Lmao

Word count: 4327

***

You were sprinting for Bucky's apartment, catching him just as he unlocked the door. 

"Bucky!" You called down the hall, your chest heaving as you slowed your pace. He looked at you and raised a finger to his mouth, signaling for you to be quiet. His eyes lingered on you for only a moment- the fear and sadness evident- before he silently reached for your hand, intertwining his fingers with yours. Opening the door without a sound, he brought you into the apartment with him, your heart dropping when you saw what, or rather who, was inside.

Steve Rogers stood with his back to the both of you, looking through the small journal Bucky would carry with him everywhere. Your hand gripped Bucky's, your mind racing with millions of questions.

If Steve is here, does that mean Bucky's in trouble? Has the government been informed of his location? Is he going to be arrested? Will you be arrested? What will Steve say about you lying to him about knowing where Bucky was? What will happen between you and Bucky?

So many questions with so many consequences, your pulse raced the more you thought.

"Understood." Steve spoke, most likely speaking into a comm set. He stared at the journal for a moment more before his head suddenly turned to the side, sensing the presence of other people. He turned fully, his expression unreadable. His eyes first landed on Bucky, looking him up and down. Then he looked at you, first with a confused stare, which quickly faded as he put the puzzle pieces together. His eyes flickered down to yours and Bucky's joined hands, nostrils flaring.

"You know me?" He asked Bucky, gaze meeting his. Bucky took a breath, keeping his face monotone.

"You're Steve." He said without emotion, "I read about you in a museum." He broke eye contact, looking down at the journal that contained every memory he had ever shared with you. Flashes of the time the two of you had spent in the bakery zipped through his head, his heart splitting when he realized that his happy bubble of being normal had finally popped. It was only a waiting game, he knew. There was no world where the former Winter Soldier could live in peace with the perfect girl to keep him company. The universe had never been kind to him, why would this be an exception?

Steve placed the journal on the counter in front of him, taking a small step forward, "I know you're nervous, you have plenty of reason to be," he squared his shoulders, taking on a strong stance, "but you're lying." Bucky clenched his jaw. "Seems to be a common theme around here."

Your heart dropped at Steve's words, knowing he felt betrayed. You couldn't blame him, he had spent the last years putting all of his time and efforts into finding his long-lost best friend, and you lied to his face about it. He was angry, and he had every right to be. Knowing you had broken his trust completely is what hurt the most.

"I wasn't in Vienna, I don't do that anymore." Bucky took the attention away from you, giving your hand a microscopic squeeze. Steve's gaze flickered towards the window and he took a few steps forward. 

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

"That's smart. Good strategy."

You could feel your heart pound in your chest, knowing what was about to ensue. You were completely unprepared for any fight- completely unarmed. You didn't even have a moment to ponder Bucky's words, how completely broken he sounded when he spoke them, what kind of underlying meaning was held within them. All you could focus on was how tense Bucky got as footsteps echoed through the ceiling, his hand dropping yours as he took on a defensive stance.

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

Bucky walked to the table near the wall, a sigh escaping his lips. He looked helpless, completely shattered from inside out. 

"It always ends in a fight."

When he fell from the train in Azzano, he had to fight to stay alive, stranded in the bottom of a ravine. When he was taken by HYDRA, he had to fight to keep his mind under his own control. When they finally broke him, he had to fight when he was given the order to. When he escaped and was finding somewhere to hideout, he had to fight his way through authorities. When he finally found a sliver of happiness in a world so fixated on only giving him sadness, he now had to fight to defend his name.

Amongst all of the hatred fate had shown him, he- in the moment- had wished that you hadn't been a part of it all. He should've known better than to think he could have something as bright and lovely as you in his life, he should've known that keeping you close would only put you in danger. He felt an unspeakable anger at himself for selfishly dragging you into his life. You deserved better than what he could give, and he was an idiot for ever thinking differently.

"You pulled me from the river," Steve voice raised slightly, "why?"

Bucky ripped off the glove that covered the metal of his hand, letting out an angry sigh as he looked back to Steve. "I don't know."

"Yes you do."

Your hands shook slightly, a defensive stance tensing your body. If there was going to be fight, then you would just have to fight.

Suddenly, a flash grenade shattered through the window, making all three of your heads snap to it. Bucky dove for you, pushing you behind his body. Steve acted quickly and hit it back out the same window it had entered from, causing it to detonate mid air. Another one flew in, landing on the floor near you and Bucky. He kicked it across the hardwood, the vibranium shield of Captain America covering it, popping metallically as it burst. Yet another one came through the window, Bucky pulling his mattress up and over where you were now crouching, the sound making your ears ring. 

