but i did it

All that hooey about symbol of liberty, Fighting American, -- even someone like me could fall for it... [Closed RP blog for Stolen Hope]

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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Ari stood up and hip bumped him playfully. “I know, shouldn’t have said home after that conservation.” She grinned. Someone once told her that home wasn’t a place but a person or people. So Ari had a couple of homes. But she was okay with that.

She touched her arm. “As hot as it would be to see you beat someone to death for me - ” and there was only sincerity in her voice, “- leave them. They ain’t a danger no more.” They would have been caught again by now.

She went on her tippy toes to give his cheek a kiss. She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t want to kill anyone else, at least for today.

[soviet-winter-blog]

"Nah, it's alright," Bucky said. He sniffed and looked around him, surveying the area. Sadly, some of the weapons he'd collected from the vault had gotten blown up with the rest of the facility, but the sniper rifle had survived. He took it off his back and looked at it. It both terrified and amazed him; on one hand, it was scary that Hydra had this technology, on the other, it made him consider kissing a gun, which was just weird. "Home is home, you know? I just need to find mine."

Bucky huffed a laugh. "You've seen me kill plenty of people today already," he said, and once he realised that had came out he gave a light cough. "Sorry," he said. "You shouldn't have seen all that. I asked too much of you. It brought up bad memories, I could tell. I should've gone alone."

The soft warmth of her lips stayed with him even when her touch had left, and Bucky smiled at her, too softly to be the Winter Soldier, but still too guarded to be Bucky Barnes. "I ever tell you that you're a helluva gal?" he asked.

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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His heart set a nice rhythm, almost soothing. She traced circles on his body, listening to him as he spoke. But the cold started to set in.

“It was your home for a while, wasn’t it? For a while I missed the South. I missed the colorfulness of it, in all sense of the word. The warmth and the sun always shining down. But Barbados, not too much.” She admitted.

“Unfortunately I’m not as used to the cold.” She chuckled. “We should be heading back though. We’re too close to them. And both of us need a patch up.” She sat up, giving a shiver. “We’ll be safer home.”

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"Yeah," Bucky mumbled, thinking back to the buzzing of schoolchildren as they poured out of schools on the first day of winter, capturing snowflakes on their tongues. Russia wasn't Russia without snow, so when it arrived, everyone felt the relief, even the Soldier, who wasn't supposed to feel anything. "Almost seventy years. I think they used Moscow as a base of operations, but I remember Berlin too."

Bucky had only been in Barbados once, and the heat nearly killed him. Before the war, he would've loved the sun and hated any slight breeze. It was strange how things changed.

"You're right," he said, pushing himself up off the ground with only minor reluctance. "Home." New York. James Buchanan Barnes was from New York. New York had always been home, until it wasn't. "You hurt?" he asked her, surveying her up and down for any injuries. "Cause if you are, I'm sure there's a few rats that didn't go down with the ship. I could sort them for you, if you wanted."

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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Once he laid down, Ari moved and curled against him. He was exactly soft or warm, but she liked how she fit against him, hand on his abdomen, face near his chest.

“My first winter up north I was on a heist with the king. I had to wear his coat on top of mine. Oh my god, I was swimming in it!” She giggled into his chest. She remembered that. She was eighteen and they were up in Canada. “I’ve gotten a little more used to it.”

She smirked at the mental image. “Did you wear one? The Winter Soldier, big baddie in a fuzzy hat?” She teased, patting his chest.

[soviet-winter-blog]

Bucky's breath hitched a little as Ari moved closer to him. Although he'd known it for a while now, this movement just emphasised how much she was unafraid of him, and perhaps even trusting. His heart was pounding hard, and he hoped she couldn't hear it. The Winter Soldier wasn't supposed to have emotions after a mission, wasn't meant to fell adrenaline bubble through his veins.

