Cruelty is in waking [Open]

[tookthewheel]

Who| Bucky Barnes (MCU) and Steve Rogers, Bucky and OTA
What| Bucky arrives back in the Capitol and luckily runs into Steve first, later in the week he's exploring the training centre
Where| Various locations in the training centre
When| Through week six after Bucky comes back from the dead
Warnings/Notes| Amnesia, references to trauma/violence, angst everywhere. Reply in your chosen format and I shall reciprocate!

Arrival:

He has to get out.

That thought is what is driving him forwards, has driven him forwards since he woke up and stared at two mismatched hands and thought, I've been here before. Even an asset like him knows that there are some things you aren't supposed to wake up from.

He crashed out of the too large and too soft bed soon after, hit the floor and then stumbled up, disturbed more by the sight of luxury than he would have been to find an ice-encrusted chamber and a cruel metal chair waiting for him. Somehow he'd been able to focus enough to rip open the wardrobe, snapping the hinges on the door as he rifled through, found jeans and boots that fit, a shirt and then a jacket with a hood he yanked up and tugged as far over his face as it would go. A glove was yanked unceremoniously over his metal hand.

If anyone had been in the District 1 suite to witness they would have seen the Soldier emerge from his room and barrel towards the door and out into the hallway beyond...

Prompt A: District 1 suite

There is a space here that is his. The one he woke up in.

Somewhat in better mind Bucky decides it's something he should get used to, though he's unsure if it will mean anything. It's his in name only, just like the cryo-chamber was his, like the chair was -- only by merit that no one else was put ever in there. Two days and he's shaved and somewhat more presentable than he has been for weeks and looking a damn sight better than the ghost of a man who haunted the arena for two weeks, though still trying to hide underneath a hood as he paces through the door.

Promt B: The Training Center

He finds the highest of the climbing platforms and sequesters himself there. Coming here he had no intention of fighting, distrustful of his own ability to hold back, he's come to observe. The arena is going to happen again, he's learned, and with little else to occupy him than follow Steve around on the other man's business while hoping to learn something about himself he's decided to try and do something useful instead.

Up here he can sit and watch, gauge how the other tributes fight, what they know and try to gain an estimate of their weaknesses. Few seem to use the climbing platforms and up above he can tuck himself away into the shadows, intending to be undisturbed as he conducts his reconnaissance.

Prompt C: The rooftop

Of all the places he's explored in the training centre (the city still waits to be seen) he decides he likes this one the best. It's quiet. Big enough with secluded spots where he can avoid others. At this time of year it's also warm with the sun beating down, the heat unimpeded by the barely visible glimmer of the force fields.

He finds a secluded spot and sits on the ground with his back to a wooden wall that has plants crawling up it, ensuring no one can come at him from behind and giving him a clear view of anything approaching from the front.

Comments

[tookthewheel]

"Not comrade." he says flatly before his blood surges with the reveal of the blade.

The Winter Soldier was a tool of violence, nothing more. He was a killer, a one man army, blood and death were the only things he knew how to do with certainty. So it couldn't be said he didn't accept the challenge without feeling some relief at the familiarity, this is a dance with steps he understands, unlike the one Natasha was playing before.

His right hand surges upwards from where it had hung by his thigh for the tempting column of her throat, fingers intent on wrapping round and squeezing. The left, metal still covered by a glove, strikes for the wrist of the hand she holds the kitchen knife, better to break or crush the bone.

[assassinat]

So this is what it feels like to be drowning.

Natasha was so caught up in his eyes that she didn't pay attention to the warning signs and now found herself easily caught. That speed and accuracy, it's something she's witnessed happened to others when they fought side by side. While training, he had to hold back or else he may have seriously hurt her.

The Winter Soldier was a completely different force to be reckoned with. A weapon she recognizes, but never really acknowledged as he had always been on her side.

This place was making her weak. Ignoring the nagging pain in her arm as her fingers refuse to let go of the knife as intuition reminds her it's all she has left to stand up against this man. It's her shield between the fantasy of past memories and the man who has no attachment to them as she deftly reaches out with the dull metal to try to land a strike against his beautifully angsty face. It isn't the shield neither of them need, but it's the only one she has as of this very moment.

Time to make it count.

