thecapitol | [OPEN]

Entry tags:

[OPEN]

Who| Sam Wilson + open!
What| Trying to figure out wtf is going on after just arriving
Where| Around the Training Center
When| After the arena
Warnings| none yet!

None of this was what Sam'd expected when he woke up on that cot, and was all but dragged out of the room by a group of guards. Not that he had all that much experience with kidnapping or being taken prisoner, but he was pretty sure they didn't normally include a kickass suite and free run of not only pretty much the whole building, but whatever city they were in. And he was definitely sure prisoners usually didn't get handed a map of the damn place and a credit card.

It didn't make him feel at all better about being grabbed, of course. If anything, their determination in treating him like he was supposed to be some kind of honored guest was making him twitchy, almost as twitchy as being told he'd been picked up off the streets to fight to the death like some kind of gladiator.

...it's also making him wary about just how good their security has to be, if they're actually letting prisoners have free range like that. Not enough not to test it, but definitely wary. So he waits a little bit after the guards leave him alone, exploring the room and giving them long enough to actually get gone, if they're really going. Then he's out, intent on seeing just how much leeway he has, and if he can figure out where he really is.

District 5 Suite

His first stop is the rest of the suite they'd dropped him off in, of course. He lingers in the kitchen - not really for food, though he is kind of hungry. At the moment, he's not willing to risk eating anything that might be available, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to check it out.

Which is why he's opening cabinets and peering in the fridge, eyeing the kitchen knives he'd found and wondering if they'd do anything if he grabbed one to keep on him.

Training Center

He has to admit, the place that gives the building its name isn't bad. In fact, it's pretty damn good, if he'd had a place like this back home, he'd probably have been there every day. It makes sense, he guesses, to give them access to a place like this, if they're supposed to be gearing up to participate in a battle to the death. But it also means their captors are either stupid or really, really good, and he doubts it's the first.

Rooftop

By the time he makes it up to the top of the roof, he's feeling a little overwhelmed. He'd gone up to clear his head a little, get some air, but he's not up there long before he's wondering if it wasn't a bad idea. Just looking out towards the edge makes him miss his wings; he sure as hell could use them right about now.

He stays anyway, sitting on one of the benches to look up at the sky, and keep an eye out for any fellow prisoners - or any of their captors - that might be up there as well.

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Addressing him is a little like inviting a wolf to your door.

Bucky takes the words as permission, invitation? reason to approach the other man beyond his own initial interest. Leaving his chosen spot the former Asset crosses the distance between them to a degree but leaving a healthy three feet between them for his own comfort.

Contrary to Sam's open stance Bucky stands straight and ready, his hands hang loosely by his side, ready for action at a moments notice. He is not at all relaxed here.

"I know you."

It's a statement, not a question. "You were with Steve."

He'd be lying if he said having Barnes' full attention wasn't unnerving. And by unnerving, he pretty much means scary as hell. But he doesn't move, holding himself still and keeping his stance the same, as Barnes comes towards him.

It's not the first time he's tried to have a conversation with someone who might be one step away from seeing him as the enemy and attacking. First time it's been someone who could probably tear him apart before he could blink, but there's nothing he can do about that now. He's not armed, and even if he was, he sincerely doubts it'd make much of a difference.

Sam's... going to take it as a good sign, that he recognizes him. It means Barnes remembers fighting him, which might not work in his favor, but at least it means he remembers something.

"Yeah," he agrees. "That was me, I'm a friend." He's quiet for a moment, then adds, "Sam."

Bucky is studying him more like a curious cat -- if that cat was normally capable of snapping necks like twigs -- than anything else. He has no intention of immediate violence unless it's brought on by Sam himself but the potential is always there, a thrumming energy to do what they made him to do.

He knows how to restrain himself, lucky for both of them. The Peacekeepers are eager for an excuse to hurt tributes at the moment.

"His friend?" he says, for clarification. "You had wings, I remember." Remembering grabbing them by the left arm, ripping one off, kicking this man into the open air -- he's more wary on remembering that, looking suddenly for the anger he would expect in Sam's face at meeting a man who almost killed him.

