards the enraged form of Bruce's alter ego. I watched in horror as the muscles of his massive shoulders flex before his arm raised, threatening her with a painfully abrupt death.

I moved as fast as my body would let me, my side screaming in protest as I made contact with her just in time to send us tumbling out of the way as Hulks' fist slammed into the pavement right where she had been standing. I picked myself of the floor, taking in the silver clouded reflection of Hulk's eyes, the way his body shook in rage and his lips pulled back in a snarl. It must have been the injection. Whatever it was, it had taken control of his mind, driven him mad with rage.

I caught Natasha's arm as she pushed herself off the ground to stand defensively next to me. "There's no use trying to talk him down, he's under some sort of influence. He can't hear us."

Just then he swung again, making us both leap apart as his fist once again slammed into the concrete, a spidering crack trailing up the floor as sprays of rubble shot across the cell. I scrambled to get as far away from him as I could. There was no way out of here, and if he got anywhere close to me, I wouldn't have enough energy to keep him off for long, if at all. Then there was Natasha. Natasha wasn't a super soldier, so if he got ahold of her, it would be the end of that. If Hulk killed her, Bruce would never forgive himself.

I couldn't let that happen.

I clutched my hands into fists, cursing myself for taking the time to change out of my tactical suit before coming down here. I didn't even have enough energy to grow a useful set of claws. So, I would focus on defense. All I had to do was make him tire out before I did.

I took off sprinting, sliding between his legs and clutching at the ground to bring myself back up again. Natasha trembled, looking as frantic as I was and put her fists up too. I called over the alarms, "Get to the doors of the cell! I'll distract him and see if I can't get him to bust out of the wall! Try and get anyone's attention."

The part of the cell level had a smaller cell that Bruce had turned into his personal lab after the experimental incident. He explained to me once that it was the safest place for him to be, because there was double the security measures. The cell would close, and there was a wall of glass and Vibranium that would encapsulate the whole half of the floor. And it had done exactly that. Little did we know it would bite us all in the ass like this.

I shouted over another angry scream from the Hulk, "Hey big guy, over here!" I waved my arms, running away from where Natasha stood wide eyed and gawking. "Come get me!"

The gigantic heap of muscled whipped in my direction, growling and grunting in frustration as he sprinted towards me with his arms raised. I jumped as high as I could, clinging to the metal exterior of the wall and heaving myself up towards the tall ceiling. I had an idea, but it was a big risk with my current state and crucial that his attention remained solely on me.

He tore up the wall hauling himself upwards after me. He was bigger, stronger, but I was faster. I kept at it, shouting down to him. "Come on dummy, you can do better than that." Each insult was rewarded with a shout or a grunt and an increased urgency to pummel me into the wall. I stalled once I decided we were high enough, turning to peer down at him and allow him to catch up. My chest was heaving with each breath I took, and my side sang in pain. "Come on Greenie, take a swing!"

Hulk clenched his fist in a fit of rage and leapt up a few feet, slamming his fist against the wall and denting it. I grinned, "You can do better than that!" I stuck my tongue out at him, dangling from a steel beam an uncomfortably close distance to him.

Once more, he swung his fist and I hauled myself up just in time to grip onto the next beam as the force of his fist rattled the wall. The metal groaned where he had hit, and I knew a few more hits like that would surely break through. And the quicker he got through the faster I could get Natasha and myself out of harm's way.

I swung my weight into the crater in the wall he had created, waving my arms and plastering on another grin. "Man, you can't do any better?" I was sweating with the effort it took to prevent my body from trembling at the exertion it took to maintain my posture alone. My strength was waning.

This time, he roared in fury and threw himself upwards, both fists raised to smash me against the wall like a bug. I leapt off the edge just in time, careening through the air and sliding down his back to land harshly against the ground. The landing vibrated through my legs and they throbbed in pain. Still, I forced myself farther away from his screams of anger.

Light streamed in from the whole in the wall, bright and hopeful. I smiled victoriously now, turning to catch Natasha's attention. Something slipped in through the hole though, slapping the ground and was followed quickly by another and another. I frowned, sparing a glance up at the hole where Hulk still clung near. Three distinct ropes slung through the opening and reached towards the concrete floor. I nearly cried in relief, hoping that my teammates were finally here to aid me.

The hope was quickly squashed the minute a black clad soldier slid swiftly down the rope and landed easily on the ground. Hulk didn't seem to notice him slip past, didn't even blink in his direction as he slammed his hands around the wall and continued to scream. The bright red emblem sewn into the front of the soldiers' uniform had my heart beating out of my chest and panic squeezing my lungs in a vice grip. My body took an involuntary step backward as I clutched my chest, fisting the fabric of my shirt in a weak attempt to reassure my heart it was impossible.

But he was right there, eyes staring at me through the ski mask he wore, and the ropes behind them slapped against the wall as more soldiers identical to him filed through the opening. Each and every one emblazoned with the ugly red skull of Hydra, and all of them hid their faces in those ridiculous masks. I continued to back away, fighting my panic and trying to figure out a way out. There were only three of them, surely I could handle three.

Just as I clenched my fists and readied to attack, two more slid into place at the mouth of the hole, blocking the only exit. They only moved to allow more men to slip down the ropes and join the others stalking closer and closer by the minute. Dozens of them.

"No," barely a whisper, "No, please no." I didn't realize it was me that had spoken until I forced myself to take a breath. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't be.

Hulk suddenly swung his head around as one of the soldiers spoke from the mouth of the hole, pointing towards me with a quick gesture of his arm. I watched Hulk mindlessly turn to me and drop heavily to the floor. His fists pounded against the ground as he roared out and took off in a charge towards me.

And I screamed.

The sound tore out of me, echoing over the walls and ringing in my own ears. I could feel the helplessness that had engulfed me. I knew that my body had met its limit, for I could only run a few feet before my knees gave out. Hulks form towered over me, and I scrambled away as his fist rained down on the concrete once more. Someone screamed from the other side of the cell, and it took me a moment too long to realize it was Natasha. She stood there, horrified and pounding against the glass of the cell. I could make out silhouettes of people on the other side, but the glare from the light streaming in through the hole made it hard to distinguish their faces. The soldiers stood scattered on the far side of the cell, hands on their guns as they watched the scene play out.

Hulk bellowed, distracted by Natasha's scream long enough for me to scramble onto unsteady legs. His body turned to hurl towards her, and fear was a living thing inside of me. He was going to kill her.

My muscles burned as I pushed myself with every last drop of energy I had, tearing past his towering form and slamming into the wall besides Natasha. I fought to stay on my feet as my vision sputtered and smudged with black spots. I blinked rapidly enough to clear them in time to turn my body, caging Natasha between my arms and the wall. The panic building in my chest tore out of me in another scream as I let the tears fall down my face.

It was like time slowed. I knew Hulk was only seconds away from hailing down on us, every nerve in my body was screaming and my instincts were pleading with me to turn and run. But I couldn't, not even for my dislike of the woman caged in my arms. She was important to people on the other side of this barrier, she was important to a group of people who saved lives. My face was inches from the glass, close enough to clearly make out the faces on the other side.

A red suit with an arm raised fired beams at the glass in a desperate attempt to break through, a figure weaving around people and attaching devices along the wall with a bow strapped to his back, and finally the crystal-clear eyes that stared at me from behind the wall right there in front of me. Those wide, agonizingly beautiful eyes. I couldn't help the wave of tears that poured from my eyes as I took in his face, saw the desperation written across his features as his voice barely met my ears through the glass. His hands were planted over my own on the other side as he screamed, begged for them to stop, for everything to just stop. But I knew what was coming.

I was going to die, and there wasn't anything to be done about it.

I simply stared at his face, forcing myself to smile just for him this one last time. Tears slipped down his face as his mouth moved in the same way over and over and over. 'Please, not her. Please, please, please...' I knew I couldn't be the one he was begging for, and it hurt.

But my time was running out, the few seconds I had were slipping by as my senses warned me of the oncoming hit. So, I held my smile and burned the image of his beautiful eyes into my memory, recalling his smile and the soft way he laughed. Letting the memory of his hands on my body flitter through my mind. My time with him had been the highlight of the century I had lived and suffered, and he would be my light until the end.

I pressed my forehead to the glass, letting my tears fall as a sob wracked me, trying and failing to think of anything other than the end nearing. I would protect Natasha so she could return to his side. If she was what he wanted, I would make sure I did everything I could in my last moments to keep her alive for him. I opened my mouth to tell him as much, perhaps finally confess in these last few seconds.

But my sentence never made it past my lips as the force of Hulks assault battered into my spine. I felt the impact, my eyes widening, before my bones shattered and all I felt was pain.

White, hot, all-consuming pain.

I watched vacantly as Bucky slipped from my vision and something cool pressed up against my face. I hadn't realized I had fallen until Bucky's face pressed against the ground on the other side, his mouth open in a cry I couldn't hear. But I could see his pain as it mirrored my own. I couldn't do anything but watch him sob and scream, throwing his fists into the cell until his blood smeared across its surface but he still kept trying.

I wanted to say something, to press my hand on the glass one last time and reassure him that everything was going to be okay even as the pain wracked my broken body. I could feel myself fading as I watched the black spots merge and expand over my vision, stealing my last glimmer of hope as everything was claimed by darkness.

_____

Tony-

I hadn't felt this helpless in a very, very long time.

I had tried and failed to get my systems back online, to tear my way through the wall just like the other two men beside me, but I had made this wall impenetrable. And I had never wished for something to fail so much.

Despair wracked me as I watched Max envelope Natasha against the wall, tucking her body away from harm and using herself as a shield. Bucky had begun yelling as he pounded away at the cell, screaming so desperately for Bruce to stop and get ahold of himself. His voice cracked and strained as he screamed, only stopping to breath in and start all over again as he put all of his effort into getting through to her. To Max.

But he couldn't. None of us could as we watched them on the other side of this god forsaken cell. We could only watch as Hulk's fist connected with Max's frail and battered body. Could only listen as the sickening crack of her bones echoed loud enough to reach us on the other side. Her scream would haunt me until the very day I died.

Bucky had crumbled with her as if it was him who had taken the blow too, pressing his face to the cold concrete and sobbing, begging whatever god watching over us to stop them. His fists clawed at the wall as the soldiers gripped her ankles and dragged her body away from the glass as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Bucky began pounding at the glass again, cursing Hydra through his cries and tossing promises of painful deaths.

I had dropped my arm after the overheat warnings began echoing in my helmet. There was nothing to be done, no way to get to her even if we could get out of the building and get around in time to get to her. They would be long gone by the time we managed to get everything back online, and they were smart enough to trap us here so I was certain they would cover their tracks and prevent us from finding them.

And Max was dead.

In a matter of minutes, they had gathered Max's broken frame up on a stretcher and hauled her out of the crater in the wall. Two men turned with their guns and fired at Hulk's looming form, littering several rounds of darts up and down his side before they scrambled up the ropes and disappeared behind the others. Hulk's body crumbled to the floor as he shrunk back to normal, out cold on the floor. Natasha still quivered against the glass with her eyes clamped shut and shaking. We were just left with the blood splattered on the floor and the consuming silence that always followed these kinds of things.

Bucky remained on the floor, sobbing and clawing at the glass. I had never seen a man so broken, so torn apart. I hated him once, but I had learned to endure his presence. I had once wished that he would die and pay for all the pain he had caused just as I knew he thought too. I regretted ever even thinking of those things as I watched him break apart on the ground. His very soul seemed to shatter with every broken cry that tore through his body, drifting away on every plea that echoed in the room.

Clint stood with his shoulders slumped and his eyes on Natasha. I knew he wanted to get to her and comfort her after what she just witnessed. He hadn't even had the chance to hack the security to reach them before the damage was done.

I had failed them, and I had failed Max.

The lights flickered back on and a moment later a body burst through the stairwell door, drawing all of our attention to the ragged form of none other than Cap himself. His chest was heaving and his shield was gripped in his hand as his wild eyes took in the situation.

Once he realized there weren't any hostiles, confusion spread over his face. "What happened? The lights and everything went out, I couldn't even get to Friday. And the alarms-." None of us dared to answer as another one of Bucky's sobs ricocheted off the walls, tearing Cap's gaze to his fallen comrade. He was taking hurried steps the next few seconds and dropping to the floor beside him, his arms hovering over Bucky's back and worry lacing his words. "Buck, Bucky what's going on? Are you alright?"

The soldier wiped his eyes on the harsh fabric of his uniform and clenched his teeth as he tried to compose himself, "They took her." Bucky's fists shook against the ground beside him with restrained anger and sorrow.

Steve's head shot up, "Who took who? What happened?" His hand finally dropped to Bucky's shoulder in a firm grip, an attempt to console him I'm sure. I could only watch in defeat as I processed it all.

Steve's eyes lingered on the fallen form of Banner, dragging over to Natasha who now sat slumped against the wall with a hollow look in her eyes as she stared at the cracked concrete below her. Then he studied the blood on the floor inside the cell, then the smears of it in front of his friend before he finally dropped them back to the Bucky. Bucky's knuckles were busted and surely fractured from hammering against the glass. Steve picked Bucky's right hand up and examined the bloodied mess before he set it back on the concrete to return his palm to Bucky's shoulder to wait for his explanation.

With pinched brows and agony in his eyes, Bucky met Steve's eyes and I felt my heart shatter all over again. He sucked in a breath, "Hydra infiltrated the Tower and shot Banner with some kind of serum and he went all mad, triggered the security section of this room. He..." Bucky bit down hard on the inside of his cheek, so hard I was sure when he swallowed it had tasted like blood. "He tried to attack Natasha, and Max distracted him long enough to cause him to tear a hole in the wall as he went after her. Max and Natasha were going to escape before the other Hydra operatives came in through the hole and ordered Hulk to get them. I heard it. Then he- he started going after Max and she was so weak, so weak she could hardly stand." Bucky's throat bobbed as he choked back another wave of sobs.

I clenched my fist, "Max gave her life to save Natasha and they took her body."

Steve just stared at me, "How did they get inside?"

I moved, shifting out of his view to allow his eyes to find the crumpled body of the prisoner we had taken earlier. Bucky had killed him seconds after Banner had been injected, but things had already been set in motion. "I'm guessing they used our prisoner as an inside man."

Steve's brows pressed themselves flush together, "That would mean the whole thing was a setup. They had been planning this deliberately." He shook his head, clasping his fingers in a fist. "I told you we shouldn't have taken a prisoner."

Appalled, I stepped forward. "Now is not the time for 'I told you so's. Max was just killed!"

Cap shifted his shoulders, "She was a killer!"

"Max was not a killer!"

Every head in the room snapped the the curled form of the Super Soldier on the floor. His eyes were trained on Steve with anger like none I had ever seen on him before, not even the cold eyes of the Winter Soldier had ever met the ferocity that I saw roiling in them.

Bucky's chest heaved a breath, "She saved those people. The people living in that valley, they're rebuilding their town with Tony's help because Max told him they needed it. Max got them out before she flooded the valley and saved every single one of them." His metal arm groaned against his grip, "Don't you call her a killer unless you're ready to call me one too."

Again, we all sat in silence as his words sank into Steve like a lead weight. I could see it in the way his shoulders sank and his eyes glazed over. He felt the guilt too. "I'm sorry, Buck."

"Save it," He snarled suddenly, wiping again at his tear stained face. "We all know you hated her anyways." Bucky pushed away from the floor and brushed off Steve's hand. "I'm going to find that jet."

"Barnes, you can't go after them alone." I stepped forward. "We just got back from a mission and you're tired. We can-"

"No. No, I want to find them now before they've gone underground and we really don't have a way to get to them." Bucky's eyes blazed as they held mine, "I want them to pay for this."

I sighed, "They will Barnes, they will, but we have to think this through. They just hacked my system and broke into the Tower like it was nothing. They lured us into a trap and then sent us back with a trojan horse when we managed to evade it. Obviously, Hydra has gotten some kind of upper hand and we have to remain careful." I hoped that he would understand, but I could tell that he wasn't thinking straight. Hell, I was hardly thinking straight. The image of Max's body hitting the floor continued to replay over and over in my head.

Steve remained knelt on the floor with his empty eyes set on the tiles while Bucky clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly. Clint took to hacking the doors and I... I needed to reboot the systems. "Everyone needs to get some rest and we will reconvene for a meeting later tonight. That's an order." My words were empty, everything felt empty, but they had to be said for any one of us to be able to put our minds to finding those bastards.

_____

Bucky-

Thirteen hours, that's how long it had been since Hydra had obliterated any semblance of safety in this tower.

Thirteen hours since they had stormed in and murdered Max.

Everything felt numb, every part of me ached with the effort it took to simply walk or breathe, to live. I hadn't slept, couldn't. I knew what waited for me on the other side, the demons that would rear their heads and laugh at the misery I had fallen into. I knew that I would see her battered body on the floor, feel the desperation I had just hours ago all over again on a loop of torture.

So I remained awake.

I had retreated to my room, locking the door and refusing to see anyone while I tried to process what I had seen. I didn't want to accept that she was gone. Maybe it had all been just another nightmare and I would wake up any minute to her soft knock on the door and her voice filtering through that little sliver of light to ask me if I was alright.

I could almost picture it, the way she would smile at me in her oversized T-shirts she loved so much as she leaned against the doorframe. She was so small that her body barely filled half the frame. Her eyes, softer in the dim light from the hall, would warm my heart and melt away the panic that had held me. She would crack some witty joke to lighten the mood and scoot under the covers, never flinching when my metal arm wrapped itself around her waist. Strong and steady like she always was.

But I knew better. Max was angry at me, hurt by my stupidity and harshness. Trust was a fleeting an unsteady presence in my life, and I had let it take to the hills the second I doubted her. Max had never once hurt me and I knew, even in the past I couldn't recall, she had always been that way. Her purpose with the enemy had been to protect me and she had done it, and she had continued to do it even after they fell, not out of obligation, but because she had wanted to. She had been a friend, perhaps more, and I had let her die thinking that I hated her.

Guilt consumed me, swallowing me up and holding me in a vice grip. I couldn't even move, not an inch of me followed my internal pleas to get up and find her. My mind had convinced my body that there was no use in trying anymore.

I laid there in my dirty tactical suit smeared in my own blood in the darkness of my room. My feet hung off the end of the bed and my hair blocked most of my vision. Tears still fell from my eyes no matter how hard I tried to stop them. I wanted to be angry, I was angry, but the anger was nothing compared to the crippling sorrow that drowned my heart.

I didn't even flinch when Friday's voice met my ears. "Sergeant? Mr. Stark has requested for all Avengers to report to the meeting room."

I curled my fingers into a fist, the first movement I had made since collapsing on the bed. The stiff ache in my muscles reminded me of the very real circumstances I found myself in. "Tell him I'll be down in a few minutes." I needed to collect myself before I faced the rest of them.

Friday chimed in again, "You might want to hurry. The tower is receiving an incoming video call. The source of the call is unknown."

I shoved into a sitting position, eyes blowing wide. "What?"

"Mr. Stark is trying to single out its' transmitting location now."

My stomach dropped to the floor. I knew it couldn't be good, not so soon after everything. I took to the elevator as fast as I could, figuring since Friday was back that Tony had finally regained control of the Tower's systems. I gripped the sides of the elevator for support as it lowered me through the floors, finally releasing me to join the ruckus in the meeting room. Shouts of confusion and panic filled the air as I walked through the doors into the chaos of the team.

Everyone wore exhaustion on their faces, purple bags lingering under every eye I saw. On the TV monitor mounted on the wall there was an incoming signal, and all of the team were in an uproar of confusion. Tony was furiously typing away on the keyboard in front of him, the table having been turned longways so everyone could see. Each of us watched the screen with pensive eyes. I took a seat right as the video crackled to life.

The distinct lines of a hand were the first thing we saw as a man in a lab coat haphazardly adjusted the camera lens that went in and out of focus rapidly. The sound of metal clinking against each other echoed over the speakers as he finished fiddling with it and took a large step away to let us take in his face.

He was young, probably in his mid twenties, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He wore a blinding smile that sent an unwarranted chill down my spine despite the dim lights and the seemingly unthreatening appearance he sported. Something about the whole situation was off, but I didn't have much longer to analyze what was going on before he started talking.

"Hello! My, I must say it's a dream come true to finally meet the Avengers. I wish we could meet in person, but the circumstances haven't been exactly ideal." He gave a sheepish smile and continued with a disarming gesture of his arm. "My name is Roman Giles."

He waited for a long moment as if his name might hold some kind of significance to any of us. It definitely did not.

We all startled as he clapped his hands, "Well, anyways, let's get to the point, shall we? You took something that belonged to me several months ago. A certain weapon more valuable than anything else. Then several months later you stole another weapon. One nearly twice as important as the first. Can you guess what they were?"

The meeting room had gone deathly silent save for the heartbeats hammering in each of our rib cages. Tony finally cracked the silence with his shaky reply, "The Winter soldier and The Ghost."

Roman threw his arms up almost triumphantly, "Bingo! What an accomplishment." He bent forward and peered into the camera, "Hello Sergeant Barnes, enjoying your newfound freedom?"

I swallowed, the feeling like sandpaper. I didn't reply.

With a sigh, he stood again. "As you can imagine, the loss of our two most valuable assets was quite the problem. Our Fist and Shield had been stolen and we were left weakened. But, with a little bit of thought and recruiting, success was within our grasp once more." The smile he wore had soured, morphing into something wicked. "Your building has one of the most advanced security systems I have ever seen Tony Stark, it was quite impressive. Fortunately, we have an equally impressive team on our side and with your recent shortcomings in defeating Hydra's active bases you were just so eager for information. It was too easy to infiltrate your fortress, to get our weapon back from you. I would've liked to have you rejoin us Sergeant, but one of you will do just fine." He threw his head to the side and tossed an order in Russian, a moment later the distinct sound of a door opening filled the speakers.

So did the screams.

Tags<3

@hzdhrtss / @imdoingathingmom / @cjand10 / @calwitch / @blackbirdwitch22

[imawreck]

Be brutally honest, I need the feedback. I want to know what you’re all interested in reading!

[imawreck]

Update!!!

Hey! Just wanted to let you all know I won’t be posting for the rest of this week due to a new work schedule! Once I’m back in the groove I’ll get back to posting regularly! Hope you all have a great week!

- Ayden

[imawreck]

Innocent

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: A truth is revealed too late, and a rat amongst the Avengers makes itself known.

Author's Note: I barely edited this so I apologize if there's any mistakes!

Warnings: Cursing, feral Max, gore and descriptions of wounds/violence

Word Count: 6,016

Bucky-

Max's eyes didn't stay in one spot for more than a millisecond, always moving and analyzing our surroundings. I had joined her against the side of the tent to keep out of sight. The knife still swiveled in time around her finger as she mumbled lowly in my direction. "I don't think they know we're here, which means that Rogers and the other's have done their jobs right. Or they're captured, Hydra wouldn't kill them without an audience."

I flexed my hand, "If they're caught we can't leave without them." Not like last time.

Her reply was said through gritted teeth, "I am aware."

Thunder still rolled overhead, and the air had grown cooler with the moisture. At least her God of Thunder was still around. "Do you have a plan?"

She shrugged, "Kill the enemy and don't die."

I grimaced and scanned around us once more. "If they don't know we're here, then it should be easy enough to get out."

She shook her head slowly, "Not if they find that body or the bodies of their watchmen. Hydra shifts their lookouts frequently; we have no idea when they'll do it next. I've got a very bad feeling it will be soon. I can hear them moving more."

I tried to hear what she did, but the only thing that met my ears was the breeze and the rustle of the trees. That, and the sound of someone breathing inside the tent we leaned against.

