Twenty five, don't recall a time I felt this alive (open)

[tookthewheel]

Who| MCU!Bucky Barnes and YOU
What| Bucky's back in the Capitol and dealing with things
Where| Anywhere around the Tribute Center, specify the location of your choice
When| After arena 12 goes boom
Warnings/Notes| The usual with this guy

Waking up was easier this time.

Maybe it's because he'd accepted and waited for death to come rather than fighting against it as he had before, with the same resignation and understanding of what was going to happen that had made it easier to go into the ice when his missions were done. He can count it as a bonus that waking up in a warm bed was far more pleasant than from the cryostasis tank.

Bucky gets up calmly but still with the feeling something is wrong, more than just how weak his limbs feel again after living a month with his full strength back. A feeling that persists as he heads for the shower first, then irritably shaves off the beard he always wakes up with and is coming to loathe, discovering at the same time that the brand has now gone from his cheek. Venturing into the kitchen area yields leftover casserole from the fridge which he wolfs down quickly before heading out of District 1 with Toro the tribble safely in his pocket. He needs to see his friends, check for himself that they're still here and make sure no more of them have vanished like the first Widow did.

He goes down to District 9 first, then down to the common area to start working his way upwards, choosing to take the stairs rather than the elevator as he moves through the training and district levels before finally emerging up onto the roof. There he habitually heads for his favourite spot to try and let the cold winter air blow out the still persistent cobwebs in his head.

Comments

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"Yeah. I had to leave the United States about ten years ago, and I've been traveling around ever since. Since then, I think my personal record is staying in one place for eight months. That was Kolkata, I think."

Bruce is a little less guarded with Bucky than he normally would be with others. Maybe it's because the man is so vulnerable and lost. It's hard imagining him being able to turn around and manipulate people with personal details. Bruce can't really see Bucky wielding feelings like knives the way Natasha or Clint or even Bruce himself can. There's something refreshingly trustworthy about a man who only knows how to hurt with his hands.

"It's a pain to be moving around all the time, but it's given me a chance to learn how to cook, at least. I basically only knew how to make pasta before." Would you believe there was once a time Bruce didn't know how to cook?

[tookthewheel]

He doesn't need to ask why Bruce had to leave, it must be because of the Hulk, it's the only sound reasoning. Something that destructive would have brought all sorts of attention and pursuit.

"Kolkata, West Bengal, India." he supplies, looking for confirmation from Bruce. The information is just there, Bucky couldn't say if he visited it or not for sure, probably as HYDRA wasn't big on their Soldier holding any unnecessary information. Perhaps he had killed a target, or there was a base in that location. "Did you like it there?" was that why he stayed in that location the longest?

It is hard to believe that someone this good at a skill had once known only how to do the easiest of dishes.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

It's a safe assumption, and one that happens to be completely accurate in this case.

"That's the place." Bruce picks at his food. He doesn't smile, but he softens a little. "The area of it I stayed in was crowded, filthy, and impoverished. Even so, the people were good to me. I was able to help them when diseases cropped up. So yes, I guess I liked it as much as I like any place."

He liked it there, and he hadn't had an incident for a long time. For once, it felt like he was going a net good for the world by dedicating his time to healing people, as if that somehow would make up for lives lost before.

"Unfortunately, I had to leave pretty suddenly. SHIELD decided to drag me into this whole Avengers thing, so Natasha spirited me away."

[tookthewheel]

"You're a good doctor." Bucky looks at him then, up from his meal from a moment and that means something from Bucky, who'd had experience at the hands of so many so-called doctors to tell the difference. He'd come to trust Bruce when it came to the care of wounds, even though he still didn't like letting someone up in his personal space like that. But he knew Bruce genuinely meant to help him and nothing else.

"That was when the aliens attacked New York?" By this point, with enough mentions and questions, Bucky's got a good idea of what happened there. Thor's brother, the Tesseract and aliens bringing together the group among whom he found himself at home now.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce raises one eyebrow. "Thank you." It's meant sincerely. Bruce doesn't see himself as a good man--he's caused far too much death and destruction with his own carelessness to be one--but he appreciates that it's meaningful for Bucky to say and he values the fact that the man trusts him.

"Yeah. An alien named Loki decided that Earth seemed like a great planet to take over. The Tesseract emits gamma radiation, so that's why they dragged me into that mess." He gives a little shrug. "And we somehow ended with beating up aliens in Manhattan."

