𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒, 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐀𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓.
Charlie is on the road to recovery, and things are starting to look brighter. After Ultron, and the devastating discovery that Bucky and Becca Barnes are on the run to avoid them- sneaky...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝙱𝚄𝙲𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙴𝚂𝚃, 𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙰𝙽𝙸𝙰
𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 when you had no idea how to use it.
Rebecca Barnes found herself overwhelmed in this modern world of endless options, caught between the debilitating fear of punishment and the newly-resurfacing human desire to experience.
She spent a lot of her time curled up by the window of her and Bucky's one-room apartment, watching hundreds of people pass down the streets, through the only small section of glass not covered by old newspapers.
It was a strange way to see them; un-fearing and leisure. Most of Becca's exposure to people was when they were about to become her prey, before she completed her mission and they were no longer.
Becca Barnes knew better than anyone that human beings acted differently when they knew they were being hunted.
It seemed as though none of the people in this new world believed they were.
Everyone these days seemed to have a personal agenda, not knowing or caring about what anyone else wanted them to do. The entire world was open to them, for them to use or abuse as they wished. Nothing mattered but what they wanted.
But Becca didn't know how to want.
Wanting was a dangerous thing. It gave you a false sense of self-righteousness, as though you deserved something from a cruel reality that only wanted to take. It only led to disappointment. Wanting got you beaten within an inch of your life. Wanting got you a mask nailed into your jaw.
Wanting was weakness. Wanting was a luxury Becca didn't have. Wanting implied she had agency.
Now, she did, though.
At least, that's what Bucky had started telling her. "You can make your own choices. You're allowed to want things."
So, it started with something small.
She was sitting one day in front of an old, cracked mirror- the one she'd taken from an alleyway dumpster and brought back to her and Bucky's apartment. It was ugly, and the white paint was terribly chipped, but it was hers.
And not many things were.
In the dim light, she studied her reflection. There were eight small, circular scars dotting her jawline, from when the billionaire Tony Stark had removed her mask. She still had a pale complexion, but the freckles dotting her nose and cheeks weren't as dim as they were before.
Her face was sunburned, as it usually was these days. Bucky liked to take her and walk through the city, to show Becca all of the things she things she didn't get to see while she was in cryofreeze. The skin on her neck and cheeks was pink, but her arms were a milky, blueish white from long sleeves preventing exposure to the sun.