You could see the door shake as the officers began their breach. The echoes of the rip-ram against the wood of the door slowly reached your ears, the ringing from the flash subsiding. Bucky ran forward and used his left arm to effortlessly throw his table forward so it wedged itself between the door and the wall, barricading the three of you in. 

Two GSG 9 soldiers came through the windows, making you shield your face from the glass. One landed in front of you, and you quickly swung with a right hook, landing on the man's cheek. You kicked out his knee, Bucky coming from beside you to render him unconscious before the soldier had a chance to pull his weapon on you. Gunshots littered the ceiling as the other one went down while fighting Steve, firing as he fell.

"Bucky! Gun!" You called out as Steve continued fighting. You didn't see where he had grabbed it from, but a Colt M4 Carbine pistol was tossed in the air towards you, which you caught easily. He looked at you for only a fraction of a second, a small apology written in the blues of his eyes, before turning and kicking an officer out of the doorway, attempting to escape.

"Buck, stop!" Steve said angrily, grabbing onto Bucky's arm. With a quick turn, Bucky spun under Steve's arm, facing him with an angry glare. "You're gonna kill someone!" Steve was slammed down onto the floor, Bucky's metal arm raised above him. You stepped towards them, hoping that you wouldn't have to break up a fight between two super soldiers.

A small amount of relief washed over you when Bucky's hand plunged through his wooden floors, "I'm not gonna kill anyone." His hand emerged with a small backpack you had seen when you first met Bucky, in the corner of a room somewhere in Moldova. 

He moved his gaze to you as he threw the backpack through the doorway behind him, the apologetic look once again on his face.

Another GSG 9 soldier repelled through the window beside you, your SHEILD training kicking in instantly. You whipped towards him, firing the gun at his knee, a scream ripping through his throat as he fell. He tried to get a couple shots at Bucky, Steve standing to shield him, but you kicked him in the temple and he was down.

Another soldier stayed on the balcony outside the window near the boys, the barrel of his rifle poking inside. He shot at them, Steve once again using his shield to protect both him and Bucky. Bucky picked Steve up by the back of his suit and threw him at the soldier, making him land outside on the balcony.

The officer on the floor raised his gun towards you weakly, but Bucky saw before he was able to pull the trigger. He jumped in front of you, the bullets bouncing off his left hand before he picked up a cinder block and threw it at the soldier, finally knocking him out for good. He turned towards you and grabbed your shoulders.

"Stay behind me, stay close, alright?" He said, shaking you slightly.

"Okay," you said breathlessly as three shots were fired into the hinges of the front door. Bucky stood behind it, you right behind him, and he waited for only a second before punching a hole through the the wall, knocking the man on the other side of it unconscious. He threw his body against the door, taking out a few more men that were standing in front of it.

That's when the dance began.

He threw punch after punch, taking down the highly trained GSG 9 of Germany like they were nothing. One repelled through the glass ceiling, and you were quick to aim and shoot at his hands, a bullet ripping through his wrist, his weapon dropping. Bucky grabbed him and slammed him against the wall, taking his rifle and tossing it away. He then took the rip-ram on his arm and knocked another two soldiers down. More were fast approaching up the spiral staircase leading to Bucky's apartment. He looked around for a moment, before jumping onto the officer that was still dangling from the ceiling and using him as a swing to get to a lower landing of the staircase. You shot an attacker in the knee once again, trying to preserve life.

"So much for 'stay behind me'!" You called to Bucky, flipping the gun around in your hand and swinging the butt of it at the temple of another soldier. You took one more down before reaching Bucky, who was dropping them left and right. 

"Gotta keep up, doll." He snickered, the sound of his fist colliding with yet another face punctuating his remark. You tried to ignore the jump your heart did at the nickname he used, grabbing the helmet of a soldier and slamming his forehead into the stair railing.

Steve jumped down next to the two of you just as Bucky threw an officer over the edge of the stairwell. Steve reaches over and caught him, giving Bucky a desperate look.

"C'mon, man." He sighed.

Bucky suddenly grabbed you around the waist, holding you tightly against his side as he took ahold of the metal railing, using it to swing to the lower level and burst through the door of another apartment. The two of you kept fighting, him pushing forward as you took out the men coming up on his back. The two of you fought together the same way you had danced together, completely in sync. This dance was complex, difficult. It was a tango with death himself, and one wrong step could have disastrous consequences. But, alas, that thought didn't cross either you or Bucky's mind, for everything felt natural and smooth.