"I've only been up North once," Bucky hummed. He'd killed the ... prime minister? A leader, anyway. The terms became blurry in his head. "Closest thing to Russia I can get here. God." He blinked a few times. Had to work himself up to finally say it. "I miss it, sometimes," he admitted. "Moscow, I mean. Volgograd, or whatever it's called now. The Red Square. I know it's insane, but it's..."

He closed his eyes and let out a sigh, smiling slightly at Ari's teasing. "Nah," he huffed. "They said my metabolism was fast enough to keep me warm without stuff like that." He paused for a moment. "They were wrong, but the cold didn't bother me much after the first few missions. Guess I got used to it."

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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Ari closer her eyes with a weak grin as he rubbed her back. She let out a small hum as he did. “Been better, but have had wilder dates.” She joked. She finally sat up, the cold sinking in. She was from the Caribbean, she didn’t do cold.

“Mhm, yea. It took me a while to get use to it, yanno? For fourteen years, I’ve never seen it back home.” She remembered Marzia saying she looked like a puppy in the snow the first time.

She looked at him, noticing the arm on the fritz. “Looks like we both need maintenance.” She hoped Fence could fix it. Apparently he could work any machine.

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The snow was so peaceful, Bucky could almost forget what they had done; how many lives they had just taken, how many times he'd broken the promise to himself that he was out of this game. He hadn't exactly had a choice - or at least, that's how he justified it - but the thing that scared him the most was that his breath had never once gone shaky like it had before every shot in the war. He was as much the Winter Soldier as he had always been.

He lay down in the snow, closing his eyes so that the flakes fell onto his skin. "Sometimes it snowed in Brooklyn," Bucky hummed. "I didn't like it then, or in the war. Got Ma to send me five pairs of socks and wore them all at once."

The arm was still sparking, and he could feel something pulling at his shoulder, the strain of it on his skin. Instead of focusing on the pain, he listened to the gentleness of the snow.

"It always snowed back home," Bucky said, not particularly noticing how he referred to Moscow as home. "It's different here, though. No ushanka in sight."

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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The run was wild. Ari kept about half her mind when shifting into animals. That, along with the energy and pain was reason enough to only use it in emergency. She heard Bucky somewhere ahead of her, but she was focused on running. Running and snapping at the heels of those in her way.

Cheetahs can only run for so long at top speed. But it was just enough for her to collapse on the snow when they got out. She shifted back, laying down and groaning. She was spent.

She watched him put the gun down, and nodded. “I’ll need … A minute. Just let me lay here a second …” She panted.

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They were just far enough away from the base that when it exploded, all that hit them was a gust of dusty air, not unlike the smoke that used to billow out of Bucky’s dad’s cigar. He looked down at the rifle in the snow, abandoned, and then glanced up at the whitened sky. 

Ari seemed exhausted, not even wincing at the coldness of the snow on her back. He dropped onto the ground beside her, pulling his knees to his chest and trying not to wince at the metal arm, which now had wires poking out between the slats. “"You okay?” he asked Ari, placing his hand on her back, fingers sprawled. He rubbed his hand in circles like he used to when Steve was sick. 

God, he'd hated winter then. That seemed impossible to him now.

“The snow,” he murmured. “"Beautiful, ain’t it?” 

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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Ari laughed and shook her head. “I guess I’ve seen weirder mami’s.” She teased. So that was that. She was glad he respected her enough not to argue. She was twenty-one, an adult. She already had a mom and honestly they knew how that worked out. Though she was expecting an earful from Remy and Marzia when she got home. When. Not if.

Always something to discriminate against. This was true. But she didn’t want to discuss anymore about it.

“Deal! But let’s make it quick.” She grinned.

She took a step back bracing herself. Animals always hurt. With a small cry that turned into a meow, she shook off herself. A cheetah stood in place.

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Bucky braced himself; it had been a while since he did this. Most of the time he'd spent on the run had actually been spent walking to the next airport, the next train. Walking to whatever pub he'd decided was his regular spot for that month. He counted to three in his head and shot the grenade into the room, and then took off sprinting down the hall.

