@iernat || a meme somewhere in this tag || and i’m too lazy to find it rn.
[ guard ] for your muse to step between my muse and danger
They’ve been on the run as fugitives for what feels like forever. Feels like only so much they can do from the shadows. Always disappearing before their location’s found. Always in hiding. Whether it be in sanctuaries of distant countries that no one’s tracked them to yet. Or blending among the masses in overcrowded cities where their faces are a blur among many.
Steve tells himself that pulling those who came with him along isn’t going to land them on his list forever. That they are fighting towards something because that something is coming and having their hands tied would only end up with a future none of them wanted. Bowing to whatever threat might come their way and take everything they’ve fought for (and lost so much in sacrifice towards) and crumple it up like a piece of scratch paper before tossing it in the bin.
He can’t settle for that. No one who knows him would expect him to. Truly knows him. Down to his bones. Just like the way his current company does. Bucky’s put himself in danger by meeting him here. He’s safer in lands where no one can reach him. And, yet, they’ve met again--outside that protection--and he’s put Bucky in the position of having to lie just to see his face. Be near him. Have him close. Because they’ve barely begun to touch up and now this fight has kept those moments so minimal that it isn’t fair.
Steve listens to Bucky spinning a story to whomever’s coming calling on the phone for him. Listens to the tale he tells to give them one more day, two maybe. If they’re lucky. And then they’ll part for a while (how long, Steve’s never sure). Teeth chew against the inside of his bottom lip and he hears the call end, hears Bucky coming out of the other room. He shakes his head, blue eyes connecting with Bucky’s from where he’s kept his head bowed. A small, sour smile plastered on his lips. “Thank you. For that,” a sigh and he deflates, “And I know I might sound like a broken record but--I’m sorry you had to do that. That I put you in this position.”
