In the Dead of the Night || Winter Soldier

Twelve: Victory-a is Mine!

I think I might start putting stuff like this at the start of chapters too, as well as the song of the chapter. Thoughts?? Yay or nay?

~

"I've never stolen a car before, I feel so cool – and bad. And like a butt head. Is this a normal occurrence for you?"

"Yes."

"Will we be returning it?"

"No."

"But what if this belongs to a mother? What if she can't afford another car, even with the insurance, and needs to drive her kids to school as well as drive to work every morning? What if this belongs to a drug dealer and we get pulled over by a cop, only for the cop to find fifty pounds of marijuana stashed all throughout this car?"

"If a cop pulled us over, that would be the least of our worries."

"But what if—"

"Tori."

"Right, right. Continue with your burgling, Mr Russian Assassin Turned Professional Burglar."

Standing outside a complete stranger's empty car down the road from the crummy motel, Everest, Lady and I nervously stand watch – they're fine, I'm the nervous one – after Bucky wedged a door stopper into the top of the driver's door, proceeded by him having poked the antenna he broke off the car down through the opened wedge to reach for the lock button. Having done that a couple minutes ago, he's now attempting to hotwire the soon-to-be-stolen Mitsubishi Pajero.

I'm so going to jail for this. What were some of the rules for going to jail? Don't drop the soap? Don't ask what other people are in for? Ah, I need to watch Orange is the New Black again, it's been a while.

It's a warm day, quite sunny. People flitter about completely mindless to what's actually going on around them. Bucky thought it wise to steal a car from a semi-filled Walmart car park in broad daylight, but I wasn't going to say anything against him. Talking comes by nature, silence by wisdom.

Maybe that's why he's always so broodingly silent? That's it. I have cracked James Buchanan Barnes' code. Score 1 for Tori.

We drove my pickup down to Walmart as well, did some basic shopping for the road. My pickup truck has been a faithful friend of mine for the past five years; it'll be sad to see her go. But it makes it easier to track us, apparently. Even this car will need to be dumped at some point to keep HYDRA off our tails.

If we keep stealing like this, it won't just be HYDRA on our tails. I really don't think I could last in prison. Ooh, maybe I can get another tattoo! Speaking of which—

The sudden roar of the engine coming to life startles me from my reverie, prompting a small squeak out of me from the shock. Whipping around to anxiously peer at Bucky, I watch as he leans back from where he's sat in the driver's seat with T'Challa in his lap and very slightly grins, the act only lasting for a couple milliseconds. "Start loading up," he sternly informs me, scooping up T'Challa and carefully stretching back to place him in the back seat. Such care I would never have thought an assassin was capable of until I met the Winter Soldier.

Without a single sound of protest, I madly scramble with the two dog leashes still gripped in hand to the back seat door, practically sending the door flying open in my haste to just get out of here before someone sees us. "Lady, Everest, up!" I lightly command after un-leashing them, tapping the seat for them to jump up.