In his head, he praised the Russians. Thirteen seconds would be enough to get out, but only barely. He got to the wall and punched through it. It took a few more hits than usual, and it strained more at his shoulder, and he wondered why until he realised the arm was compromised.

It was only then that he looked back at Ari. It was insane; the likeness to a cheetah was exact. The possibilities for infiltration with that power, it was insane.

Behind them, the lab exploded. A few scientists had managed to creep out, and Bucky levelled his rifle at them, but then decided against it. Mercy was more of a choice than brutality was; he was choosing what kind of man he was going to be, and he was planning to be a good one.

"You okay?" he asked Ari.

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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He almost said called her an idiot for staying, but he knew he would've done the same, and he also kind of respected her for it, somewhere deep down amongst him worrying about her.

"The Howlies used to call me Mother Hen," he said with a laugh. "Can't get past it, sweetheart."

If you replaced mutant with another word, Bucky woulda thought she was talking about something else. He supposed that was the way the world always worked, and always had. "There's always someone to discriminate against," Bucky said. "When they start fighting back though, that's when the changes happen."

Cheetah. She could turn into a cheetah. He almost felt faint, but he was stronger than that. He threw her a cocky smile and said, "I could outrun Captain America, so I think I'll be okay."

If he did this - blew up this big of a Hydra base - the good Captain and pigeon-boy would have no trouble tracking him to New York. But he was here now, and he might as well finish what he started.

"The escape plan is run, straight and fast," Bucky said, pointing towards the corridor in front of them. "I'll go first, knock through the wall, then you can follow me through." He angled the grenade launcher. "Ready, doll?" he asked.

[huwebes]

“Is the Winter Soldier the world’s most dangerous assassin that’s ever lived or the world’s longest serving P.O.W.?” Anthony Russo asked. “Is he responsible for his actions since he was turned into the Winter Soldier, or is he innocent by reason of insanity? Where does this character live now? Is he ever going to be acceptable again to Cap in the way he once was, before he was the Winter Soldier? Those are the really complicated relationship questions and philosophical questions and emotional questions that intrigued us moving forward.” (x)

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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Bucky let out a sigh of frustration. In the short time he'd known Ari, he'd learnt that there were few things she valued more than her morals, the codes of conduct she shaped her life around. She was loyal, in many ways, even if she didn't care to admit that to herself.

"Sometimes it's better to leave when things are going to shit," he said, but then something triggered in him, some memory. A burning building; a bridge? A man with a red face. Tightness in his chest. "I wouldn't judge you if you did, but we don't have much time, so if you want to bail, do it now." He was pretty sure that she wouldn't, but if she got hurt or worse, he wanted to look back and say he had tried.

"We never heard much about mutants when I was a kid," Bucky said. "Pretty sure I woulda seen one and didn't know about it. That would come in handy though, right about now." He glanced down at the grande. Soviet made, thankfully, although he felt a little anger on the Russian's part for Hydra pawning off their designs. "This is a Russian grenade, so probably around thirteen seconds," he said. "American grenades are around three to four." He loaded up the launcher. "How fast can you run?" he asked.

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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It was amazing the amount of weapons and ammo Hydra had stockpiled over the years, yet had so far been unable to carry out their master plan. Of course, there were Hydra operatives in every branch of government, which meant it made it particularly difficult to find out what disasters were accidental and which ones had been planned. 

It wasn’t Bucky’s problem, though. He wasn’t an Avenger; he wasn’t anything, come to think of it.

“I’m taking the Glock too,” he said, hooking the pistol onto his belt. “And these knives.” They weren’t particularly intricate or detailed like the ones he’d found in Japan in ‘89, but they were well balanced. “Why do such bad people have such good weapons, fuck’s sake. I don’t wanna respect them.” 

Last time he used a launcher it had been in the S.H.I.E.L.D. base at D.C. (no, it wasn’t, he’d used it on another Hydra base sixteen weeks ago). “If you don’t want blood on your hands,” he said, stopping briefly, “I could do it. You could focus on gettin’ outta here.” He reloaded his rifle. “You’ve got enough damage done to you already.”

