Belonging - A Bucky Love Story (Marvel/Avengers)

14

Bucky's eyes went wide at Brenna's confirmation. He couldn't remember ever owning anything before. Everything he touched now belonged to HYDRA. Even he did. He watched Brenna back away from him, her hand slowly slipping out of his. "Will you be my friend, too?" Brenna asked sweetly, trying to distract him and keep him calm as she began her escape.

Pulsing energy through her body, she prepared herself. Once charged up, Brenna willed a bubble of plasma to surround her body. She walked through the bars of the cell that led out into the hallway, the iron falling silently to the ground as dust. Bucky observed this calmly, still thinking about the question she'd asked him. Could he be her friend? He wasn't even sure what it meant to be one.

Brenna let her plasma fade. Now outside of her cell, she walked to meet Bucky at his outward-facing barred wall. He stepped over to her slowly. "I'll come back for you," she told him with a smile.

She was about to race off, but Bucky grabbed her hand with his metal arm, jerking her to a hault. Brenna looked up at him nervously, but he didn't seem angered. In fact, the Winter Soldier wasn't quite sure why he'd done this. For a moment, there was a silence, thick and heavy with feelings that Bucky didn't know how to handle.

Releasing her hand, he stepped away from the bars. Brenna smiled at him again. Then she was off. She made her way quickly and silently out of the base. Not wanting to alert any guards, she burned holes through walls so as to travel unseen. It didn't take long for her to make it outside. The only problem was that she had no idea where she was.

The car ride there had been long, but the fact that they'd taken a car proved that it wasn't too far from DC. Brenna looked back at the building. It appeared just like all of the others; tasteless and bland. No one would've guessed it was a secret base for HYDRA. She sighed and began to jog away.

Once far from the building, she flagged down a cab. When she asked to be taken to DC, the driver gave her a bizzare look. However, he accepted her money and took her. After all, this was Brenna Stark, the girl he'd heard so much about on the news. How could he say no to a celebrity?

• • •

Ohio. That's where she'd been taken by HYDRA. After a six hour long ride, Brenna finally was let out in DC. As the Ohio taxi driver rumbled off, Brenna turned around to the adress she'd been taken to. It was the only address in DC that she knew. Sam's house.

Wasting no time, she walked up and knocked, but no one replied. She peered awkwardly through a window. No one was home. Which most likely meant that they were already on their next mission. She tried the doorknob. To her surprise, it opened with ease.

Brenna laughed to herself and muttered, "nice job with the locks, Sam."

Once inside, she wasn't sure exactly what to do. She knew that this was where Natasha would want her to be, however, out of harms way and safely hidden. So she went to the kitchen to fix herself something to eat. Not having eaten since she was captured, Brenna was starving.

She made a thick sandwich and sat at the table to eat it. But after just an hour of being back, the front door swung open. Brenna was mid-bite when her eyes landed on Steve. He saw her right away and let out a deep sigh of relief. Turning to Sam, who stood behind him, he remarked, "I told you she'd come here."

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in," Sam responded with a sideway grin.

Brenna smiled and put her sandwich down. She stood and raced over to meet her friends. "Steve!" She gasped happily.

He met her with a strong hug. "I'm glad you're okay, B," he told her with a smile of his own as he released her.

"Smart thinking," Natasha complimented coolly as she, too, enter the house, "coming back here after escaping."

Brenna smiled brightly, taking her time to enjoy the praise. "Brenna, how did you escape?" Steve asked in a curious voice.

"It was actually pretty easy," she responded smoothly, holding her chin high in pride. "Remember how I vaporized those bullets?" When Steve nodded, Brenna shrugged, "well, yeah; that's how."

Sam chuckled and shook his head. "You're really somethin' else," he teased.

"Well, I hate to cut the reunion short," Natasha stepped in, a serious expression on her face, "but we're on a schedule."

Steve nodded in remembrance. "Right," he confirmed before moving past Brenna, "I'll get ready."

Brenna raised an eyebrow as he left. Turning back to Natasha, she wondered knowingly, "helicarriers?" When the older woman gave her a questioning look, Brenna explained, "I overheard that they're under HYDRA's control during my stay in their prison."

"Uh huh," Natasha hummed, giving Brenna a mischievous smirk.

Then, Sam frowned, giving Brenna a half-glare. "Hey, where's my jacket?"