ARCANE || [2] B.Barnes [Civil War]

Not so Safe

3rd POV

As he walks cautiously, yet clamly, Bucky strolls around the markets trying to find the cheapest things he can buy with the limited amount of money he has. Although he felt guilty of taking Merly's money after trying to kill her. He didn't have many choices considering his situation. He couldn't just steal money from HYDRA without being caught, and unlike Jessica Drew, he couldn't get a normal job with his metal arm, and he couldn't become a hero.

So he tried to be helpful to the people around in exchange for some money, mostly elderly people because they appreciated the help and they paid him better. At least it helped clear his conscious, knowing that he had done something good, even if the world didn't praise him for it.

He reaches the section where mostly fruits are sold. "How are they ?" He asks the elderly couple who are tending to the booth. He grabs a few plums with left hand which is only hidden by a glove. "Are they good?"

The woman prepares a bag, ready to place the fruits in there. "They're ripe." The man answers as he helps his wife with the bag. Bucky looks at them for a second, thinking about how he could've been like them, to grow old with someone he loved by his side.

After that short second of a thought, he turns back to the plums and checks if they are already good to eat. Even if he doesn't feel much with his metal arm, his arm was also built to handle things with care. "Umm, okay then, give me...six." As he pulls out his crumpled money, he looks over his shoulder again, it has become his second nature, with the constant feeling that someone is after him.

"Here you go sir." The old woman hands him his bag of plums. "Thank you." He sends her a genuine smile and walks across the streets to get a few other things.

As he's walking along the sidewalk, he looks around again and sees the man in the newspaper booth looking at him suspiciously, back and forth from the newspaper. Bucky turns away from him and looks at him from the corner of his eye, but as he gets closer, the man begins to walk away from the stand and sprints away once Bucky changes his course of direction and heads to the stand. He quickens his pace and reaches the stand, once there, he picks up the newspaper the man was reading.

He stares at the front page in utter disbelief and confusion. He knows his memories aren't fully back, but he could've sworn he hadn't killed anyone lately. Sure he had severely injured a few harrasers, rapists and some gangbangers. But he sure as hell didn't bomb one of the most important UN meetings. It might've not been something he absolutely agreed about, but he wasn't taking drastic measures to help out Steve and Merly.

Someone knew for sure that this would've definitely get the world's attention to find the Winter Soldier. Not Bucky, but the killer HYDRA made him be. Always a scapegoat.

He tosses the newspapers into a trash bin, in hopes of nobody finding them. He then takes the most secluded shortcuts towards his flat. Distant police sirens can be heard from inside the building. As he reaches the floor of his flat, he hears a pair of all too familiar voices. "This feels wrong." Merly can clearly be heard fidgeting nervously.
"We don't have a choice." Steve's voice is filled with regret.

Quietly and cautiously, he walks in unnoticed by the two Avengers in his room. Even if he won't voluntarily admit it, Bucky is not only worried about his safety, but is worried about the safety of his former bestfriends. And he also won't admit that he had always hoped and sometimes dreamed that she'd soon find him again. Even now, he feels nervous and embarrassed just by seeing her in his room, especially since she's holding one of his notebooks in her hands. Not to mention, she's on the page that has an old documentary picture of all three of them during the war, and at the back of the page are the vague memories he could recall about the ring he gave her.

Unfortunately, as she skims through, she accidentally looks at that page and immediately closes the notebook. She clenches her jaw, and her breath gets caught in her throat once she feels the precense of Bucky.

Slowly, she turns to him along with Steve. Bucky and Merly stare at each other with emotionless faces, while Steve feels like jumping out the window from the immense tension and awkwardness in the room, if you tried to cut the tension with a knife, the knife would probably end up breaking. The tension is just so unbearable with the silence.

"Bucky."