Rogue (An Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 36: Plums In Romania

*WARNING: Contains 'Captain America: Civil War' Spoilers!

Bucharest

"He's buying...plums," I hissed into the earpiece. We had tracked the Winter Soldier down to Romania, and now it was my job to follow him until Steve broke into his apartment and figured out which Bucky we were dealing with.

"Plums?" Falcon asked, making me giggle.

"I don't know! Maybe he's hungry!" I replied.

"Is there any clue that he's violent? Angry? Volatile?" Steve questioned. I turned to Bucky from my hiding spot. He was speaking Romanian, smiling, squeezing plums. He looked innocent – not just innocent of the crime, but innocent, child-like. It was sweet.

"No, none. Guys... what if he didn't do it?" I wondered aloud.

"Then we need to get to him before anyone else does," Steve said. I kept watching, waiting for his next move. I was in awe of him – this was the guy that attacked us in D.C., the guy that we were so scared of, the guy we wanted to kill. But now, he was a sweet guy buying plums, Steve's best friend. Could one person really be two, completely opposite things?

"Pardon," a man said, lightly grabbing my arm. "Mi-am pierdut portofelul."

"I'm sorry, I don't speak Romanian," I said. His look told me that he didn't understand a word that I was saying. "No. Romanian no," I waved my hands around in the universal sign for 'I have no idea'. After a while, he got the message and left.

"Uh oh," I said as I turned around and realised that the plum stall was now empty.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Don't be mad..." I said, looking frantically around me. "I lost him."

"What do you mean you 'lost' him?" Falcon asked.

"I mean, he was there, now he's not!" I clarified, wondering how I could be so stupid. And how he could get away from me so quickly – I only looked away for a minute at most!

"Find him!" Steve said.

"Obviously!" I said, taking the ear piece out of my ear to avoid their judgement.

I walked along the market, stopping at all the stalls along the way to make it seem like I was just an undecided shopper rather than a superhero on a mission.

"Excuse me," someone said. I turned around and was immediately met with the eyes of the Winter Soldier. I used my hair to cover my face.

"Yes?"

"You've been following me." It wasn't a question; it was a statement.

"No! What? No!" I said, flustered. "Why would I be following you?"

"I recognise you," he said with a smirk. "From D.C."

I didn't know how to respond. My mouth kept opening, but my brain stopped it from forming the words that it needed to make.

"If you're planning to kill me..." he trailed off.

"No, not kill you," I said. "But there are people that do want to kill you... because of Vienna."

"I wasn't in Vienna – I don't do that anymore."

"I believe you," I said, shocking myself when I realised how true this was. If he had killed those people in Vienna, he would have killed me as soon as he realised that I had been following him. He hadn't. And it didn't look like he was going to.

"So why are you here?" he wondered.

"We're trying to protect you. People are coming here; they're trying to kill you."

"Is Steve here?" he asked. I nodded.

"He's at your apartment. They're almost here."

Bucky thought for a moment.

"C'mon," he said, grabbing my hand and leading me away from the market.

"Where are we going?" I asked, jogging slightly to keep up with his pace (and to avoid him ripping my arm out of the socket!).

"To find Steve," he said.

***

As we got to the apartment, I slipped my earpiece back in to hear Falcon warning us.

"Heads up guys, German Special Forces approaching from the south." I tugged Bucky's arm to stop him from entering.

"German Special Forces," I said, nodding towards the uniformed guys that we would have run into if we had gone into the building. "Is there another way in?"

"Follow me," he said, pulling me through a side door. We ran up a flight of stairs and into an apartment where Steve was waiting.

"Steve," Bucky said.

"Buck," Steve responded. They stared at each other for a moment, as if both couldn't believe that the other was here. As if they couldn't believe that they had been reunited after all this time.

"They're on the roof – I'm compromised!" Falcon said.

"Guys, we need to leave!" I said urgently.

"You two, go!" Bucky said.

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck," Steve said.

"It always ends in a fight."

"5 seconds... 3 seconds... Breach!" Falcon exclaimed.

A grenade crashed through the window as someone began breaking down the front door. Bucky kicked the grenade to Steve, who covered it with his shield. I moved away from the window as bullets began coming towards us from all directions. Bucky broke through the wooden floor, pulled out a backpack and threw it off the balcony.

"Had your escape route mapped out?" I asked.

"I had to be prepared," he answered as two men came crashing through the windows. He pushed Steve towards one of the men, taking out the other by hitting him with his metal arm. As the bullets continued, I used a force field to shield the both of us.

"You need to get out of here."

"What, and leave you guys defenceless?" I asked.

"I can take care of myself," he said.

"You don't have to anymore."

Lack of concentration caused my force field to come down. Bucky pushed me forcefully across the room, out of the way of the bullets. I watched him use his metal arm to shield himself as he left the room and Steve followed.

"If you don't turn him in..." one of the men said, turning to me from his wounded state on the balcony. "You'll be a criminal."

"The funny thing is..." I said. "According to the government, I'm already a criminal, all of the Avengers are. Bucky Barnes isn't."

"Sam, southwest rooftop!" Steve said. I looked down to see Bucky below me, fighting with someone dressed in an all-black skin-tight suit. Without thinking, I used a force field to jump down onto the roof, shielding Bucky from the guy in the cat costume as Steve dropped behind me.

"Who are you?" I asked the guy. Seconds later, a helicopter flew over us, shooting at us and causing me to drop the force field. Bucky used this opportunity of confusion to fall from the rooftop and into oncoming traffic. The 'cat costume' guy followed him.

"OK," I said, turning to Steve. "What do we do now?"

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Is Bucky really innocent? And who's the guy in the cat costume? Find out next Saturday!

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