The past is never far behind (closed)

[tookthewheel]

Who| MCU!Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers
What| Brock Rumlow's in the Capitol, eh oh
Where| D9
When| Backdated to Rumlow's arrival
Warnings/Notes| HAIL HYDRA

Bucky left the bar behind him for the elevator, letting his body tread familiar ground while inside his mind was racing with the information Rumlow had just given him. It wasn't true, it couldn't be true. Five months free of HYDRA's influence and he is functioning -- but is he stable? Is he safe?

Did the wipes really have another purpose other than to keep the Winter Soldier obedient and under HYDRA's control? Without them was he just a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode? While he knows better than to blindly believe what Rumlow had told him but the information, once learned, is not easily forgotten, true or not.

The numbers on the elevator tick upwards until they register arriving at the District 9 floor and without hesitation he steps out the open doors and walks through the suite towards Steve's room. He quickly finds that Steve isn't there and after a moment of aimless, frustrated pacing forces himself to sit down on the floor in a corner of the room to wait.

Steve has to be informed of the presence of a HYDRA operative in the Capitol.

Comments

no one puts bucky in the corner

[aboveangrybees]

It's not at all weird to find Bucky up in District 9 from time to time, maybe not with the same frequency as before the curfew, but often enough for no one to blink at it. The diminished frequency tells Steve that Bucky is gaining more independence with time, more confidence, and for that Steve's glad. It's good for both of them, at any time the Capitol could decide to not revive Steve or worse, he likes to know Bucky's able to be fine without him.

Though, walking in to find his friend sitting in the corner wasn't what he expected. Especially, with that air about Bucky that tells him something is wrong. He moves further into the room, setting his bag on his bed as his eyes move over what he can see of his friend, trying to find blood or some physical signs of what's happened.

"What's the matter, Buck?"

[tookthewheel]

He lifts his head as soon as Steve comes into the room, by now not so surprised that Steve can immediately pick up on his distress. Bucky isn't sure what tells give him away, whether it's his very presence or perhaps something left over from the past, some sign he shares with the old Bucky that Steve had known so very well.

"Brock Rumlow is in the Capitol."

The words come out steadily, "STRIKE commander for SHIELD, loyal to HYDRA."

He has no knowledge that Steve had worked with the man himself for months unless told by Steve himself.

[aboveangrybees]

Just the mention of the name puts steel into Steve's back, his frame almost becoming more powerful without him moving, like he's expecting an attack at any moment and isn't scare of it. With Rumlow, he wouldn't be surprised if the man tried to slit someone's throat in the night. The only real thing they have going for them is the Capitol wouldn't allow it - something he's for once almost grateful for.

But this man had been alone with Bucky it seems. That wasn't okay by Steve's book. He moves closer and kneels to Bucky's level while giving him space.

"You okay? The guy's a real piece of work, can't imagine he said anything nice," he knows the kind of guy he was, he can imagine how that would shift in light of not having to hide his Hydra loyalties anymore.

[tookthewheel]

"I should've killed him."

But he couldn't. Not by any limitation to his own strength or ability but because of the threat of what would come after. Imprisonment, torture, probably execution if they didn't just turn him into an Avox or fulfill Bucky's strong suspicion that the Capitol could even wipe him again if they chose. Because of them he was still powerless against an agent of his old captors.

The smile, dark and bitter twitches against the corners of his mouth without ever full fully forming, "No, he didn't." Bucky grimaces then, "I don't know what I was thinking."

[aboveangrybees]

Steve decides he doesn't like that look on Bucky's face, not that smile at least. It's a look you know comes from an unpleasant place, one that gnaws and bites and tears, that leaves you raw and wanting to return the favor, and how could Steve want that for any of his friends. But there's little he can do now to stop what's already happened.

"Masochistic curiosity probably, we all suffer it at some point. Knowing something will hurt us and doing it anyway," like being told the burner is hot and touching it anyway.

"For what it's worth, I'm glad you didn't kill him," that trash isn't worth Bucky endangering himself in the Capitol. "Though, in the arena, by all means," that's the first time Steve has explicitly expressed his consent for Bucky to hunt someone down. It's temporary dead, but Steve doesn't have a lot of forgiveness for Hydra, especially not after Bucky fell. Even more so after he learned what happened next.

[tookthewheel]

No, it wasn't that, at least not in full. What Bucky had wanted was to prove something to himself, that he really wasn't theirs anymore, that he was really his own person again and would not fall back into being the Asset again.

He's not sure he succeeded in that.

"I plan to." but it means something that Steve gives his blessing to the action and there's a flash of gratefulness in Bucky's expression. If he hadn't it might have been the first time since he arrived that Bucky went against any request that Steve made of him. "I need to. I'm not theirs anymore."