Jane Buchanan Barnes

“Which first?” Jane asked. “Find the Widow, find Rumlow, or find Zemo?”

It would help to have Natasha on their side in their search for Rumlow and Zemo both. There was no question that Natasha might betray them back to HYDRA; after all, she’d nearly died trying to take HYDRA down. The bigger question was whether she’d turn them in to what was left of SHIELD. And Jane’s gut said that the answer to that question was no.

At least, she hoped it was her gut. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. But the look in the Black Widow’s eyes when they’d faced each other in DC had been one not of fear, but of pain, as though fighting the Winter Soldier was causing her anguish.

She remembered. Jane was sure of it.

Draining the last of the whiskey, she said, “I think we could use Rumlow. Kill him and use his death as a trail to lead Zemo into a trap. Whaddaya say, pal?”

“Widow first. She knows current era better than us.” No matter the era, it was risky to depend on a spy. Their allegiances could be to a bigger picture, zoomed out to a sky rather than a flag. Romanova could sell them out to someone she believed would help. She may not. Rogers was willing to take that chance based on Jane’s gut. Hardly any other person would be trusted with her life. Jane was as skilled at her own craft as Rogers was at his. Call him an old fashioned man. Rogers only had Jane.

He would rain hell down on anyone who tried to lock them down or separate them again.

THIS IS FEM!BUCKY BTW🥲🥲🥲

Bucky took the bowl gratefully, the warmth of it seeping into her hands, and when she got a whiff of the aroma, it took all her self-control not to gobble it down in one gulp. After the starvation rations that they’d all been on in that damn factory, she knew full well that if she ate too quickly she’d just throw it right back up.

“Best oatmeal of my life,” she said after swallowing her first spoonful, feeling it warm her from the inside out. “That sainthood is deserved, Stel.” She couldn’t even remember the last time that something she’d eaten had tasted so delicious. Probably the hot dogs she and Stella had eaten at the Stark Expo the night before she’d shipped out. Everything since then had been either army rations or the stale bread and sour-tasting water the prisoners had been forced to survive on – or die on – in that HYDRA hellhole.

She was still in a lot of pain, bruised and battered and far too thin, but right now she was just enjoying the fact that she was still alive, enjoying her oatmeal, relieved to be out of that factory and happy to see her best friend, even if Stella looked significantly different than she had the last time Bucky had seen her.

God, she hoped they would let her wash today. She was still in the shirt Gabe had given her weeks ago, not to mention the trousers she’d been wearing when her unit had been captured. Both were crusted with blood and filth, and she was itching to get clean.

First though, she had some questions. She took another bite of oatmeal, marshaling her thoughts, and finally said, “You gonna tell me how you ended up growin’ three times bigger and showin’ up in the middle of Austria with a set of workin’ lungs? ‘Cause I gotta say, I am real damn curious to hear this.”

She was trying hard not to sound accusing, but she couldn’t completely keep the edge out of her voice. Seeing Stella like this beggared belief. Add in the hallucinations brought on by the doctor’s concoctions and that Schmidt fellow peeling off his own face over a pit of flames, and she felt like she’d spent the past few weeks stuck in some kind of hellish fever dream.

Being alive was swell. Bucky being alive had Stella’s smile, watching like a mother hen over Bucky’s spoon against the bowl, noting the way she held herself, and the first bite of oatmeal. They had been in this position before; Stella sick in bed, Bucky at her bedside. Stella relishing having taste back, when simple food tasted like what the Rockefellers would have.

Before Bucky had been drafted, the only warfare they had been exposed to was children defending their blocks with rocks, bricks, and debris and memories of their fathers’ war in bottles and old men on the street corners with missing limbs and broken faces. How Stella had scoured newsreels and papers for signs of her sister and home over there. Her worry whispered – she had found Bucky isolated. What sick experiments had the doctor done to Bucky?

Pulled away from the whisper, Stella laughed. There she was! Bawling Stella out for another harebrained activity. ‘Joined the Army’ wasn’t going to cut mustard!

“Right.” She glanced down at herself, expecting her own scrawny form in her WAC uniform. Tired, sore legs longer than Katharine Hepburn’s stretched under Bucky’s cot. “I did change. Doesn’t feel like it when I’m with you.” Sharp ears listened. Guards were posted further away; nurse on duty turned her Bible’s pages. Gesturing to the bowl, “Eat. I’ll talk.”