"Shit!" I launched to the side just as a knife tore through the fabric of the tent, a soldier tearing his way through behind it. I tried to find Max through the tattered remains of the tent, but she had vanished.

I didn't have much time before the soldier was barreling towards me. I scraped at the dirt, finding my footing just in time to dodge him once more. I was ready to fight, lifting my fists and gritting my teeth, but I didn't get the chance to before his body was tackled to the ground. Bones crunched, and his scream was cut into a cacophony of gurgles before I had the opportunity to blink. Max hovered over his body, blood coating her clawed fingers.

I couldn't take my gaze off of the mangled flesh of his throat and the deflated shape of his shoulder where her hand still rested. Four distinct holes littered his jugular, bloodied and oozing. It was enough to make me sick.

I didn't have the time to think about it before her hands were gripping the front of my uniform and hauling me into the brush. I shoved her away, wrapping my metal hand around her wrist and squeezing until she hissed in pain. "Don't fucking touch me."

She sneered in my face, teeth bared. "If you die, this mission is a failure. So, unless you're going to grow a pair of fucking balls, I'm going to continue to drag your ass to safety whether I like you or not."

Harsh words of Russian left her lips faster than I could comprehend as she leaned over into the dirt and began smearing it through her hair, "I'm going to kill anyone who gets in our way in whatever way I see fit to ensure that we make it out alive. You can bitch and complain about it when we're all back at the tower sipping bourbon and coddling our wounds." When she stood again, her hair was the color of the tall grass swaying around us. "Find Tony or one of the others and tell them what's going on. I'm going to take out everyone in this camp, so make sure they're all cleared out."

There was no room for discussion. By the time I had mustered something snarky and hateful to send her way she was already gone, nothing but the downed grass to show where she had disappeared. I clutched my gun, yanking it out of my holster and moving back towards the jet. Most of the soldiers were situated in the camp, most likely settling in for dinner. It was late afternoon, and the sun had turned orange as it descended through the sky.

Behind me, shouts began erupting through the camp. Crashes echoed across the space between myself and the camp, and I knew it had everything to do with Max. Gunfire was quick to follow the uproar, bullets whizzing past just close enough to have me hunkering a little closer to the ground as I hustled back to the team.

A body hurled into me as I cleared the grass, a knife raised before I threw my hand up to block their assault. I twisted away and raised my gun only to be met with another drawn to my eye level.

"What the hell, Barnes!" Natasha's exasperated voice let out a breath as she dropped her gun. "I could've blown a hole straight through you!"

I lowered my own, "Says you."

Natasha swiveled her head around behind me, "Where's Lover Girl? Did you ditch her?"

I couldn't help but notice the hint of a smile on her face, but I brushed it off. "No, Max is-." Someone screamed somewhere behind me, and I pursed my lips as it came to an abrupt stop. "She's cleaning up the camp."

Natasha's brows rose, "Why are you back then?"

"Coms are down. Max said it was a trap and we fell right into it. We searched the whole area and didn't find any sign of the scepter. It was a setup." I holstered my gun and ducked as another stray bullet fired. The shots had died down significantly in the last ten minutes, a sure sign Max was making quick work of the place. "We need to regroup with the rest of the team."

Natasha nodded but tilted her head back towards the camp. "What about her?"

Max's words rung in my head, 'I don't need you.' Like she'd meant every word of it. I shrugged, stalking away. "She can handle herself. She doesn't need me."

Natasha, surprisingly, didn't push any more about it as we both rushed back towards the jet. Rain had begun to fall against the ground, adding onto the chorus of agony growing louder behind us. The angry shouts had molded themselves into desperate screams, pleas for mercy. I knew there wouldn't be any. Max was an executioner, and there was no mercy for people like Hydra.

Natasha and I finally made it back to the jet to find Tony tinkering with a hologram and arguing dramatically with his AI. His helmet sat on one of the seats of the Quinnjet and his arms waved around, swiping through the multiple displays and pressing his finger to his com. "Dammnit!" Tony swiped up on his hologram and ran a frustrated hand through his hair before he turned to find the two of us. Relief swept over his face, "Thank God you two are alright. Comms went down fifteen minutes in, and I haven't been able to get ahold of anyone. I think we will have to get up in the air-- where's Max?" He swiveled his head behind us as he asked, searching for her.

I grit my teeth, "Max found out that Comms went down, and she sent me back to regroup. The camp and signal were a trap, the scepter wasn't there. We checked everywhere."

Tony just stared at me for a long moment, letting the sound of distant gunfire and screams envelope us. His lip curled in a frown when he finally spoke, "You just left her?"

"She said she didn't need me." It was a poor excuse, but it was true.

Rage flickered in his eyes as he stepped forward, but before he could spew any accusations he was interrupted by the jarringly kind voice of Friday. "Mr. Stark, Max's vitals are showing signs of severe injury."

All of us froze and Tony whipped around to snag his helmet off the chair. "What injury? What happened?"

Just as the AI was about to answer, an explosion blasted from behind us and sent us all ducking for the grass. I watched as pillars of black smoke rose into the air, listening to the rush of fire in the distance. There were no more screams. An awful, vile scent filled the air, and we all slapped a hand over our noses. I knew that smell. I had smelled it all those weeks ago on that mission with her when the flames had raged and torn over flesh and water alike. Flames rose higher, and I watched Tony jog closer to get a better view of the damage.

I followed him, flinching as the strength of the smell increased as we got closer. A shining shield caught my eye as Steve appeared from the other side of the camp, Clint not far behind him. Thunder clapped and lightning followed a speck falling from the sky before Thor whipped around and landed smoothly against the dirt a few feet from the rest of us. The team's faces all resembled some variations of shock, worry, and caution. Tony looked desperate for the most part, his eyes frantically searching the flames.

From somewhere in the blaze, someone shouted. It was Russian from what I could hear, and another voice replied in a tone much more desperate. A shadow moved within the fire, and we all gripped our weapons. Something was chucked out of the flames, falling hard to the dirt and shouting again. A person.

They scrambled in the dirt before another silhouette stepped through the wall of fire that had wrapped itself around the camp in an angry red. The person on the dirt nearly got to their feet before the second one stepped on their leg while they patted out the flames threatening to set them alight.

The person on the ground screamed, deep and guttural. "You bitch!" The words fell from his lips in a heavy accent.

Max's mask hung from her belt and dirt and blood smeared her face. In one of her hands hung a bottle of liquor with the cork missing. Her eyes stayed solely on the man before her. "You should watch your tongue, or I might just lose my patience."

The man laughed bitterly, "You won't kill me, I am valuable."

Her leg sank deeper into his flesh, and he yelled out again. "I think you overestimate your value. I'll find what you're hiding with or without some measly, low-level agent. Having you tell me would just make my job much easier."

I watched the man's eyes widen at the sincerity in her tone and the broad, animalistic smile she wore. I shivered at the sight of it too.

His voice seemed to have raised an octave as he dug his elbows into the dirt in order to try and further the distance between them, "You're not as strong as you once were, you even bleed now." He nodded towards the blood leaking from a gash on her forehead.

This didn't seem to bother Max much as she ran a bloodied hand through her hair to push it out of her face. "Still strong enough to take down your little camp and steal you away though, aren't I? Still the biggest threat Hydra has to face." She bent down and gripped his collar as she began dragging him towards the jet. "I'll heal. Anything I do to you, won't. Not in the short amount of time you have left to live, anyways."

His hands clawed at her arms as she trudged through the grass, growing closer to us all with every step. She winced with each breath she took and drank several swigs from the bottle she clutched in her hand. Max only dropped the man once she cleared the grass, making sure to shove him between her and the rest of us so there was no easy escape route.

She took in every one of us with cold eyes, "Glad you're all in one piece." Her gaze snapped to the man clutching his mangled leg between us, observing him like prey. The bottle in her hand swung from side to side. "Found their stash and used it to destroy the camp. This one hinted at knowledge of the scepter's whereabouts while I was hard at work so I figured we could interrogate him. He could be lying, but it's worth a shot." She took another swig from the bottle, turning to Tony. "Your call Stark, say the words and I'll make it clean."

Tony's eyes flickered between her and the hostage, tugging his lip between his teeth in concentration. I raised a brow at him, because of course he couldn't be considering her request. Of course not, because that wouldn't make us much better than them. We maim and kill now, thanks to Max, and with every mission she was assigned we bloodied the Avengers name a little more.

"Tony," Steve warned.

Tony held up his hand, "Cuff him and strap him in next to you, Max."

She followed his orders immediately, tossing the bottle away and hauling the man up the platform and into the Quinnjet as he kicked and spewed insults at her.

The minute she was gone, Steve dove into an argument with Tony. "Are you going to let her burn everyone she wants, whenever she wants, like a psychopath, or are you going to have her put in a cell where she belongs?"

Stark's eyes blew wide in anger as he marched right up to Steve's face. "She got us intel that we need in order to keep people safe. Those people down there were Hydra, in case you've forgotten, and I'd be happy to let her burn however many of them she wants. Max is not a psychopath, she's one of us."

Steve scoffed, "Open your eyes, Tony! She's a murderer!"

Tony's arm snapped up to point at me, "So is he! We let him walk around without chains or a muzzle, so why should we make her? He was waltzing around claiming she was innocent months ago, what changed? And now the two of you are gunning for her." Silence sank its claws into all of us as he held us both with a condescending stare. "Get in the jet, we can duke it out like children back at the tower." With that, he stalked away and left the two of us simmering in anger.

"I can't believe him!" Steve muttered, "He was all for locking her up the second you brought her to that tower and now he can't see anything clearly."

I nodded silently, feeling a simper of anger roiling in my veins. Steve was right, he couldn't see what she was. He couldn't see the way she looked at people, how she hunted them and mauled them like an animal. Genetically modified or not, she was still a person, and she should act like one.

I lead the charge back to the Quinnjet where the others had already taken their seats. Max had strapped the man up two seats away from her and clamped thick metal cuffs around his wrist. She had left his leg mangled and sticking to the side, not bothering to fix it. With each shake and tremble of the jet the man groaned and whimpered. Still, she sat there, face as blank as the mask at her hip.

I took in her bloodied face, the smears of fingerprints like someone had grabbed at her neck and cheeks. The gash on her head still trickled blood and she pressed a firm hand on it to try and prevent what she could from slipping between her fingers. The other hand held her side where the red fabric had darkened a shade or two from the blood seeping through from the inside. Tony came out of the cockpit moments after takeoff to examine her wounds.

He wrapped a bandage around her head, securing it behind her ear as best he could. He ordered her to remove the top of her suit next, and she grumbled something under her breath that earned her a harsh glare. She didn't say too much after that and did as he asked. I watched as she tugged the fabric down her arms, my eyes widening at the bruises littering her skin. Max never had bruises. They couldn't last, not with her healing. Which meant that...

"Shit, you're not healing." Tony's voice echoed my thoughts as he leaned over to examine the obvious angry skin. "Why aren't you healing?"

She attempted to shrug but halted with a wince as she clutched her side once more. "'M’tired is all."

"Max." Tony gave her a sharp look to which she just shrugged again, further frustrating him. His chest heaved in a breath, and he pressed a hand to his brow, smoothing out the wrinkles forming on his forehead. "Show me your side."

"It's nothing." Her tone was unusually defensive. "It will heal."

"If it hasn't already, something is wrong so let me see it." The bite in Tony's words was rearing its head and Max heard it too, I could see it in the way her mouth thinned, and her brows tugged together. She knew it was a losing battle.

Slowly, she continued to unzip her uniform until the fabric pooled around her waist and the wound was exposed for us all to see.

Infection was the first word I thought as I took in the yellow tinted scabs that had pulled away from the skin around her ribs. It was bruised there too, the hues of purple and green adding to the irritated red lining the wound. Every time she breathed, she winced, and the scabs stretched and cracked further. It was ugly, and it should have been treated the moment she noticed it.

But she hadn't.

Tony threw his arms up. "What the hell were you thinking coming on a mission with a wound like that? You should be seeing our medical team! They said it was healed!"

Max's features schooled themselves into a calm indifference. "I am just healing slower than normal, it's nothing to worry about."

Tony threw a pointed finger towards her, and his voice dripped in anger, "That's bullshit and you know it. Why the hell aren't you healing?"

Her eyes burned in warning as she held his eyes, "I've been dealing with a lot."

A loaded answer if I had ever heard one. But I knew... I knew what she had meant. I tried to keep her out of my head, tried to forget her and force her away from me. But the harder I tried, the more I was aware of her. The few times I glimpsed her in the hallway and noted the hint of bruises under her eyes, the way her figure didn't fill out her uniform the way it once had, or the way her smile hid from everyone no matter how many jokes they cracked.

Tony didn't press any more, but he did turn to retrieve the small med kit stored under the pilot's chair and fished out the supplies to fix what he could. "You're grounded until you've healed, and I want you to visit Banner down on the cell level the second we touch base. He might be able to figure something out with your healing."

Max gaped at him, "I am perfectly capable of attending missions, I proved it today."

"You are not capable, and you won't step foot on another mission until you've had a full physical under observation." The tone of finality bounced off the walls of the jet as we all avoided the burning look she held him with.

No one dared to talk, and I finally was able to tear my gaze from their spat to stare at the floor instead. My mind wandered back to the way he had defended her, how he had asked what had happened even though I had filed a clear and detailed report to him the following afternoon. I wondered if he had even deemed it worth reading. I knew Tony still held me accountable for his parents' death, and he had every right too, but that didn't give him the right to ignore the facts we were presenting him with especially if it has anything to do with the teams' safety. He had said so many times himself.

I made a note to discuss the matters with him as soon as we landed. Until then, I leaned myself back against the backrest of the chair and kept quiet like the rest of the team. Even the man Max had dragged aboard didn't dare break the silence.

_____

The distinct scent of New York air entered my senses the moment the jet hanger hit the landing pad, finally back at the tower after the agonizingly quiet ride in a cramped jet. The tension had held the whole way back. Steve was livid, and Natasha and Clint actively avoided anyone's eyes to avoid setting anyone off. I hardly glanced at Max as I stared at the floor all the way home. The only noise other than the silence was the man's whimpering and Max's low, quiet curses with each jostle of the jet.

Tony had practically shoved her in the direction of the medical bay, demanding that she gets attention before she goes down to see Banner. She went with nothing more than a weak nod. The others gathered their gear and stumbled tiredly to the hanger. We all needed sleep, but few of us would get any either because of the mission or the paperwork that was sure to follow.

I watched as Steve took the liberty of ushering the Hydra Agent to the cell floor, giving me a nod in goodbye as I gathered my own things and headed out not long after him. Tony stood not far from the jet discussing something with Thor who kept looking over at the med wing. I ground my teeth, trying to shake off the dark feeling that always rippled through me at the looks he cast towards... towards her. Tony finished whatever he was saying to Thor and let him leave, and I wasn't surprised at all when he hustled off towards Max.

Tony folded his arms over his chest and turned towards me with a long sigh. "What do you want, Barnes?"

I dropped my bag, "I want to talk to you about the last mission Max and I were on with Natasha. Did you read my report?"

"I read both of your reports." He turned his shoulder and began walking away. "What is this about?"

I hustled after him, frustrated by his nonchalance, "It's about the safety of this team and the risk you're putting us all in by keeping Max here. Especially concerning the safety of the public."

Tony scoffed, the sound bouncing off the glass walls and rattling in my ears. I flexed my hands to keep my anger at bay as he slipped into the elevator and he turned to reply, "There isn't a risk. I wouldn't put her on the team if there was. I'm insulted you and Captain Ass-merica think that I would do that to this team."

I shoved through the closing doors to stand beside him. "Are you that blind?" I threw a hand wide, "She burned a whole town, Tony! I watched her do it! She fried the innocents just so she could kill a squadron of Hydra Agents! You don't think that's dangerous? That's mass murder! We went to war for that, and now you're just going to let her do the same thing with no repercussions?" My chest rose and fell rapidly as the anger trembled inside of me, lashing out.

Tony stormed out of the elevator into the floor it had stopped on. I recognized it as his main lab from the main computers and displays of his suits lining the wall. I followed him, staying right at his heels. He shoved a chair out of the way and yelled out to the AI.

"Yes Mr. Stark?"

He gripped the counter where holograms danced above his head, "Bring up the surveillance footage."

Immediately, the holograms warped to display a large screen panning over the valley where I had been only weeks prior. I remembered the damage clearly, the downed tower, the bodies littering the ground and the burnt grass and houses all flooded in the events of the mission. On the screen though, people were bustling around with repair equipment and trucks hauling boxes and trucks labeled with 'Stark Industries' across the side in bold black letters. I watched as it flipped to show from a body cam, a man helping out a family repaint the side of their house and laughing merrily about something he said.

Tony spoke quietly from beside the picture. "She really didn't tell you?" When I didn't reply, Tony kept going. "Max came to me late the same day of the mission and begged me to send help to the valley. She told me what happened on the mission, but she left out the spat you two had. She told me that she got everyone she could out of that valley before she brought that tower down. She went into those people's houses and demanded that they called everyone they knew and tell them to get as far out of town as they could and avoid the water. She got them out, and not a single casualty was civilian."

I felt my heart still, every word he said hit my heart like sharp shards of glass. "What?"

His voice was low and tired, but sincere. "Max made sure the people were safe before she brought down the tower. The only people she killed were the ones trying to hurt them."

She hadn't killed civilians.

I planted my hand on the counter, mirroring Tony as my body wavered at his statement. I had accused her of killing those people. I had called her a killer, a heartless murderer that didn't care about anyone but herself and her stupid missions. She had let me too, let me yell and curse and spit at her in disgust. I remember her trying to cut in, to tell me something.

"Of course not, Bucky, no. I care about so much more and I-"

But I had cut her off, not allowing her to tell me any more lies. She hadn't been lying. The image of her crestfallen face plastered itself on the back of my eyelids as I clamped them shut to recall the memory.

She had tried to explain herself, but I was too selfish, too scared and betrayed to let her fill my head with anything other than what I believed to be true. She had my file; the one Hydra had compiled from all those years of my torture. Those were my worst days, and she had kept them. Probably read them too. I was so concerned about what she might know, too afraid that she would use what was in that file against me, that I hadn't let her explain what had happened just an hour before.

I let out a shaky breath as my chest threatened to suffocate me, "I called her a monster worse than me." I gasped, realization of what I had done to her sinking like a stone into my chest. I had hurt her. I had hurt her over and over because of my fear. I let myself insult and belittle her, to beat her on the sparring mats, because of my fear and my anger.

And she was innocent.

Tony couldn't fully understand the damage that single sentence had done to her, but the fact that I had said something so awful to her set his eyes ablaze in anger. "Fucking hell, Barnes. She's been tearing herself apart because of you."

He was right, I realized. It was like all the pieces clicked together in my head. She had stopped eating, I knew as much. I did it when I spiraled, it was a trauma response. Her healing relies on the intake of energy she gets, and without it she can't heal properly. I had heard Thor talking about her nightmares with Tony once, heard Natasha complaining about being woken up by her screams. Lack of sleep made sense too. Max took those missions recklessly because she was spiraling.

My eyes caught the swift movement of Tony's hand dragging through his hair, "Do you have any idea how much she cared about you? She talked to me when she would come in and work in the labs with me. She told me that she was so glad that you had lived, that you had gotten out even if it was without her. She had been planning an escape for you, did you know that?"

I didn't, and it hit like a hammer to my gut.

"All she ever wanted for you was happiness. That's what she told me." His grip on the counter turned his knuckles white. "Once, she told me about the things they did to her. It was awful to listen to, but I wanted to listen because she had never opened up before. Not like that, anyways. Max told me that you had defended her in there as the Soldier. Even after they wiped your mind, you would defend her over and over. You were the first person to ever show her an ounce of kindness. She grew up in that hell hole, and the first person to ever show her kindness was the Winter Soldier. What does that say?" He shook his head, and my eyes began to burn.

I was so sick with myself I thought I would hurl right then and there. The hatred I had for myself clawed at my mind, tearing me apart from the inside. What had I done? Panic clawed at my throat, threatening to choke the life out of my lungs but I forced myself to breath.

In the distance, the elevator chimed, and someone joined us. I couldn't focus on anything other than the feelings crashing around in my mind, couldn't escape the images of what I had done to her, and the pain written on her face. Someone as kind as her, who had only ever experienced harsh unrelenting hatred until an emotionless killer showed her kindness, didn't deserve anything but happiness for the rest of her life.

I stood on unsteady legs, turning to take the elevator down to the cell level when the lights shut off and swathed the lab in darkness. My eyes snapped to Tony, adjusting to the dark. "What's going on?"

Tony spun around just as the security bars slammed down over the windows to the outside of the building. They clicked into place a moment later. I found Tony's form again as another voice spoke in the dark, "Is this some kind of test run, Stark?"

I recognized the voice from the night at the themed dance, his voice sending tremors of distaste through me. "What are you doing here, Rumlow?"

I caught the shrug of his shoulders out of the corner of my eye, "It's my job to keep tabs on the Avengers while Hydra operations are running high. I'm in for a report on today's mission."

Tony called out to Friday, but the AI didn't reply. He tried once more, but it still resulted in silence. My nerves began to rattle as he cursed under his breath, "Something's wrong."

"What do you mean something's wrong?" Rumlow turned around in a circle, "The electricity went out, why is it such a big deal?"

Tony shot him a distasteful look, "My AI system operates on a separate power source, and she shouldn't go out with the rest of the building. I made sure of it." He marched towards the computer at the table and tapped it a few times. "Computers are down too. This was intentional. We need to contact the rest of the team before-“

A voice crackled overhead, and we all reeled around in a circle to locate the source, only to have it crackle again. "-rk! Mr. St-k! Hy- trated th- ding! Hydra!"

I felt my heart drop to the bottom floor as my brain processed her garbled words. Alarm bells were ringing then, loud enough to send me hunkering with my hands clamped over my ears.

Rumlow bellowed over them, "What the hell is going on?"

"We're under attack!" Tony threw out his arm, his suit crashing out of its container and flying through the air from across the room to clamp around his body. "Hydra is in the building and I bet they've hacked the system." He viciously attacked a keypad on one of his arms before a display popped up with the tower levels labeled. The cell level was red. "They're on the cell floor."

Something wild awoke inside of me, "Max is on the cell floor."

I shoved past Rumlow as my body moved on its own, slamming my fingers into the elevator doors and prying them apart with all my strength. The elevator was nowhere in sight, and the elevator shaft was dark and cold. I reached out to snag one of the suspension wires and clung to it, taking it as far down as it went before my legs hit the top of the elevator. I pried the doors open, sending a silent thanks up to whoever watched us as I realized it had a stairway. The hum of Tony's jets followed down the elevator shaft as he made his way after me. The alarms still blared throughout the building, but I could only hear the roar of the pulse in my ears as I stormed the stairwell.

Tony flew down the center as I took them four at a time, launching myself over the railing when I was close enough to the bottom. Shouts echoed from the cell floor and the scrape of metal on metal grated through the air.

The second my feet hit the ground, I was gunning for the door where Stark was firing up his cannon and aiming it at the door. The lock kept us from entering, but the panic threatening to consume me drove me into violence. I slammed my boot into the door over and over until the locking mechanism snapped with a sharp crack. I rushed into the room to catch the scene unfolding just across the room, Tony quick on my heels.

