Many Other Musings of Mine

"No," Ben admitted gruffly, really having paid no attention to the Winter Soldier marching out of the Baxter building, as Johnny let out a hum in thinking what he could do next, "but you don't gotta find the Winter Soldier, you just gotta find Slimey, right? And if you want to find Slimey, ya might wanna have a chat with Spidey."

".... Good point. Thanks, Ben. Mind tossing me a headstart?"

"No problem, and sure," Ben said with a wide grin, before tossing Johnny back on his way like little more than a basketball. While soaring through the air in his fire form, Johnny very casually dialed a number on the flame proof communication device strapped around his wrist like a watch, waiting for the ‘Hello?’ on the other end and smirking when the call was indeed answered. “I figured you would be in your lab when you shouldn’t be.” “I would consider that lucky, since you apparently need me, what’s up?” Spider-Man’s voice truly was one Johnny always appreciated, full of an endless energy that matched his own, even when it dropped into a more concerned; “wait, why did Venom just pass by the windows?”

“Yeah, about that,” Johnny started wryly, trying not to give away too much about the situation he found himself in, “you happen to know where he’s going?” “Seems like he’s going away from the Avengers tower, to the newly built skyscraper. You know, the one that oversees Roosevelt Island Bridge? Hey, but, wait a minute, do you need help, I need to-”

“No you don’t. You have a date with MJ, and if you cancel that again she is going to kill you; rightfully so might I add!” Johnny barked, before softening into a more serious tone, “I can handle this, Peter. Just worry about not pissing your girlfriend off for once if you don’t want her to put you in the recycling bin.” “But I-“

“Bye, Spidey,” Johnny drew out the bye on purpose, ending the call as soon as the last letters left his mouth so his best friend couldn’t continue the argument and swerving his way to go towards the building Spider-man had mentioned. “Hang in there, Bucky, fire brigade’s on the way.”

-

"It is not often we are the one people wait for on an abandoned rooftop."

Bucky could feel the slightest shiver running down his spine as the deep, booming voice of the symbiote spoke while Venom seemed to materialize out of the darkness that surrounded the rooftop on this moonless night. He just turned towards the symbiote

"I need your opinion on something," Bucky said matter-a-factly, "because I am sick of going around in circles with people who don’t know what’s… look, the being Hydra put in me; is it a Klyntar Symbiote? You said before that you sensed familiar darkness within me; I need you to tell me if it’s because this.. thing, is the same species as you."

"Unlikely. It is far harder for a symbiote to protect its host from the inside than it is from the outside, we work better as a shield for our host than we do an internal guard," Venom said, holding a clawed hand out to Bucky and gesturing at him to come closer, "but if you wish, we can check what you harbor within you."

He shouldn't offer his hand. He knew fully well that he was putting himself in a situation his gun wasn’t going to get him out of; and his bionic arm might not either. Yet Bucky could feel his own hesitation, his own worry about what the answer was actually going to be and how it would drive him crazy to remain ignorant of what Hydra had put in him. And, in all honesty, part of him doubted if he should trust what Venom had to say on the matter; but he had run out of options. Slowly extending his arm towards the symbiote, he willed the plates of his metal arm to open and...

Nothing. The being inside remained dormant, not showing itself to either the man it was attached to nor the symbiote in front of it, to the point Bucky raised an eyebrow.

"Uh... that's never happened before. Usually it can't wait to start waving its tendrils around when I open up-"

Even through his metallic arm Bucky could feel the pressure, the raw force of Venom's clawed hand locking around the lower part and how it was sharply twisted to expose the parts around the elbow. He couldn't tell what hissed, the creature within or he himself as one of Venom's nail tendrils clawed its way in through one of the openings in the metallic plates, pulling a singular tentacle to view.

"Hm. Fascinating."

"I really wish people would stop saying that," Bucky said through gritted teeth as he tried to bite back the searing pain the creature within sent through the metallic arm, a sinking feeling emerging in his stomach as he saw the tentacle desperately try to wriggle out of the symbiote's grasp.

"Now that we have finally gotten a chance to properly examine your situation... Your little friend not a Symbiote. It is an inhabitant of Cylcarro, an insignificant watery rock pulled into Klyntar's orbit. It is salty, it is wet, and it is full of creatures such as this one; a Kraelen."

The tentacle wriggled harder, swatting around itself to try and hit the symbiote in the hopes it would let go. Watching the scene for a moment, Bucky swore he could feel his heart freeze for a moment as a terrifying realization hit him like a freight train; ".. It's scared of you."

"As it should be.” The twisted smile of the Symbiote in front of him did nothing to alleviate the growing anxiety within,  “Kraelen are to Symbiotes as the Sea King's summoned squids are to you humans; delectable."

Bucky knew fully well there was no way he was pulling himself out of Venom's grip, and yet he still made the effort to try, planting his feet as firmly as he could to be a counter weigh to the force on his arm.

"Venom, let me go. This was not part of our deal," Bucky could feel himself get paler as Venom's maw split open and rows upon rows of sharp teeth became visible. Bucky then heard himself beg, fear ravaging through his chest like he hadn't felt in a long time; "Eddy, I know you're in there, please, don't do this-“

A ball of flames hit Venom in the side of his head, and with an animalistic roar the Symbiote snapped his attention to the source of the fire.

"Oy, slimeball, did nobody tell you my friends and acquaintances aren't viable menu options?!"

"Johnny!" Bucky's relief was short lived as Venom easily pulled him forward, completely overruling the counterweight Bucky was trying to offer, "he won't let go of me!"