[tookthewheel]

When she forces the knife upwards towards his face he turns his head to an angle most likely to lessen the damage and protect his eyes. At the same time the muscles in his right arm contract as he hauls Natasha up by the hand around her throat so her toes drag along the ground.

Weakened as he is the Soldier would be pressed to hold her off the ground for long but his mind works quickly, snapping from one strategy to the next and throwing Natasha instead across the room at the wall behind her, even as a thin line of red blossoms up his cheek. He won't wait to see if the Widow is stunned or even actually impacts, already moving after her and drawing the metal fist back for a hit aimed at her head.

The Widow is fast and dangeorus, good at improvisation. Giving her time to think or plan is a mistake so he'll press the offensive hard, giving her no time to formulate a strategy.

[assassinat]

That alone is his mistake. Natasha's come equipped with multiple plans and while she does have less than a few seconds to figure out which direction to take them, she's already weighed the pros and cons of battling him. His style is hauntingly familiar and with it she knows he can't think of defenses on the fly. Not like her.

The Winter Soldier is a destructive force, not one that thinks through his actions. He was brainwashed not to think, only to obey. That's why he rears back the metal arm in a lethal strike. Natasha's not paying much attention to his arm, only enough to jerk out of the way when the punch lands into her shoulder instead. No, her focus is on the red that spills across his cheek.

A strike like that should have healed already.

The Winter Soldier isn't a soldier; he's a man. Like any man, he has weaknesses she can exploit in order to turn battle her way. Knowing it won't take long for the Peacekeepers to arrive, she had to get him down in a way that will disable him. In the arena, she would have gone for a lethal shot in the kidney or liver. Here, she goes for the most obvious with a kick straight towards his groin.

It's almost too obvious of a plan.

This is because she's using it as a distraction to swat the handle of the knife towards the space above his eyes. Her hand bleeds from gripping the blade itself, but the only thing she pays attention to when it comes to the knife is making sure it hits above the eyes and not directly against the pupil itself. She doesn't want to harm him permanently, only cripple him momentarily.

Times like this are when her plans begin to meld together as they grow impossible to tell apart. It might have been two different courses of action brought collectively in order to buy herself time. The footsteps of someone approaching in the suite can be heard above the pounding of her heart and she fears it may have been too late, that she underestimated how quickly the Peacekeepers move.

[tookthewheel]

He feels satisfaction when he hits her -- even if it's not where he was aiming in the first place. It's a simple feeling, one of the few pleasures he knows and goads him onwards towards further violence. It's too easy to fall into this routine, to fight and kill. He fights and he kills and they purge his mind with fire, send him to sleep in the ice before he's woken up to fight and kill again.

It's a routine of decades, broken only in the last few weeks.

The Soldier, that's who he is always in these moments, turns his body to deflect the blow at his groin, right hand striking down hard at her thigh but Natasha's gambit pays off in this instance. His eyes flicker in realisation a split-second too late to do anything about the incoming blow, he can only brace himself instead -- not that it helps much.

The blow stuns him just as she predicted, a sudden flash of pain followed by waves of dizziness as Bucky stumbles back, blinking rapidly and half falling to one knee. His ears are ringing and his eyes can't quite focus on her resulting in him shaking his head like a dog to try and clear it, only having the sense to manage to bring up his left arm to shield his head instinctually against what he assumes will be a killing blow next.

He doesn't register the approach of the footsteps like she does.

[aboveangrybees]

What's probably most disappointing for Steve when he walks in on this scene - how both are bleeding and bruised, with Bucky on a knee, arm up to defend himself against Natasha, who is standing over him with a weapon - is that it's really not that shocking. He wishes it was, that he wouldn't find them here like this, but here they are and a part of him is unsurprised.

But the scene is still one that immediately spurs him into action, disappointment is something he'll feel once he knows neither is about to kill or injure the other any further.

He steps further into the room, the bag in his hand forgotten - his presence isn't Steve Rogers anymore, this is Captain America in the room with them. The command he holds is almost palpable as he squares his shoulders and tightens his jaw.

"That's enough. One more strike from either of you and it's me you're dealing with," and that's most definitely his Captain voice. The one he directs at his enemies, not the one to lead and inspire his allies, and it makes him sad he feels he needs to use it to get them to stop.