Him being nervous about the kill count was absurd; after all, some of the best times in his life had involved looking over at Dum-Dum and comparing kills, and taking the piss out of Gabe for avoiding death if at all possible. He understood where Gabe was coming from now, though, more than he ever could before.

“If we sent a grenade in there,” he said, motioning towards the control room, just adjacent to a chemistry lab, “and another one into the lab, the whole place would flattened.” A man on the floor beside him stirred, and Bucky knocked him out again with a quick kick. “If that’s something we want to do, of course.” 

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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“I’ll be fine. My arm still kills me, but I can walk. I might be slow but I can walk. Plus you can’t get us out and carry me.” She pointed out. She made a face at the the prospects of a doctor. “I’ll be fine.” She repeated.

“I’ll need some muscle. Let’s be quick. Get something to send this place soaring. Let’s act like we have less than ten minutes.” She told this more to herself than anyone else.

Well setting this place in flames only gave the scientist a bit of a timed escape. “Well to be fair, they faced off a good half of the Avengers. There was bound to be some collateral damage.” She shrugged.

Ten minutes at worse. Always prepare for the worse. “We move now. Leave them for now.”

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He noticed her face at the mention of a doctor, and although he understood it (God, how long has he avoided thinking about getting some kind of help?) he could literally feel the worry building up in his chest. He was worse than his Ma in his old age.

"We'll let the professionals decide that," he replied evenly, but he didn't have time to argue his point more strongly. They probably did have less than ten minutes if the scientist did something stupid, but both of them specialised in acting quickly. They got into the weapons lab and Bucky allowed himself to marvel for just a second.

"Oh darling," he said, picking one of the bigger rifles off the wall. "She is so beautiful. I'm taking this one for home." He slung it over his shoulder. It was a bit heavy, especially with his arm being a bit messed up, but he could cope. "There's some launchers up there, and I got a few grenades on my belt. I think if we launched them at the right labs, the chemicals would explode and do most of the job for us."

He stopped and looked around at the people, chewing at the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood. They were Hydra; he knew more than anyone how awful they could be. He knew they were monsters, but then again, everyone had thought that of him at a time as well, and he might not be a hero, but he wasn't a villain, either.

"You're right," he said. She was usually right, he was finding that out pretty quickly. "The Howlies took out a lot of Hydra during the war. This is just another mission, right?"

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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She was right, but that didn’t make it hurt less. He’d outlived his usefulness; he wasn’t sure what Hydra would use the Winter Soldier for, but he’s sure it wouldn’t be good. “Yeah, I know,” he said, frowning. “Only thing is, he would be more help to you gettin’ out of here than I would be. It’s a lot easier to kill everyone here than just knock ‘em out, especially when they all come around again.”

A strange smile crossed Bucky’s face at that suggestion, something almost close to excitement. “Ma always said I was a bit of a pyromaniac,” he said. “And it would be a bit like old times, blowing up a Hydra base. Yeah, let’s do it, sweetheart.” He had a few grenades on him, but they might need bigger.

“The experiments wrecked their throats,” Bucky explained. Raina winced at his words; yet more proof she wasn’t deaf. “I didn’t know much about it, but I think it was some kinda botched version of the serum.” He would probably regret what he was about to do, but he did it anyway. He threw Raina a small pistol. “Get outta here,” he told her. She stared at the both of them with wide eyes. “But if you try callin’ for help, I ain’t afraid to kill you right this time.”

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She reached up and kissed his cheek. “I’m good with any of you trying to help me.” She pulled away slightly, testing her legs. She sighed and stood up now. “I’ll be more useful now.”

She was happy he agreed. They’ll need something strong though. “Is there an armory in this base?” A launcher would be nice.

She felt pity for Raina, even more so after she was free she watched her go. “You think that was smart?” Probably not. But it was merciful. But now they needed to get out. “How long before back up comes?”

