Pure Tears. Pure Love. Pure Pain.

Chapter Twenty Two

"His girl,"

Steve looked confused, him and Bucky had told each other everything. And he was assuming something like this would have cropped up in conversation. "Who..who is he dating?" he asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

Tony glanced at Wanda and then at Sam. He was sure they were the two people that knew about it. Mainly because Wanda could read minds and that Sam had driven you and Bucky home from your date. Steve looked at Tony, then at Nat who was sat next to him looking away. Suddenly he got the impression that it was someone who Bucky didn't want Steve to know about. "Y/N," he said, mainly to himself.

"Alright we should go to bed," said Wanda, standing up and holding Vision's hand. Tony and Bruce murmured in agreement.

Steve looked around, everyone was getting up. Even Nat had headed to get some water. "It is? Isn't it?" he asked, there was a silence across the room. "He's dating Y/N, when we've been broken up less than like half a day?" no one responded. Bruce looked a little lost, but he didn't care much about love lives, "Well?"

Many of the team headed for the elevator, all crowding in. Only Steve and Nat remained in the room. "Are you okay?" Nat asked carefully, she stood leaning against the kitchen counter. Of course she had liked Steve, even before you had come to the tower. But then he had asked you out before she had asked him out. Yet she didn't want to be a rebound because you had moved on too quickly

"No," said Steve, "I ended it like less than ten hours ago, and she's already Bucky's girl? Something was definitely going on between the two of them, wasn't it, before I even bothered to end it. They were already together,"

Nat sighed, "You don't know that," Steve rolled his eyes, "Look, y/n and Bucky have something, can't you tell that? Everyone can see that. They went through similar experiences, they depend on each other because they spent their whole life having no-one. They don't have anyone left. Steve, they understand each other better than anyone else," Steve just looked away.

"That doesn't mean she isn't a cheater,"

"She isn't a fucking cheater," said Nat, slamming the glass down on the kitchen work surface, "Don't act like this Steve, okay? You kissed me yesterday when you and y/n were allegedly together. So what? It's different for you?"

Neither of them had seen you standing by the elevator. You'd woken up from a less painful nightmare and hadn't awoken Bucky so you had decided to get water. That was a mistake, "So I'm a cheater for asking Bucky to stay in a hospital room with me while you were supposed to be on a mission," you whispered, loud enough for them both to hear. But your heart still broke. "Yet you went and kissed someone who I thought I could trust?"

Both of their heads whipped towards you, "I was fucking dying," you spat, "I could've died. But you decided to kiss someone I considered my best friend. Fuck you," forgetting that you wanted water to calm your nerves. You spun on your heels and pushed the doors open to the stairs. You went down two flights of stairs and then sat down.

You didn't even care that Steve kissed someone else. You cared he kissed someone you considered your best friend, because you'd never had one before. Ever. You didn't care because you lost Steve, because you were happy with Bucky.

It was weird how you had pictured yourself with Steve, in the future. That he would go on missions with you, and you both would spend lazy sundays in bed together. So when Steve had said he loved you, and you knew you didn't love him back. Yet something deep deep down thought you could.

You want Bucky.

More than anyone else you want to be with Bucky. But now this was all too much, everything was changing so fast. From the moment you'd co-operated with Nat and Clint it had all been so fast and so weird. Because this was new and it was amazing but it was just so unusual to you. You'd not been here long, but you'd been with two guys technically, shot at and almost died. Not only that but you had created a family. And that scared the shit out of you. Because you were scared you would lose them.

It felt like that was happening.

"Hey, woah," said Bruce, coming down the stairs. You sat staring blankly at the wall in front of you, a single tear rolling down your cheek that you hadn't even noticed. You quickly wiped it away, and looked at Bruce. "I um, I was just in the lab and I was heading to bed, but you- what's going on? Is everything okay?"

You nodded, "Yeah yeah I'm fine,"

Bruce sat down on the stairs next to you, "I'm not very good at this, and I don't even know what's going on in your life," you chuckled, and Bruce looked at you, "But there are people here who will do anything for you, especially Bucky. And you know, if you ever need someone to sit in silence with and drink coffee my lab is always there."

"Thanks," you said, standing up, "Thank you Bruce, I never thanked you for saving me did I?"

"That's okay," said Bruce, "Goodnight y/n,"

"Goodnight," you said, continuing down the flights of stairs to your and Bucky's floor. You pushed open the door to the hallway to find Bucky coming out of the room. "Oh hey," you said, smiling. You ran into Bucky's arms and he caught you. You wrapped your legs around his waist and buried your face into his neck.

Bucky laughed, "What's up?" he asked, opening one of the doors to a bedroom and stumbling backwards. He didn't know which room he ended up in until you switched the light on as he walked in. When he saw the walls and the floor he almost dropped you.

"Shit," he said, you jumped out his arms and turned from his chest. You looked at the walls.

They were covered in blood. Bright red blood hand smeared across your walls, all over your wooden floor and your furniture. It was on your bed, it was everywhere. You didn't know how to scream, you just stood there. Bucky moved from behind you, he saw the black marker on the wall. "You never escape," he said.

His words startled you, "What?"

"You never escape," he said, pointing to the words written on the wall.

Another punch was thrown into your face, then into your abdomen. You coughed up blood as the number of punches you were counting was lost. "Please stop," you choked, "I'm sorry,"

The man stood towering above you, the scar that ran along his eye was more obvious in the moonlight that was seeping in through the thin windows of the 'abandoned' building. "You never escape," he said, throwing another punch to the side of your face. You nodded a tear rolling down your cheek. You bit your lip to hold back from crying out in pain, "You never escape," he said coldly, smacking you round the face to knock you out.

You would never escape, never.

"Oh God Bucky," you said, feeling like you were going to throw up, "Oh oh my god," you choked on your tears. Bucky came over to you and wrapped his arms around your waist, holding you in a tight hug. You tensed at his touch. Not since you had arrived had you ever tensed at someone's touch. Because you'd almost forgotten. Almost forgotten what you had been through and where you came from.

But this was a warning.

You never escape.

Authors Note: to be continued....

(also hoping to post the next part as soon as I can, I'm isolating right now anyway so have free time and finish school on Friday!) <3