Leaning forward, she kept her voice low. “After we went our ways at the Stark Expo, I met a doctor.” Stella’s artistic mind, sharpened by the Serum, held up Sergeant Barnes saluting Corporal Rogers in her WAC uniform and the Bucky in front of her. Yes, this was her sister, sickly and abused, one of the survivors.

“A good one.” Lump gathered in her throat. Dr. Erskine had been a part of her life for a short time; in some ways, he was her father, recreating her. “He asked why I wanted to go overseas. Told him I wanted to do my part. Next thing I know, he was telling me I was being offered a chance at a different position. Turns out, they were wanting to create a unit of super soldiers to beat Axis. They’ve got...The Skull.” Confirming hellfire and a man ripping a perfectly good face off was real.

“We were put through physical and mental tests. Loads of strong guys with nothin’ goin’ on between their ears. Brilliant gals but….” Shaking her head, “People started droppin’ out. Some thought it’d be a ‘who was the toughest’ type of test. Dr. Erskine picked me. Told me the serum amplified what was in a person. ‘Good becomes great; bad becomes worse.’”

That all went out the window when Rikki learned he was HYDRA, and then she thought of John.

As she put her groceries away, she listened, turn to look at the elder Barnes, but she was listening. Putting the last of the refrigerated and frozen foods away, she emptied the bags of anything else. Dish soap, paper towel, a candy bar for Andi to feed Silence later.

Finally, when Bucky asked Rikki why she didn't just come to her, Rikki looked at her. Not stone faced. Not hurt. But...

"He's not gonna reprogram me," Bucky said, keeping her voice calm and even. "I get why you're worrying, but you don't gotta, I promise. He couldn't even if he wanted to, 'cause he doesn't know how. He's a trauma surgeon. Damn good when it comes to bodies, but brains are way outside his wheelhouse. And before you start frettin' again, he won't call anybody who can do that, either. If he didn't hand me back over to HYDRA when I was unconscious on his bathroom floor with six bullets in me, he sure as hell ain't gonna do it now."

And the was really the crux of the matter, wasn't it? Whatever else Yuri might have done -- and both God and Bucky knew that he'd been involved in some nasty shit -- the fact remained that when a newly-escaped Jane Barnes had turned up in his kitchen, severely injured and on the verge of bleeding out, he had helped her. He had treated her wounds, and kept her hidden while she healed, and he'd been passing useful information to her ever since.

He wasn't a good man. No one who had willing given HYDRA over than fifty years of his life could be a good man. But he had one principle, one line that he believed should never be crossed, and when he'd realized that not only had HYDRA crossed it, but that he, though unknowing, had also played no small role in that crossing, he had stood by that principle. Bucky Barnes had been a prisoner, not a volunteer, and that meant that when it came to her versus HYDRA, he was firmly on her side.

Prompts for stages of a relationship. Feel free to change any pronouns as needed and adjust however necessary. Some may be usfw.

ACQUAINTANCES

❛ I swear I’ve seen you before, probably in a dream, or a mugshot. ❜

❛ Is this the part where we shake hands or just nod awkwardly? ❜

❛ You’re not as scary as people said. Yet. ❜

❛ We’ve met before, right? ❜

❛ I will forget your name in five minutes but I will never forget your aura. ❜

❛ Sorry, I don’t think I caught your name last time. ❜

❛ You seem familiar. Do I know you from somewhere? ❜

❛ Sorry, I’m terrible with names. I’ll probably call you “Hey you” forever. ❜

❛ So are we strangers, or is this the part where we overshare? ❜

❛ If we end up on a group project together, I’m not doing the PowerPoint. ❜

❛ So… what do you do? ❜

❛ I’ve heard about you, but this is our first time talking. ❜

❛ I don’t know much about you, honestly. ❜

❛ Wow, you talk. I thought you were just a background extra. ❜

❛ How do you already look like you’re over this conversation? ❜

❛ Don’t take this the wrong way, but I can’t tell if we’d get along or kill each other. ❜