[tookthewheel]

"One of the Loki's that is here." he glances at Bruce for confirmation. They don't look completely similar and one of them resides in the same suite as Thor, seemingly without too much conflict.

"Steve told me about the Tesseract before." Together they'd destroyed a number of replicas of the thing that the Capitol had produced for the Avenger's themed store in the mall. "He didn't like it much." or at all, really.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"Yeah. The tall, older one." The one Bruce once splashed a drink in the face of. Yep. No bitterness there.

"None of us liked it much. Loki used it to open a portal and let an alien army into downtown New York." Even the memory makes him grimace. "It wasn't fun trying to fight them all. Tony ended up throwing a nuke through the portal."

[tookthewheel]

Ah, the one who'd announced his presence to the network in some kind of tactical move that Bucky hadn't been able to wrap his head around. He didn't understand the necessity to announce your presence to your opponents, to boast of your skill level and therefore make yourself a target to everyone.

From the sound of it, though, Loki already had a target on himself from the people Bucky considers friends.

"A... nuke." his surprise shows on his face. "You all fought an army, alone?"

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce didn't quite understand it either. Probably something to do with stroking Loki's massive ego, because everything seemed to be about stroking that guy's ego.

"Yeah, a nuke. I'm still not completely sure how Tony got his hands on one." He thinks SHIELD planned on nuking New York, maybe? "We were the only ones around who were even sort of qualified to fight them. I almost didn't come to help, but..." He shrugs. "I figured it was one of those situations even I couldn't make too much worse, and I didn't know if anyone else had survived the hell Loki raised in SHIELD." For all he knew, Steve, Tony, Thor, and Natasha were dead and Clint was still brainwashed. He has no idea what he would have done if he had shown up in New York and he had been the only surviving Avenger to do anything about the invading alien army, but luckily, he doesn't have to worry about it.

[tookthewheel]

Bucky shovels more food into his mouth, letting himself digest that information in the time it took him to chew and swallow. There's clearly a lot of information that he's missing out on. "We should deal with him early in the next arena, then."

If Loki was that much trouble then killing him was a top priority. So far Bucky hadn't really noticed the Asgardian, or come across him, but just hearing that he had caused that much chaos that Bruce had considered the others might be dead for a time is enough to set Bucky on a course. "He's more dangerous than he seems, by your account."

More dangerous than he'd yet shown himself to be in the arena's, at least.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"I would say so. He's dangerous, but it's what he says to you you should worry about. He's better at manipulating situations than direct confrontations. The way he got us was by letting himself be captured with this... alien staff someone had given him. We tried studying it, but it turned out to have some... aggravating effect on people. We were too busy fighting each other to notice when things started going wrong."

Steve tried to pick a fist fight with Tony, Thor started making fun of humanity as a whole, Bruce almost shanked everyone else with the staff... bad times.

Especially considering Bruce can't afford to be angry.

"I think he's less dangerous with human limitations, but try to avoid listening to anything he has to say."

[tookthewheel]

"Then we don't let him talk." Bucky concludes, he spins the dinner knife that's in his right hand for emphasis. He's gotten used to the balance of them since he arrived in the Capitol, as they were the only knives outside the training level that he could have regular access to. Most days Bucky had at least one two stashed up his left sleeve, where the metal arm would interfere with any metal detectors.

Never let it be said that Bucky doesn't take potential threats to his own very seriously. "We kill him from a distance, or quickly enough he can't speak." he can think of a dozen ways to do that just off the top of his head. "I've never spoken to him."

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce will never not be vaguely impressed by Bucky's capacity to find creative ways to hide weapons. He's like a homicidal squirrel. Except more menacing.

"It seems like the best course of action to me. I don't want to see what he thinks up with human limitations." The clever bastard would figure something out. He's not sure what, after showing his hand so early, but Bruce has learned to be wary. "Try to keep it that way. He's not a fun conversationalist."

[tookthewheel]

"Understood." he's fine with that. Bucky is better at killing than talking himself a lot of the time, though he's made valiant attempts to improve his ability at the latter, especially now he has people who actually want him to speak. HYDRA had liked a quiet Asset who only confirmed orders or spoke minimally about the mission, friends on the other hand have very different requirements.

He likes getting to talk.

Bucky refocuses on his plate, clearing it soon enough.