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He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. "They did a right number on your arm. And the shocks-" He cut himself off, his voice getting thick. "We need to get you some help. The second we're outta here, I'm draggin' you to a doctor, you hear?"

When he closed his eyes, he could faintly recall the outline of the base that he'd looked at beforehand. "Yeah, it's only a few doors down," he told her. "I'll let you have the honours, if you want."

"Hell no," he admitted. "She's probably one of the worst of them, if she was chosen for serum testing. They always wanted killing machines. From my reports, there wasn't usually collateral damage." He paused. "D.C. was an exception." He glanced down at his watch. "They shoulda been here already," he said. "But if no one else called for assistance, it might be another ten, fifteen minutes before they figure out something's wrong, if we're lucky."

Hydra agents still lined the corridor, most of them groaning lowly as they came through. "What do we do about them?" Bucky asked. "Do we leave them?" On one hand: Hydra. On another hand: more blood on both of their hands.

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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She was right, but that didn’t make it hurt less. He’d outlived his usefulness; he wasn’t sure what Hydra would use the Winter Soldier for, but he’s sure it wouldn’t be good. “Yeah, I know,” he said, frowning. “Only thing is, he would be more help to you gettin’ out of here than I would be. It’s a lot easier to kill everyone here than just knock ‘em out, especially when they all come around again.”

A strange smile crossed Bucky’s face at that suggestion, something almost close to excitement. “Ma always said I was a bit of a pyromaniac,” he said. “And it would be a bit like old times, blowing up a Hydra base. Yeah, let’s do it, sweetheart.” He had a few grenades on him, but they might need bigger.

“The experiments wrecked their throats,” Bucky explained. Raina winced at his words; yet more proof she wasn’t deaf. “I didn’t know much about it, but I think it was some kinda botched version of the serum.” He would probably regret what he was about to do, but he did it anyway. He threw Raina a small pistol. “Get outta here,” he told her. She stared at the both of them with wide eyes. “But if you try callin’ for help, I ain’t afraid to kill you right this time.”

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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An extraction mission. He'd done plenty of those before, back when Vasily overestimated the KGB's strength in relation to their enemies. Bucky put his head around the door to look, seeing no sign of reinforcements yet, though it was only a matter of time. "Gives me something to look forward to," he said. Her correction made his smile waver. He briefly brushed their hands together. "Hey," he said. "If push comes to shove, Hydra wants me alive." He kept the fact that Pierce had said assassinating Captain America was to be his last mission. "They don't have the same sentiments about you. They'll experiment on you, or worse, they'll make you like me."

Ari was injured, though she was trying hard to conceal it. First stop after here would be a hospital; no, first it would be her boss. What had she told the king about Bucky? Had she told him anything at all?

"Might be a stray head that no one's cut off yet," he murmured. "D.C. worried them. I don't think they expected Rogers and the Widow to survive, or me. Kind of put a dent in their plans." He glanced over at Raina, who might've been giving him cheek, he couldn't tell, in which case he felt some kind of respect for her, despite the whole Nazi thing. "Nah," he said. "She can hear me perfectly fine, can't you sweetheart?" Raina didn't flip him off, but she looked like she wanted to.

"If I'm guessin' correctly, she was with Leviathan." Raina did not reply, even when he signed. "They probably removed her larynx, though they only did that in the forties after the experiments went wrong."

Bucky felt a wave of guilt - quickly becoming his most common emotion - and immediately put his arm around Ari's waist. "Hey, you okay?" he asked. "Don't be fainting on me or nothin', I need both hands for the rifle." Still holding onto Ari, he glanced over at Raina, who was making a move towards the door. "Don't think about it," he told her. "You know anythin' bout my arm?"

She shook her head. Bucky looked over at Ari, an eyebrow raised as if to say, 'Any ideas?'

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Dog Days - Open Starter

[elderofknowhere]

“You are a special case today. I tend to stay to myself and keep out of the public eye. I had business in the area today though so I am walking the streets like so many others are.” He was just a private person and had been for a long time. 

