Sgt J. Barnes

Brock kept the gap between them. He knew from past experience that the worst thing to do was to get too close to James when he wasn’t sure of his emotional state other than what had already presented itself.

“Three months? Fuck..” he murmured, gaze shifting over the brunet for what seemed like a long time, trying to assess if he had any visual injuries. “James.. I want to help you. But to help you I need to look at you. If you’re hurt, I want to know..” he sighed.

“HYDRA fell. That’s right. I’m not here to cause you trouble - if I was, you’d be on your way back to HYDRA right now.. It’s just me and you. No catch.”

He kept his gaze on him. Watching his every move like a predator evaluating it’s prey. He didn’t trust him. Not yet at least. HYDRA was the enemy and anyone associated with them became that too until they earnt his trust. 

The solider shifted on the spot uncomfortably as he kepy a hard stare on him. “I’m fine.” he muttered. Except for a few cuts, scrapes and the odd bruise. He was telling the truth. The weight on the arm was harsh on his shoulder here skin met metal but that had been the same since the moment they patched it on.

Brock leaned in the doorway, his arms folded over his chest as he took in the sight of the man before him, James looked much better now than the last time he had seen him - he wanted it to stay that way.

“I was given a tip off from an anonymous source. If they reached out to anyone else you would know it by now. I told you, I’m here alone..” he explained and took a step forward, though kept a good distance between them.

“I’m not gonna make you go back there, kid. In fact.. they’d kill me if I went back,” Brock stated, making that clear as well. His dark hues then circled the room, taking in the cramped space briefly before he glanced back into the living area.

“This place is a mess. How long have you been here?”

He always felt of something like a child when around Brock. Stood there nervously tugging on his sleeves like a kid waiting to be told off by his parent for doing something wrong. Brock was certainly the dominant one of the two.

James watched him carefully when he approached. He trusted the other mans word and kept quiet. “Uh.. about- about three months” he replied to the question and look at Brock. He seemed hurt but he wouldn’t say anything.

Once his hair was secured behind his ear, she caressed his cheek gently, before pulling her hand away, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. “Well, we can do it however you like, but hair grows, love, that’s just what it does. Mine’s much longer than I’ve had it for the better part of a century, but I’m not ready to suffer women gossiping around my hair.”

Feeling him move closer, she smiled up at him. “I’m still an Agent, Sergeant Barnes. And I might be… what would you do if I was?” she raised an eyebrow up at him, loving that they were being playful.

“Have you now? Well, you weren’t trying that hard…” Peg smirked a bit, watching him. “I am saying that all three of us together would have been ideal, but that I don’t know how to tell Steve that not only am I not dead, I’m not old, either. I don’t know how well he’ll take it, what with him moving on and all.”

James looked at her hand when she moved it away. “I like it short. It’s doesn’t get in the way then and... I guess the reflection in the mirror is a little more familiar” he murmured as he settled down in the blanket.

“Still an Agent? My apologies Ma’am” he smirked softly and looked up at her while he thought over his response. “I’m not sure but I’d probably have to kiss you at some point” he grinned up at her. A ghost of the forties boy, unscarred by war and violence. Flirty and not ashamed of it whatsoever. 

“I’m NOT mocking you!” she shouted almost at the top of her lungs. “I’m telling the truth! Why the hell do you think I came to you for help?!” She took a deep breath, and her next words came out at a much lower volume, but, her tone was as cold as ice. “But, you’re not going to believe me no matter what I say. I don’t know what made me think you would actually help me. Fuck you.” She practically spat the last two words as she turned around to leave.

“You clearly don’t know me if you came to me for help” he shook his head frowning. He had HYDRA and SHIELD and god knows how many other organisations hunting him. He’d almost been captured when crossing from America to Europe. He kept his position as he watched her. He wanted her to leave even if he’d been painted as the bad guy. He was doing what he had to in order to survive. His mind was that foggy that he struggled to tell the difference between what was real and pretend these days. 

“A while. Been keeping an eye on you since you got here to be honest.” The petite blonde answered going through his fridge frowning at her options. “You need food” she muttered to herself and closed the door turning to him. She wore black leggings a leather jacket and a grey tank top with her long blonde hair draped over her shoulders. She could easily blend into a crowd and that was the goal. “I’m a friend of Steve’s you can call me Dani.” She introduced her self

Originally posted by daughterofmystic

He cocked his head as his eyes narrowed. Taking in her appearance and figuring out if she posed a threat to him. “Why?” he muttered a little colder. He didn’t like that someone had been keeping tabs on him. 