Our prisoner had escaped, his mangled leg rested on the floor as he clutched a gun in his hand and a radio in the other. He let the gun fall back to his side as he whipped his head around, a sickening smile spread over his face and his eyes wild. My attention snapped to Max, scanning her for any injuries other than those she had from the mission. No blood, so I moved to Natasha who stood a few feet towards her who stood stock still with her eyes latched onto Bruce. I dragged my eyes over him too and found the source of their attention. A dart stuck out of his side as a silver liquid drained into him.

He stared at it in horror, his brows pinching and his hands shaking as he hastily pulled it out of himself and let it clatter to the floor before he looked back up. Our eyes met, and the fear he held on his face was the same mirrored in my own when I knew something I couldn't control was about to happen. When my body would betray me and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

It took me seconds too long to move, to shout, before the brown of his eyes flickered green and his ferocious, rattling roar tore through the room.

And the cell slammed shut to cage Natasha and Max in with him.

Tags<3

@calwitch / @blackbirdwitch22 / @hzdhrtss / @imdoingathingmom / @cjand10

[imawreck]

Trap

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: Max is forced to go on a mission with Bucky once more.

Warnings: malnutrition, description of panic attack symptoms, cursing

Word Count: 4,269

Max-

I woke the next morning from another grueling nightmare covered in sweat and gasping for air. It was 4:00 A.M., too early to be up but too late to fall back asleep. I peeled the sheets away from my body, wincing at the muscles tugging at my still-scabbed side. It was better, but it should have been healed and gone by now. Its presence was evidence enough of my malnutrition, even if I physically looked as healthy as a horse. I needed to eat.

Hopping from the bed, I meandered to the small floor kitchen and snagged the cereal box out of the cupboard and made myself a bowl. Thor would be disappointed I missed our morning breakfast together, but I couldn't wait that long. I munched on my meal, taking a seat on the counter instead of the chair. The cool marble was jarring enough to clear the stupor of my mind as I shoveled another spoonful of cereal into my mouth.

After the encounter with Bucky last night, it was difficult to fall asleep. My body had quaked, and my lungs seemed to shrink and cause my breaths to be nothing more than short puffs of air. It was ridiculous.

After I finished my breakfast, I decided to take the time to use the empty training room. Bucky had taken to training most of his free time, so the machines and weights were usually unavailable to me, the whole room more or less. I avoided him as much as I could, not even daring to be in the same room for fear of what, I didn't know. I was simply uncomfortable with being close to him anymore.

It's funny, how one person can go from your very breath to something you can hardly look at without falling apart.

I spent most of the morning training. I had lost some muscle in the recent missions and was in desperate need of some protein supplements to which I stole from Sam's stash. I spent several hours using the bars for upper body and lifting as much as my body could handle on weights. I pushed myself, taking note of the subtle changes that had occurred over the past few weeks. It wasn't much, but it was enough to cause a change in my strength. Enough to weaken me.

I cursed myself, drying my hair with a towel as I took a break three hours later, seating myself on the nearest bench. The AC felt wonderful on my neck and shoulders thanks to the tank top I was sporting. I didn't want to risk the team seeing my injury. Tony would bar me from missions if he had any inclination I wasn't mission ready.

The elevator chimed a few minutes after I had taken a seat and my whole body froze up; a recently developed instinct. Blonde hair and a dashing smile had me blowing out a breath and dropping my shoulders.

Thor sauntered his way over and plopped down on the bench beside me, "You're up awfully early, Max."

I shrugged, "I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided this was the best thing to do to occupy my time before you lazy bums decided to get out of bed."

Thor rolled his eyes, "Getting a normal 8 hours of sleep does not make us lazy. Some of us need beauty sleep." He slung his gold tresses to the side in an obnoxious manner, pulling a smile onto my face.

"Did you just come all the way down here to talk?" I was flattered that a god showed so much interest in befriending me.

He shook his head with a smile, "No, but it is one of my favorite things to do on earth. I actually came to inform you that Tony is calling a meeting with the team, and he wants us gathered in ten."

I frowned, "You know that you don't have to come all the way down here to tell me that, right? Tony has a whole AI system to work the building."

His smile turned bashful as he shook his head, "I know. I just like to tell you myself."

My neck turned red as my lips curved upwards at his words. I shoved him with my shoulder, "Come on, Thunder Boy. I'll walk with you to the meeting."

Thor's lumbering steps eagerly followed me out of the training room as he began a tangent about the most recent events on his planet. He liked to keep me updated ever since I asked him about it. Learning about the new developments on such a different planet amazed me and hearing Thor talk about it so passionately made me happy.

The closer we got to the meeting room, the more anxious and curious I became. It had been a while since the whole team had gotten together for a joint mission. I figured Tony could sense the tension within the ranks so much that he supposed it would be better for us all to have space and time away from each other. Something big must have come up to be calling us all together.

The door chimed and the two of us strode into the level, veering between the glass doors and joining those who were already seated at the table. Natasha, Steve, and Bucky sat at their respective seats on the farther side of the table. Bucky used to occupy the seat next to me, but it now sat empty to the left of the end. Thor decided to take it with a soft smile my way. I was truly grateful for his presence.

Clint was next, stumbling in bleary eyed and groggy. "Damn these early meetings. Can't anyone get some decent sleep around here?"

I shook my head at him, watching him take the empty chair opposite to Thor. "Of course not, it's in the fine print of the job description."

Clint groaned and let his head hit the metal table. "It's miserable."

Tony was next, strolling in all prim and ready to go. He slapped the file folder in his hands against the back of Clint's head, "Wake up Barton, we have a bright shining day ahead of us."

I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to contain the laugh threatening to escape as Clint covered his head and gave an ugly look to the back of Tony's perfect hair.

Tony spun around and addressed everyone at the table with a thin smile, "I would like to inform you all that I have been working with Thor on locating a very dangerous weapon that we believe has fallen into Hydra's arsenal."

My eyes widened and snapped to Thor who simply continued to listen to Tony with a grim look on his face. "His brother, as you all know, had a scepter that was believed to have returned with him to Asgard but it seems that it was intercepted in the process. Loki hid it on earth, and Hydra operatives located it. Now they possess a very unpredictable variable, the same power that created Wanda and her brother. There is no telling what it will do or what they will use it for."

Everyone seemed to pale at the news. No one else had known about their discussions, I realized, and Thor had kept it even from me.

Tony went on, "Thor and I have been trying to locate where Hydra was moving or keeping it. We had been unsuccessful until now. The scepter gave off a power surge near the eastern sea and we believe that they are trying to move it to a more secure location to keep us from detecting it further. The window is small, and the only people available for this mission are those sitting at this table."

I noted that two of our most powerful members, Wanda and Vision, were nowhere to be found. The two were often sent to monitor other situations and I figured that they were doing so now. It would be a severe setback in our ranks, but each of those seated here had their own talents that would still benefit us greatly.

What small smile Tony had managed to keep on his face fell away before his next words, and his eyes seemed to fall on me with a sort of plead held in them. "Barnes, Max, you two will be on the front lines."

I balked at him, "You're joking."

His brows pulled together with a stiff shake of his head. Bucky glared at the table in front of him with his fists clenched. "You two are our strongest offense and your teamwork is refined even if you two are at odds right now. We need that kind of manpower to get through their defenses. I need everyone else stationed around the area to wait as backup and cover our blind spots. We can't allow them to call in for reinforcements or pull any surprises on us."

I grit my teeth and sank deeper into my seat.

"Thor, I want you to cause a storm if you can. Keep their communications down and take out any arial defense they might try to use." Thor nodded, the only response he gave Tony. The brunette's attention turned to Steve next, "I need you and Natasha to take out any scouts or watchers they might have as quietly as possible so Barnes and Max can get in and locate the scepter." Another nod from the two of them. "Barton, you'll take out anyone they might miss. That's all for now, go suit up. We will go over all the details on the Quinnjet."

With that, I stood from the table and left. Rage roiled in my veins as I stalked towards the staircase, opting to take them over the confines of the elevator that the others were bound to use. The closer I got to the launch pad, the more the anger consumed me. Why would Stark put us together when he knows that something changed between us? Everyone knew that something happened, we were never even seen on the same floor now. And then that thing with Natasha...

I felt the railing of the stairs crunch under my hand as I took the last step onto the Heli-level. The rest of the team was already bustling around, finalizing their gear and loading equipment into the hangar. I B-lined for my locker, swinging it open and snagging my suit from within. I had requested for a new one, and I was not disappointed by Tony's fulfillment of it.

Burgundy fabric, trimmed with black and silver. I was sick of the dried blood that was visible on my old suit, and the white fabric had begun to turn a sickeningly yellow orange from the layers of missions. The new suit fit much like the last, fitting my curves and hugging my skin. I zipped it up to my throat and secured it there, leaning over to lace and strap on my shoes as another body sank to the remaining bench beside me.

"You have to promise me not to gut Barnes out there in the field for whatever happened between you two."

I turned my face to Tony, catching his arms folding in front of his chest. I let myself frown at him, "I wouldn't hurt anyone on the team."

Tony gave me a pointed look that said he knew that was not entirely true, "You broke his nose in a training session not that long ago."

I shook my head, finishing the knot on my shoe and leaning back up. "He deserved it, he cracked my ribs in that match."

A sigh forced itself out of him as he rubbed a hand over his face, "Just promise me, Max."

I shrugged, "Fine. I promise I won't kill Barnes. Happy?"

He just stared at me for a moment before nodding slowly, his shoulders dropping. "Are you ever going to tell me what happened between you two? You were so happy, then you came back from that mission, and it was like the coin flipped."

Instead of answering, I latched my sword to my back and strapped on my knives. When I couldn't find anything else to do besides answer him, I turned back towards him on the bench. "It isn't a big deal. He doesn't like me, and I don't like him. I will make sure the mission is successful just like I always do, and then he and I can go back to ignoring each other until you decide to throw us together again."

He flinched but didn't say anything else as I snatched my mask out of the bottom of the locker and slammed the door.

I marched over to the hanger to find most of the others strapping themselves into the seats. Thor gave me a smile, but I wasn't in the mood for talking. Or listening. I chose the farthest seat without a second thought and pressed the mask onto my face until the final snap of metal echoed in my ears.

I watched the team through the black eyes of my mask as Tony lifted the hangar and strode to the cockpit for takeoff. Thor had taken to frowning at the wall of the jet and flickering his gaze toward Bucky every once in a while. The latter sat with his hands clenched together between his knees and his head down. Natasha picked at her nails next to Steve who was leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. Clint and Thor were the only ones seated on the same side I sat on. None of us talked as the jet shook with turbulence.

I turned my attention to my hands, flexing my fingers and pinching my brows in focus as I forced my nails outwards. The act alone was hard, and a small sliver of worry opened up inside me. I pressed my elbow to my side as smoothly as I could to avoid drawing attention. The wound beneath my suit ached at the contact and I stifled a hiss.

I would have to be more careful to avoid any contact on that side or I'll be sidelined for sure. The team needed my skillset on this mission otherwise Tony wouldn't have dared to put Bucky and I in the same vicinity. So, I would grin and bear it until I could get back to the Tower.

I lifted my head to find a pair of eyes watching me from across the jet. Bright and blue and hard. He couldn't see the way I frowned or the pain I was sure swam in my eyes at the sight of him, not while I hid it beneath the skull and teeth. All he saw was what he had wanted to see.

A killer.

His eyes didn't stay on me long before they dropped back to his lap, and I eased into my seat. I figured it would be best if I rested for now and try to heal some more before our mission. Thor wouldn't let anything happen to me, so my nerves calmed as the ever-present exhaustion swept me away.

_____

Bucky-

I saw her flinch. A jolt of her shoulders and a sharp breath was all the indication I needed to realize something was wrong. She had made the movement nearly imperceptible, but I saw it.

I hadn't meant to look at her, to even acknowledge her until it was absolutely necessary, but my body still betrayed me whenever she was near. I still gravitated towards her, still couldn't keep myself from listening to every breath she took, every movement she made.

It was torture.

I sat there watching as her head slumped forward in her sleep. That was another thing. Max had apparently been sleeping more often. I had overheard Thor talking to Tony about it one morning before I had entered and the two of them had shut up like clams. They didn't ever talk about her near me. It was good, I didn't want to know any more about her. She was a monster, plain and simple.

Thor had taken to glaring at me any time I was around. He's been glued to her ever since they first met. It was frustrating, seeing her with him. Watching her laugh so easily and smile so much. I knew I shouldn't feel that way. I had no reason to be jealous, she was a killer and nothing more. He just didn't know her.

I tried to bide my time going over the mission details in my head and listen to the whir of the jet as we flew. Steve had fallen asleep next to me as well, his body arched over his knees with his arms resting heavily on his thighs. He has been busying himself with all kinds of paperwork I hadn't asked about. He and I might have made amends, but we still seemed to have vastly different opinions on things now. Like a switch was flipped and we just can't get back to the way we were before.

I lost myself in my thoughts somewhere along the ride and the turbulence of the landing brought me out of it and back into the situation at hand. The others had begun unbuckling and gathering up their weapons, checking ammo and packing extra cartridges where they could. I followed suit, catching Thor waking Max out of the corner of my eye.

Her body jolted at his touch and her clawed hand wrapped itself in a vise grip around the god's wrist. He held his arm up in surrender as she took in her surroundings and eased her hand away with a small drop of her shoulders. I couldn't catch what they said between each other as I stepped away, but the flash of worry across Thor's face had that rotten feeling in my chest returning. I strode over to the ammunition and slotted a few extra cartridges into my pants pockets and checked my guns. I shifted my shoulder, flexing my fingers to ensure there weren't any issues before we headed into the head of the fight. After I made sure everything was set, I joined Steve at the front of the jet.

He gave me a tight smile and clamped a hand on my shoulder. "Be careful out there Buck, we don't know what we'll be going into. Make sure you keep an eye on Max too. Don't let her stab you in the back while were out there."

All I could do was nod as I heard her subtle steps approach behind me. Her voice trickled out from behind her mask in a sickly-sweet tone that had a shiver spidering down my spine. "Luckily for you, the only people I plan on stabbing in the back today is Hydra. Maybe next time, Captain." She accented his title in heavy Russian that seemed to become more prominent on missions like this.

I turned my head just enough to view her over my shoulder as my friend turned to face her with a deep frown marking his features. In her new suit, red as blood, and that mask... She looked like the devil.

"Alright team, remember the plans and stick to your parts. We can't get the scepter without cooperation so we can fight later. Focus on the mission." Tony's suit folded itself over him as he spoke and clamped over his head as he finished his sentence.

The hanger opened and Max shot out into the tall grass, hunkering low and disappearing out of sight. I shoved myself out of the hanger and dove into the brush after her, doing my best to follow the trail of downed grass as I went. Surprisingly, her red suit was almost impossible to see against the tall shrubbery. Her form was simply too low to the ground for anyone to catch the obnoxious color.

I nearly toppled over her as I stumbled to a halt behind her in the brush. I peered over her shoulder to scan the area around us, carefully placing a foot or so between us. The silver teeth of her mask glinted in the afternoon sun, and she tucked her head lower to keep it from drawing attention.

Her face turned to me, and my stomach hollowed at the black eyes of her mask, flashes of the past threatening to take me far into my mind before she shoved my shoulder harshly. "Keep a level head. Rogers and the others are taking out the scouts and then we'll move in." I couldn't help but catch the way she practically spit his name. I could imagine clear as day the angry curl of her lip at the mention of my friend.

I shook my head to clear away the fog and focused on the shadowed figures of our team moving in on the guards against the fence line. The Hydra we had targeted set up a camp, obviously to move as easily as they could without drawing too many eyes. They were simple tents and the smoke from a few fires went up in dark tendrils into the sky. Quite a few soldiers roamed the area, but fortunately for us none of them seemed to be carrying more than a handgun or the few semi-automatics.

I watched as the guards on watch began to drop like flies, the distinct sound of Steve's shield flying through the air carried on the wind. It was nearly as imperceptible as Natasha's choke wire.

As soon as the last body dropped to the ground Max was moving, staying as low to the ground as she could. I followed her once more, easing into the gap the others had provided. It was a limited window to breach while the rest of the watch hadn't noticed their fallen comrades. Max eased around the tents, easily weaving her way through the narrow trails between them while I struggled to keep my shoulders from brushing against the sides.

Brown hair peaked over one of the tents in front of Max and her body stilled, rising ever so slowly as he rounded the corner and came face to face with her. He barely had time to open his mouth before her hands were gripping his head and twisting. The snap of his neck echoed in my ears as she eased his body to the ground and maneuvered it to appear as if he had just fallen asleep. "We can't let them know we've entered the camp. Keep your attacks as quiet as you can and limit the blood."

I kept my voice as low as I could. "We need to locate the scepter."

She shrugged, peering around another tent before heading deeper into the camp. "Feel free to take off and look for it on your own."

"We have to stay together." I followed after her, shooting a glance backwards to ensure we hadn't been noticed.

Max's voice was anything but kind as she replied, "We don't have to stay together, the mission is to find the scepter."

"As a team."

Her head snapped towards me, and her tone was biting and venomous, "And how well did that work out for us last time? As far as I'm concerned, I'm better off without you."

Her words stung, and I couldn't do much more than grit my teeth as she turned away and stalked onward. Thunder cracked above us, and the clouds began roiling in the sky. Thor must have sensed airborne enemies.

I didn't follow her. If she wanted to be alone, fine, she could be alone. I turned towards the opposite direction and began to make my way through the other side of the camp. I checked each tent, waiting outside and listening in on who was inside. If I didn't hear anyone, I ducked my head in and scanned the area for any signs of a Commander's tent. Something as precious to Hydra as the scepter wouldn't be kept very far from someone important and trusted.

I had made it around most of the eastern side of the encampment, and still there was no sign of a Commander or general. In fact, the whole camp was scarce, save for a few agents here and there. There didn't seem to be any distinct tent for the higher ups, which unsettled me greatly.

A hand on my shoulder had me reeling back my left arm to strike, only to land the punch against thin air and receive a foot to the ass. I stumbled a few steps before I whipped around with a curse. Max merely looked around for anyone close by before removing her mask. Worry swam on her features as she squatted against the side of one of the tents.

Her knuckles were white against the knife gripped in her hand. "Comms are down. We're in here blind."

I pressed my fingers to my ear to confirm her words and the crackle of static trickled into my ears. I cursed, "The others should be holding their positions. It shouldn't be that hard to find the scepter and get out of here. There aren't many guards-"

"That's the thing," she swiveled her blade around her finger, one of her nervous habits. "Why wouldn't you guard something with all the men you could spare?"

Her words sank like a rock in my head. "It isn't here, is it?"

Cold eyes met my own, glinting in that predatory way. "No, and we crawled right into their trap."

Tags<3

@imdoingathingmom / @cjand10 / @calwitch / @blackbirdwitch22 / @hzdhrtss

[imawreck]

Lightsabers

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character, Platonic!Thor x Original Character

Summary: Max returns from a brutal mission and spends the day recovering with her favorite Avengers.

Warnings: Mild starvation, injuries

Word Count: 4,393

Bucky-

The tower had gone quiet ever since Max and I had returned from that mission. I mean silence in the sense that there were less team meetings, less social gatherings, and no joint training sessions. The air was practically electric whenever she was mentioned, like they all thought either of us would snap at the drop of a hat. I hadn't seen her since the training match. I had been angry about everything, and I didn't mean to take it out on her. She was just there. I had so many mixed emotions about that night, mainly betrayal. I was bitter and apparently that made me violent. 

We had been avoiding each other, that much was obvious. So, it caught me off guard when she had stumbled away from my door this morning after seeing Natasha and I. Natasha had come to the floor to find Steve who happened to be elsewhere probably doing paperwork. The two of us had made up after the whole incident but he had gotten significantly busier with mission work and hunting down Hydra leads. When Natasha had come knocking, I knew that she was looking for him, so I had told her he wasn't on the floor. I let her inside because she seemed upset, thought maybe I could help her out in Steve's place since her and I were on decent terms. 

I was very wrong. Natasha was emotional, more than I had ever seen her. She was a great spy, one who ruled over herself well and held her composure perfectly. Most of all, she was angry. The kind of angry that makes people do stupid things.

I had tried to console her some, offering her a seat on the only chair in the room I hadn't wrecked during a bad episode of nightmares, and asking if there was anything I could do to help her. She had gotten up and kissed me then, hard and needing. I had let her, only for a moment, while I processed what was happening. But it was enough for Max to see. I hadn't even heard her approach or realized I hadn't shut the door all the way. I had shoved Natasha away moments later as the guilt oozed into my stomach like lead. 

Max and I were never official, and I felt very betrayed by recent events, but that didn't stop my feelings for her. Nor did it stop the aching feeling every time she entered my line of sight. I was drawn to her no matter what I did, it was cosmic and torturous. I had told Natasha to leave right after picking the neatly stacked clothes off the floor. She had given me a look of disappointment and hurt before she marched herself out the door. I knew she was hurting for some reason, but I couldn't- didn't want to- give her what she wanted.

The next morning, Tony had given me a mission. I was to join Steve in a scout jet to observe a reportedly active Hydra post. It was simple, observe the activity and report back. The two of us set off at dawn and flew several hours into a forest somewhere cold. Hydra always liked the cold.

We flew low enough to peer over the small group of buildings that were far too old and crumbled to be used by any sane man. Steve and I circled several times before landing a good distance away and making our way to the edge of the trees as far as we were willing to go and watched for an hour or so more. 

Steve muttered beside me, "I haven't seen a single person since we got here." A pair of binoculars were secured against his face as he scanned the area for the fiftieth time. 

I shook my head, "Me neither, the place is dead." There weren't even any tracks in the dirt to tell of recent visitors.

"We should head back soon and write our reports, I haven't had a decent sleep in a few days." He pulled his binoculars down, "How have you been?"

I had been dreading the question, not sure of the answer myself. "I've been better. The nightmares are back, but I'm doing alright." That was a lie, the truth was painted in purple under my eyes.

Steve only nodded as he studied my face, "Do you miss her?"

I frowned, hating the ache that followed his question. In truth, I did miss her. She was kind to me, understood me. But she had lied and hurt. Killed. I couldn't miss her. "No."

He didn't believe me, I knew it, but he allowed it to slide. "Let's pack up and head back to the tower."

He moved to put away his binoculars in the duffle bag besides us and I followed his motions as my mind wandered. We were both silent on the flight back, focusing instead on the surroundings just in case we missed any telltale signs of life. I took the controls and offered Steve an opportunity for a nap that he was in desperate need for. After that I was left alone, vulnerable to my mind once more.

I thought about the way Max had looked when I had seen her the other day, how pained her face looked seeing me kissing another girl. It was wrong, it felt wrong, for it to be anyone other than her. Her face haunted me in my dreams, cried for me in my nightmares, and followed me in my memories. I couldn't escape her no matter what I did. 

But I couldn't forget what she had done. Max had killed innocent people, massacred them without a second thought when she had a choice not to. That, I couldn't forgive.

The tower came into sight on the horizon, the shimmering glass windows catching the rays of the pink sun as it sank beneath the earth. I gripped the steering wheel and descended to the landing mat as smoothly as I could. My legs ached as I rose from the seat and woke Steve who groaned at his stiff muscles too. We waited as the hatch fell open, easing our tired bodies down the ramp and onto the concrete. 

A hum sounded in the distance and the two of us turned, watching as the jet-black body of a solo jet descended from the cloud cover. It landed next to ours, hitting us with the strong winds off the propellors. The engine cut and the noise crackled to a stop. Bullet holes littered both sides of the jet and the paint cracked to reveal the steel frame. It was a wonder that it made it back in one piece. The back hatch practically fell to the floor with a clang, opening the inside of the jet and allowing whoever was inside to stumble out onto the landing deck.

