latibule ➳ bucky barnes

01. prelude

The snow fell harshly onto the streets of the city of New York. It was an unusual sight, as it was merely the start of December, but once in a while there always seemed to be those days where Mother Nature wanted to change the weather patterns a bit.

Standing in the middle of the gigantic city, becoming part of the famous New York City skyline was the well-known Avengers Tower. It was previously known as Stark Tower, after its creator Tony Stark, until it was damaged during the Battle of New York two and a half years back. Thanks to the arc reactor that powered it, it glowed more radiantly than any other building around it.

Inside, safe from the bitter cold of Winter, a young woman rushed down the hallways into the elevator as she had an important meeting to attend to. The woman was no other than Anastasia Volkov, a resident of the tower.

Now, Anastasia was never one to be late. However, she was called minutes prior to the start of the very meeting! Not to mention she never attended the regular meetings unless it was important, so she found it quite strange she was summoned. Nonetheless, she was running late.

At the signature 'bing' of the elevator, the metal doors slid open and she slipped out, her footsteps echoing through the silent hallway as she neared the meeting room. With three knocks, the stained glass door was pulled opened by the one and only Clint Barton, who flashed her a lazy smirk. She returned his smirk with a timid smile before walking into the room.

Surrounding a large, oval table were the Avengers, a team of powerful individuals with enough strength to keep the Earth from danger. The team consisted of six beings that were terrifyingly strong, however the memorable Captain America was missing. Along with the Avengers, there was Sam Wilson and Loki Laufeyson of Asgard, as well as Pepper Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries, Maria Hill and Nick Fury who sat at the head of the table.

"My apologies for being late." Anastasia whispered, hurrying to take a seat between Loki and Clint.

"You got here in 4 minutes, we called you 5 minutes ago. I'll say that's impressive time." Nick praised, dismissing her apology. "Now that we're all here, I'd like to discuss an important issue-"

"Shocker." Tony commented, his voice thick with sarcasm.

"We have a problem in our hands." Nick continued, raising his voice slightly to drown Tony's snarky remark. "Rogers and Wilson had found and captured the Winter Soldier."

"Wait what?" Natasha Romanoff exclaimed.

"Right now Barnes is with Rogers in the infirmary." Maria informed, looking down at a clipboard. "We think it's best if he stays with us. He'll be a valuable asset to the team."

"He was part of H.Y.D.R.A." An Avenger, Doctor Bruce Banner, said firmly. "Surely he can't be trusted..."

"Are you sure he's stable?" Clint questioned, raising an eyebrow. "I have no problem with the old man hanging around here but I don't want to put an arrow through his head."

"Right now he's only remembering bits and pieces of his previous life." Maria explained. "With some assistance, we're confident he'll regain his memories, and once he does he'll be stable enough to fight with the team."

"Why must the soldier of Winter live in our haven?" Thor boomed. "Can he not simply recover somewhere more fitting?"

"He's here so you kids could keep an eye on him." Fury replied calmly.

"The guy's nuts. Oh, and did you forget he kind of killed my parents?" Tony reminded bitterly.

"He didn't know what he was doing Stark." Sam countered.