“I hope you get to the place you need to be. I don’t think the conditions are going to change anytime soon out here.” Even he was starting to feel a slight chill. He had no real place to be at though today.

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Bucky once again checked that the money was in his back pocket, a habit he’d had since Brooklyn when there were more pickpockets than workers around the streets. “Oh yeah?” he said, slightly interested. The man had the air about him like he wasn’t from around here, but he still fit in better than Bucky did. “I know how that feels, buddy. Bit hard to stay incognito with all those cameras about, though.”

The world just seemed to have gotten more paranoid since the forties. Bucky supposed it was with good reason, though he’d missed out a lot of the reasons when he’d been in cyrofreeze. “What kind of business?” he asked, knowing if the man asked him the same, he’d have to lie. He was intrigued to see whether the man would do the same, though.

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

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“Tell you the truth, I have no idea what I’m into,” he said. “Last person I was with, I was in between cyro, and my head was all over the place. Before that, everything just gets kinda fuzzy when it comes to that sort of thing.” He shook his head. “But we need to be focusing on getting you out of here. And I’m definitely gettin’ riled up about it.”

He tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear, allowing his hand to linger just a little. “They hurt you because of me.” If he hadn’t been determined to take Hydra down, one head at a time, before, he definitely was now. He glanced down at where she had stashed the vibranium with a smirk, but then he grew concerned. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he said. “Hydra’s not usually this ... lacking. Maybe they’ve just gone to shit since I’ve left, who knows.”

Another groan came from behind them. It was Raina The Scientist, her head bleeding, reaching out for the red distress button on the wall. She was so weak that Bucky could just walk over to her and grab her hand to stop her, and she didn’t even fight back. 

“Thought you were dead,” he said to her, in a tone he didn’t quite recognise. Her breathing was so shallow he must’ve missed it. 

He hadn’t killed her. Sometimes good things did happen, if not killing a Hydra scientist who probably deserved it was a good thing.

“How do we get her out of the collar?” he asked Raina. She did not reply. He sighed and signed it to her, just in case she was deaf as well, though he knew she wasn’t. “Seriously. Cut me a break here,” he said. “You don’t think you fuckers did enough to me?”

Raina glanced over at Ari, and then back at Bucky with fire in her eyes. He wasn’t quite sure if she was reluctant when she went over to the collar, but she was somewhere in that zone.

“Can’t get the staff these days,” Bucky teased to Ari. 

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Burning the Necks || Ari&&Bucky

[soviet-winter-blog]

"You say that as if you wouldn't be willing to do that with me," he said, perhaps a bit more daring than Bucky would've been, but less so than the Soldier. "I want that Chewbacca mask too. Either for Stella or me."

Ari indulged him, probably more than she should. He knew himself that his jokes were fucking awful, but they were the best he had in a bad situation. He'd make up for it with worse puns later. Ari usually laughed at puns.

A muscle in Bucky's jaw twitched. "You know something?" he said. "I fuckin' hate Hydra. Not sure if I've said that before-" He'd definitely said it before, many times, in the trenches, but not this century, "-but Hydra are a bunch of..." He didn't want to kill them, he did. Did it matter?

"Hey, don't blame yourself," he said. "I have a feeling something else is going on. They had the biggest dumbasses on the door, looked for the sniper like some kind of amateur. And there were more scientists than soldiers too. It's kind of like the places they used to keep me. Not sure why they had the vibranium here, but if they made smart decisions, they woulda won the war."

"Not sure if that terrifies or excites me," he admitted. A lot like most of the things about Ari, if he was being honest. "Do you not know me at all?" he teased, his voice raised in mock shock. "No, but seriously. I didn't want to kill anyone today. Pretty sure I got them all before reinforcements came."

It was a lie. They had about ten minutes before Hydra realised one of their bases had gone off the grid. It would be touch and go, but hopefully they'd get out, and Ari wouldn't need to know the difference.

"Can you come with me, or are you attached?" he asked, surveying the collar.