Blood covered them from head to toe, not an inch of them was free of red stains. Their hair clung to their forehead in sticky strands of crimson and their hand gripped their side where blood oozed from between their fingers. I couldn't make out their face, the red smears hiding their features from me. Steve and I could only watch as they began peeling the top of their suit down, examining the damage on their side before pressing their palm back to it. It was a woman, that much was obvious from the sports bra clinging to her frame. 

Someone called to her from across the room and her name echoed in my head and sank to my gut like a dead weight.

"Max!" It was Thor in all his godly glory, trucking his way towards her.

Suddenly she became a little clearer, her scars catching the light of the sun as she turned towards the god. The way she held herself was different, defensive. She looked every bit as wild as she did the first day we met. Maybe a little more.

Thor had made it to her now, slinging his arm around her unharmed side and holding her weight up against him. "What happened?"

She shrugged with a wince, "Some prick agent decided to shoot a shotgun at close range."

"Why aren't you healing?" The panic in his voice was familiar to me.

She simply shook her head and gripped her side even harder, "Just don't have the energy to right now. Do me a favor and get me to the med wing, I don't know how much longer I can hold this together."

Thor rushed her away then, leaving Steve and I dumbstruck on the landing bay. I couldn't get the image of his hand around her waist out of my head, or the way she looked at him. Like she cared about him.

A hand on my shoulder had me turning my head. "Hey, you alright Buck?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm good." 

Steve looked at me for a long moment. "You told me yourself she was bad news. She killed a whole town. She shouldn't even be here. I don't know why we haven't handed her over to the government yet."

I juggled Steve's words around my mind, picturing Max in a prison cell somewhere isolated. I don't think there was a place on this earth that could keep her contained, not if she wanted something. She was too strong, too smart to be contained so easily by some measly metal bars and insufficiently trained guards. No, she wouldn't be able to be kept in a cell. Not even Hydra could keep her caged without freezing the blood in her veins and stopping her heart. "They wouldn't be able to hold her without killing her."

Steve shrugged, "You're probably right."

There was an underlying meaning to his words that had my eyes snapping to his face as he studied the door where Max and Thor had disappeared behind. "You can't want her dead, she's bad and messed up, but she doesn't deserve to die because of it. It isn't her fault."

Steve turned to me and pursed his lips, "You still defend her even after what she's done."

I frowned, tugging my brows together and staring him down. I didn't have anything else to say on the topic, so I sighed, turning away from him, "I have training to do. You can come with me or not."

I left him with that as I trailed my way to the training room.

_____

Max-

Thor's arm remained wrapped around my shoulders to lift most of my weight as he hurried the both of us into the med bay, practically lifting me onto the table all on his own. The medical team immediately got to work peeling away my uniform to get a better view of all my injuries. I knew it was bad, especially my side. My concern increased the moment I realized how sluggishly my healing abilities were working, a clear sign of my lack of energy. I knew I had been skipping a couple of meals here and there because of my fleeting appetite and stress of recent weeks, but I hadn't realized just how much I was abusing my body. How weak I had truly gotten.

"Max," Thor's voice pulled my attention towards were he stood at the edge of the table, his hand gripping mine. "Tell me what happened on the mission."

A nurse shuffled between us as she worked on sticking and IV in my arm while the rest of them bustled around my body to tend to the small lacerations littering my skin. I groaned as one of them applied alcohol to the wound on my side, shooting pains outwards from the wound. "I was ambushed on the mission and things went to shit from there. I decided that it was going to be harder to get out of there than it would be to take it out, so I did just that. It was easy after I broke into their ammunition. Like baiting flies, just kept coming in." I winced once more as the nurse on the IV decided to slather some ointment over my side. The numbness that followed was greatly appreciated though.

Thor's rough hand squeezed mine as he watched the nurse's work. "How many meals have you missed to make healing this slow?"

Ah, the golden question. I gave a forced smile, "A few."

I watched the god's face fall, "Max."

"I know, I know." Another wince as finally, finally, the IV kicked in and I leaned my head to the side just enough to watch the hole in my side begin to close. "I will eat as soon as I'm out of here."

He didn't say anything else as he stood there watching the nurses work and holding onto my hand. I was honestly grateful for his presence. I was terrified when the shot had gone off, drowned in the sudden noise and pain. It was all I could do to take the agent down and drag my half alive corpse back to the jet. I had put just enough pressure on it to hold myself together to make the trip back and the last of my energy to exit the hangar of the jet. Seeing him there, rushing to my aid, was a relief I didn't know I needed.

I found his eyes again, a genuine smile forming on my lips as I did my best to squeeze his hand. "Thanks for being here."

He nodded, smiling only for a moment before he echoed the same reply, he had a few nights before. "Of course." 

It took around an hour and a half for my healing to have gotten to a manageable level, the gash in my side was healed for the most part and only a scab remained while the rest of my wounds would heal in a day or so. They had fed me while I was lying on the table, as well as dripped the IV of whatever was in it into me which seemed to help too. I had walked out of the med bay all on my own with Thor right behind me. 

The God of Thunder spoke up, "I think you should use the rest of today to rest and regain your energy."

I nodded, "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll read or something to keep from walking around too much, maybe watch a movie all these young people are talking about." I cringed, "That whole sentence made me sound old."

Thor let out a howl of laughter behind me, easily matching my stride and bumping his shoulder with mine. "Mind if I join you? I have a few hours before I have to go to a meeting with Tony."

 I nodded eagerly, "I would love that. You and I can be equally as confused together." I joined in with his laughter this time, "It'll cost you though, Thunder Boy. I want half a package of those wonderful strawberry pop tarts you stash from the team."

He gaped at me, "How did you know about those?"

I gave him a wink as we both slipped into the elevator. "Well, it's hard not to notice all the crunching and shuffling at 3 A.M. when everyone is asleep. I saw you put them on the top shelf of the cupboard above the fridge."

The blonde groaned, shaking his head. "I suppose I could spare one for such a lovely lady."

I felt the creeping blush on my neck as I shoved him out of the elevator and onto the main floor. The main living space had the largest TV and almost all of the team would be busy today, so I had deemed it safe to traverse the level. I had watched Tony work the TV before, so I simply copied his actions from memory and had us flicking through his demand options in no time.

Thor seated himself in the middle of the couch, selfishly taking up most of the space with a wide grin. He had snagged his box of pop tarts from their hiding place and began tearing open a package as I dimmed the lights. We had yet to choose a movie when the door of the elevator chimed and called our attention.

Brown hair and wide chocolate eyes met us with matching surprise before a smile broke across his face, "Hey guys! I didn't think anyone would be in the tower today. It's nice to see you guys again! I heard you got really hurt today Max, are you alright?"

Peter sped up his approach and slung his bag onto the chair to our left and hopped over the couch to stand in front of us both. I returned his smile and lifted my shirt to show off my battle wound, "Shotgun at close range. I'm on the mend though, so no worries."

His wide eyes nearly fell out of his head as he blinked at me, "That's insane! How did you live through that?"

I shrugged, "I really lucked out honestly."

Thor cleared his throat from his seat on the couch, brushing crumbs from his shirt. "Max is very strong. She took it like a true warrior and got herself home. It was fortunate that she can heal so well though, it would be a devastation to the team if we were to lose her."

I felt a lick of guilt at his words but shook it off to turn back to Peter. "We were just about to choose a movie for us to enjoy, know any good ones?"

Peter practically beamed, "I have the perfect one."

_____

"You don't have to do this, Max." Thor's voice quaked in fear as he stood between Peter and I in the living area, hands outstretched in a calming manner. "There is a better choice."

I shook my head, leveling my gaze on Peter just across the rug, fingers splayed at my side and ready to pounce. "There is no other way, only the Dark side. Join me, Peter, and we can conquer together." I grinned as I finished my statement, outstretching my palm to the teen and flashing my teeth.

Peter's face was filled with grief, but he stood tall. "No, but it isn't too late for you to change."

I simply shook my head, allowing my hair to fall over my eyes as I laughed bitterly. "Then you will die."

The two of us sprang into action, sliding our hands over the waistbands of our pants and slinging out the plastic devices I had been entranced with for the past six hours of our movie session. The bright red beam of plastic glided out of the hilt as I pressed the red button against the black handle, the 'bzzshoom' of both our sabers echoed in the room. 

And the battle began.

Plastic clashed against plastic as the two of us let out a battle cry, taking to the floor and slinging out our palms. Peter flung himself backwards on the chair and parried my attack, shoving the air with his hand as I myself fell back onto the floor with a thud.

"You will never win, Peter!" I scurried to my feet, holding my lightsaber out in front of me threateningly. I made sure to waver in my step to play the part of the falling villain. 

Peter couldn't help but release a laugh as Thor slapped his hands on his cheeks and gaped at us in fake horror. I snorted, dropping my saber to double over in laughter. The two boys mirrored my actions, falling against the couch and the chair as they gasped for breath and our laughter filled the room.

Peter had picked the movie for the night-- or rather several movies-- which I could now deem my favorites of all time.

Star Wars.

He had slung to his house on one of our breaks between disks and returned with the mock lightsabers to challenge me in a battle. Thor was all too excited to play Obi Wan, although his acting was not even close to on character. I had decided that Peter was one of my new favorite people of all time while he grinned at me as we all caught our breath. 

Just as we thought it was over, the elevator door chimed, and the lights flickered. All of our heads snapped to the small hallway shrouded in darkness. A clear hissing emanated from the end in soft slow intervals almost like...

A figure appeared at the end of the hall and stood tall, arms out to their side. Suddenly, a blinding red light slid out of his hand and two glowing eyes peered at us. The hissing continued as they finally stepped out of the darkness, and it took everything in me not to fall into another fit of laugher. 

"Peter," the voice of none other than Tony mumbled from behind his Ironman mask, "I am your father."

The common room erupted in shouts of joy as we all cackled at the bed sheet cocooning his head like a cape and his own red saber at his side. The top of the mask slid up to reveal Tony's joyful face as he joined us. 

I don't think I had been this happy in a long, long time. I took the time to admire all of their faces, memorizing the smiles they shared and the light in their eyes. They were my family whether they knew it or not, even Peter had worked his way into my heart. I wanted to burn this moment into my memory for the rest of my life, never to forget the light in this world as I battled all the bad just like those in the ridiculous movies. 

Tony shook his head as the ruckus died down, "You kids need to head to bed soon. It is way past your bedtime." He sent a look to Peter specifically and I snickered only to receive a pillow to the face from him.

I pouted, "Rude little bug."

Peter rolled his eyes but we both couldn't help the smiles that followed. "Goodnight you guys, I'll see you later."

"Night, Pete."

"Goodnight, young Peter!"

I gave him a little wave as he slung his bag over his shoulder, "Bye, Parker."

Tony waited until he left to turn to the God of Thunder laid out on the couch. "You missed our meeting." A trimmed brow rose in accusation as the god shrunk away sheepishly.

"I got caught up with young Peter and lovely Max, I am sorry Tony." Thor stood from the couch, "Let's talk now."

Tony nodded towards the elevator but stayed behind as Thor left the room and the elevator chimed behind him. "It's good to see you happy again, Snowflake."

I gave him a soft smile, setting the lightsaber down on the sofa. "I like Peter, he's funny and very smart. Thor keeps me company and makes the tower a little less lonely for me too."

He nodded, still smiling. "I'm glad you're doing better." Tony took a few steps and slung his arms around my shoulders and scrubbed his knuckles into my hair. "You changed your hair and started wearing all these different clothes, I hardly recognized you. Then you went on that mission and came back with a piece of you missing! You better take better care of yourself, kid."

I shoved gently at his arms and laughed, "I will! I'm sorry!" 

He released me with a pat on my shoulder, "Come visit the labs sometime so we can catch up, okay? I miss having someone intellectual to talk to."

I simply shook my head as he swaggered towards the elevator, "Whatever you say, Tony. I'll make time for a visit soon."

"Good," he tilted his head over his shoulder, "I'll see you soon then."

I felt light, elated with the events of the day even after the mission. Today had been a grand day.

I shut the TV off and returned the remote where I had found it, removing the movie and humming as I moved around the room to clean up the mess we had made. I collected Thor's pop tart wrappers and set the lightsaber Peter had left on the table for him to find the next time he was here and headed towards the kitchen to throw out the trash. Still humming, I dumped the wrappers in the trash and turned back around with the intent to leave only to halt as the distinct outline of a certain soldier stood in the middle of the living room with his eyes locked on my own.

Just like that, my happiness was sucked out of my lungs. 

The two of us just stared at each other for a while, taking in each other's appearance. He was in a white T-shirt and sweats, disheveled hair and wide blue eyes.

I didn't look much better as I stood stock still in my cropped tank top and leggings, mouth agape. I hadn't even heard the elevator. 

He seemed to break whatever trance held us both with a loud swallow, averting his eyes to the ground and scratching the back of his head with his metal arm. I curled my fingers only to release them with a slow breath. Neither of us spoke, simply standing there in suffocating silence.

I made a move to leave, stepping widely to the side before shifting myself around him in just a few steps. He didn't move as I shuffled past, only shivered as the air brushed his arm. I had nearly made it to the elevator door before his voice caught my ears. "Are you alright? From the mission, I mean."

I felt my shoulders tense and the dull ache in my side rear itself in the front of my mind. I let a breath filter through my nose once more to calm the pounding of my heart. "Yeah. Just fine."

I didn't give him another opportunity to talk as I stabbed the up button on the elevator with my fingernail. I stepped through the steel doors and let the metal box carry me back to the safety of my room before I allowed the nerves to shake my body and my breath to rattle unevenly in my lungs.

Tags<3

@hzdhrtss / @calwitch / @blackbirdwitch22 / @cjand10 / @imdoingathingmom

[imawreck]

Hi, I’ve been going through some serious ✨depression✨ recently. I was wondering if you would write a Bucky Barnes x reader. Maybe somthing like Bucky comforting reader about sh/depression. You can fill in the gaps however you’d like. I understand if you don’t feel comfortable writing this, it’s a touchy topic.

Have a great day ✨

Hi! I am thrilled you've reached out! I normally wouldn't write about this topic (mostly because I don't want to trigger my precious readers or cause any unnecessary spirals) but because you're my first ask and you were so kind with your request, I'll give it a shot! It will be a little while before it comes out, but I'll link it in the Masterlist when it's complete! Again, thank you so much for reaching out <3 I really hope that you're doing well. Keep your head up!

All the love,

Ayden

[imawreck]

Changes

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: Banner's experiment lands him with a death on his hands and a heavy heart, meanwhile Max deals with the heartbreak the only way she knows how to.

Warnings: Multiple POVs, mild descriptions of gore, angsty self loathing (again, sorry)

Word Count: 5,010

Tony-

I had known from the moment Max radioed in that something had happened between her and Tin man. The way she spoke told me everything. She had marched herself to her room the second she had a chance to bolt from the Quinnjet. I hadn't asked around, hadn't needed to. I knew she wouldn't have told anyone. The only people who would know what went down on that mission would be her and Sergeant Barnes. That was just how she worked.

I was a little hurt that she hadn't come to talk to me, we had developed quite the friendship while she stuck with us. Max was brilliant and funny, a wiz with technology and had a unique perspective on things. I loved talking with her about my suits or additional modifications that could be made to the other uniforms. Her ideas seemed to be endless. She was also kind and had a heart of gold. It was amazing how she had come out of her life with the amount of hope that she had.

That hope wasn't there when she had come back from that mission, and I wanted to know why.

The wrench slipped from my hand, and I scooped it off the floor with a curse, dropping it on the cart besides me as I studied the section of metal spread out on the table before me. I could sure use her help right about now. Unfortunately, I had caved and given her a simple mission that would take her a day or so to complete before she would return to the tower, so no Max to call to for genius ideas. I sighed, feeling the stress begin to add on my shoulders.

I wanted Max to be happy, wanted her to enjoy being with the team. Rogers would always be a problem with his moral high ground and all that, but I didn't understand what poor-little-kicked-puppy-Barnes could have possibly said to her to make her shut down the way she had. He seemed so smitten with her, I just couldn't wrap my head around such a change.

For the time being I would just have to sit it out and rely on Friday to catch things that I couldn't and hope that maybe Max would tell me herself.

______

Natasha-

I stepped out of the elevator and headed towards the glass walls to peer through the labs. I was a little nervous despite seeing Bruce all the time. I couldn't help it really. He was just different, and it made me feel good, happy even.

A scream tore me from my thoughts as a woman collapsed in the lab on the other side of the glass. I picked up the pace, slipping through the doors and taking in the scene before me.

The woman, a lab tech judging by the lab coat and gloves, laid across the floor convulsing with a wild look in her eyes. There was a scrape on her arm and blood staining her white sleeve. The wound looked like it was festering and slowly spreading outwards. Almost like it was... Decaying.

Bruce was crouched on the floor besides her, hands pulled into his chest. He looked terrified. His skin was pale, sickly so and sweating on every inch I could see. His sleeves were pulled up to expose his arms. They were a light shade of green and dry, flaking off onto the floor if any part of the fabric disturbed it. Where this skin had peeled off looked scaly, like a snakeskin.

I was too confused to make sense of the whole thing while medics came in and rushed the woman out of the lab. I just stood there looking at him, at the alienated skin on his arm. "Bruce?"

He didn't answer me. His brown eyes simply bored into the floor tiles where the woman had laid and trembled.

"Bruce, what..." I reached out for him only to flinch back as he yelled out at me.

"Don't touch me!" Bruce's eyes were wild as he fell back in an attempt to put distance between us.

I stopped, standing there while the rest of the lab techs scurried out the door in a hurry to get as far away from him as possible. I watched them leave before I tried talking with him again. "What happened?" It was taking all of my strength to keep myself from spiraling.

For a moment he just sat there, his eyes searching my face but not seeing me. I could tell in the vacant way he gazed over me. When he spoke his voice was hushed, ashamed. "I tried to fix it."

I frowned, "Tried to fix what, Bruce?"

"I tried to get rid of him. The Hulk. But it didn't work."

My mouth went dry, "What do you mean 'tried to get rid of him?'"

He swallowed hard before he continued, "I was studying Max's healing. I thought that maybe if I could isolate it, maybe it would revert the cells into their original form. Normal. It didn't work though... I nearly killed her. I didn't even mean to! I- I just slipped and my nail caught her arm an- and she went down, and it just started killing her!" Bruce began to cry then, horrible, awful sobs bursting out of him. "I didn't mean to."

"Mr. Banner?" Friday's kind voice echoed through the lab, "Mr. Stark has been notified of the events and has requested that you be isolated for the time being. He has set up a team to find a cure. Do you have a sample of the serum you created?"

Bruce seemed to think for a long moment, anguish on his face. "Yes... Yes, it's in the top drawer of my lab table."

"We will have someone collect it for research and then dispose of it after a cure is made. Please make your way down to the cells and refrain from touching anything. We will get you taken care of, Mr. Banner."

I shook my head after the room went quiet again, "Why did you do it?" It just didn't make any sense. I thought he had come to terms with it, maybe even accepted the alter ego living within him. He didn't ever seem like he hadn't.

"I cause more harm than anything. I am destructive and violent, uncontrollable. All I do is hurt people, Natasha. I wanted to be normal. It just isn't in the cards for me." He sounded so defeated and resigned. "If they find a way to fix what I've done, I won't be staying at the tower anymore. I'm quitting the team."

"No, Bruce you can't be serious!"

Bruce shook his head, his hair falling in messy curls over his forehead as he pushed himself off the floor. He kept his distance from me as he circled around to make it towards the door. "I don't think you should visit me anymore."

And then he left, letting the door shut gently behind him and leaving me in the empty lab to stare at the floor much like he had. I felt my heart break at his words and at the silence it left me with. I couldn't stand the way he viewed himself and the way he went about things. I never thought he would go this far though, and I had been horribly wrong.

A bitterness welled in me, and I scoffed, marching out the door and back to the elevator. I let it carry me up to my rooms, vacant of Max and anyone else who would bother me. Screw him. If he wants to leave, let him. I have better things to do anyways.

_____

Max-

Metal groaned as the hatch of the Quinnjet settled against the Tower's landing pad. I had been recalled back not six hours into my mission, not even given the chance to begin it before Friday had announced that there was an emergency at the tower, and I was to return immediately. My gear still clung to me as I marched through the tower heading straight to the meeting room.

Tony waited there, sat in the chair furthest from the door. It was only him which was my first clue that whatever it was that had happened here was something regarding the team. "Spill it, I have a mission to get back to."

Tony frowned, his lips thinning into a line. "Sit down."

I stared at him a moment longer before I followed his command, sliding into the cold metal chair parallel to him.

He began again, "Banner had an incident in the lab. He experimented an untested serum on himself and tampered his genetic makeup."

I stared at him in confusion and a little bit of annoyance, "What? Why was I called back for this? That's terrible news, really, I hope he's alright, but-"

"It was your DNA he used to experiment on. I called you back here to ask you for your personal file. We don't have it, and something tells me that you might know where we can find it." He paused to let me soak in his words, "I can promise we will return it with everything as it was. The team I have put together to fix whatever he's done needs it. They have to know how to reverse the effects."

I felt white hot, "Where is he?"

Tony seemed to contemplate whether it was a good idea to give me that information but sighed with a hand pressing to his temples. "He's in the cells. We have to keep him isolated, nearly killed a woman on accident from a scrape. She was rushed to the emergency room, but they don't know how to help her."

I shook my head, pushing off the table, "She won't live."

Tony got to his feet, "What do you mean?"

"I mean she won't live. No one ever does." I held his eyes for a long, long time. "The DNA he meddled with is poisonous, that's the only thing I know about it. When I read my own file, I was still young and hardly understood half of it. I haven't looked at it since, I just took it to keep anyone else from doing exactly what Bruce has done." I pushed my fingers through my hair, blowing out a breath to try and ease my anger.

"How do you know that she won't live?" Tony's eyes seemed to cement me in place, demanding for an answer.

I hated telling people about the things I was capable of. The things Hydra had installed into my very being. I possessed these abilities that most considered an abomination, qualities that made me less than human. Even telling Tony, a man I knew wouldn't fault me for what I was, would walk a little further from me if he knew all that I could do. I lowered my eyes to the table between us, staring at my warped reflection.

"I know because everyone I have ever infected has never lived, no matter how advanced the medical treatments were." The look he gave me was filled with confusion, but I just shook my head. "I don't want to talk about it." I took a step back, angling for the door, "I am going to talk to Banner. I'll take the file with me. When your team has finished creating a cure, I want access to the labs. None of my blood samples or anything else can be left."

Tony nodded, "I'm sorry this happened Max, I had no idea he would do what he did."

"Scientists can't be trusted with things they don't understand. It's in their nature to find the answers and they don't always realize that maybe those answers shouldn't be found." I left him to think about what I had said, heading down to the cells using the stairs. Too big of a chance to run into someone I didn't want to see if I took the elevator.

When I took the last steps to the bottom floor I was met with a familiar silence, one that had kept me company while I too stayed on this floor. I could smell the anxiety and sadness leaking through the cracks of the door before me. "Friday, unlock the door."

Her voice trilled kindly, "I am sorry, but Doctor Banner is in isolation."

"I am immune, let me inside." There was a small delay before her voice echoed against the marble once more.

"Mr. Stark has given you clearance for this floor."

I shoved open the door, not caring as it slammed shut behind me. My boots clicked harshly against the white tiles as I surveyed the cell in front of me. It was much like my own in the fact that it was mostly made of glass. I was sure it was some sort of reinforced byproduct, but I could clearly see Dr. Banner's sickly green skin from where I stood. His eyes had snapped towards the door the second it slammed shut, jolting him where he sat.

