thecapitol | Cruelty is in waking [Open]

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He doesn't like to hear it, but it'd be surprising if Bucky did at this point. He knows this will be incredibly difficult for the man, thinking for himself is, sadly, a new thing in his life.

Honestly, Steve isn't even sure what to do, all he knows is that he'd do anything to help the man in front of him. To help the friend he lost more times than he cares to think about. The next time Bucky reaches out to him, he won't let the man slip from his grasp. He'll hang on this time, even if it means he falls with him.

"Right now, all you can do is take it slow and figure it out as you go, it won't be easy, but you don't have to go through it alone, if you ever lose your way, I'll help you find it again," Steve finally reaches out, in an obvious movement so the man knows it's coming, and rests his hand on his shoulder, hoping it's comforting. "I'm with you til the end of the line."

The contact sears through the fabric of his clothing to his skin, startling him even though he clearly saw it coming. He -- The Soldier? The asset... Bucky? could have avoided it, could have moved back or hit Steve's hand away with ease, he didn't have to accept it. But his feet stayed where they were and despite the smallest bracing in anticipation he lets the hand fall onto his shoulder, turning his head and gazing down at it first before Steve's accompanying words fully impact upon him.

He thinks there's a word for this feeling, he can't remember what it is, when moments overlap and you feel like you've been somewhere before that you can't remember.

I'm with you til the end of the line.

Bucky's metal fingers open and close in the confines of his pocket and really, what choice does he have? Steve Rogers is all he has to go on, how can he say no to that? Perhaps he already made his choice the moment he agreed to follow him out here seeking some kind of guidance in this new phase of his existence.

"Okay."

A simple word for a momentous thing.

Not entirely the response he was hoping for, but he'll go with it. Okay is better than no or silence, so he'll take it. And, actually, he's not sure what he was hoping for, probably something this version of his friend is currently unable to give. Which is an unfair expectation for both of them.

He gives the man's shoulder a friendly squeeze before withdrawing his hand. There's a lot he could say, but right now he should help set up Bucky to survive this place. Give him information so he can build up to making his own decisions.

"Alright, how about I catch you up on a few things about this place? Arena too, that way you don't get a nasty surprise like earlier," Steve gives him a small goodnatured smile.

It can't be said that he relaxes under the touch, though inside he keens a little towards it. Kind touches are... he tries to remember them and comes up short, of course he does. But Bucky, and that identity sits so very fragile on him, allows the hand to stay until Steve chooses to pull it away.

A breath he hadn't realised he was holding is released and he looks dutifully up at the captain when he speaks, nodding. "Yes."

He feels calmer now somehow that a decision is made, shifting his head a little so the hair is out of his face and he can give the briefing his full attention. The more he learns the better he can perform.

Steve nods towards the park again, continuing that way as he talks. He figures there's a lot to tell, so they can walk and talk. Or sit.

"To start, they have surveillance everywhere around here, eyes and ears. It's best to mind what you say, they don't take kindly to antiCapitol sentiment," good thing to start on, they need to mind what they say. He has no idea where Bucky will land, but doesn't matter. "The Capitol is where we are now, outside it are districts numbering one to twelve. Before they started to take people like us from other worlds for their death matches, they would choose children from each district and have them fight to the death, but also unlike us, they didn't come back from the dead after. Dead was dead, which is how it works outside the arena. You die outside the arena, there is no coming back. You're dead."

Cheery subject, but might as well just jump right in.

Bucky follows behind him at a close distance, scanning the street while they walk and he listens, filing away every word. The first is perfectly reasonable, Hydra did not tolerate dissent either and they had always watched.

Why dead outside the arena is permanent but inside is not is confusing but he doesn't think Steve could answer it, not when he had already said he had no idea how resurrection was achieved in the first place. If he had to guess the Soldier would think it was a punishment for dying against the rules, in which case he considers there are worse things.

"Why us now instead of the children?"

He wishes Bucky would walk up beside him, but for now he won't push it, let him do what's comfortable.

It's a good question. Steve's never heard the official reasoning behind it, but he's got his assumptions from the information he's gathered. "Best I know, people started to finally not like sending their kids to die, so to prevent unrest, they stared to bring people like us here to die instead."

"There are still children." he said, tilting his head. The man he'd killed last, who'd killed him, there had been a girl...

Children are acceptable targets still so long as they are not of this world.

Bucky's position is perfectly ingrained into him. Walking beside another denoted being of equal standing and he understood he was no equal to anyone. The only time this didn't hold true was when he was completing a mission, it was the only time the weapon went ahead of the handler.

"Yeah, but not their kids, that's the difference," and probably that's the part that pisses Steve off most. No child should be in this, but they've always found kids in this acceptable, before it was kid verses kid, but now it's other world kids against other world adults. Neither is okay, but children up against adults is disgustingly unfair.

"So, they keep the peace and their entertainment by bringing us in."

Cruelty is in waking [Open]

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