Clutching || Bucky Barnes

8

"So what do you remember?" Basil asked as he wiped his tears away. His laughter finally having faded but he could feel it bubbling in his chest. A knee jerk reaction that he tried to clamp down on. He didn't need to start laughing like a maniac again and freak people out. He wanted Bucky to feel comfortable with him, not put off. There was a slight thud as he leaned his forehead against the glass. Bucky watching him from his chair.

He swallowed, blue eyes still slightly unreadable. "You don't have to answer", Basil sighed. "I shouldn't have asked. Though, asking me for a kiss was mean Sarge. You can't mess with my heart like that". He clutched at his shirt over his heart and flailed dramatically. Humour and drama always his shield against true vulnerability. Bucky gave him a deadpan look from his heavy metal chair. (Blue eyes that were no longer of ice. Blue. Blue and long dark hair. Beautiful and broken and terrifying). "Don't give me that. I'm hilarious when in stressful situations", Basil huffed, eyes flickering. He couldn't hold the blue for long. it was too raw.

"I recall", Bucky's voice was dry with nostalgia and he paused to swallow. "It's been coming back". He sighed sadly and the smile when it dawned was soft and small and only visible because Basil was so close to the glass. (So close that his breath was creating clouds on the surface). It was the first time he had seen Bucky smile since 1944. The first genuine smile not matter how small and fractured it was. Basil understood that. He was sharp with cracked edges too. When Bucky next spoke, it was a murmur as if he didn't want to be overheard. "But so has everything else".

Basil leant his head against the glass again and closed his eyes at the terrible truth of it. The bad came with the good. He wanted to touch him, reach out and take Bucky's hand. And he could, phase through the glass if he wanted too but he didn't want to get into trouble. That agent Ross would probably think that he was going to try breaking Bucky out if he did that. Also, Bucky might not want the contact. Basil sighed deeply and with all his ninety years of weariness. The fear that if he touched him now, this would turn out to be an illusion. "I'm sorry", he spoke softly. "I should have searched for you. Steve told me that you had fallen but I should have gone back for you".

"It was not your fault", Bucky was watching him calmly. Not sadly but with the air of mourning that his words were true. "Nothing you could have done". The words helped ease the guilt in his chest but didn't remove it entirely. Basil knew that there were so many things he could have done but he also knew that most of them would have ended in the same result. He had been so powerless back then. Death had followed them like a dog, nipping at heels and growling in the dark. One of them would have died in that war sooner or later. It had been inevitable yet by cruel fate here they were. (Sometimes in the dead of night Basil wondered if it would have been easier for everyone if he had died then in the artic sea. It would have certainly been easier for him).

He tilted his head and watched Bucky through the glass. "Do you mean that?" the question a fluttering breath of fragility between them. Bucky peered down at him and licked his lips but didn't answer. Whatever response he might have given was interrupted but the beep of the mic turning back on and a voice echoing from the speakers.

"Mr Parrish. If you could kindly leave the room now. We have a psychologist coming to talk to the prisoner". Ross' voice was calm and infuriatingly arrogant. Basil turned to the cameras with a snarl on his lips but stopped as a second voice spoke up.

"Basil", Steve's voice sounded tired and worn. "They won't listen to him with you in the room. Please just wait outside".

Basil stood up, glaring at the cameras. He didn't want to leave Bucky alone. Screw Agent Ross and freaking SHEILD. When he turned back to Bucky, the man looked so expectantly defeated that it physically hurt. The man expected him to leave, abandon him. He expected to be alone against the judgment of men who thought him a monster. How could Basil willingly leave him like that? 

"Do you want me to leave?"

Bucky looked up at him. Basil taller than the chair so now he was looking down through the glass cage. "You should. Don't make things worse Parrish".

Basil smiled slightly. "Oh you know me. I am never one for easy. Just ask Steve, that has never changed. If you don't want me to leave then I am not going anywhere". Bucky didn't smile but his eyes held a glimmer of warmth which lit Basil's chest like a firework. He sat back down next to the glass, making it clear to the cameras above that he wasn't going anywhere. 

Up on the third floor of the building, in their glass office, Ross turned to Steve. The blonde man was leaning back in his office chair, arms crossed over his chest and barely hidden amusement twitching on his face. He was watching the blown up camera feed on the holographic screen in front of them. The glass cage and the two men visible through the video footage. A man sat on either side of the glass. One restrained, the second free but with no desire to move from the cold room. Moving would mean leaving the men in the cage. Steve knew that Basil wasn't going to leave Bucky again. Not if he could help it. 

"Could you get him out of there?" Ross asked, tone frustrated. Steve shrugged, a fond smile on his face as he continued watching the video. He recalled what Basil was like back in the war. A young boy who had been enchanted by Bucky. His eyes had followed Steve's childhood friend like a beacon whenever he thought no one was paying attention. Now that they were reunited, Steve could see the same look on his face. The man was loyal to a fault. 

Sam snorted at the question from where he was sprawled in his own office chair. His feet up on the desk and his arms draped across his lap. "If you think anyone could make Basil do something he doesn't want to do, then you have to be mad", he laughed. "That kid is the most stubbornest people I know, even more so than him". He jerked a hand at Steve. "He's the only one who can make Steve actually listen to medical advice. But if you want to force him to leave then you're welcome to try". 

Ross huffed and turned back to Steve. The blonde shrugged again with a smile. "Hey, I tried", he held his hands up in surrender. The Agent let out a long breath through his nose and strode out of the glass room into the surveillance room surrounding it. He strode over to where Natasha and Tony was standing watching the screens. 

"Could either of you make him move? You were all teammates".

Nat looked at Ross then back at the screen where Basil was displayed, then at Tony. Both her and Tony shared a look. "Nope. I'd much rather go back to arguing with Cap about the accords", Tony chuckled despite still looking drained from that particular discussion.

"He cannot be restrained or forced in any way", Nat waved a hand lazily. "You try restraining a man who can turn intangible whenever he wants. Also, he knows that he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't  want to. The trick is to make him want what you want and the only one he really follows is Steve. Well, Steve and the man he loves. Which if you anything at all about Basil's history, you would know is called Bucky Barnes. Going after Barnes will be going after Basil Parrish as well. I would warn you but he's not known as 'Mad' for nothing". Her face was grim when she finished but there was a light in her eyes of someone watching a show and waiting for a the fallout. 

Ross sighed deeply and muttered under his breath for a moment then collected himself. "Send in the doctor anyway. If Mr Parrish wants to stay then he can". 

In the concrete room, the door opened and an unassuming looking man in a grey blazer entered the room. Basil and Bucky both looked away from each other to watch him cross the room and sit down at the wooden desk opposite them. The man placing a leather briefcase on the wood before looking over at them. He had short brown hair smoothed back with some kind of gel and slightly pointed features. His eyes were calculating behind his glasses. When he spoke it was with an accent that Basil recognised but couldn't quite place tinging the words. 

"Do you mind if I sit?"

unedited