I didn't slow in my steps as I walked right up to the glass, "You used my DNA."

Banner's brows pinched in sorrow as his eyes dropped down to the cell floor, "Yes."

Even though I knew before, hearing him confess it multiplied the anger brewing inside of me. "I trusted you."

His brown hair fell over his brows as he shook his head in shame. "I know, I'm sorry. I just wanted to fix me, to find a way to use your healing capabilities for something good."

"That wasn't your choice. I've worked too hard to hide myself from people like you for this reason alone, and now look what you've done. That woman, the one you scratched? She will be dead by the end of tomorrow. There is nothing that will stop the venom in her veins." I was seething with anger and sorrow from the events of the recent month, couldn't stop it from bubbling out at the Doctor. "You will have to live with her death on your hands forever."

Silence.

Banner sat there with his wide eyes staring blankly at the floor, his mind long gone from where he sat hunched over with his pale limbs curled against his chest. I just stood there, letting him soak in what I had said to him, the true consequences of what he had done laid out before him. An innocent woman would die, and he had the possibility of remaining like this forever. Now he knew, and my word had been said.

"Your studies regarding my genetic makeup will be destroyed this afternoon. Nothing will remain. If you tell a soul what you've done, I will find you, Banner."

I turned, leaving his crumpled body seated in his cell and returned to the upper levels of the tower to destroy the lab. When I finally cleared the last flight of stairs, few were remaining in Banner's personal lab. A few lab techs scurried around collecting papers I was sure were the ones used for Banner's little experiment. When I stepped in the room, they all stopped.

I took a moment to take in their faces, seeing their varying expressions of fear and concern. "Once the antidote is made, every single scrap of paper used to resolve this event will be given directly to me. No one touches the computers until I have given you the command. Does everyone understand?"

A wave of heads bobbing was the only response I got before they resumed scurrying around and leaning over microscopes. I took a seat at the edge of the room and watched as they all worked, waiting until the moment I could set it all ablaze.

_____

A cure was created 26 hours after Banner's mishap.

I had remained in the lab the entirety of the time, only leaving to retrieve a small lunch or use the bathroom. Tony got the phone call from the medical team at exactly 8:36 P.M. that evening. Like I had wished, the team left every paper used for the cure on the lab table in front of me along with Banner's studies. I had Tony produce a drive that would wipe the computers of all files related to two key subject word, 'Snow' and 'Ghost', and all data linked to this ordeal was stripped from the lab. I read over and shredded every last piece of paper and piled it in the middle of the lab table, igniting the remains with a lab torch. I watched as they withered and greyed as the flames devoured them and the knowledge with it.

I could breathe for a moment after the ashes finally settled and the only sound in the room was my own steady breathing. I left the ashes on the marble and returned to my room not long after the job was completed. It was nearly midnight; the past two days having run together with all that had happened. I hadn't slept more than three hours in five days, only letting myself rest when I was truly alone or miles above in the Quinnjet alone with just my thoughts. I was exhausted though, plain and simple. My body ached with every step and my mind was struggling to keep up with my surroundings.

I didn't remember getting into bed, only the feeling of the silk sheets made me realize I had made it. I sank into the mattress with a sigh, letting it envelope me in much needed comfort. It wouldn't be long before I had to throw myself back into something to keep my mind off the gouge in my heart, but sleep would do the job well enough for now. I felt my eyelids close, weighed down until all I could do was let sleep take me away.

_____

The next morning, I woke with a start. My heart hammered in my rib cage as flashes of fallen bodies and walls painted in blood threatened to hold me captive. It wasn't real though, the all too familiar dark walls of the tower bringing me back to my senses. It had been a long time since I had dealt with a nightmare. I figured it must have been the stress. Hauling myself up from the covers was harder than it should have been, too sore for it to be any good. I thought back to the last time I had eaten and realized I couldn't remember at all. I had slept in my gear as well. Not good.

Something soft brushed the sole of my foot as I swung my legs over the side of the bed. The black fabric laid sprawled out on the floor, fallen off the edge sometime in the night.

Bucky's sweater.

A pang shot through my chest at the sight of it. Carefully, like it would somehow harm me, I grabbed it from the floor. It still smelled of him, leather and cologne, so much so I nearly cried. I had been avoiding everything he had lent or gifted to me. The reminder was too painful for me to handle all at once.

I should return them. That would remove the reminder completely and with the way the two of us have been avoiding one another, I will hardly ever see him while working. It would make the pain more manageable.

With a deep breath, I began folding his sweater. I laid the folded item on the mattress and headed over to my dresser next, shuffling through the clothing there and tugging out his things. He had moved more of his clothes into my room over the time we spent together, more nights in my room than his. I stacked them on top of his sweater and stepped over to the nightstand. Inside the top drawer was the copy of the poetry book he had given me, and the flower stuck out of the top. My hat laid next to it, but I hardly turned my eye towards it. With a moment of hesitation, I grabbed both of them and bent over to retrieve my box under the bed and swiftly stuffed them inside as neatly as I could.

Finally, I had it all put together in a pile on the bed. All I had to do now was go up to his room and leave it by the door... Easier said than done.

I gathered the clothes up in my arms and headed towards the door, kicking it open and shutting it with my elbow behind me. The ride up the elevator made my nerves jump and anxiety to leak into my body. I tried hard to ignore it the closer I got to him. When the doors finally opened, I took a shaky step out and headed down the hall. His scent was stronger, strong enough to let me know he was still on his floor. Not good. I quickened my pace, turning to his door and bending down to set the clothes down when another scent hit me. And it hit me hard.

Hairspray and cherries, Natasha's scent, was mingling in the air. It wafted from the open crack of the door, hitting my face in strong waves. That wasn't what stung though. No, what stung was the sickly-sweet hormone hanging in the air with it. My eyes snapped up without my command, taking in the scene playing out before me.

Bucky, with his hair messy and nothing but his sweatpants hanging low on his hips, had his hands set gently on Natasha's arms. Natasha herself was fully clothed on her tiptoes pressing her lips to his. Their eyes were closed, as if they were caught in the moment.

I must have bumped the doorframe in my desperate attempt to leave.

Both of their eyes snapped to the door where I stood, backing away from it as quickly as I could. I schooled my expression and took off down the hall at a quick walk. There was scrambling behind me and hushed voices, but they were drowned out by the ringing in my ears. I watched as the door of the elevator closed just before Bucky bent down to take his clothes from the floor. I tore my eyes away, hating the way they burned at the sight of him.

I stumbled out of the elevator with blurry eyes, b-lining it back to my bedroom where I slammed the door shut. My chest heaved with silent sobs, the tears finally falling against my skin and wetting the front of my suit. I reached down, yanking the buckles off and the zipper down, slipping it off my arms and kicking my boots off so I could tug it off completely. I sat on the cold floor, muffling my sobs with my hand.

I was stupid.

How could I ever think someone like myself would have a place in his heart? He was strong and kind, not nearly as broken. He could be fixed. I would never be normal. I would never be able to walk the street and not be viewed as an animal meant for a cage. If the world knew who I was like it knew him, I wouldn't have a trial or a chance. They would simply cage me and sentence me to death merely for the qualities I possessed.

I was Hydra's creation, born and raised to be cruel and efficient. That's all I would ever be. It was a mistake to get caught up in such a dream where I could be treated as anything more. Never again.

With wet eyes, I picked myself off the floor and paced over to the nightstand again. I pulled the top drawer out, reaching under it and pulling out the knife I kept there. With it tucked in my grip, I walked to the bathroom. The girl in the reflection looked more familiar than the last time. Her red rimmed eyes shimmered under the fluorescent lights and scars wrapped around her frail shoulders. There was pain painted across her face as clear as day as the tears slid from her eyes. Hair fell to her shoulders in stark white strands, falling over her eyes and brushing her cheeks. She looked broken, just the way I felt.

I ran my fingers through my hair, watching as she did the same. I gathered it up at the ends and pulled it away from my head before I jerked the knife down across the suspended strands. She did too, releasing the wad of hair and letting it fall to the floor. I repeated the motions with her, again and again. I quickly fell into old motions, cutting the hair close at the back and feathering it out at the top. I watched as the girl turned from someone I hardly recognized into someone I knew well. Her hair was short, and the pain she felt was littered all over her body in jagged shimmering scars for all to see.

I decided then that I wouldn't hide her anymore.

A knock at the door drew my attention as I placed the knife on the countertop. I grabbed a tank top and a pair of shorts from the dresser and slipped them over myself as I made for the door. I steeled myself, wiping away the remnants of my tears before I opened it.

Blonde hair and worried blue eyes scanned over me as my name left his lips in a breath, "Max." His gaze lingered on the scars out in the open before he met my eyes again. Thor stared at my hair, then my temples where the scars were normally hidden, before back to my eyes. "You didn't come out for breakfast... I got worried. You look beautiful." He finished his sentence with a bright smile that had my previous denouncement of worthiness crumbling to pieces at my feet.

I felt the tears gathering once more before I realized what was happening. "Do you really think so?" I pushed my palm against my eye to suppress the tears.

Thor's face fell at the sight of my sadness, and he stepped a little closer. "Of course, I do! I think you're one of the most beautiful Goddesses I have ever laid eyes on."

I laughed through a sob at his exaggeration as he set a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"What is wrong?"

I tugged him into the room and clicked the door shut behind him before I spoke again. "You know that Bucky and I were... complicated in a romantic sense, right?" I hoped he would understand what I was trying to say without having to go into further detail.

His blue eyes softened, and he nodded. 

I let out a shaky breath, "After the most recent mission I had with him, I did something drastic in order to get us all out alive. Natasha didn't listen to my orders and went off and things got more complicated. Hydra soldiers had us cornered from everywhere, I could hear their reinforcements coming." I clenched my fists anxiously at the memory, "So, I told him to run. I trusted that Natasha would get to the jet with the information. I told her what to do over coms. Bucky thought that I didn't care about her safety, but I did, I swear I did. I trusted her skills.

"We all split up at the beginning and I had a bad feeling about the whole thing so I went from house to house telling everyone I saw to get out of town and tell everyone they knew to get out of the valley as quickly as they could. I evacuated the civilians so they would be safe. The others didn't know, and Bucky... He didn't even give me a chance to explain before he labeled me a monster. So, we haven't spoken. That's why he is so hostile towards me."

I cleared my throat, "Earlier, just a bit ago, I saw him with Natasha. I was returning the things he used to keep here. They were kissing in his room." I grabbed at my arms as if I could shield myself from the image of them together. "I shouldn't be upset by it, we weren't ever anything real, but I gave my heart to him a long time ago. He can't remember, but I do."

Warm arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders and hair tickled the side of my face. I tensed at first, unused to sudden affection, but his grip tightened around me like a safety I hadn't known for a long time. "It's alright to feel the way you do. Love isn't something we choose, it just happens when and with whom at the most surprising times."

His words melted the cold encasing my heart as I forced out a laugh, "Such wise words, you're starting to sound like an old man."

His chest vibrated against my ear as his musical laugh filled the room. He didn't say anything for a long while, just held me tight and swayed with me in my empty room. It was peaceful and soothing in a way I didn't expect. We hadn't talked more than just some of our pasts and fleeting stories to pass the time in the mornings, but I felt that the God of Thunder understood me in a way most couldn't. 

I wrapped my hands around his back sometime during our hug and I mumbled into his shoulder, "Thank you for being here for me."

"Of course, anytime." 

I pulled away and offered him a small smile which he returned with one of his own. "Would you like to have that breakfast now?"

Thor rolled his eyes playfully, "I thought you would never ask. I'm starving."

I punched him in the arm to which he feigned offense and headed out the door to the little living room and kitchen where we both sat and ate breakfast together in the morning light.

Tags<3

@calwitch / @imdoingathingmom / @blackbirdwitch22 /@cjand10

[imawreck]

Fights

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character, Platonic!Thor x Original Character

Summary: Thor becomes Max’s rock during her hardships, and the blooming relationship between the Super Soldiers is crushed by distrust.

Warnings: Blood and betrayal, needles, bad decisions

Word Count: 4,762

Max-

It had been two days since the mission and my body had finally recovered completely. Within those few days I had kept myself busy with training. Of course, I trained in my own rooms to ensure I wouldn't' run into a certain metal-armed assassin. I didn't want to see him, too afraid that the mere sight of him would send my head spiraling. That was the last thing I needed.

On the upside, a certain god had decided that he was going to keep me company as I recovered. Each morning he would be lounging in my floors' small living room with a cup of coffee in his hands. He would smile and wave me over, "Good morning, Lady Max."

I let him do most of the talking, finding myself oddly comforted by his easy and bright personality. He filled most of the silence with extravagant stories of his home and his travels. It was a little confusing at first, but I soon learned all about the realms. It was hard for my mind to make sense of, I came from such an old time, but I knew it had to be true. He had shown me his hammer and the lightning that would travel over his skin without harm. He was simply amazing.

This morning was no different than the others as I made myself walk down the hall and into the kitchen. He sat in his usual spot with his mug of coffee and smiled brightly at me. "Good morning Lady Max, you look lovely this morning."

I let a shy smile tug at my lips, "It's just Max you know, I'm no noble or anything. Just me."

He furrowed a brow, "I beg to differ. You are most definitely a Goddess."

I couldn't help the sound of disbelief that left me as I laughed, "Far from it, actually. How are you this morning?"

His smile grew as a lock of golden hair fell in front of his eyes. "Quite good actually, I have managed to make you laugh. Are you feeling better today perhaps?"

I shrugged, "Maybe a little." I opened the fridge and pulled out the jug of milk stored inside, turning towards the cabinet to pull out the lucky charms and a bowl. "My wounds have healed."

Thor still spoke to me as my back was turned, his voice carrying easily over the sound of my shuffling. "Your healing is quite remarkable. As are your skills, I've heard."

I nodded, "I'm good at what I do. Though, some don't seem to feel the same way." I let my sentence trail off as Bucky's face flashed in the back of my mind. I shook it away, "But you are a god, Thor, surely your troops are just as much a sight as I am."

"You would definitely stand a chance." He laughed, "You might even be able to beat Valkyrie, our best warrior apart from myself, of course."

I raised a brow, returning the milk and cereal to their homes before I padded over to the couch to join him. "Is that an invitation to spar? I'm in the need for a new partner."

Thor's eyes lit up, "I would be honored to spar with you."

I spooned a pile of cereal into my mouth, "You're on then."

I munched on my cereal for a while, taking my time as he sipped his beverage and we both enjoyed the light of the morning. I had gotten to know Thor decently well while he came to keep me company, and in a strange way it comforted me to have him around. He was easy to talk to when I felt like it and never too pushy when I didn't seem to respond most days. He was kind and funny too, always laughing.

When I finished my food I eased off the couch with a huff. "I'll change and meet you down there."

Thor simply nodded and downed the rest of his drink before he brought his hand down hard, pulling back at the last moment and setting the cup down on the glass table with a little pat. "No smashing cups," I heard him mutter before he got up and headed towards the elevator.

I smiled at his odd habits and swiftly left for my room. Today was the first time I had really left the floor. I dreaded running into Bucky or anyone else in all honestly. I didn't feel like answering questions or feel the hot burn of Bucky's judging eyes follow me around. I had ignored it for long enough though and I needed to find a use for myself to take my mind off of everything. Slipping on a simple long sleeve black shirt and some leggings, I made my way over to the door once more and headed towards the training room. The elevator ride down was quiet and just long enough for me to steel my mind just in case I ran into him.

The door chimed and I trudged out, eyes sweeping over the halls and peering through the glass walls separating the rooms. No sign of Bucky. I did see a familiar trimmed profile working in a lab a few rooms away from the training room.

Tony had labs everywhere and seemed to rotate floors with different projects. He always had a place close in case some genius idea came to mind. I watched as he tinkered with something on his latest suit with a look of focus on his face.

I hadn't talked to him either, not since radioing in. I wanted to, really I did, but I had no idea what to say or how to explain anything.

I shook the thoughts from my mind, focusing on the task at hand. I moved through the halls and found myself in the training room in no time, met with the God of Thunder dressed in a fitting t-shirt and a pair of sweats. His blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail at the back of his head and stray hair still framed his face. It was odd, seeing a god look so mundane. Of course I had only met one. I had no idea how they dressed normally.

Thor turned once he noticed I had joined him and threw me a playful smile. "I thought you had forgotten me."

"Have a little faith." I stretched my arms over my head in order to loosen my joints. "I could never pass up a chance to take down a god."

Thor's laugh echoed through the room and I couldn't help but chuckle along with him. It must have caught Tony's attention because a few moments later the glass doors burst open and his giddy form waltzed in. "Hey you two, it feels like I haven't seen you in forever."

Thor frowned, "Stark I saw you just this morning and we talked about M-"

Poor Thor couldn't get his sentence out before Tony was pulling me into a hug and yammering on. "Jeez kid, come around more often."

I awkwardly patted his back before he pulled away, looking over me proudly. "I have someone I want you to meet."

"What?" This whole thing was getting really weird.

"Friday! Have Pete come down here and say hello." The AI answered him swiftly and before I knew it there was another person making their way down the hall.

He was young, I could tell that much. He wore a loose hoodie and a pair of sweats with a backpack slung over his shoulders. I could practically smell the nerves rolling off of him as he pushed open the doors. "Hello, Mr. Stark, Sir."

Tony rolled his eyes, "Ease up Peter, they won't bite."

"Well," I nudged Tony with my shoulder, "I might." I took in his brown hair and matching chocolate eyes, his lithe stature too. I stuck out my hand when he approached. "Max, can't say I've heard much about you which is surprising considering Tony never shuts up."

He hesitantly took it in his own with a small smile, surprising me with his strong grip, "Peter Parker, nice to meet you. Is your hair naturally white?"

I smiled back, "Parker, I've heard that name once or twice, and yes it is."

Peter's eyes seemed to widen a little as they glanced behind my back. "O-oh my gosh I'm sorry, Mr. Thor. I didn't even see you- I mean I did, how could I not? You're, well, you're you." He jutted his hand out again and gave another nervous smile as Thor laughed once more, shaking his hand. "Nice to see you, Sir."

"You as well, young Peter."

Tony clapped his hands together, "Fantastic. Now that you're all acquainted, I'd like for you to teach Peter some skills."

Both the boy's eyes and my own widened as we both spoke at the same time. "What?"

Tony shrugged, "I thought it would be best if he learned from a professional. Plus, I wont be sending you on a mission until I know you are one hundred percent healed and ready to go." He gave me a pointed look, "And Thor told me that you would be training today anyways. Perfect timing, huh?" Tony began to back away with a thumbs up, inching towards the door.

The smile that tugged at his face looked a little too proud and I itched to knock it right off. Of course I couldn't, because a little training wouldn't hurt me and a mission was on the line. If teaching a kid some self defense would get me back on the field I suppose I could do it.

"Fine." I turned to Peter, who looked a little paler than when he came in. I spoke to him as I picked a wrap off the bench and began to wrap my knuckles. "What kind of experience do you have? Any field work?"

Peter's eyes were practically saucers, "I, uh... I've saved the city a few times. I catch burglars and that sort mostly."

I nodded, "So you have some sense of hand to hand. That's good, means we can skip that part." I gripped my hands a few times, testing the wrappings before I turned to Thor who had mimicked my actions. His hands were wrapped neatly and he seemed to be adjusting his hair. "You can take the bench for now and watch Thor and I spar. Make sure to pay attention."

Peter nodded and made his way over to the side of the mats, plopping his bag down and then taking the bench. He watched us with blatant excitement.

I waited for Thor to enter the ring before I raised my fists. "I'm going to walk you through this match Peter," I called behind me, "So listen up." I circled the mat, Thor's eyes on me the whole time as he stayed directly in front of me. He had a sly smile on his face and joy in his eyes. I couldn't help but smile back as I spoke, "Always keep your eyes on your opponent. The second you take them off, you've lost."

I swung my leg outwards, aiming straight for Thor's side. Surprisingly he reacted fast enough to snag my foot with a triumphant smile. I used his firm hold on my calf to pivot my other leg up with just enough force to land a solid kick to the side of the god's head. He released his grip to regain his senses and I used the opportunity to coach Peter a bit more. "Secondly, always look for an opportunity to disable or disorient your opponent. If he has you trapped or pinned, aim for anything that will cause them pain. Pain leads to the instinct to release or retreat."

Thor had gathered himself then, lunging with a punch aimed for my stomach so I sidestepped him easily and watched as he stumbled a few steps. "Use their weight against them if you can and try to use the least amount of energy. You never want to be the one to tire first."

I could hear the heavy steps approaching behind me as Thor barreled towards me. I turned, watching him raise his fists and prepared to counter before his leg swept out and caught my ankle. My back slapped the mat hard and a heavy weight settled over me.

Blonde hair tickled my cheeks and a blinding smile shone on Thor's face, "Does this mean I win?"

I felt his thighs pressed against my own, caging me in. His arms held him up over me, palms spread out on either side of my head. My cheeks burned at the proximity.

"Hardly," I managed to say before I gripped his wrists and slid upwards on the mat, planting my heels on his shoulders and kicking him backwards. I watched his body launch through the air before he skidded to a halt a few feet away. A groan left him as he rolled onto his stomach.

I stood, brushing off my hands and planting them on my hips as I made eye contact with Peter. "Lastly, don't underestimate your opponent. You don't know their skill set or strength. If you can pin them, do it. Don't leave them any leeway."

The brunette nodded eagerly, "That was incredible! You were like BAM, and he was like NOPE, and you were like WHACHA!" His arms flailed animatedly as he spoke, nearly causing him to fall off the bench before he caught himself.

I smiled at him, warming at his bright personality. "So, wanna give it a shot?"

"Absolutely! I can totally do this." He slipped his hoodie off of his head, leaving him in a black t-shirt and his sweats. Peter hopped up onto the mat as Thor made his way behind him muttering something under his breath with a look of awe on his face. Peter didn't seem to pay him any mind as he adjusted the bands on his arms.

I planted my feet, raising my arms. "Don't hold back, show me what you've got."

He nodded surely before he held his arms out loosely. We stared at each other for a moment, trying to gauge each other's move. Suddenly he threw his arm up and flexed his hand, sending a wire of some sort to catch around the ceiling and using it to swing his body towards me. I wasn't fast enough to move, so I threw my arms up to block his kick. My feet slid backwards quite a ways and my arms ached with the impact of his kick. The kid was strong, really strong.

He didn't stop his actions though, slinging more of whatever his bands spit out towards me. I felt the impact of it hitting my chest and spreading outward, pinning me to the wall behind me. I hadn't realized we had gotten that far from the mat. Two more hits had my hands pinned out to the sides of myself all the while Peter remained hanging from his wire attached from the ceiling.

To say I was stunned was an understatement.

I stared at him, taking in the way he gracefully swung from the wire to the floor, but it wasn't a wire at all. I turned to look at my hands. The substance that clung to my hand looked a lot like... a web? I frowned, squinting in confusion. "Are these spiderwebs?"

"Yeah! I make them myself- well in a lab not like in me." His face went red at his statement but I wasn't focused on him, too busy admiring the strength of such delicately made webs.

"These are amazing Peter, like, really cool. You must be incredibly smart."

Peter shrugged, a shy grin on his face. "I'm almost top of my class."

I nodded, not doubting him one bit. "Guess I broke my own rule. I greatly underestimated you." I tried to yank my hand free, hearing the webs stretch and refuse to break against my strength. "These things are seriously strong too!"

"Oh, yeah you can't break out of them. I'll have to grab the dissolver from my bag."