James Barnes was territorial and she was invading his home. “You can leave” he answered back as he was not okay with this. “I don’t care. I’m not affiliated with Steve any more.” he walked over and shut the fridge before meeting her eyes. “I suggest you leave. Dani”. He was on the run, he was hiding from a worldwide organisation that had kept him like an animal for the past several decades. He wasn’t about to let a stranger in and make them tea.

“Well, hopefully not anymore, since everyone thinks I’m dead, except for a handful of people.” Peg smiled softly, hoping to ease the tension a bit.

“I don’t think that’s true at all, darling,” she told him softly, looking into his eyes. “You’ve been through a lot, we all have. Not even Steve knows what HYDRA did to me. It was just after the attack on New York, I was old, slow. They came into my home, and tried to steal my mind. They wanted to give my mind to a child who they could raise within HYDRA. Apparently I was the only reason they didn’t come out sooner. It didn’t work, and it gave me dementia.”

“Oh, now that’s not true at all,” Peggy whispered, reaching up, to tuck some of his hair behind his ear. “I rather like the long hair. Makes you look rugged, and a bit of a bad boy. But, if you’d like, we can cut it in the morning?” Chuckling, she grinned at him. “Of course I’m feisty, how else would I have gotten to where I was?”

Closing her eyes a bit, she was about to go back to sleep, but her lips widened in a smirk. “Did I what?” Opening one eye, she raised an eyebrow, waiting to see what Bucky’s reaction would be. His return smirk made her heart race a bit. Now, if she could only think of a way to tell Steve she was alive without him being angry at her, or her hurting Sharon.

James watched her as he’d gotten pretty good at telling when people were lying. Althoug he was pretty certain that she was telling the truth. It was refreshing to hear someone else’s opinion on him. He could never forgive himself so hearing it from her meant more than she thought. 

“I did cut it but it’s growing out again” he murmured and smiled when she touched him. She didn’t hesitate and she didn’t flinch. She just treated him like normal. It was all he wanted. 

What a day. All Steve wanted to do was go home and rest. He had just completed one of his own assignments and was quite looking forward to just going home, getting a shower and maybe something to eat. Being full of serum did not eliminate fatigue. Oh he could agree in a heart beat that the other Avengers were probably far more tired than he was but he still felt fatigue in his own way sometimes. 

But no matter of that. Point was the job was done and he could go home and rest now without having to worry about work for another..however long it took before he was called in for another mission. That could be a day from now or it could be a month from now. He had no basis for comparison. After all missions came and went. It did not matter how they were spaced out.

He dismounted his motorcycle and trudged up the stairs to his apartment, stifling a yawn as he went. Perhaps he was more tired than he realised. Unlocking the door and  calmly stepping over the threshold. Taking a moment to breathe against the closed door as he collected himself and got ready to take a shower and make something to eat.

At least, that was his PLAN.

Originally posted by captainamerica1-6

His apartment lay out had all the windows on the one side of the building, and when he walked past it he noticed the small, single lazer dot of a well trained sniper hitting the far wall of the apartment. Making it plain as day that his relaxing evening was shot to hell.

“You’ve got to be kidding..” He mumbled to himself. Picking up the shield and kicking open the window with his foot. The lazer that was trained on the wall became intercepted and he saw it’s glow on the edge of his shield. Waiting for the assailant to fire and alert Steve to his position so he could go after him.

The target had spotted him and was now awaiting him to make a move. He’d been trained to deal with this. Firing two shots at him as he tried to aim for the head. Spriting over the rooftops and jumping between two buildings. 

He’d find another set up and kept his head down. He had studied the other man and he didn’t seem to be holding any form of weapon. Only a shield.

He figured he had the upper-hand in thei fight. He had the advantage of the many guns and weapons holstered to his frame. Not to mention the bionic limb. He couldn’t leave until he had ensured that the target was eliminated.

Brock had been given a tip off. Now, he wasn’t sure if he should trust it given the questionable source but this was important to him. It was the name of the man involved that had him gathering his things - car keys, money.. a gun, though that was just to be on the safe side.

The journey to his destination took quite some time, going from America to Romania wasn’t just a simple car ride. He had been to the airport and left his car behind before taking a tedious flight over to the country, luckily he had managed to get some rest along the way.

From there he made his way to his target, gun holstered at his side as he approached the apartment block. Dark brown hues scanned the environment as he ascended the stairs, tension growing in his body with each floor that he passed until he reached his destination.