The last thing he needs is the image of Barnes as a feral cat, that'd stick with him forever. Even if that's kind of the vibe he's getting here, at the moment.

"Uh-huh." Sam raises one shoulder in a half shrug. "But the way I figure, means I could be yours, too." Kind of by default, if nothing else, but he hadn't wanted to go after Barnes just to back up Steve. That was a huge part of it, sure, but. If there was anything he could do to help the guy, after everything he'd been through, he wanted to do it.

He lets the wing thing sit there. It wasn't a question, and there's nothing more he really wants to say about it. Even if they hadn't been destroyed, they wouldn't be much help to him here.

"Why?"

He seems slightly taken aback by that, a furrow appearing between his brows in confused expression. But it is an expression which is more than he's ever shown around Sam before. Something's changed within the Winter Soldier since this man last saw him, a lot has actually. "I tried to kill you."

It seems strange to offer friendship after such a fact.

Then he thinks about Steve -- but Steve had his memories of the man Bucky used to be pushing him forwards. Sam as far as he knows has nothing but his own friendship with Steve, is that enough?

"Fair question."

He's not surprised Barnes is asking him that. All right, no, he is - but only because the last two times they met, there wasn't a lot of conversation going on. There's more to him than what Hydra tried to make him into, and if Sam hadn't already started believing that because of Steve, he would now.

"Steve believes in you, and I trust his judgment. You're sitting here talking to me right now, that kinda gives weight to his point."

He shrugs again. "And no one should have to go it alone, thinking there's not many people in their corner."

"Fighting is forbidden outside of the arenas." he points out, unsure of why he's arguing this. There's a strong distrust of the intentions of others in regards to himself he feels since so much of his existence had been people manipulating and lying to him, using him that he has to be sure.

No more blind belief.

But this man is an ally of Steve, a friend as he says (and he will check that with Steve later when he returns to the room in D9) and that he has learned to be a reliable enough point in anyone's favour. None of the people Steve has told Bucky he can rely on have yet to prove him wrong.

He shifts his weight, more a movement to focus on than anything else, as he thinks over what Sam has said. Bucky doesn't know how to respond, so he changes the topic, it's a useful tactic.

"... Steve is here."

"That mean no one ever fights outside one?" He might have just gotten here, but he doubts that's the case. Besides, lots of things are forbidden. Including jumping onto people's cars and ripping their stealing wheels off, but that hadn't stopped Barnes before.

He doesn't say that, though, because the situation's a little different here. Or a lot different whatever.

Instead, he just waits, letting Barnes think over that. Honestly, Sam doesn't know what he expects his response to be. As much as he wants to help the guy, he doesn't really know him. He's been starting to think he might want that to change, though.

When his response is to change the subject, Sam goes with it. Especially since it's about Steve.

"Damn. Kind of thought he might be, though, he was right there when I got grabbed. All the ways I thought we might find you, this really wasn't one." He shakes his head. "Where is he, he okay?"

"No. But those who do are reprimanded." If Sam knew the sort of punishments the Capitol doled out he would understand the need not to. If Bucky moves his head the right way he might notice the brand on his cheek, mostly hidden by his hair.

Fighting back against the Capitol has serious consequences.

As for what Bucky did before; forbidden by everyday laws, Sam, not by HYDRA and back then HYDRA was the only law he followed. Not that Bucky can remember the incident Sam is thinking about.

"He was here before me." He shifts again but this time it is out of discomfort, remembering his own disastrous arrival and what happened after he met Steve then.

He knew Steve had meant to look for him back in their own world. Then Bucky had meant to go after HYDRA, if that had happened and Steve and Sam wouldn't have found them, he wouldn't have allowed them to. Here he didn't have much of a choice. "District 9."

"Good to know taking another go at me isn't worth getting reprimanded." He's joking, a little, but it is kind of good to know.

He's learned a little bit about what the Capitol calls punishments, or at least the ones for showy, public acts of rebellion. He wonders if that extends to something on a much smaller scale, like tributes fighting, but he's not going to ask.

At least not right now.

"Before you?" He frowns a little. "How long've you two been here?"

He remebers seeing Steve just seconds before - well, before however he got grabbed, but that doesn't necessarily mean much.