"Don't worry about it." I reached a clawed finger through the gaps in the webbing, cutting through easily and escaping the confines of the web. I did the same for the one on my torso and other hand, freeing myself and tugging off the remnants from my clothes, "I got it."

Peter gawked at me, his eyes glued to my hands. "You have claws? Those totally weren't there a few minutes ago, I swear it. Did you just grow them? How? That's like, not humanly possible!"

"No, not normally." I gave him a grimace, "I'm not exactly one-hundred percent human, there's some animal DNA thrown in the mix. I'm not sure what exactly, you'd have to talk to Banner and see if he knows, but I do know there's some sort of big cat in there." I let the claws fall to the floor, ridding myself of them before I snagged them off the floor and walked over to toss them in the nearest trash can.

"You are the coolest person I've ever met besides Mr. Stark. Sorry, Mr. Thor." Peter looked like he had just struck gold.

Thor laughed from his place at the bench, "I am not offended, young Peter. Max is surely every bit as extravagant as you describe her."

I scoffed, "Ease off the flattery you two. I'm just like everyone else."

Just then, the glass door's swung open and Tony made his second appearance for the day. "I have to say, that was great work Peter. I'm really impressed that you bested Max here. I've seen her take out the whole team without breaking a sweat." Peter practically grew three inches at Tony's compliment, but then Tony turned to me. "You though, were holding back on both of them. I want to know how that arm is doing and I need you to really work it to prove to me it isn't causing you any discomfort."

I sighed, "Tony my arm is fine-"

He waved his hand, cutting me off, "I want you to spar with Barnes. Cap is busy with a report for me. I've already called for him to come down and spar with you so you can't tell me no."

My stomach dropped, "Tony, that really isn't necessary."

I prayed he heard the desperation in my voice, but he turned away, motioning for Peter to follow him. "Do you want to go on missions or not?" Tony's pointed look suggested it wasn't negotiable. "Come on Pete, we can watch this one from the security cams while you help me in the labs. I've got some interesting things to show you."

Peter shrugged his hoodie back over his shoulders and slung his bag over his arm, waving to Thor and I as he trailed after Tony. "It was nice to meet you, Max! I hope I see you again, and it was nice to see you, Mr. Thor."

Thor gave him a hearty laugh and a wave goodbye with it, unwrapping his hands and stretching his back with a groan. "You are quite the opponent Max, though I am humbled by my defeat. Tony spoke of your talent highly and I see now he was not exaggerating."

I chuckled, relaxing my shoulders and massaging the now healed wound. It was indeed healed, but phantom pains continued to haunt me. "Thanks, you surprised me too. Not many have the skill to catch me off guard."

A blinding smile crept onto the god's face, and he shook his head. "We should keep a running list then. See who can best the other more."

I huffed, delighted by his playful challenge. "You're on."

There was only a moment to breathe in the small bit of happiness before the elevator chimed down the hall and tore me back to the reality in which I found myself in.

Light footfalls, one just barely louder than the other, the telltale sign of the Super Soldier I had been avoiding the last few days was making his way to the training room. The scent of leather and metal tickled my nose, and I fought the urge to flinch away from it. The moment of dread must have managed to claw its way to my face as I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder drawing my senses back to the room.

Thor's face was one of sympathy as he spoke to me in a soft voice. "I'll see you around Max, tomorrow morning same as always."

I didn't know how he figured it out, but Thor had managed to see what so many in the tower had failed to. Somehow, he knew the source of my agony. Yet there was never judgment or pity in his eyes. Only kindness, and I was grateful for it.

Thor released me as he made his way to the door right as Bucky's looming form entered the room. I watched as they exchanged a glance, tense and steady, before Thor simply continued his trek to the elevator.

I didn't speak, busying myself with adjusting my wraps and re-tying my hair in a poor attempt at a topknot. Bucky didn't talk either which filled the room with a suffocating kind of quiet. There was only the shuffling of our clothes or the sharp sound of Velcro.

I took a breath, steadying myself for whatever would happen. It was just a spar, something that had to be done before I could throw myself into something dangers, something distracting. Anything to get me away from here.

"You've adjusted your wraps six times in the last five minutes."

His voice rattled me, sending a quake through my bones. I covered it as best I could, though I'm sure the cold eyes that stared at me when I turned had caught it regardless. "If you don't wrap your hands right, it could affect the fight." It was a shabby excuse, but he didn't point it out.

Instead, he stood in the center of the mat with his arms at his sides waiting for me. He wore all black like me, a black t-shirt and a pair of joggers to match. Neither of us wore shoes, though I was barefoot unlike him. Preferring the sureness of the ground beneath me. Bucky's expression was guarded and blank, like the soldier I had seen long ago. So similar to it that I felt the blackness surge its ugly head inside of me to swallow up my sudden sorrow. I stood though, tall and confident despite the hurricane brewing in me. I would succeed, no matter what.

With steady steps, I found myself on the mat. I felt my arms raise, maneuvered my feet to hold my ground, and then it began.

I felt his metal fist collide with my side in an instant, a bone crushing force I couldn't dodge. My mind was too muddled with emotions, too vulnerable in his presence to focus on blocking. He swung hard with his right next, slamming it against my stomach in one harsh blow. I could feel the fracture in my ribs and the bruising already forming on my stomach. I tried my best to control my breathing, to expand my crushed diaphragm. Bucky hardly gave me enough time to recover before he was after me again.

I forced my body to move, barely escaping a kick aimed for my cracked ribs. Exactly where he had hit before.

He was aiming for vulnerabilities. He knew how hard he had punched me, and still he rushed to attack my side. I took in his face, the stony façade he had put up in my presence. But his eyes showed me, they always have. There was rage crashing in his stormy eyes. Gone was the Bucky I had laughed with and slept in the gentle comfort of a shared bed. Gone was the man who had gotten up to make me breakfast and taken me out on a date to sweep me off my feet.

Standing before me was someone I didn't know. A soldier and nothing more.

So, I would show him the same.

It was like a switch. I felt the grip I had fought to hold over the blackness growing in me the last few days slip, letting it claw up my stomach and consume my insides in numbness. I lashed out, feeling my fingernails snag on his arm and shred the flesh beneath. He grunted, pulling his arm back to momentarily examine the damage with his steely eyes.

I didn't let him have long, taking his pause as an opening to smash my knuckles into his nose. I felt the crunch of bone beneath my fingers before I drew away, kicking his legs out from under him as he cried out in pain. My fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt, tearing holes through it as I lifted his torso from the ground and drew my fist back once more. His cold fingers wrapped around my wrist along with the warmth of his other in a crushing grip. Still, I held him there, fist raised and a snarl on my face.

Bucky only stared at me, coughing on his own blood as it poured from his nose. I stared right back, anger and betrayal worming through the numbness inside.

How dare he? I have only ever defended him, protected him. And this is what I get?

I lowered my fist, letting him drop back to the mat as I released his shirt. I turned from him, making my way out of the training area. "Friday, restrict all Barnes' access to my housing floor. Emergencies are the only exception."

The AI responded kindly, "Right away, Max."

I only stopped to turn to the only security cam in the room, "I want a mission file by tomorrow morning, no teams. Solo only." I shoved the glass door open, practically rushing out of there in an attempt to beat the tears from slipping down my face.

______

Banner-

The lab was vacant save for myself and my irritatingly squeaky chair. I had been here since the sun rose this morning hard at work over my studies. I had busied myself with Max's genetic work, fiddling with the samples I had and sorting through her various genetic components.

I had found Tiger, multiple reptile DNA I was still trying to pick apart, and partials of amphibian DNA all connecting to her various capabilities amplified tenfold by the Super Soldier Serum. None of it should have even been possible, not with the technology they had so long ago, but Max was living breathing proof of Hydra's genetic success.

They had created the perfect weapon.

I wasn't interested in the weapon part though, much more fascinated by her healing capabilities. Her body regenerated and healed to its original form. As it was after the Soldier Serum, at least. I had studied nearly night and day, searching and experimenting. Creating a serum of my own made purely of her regenerative properties using the samples. I tested it on my own cells, watching as it fought with my monstrous genes and conquering it. Reversing the damage I had done to myself years ago. Watching it turn my cells back to as they were.

I sat with a needle in my hands and the microscope in which I had just used to test it sitting on the lab table besides me. I tilted the silver casing around my creation, watching the red liquid churn inside the glass encasing it. It could potentially cure me. I had proven as much testing it on my cells. All I had to do was inject it and I would be free of my alter ego.

I lifted my hand, feeling it shake with the adrenaline flowing through me. The needle slid beneath my skin with a pinch, and I watched the liquid drain into my veins. The metal of the injection clattered against the counter, the only sound in the lab besides my own heartbeat throbbing in my ears. Sweat pooled on my brows as the serum began to burn away the previous cells, changing me, reverting me back to how I was before. I groaned, dropping to the floor as a wave of weariness overtook me. It didn't matter to me though. I knew it would be worth it.

It would be worth it...

Tags<3

@imdoingathingmom / @blackbirdwitch22 / @cjand10 / @calwitch

[imawreck]

Monster

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: The aftermath of the mission is mortifying, and so are the discoveries.

Author’s Note: This one gets tough home-slices, so buckle up.

Warnings: gore, blood, wounds, mentions of scarring, suicidal thoughts, LOTS of angst, depression

Word Count: 4,539

Max-

Everything stung.

I could feel my lungs burning, aching for air, but still I fought against the torrent of water. I desperately clung to the base of the water tower as the town fried, Hydra along with it. I felt the electricity rip at my skin and burn away at me. Still, I held on. I kept my head out of the water for the most part, but the sparks still jumped at my face and nicked my cheeks.

The moment it all eased, I was gasping for air as I sputtered to clear my senses. The pain was agonizing as my skin tried to heal itself only to be burned off again. I searched for land with my palms and swam ahead towards where I knew Bucky would be. Where I hoped he would be. I prayed he had gotten out alive.

I nearly cried when my hands brushed dirt and I was able to haul myself out of the water and away from the pain. I tried to keep my mind calm in the face of everything, taking in one shaky breath at a time as I assessed myself. I could feel the burns receding, but it was slow. I had overworked myself and my energy was depleted. I was lucky if I could make it up the steep incline without passing out.

The water made my hair cling to my neck in clumps and my eyelashes clung together in my line of sight. There was an aching in my shoulder where I knew a bullet had made its home. The wound refused to heal, the rest of my body having taken too much already. I would have to remove it and find somewhere to rest.

I reached for my earpiece, but found nothing. No comms. I wouldn't be able to radio base or Bucky without it. I sighed, taking a moment longer before I began to climb. I took it slowly, each palm full of dirt took another ounce of energy from me. But I would make it, I had to. Bucky was somewhere, I knew it. I had to find him.

When I reached the tree line, I nearly passed out. My vision was clouded in pain and exhaustion, and my body screamed for me to stop as it gave out beneath me. But I couldn't. Not yet. I had to find him.

"Oh my god, Max!" Knees hit the ground next to my head and blue clouded everything I could see. "I thought you were dead." The last word came out of him in a tortured way.

I coughed, trying hard to smile despite the circumstances. "Takes a bit more than that to kill me."

There wasn't any humor in his face, and I tried hard to ignore the way he looked at me. It was different than before. Different than the gentle look I had been accustomed to these past few months. It felt wrong.

His hands hovered over me, "What can I do?"

I pressed a palm into my shoulder, easing a muscle there. "We need to get out of here, but I don't think I'll make it if I walk. I'm not doing so hot right now. Took too much energy and I can't heal properly yet. I know a place near here, a couple of miles up the mountain where no one can find us. We will have to set up a signal to radio base from there but if I'm right, everything we will need will be there."

"Hydra will send more agents to scour the area-"

"Trust me, they won't think were stupid enough to go where we're going." I grimaced as a wave of pain swept from my shoulder down my body. "Can you help me up?"

Bucky slipped his metal arm under my legs and lifted me up. I hissed as he brought me into his chest, fighting against the urge to cry out at the stinging pain in my shoulder. His voice rumbled against my back, "Up the mountain?"

I nodded and the two of us began our trek. I drifted in and out of consciousness as my body fought to regenerate itself with such depleted resources. I would only wake when Bucky needed me to answer a question or point in a direction.

The air had gotten subtly cooler the higher we went. Our suits kept us warm, but the breeze on my neck still sent a shiver down my spine. Bucky's arm felt cooler against my legs even through the material of my uniform too. I glanced around, spotting a few tell tale signs I had made for myself in the past. A set of stacked rocks and a withered carving of a star on a tree a few feet from that. "We're close. Just up ahead is a shelter."

Bucky didn't speak as he continued walking. He hadn't spoken much to me this whole time and I couldn't figure out if it was because of the nearly failed mission or something else entirely. His face was a mask, one he wore regularly around the team but rarely when we were alone.

"I think I can make it in on my own now, but we should scout around to make sure it's clear."

He gave me a nod, lowering my feet to the ground before he released me entirely. I watched him survey the area and check for tracks or any recent visitors who would come looking around. I managed to climb the few stairs and make it to the door. I pressed it open with my palm and let the cool drift of air swing it open. I took in the dust and the lack of furniture, just like I had left it all those years ago. The glass from the lightbulb was still scattered over the nightstand and littering the floor. A pan still sat on the stove and a single wool blanket laid draped over the bare bed save for the flattened pillow at the headboard. There was a chair just a few feet from the door where I let my body drop, drooping against the wood and taking a moment to breathe.

Bucky entered a few minutes later, steely eyed and clenching his jaw. "There weren't any signs of occupancy so we should be good for a while as long as Hydra doesn't come knocking."

"They wont," I assured as I leaned down to unstrap my boots and kick them off. "There are candles in the nightstand and matches in the top drawer. It will be dark in a few hours and we will need the heat."

He nodded, frowning as he went to retrieve the items. I slipped off my suit, easing my sleeve down my arm and tugging the fabric free of my shoulder. Blood coated my undershirt and continued to ooze out of the bullet hole. Not good. "Hey, Bucky?"

His head peaked up from the cabinet a few feet away, "Yeah?"

"I need your help with this."

He paused to put the candles on top of the nightstand before he made his way back over to me. I pushed my shoulder forward for him to see, turning my back to him.

"Why are you still bleeding?" His warm hand laid on my good shoulder, tugging at my shirt to get a better look at it.

"I took a lot of hits, and I'm out of energy. I'm surprised I'm still conscious at this point."

Bucky let out a shaky breath, "What do you need me to do?"

"The bullet is still in there," I started, "So I need you to get it out." I turned to face him. His brows were pinched uneasily and there was worry in his eyes. A torrent of emotions swam behind them. I waved weekly to the floor near the bed, "If you move the bed to the right, there's a pair of loose floorboards."

He left my side and strode over to the left side of the bed and nudged it over, feeling around the floor until the boards shifted. He tugged a knife from his belt and used it to pop the board up, taking the other out with it.

"There should be an artillery box, pull it out and open it." I could hear the clank of metal as he unlatched the top. "Should be right there, the red box." I listened as he ruffled through the scarce items inside to pull out the metal box.

When he returned to my side he held it in his hands, opening it and digging through its contents. "There aren't any pain relievers."

I shook my head, "I know. Just grab a rag from the bathroom."

Bucky stared at me for a moment, as if he wanted to say something before he went away to retrieve it. He walked around me and surveyed what he could before speaking lowly, "You'll have to remove your shirt. I can't see much with all the blood."

My heart dropped and my body tensed, sending a sharp jab of pain through my arm. I was hoping he wouldn't ask that. That maybe he could just go in blindly and yank it out. Of course, Bucky was too kind to be that reckless.

I tried to raise my arms to remove it, but it only sent another wave of agony over me. I looked to the floor, "You'll have to help me."

He did so without a word, taking the hem of my shirt and lifting it over my head slowly. I could hear his sharp intake of breath at the sight of my skin. His eyes burned all the way up to my neck. I knew what it looked like, the valleys between scarred skin and the ugly, gnarled map slashed over my back. There wasn't a patch of unmarked skin over the expanse of my spine and the patches reached around my torso in certain places.  The scars were shimmery and a sickly white color thanks to my healing.

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair as I slipped my bra strap down my shoulder to get it out of the way. "Just get it out, please."

"Right, I'm sorry."

I brushed off his apology with a shake of my head. Silence filled the room as he began setting out the various supplies he would need. The smell of alcohol filtered into my lungs and I invited the sting gratefully, anything to distract me from what was about to happen. A rag was draped over my shoulder and I took it without a word, biting into it and gripping the chair in my good arm.

"Okay, bare with me."

That was the only warning I got before cold metal was plunged into my back.

I clenched my jaw, fighting against the urge to scream. What pathetic sounds that did leave my body were muffled by the cloth between my teeth. I could hear the wood crack under my grip as he began to dig through my flesh and poke at the shard of metal buried under my skin. It was brutal, tormenting. For a moment I was sure I was going to pass out from the pain, but then it was gone and the distinct tinker of metal against a tray echoed through the small shack.

I felt my shoulders sag and labored for air, spitting out the rag. "Thank you."

Bucky just nodded once he was in front of me, offering me a hand. "You should rest."

I couldn't do much more as I nodded and accepted his hand. He tugged me up and guided me a few feet to the bed where I collapsed agains the mattress. I was out within minutes. The last thing I remembered was the sound of the artillery box latch.

______

When I woke, the shack was lit with candles and the smell of spam clung in the air. I was notedly less sore too which was a good sign. My shoulder complained as I eased myself up on it, reaching back to check if it had healed. My fingers grazed a rough patch of skin, and I sighed in relief. It had scabbed, no more hole.

There was a sharp movement in my peripheral vision and then the sound of paper being slapped down. I jumped at the sound, hissing at the ache that followed.

Bucky sat with his back against the wall across the room, one leg sprawled out in front of him while the other was tucked under his arm against his chest. A file sat next to him and another laid spread across the floorboards in front of him all around in a semi circle so all the papers were visible. He looked upset with his brows pinched together and his eyes wide, almost scared.

I felt my eyebrows pull together as concern rose in me, "Bucky-"

"What the hell is this?" Bucky didn't look at me when he spoke, never taking his eyes off the file papers on the floor.

"What's what?" Confusion clouded my mind. "I don't understand."

"Don't play stupid, these were in your box. This one," he picked up the empty Manila folder and tossed it over to my feet. I could read his name in bold black letters that I knew to be decades old, "has my name on it."

I shook my head in confusion as I studied the cover, "They're files I stole from Hydra years ago. I only got a chance to look at them once."

Bucky's voice boomed through the house, "But you knew!" His scoff grated against my ears, "You knew this was here and what was in it. You knew, and yet you didn't care to tell me about it." He pointed at one of the sheets on the floor, "And this one has trigger words on it, but none that I can ever recall hearing. This set is all new and God knows what they do to me. The notebook they wrote about in here was destroyed. No way for anyone to figure out how to use this set, maybe it does something worse than the others." Bucky's face suddenly loosened, like something dawned on him. He finally looked at me, but it was almost worse than when he wasn't. "Do you know what they're for?"

"I..." I did, at least I thought I did, but I hadn't remembered the files.

Truly, I had no idea if the box would even be here any more. I planned long ago to hide them away so when we got out— Bucky and I—I could find someone to help him. The words on those papers are reversal words. A prototype at least, they haven't ever been used or tried. It was a shot in the dark but it was better than nothing.

I opened my mouth to tell him just that, the truth and nothing else. But the longer I looked at his face, the clearer it became that he wouldn't trust a word I would say to him. He had deemed me an enemy the moment he asked me that question. It wouldn't matter if what I told him was the truth, he wouldn't believe me.

So I said nothing.

He took my silence as answer enough, laughing bitterly. It stung me like nothing before. "You know, first I was so sure that you were different. I thought that maybe Hydra didn't mess you up to the point where you were irredeemable like everyone else thought you were. Then you go on that mission with the others and Steve comes back telling me you're some sort of rabid animal. I defended you then, but what I saw today was worse than what he described to me. You literally ripped those men apart. I watched you. You wanted to evacuate and leave Natasha!"

I could feel myself drain at his words and my body cave into itself as he spoke. He was terrified of me, of what I had done to get us out of there. But he kept going.

"I watched you bring down that water tower on a town of innocent people to kill a squadron of Hydra agents. Is that all you care about? Killing?"

I was at a loss, floundering to make sense of the whole situation. "Of course not, Bucky, no! I care about so much more and I-"

"Like me?" He cut in, "Because I'm the asset, right? I'm your mission. Those were your first words to me the moment you stepped out of that Godforsaken place. But that's all I am to you, all I'll ever be, right? I'm so stupid!" He slammed his hand against the wall and the wood splintered upon impact. "Steve was right, you're nothing but a weapon, a loose cannon. You... you're a monster worse than me."

Silence. That's all there was between us after those words left his mouth.

I felt empty and dark, like the lights had gone out and there was that pit in my stomach eating me up again just like it did all those years imprisoned.

Bucky just sat their, unmoving, staring at me with those eyes that screamed betrayal. I had never meant for this, for any of it. I hadn't meant for the mission to fail and I never wanted to leave Natasha. I trusted her skills enough to know she would get herself out of there. We had talked about it on the jet. She wasn't supposed to go against my orders and she told me if anything went wrong I should get out of there and not worry about her. I should've known she was going to do something reckless.

Here I was though, paying a price I didn't owe. Taking Hydra's blame onto my own shoulders in the face of someone... Someone I love.

It was too much. Too much pain for me to bare. So I shut it off, shoved it down into the farthest part of myself and did what was beat into me all those years. I could deal with emotions later. Right now, I had to complete a mission and return to base with my team. I stood wearily from the bed, feeling the cold air seep into my bones.

Bucky shifted as I moved past him and opened a cabinet as calmly as I could manage, taking out the receiver inside. I made sure my voice was even as I spoke, "I'll set up the receiver outside and radio base. Rest if you can. I understand you are uncomfortable with my presence so I'll make myself scarce. I will camp outdoors and wait for their arrival." With that, I marched over and snagged my suit off the chair and slipped it on before I opened the door and slammed it behind me.

I felt like a hurricane was tearing away at my insides, like the world had cracked open and was threatening to drag me down with it. How could he say that to me? How could he accuse me of that? He hadn't even given me a chance to explain.

I climbed up the hillside, clawing through the snow. Bucky's words echoed around in my skull and the longer I listened to them the deeper the pit inside me grew. The numbness spread from my stomach to my heart like a poison. It oozed into my blood and clung to my organs, taking all the pain as it grew until I felt nothing at all. Nothing but the biting cold.

I raised the receiver above my head and swung it down, burying it into the top of the hill and hunkering down to attach the radio. It fizzled to life in my hands and I adjusted the antenna until the line became clearer. "Ghost to base, come in."

I waited, hearing the crackle of life. "-Ax! Max thank God." Tony's voice was almost a relief. "It's good to hear from you, kid."

I felt the numbness wane at his words, "Hey, Tony."

"You sound terrible. We should definitely get you home. Natasha came back late this afternoon with the device and said you found a place to lay low." He paused for a moment, "Are you two okay out there?"

I felt relief sweep over me before it drowned in the tar enveloping my insides. "I have sustained minor injuries but I’m recovering quickly. Barnes is fully functional. We need evac as soon as possible, Hydra is still in the area. Coordinates are 48.2775 degrees North, 8.1860 degrees East."

"Whoa there Kiddo, no need to be so formal. I'll have Friday notify a team right away. We will have you two lovebirds out of there in no time."

I flinched at his words but chose to ignore it, the team would find out about everything soon enough. "I'll be on standby until then."

"Copy that."