But, well, he hates to admit that he doesn't know either well enough to trust that they will.

[assassinat]

Why?

It doesn't register in her mind why it is that the Winter Soldier brings his arm to his head in order to protect it. That alone is what paralyzes her the seconds before Steve's arrival and even when he speaks out, she doesn't wholly acknowledge his presence. There should be relief found in her chest that it was him and not the lighter steps of Peacekeepers, but there is none.

There's only the sting of something more painful than her bruising shoulder, hidden fortunately underneath her shirt. The throat not so much, but turtlenecks went out of style long ago. Neither can distract her from the desperation of the man knelt before her. Her fingers dig the blade deeper into her palm in unspoken pain, an idle reaction in order to distract her from her thoughts.

"Well now I know we're in trouble."

[tookthewheel]

There was no time taken to think about that defensive move, he'd simply acted to protect himself and it didn't occur to the Soldier that this action might have stepped out of his prescribed behaviour.

Not that it mattered because before he can move to take advantage of Natasha's hesitation the door opens and Steve's voice rings out, clear and authoritative. It has an instant effect, igniting a small sting for doing something wrong in the Soldier, having him cautiously lower his arm as he turns his head briefly and tries to focus on Steve before snapping his attention back to Natasha. Being limited like this is throwing him off again, slowing him down.

There's something a little sullen in the way Bucky tells Steve, grinding out the words to explain his actions even as he lurches to his feet, not relaxing for a moment.

"She was waiting."

The Widow is still watching him and he won't risk taking his eyes off her, not until he's sure she's no longer a threat.

[aboveangrybees]

He watches their every action - even the smallest change in breathing - for a moment, assessing, and when he's sure they aren't going to do anymore damage to each other, he moves to close the door, listening for foot steps as he does. No peacekeepers are heading this way, but he wouldn't be surprised if the call for them is just about to go through, that they might come running any minute. A closed door might buy them a moment if it comes down to it.

"You bet your asses you are," his voice is levels less intimidating now, but he's definitely not taking any crap still. "Jesus Christ, you're damn lucky I'm not a peacekeeper," he drops the bag by the door as he turns and makes his way over to them.

Idiots, both of them.

"I don't doubt she was," he keeps his eyes on Natasha as he says it, because he expected her to come find Bucky eventually. But the blood welling up and spilling over on her hand is the first concern to address. "Hand it over, you're hurting yourself."

[assassinat]

Hold on, that kind of excuse is almost childlike in a way isn't it? For a moment, Natasha has to take another mental moment to consider the possibility that the Winter Soldier is tattling on her. To Steve Rogers. To Captain America. It isn't the first time where her mind's taken over and dulled the senses of her body, so when he addresses her due to being hurt, the Russian doesn't acknowledge it right away.

Instinctively, she holds out the utensil towards him with the blade still in her hands. At least she's giving him the handle, what a proper way to pass something over. Her gaze is locked on the dark haired man, almost as if the Captain himself was invisible to her.

And he is in all honesty. Right now, it's the past that has her captivated, a simple reminder of home. Except everything is off--he acts as though he's a child, mentally incapable of acknowledging the full purpose of her being here. It's not an act, is it? Something to throw Steve off, to keep him from knowing what they were discussing? This man is definitely not the Winter Soldier she's always known.

For some odd reason that causes her stomach to twist and knot. Maybe it's the shallow way she breathes now as her throat throbs in pain that's adding to the sudden lightheaded nausea that passes through her. It can't be anything else.

"I had to." If they're throwing around excuses like children, she'll play along.

[tookthewheel]

The Soldier is still staring her down, his eyes dark as they meet hers. The truth is he doesn't even realise the extent of the youthfulness of his behaviour, reacting instinctively to the appearance of authority in the room. Mission report.

He had to explain and justify unauthorised actions. She had lain in wait for him and now -- now Steve was going over to... he tenses, watching them so close to each other, watching as she passes over the knife. It doesn't make him relax any. He doesn't understand either Steve's concern for her or her compliance.

She had to, what does that mean?

"She wanted information."

[aboveangrybees]

Tattling? Really you two? Steve feels like a kindergarten teacher trying to make the little boy stop pulling on the little girl's pigtails. Well, in this case the little girl picking on the little boy more like. He's really not amused. Later he will be, but right now? Nope.