"District 9, got it." He's been here long enough to know what that means. "I'm in 5, where'd you end up?"

It looks like he has to think over that one before realising the statement is intended to be humorous, probably. He doesn't smile but you know, that's just him around people he doesn't know so well. "You are no longer a target."

At least as far as his loyalty to HYDRA is concerned. In the Capitol's eyes they should all be targets to each other, luckily Sam is Steve's friend which works to his benefit so far as that mandate is concerned.

"Approximately four months." Bucky answers for himself. "Steve arrived a month earlier." to his best knowledge.

"1." Not that he ever stays there, usually Bucky is found in District 9 right along Steve, it's been that way since almost the beginning.

Considering their previous encounter Bucky finds it curious that Sam offers up the information on his residence so easily, but then, he has also already offered to be Bucky's friend regardless of that. Perhaps it is a gesture to prove his intentions, to trust Bucky with knowing where he will be sleeping.

Sam'll wait for him to process that. It's a good sign that he's thinking about it, as far as he's concerned. "Good, I plan on working to keep it that way."

As much as he actually can, anyway.

That's... a long time. A lot longer than Sam'd figured. He's learned how the arenas work, kind of, enough to know what being here that long probably means. "That mean you've been in one of the arenas?"

It doesn't occur to Sam to try to hide where he's staying. Barnes'll find out sooner or later, if both of them are hanging around Steve, and - well, yeah, he really meant the friendship thing. Now that he's reasonably sure Barnes isn't going to try to kill him without provocation, he wouldn't mind him stopping by.

"Two." Bucky corrects him. "They brought me here when one was in-progress, standard Capitol protocol for that situation was to immediately send tributes into combat."

They had barely told him anything. Only that he was there to kill the others, that only one could survive. With that limited information it had been a shock to wake up again, moreso when he saw Steve alive after believing him dead for two weeks. Bucky's changed since then.

"The last arena came to a close this week." Lucky for Sam he will have around a month of downtime to get used to and prepare for the next inevitable death match.

"Shit, talk about hitting the ground running." It doesn't surprise him that they'd throw some people into one of those things unprepared, but then - why take him now, when he's got time to learn how things are and get settled?

Maybe it's just that it's boring, doing the same thing every time.

It's a terrible thought, Barnes getting thrown into an arena fresh after what'd happened in DC, but Sam isn't going to ask about it. Maybe on their fourth or fifth conversation after neither of them have tried to shoot the other.

"What do you do, between arenas?"

Keeping things interesting is all the Gamemaker's care about, a lesson quickly learned. Being interesting can also save your life, it turns out. I t had been a hard idea for Bucky to wrap his head around to begin with but after his second time through the arena he was starting to grasp it.

If all that fanmail he'd found waiting for him was anything to go by (he'd only given a couple letters a cursory glance before throwing out the rest in disgust).

To Sam's question Bucky's eyes flicker around the training room, "Prepare." He carries on a moment later, "Tributes are allowed access throughout the city, there are other activities available."

It's just for him those activities are limited to what is available within the tribute centre. He tends to spend his time in here or on the roof, with Steve, perhaps reading or observing what passes for Capitol entertainment when the arena isn't running.

Prepare. Of course. And honestly, Sam isn't sure what to say to that. If they were back home, he'd tell him that there was more to life than preparing for the next mission, that he was never going to figure out who he was if he didn't take time off to try to be himself.

But they're here, and it's hard to tell someone to focus on other things when you know you're only in between battles to the death.

"You been out in the city yet?"

He's already pretty sure of the answer, but he asks it anyway, just in case.

It's hard to focus on other things when the mission failed. Failure was the worst action he could commit, so it was drummed into him over and over and over. The rules had changed but the conditioning remained, as much a part of him as his own skin and slow to shake off, time had chipped at it enough that the cracks grew by the day but still so, so slow. Slower than anyone else liked, he thinks, so was that a failure too?

Thinking about it hurts his head, he only knows he can't allow him to die again, therefore preparation was key.

"Yes. Not often." Not often, not much. He'd gone out with Steve after arriving, a few times after that at night when it was quieter and emptier to scout the city boundaries and layout, doing something useful with his time when he evaded sleep. "Why do you ask?"