I sunk back in the snow, feeling it soak into my suit. It didn't matter to me, everything felt cold anyways.

The stars were bright and the moon was absent to allow them to outshine it for the night. I could hardly stand to be in this place with all that has happened. The shack Bucky occupied was once my own, my place of hiding and a residence when I worked for Hydra. I had been normal back then, before any needle had punctured my skin. I had been brave and full of life…naïve. I had thought that place was my home for many years and now it was nothing but an empty room with a fog of horrible memories.

I laid down, letting my hair down to dampen in the snow. Maybe if I just laid here it would all go away. I would wake up and it would all just be a nightmare I had lived through so many times before. I clamped my eyes closed and let the snow fall over my face and stick to my skin. Sleep, just sleep.

But I was never given such an easy blessing, not once in my life. I didn't sleep a wink the entire night.

_____

The jet came in the early morning before the sun had peaked over the horizon. I watched it descend onto the white mountaintop before me as I tugged my stiff limbs from the snow. I hadn't moved an inch since I radioed the tower, letting the snow encapsulate me and consume me. My fingers were blue and stiff, but they were long since numbed. I squeezed them, pumping my fingers into fists over and over again to try and get the blood flow working again.

The hatch of the jet lowered and out came Natasha followed by Steve and Clint. They all were dressed in their uniforms and looked ready to take on the world like always.

I stood up from my spot, dragging my legs out of the snow and dusting off the rest of my suit. My legs carried me towards the jet without me really thinking about it, seeking out the warmth it held. As I brushed passed Steve I spoke lowly, trying hard to keep the disdain out of my voice. "Barnes is in a shack a mile down the mountain. It's the only place for miles so you can't miss it." Steve merely nodded and brushed past me.

Natasha frowned, looking me over. "Did you sleep outside? Your lips are blue and you're freakishly pale."

I nodded, "Don't worry, I'll warm up soon."

"It's 24 degrees out here, Max."

I whirled around, "I said I'm fine." She jumped, tilting her head and leaning back as if I had hit her. I sighed, "I'm sorry, just drop it. Get Barnes and get us out. I want as far away from here as possible."

I didn't wait for her response before I walked away. I marched back to the cabin when I knew Barnes was surely halfway back to the jet, taking a different route to avoid the two Super Soldiers. The door was left open, flurries drifting in and settling  against the floorboards and over the papers left spread over them. Just mine, his own file I imagined was tucked into the waistband of his pants to be kept somewhere safe.

I stooped down and collected them neatly before sliding them back into the Manila folder, tucking it back into the artillery box by the bed. I clamped it shut and hauled it up, carrying it out the door and back up to the jet. I kept my eyes forward and strapped myself into the farthest possible seat in the jet. I didn't speak to anyone the whole flight and once again sleep eluded me. 

When we landed at the tower I was the first one out, marching towards the elevator and nearly slamming into a lab tech before a voice called out. "Lady Max?" I swiveled around to find Thor in the elevator, the doors wide open. He eyed me with a worried gaze, "Is everything alright?"

Maybe it was the way he asked, the lack of accusation or the pure concern for me that made my shoulders slump. There was no fear in his voice like the others so often held even if they didn't mean to. It was just a question of whether or not I was well and if things were okay.

"No, not really." I slipped into the elevator beside him and leaned against the wall. "The mission went sideways and everything went down after that. My body is hardly functioning or healing correctly and I haven't slept in 33 hours."

Thor didn't seem at all phased by my complaints, "That sounds difficult, no wonder you're tired."

"Yeah," I looked up at him to find he was already smiling kindly at me. His shoulder was leaned against the wall as we went upwards. I didn't even remember telling him what floor I was on.

As if reading my mind chuckled, "I figured it was your floor I ran into you on so I just pressed it again."

"Thank you."

"Any time," he shuffled his arms as we came to a stop and the doors opened up. "I hope you get some rest."

I turned around after I left the elevator, taking one last look at him before I smiled. Really smiled at him. "I'll try."

The doors closed and I made for my door, slipping behind it and leaning my back against the cool metal once it was closed. The events of the mission began to replay through my head as if to mock me. Bucky's terror and his words were the worst part.

I had never experienced heartbreak before, not this kind. It was raw and felt like a wound that wouldn't heal. The ache in my shoulder paled in comparison. I could feel the tears begin to gather and cloud my vision as I fought to muffle the cries that threatened to tear out of me. It was pathetic, weak. I was the strongest person in the building, I shouldn't be crying like a child on the floor. But here I was. Hurt, and alone.

Just like I was in the beginning.

Tags<3

@cjand10 / @blackbirdwitch22 / @imdoingathingmom / @calwitch

[imawreck]

Massacre

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: Max and the team head out on a mission. Tension runs high, and the cost is higher.

Author’s Note: Sorry for not posting yesterday! Here’s your update lovelies <3

Warnings: lots of death, angst, team fights, graphic violence, you’ve been warned.

Word Count: 4,372

Max-

Two weeks went by, and every night since Tony's fundraiser Bucky had slept next to me. Sometimes we would switch rooms, whichever happened to be more convenient at the time. More often than not, we slept in my bed.

The two of us had started spending more of our time together than before, hardly apart from each other during the day. Particularly in the afternoons. We sparred together, ate meals together, talked and discussed missions with each other. Together almost every second of the day. It didn't bother me though, quite the opposite.

I had come to crave his company when he happened to be gone, or thought of him when I found something that I though he would enjoy. It was different than before, startling that I had taken so easily to him so quickly. But I wanted this, whatever it was.

One particular afternoon, I had decided to sleep in and had woken to find the other side of the bed unusually empty. There was a note left on the nightstand and I read it softly to myself.

'Good morning doll, couldn't fall back asleep this morning so I went to the gym. You looked too happy to wake. I'll be back by lunch.' - Bucky

I smiled at the scrawl across the page and gently slid it into the drawer of the nightstand before crawling out of bed. I slipped into a change of clothes, opting for a Stark long sleeve and a pair of leggings. My stomach growled just as I exited the room and I was so distracted by my thoughts of breakfast that I didn't see the body walking in front of me. I slammed into them, disorienting me for just a moment before I snapped my head up to meet their eye.

Tall, blonde, easily weighing twice as much as I do and towering over me. Not to mention that he didn't look the least bit familiar standing there staring at me. There was a swell of panic rising in my stomach and before he could open his mouth to utter a word, I was on him, gripping his bicep and plunging my shoulder against his chest before I heaved his weight up and over my back. His body thudded against the floor as he let out a muffled grumble of pain, a spidering crack where his body had hit. He was heavy, much heavier than a man his size should have been but I didn't let myself dwell on it too much before I yanked a knife from my waistband and pressed it firmly against his jugular. "Who are you?"

There was a thunder of footsteps before he could answer and Bucky came barreling down the hall after the faint ring of the elevator. "Max!" He skidded to a stop and shot a hand out in front of me, "He's a friendly, ease up, doll."

I hesitated only a moment, taking in the blonde sprawled out on the floor with wide flabbergasted eyes. "Sorry," I grimaced, shooting out my hand to haul him up.

He took it, calloused hands brushing against my own and his timbre voice echoed against the walls of the hallway. I hauled him upwards as he spoke. "It's quite alright. You are astonishingly strong, my lady, and beautiful too." The man smiled at me with his perfectly white teeth and messy hair.

I could feel the heat crawling up my neck but I tried to ignore it, masking it with a smile and shrug. "Thank you. I'm Max, by the way." I stuck my hand out once more to greet him and was startled when he took it, turning it horizontally and placing a chaste kiss against my knuckles.

"Thor Odinson, Ex-Prince of Asgard."

I quirked a brow at him, "Ex-Prince?"

He smiled, "I abdicated the throne to a better fit ruler for our people."

I could sense the sadness in his words and decided not to press the subject, thankful of the cough that interrupted the two of us. I glanced over to Bucky who stepped a tad bit closer to me as he began to speak. "What are you doing on this floor?"

Thor frowned, "The flying bird man said that you would be on this floor, but he did not mention that there was a lady occupying any rooms."

"Damnit, Sam!" Bucky grumbled something about throttling Sam when he saw him next and sighed, "What did you need me for?"

"Tony summoned me to look into a threat on this planet and told me to find you. There is a mission for you and Natasha, he mentioned another name now that I think about it." Thor sent a shy smile my way and I focused on the wall behind him to fight off another wave of embarrassment.

I could hear the frown in Bucky's voice, "A mission for Max and I?" He glanced at me and I returned his confused gaze with a shrug.

Thor nodded, "Come, he said it was urgent."

With that, the three of us hustled to the elevator and crammed inside. And I mean crammed, the two men riding with me were both six feet tall or taller and weighed well over two hundred pounds each. I just managed to squeeze in before the door shut behind us and we descended to the meeting room. Once we had managed to struggle out of the elevator, we entered the meeting room where Natasha and Tony waited for us. Tony shot me a smile and it warmed me, I hadn't been to his labs in a while to talk to him and I made a mental note to do so after the mission.

I sat in the seat next to Natasha who elbowed my ribs, "I hear you've been sleeping with Barnes." She wiggled her brows suggestively and I rolled my eyes in return.

"It isn't like that, and you know it. How do you even know that?"

She huffed, wanting to say more, but Tony cut in. "Alright, there's no real way to sugar coat this so here it goes. Shield has come through with a fresh hit on an active Hydra pocket. They are operating under extreme measures to remain under the radar. They're moving devices through food trucks making deliveries to towns wrecked from recent political events in the area. We aren't sure why they're moving them or what they're used for, but this is where Natasha will play her part. Your goal is to get the information regarding the cargo. Try and remain unseen. Max and Bucky, you two are cover. I want you to stay low and take out any threat to Romanoff. The goal is to get the information. If you can do that, then by all means stop the operation. If something goes wrong, contact base immediately and we will send backup."

The lot of us nodded, running his words through our heads. Get the details, destroy the operation if the opportunity arises.

Tony allowed us a moment to think before he started again, "The Quinnjet will be departing in fifteen so suit up. Max, you're taking lead on this mission."

I nodded, surprised by his words as I rose from my chair, glancing back at Tony as he began speaking lowly with Thor. He had pulled up a map with multiple red dots littering the landscape. I burned it into my memory, recognizing the area from my time. They were safe houses.

The team and I made our way to the landing deck. We parted to change and met back at the jet. I finished strapping in my weapons due to the rush, slipping my sword in the holster at my back as I approached the hangar. Bucky and Nat had already boarded and Natasha waved me on as Bucky headed to the cockpit to pilot. Again, I sat besides Natasha as the jet rose and we began our journey.

Natasha and I made small talk as we went, but after a while I decided I should check on Bucky. This was a Hydra mission after all, and I knew how he felt about them.

I dismissed myself and made my way to the seat opposite of his, taking a seat and easing into the leather. "Hey," I shut my eyes as I spoke to him, "How are you holding up?"

Bucky huffed sarcastically, "The best I can, I guess."

I leaned over closer to him, popping my elbow up onto the armrest so I could face him as I spoke. "I have your back. If this mission goes wrong, I wont let anything happen to you."

Bucky scoffed but a hint of a smile raised on his face, "Isn't that supposed to be my line?"

I laughed, "Of course, I just wanted to try it out. I know that you have mine anyways."

The two of us eased into a comfortable silence as we flew, and I couldn't help the lull of sleep as it tugged at my mind. We had hours of a flight, a little nap couldn't hurt.

_____

Bucky-

I was extremely anxious, but I couldn't let anyone else know that. Being this close to Hydra made my heart rattle in my chest and thinned the air trying to enter my lungs. As soon as the jet landed, it was like a stone was set on my chest and nothing could shake it away. Not even when Max woke beside me and shot me a reassuring smile and brushed stray hairs from my face.

"It'll be alright James, don't worry." I watched as she made her way over to Natasha, her face going serious the moment she turned from me as if her gentleness was only reserved for me. "I'll scope the area from the trees since my suit isn't acclimated for this landscape. The clouds should provide me with enough visual cover. I need you two to fan out and communicate via comms, I want to know everything you see."

We followed her out, not at all surprised by how fast she took up role as mission leader. Not with her background anyways, I could imagine she had headed many missions successfully.

We had landed the jet in a thicket of trees to provide cover, but the draw back was that none of us could see them either. Max didn't seem phased by it though as she trucked through the underbrush until we came to the edge of the valley where she hunkered down and waited for us to catch up. Her voice was hushed despite the lack of soldiers where we were. "Stay here for a moment. See if you can spot the trucks or a bunker. Hydra will be using something inconspicuous like an old grocery store or an armory." With that she began scaling a tree.

I watched as she plunged her knives into the bark, pulling her weight up the trunk until she could reach the branches and using them from there. She rose nearly out of sight before she sunk down against branch and used her binoculars to peer down at the town below. Natasha and I both followed her motions, pulling out our own and fanning out along the tree line.

The town was small, no more than twelve blocks wide either way you looked at it. One of those where everyone knows each other and nothing goes awry without someone knowing about it. It seemed impossible for Hydra to have used it for transport, surely someone would know what was going on. But from what I could tell, not a soul did. Everyone was going about their day, even waving at the transport trucks who returned the gesture. There was two of them, painted on the side with the words 'foods' with bright green backsplash. Like an ordinary food delivery truck.

A thump behind me had me whipping around, gun in hand, before I knew better. Natasha nearly fell over in relief at the sight of Max. "Jesus Max, wear a bell or something."

Max smirked and stuck her tongue out at the redhead, "That would defeat the purpose and completely ruin this covert op. Now, I've located a clear path to their hideout-"

I frowned, "We don't know where their hideout is, Max. Tony didn't give us that information."

She sighed, brushing her fingers across my cheek towards the town. She pointed towards an old bodyshop where a food truck was parked getting maintenance done. I pulled up my binoculars to try and get a better view as she spoke to the two of us. "Watch the workers. Every thirty seconds like clockwork they'll look around and check their surroundings while someone hops in the back of the truck and takes a bag out with them."

Sure enough, just as she said, one of the men working on the wheels of the truck would look around and whistle or drop a wrench before another would hop into the truck and exit with a bag. "How did you see that?"

"Hydra is all the same. You grow up with them, work with them long enough, and you pick up what they do. You know how to see an ally in a sea of people simply by the way they act. In this instance, an enemy." There was a certain coldness in her voice that sent a shudder down my spine. "We need to move quickly. Natasha, I doubt they will have a computer with any data in that place so the best shot of gathering any information is if we get one of those bags. Think you can do it?"

Natasha winked at Max, "Sure I can, just need a change of clothes and a baseball cap."

Max nodded as Natasha made her way down into the valley, "Make sure to signal on comms. We will tail you in ten. Use cash at the convenience store, they'll pick up on a new card in town."

I watched Natasha disappear into the brush before I turned to Max. There was a thin frown line between her brows as she scanned the area. I could tell she was nearly as anxious as I was, catching the faint tremble in her hands as she stood. I remained sat against the tree as I spoke to her, "Are you alright?"

She shot me a faint smile, "As good as I can be." I felt my lip quirk involuntarily at her mocking our previous conversation. She laughed quietly before she nodded again, "I'll be much better after we're out of here."

I hummed in agreement, looking down once more at the town. Max shifted beside me, checking a watch tucked away under her sleeve. "It's time to head down, stay a few feet behind me before you follow. Since were not exactly discreetly dressed, you and I will take the long route. We should split up and take the sides, eliminate any stray agents as we go."

"Are you sure splitting up is the best idea?" An uneasiness crept into my stomach at the mention of it.

"Yes, you're rather large Bucky. No matter how quiet you are, you're bound to draw attention. Same as Steve." She smiled, "Even me. It's just how we are, soldiers and all, and it'll be simpler if we split up to cover more ground."

I nodded despite my hesitation, "Stay on comms."

Max grabbed my hand and gave it a quick squeeze, "You too."

We split up, and the farther we got from each other the more the hole in my stomach grew. Something wasn't right here. I could feel it. There weren't enough men in the area, not for this kind of operation. Hydra wouldn't travel this light with something as valuable as the cargo we were trying to get.

I eased around the back of a house and heard the comms crackle in my ear as Natasha's voice rang through. "I am approaching target."

Max was quick to respond, a grunt over her end before she spoke, "Do not engage, we aren't in position."

There wasn't a response from Natasha, and from my spot crouched behind the house I could clearly see her approaching. "Damnit!" I pressed my comm, "Max, she isn't listening."

A string of Russian curses followed before she answered, "Get as close as you can but stay out of sight. It's the only thing we can do now."

Panic swelled inside of me as I pushed further, closing in around the facility. I suddenly felt like the three of us weren’t nearly enough manpower to take on this kind of job, not this close to the enemy at least. If we could keep it an in-and-out job, we could scrape out of here unharmed, but I had learned the hard way that missions don't always go as planned.

Red hair peaked out from under a ball cap just feet from me now. Natasha swayed her hips as she swaggered up to the agents. "Hey, I'm really sorry to ask this but could you spare someone to help me out? I have a car a couple streets down and it just went caput. I can't seem to get it to start or anything." She waved her hands around animatedly, mimicking distress and mild frustration. It was a smart tactic, and by the look on the man's face, it was working too.

I watched as the man under the truck called out for someone in the shop to come out. There was a smile on his face, and soon it was mirrored on the one in front of Natasha too. Something wasn't right, but before I could get a word out Max was shouting through the comms, "They know. Natasha they know! Get out! Get out of there right now!"

Natasha palmed the agents nose, slamming his head back and a spirt of blood trickled down his face as he crumbled to the pavement with a cry. The other agents behind him scrambled from their places, guns appearing out of waistbands and boots. There were bullets flying within seconds. I barely caught sight of Natasha rushing into the building before all hell broke loose.

A blur of white hair darted from behind the building and launched a knife through the air, hitting its target and lodging into a man's jugular mere feet from Natasha. His body dropped to the ground and thrashed as he tried to fight the inevitable. Two more followed him not long after. I made a move forward, to aid my team, but then Max was shouting into the comms and her eyes caught mine from across the street.

"Get back to the jet, I hear choppers. They aren't ours. We've been set up and we need to get out of here right now." She yanked a body off the ground and threw it into a pair of men running her way, effectively holding them off if only for a moment.

I frowned, sprinting over to help her. "We can't just leave, we don't have what we came for and Natasha just went in. We have to find her."

"No, we have to leave." It was a simple short reply as she tore through another agent that dared to step too close.

"Max, I am not leaving until we find Natasha."

Her back was against mine now as more agents crawled out of the neighborhoods and surrounded the car shop. I could feel the tremor in her body as she spoke. "Natasha made her choice, she went against my orders. The best we can do is get out of here and distract them enough for her to get out if she can."

The men began to fire at us and I managed to block most of them with my arm, but Max didn't have that kind of defense. Instead, she let them tear through her.

I watched in horror as a sort of steeliness settled over her features and she began pressing forward towards them. Three bullets to the torso and one to the leg, and they kept coming. She used her knives to knock some away and yanked a body up a few feet from them and used it as a shield instead. When she was close enough, she attacked.

Knives flew through the air, planting themselves in various arteries or slicing clear through necks. When her belt was empty, she resorted to more aggressive methods. I could do nothing but watch and keep the bullets from making there home in my skin as she ripped men open with her own hands.

It was like watching an animal that was caged too long.

Her hands tore into their flesh- necks, stomachs, limbs- anything she could get a hold on. There was a viciousness, a savageness about her that I had never seen before. Not even in myself from the footage of my past, nor the memories. Her hands were stained red like it had rained from the sky. Her usually white hair was now dripping crimson. Even her uniform was painted to match the hellish picture. Max had become something unrecognizable.

Natasha contacted through the comms, "I have the bag."

When Max turned back towards me her eyes caught the light much like the first time I had laid eyes on her and this time I couldn't help but flinch at the sight. Everything about her was rigid, cold, and deadly.

A long silence enveloped us as the sound of helicopters began to grow louder in the distance. Her eyes didn't leave mine as the comms crackled on at the touch of her finger and her voice echoed around me, "Natasha, get to high ground outside of the valley. Don't touch anything metal. Get to the jet and take the device to base. Bucky and I will find a place to lay low and I'll send you the coordinates once it's safe."

Max didn't wait for an answer before she spoke to me directly, "Start running north and don't stop no matter what happens. You need to be out of this valley in ten minutes. Do you understand?" When I didn't move, her face contorted in a snarl of panic, "MOVE, BUCKY!"

My feet moved without my consent, following her order and carrying me as fast as I could go. I tried to look behind me, to catch a glimpse of her as I fled, but I couldn't. She had taken off out of sight. There wasn't any time for me to think about anything, not even when crashes erupted behind me or when the helicopters breached the tree line and dozens of soldiers began descending on ropes down to the valley. All I could do was run.

I clawed at the dirt, pulling myself up the sharp incline of the ground. I tore at roots and ripped at grass, finding anything with purchase to lift myself out of harms way. A moment of relief swept over me as I managed to haul myself up to high ground, crawling over the cusp of the hill and into the trees.

From above, I could see the broken power lines, the crackle and soft illumination of the live wires. There were fallen telephone poles littering the area. At first, I thought it was Hydra tearing the town apart in search of us. But their numbers were more spread out, fanning through the streets in groups of threes and fours. They were surrounding something.

A water tower was positioned on this side of the town, standing tall and overshadowing the streets. Why would they want to surround the water tower? It didn't make any sense. I reached around my belt and unhooked the binoculars to bring them around. I peered down below, searching the base of the tower for any signs of Max.

I checked the ladder of the water tower, then the railing around it. Nothing, until I caught a glimpse of a grappling hook snagging around the rim. Then I noticed another, and another, following them down to the ground where they stopped gripped between two blood drenched hands. Max.

I snapped my head up at the sound of the Quinnjet, watching it rise out of sight and into the clouds. Natasha got out. Once more, I felt a sweep of relief, but it was quickly wiped away when a loud grating echo swept across the valley.

There were shouts, lots of them. All fearful. A realization.

The tower began to bend and I gripped the binoculars again, yanking them up to my face. The crowds of soldiers were fleeing, taking off back towards their helicopters. I found Max again, holding those ropes with all her might. I could see the strain on her face as the supports against the tower bent out of shape and gave into her pressure. There was determination on her face as she stepped back and yanked on the ropes again, taking down another support and watching as the tower bowed lower. Gravity took it from there and the terrible sounds of metal scraping metal engulfed the valley as the tower fell, crashing into the ground and engulfing the town in a wave of water. I watched, feeling my heart tear out of my chest, as the power lines met the water.

The whole place went up in sparks, fires igniting the tops of the houses and the cars exploding, sending water up in spirts of metal and flame. Screams tore through the roads as the Hydra agents were swept up in the torrent and fried alive. I thought of all the people trapped in their houses. Drowning and dying, burning alive just like them. I don't think even in my years of hydra that I had ever experienced this type of pain before.

The massacre took seconds, but it felt like everything was slow. It was agonizingly loud before everything went silent. Bodies floated through feet of water. Sparks still danced over the surface as the water calmed, pooling in the valley and filling every bit of space.

I felt empty, raw. Like someone had ripped me open and taken every last bit of my soul.

Everyone was dead.

Tags<3

@imdoingathingmom / @blackbirdwitch22 / @cjand10

[imawreck]

Ballroom

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/WinterSoldier x Original Character

Summary: Tony throws an extravagant fundraiser

Warnings: flashbacks, gross men, mild steamy thoughts

Word Count: 5,565

Max-

Bucky let me lead the way to the meeting where we both took a seat at the table, eyeing Tony who sat at the head with a man standing off to his right behind him. Tony didn't look very pleased to be there, but the man looked the exact opposite. I recognized him from the carnival, the man who hid himself so poorly behind the tent. There was something off about him, his face was too familiar to me. No matter how hard I tried to recall him, I just couldn't.

