#if difficult

Despite how much he hated Marlisa, and everything she stood for, Bucky was careful as he held her in place; he didn’t want to break her arm, after all. Steve, of course, had taken over the lecturing, with a steely look in his eyes that made Bucky more confident. He was fine, he was with allies, and Marlisa clearly didn’t know the damn code.

At the same time, half his mind was on the two children in the Quinjet. He wasn’t pleased that they’d had to take the kids along for this, and he was even less so that they’d have to be as close to a HYDRA leader as they would be. Responsibility was a bitch sometimes.

Finally, Steve finished and turned to lead the way , and Bucky shoved Marlisa lightly toward the door, eager to get the damn thing over with and check on Yuu.

So he was more than a little surprised when Yuu darted in through the half-open door, right alongside Lavi.

He froze for a brief second, while Tony yelped his son’s name and Marlisa struggled and snarled in protest.

“Stop, Yuu!” he snapped after a moment, making a false motion to go after his son before he remembered he had a damn job to do. He scowled as both boys vanished into another room without even glancing back, inwardly cursing her and hoping to God there wasn’t anything too hazardous in the area. What was Yuu thinking? Lavi might be reckless, but Yuu was usually so trustworthy-

“Are those your children?” Marlisa demanded of him, struggling again. He tightened his grip in response, distracted, and she stilled with a hiss but continued, twisting to glare at him, “Get them out of my house! Aren’t you forcing enough indignities upon me, Soldier?”

Bucky briefly turned his attention back to her, giving her a stony glower. “I don’t think you have much room to-”

And he cut himself off, his scowl vanishing and the blood draining from his face as, abruptly, he heard something he hadn’t noticed before: the cries of a child, loud and terrified.

A sneer smeared across Marlisa’s face, but surprisingly, she held her tongue. Steve finally made a move towards the room the two boys had run into, eyes widening in worry, while Tony turned to Marlisa, all humor gone from his face, and asked, deadly quiet,

“Forget to mention something, Von Strucker?”

She drew herself up haughtily, eyes steeling, but before she could say anything, Yuu came barreling back in from the other room, and before anyone could react, he launched himself at Marlisa, screaming and lashing out with an enraged abandon Bucky had never seen from him before.

“What did you do to him, you stupid witch, why was beansprout shut in a cupboard, I’ll kill you...!”

It took a few seconds for Bucky to react, while Yuu beat his fists against Marlisa, eyes alight with rage and face twisted into a snarl.

Then he unfroze and let go of Marlisa with one hand to bend down and pick Yuu up. Yuu, unusually, didn’t acknowledge him - he just kept thrashing and screaming increasingly less coherent words at Marlisa, who looked almost startled as she did defensive and angry, a few red spots starting to appear where Yuu had hit her.

“Why you-!” she spluttered, no longer struggling against Bucky’s grip but glaring daggers at the child he held fast in his other, metal arm. “I never- How dare you!”

“Tony,” Steve requested, voice strained. Tony gave him a sharp nod and, without his characteristic snark, set off at a rapid walk to the other room, looking deeply unamused. Natasha gave Steve a nod of her own and followed after, expression unreadable.

Bucky held still, caught between keeping Marlisa from escaping and worrying over what had set Yuu off so thoroughly. In general, Yuu was a fairly stable child, so why...?

Cupboard? he wondered, wariness creeping through his chest.

“Calm down, Yuu,” he murmured, tightening his grip on his son but careful, very careful, not to hurt him. “You’re okay, it’s okay, it’s gonna be fine, understand? It’s gonna be fine.”

Yuu twisted to look up at him, and past the rage, Bucky caught a glimpse of pain and fear in depths that made his heart clench. He glanced up at Steve, who tilted his head to indicate Marlisa, and Bucky nodded. Steve sighed, and then moved to hover in the doorway. He froze, and Bucky hissed. Yuu’s struggles slowed - if Bucky didn’t know any better, he would have thought the boy seemed defeated, if only for a moment.

A few long moments passed, and then Tony returned, murmuring soothingly to a helplessly sobbing Lavi.

Bucky really wanted to know what had happened in the other room.

And then, finally - Steve turned back, looking grim to hide how furious he was, eyes drifting over Marlisa with a very different and much darker look compared to what he’d given her earlier. And then Natasha came in, cradling the source of this mess - a tiny boy, at most a year old, with white hair, an enormous scar that dominated the left side of his face, and a smattering of bruises.

Bucky’s blood roared in his ears.

It was only instinct that let him pass Marlisa to Steve so he could keep from losing his grip on Yuu, though now he had half a mind to just set the boy lose on her for what she’d done. Surely there were exceptions to ‘violence is never the answer.’

The only thing he had left to wonder was, why had Yuu taken to Allen so quickly? Was Yuu simply very protective of others, or desperate for company in his age group, or-

Why you do this to yourself bae ;A;