He looked over the edge, then back at you. 

"This is gonna hurt." He muttered, grabbing you tightly once again. "You might wanna put that away." He nodded towards the pistol, making you flip the safety on and shove it into the waistline of your pants. Holding you close, he jumped over the railing of the stairwell, your arms wrapping tightly around his neck. You had to suppress the scream that sat in your throat, squeezing your eyes shut as you and Bucky began to free fall. They opened once again when your momentum suddenly stopped, a strangled cry leaving Bucky as he used his metal arm to latch onto the stair railing many stories below. You reached forward, grabbing onto the same railing and hauling your body weight up, landing on solid ground once again.

"Don't pull that shit ever agin." You grumbled as you followed him down a hall. 

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." He reached for your hand, pulling you along as his pace quickened, "Hold on tight."

You looked ahead of you, realizing what Bucky was asking you to do. Fear coursed through your veins, but you had to trust Bucky. You had to trust him like he had trusted you when he let you go after your phone call with Steve, or when he first sat across from you at that bakery, or even when he held you close and swayed to music that was as old as he was. You had to trust him like he had learned to trust you.

So, you jumped off a roof.

Bucky pulled you to him mid-air, turning so he would take the impact when you both landed. You gripped onto his shirt, eyes closing (once again), as you fell (once again). When he hit the rooftop of the neighboring building, you rolled off of him, trying to lessen his impact. Both of you stood quickly and began running, side by side. It was only moments before you were both knocked down, a man in an all black catsuit appearing in front of you. He stretched his hands and silver claws emerged from his fingers, his feet in a fighting stance. 

Bucky swung first, his quick punches being dodged easily. He was knocked back into one of the air conditions units as you took the pistol out once more, firing a couple rounds at the new attacker. He slowly turned towards you, your head tilting slightly in confusion. Since when were full catsuits bulletproof? 

You didn't have time to answer you question before you were being lunged at. You ducked quickly, your leg swinging out to sweep at his feet, knocking him to the ground. He was back on his feet as quickly as you were, swinging at you with his claws immediately. You dodged each one by leaning and stepping further and further backwards, before catching one of his arms and twisting yourself under it until you now were behind him. Your foot made contact with the middle of his back, sending him forward and onto the ground.

He stood and went for Bucky again, pushing him down and reaching to sink his claws into Bucky's face. Bucky caught his wrists, holding them mere inches from the tip of his nose. Bullets began raining down from the GSG 9 helicopter that hovered over the rooftop. You dove behind another AC unit, crying out as a bullet grazed your right shoulder. Your hand held the wound, putting pressure on it, as Steve came into view.

"Sam?" He asked, sightly panicked.

Sam appeared, flying with his new Falcon suit, then kicking the tail of the helicopter, sending it spiraling away. Bucky shouted and kicked his assailant off of him, picking up the backpack and running towards you, helping you up quickly before running again, his hand clasped tightly to yours. You groaned when you saw that you were running towards the edge of the roof.

"One more time, I promise." Bucky spoke, glancing towards you. His slight joking smirk fell when he saw your other hand clamped onto your arm, blood seeping through your fingers. Without hesitation he let go of your hand and quickly swung his arms behind your shoulders and the back of your knees, picking you up effortlessly. Within seconds, he jumped, landing on the ground gracefully, keeping you in his arms as he began running full speed.

You looked over his shoulder, Steve and the unknown attacker a small ways behind. Bucky clutched onto you while he jumped down into a tunneled highway, slowing to a stop by a pillar in the median and putting you down.

"Get out of here, please." He rushed out, his eyes full of panic.

"What about you?" You asked, your voice loud above the cars speeding by, "I can't just leave you!" Your clean, non-bloodied hand grasped onto his cheek. You felt the adrenaline of it all beginning to disappear, and you knew that this chase would not end well. 

Bucky closed his eyes at the contact of your hand on his cheek, his mind flashing to the time in the alley way when you hand touched him so delicately. His hand came up to meet yours, and he let himself relish in your touch for just a moment. He knew that however this was all going to end, it wasn't going to be good. All he wanted was for you to be safe, away from everything when it all came crashing down. He had pulled you into this life by letting himself get too close, and now he refused to let you pay the price for his selfishness. He grasped onto your hand and pushed it away from his face, his eyes opening to hold your stare.

All emotion faded from his expression, his voice coming out hard and cold when he spoke.

"Don't follow me."