My thoughts were interrupted by Tony, "Due to recent events and the rise in Hydra activity, Shield has sent us a few extra hands to help with security. Specifically for our ex-Hydra friends." Tony nodded in Bucky and I's direction and continued, "This is Agent Rumlow, he will be watching over the two of you when you leave the tower. I know it isn't ideal, but orders are orders and not even I can refuse them."

There was a mutual groan that resonated through the room as all the avengers let their features settle into those of distaste.

I frowned, Bucky and I hardly needed a monitor. We were assassins, the worlds most feared to be exact.

"Anyways, the point of this meeting was to notify you that I will be hosting a fundraiser this evening. All of you should find suitable attire and attend. More information has been sent to you regarding the details. Dismissed." With that, Tony exited the room with Rumlow in tow, who threw me a wink that sent waves of discomfort through me. There was a cacophony of groans, though I wasn't sure it was because of Shield's orders or Tony's love for 'fundraisers'. Perhaps both.

I shook my head, turning towards Bucky next to me. "Does Rumlow look familiar to you?" I found his eyes glued to where the agent in question had just left before they flickered down to my own.

"No, but I'm not a fan of him." There was an underlying tone of what sounded like anger laced through his words, but I decided to ignore it. Shield orders weren't always fun to work with.

I sighed, dragging myself out of the chair and shrugging my shoulders in a stretch. "I think I'm going to head to breakfast if you'd like to join me?" It was a reach, but I had wanted to spend more time with Bucky. I couldn't get enough of him no matter how much of my time was spent in his presence. He was a light, a pillar of comfort and strength, of protection and happiness, that I desperately craved.

Bucky shot me a smile, "Why of course, doll. I wouldn't miss it for the world." He stood from his chair to join me and I was reminded just how large he was. His towering height, several feet taller than my own, caused him to have to bow his neck to look at me. His shoulders filled the doorframe as we exited the room, and despite his size his footsteps were as silent as ever. I was constantly amazed by him.

The two of us enjoyed our breakfast together, talking and laughing. I hadn't realized how long it had been until I tore my eyes from him to peer around the commons room. We were the only ones in the room and the clock read 10:00 A.M. We had been talking for almost three hours. I glanced back at Bucky after I heard his chair scrape against the floor and watched as he walked over and dumped our plates into the sink. Lucky for the both of us, it wasn't our chore day and Sam was doomed instead.

"I think I should go figure out what to wear to this event Tony has planned for us."

This seemed to catch his attention as he turned around to lean himself against the countertop. Bucky seemed to hesitate before he spoke to me. "Have you thought about who you want to go with?"

I shook my head slowly, "No, I just thought I would go and mingle for a bit. Lots of people make me antsy." Bucky nodded at my answer but his shoulders slumped slightly.

"Would you change your mind if someone were to ask you?"

I raised a brow at him, watching as his eyes dropped to his hands as he tried to find something else to look at. "I might, if it's the right person."

At my answer, his turbulent eyes met mine again. "The right person?"

I nodded, picking at my nails to tease him with the silence. "Someone tall, dark, and handsome."

"Sounds like you've already have someone in mind." The smile on Bucky's face grew ever so slightly, "Does this guy got a name?"

The joy flickering in his eyes only spurred me on further. "Oh he has many, and he's the kindest man I know. He can dance too. I would love to dance with him again." I sighed, adding to the drama. "Unfortunately I don't think he will ask me."

Bucky's face was covered in a full blown smirk, his eyes sparkling. "Come on, doll, he'd be a fool not to." He pushed off of the counter and meandered towards me. His feet stopped just in front of me, close enough for my knees to brush against the front of his thighs from where I sat in chair. He leaned his arm against the bar, eyes solely focused on me. I was captivated as he moved his left hand to brush his cold fingers behind my ear, situating a loose strand of hair. "Max," my heart stalled at the softness in his voice, "Would you accompany me to Tony's extravagant fundraiser tonight?"

I could hardly contain myself, trying desperately to find my voice. Once I did, I nodded. "Yes," I breathed, unable to force my voice any louder. Bucky chuckled, dropping a sweet kiss to my forehead. It surprised me in a good way, and I couldn't hide the flush of red that danced across my cheeks. He laughed, the sweetest sound I'd ever heard, and began backpedaling out of the commons room with a smile splitting his face.

"I'll be at your door by 8."

_____

I could hear my heart still  pounding in my ears an hour after he left.

Natasha and Pepper joined me after a quick text filling them in on the recent events. Natasha was practically foaming at the mouth, begging me to tell her the details. Pepper on the other hand respectfully smiled and listened to what I wished to tell them. I really liked Pepper, and it blew my mind that she could put up with Tony like she did.

"That was all that happened, Nat." I finished telling her, watching as her shoulders slumped and her eyes rolled.

"You two are going to be the death of me. Everyone in the tower can practically see the tension between you two. Why don't you just ask him out?"

I shrugged, "We've gone on one date Nat. No matter what other history we have, we hardly know each other enough to date. Plus, I don't think Bucky is comfortable with the thought, the last thing I want to do is run him off."

Pepper hummed in agreement at my side, having joined Nat and I on the bed. "Bucky has a lot of trauma on his plate, he needs someone that is patient with him the way you are."

Her words warmed my heart and I sent a smile her way in thanks. "I'm nervous for tonight." I balled my hands in the sheet below me, "I haven't been to something like this in a while and I don't know if I can remember how to dance. I haven't even looked at the details yet."

Both Natasha and Pepper shared a knowing look, smiles crawling onto their faces. It made me worry, deeply. "What did I miss?"

Natasha shrugged, the smile still plastered on her face. "Oh nothing, just that the event is set in the 40's when your beloved Sergeant was in his prime."

My eyes blew wide as Pepper added with her, "Tony thought since three out of all the Avengers had actually lived during that time that the event might be a little more fun."

My heart stalled, "T-the 40's?"

Suddenly I was thrown back in time, back into a body that was my own in an age I wasn't sure I wanted to remember or not. It was nightfall and the Hydra base I lived in was quiet save for the crickets that chirped under the moonlight. I sat outside the back door, having snuck out into the cold night to escape the screams of the prisoners held inside. It was moments like these that I really resented myself. The guilt of what I have done, what I would continue to do, devoured a part of my soul that could never be recovered. It was 1945, about the middle of October, and a new asset had been captured. I had seen him just once, and the pain and fear in his eyes had nearly killed me. I was a scientist of sorts, smart enough to build capsules to contain super soldiers like the Captain. But I was trained too, one of the best in Hydra. I remember sitting in the snow though, as I remembered his shouts of pain. Begging and begging them to stop.

I was pulled out of my head by a hand on my shoulder and Pepper's gentle voice, "Max?"

I jumped, flinching away from her touch and trying to collect myself from my memory, "Sorry." I didn't know what I was apologizing for exactly but neither of them questioned it. I tried to fight against the waves of panic I was feeling, a result of delving too far into the past. I was worried that Bucky's memory of his time would be as unpleasant as my own. "What do I need to wear?"

Pepper smiled, "I have just the thing."

_____

It was 7:45 by the time the two of them had finished dolling me up. I felt clean and... and pretty. It was a rare feeling, and I was pleasantly shocked by it.

Pepper had slipped me into a simple black and white polka-dotted dress with a shallow V-cut neckline. The material was loose and flowing, only clinging to my skin in the most attractive ways. Cinched waist and a flowing skirt. Natasha had once again lent me a pair of heels. These were much taller than the others but comfortable enough for me to walk without a concern for falling.

I had bought myself a perfume all those months back, when the Super Soldiers and I first ventured out of the tower on our shopping trip. It wasn't frilly or too strong, and I had grabbed it just because I had enjoyed the way it smelled on the woman who I watched spray it on herself a mere few feet in front of me. I didn't like to buy things that were unnecessary.

I sprayed some on myself and finished applying light makeup like I used to in the day. Makeup was the only thing the two women didn't know about in the 40's. I had chosen a dark lipstick, burgundy red, as I was uncomfortable with the signature bright crimson usually worn that would no doubt be on every single woman at the event. I curled my lashes and applied some liner, finishing the look off with some mascara. Natasha had styled my hair in big waves, leaving it down and framing my face. I turned to them once I had finished my evaluation, "How do I look?"

Natasha winked, "Like you'll knock his pants off."

I let out a burst of laughter, blaming the nerves bubbling in my stomach. "Thanks, Nat."

Pepper nodded, shooting me a sincere smile. "You look wonderful."

I returned her smile, "Thank you for helping me. I owe you both."

There was a sharp knock at the door and all three of us shared an equally excited and startled look. Pepper ushered me to the door and the two of them opened it and slipped out, smiling at whoever was on the other side. I heard Natasha's voice echo down the hall, "Keep your hands respectful Barnes, she's breathtaking."

I opened the door wider, finally gathering the courage to glance up at him. His head was still turned as he spoke, "I'm a little early so if you need a few more min- Oh wow." Bucky's bright eyes found mine and his face lit up in surprise. I watched as his eyes took in my dress, all the way down to the glossy heels nervously tapping on the floor. The way he looked at me was soft, like I would disappear if he looked away for a split second. I watched him too, taking in his clean appearance and freshly shaven face. He wore a simple suit, black all the way down to his toes. His hair was pulled back and tied at his neck in a small little ponytail. Definitely not 40's, but fitting nonetheless. He looked absolutely charming. "You look beautiful doll, absolutely beautiful."

I couldn't help but smile, "You clean up great too. I like what you've done with your hair."

He laughed and butterflies erupted in my stomach, "Yeah, someone tied it up for me before and left me the hair tie. I figured I'd put it to good use." He held his arm out for me, "Shall we?"

I didn't hesitate to take his arm in my own, feeling his warmth seep into me from under his sleeve. It didn't take a genius to see that the both of us were nervous. Bucky put on a good face as we made our way towards the event, but the louder it got the more his smile seemed to lessen. I leaned into him the more crowded the halls got as I desperately tried to avoid touching anyone. I ran unnaturally cold, and I feared that if my skin were to touch anyone, they would cause a scene.

Taking note of my efforts, Bucky's arm dropped my own in favor of guiding me in front of him. He used himself as a sort of shield, keeping me in front of him as he gently wove us between bodies. I was grateful for his efforts.

The music that played was upbeat and old, but in a sort of way that almost soothed me. Bucky guided us over to the bar and away from most of the people beginning to sway. Everyone was dressed nicely, their dates smiling and twisting around on the dance floor. I had never learned the dance of the time, too busy with Hydra to have a chance to immerse myself in the norm. I envied them, honestly.

Bucky's low voice brought me out of my thoughts, "Would you like to dance?"

I glanced between him and the people dancing elaborately on the marble floor. "I don't know how to dance like that." I shot him a sheepish smile, "I wasn't exactly free during this period. I hadn't started undercover missions yet."

He seemed to catch my gist, "You weren't allowed out?"

I shook my head, "No, not until later. After everything."

We let a silence settle over us for a few moments. It was deafening. I took a breath, still watching the bodies dance across the floor, before I turned back to him. "Teach me?"

Bucky's turbulent eyes met my own and a small smile pulled itself back onto his face, "Of course." He offered me his palm and I took it gratefully, making our way through the crowd.

Bucky was always so gentle with me. He was gentle in the way he touched me, talked to me. He was gentle in the way he looked at me. It made me feel safe and cared for. A feeling so foreign to me ever since I could recall.

Bucky pulled me in, speaking low in my ear as he coached me through the steps. "You're going to move your feet just like this," he maneuvered his feet quickly to the beat but clearly so I could catch on.

I mimicked his steps albeit a bit clumsier.

He grinned, "Good job, now you just do that every time the beat sounds like that and then I spin you out like this." His flesh hand took my own, carefully spinning me outward before he pulled me back in and engulfed me in his arms.

I laughed, thrilled by the feeling of his body against my own and the sway of our bodies with the music.

"You're a natural, doll."

Bucky moved himself quite gracefully despite his size. It was mind boggling to watch, but pleasant too, seeing him so happy and relaxed. It was almost like he was slipping back into his element. I had heard he was a charmer from the talk around the tower every once and a while, when Steve would tell a story and I happened by. I would always try and listen when I could, enraptured by their time before the war. Steve's stories always sounded so wonderfully normal and untouched by the terrors of war and loss.

We danced wildly until the song changed its rhythm, Bucky swaying us both easily across the beats. I hummed, leaning against him and letting him lead. "Thank you for this. I would have to say it's one of my favorite memories, I'll never forget it."

He chuckled at that, drawing back to look me in the eyes. "You don't have to thank me."

I nodded, "I do actually. You do so much for me, defended me when I first got here and haven't stopped since. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, you know."

A sheepish smile curled upon his lips, and he pressed his warm fingers gently against my spine to pull me closer, "I'll always defend you."

I reached for his face, feeling his smooth skin against my palm. "I know you will. You're a good man, James, the best I've ever known."

Bucky's eyes lit up at the mention of his name, curling his fingers into the fabric at the back of my dress and pulling me into a bone crushing hug as the song came to an end. He held me there for a moment as we both enjoyed our moment in peace.

Until a cough shattered it.

"Hope I wasn't interrupting something important." Rumlow's low voice reached our ears and Bucky pulled himself away from me, holding me at arm's length. Rumlow stepped forward, "Could I borrow your date for a dance?"

I could practically feel the irritation rolling off of Bucky's stiff shoulders. He seemed to straighten at Rumlow's request, his body broadening as he stood to his full height. I had realized Bucky tended to make himself smaller around me, less threatening in the way his head always bowed or his shoulders caved inwards the slightest bit.

The song that had begun to play was more modern, probably for the guests to rest from the older more elaborate dances. I wouldn't have trouble keeping up with it. I glanced back at Bucky to find his questioning gaze already on me and I gave his left arm a quick squeeze as I stepped away from him. "Sure, just one."

Rumlow's smile grew and I couldn't help but feel a little unsettled by it. Bucky leaned down close enough for me to hear him over the music, "I'll get us some drinks. Just shout if you need me."

I nodded, letting my hand drop from his arm. He walked away, eyeing Rumlow as he left. Rumlow didn't seem fazed by it though, simply holding his hand out to me and pulling me in. "He's a real tough guy, huh?"

I nodded, not exactly thrilled to be dancing with him. "Bucky is complicated."

Rumlow swayed us around, his arms low on my back and drumming his fingers against my spine. "You two seem awfully close."

I raised a brow at him, "Yes, we are friends."

"You seem a lot closer than that." Rumlow tugged my body closer, bringing his face mere inches from my own. "Are you friends with benefits maybe? Surely you could get a man who really wanted to be with you for more than that."

I yanked myself from him, scowling, "We are done here, get lost."

He didn't take the hint, grappling for my arm and trying to pull me back against him. "Come on Sugar, just tell me if you're a free girl or not. I want a chance."

I wrapped my hand around his wrist, squeezing tightly enough to have his face morphing in discomfort. "I. Said. Get lost."

Suddenly there was a wall behind me, warm and secure. Arms knocked away my offenders hands as the mountain of muscle moved in front of me, blocking the man away from view. Bucky's voice was low and dangerous, "Leave." His hands stayed curled into fists at his sides as he stood rigid. Every inch of him screamed violence, yet he held himself together.

Rumlow threw up his hands, a smile still on his face. "Easy man, I was just talking with her. Can't help me for showing interest." His feet carried him backwards, but not before he leaned to the side just enough to meet my eyes and wink at me just as he had done in the meeting. A shiver ran down my spine and another tug of familiarity raced through my mind. Why was he so familiar to me?

Bucky didn't relax until Rumlow had disappeared through the crowd of bodies. Once he had, Bucky whipped around, scanning me for injuries or anything out of place that he could find. Once he was satisfied, he let out a breath of relief. "Are you alright?"

I nodded, too upset for words. Bucky seemed to catch on, gently taking my hand and leading me back over to the bar. He pulled the stool out for me and sat next to me, sliding my drink over in front of me. I took it gratefully, downing the liquid in a few sips. It burned all the way down, distracting me from the earlier events.

I might have been one of the most feared people out there, but it didn't seem to keep creeps away or the nerves that came with encounters such as that. I'm still human after all.

"Doll?"

I snapped my head over to him, eyes wide. "Yes?" His flesh hand covered over my own clutching the glass between my fingers, drawing my eyes to the damage. There was a distinct crack in the side and my hands were shaking. I pulled them into my lap and out of his reach, "Sorry."

Bucky shook his head, pulling his arm back to himself. "Whad'ya say we get outta here? Find somewhere a little quieter?"

I looked at him then, taking in the sincerity in his ocean blues. There was no dark intentions hidden within them, not like Rumlow. There was only safety. I found myself nodding and slipping off the stool. He followed, standing next to me and offering me his hand. I took it, letting him once again lead us out of the room. We slipped into the hallway and easily into the elevator. Both of us sighed as the doors closed behind us, enveloping us in a silence we seemed to yearn for. Neither of us spoke as the elevator lifted us, taking us up to my room.

I slipped out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened, easing at the empty rooms and the lack of noise once again. Bucky followed behind me just a few steps away. He walked me to my door, waiting for me to dismiss him for the night. I wasn't quite ready to let him go though, I only danced once with him this evening. I hadn't spent such a wonderful night solely with him and guilt had begun to lick at my stomach.

"Come in for a while? I owe you just a few more dances, don't I?" I was hopeful, too hopeful.

But of course, Bucky humored me with his kind smile and warm eyes. "Most definitely, I'm not letting you off that easily." The two of us slipped behind the door, Bucky easing it closed once we were inside. "Sit on the bed for a second."

I did as he told me, plopping onto the edge of the bed and watching as he kicked off his dress shoes beside the doorframe. He walked over to the only chair in the room and snagged the sweater he had given me off the armrest where I kept it the rare few times I wasn't wearing it.  He made a motion of raising his arms and I mimicked him, allowing him to slip the material over my head. I sighed in satisfaction, finally getting some semblance of warmth since I put on the dress. I tended to wear long sleeves or pants often due to my lack of body heat and it warmed my heart to realize that Bucky remembered the small fact.

He then knelt in front of me, slipping the heels off my feet and setting them at the edge of the bed. His eyes glanced up at me sheepishly, "I heard some girls at the bar talking about how uncomfortable they could be and figured you'd feel the same."

I laughed, "They really are dreadful." There was a swell of happiness in my soul at the grin he reciprocated at my words.

"Shall we?" Bucky lifted his hand to me, allowing me to take it and tug me from the bed and out towards the balcony attached to the room. I never used it, too cold for me as the fall began to set in. Bucky called to Friday, and the AI seemed to know exactly what he wanted as music began to trickle into my room. "Just follow my lead, you'll be a professional in no time."

We danced for hours.

I didn't know how he put up with my lack of skill or the amount of times I stumbled and caught his toes. He would just laugh, easing me back into the music and coaching me along until I had the moves down to heart. Bucky would swing me out, spin me around, and dip me low one moment before he had us swing into the next move. It was wonderful and thrilling, the room filled with our laughter and teasing. I had never felt more alive than in that moment. Never felt so happy than with him. I never wanted to let it go.

Of course, every day has to come to an end. Ours so happened to be 2 A.M. when Stark notified us that our music was 'atrociously loud and your laughter is grating against my eardrums three floors down.' We had just laughed and turned off the music, sending Friday back with an apology.

Once we had caught our breath, we made our way back into the bedroom and shut the balcony door. Bucky's hair had loosened some and strands of brown hair tickled the sides of his face and framed his jaw. I was reminded once more how beautiful he was.

"Thank you for tonight, I've never had this much fun."

Bucky smiled, brushing a strand away from his face. "Any time, I had a blast."

A silence engulfed us then, neither of us really wanting to leave. I struggled to think of something else to say, to keep him here a moment longer. I thought about what it would be like after he left, the waves of nightmares just waiting for me behind closed eyes, to drown me. He turned away, leaning down to grab his shoes as I spoke. "Bucky?"

"Hmm?" He looked up at me, patiently waiting for me to ask my question.

I wrung my hands in my lap as I took a seat at the edge of the bed again. "Would you stay? You're not the only one that struggles with nightmares." It had been a long time since I had admitted a weakness to anyone, but the peace in which I had slept that night was too much of a temptation not to ask.

I could see his mind processing what I said, his left hand clenching as he thought about it. I knew he still feared the prosthetic, but he also knew I could handle myself. It was a few beats before he nodded, releasing his shoes back by the door and coming back over to the bed.

I motioned to the dresser, "The clothes you lent me are in the top drawer."

A soft smile pulled onto his face as he grabbed the garments from the drawer. I turned away, giving him a moment of privacy as he slipped out of his suit and into a pair of sweatpants.

There was a warm hand on my elbow when he was finished, guiding me around to face him once more. "Do you mind if I sleep like this?" Bucky stood before me in just his sweats, giving me a full view of his sculpted torso. I shook my head, desperately trying to keep my eyes respectful.

I turned towards the dresser and began shifting through my clothes for something comfortable to wear to bed as the mattress creaked behind me. I was used to long sleeves and undergarments, but the thought of sleeping next to him in so little clothes sent flames up to my cheeks. I opted for a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.

I headed towards the bathroom, glancing at Bucky stretched out on the bed, "I'm going to rinse my face and I'll be right back. Do you need a toothbrush? There's a spare under the sink you can use when I'm finished." He hummed in response, obviously exhausted from the events of tonight.

I cleaned up in the bathroom, scrubbing my face free of makeup and slipping on more comfortable clothes. I cracked the door open as I began preparing my toothbrush, not at all surprised when Bucky slipped in a moment later and mimicking my motions. It was as if it was normal, like we had done it a million times before. In a sense, we had. I could recall many times that the two of us had shared a hotel room and a small bathroom, much more cramped than this one. We had spent nights in the same bed and watched over each other in the night. It wasn't so different from now as we stood shoulder to shoulder at the sink and brushed our teeth together.

When we were finished we both slipped into the bed. I took the left side while he took the right. I could feel the weight of his body on the other side of the bed, the pull of my body towards his. I could hear my heart pounding in my eardrums. The scent of his aftershave from this afternoon still clung to his skin and wafted temptingly towards me. I wanted so badly to turn to him, to look in his eyes and feel his skin against mine. I wanted to feel the cool metal of his arm against my side and the trace of his fingers over my back. The memories I had of us tugged at my mind, torturing me with the lack of contact between us both. It was nearly agonizing.

There was a shift in the bed and then warm breath hit the back of my neck in slow steady exhales. He had fallen asleep. Nearly five minutes in and the assassin had let the soft pull of exhaustion take him off to the land of dreams.

I relaxed into the mattress, content by his comfort. I let my eyelids slip closed as I shifted to find a comfortable position. The moment I moved though, a heavy arm was snaking around me. It pulled me back against Bucky's chest and slipped beneath my shirt to rest against my stomach. I knew he was asleep, but the contact sent a shiver of excitement slithering down my spine. I took a breath to collect myself and relax my muscles once more. But his breath was hitting my neck and sending goosebumps across my skin, and his leg had slipped itself between my own and molded our bodies against each other in his sleep. He was warm and comfortable, safe, but I knew that if he woke up he would remove himself in embarrassment.

It was wrong of me to be so taken with him, to have these thoughts as he slept next to me. How could I help myself?

I gently shook my head in an attempt to clear my mind. When that didn't help I forced my eyes shut again and focused solely on his breathing. In, out. In, out. I let it lull me into sleep, letting the darkness slip over me as my own breath evened with his and consciousness slipped away.

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