There was no had to, this wasn't something anyone was forcing her to do but herself. "You chose to," he says it as he takes the utensil.

"Yeah, I figured, she mentioned she would," he looks from Bucky to Natasha, as if making a point of it, "though I was under the impression it wouldn't be violent." Part of him should have expected it after seeing Bucky and Clint though. Maybe preempting it would have been smart on his part.

And this staring is starting to feel like it'll go violent any second, so it needs to stop. So, he moves to stand between them - back to Natasha, facing Bucky - to cut off their line of sight and end the staring contest.

"Mind doing me a favor? Run to the bathroom and grab the first aid kit?" He makes sure to phrase it like a question, even if he has the expectation of him following it. A moment alone to talk with Natasha would be good. "I'll be fine," in case it was a concern.

[assassinat]

He's right in that. Natasha chose this.

It's torture in a silent way, but she doesn't need to say that out loud. Not when she can feel the sting of cool air against a fresh wound. That she can focus on.

Even if the good 'ol Captain is going to deny her that. She doesn't voice that it's an unnecessary gesture, taking the assumption that he has something more to say to her. Preparing herself to be reamed verbally apart by a leader and companion, she looks beyond him to the darker visage of her past.

She can't just seem to escape it even in an alternate world. Choosing to face it now instead of delaying the inevitable would make life in the Capitol a little easier to bear... or so she thought. Now she was beginning to doubt that.

"Should I bend over your knee now or later?"

[tookthewheel]

The Soldier blinks as Steve breaks his line of sight, as he puts his back to the Black Widow. He's not sure if it's foolish or if it's simply... trust. Steve had given his back to Bucky as well, to a man whose last order had been to kill him.

It is still a struggle to understand it.

He does look sharply at Steve when he admits he knew that she intended to do this and to think it wouldn't end in violence, very little in his existence ever turns out differently. Still, he straightens up at the request, weighs it for what it is and slowly gives a single acknowledging nod.

Clearly he's still unhappy but at least he's listening, heading out of the door with long strides -- though not without a final dark look thrown Natasha's way.

[aboveangrybees]

If his frustration with both of them was any less, that sharp look he got might have made him feel bad for a handful of seconds, but it doesn't. At this moment all he wants to do is send them to their corners for timeout, because with how their acting it seems the right course of action. Maybe later he'll explain it to Bucky, have him know the reasoning for knowing this would happen and not stopping it sooner.

Later though, because right now he's just glad when Bucky leaves and gives him a moment alone with Natasha.

"Explain this to me, Natasha," he turns to look at her, not rising to her comment. "Because all I see is this being a fool way to go about this- it's not something I would've expected from you," his voice is calm, hard, but disappointed more than angry.

[assassinat]

"Some men speak with words." Natasha quips without hesitation, entirely sure of her actions and rising to defend them. "Others through action. For a man who cannot recall his words, his past, it is easier to learn through combat."

If she's disappointed by his tone of voice or by letting him down, it doesn't show. Her outward appearance during all of this is cool, indication of how collected and put together she is despite facing a ghost of her past. Others may be shaken up, but she's grounded in her decisions through and through.

"He's programmed to obey. Seems he's already discovered a new employer in this place--but tell me, Steve, how long will he listen to you? How long is it until someone else figures out his secret and undermines you?"

[aboveangrybees]

He can see her point in talking through actions instead of words, but combat was still a hell of a stupid way to go about it. The Capitol has been on edge lately, starting a fight when you know the peacekeepers could arrive at any second, not knowing the level of reaction it might bring down on them.

No, he reigns in his anger again and keeps calm.

"When the Capitol has been over reacting to everything, you thought it was smart to start a combat when you knew peacekeepers would arrive and separate you two," his tone shows a hint of his frustration at her putting Bucky in this position. She could get out of it, who's to say he could. He shakes his head, "You risked putting him in the peacekeepers hands when it's almost blatant that he's programmed to obey. He's still struggling with basic human needs and they aren't stupid."

She talks about someone finding out Bucky's secret, about someone undermining him, but then she was who put all of that on the line. More than anyone, Steve is afraid of the Capitol learning and using Bucky and that's what she just chanced.

"You risked the Capitol finding out," that's what bothers him most. The rest is nothing compared to that one thing.