❛ It’s weird finally putting a face to the name. ❜

❛ If you had to pick one Pokémon that describes your vibe, which one is it? ❜

❛ Do you come here often? ❜

❛ Oh cool, another NPC come to give me a side quest. ❜

❛ You look like you have main character energy but, like, season one when everything’s still a mess. ❜

❛ Small world, huh? ❜

❛ Sorry if I seem awkward, I’m not great with strangers. ❜

❛ You look like you know what you’re doing. ❜

❛ Wait, is this the start of a rom-com or a crime documentary? ❜

❛ You seem like someone who knows where the snacks are. ❜

❛ I have no idea who you are but I respect your vibe. ❜

❛ Are you new around here? ❜

❛ It’s nice to finally meet in person. ❜

❛ We don’t really know each other yet, but… I think we could get along. ❜

❛ Well, that was an interesting first impression. ❜

❛ Do you mind if I sit here? ❜

❛ I feel like I should know more about you than I do. ❜

❛ So… do we pretend we don’t know each other, or do we pretend we do? ❜

❛ Wait, are you the person I thought was a coat rack last week? ❜

❛ Oh, you’re taller than I imagined in my head. ❜

❛ You don’t look like a serial killer. That’s a good start. ❜

[SPILL] – Sender bumps into receiver and spills their coffee.

[WRONG NAME] – Sender accidentally calls receiver by the wrong name and freezes.

[DROP] – Sender drops something right at receiver’s feet and stumbles trying to pick it up.

[BRUSHED OFF] – Sender flinches when receiver brushes past without noticing.

[HESITANT] – Sender hesitates before offering a hand to help receiver up.

FRIENDS

❛ Congratulations, you’ve officially made my list of “people I tolerate.” ❜

❛ If we get arrested, I’m blaming you. ❜

❛ I like hanging out with you. ❜

❛ You always make the day a little better. ❜

❛ That was fun, we should do it again sometime. ❜

❛ Want to grab something to eat? My treat. ❜

❛ You’re so easy to talk to. ❜

❛ Honestly, I didn’t expect us to get along this well. ❜

❛ Why do we always end up in weird situations together? ❜

❛ If we had a sitcom, it’d be canceled after one episode. ❜

❛ I don’t know if we’re friends or just two people who roast each other a lot. ❜

❛ You make me laugh so much it’s suspicious. ❜

❛ I can’t believe we just spent three hours talking about nothing. ❜

❛ It’s been a while! I missed this. ❜

❛ You always know how to cheer me up. ❜

❛ Why do you always know what I’m thinking? ❜

❛ Let’s do something spontaneous. ❜

❛ Don’t worry, I already told everyone we’re a package deal. ❜

❛ You know I’d never let anyone else see me like this, right? ❜

❛ Okay, but if we’re friends, I get the cool nickname rights. ❜

❛ I trust you, you know? ❜

❛ You’re a good friend. ❜

❛ Thanks for always being there. ❜

❛ I don’t laugh like this with anyone else. ❜

❛ I feel like I can be myself with you. ❜

❛ You’re stuck with me now. ❜

❛ You know I only text you because I’m bored, right? ❜

❛ Okay, let’s go make some bad decisions together. ❜

❛ Wow you're a disaster. You're lucky you’re my favorite disaster. ❜

❛ I’d fight a raccoon for you. Not a bear. But a raccoon. ❜

❛ I volunteer us to be the comedic relief in someone else’s tragic backstory. ❜

❛ You’re my favorite clown, and I mean that with love. ❜

❛ We’re not a duo. We’re a legally recognized natural disaster. ❜

❛ Stop making me laugh in serious situations. People think I’m unstable. ❜

[PHOTO BOMB] – Sender leaps into receiver’s selfie at the last second.

[MESSY HUG] – Sender hugs receiver but picks them up and spins them around

[ANNOYING SONG] – Sender sings obnoxiously loud right in receiver’s ear.

[CARE PACKAGE] – Sender leaves something on receiver’s desk/doorstep without a note.

[LINGERING GOODBYE] – Sender takes a little too long to say goodbye.

[SHUTTER] – Sender snaps a candid photo of receiver and laughs when caught.

"...Well, all right," Bucky said, after sizing Clark up for another long moment. "I mean, like I said before, you're still Clark Kent, right? Pretty sure you ain't even kissed a gal yet. You're too much of a gentleman."