Oh, now, Sam'd have to have words with anyone who thought moving slowly in all of this was a failure, Barnes himself included.

Just because being here makes trying to help him a hell of a lot more complicated than anything Sam's done in the past - like it wasn't already - doesn't mean he's not going to try.

"Figured I'd see what you thought of it, to know what to expect." He almosts leaves it at that, because that's the easy response, and that had been a big part of why he asked. But not all of it. "I haven't gone out in it at all, yet. Might ask you to come with me. You don't have to answer now and you don't gotta say yes when I do, but there you go. Now you've got plenty of warning."

If Bucky could ever bring himself to voice the doubts and fear he had inside himself as to the man he was starting to become in the wake of what was done to him he would appreciate hearing that. As of now though he keeps such thoughts locked up inside, as if voicing them would make them reality.

He doesn't want to lose this, everything he has gained.

"People. Loud, bright." he says dismissively at that. In their bizarre clothing, coming up with smiles and hungry eyes demanding the tributes attention. Once Sam works up to having fans amongst the citizens himself he'll understand. The Asset was trained to move through a crowd with anonymity but when your face is plastered across television screens constantly that becomes more of a challenge, especially when those techniques to make yourself invisible actually made one stand out here, it is so much easier to stay inside away from it all.

Bucky looks at Sam suddenly, his brow creased in confusion. "Me?" he didn't know how to respond to that. It didn't make sense, except on the part that Sam was Steve's friend, perhaps, and that was why he was asking. "Why me?"

He has to get to the root of this.

Sam wouldn't be surprised to learn that. It's a hard thing to have to admit to yourself, let alone say aloud to someone else. Maybe one day, they'll be at a level where Barnes can give voice to things like that. It's something Sam's going for, at least.

But he's not aiming for it today.

"I'd rather not do it alone," he replies, just to get that established, then shrugs. "I meant what I said, about maybe being your friend. I only know a little about the guy you used to be, but I'm interested in learning about the guy you are now, and the one you want to be."

He pauses, but only briefly, and then adds, "And in case you're going to ask me 'why' again, I'll go ahead and tell you I don't have an easy answer for that. But I can try, if you want."

"Steve would..." he starts but doesn't finish, looking uncertain at the explanation. Steve is Sam's friend already and not a man who tried to kill him. Bucky understands this sort of thing from Steve who knew who Bucky was before, who wants to find that man in the Asset's shell again, from others though he still can't entirely wrap his head around it -- not after decades of being treated more like a thing than a person.

The guy he was now. That was good to hear on Bucky's end, sometimes the shadow of the man he'd once been loomed larger than he was comfortable with, a shadow he didn't know that he could ever live up to. Certainly not someone he ever thought he could be again.

"I won't." he decides after a few moments. He has enough to consider already and while Bucky can't promise Sam anything he does make one concession, "I'll think about it."

Sam doesn't finish it for him. He probably could - or at least try, he has a feeling he knows a few of the things Barnes might be about to say - but instead, he just waits.

Honestly, he'll probably ask Steve to go out with him at some point, too, but he's not planning on going out in the city just once. He could use some different opinions.

When Barnes finally agrees to think about it, Sam nods. "Can't ask for more than that." He pushes off from the table, slow and deliberate. "You ever want to have lunch or something, come and save me from my districtmates, you know where to find me. I make a mean sandwich, no talking required, though you're more than welcome to do that, too."

Bucky watches Sam as he moves but he doesn't step back or otherwise react like he might once have, back in the earliest months since escaping HYDRA's leash, back when he'd been more like a feral animal or malfunctioning machine than a man. He's gained a lot of ground since then.

He nods, acknowledging the next offer the same way he did the first. In all honestly he probably won't, it'll take Sam approaching him some more first (likely if he visits Steve in D9, given how much time the former-asset spends there), or Bucky trailing in on Steve's heels to get them to that point. The fact that Sam made it though isn't something he'll forget, heaped in with all the other small acts of kindness he's received from men and women he barely knows here. "I'll remember."

Now Bucky steps away, not turning his back on Sam but signifying the conversation is at an end as far as he's concerned, barring any closing statement Sam might want to make.

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