you better hope he's a myth

𝙴𝚇𝙿𝙻𝙾𝚁𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝙼𝙴𝚂 𝚂𝚄𝙲𝙷 𝙰𝚂 … , 𝑩ody horror , ptsd , mind control programs , the machinery of war , the "perfect soldier" myth , memory and fragmentation , cold war paranoia , coming back wrong. 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

[𝑩]𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼𝗱 𝗒𝗈𝗎'𝗋𝖾 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝖿𝗈𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗍 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗿

𝗻𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 : DIRECTIVES. ¹ PROFILE. ² PROMPTS. ³ EDITS. ⁴ BOARD. ⁵ ADDITIONAL READING. ⁶ USFW. ⁷

| | | | RE: PROMPT , STATUS: ACCEPTING.

𝙱ack then is not a place ──── it's a graveyard. it's half-decayed memories, it's long corridors and the footsteps of ballerinas. the copper scent of blood after training, red hair tucked behind her ear as she stripped a makarov faster than anyone else in the room.

half of him hates himself for remembering her in that goddamn place but it's part of her. part of him, stitched into the seams of them both. all the jobs where they were paired together. fake names and fake backstories. cheap motel rooms where neither of them touched the bed until the job was done, restless nights and her hands against his skin. trains cutting through eastern europe beneath winter skies. the machine wasn't built for tenderness — but natalia found traces of it beneath the programming all the same: he cleaned the blood from her hands before it had a chance to dry. checked her magazines without saying a word. took the angle that would draw fire first.

██ █ █ 𝚂omewhere beneath the conditioning, she lingered. ❪ muscle remembers what memory forgets. the trigger. the recoil. the shape of body beneath his own. ❫

██ █  ██ … ⤹ JAMES BUCHANAN BARNES :

bucky has an incredible spice tolorance ✓

bucky can't sit in a chair properly ✘

bucky is great with kids ✓

if bucky was presented with an intergalactic portal, they would enter it without question ✓

bucky knows the lyrics to never gonna give you up by heart ✘

bucky sleeps in until noon ✘

bucky could easily survive the hunger games ✓

bucky is oblivous to any and all romantic interest someone may show them ✘

bucky instinctively cleans messes in their own house as well as other peoples ✓

bucky can beat you up and will ✓

𝙃e'd only meant to drop her off. pull up outside her work and walk her to the door. twenty minutes have slipped through the cracks and they're still parked at the curb. roxi's settled in his lap and bucky's finding it harder by the second to remember why he thought he'd be back on the road by now. sooner or later something's bound to interrupt them. somebody tapping the glass. a passing intruder. his phone deciding now's the perfect goddamn time to ring. somebody needing her. somebody needing him. something always comes looking.

he's hoping for none of it. because the thought of watching her get out of the car, touch up her lipstick and disappear through those doors while he drives alone — 𝙲𝙷𝚁𝙸𝚂𝚃. that'd hurt. she's folded against him, soft thighs warm where they bracket his hips, fingernails gliding along the side of his throat. light enough to leave gooseflesh in their wake.

mouth finds hers again on instinct. before reason. before restraint, chasing the next kiss before she's finished giving it. he's survived wars. survived decades spent answering to men who carved pieces out of him and stitched together whatever they needed back. none of it prepared him for a woman who could reduce a lifetime of hardwired instincts to an afterthought with nothing more than the brush of her mouth. metal fingers slip from the steering wheel without so much as conscious thought, cool fingers spreading over the warmth of her waist. flesh follows, broad palm slipping under the fabric of her dress, pulling her even closer. forehead tips against hers.