Avenger Arising → Bucky Barnes [3]

09|CAUGHT REDHANDED

He had a way of walking that made him seem perpetually in a hurry. His steps weren't long but they were rapid. Like a speed-walker without that odd twisting motion they make. Ally found it easy to keep up with his fast walking in the streets of Bucharest though she didn't find it necessary. They looked like any normal civilians, Bucky a bit more lazy looking while Ally looked elegant. She wore a black business skirt as she usually would, a red scarf tied around her neck. Then again, Ally didn't mind at all what Bucky was wearing. He wore a simple red shirt with a blue cap, adding an extra depth to how long his hair had gotten. She was growing used to his hair at that length, though she did insist on cutting it once or twice.

"Did you get everything you needed from the market?" she questioned, following behind him. "Or are you missing anything?"

Bucky looked down at the bag of plums he was carrying. "I think that's it."

"Alright, we should..." Ally trailed off as she watched Bucky's face drop. "Buck what is it?"

Across the street, Bucky had spotted a vendor at a newsstand watching him. Bucky glanced away for a moment, looking at Ally with disbelief. He looked back at the vender who was still watching him. The vendor began to run from his stand as Bucky timidly began to walk over, picking up a paper. On the front page there was a surveillance-photos of a man and the headline read "Winter Soldier cautat pentru Bombardamentul din Viena". Bucky tensely turned to Ally, pain in his voice. "We need to go."

Ally grabbed the paper from his hands. "That's not possible," she dropped the paper back on the stand. "You've been with me, you've been with me this entire time."

"We need to go," he repeated. "Now."

Ally nodded, following behind him as they hurriedly made their way back to the apartment. Bucky was already a broken man, but this false story was devastating for him. Ally's knuckles became white from clenching her fists too hard. She gritted her teeth from the effort to remain silent. Her face was red with suppressed rage, and Bucky knew it.

She followed him up the stairs as he unlocked the door, his hands shaky. Instantly, Bucky turned around and put a finger to his lip as they both realized they weren't alone. In his dark blue, armored suit with his shield on his arm, Steve stood in the apartment clueless. He reached for the notebook Ally read from on top of the fridge. He picked it up and opened it. Bucky flinched at the sight, walking in slowly. Steve turned around, looking at Bucky first then Ally. Disappointment washed over his face as he looked at Ally looking rather homely in the apartment, then sadness when Bucky hunched over.

"Do you know me?"

"Steve—" Ally began but he cut her off with a sharp glare.

"Do you know me?" He repeated, more sternly this time.

"You're Steve," Bucky answered. "I read about you in a museum."

"I know you're nervous," Steve spoke softly. "And you have plenty of reason to be. But you're lying."

"I wasn't in Vienna," Bucky looked back at Ally, knowing she knew he was telling the truth. "I don't do that anymore."

"Well, the people who think you did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive."

"That's smart," Bucky grunted. "Good strategy."

"This doesn't have to end in a fight Buck," Steve rushed. "Ally's been helping you right? We can take you somewhere safer."

Bucky ignored Steve, "It always ends in a fight."

"You pulled me from the river," Steve stressed. "Why?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do!" Steve bantered back.

A grenade suddenly crashed through the window. Bucky quickly kicked it to Steve, and he smothered it with his shield. "You've got to be kidding me," Ally groaned. "Really?"

The cop slammed a battering ram against the door. Bucky shielded himself with a mattress against a sudden attack from the window. He blocked the door with a table as cops began to swing in on cables. Steve pulled the rug from under a policeman, sending him flying. Ally ducked behind the couch, looking down at her skirt. "Son of a bitch," she muttered, ripping her skirt in half revealing the shorts underneath. "Not another one."

Bucky slammed another policeman into the wall, causing Steve to yell at him. "Buck, stop! You're gonna kill someone."

Bucky brought Steve to the ground, raising his fist and dropping it against the floorboards. "I'm not gonna kill anyone." Bucky grabbed a backpack from under the floorboards and threw it out of the window. Bucky grabbed Ally by the waist, pulling her towards Steve as the three hid behind Steve's shield to avoid gunfire. Bucky shoved Steve and knocked a cop over. He held up his metal hand and repelled the incoming bullets, then slammed a cop into the shelves. Bucky picked up a large cement brick and slammed it into a cop. He bashed a couple of cops with the battering ram they used to ruin his safe haven. More of the police team began to hurry up the stairwell. Bucky jumped onto a cop on a zipline and swung down a level.

"This is your fault," Steve glared at Ally. "You've known all along." They jumped down a level, in an attempt to follow Bucky. Bucky tossed one of the cops over the railing and Steve reaches to grab him, stopping the cop from falling. He looked at Bucky wearily. "Come on man."

"James please!" Ally yelled after him, reaching down and grabbing a gun. "This is why I didn't tell you! He was beginning to trust me Steve!"

Bucky leaped down the stairwell and caught onto a railing. He then climbed up and ran along a corridor before leaping off a balcony. He tumbled onto the lower roof of the neighbouring building where he finds where his backpack had landed. Ally watched as he picked it up and ran.

"Stop, for one goddamned second," she yelled at Steve, putting the gun in the waistband of her shorts. She knelt down and pulled a bulletproof vest off one of the cops, untying her neck scarf and using it to tie her hair. "I can't believe this."

"Neither can I."

—

He then climbed up and ran along a corridor before leaping off a balcony. He tumbled onto the lower roof of the neighbouring building where he finds where his backpack had landed.