The lock was a simple one, not taking all too long to pick before he finally made it inside. He searched around until he came to stand in a doorway, seeing a figure on the bed with a gun, well, that was to be expected given what he was doing.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding.. I didn’t come here to hurt you. Put the gun down,” he spoke, tone calm as he moved to take his own out of the holster, setting it on the floor away from him. “I came alone.”

James frowned as he wanted to resist the subtle order to put the gun down but found himself obeying as the weapon was set on the ground.

If Brock was here, if he had managed to find him then god knows who else could have tracked him down. He’d have to move on. That was if Brock wasn’t planning to drag him back kicking and screaming. 

“Then what did you come for?” he muttered as he stood up so he wasn’t at a disadvantage if a fight broke out. His eyes scanned to the windows and doors as he didn’t exactly trust Brock. “I’m not going back” he made it very clear.

He’d only just started to figure out who he was and he was not going to allow HYDRA to take that away from him. 

“How did you find me?”

Peg smiled gently. “I wish we had, no one trying to kill us, well… no one with super-powers anyway. HYDRA was in hiding…” She shrugged. Someone tried to kill her on a regular basis then, because she was in the SSR, then later when she founded SHIELD. She tended to rub people the wrong way.

“I just worried he came to visit me, when I was old, because he didn’t have anyone else. He came less, after he found out you were alive, but I understood. I still do. He won’t give up on you, you know. He wants to find you.” Peggy had been trying not to think about the day that Steve would find Bucky, it probably wouldn’t end well for her.

“You let him, eh? Well, let’s not tell him that, and it’s a good thing you didn’t say that to me seventy years ago, I might have shot you,” she teased, chuckling. Looking at him, she wondered if he had understood what she had meant, by the three of them being together. What she imagined was similar to their current situation, but Steve next to them telling them to stop talking so he could sleep.

“There’s always someone who wants to kill you” he murmured as he had previously been the one attempting the murder, not the one fleeing from it. 

As she spoke about Steve, he couldn’t help but feel a lump in his throat. He was terrifed of seeing Steve again. He wasn’t the same man. He knew he wasn’t what Steve hoped or wanted him to be. “I’m not the same” he croaked and looked down. “Peg I’m more monster than that sergeant from Brooklyn” 

He took a heavy breath in and lay on his back. The metal fingers moving beside him as it was still easy to forget about the metal appendage. “Yeah but I’m not as good lookin’ as I used to be” he smirked softly and turned his head to look at her. “Always were a fiesty one Peg.” he said fondly before pausing in thought as he relected on her words. 

“I always thought I’d be the one to die in the war,” she admitted. “That you and Steve would go off and live long lives back in Brooklyn, remembering me once a year, but be happy back home. I never would have dreamed it was the other way around, only for all of us to come back, when we should be dead.”

“Civilian life was never my bag.” The brunette shrugged a bit, not upset by the fact now. During the war, she had been livid that she had survived, just to be abandoned by Steve and Bucky, and then treated as though she hadn’t been on the front lines, and relegated to getting coffee. Coming home from the war had been devastating, but she’d survived, as she’s survived everything else.

Peggy blushed a bit. “Steve thinks I’m dead. They had my funeral today, actually. I want it that way, and Steve’s got a lot going on, and I want him to be happy. I don’t want him to feel obligated to me, because we fell in love during a war we both thought we’d die in.” While that wasn’t technically a lie, they both knew that Peggy hadn’t loved anyone after she lost Steve. “I’d missed your smile,” she whispered, giving him a small smile in return.

“I remember. I caught you, and you tried to hide it, but I couldn’t be too offended. I had the two best men in the war looking at me like that….” She chuckled softly. “I actually always imagined it would be the three of us. Together, after the war. Absurd, I know, but a girl could dream.”

He fell quiet when she spoke. He had rather had been dead at the bottom of the ravine, instead of being dragged into hell by a stranger. “I wanted us all to return truthfully.... I suppose we did. Just not at the same time” 

“It was simple, that was all I wanted. Just a quiet life” he murmured as he wouldn’t have been able to guess the life he ended up with. It was far from any dream or nightmare. Trapped inside yourself unknowingly. 

It took him by surprise when she said Steve didn’t know she was alive. Why would she lie? Then again he hadn’t confronted him either. They were both living in secret. “How do you know though if he was aware you were alive that he wouldn’t have gone back with you?” he asked honestly. 

The comment about his smile made it spread into a grin and he settled his head into the pillows. She was the only person he’d gotten to close to in decades. Usually he wouldn’t allow someone to come within metres of him. Now he was lying with barely inches between them.