ultralight beam ੈ✩‧₊˚ bucky barnes

chapter three: can you handle?

"You are buying more plums?" Maia frowned as Bucky ventured towards the same fruit stand, a few dollars in his hand. "You already have so many. Why do you need more?"

"Because," Bucky grumbled lowly, crumbling the money with his metal arm as he resisted the urge to yell, "I just want plums."

"On my planet, we had a fruit similar to plums. The healers used them to help people remember lost memories," Maia commented, looking down at the ground as she walked next to him. She missed her planet dearly, but she knew that she couldn't go back, no matter how much she wanted to.

"Sounds great Maia," Bucky mumbled out, picking from the dozens of plums that were laid out in front of him. Maia frowned when she noticed that he wasn't fully listening to her and she moved his face so that he was looking in her direction instead.

"Why aren't you paying me attention?" she questioned childishly, a pout replacing her deep frown.

Bucky sighed, freezing when a man placed his hand on his shoulder, tsking. "You should really pay attention to your girlfriend, she's very beautiful. You know the saying 'what you won't do, another guy will'."

Maia smiled brightly at the man's words and he instantly found himself unable to speak correctly, stumbling over his words as he tried to talk. The brunette found it amusing and let out small laughs whenever he couldn't get out a word. Bucky didn't think any of it was funny, trying to hold himself back from attacking the man, who was obviously a tourist.

He broke though, when he saw the man take a strand of her curly hair -the hair that Bucky had ran his hands through when he'd put her to sleep- and comment on how beautiful it was. Maia must have bought whatever cheesy pick-up line he had used because she smiled widely; a smile she had never worn around Bucky.

The tourist wasn't given any warning before Bucky's flesh arm connected with his jaw, no doubt breaking it, and sending the man flying. Before he could even hit the ground, Bucky had picked him up by his neck, using his flesh hand, and lifted him up into the air. Maia paid them no mind, her focus solely on the strawberries that were displayed next to the plums. As Bucky continued to beat up the tourist, she ate strawberries -free of cost to her for some reason- and watched the news on the small tv stand.

"Bucky," she called out gently, knowing she didn't have to yell to get the man's attention. Almost instantly, the tourist was released from Bucky's death grip and he fell to the floor, gasping for air. The long-haired man joined Maia and followed her line of vision, his eyes widening when he saw his face on the tv, with the word 'wanted' above it.

This was the first time in years that Bucky had seen himself on the news and he felt his stomach drop the second his icy blue eyes scanned over the small television. His hand found Maia's smaller one and he looked around, wondering if anyone was watching him. He cursed himself when he remembered his altercation with the tourist seconds earlier, knowing that the 'fight' would've caused unwanted attention. Sure enough, there was a man a good distance away wearing dark aviators, casually looking away from Bucky, as to not raise any alert.

"Mai," Bucky began slowly, pulling on the young woman's arm, " we have to go. We have to go right now."

Maia scoffed, her chestnut colored eyes emitting a bright yellow hue as she glared at Bucky. "You made me drop the strawberry!"

"I'll buy you strawberries later," he whispered harshly, purposely getting lost in a crowd so that they wouldn't be found. "We have leave."

"Leave as in 'go to the store to get more strawberries' or 'we have to leave town'?" Maia asked, sending someone a dirty look when they accidentally bumped into her.