𝚂𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 • 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚁𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚜

21 • Correlation

Millie sat on Steve's sofa, tapping her fingers on her lap while she stared out the window. It had been hours since Steve ran out on her abruptly, and she was beginning to get worried.

He had been somewhat off for a while, but Millie kept trying to brush it off, blaming it on the war, the lack of funds, anything. However she couldn't simply brush off him leaving her standing in his apartment, naked and confused.

Finally, the front door swung open and Millie jumped to her feet, planning on asking Steve a zillion questions as to where he was, what he was doing, and why he was being so strange.

"Steve?" The voice called out, and Millie realised before she even reached the front door that it was Bucky who showed up, not her lover.

"Bucky?" Millie squeaked.

"Where's Steve?"

"I don't know, he hasn't come home today-"

"Shit."

"What?"

Bucky growled, banging his fist on the doorframe. "Fuck."

"Bucky," Millie crossed her arms and frowned. "What's going on?"

He let out a long, defeated sigh and pinched his nose. "He left."

"Wha-"

"They beat him to a pulp and when I found him, he up and left."

"Steve's hurt?!" Millie panicked. "Who hurt him? Where is he?"

"I don't know and I don't know...but it was bad, Millie." Bucky looked worried, which was unlike the usually calm and collected man. "I helped him up and he ran away, I've never seen him like that, Millie. He pushed me to the ground and screamed at me, told me not to follow him."

"And you listened?" Millie snapped.

"Well, what was I supposed to do?!" Bucky bit back. "He was full of rage, like nothing she'd seen before."

Millie let out a deep breath, she knew taking her anger out on Bucky wasn't right. Steve was a grown man and Bucky was not his babysitter.

"Do you have any idea where he went?"

Bucky started to shake his head but then stopped and his eyes lingered on a portrait that hung in Steve's hallway, of his mother and father, before he died.

"Maybe I do..."

"Where?!" Millie cried. "We have to find him!"

Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and tilted his head to the floor. "When he left...I noticed that he, well, he went in the direction of the enlistment offices."

"No..." Millie shook her head. "No, he-he wouldn't do that. He's not stupid."

"He was angry Millie, and humiliated!" Bucky started. "Not to mention that ever since we were kids, he said he wanted to be like his dad. A hero."

Tears started to well in Millie's eyes. "We have to stop him," she started slipping on her shoes. "We have to go, now!"

"Millie, that was hours ago!"

"We have to try!"

She ran out the apartment, quickly followed by Bucky. Her dress bellowed in the breeze and she ran and ran like she was trying to save someone's life– perhaps she was.

"Millie, wait!" Bucky yelled after her, trying to keep up. "Do you even know where you're going?"

She stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Bucky. "Tell me." She spoke quietly. "Tell me where to go."