With the row of teeth way too close for comfort, Bucky only managed to yelp out a cry for help. On that command, Johnny pelted the symbiote with more fire, hitting him square in the jaw and in the arm that was clutching on to his supposed prey. In an angry howl, Venom let go of Bucky just to try and get Johnny instead.

"You are an irritating pest, flame man!"

"You're not the first to tell me that, but I think you're just mad Spider-Man likes me better than you!"

Having created a literal line of fire to keep Venom and Bucky separated from each other, Johnny made Venom back off further with well-timed fire balls until he had created enough of a gap to slip in between and whisk Bucky away in flight. With how fast Johnny was Venom couldn't grab him, and their true victory was the annoyed howl of the Symbiote as Johnny flew off carrying Bucky back towards the Baxter building.

"Please don't drop me, I don't think my eldritch horror arm can help me survive a fall from this high," Bucky muttered, trying to feign that his heart wasn’t anxiously beating somewhere in the back of his throat

"Relax, I won't drop you; other than off at the Baxter building where hopefully Strange has reestablished his little travel portal. Otherwise I might have to use you as a bargaining chip to get Reed back."

"You want to go back home without Reed already by your side on the off chance Strange has reestablished contact?"

"What do you want me to do, man, go straight to the Sanctorum instead? Strange won't let me into the building since I'm "too reckless" and a "danger to his artifacts" or more nonsense like that. If he knows what’s good for him, he'll have reestablished contact. If he doesn't bring Reed back home, it’s not me he has to worry about."

".... It's Sue," Bucky remarked.

"Exactly." Bucky looked down silently, lightly twisting the metal wrist towards himself as he noticed the hair tie was still on there. He knew that once he got back, he really had to return this to its owner… and speak with him.

-

"Hey."

One of Hawkeye's hazel eyes opened to look towards the voice in his medbay room. Bucky wandered over, taking one of the chairs along with him to sit down besides the bed as he softly continued; "heard you made Reed think he hurt you,"

"Mhh," Clint hummed dismissively, "completely my own fault, really. It's really stupid that my muscles are more mad about the healing process than they seemingly were about getting smashed with an iron pipe."

"Adrenalin is one hell of a drug," Bucky mumbled, his eyes dropping down to his bionic arm. He would know; he had been through plenty of things where he guaranteed it was only the adrenalin that had kept him from keeling over. Well, and maybe spite.

"I...." Bucky started softly, voice trailing off as soon as he tried to speak the words he did feel the need to say. Clint's slightly expectant stare didn't make things any easier in that regard.

"... Did you get the answers you were looking for?" Clint decided to break the silence himself

"Yes," Bucky answered, "It’s a Kraelen, from Cylcarro apparently. I left the two docs to start an argument amongst themselves for what this means for me.” Awkward silence lingered in the air as Bucky mentally kicked himself for not addressing the elephant in the room, taking the hair tie of his mechanic arm in an uneasy fashion and placing it on the nightstand by the bed until he managed to find his voice again; “I'm.... look, Clint.. I'm sorry. Everything just.. got too much, I didn't-"

"Eh, its fine. Some help I was, letting everyone hound you like they did. Just... don't run off on your own next time, alright? Someone's gotta keep an eye on you out there, and I’d prefer if it wasn’t the reckless firecracker."

Bucky's expression softened to gratitude, but it quickly furrowed into worry as Clint stared at the ceiling with a deep, annoyed sigh. It was only in that moment where Bucky truly noticed how tired his friend really was.

"... You really need some rest," he gently observed.

"Yeah, well, unless you tell Strange to turn his entire security portal system off, that's not happening. I can't focus on anything but the buzzing."

"... You can hear that?" Bucky asked genuinely, as Clint tapped his left side hearing aid with his good hand and an affirmative hum, making Bucky look over to the little device and spotting a rather familiar mark, "ah, it's Stark tech. No wonder; Tony's not satisfied until anything he puts out does the job too well."

Another soft hum of agreement, but then Clint lightly turned his head away from Bucky and the conversation. Bucky tilted his head slightly in confusion.

"... I've.. been meaning to take them out and get some rest, but... I don't know about you, but despite this being a safe haven for people like us it doesn't exactly scream "comforting hotel", does it? Or Is it just me?"

Bucky looked around the room, the darkness of nightfall only adding to Clint's claims as the shadows painted shapes over the room. In this silence even he could hear the magic at work when he focused and filtered out the general creaking of the building: it did sound almost like a haunted abode.

"No, it's not just you," he assured softly, "I've been in military bootcamps more comfortable than this."

That at least made Hawkeye snort slightly in amusement, before he stared at the end of the bed he was laying on and softly asked; "... Would.... Would you mind staying here?"

Bucky blinked at the soft request, eyebrows slightly raising in surprise when Clint very deliberately didn’t make eye contact with him after asking. The wall next to him surely couldn’t have that interesting a pattern for Clint to be distracted by it in the middle of a conversation.

"It's just... something would have to be really brave or really stupid to try and get past you. I'd feel...." Clint’s voice trailed off for a moment, "I- never mind, it's not important."

"I'll stay. If it'll help you get some rest, it is important."

That was all it took for Clint to make eye contact with Bucky, gratitude shining within as he slowly took out his hearing aids and placed them in the drawer of the tiny nightstand next to his bed. He mouthed a silent "thank you" towards Bucky, before using a slower version sign language to relay the rest of his message while not aggravating his injuries

"... Good night?" Bucky guessed more from context clues rather than his knowledge of sign language- making a silent mental note to himself to look into the language more. Clint just nodded, before allowing himself to sink back into the bed and close his eyes. Bucky felt the slightest bit of a smile curl the very edges of his mouth, his heart softening just the slightest bit. It was almost unbelievable to think Clint trusted him enough to keep watch while he slept without his hearing aids.