And he was gone, running with traffic. You watched him go for a couple seconds, your heart breaking in two. Here you thought you had made progress with him, you thought he was finally opening up to you, and now you were blocked out completely. The last time he spoke those words to you, you were in a damp warehouse in Moldova, trying to convince him to trust you.

And you would do it all again, as many times as you needed, if it meant he would be okay.

You stopped an oncoming car, going to the drivers side, making the driver leave by flashing your gun. You hopped in, speeding down the highway, weaving in and out of traffic. Steve and the man in the black cat suit ran past you, making you push the accelerator further onto the floor. You drove up next to a police car that was gaining on Steve, pushing forward and cutting them off, causing them to swerve into the median. Rolling down your window, you caught up to Steve.

"Get in!" You shouted, coming to a stop when he processed your words. He flew into the passenger seat, barely closing the door before you sped off once again.

The air was incredibly tense, the only sound being his heavy breathing from running.

"How long?" He asked, his voice nothing short of monotonous.

"Steve-" you began.

"How long?!" He yelled, cutting you off.

"The sighting in Chisinau wasn't false. I found him there." You replied shortly. He didn't say anything.

"Steve, he didn't want to be found-"

"Not the time, (Y/N)."

You didn't respond, just floored the car even more to pass the black catsuit, inching closer and closer to Bucky. You heard a thud through the car, Steve's head looking back through the rear windshield. The unknown attacker was hanging onto the back of your stolen car, nails digging into the roof.

"Shit." You cursed, swerving the car back and forth in an attempt to shake him off, but he wasn't budging. 

"Sam, we can't shake this guy." Steve spoke as you continued your attempts. An annoyed sigh left his lips and he turned to you. "Sam says hi."

"Hi, Sam." You say lightly, eyes still on your rearview mirror.

You looked ahead, seeing the fleet of cop cars heading straight for Bucky, causing him to run through the median which was just oil barrels filled with sand. You let out a shot sigh and yanked the wheel sideways, ramming through the same median.

Back on Bucky's tail, you watched as he ripped a man off of a moving motorcycle, flipping it through the air before landing on the seat and speeding away. You swallowed thickly, trying to not drool over it. Even when he was running away from a fleet of law enforcement, Bucky found a way to look good while doing it.

You weaved in and out of the streets behind him, following every turn. The man in the catsuit was still clung to the back of your car, now climbing on the roof towards the hood. He jumped from your car towards Bucky, landing on him and shifting the balance of the motorcycle sideways, Bucky's metal arm creating sparks as it dragged along the street. Bucky was able to throw his attacker behind him, regaining balance on the bike. You saw him reach up and shoot something at the top of the overpass, your eyebrows furrowing in confusion before it exploded, flinging cement straight towards your car. You yanked the wheel sideways and slammed on the brakes, trying to avoid being crushed. Steve grabbed you and lunged through the driver door, knocking it off the car completely. His shield hit the ground first, skidding as he held both you and himself on it. 

He regained his footing, pulling you up with him. You held onto your side, your injured right arm dead weight at your side, a slight limp in your run a you tried to catch up with Steve. He had tackled the man in the catsuit, who had Bucky on the ground again, then stood beside Bucky as every cop in town made a circle around the four of you. You walked slowly to the other side of Steve, chest heaving and body aching. You weren't a super soldier or enhanced being, you were just human, and the shock was wearing away, giving into the pain your body was in.

Bucky's eyes found you, widening slightly in shock before returning to their stoic state. He felt worry creep up on him before it completely engulfed him, realizing how you held a hand to your ribs and wore a pained expression. He wanted to run over and help you, tell you it would be okay, make you feel even a bit better than you were, but the sirens surrounding him forbid it. His worry was then met with anger- what were you doing here? He told you not to follow him, and here you were. Why were you always so stubborn? Why didn't you just listen to him this time? He had to turn his eyes away from you, trying to focus on the situation in front of him.

Rhodey landed on the pavement beside Bucky, raising his hands up, a small whine indicating his suit's charge.

"Stand down, now." He spoke in an authoritative tone. Steve took his shield from his arm and attached it to his back, raising is hands in the air.

"Congratulations, Cap," Rhodey spoke, "you're a criminal."

The unknown man took off his mask, looking at Steve with narrowed eyes. Steve looked back with slight confusion before Rhodey spoke.

"Your highness."

Members of the GSG 9 swarmed the four of you, guns raised. They grabbed you roughly and forced you to the ground, causing you to cry out from the pain. Bucky clenched his jaw, putting up a bit of resistance as they pushed him down as well. He was tempted to rip the arms off of every man that was handling you as roughly as they were, but he knew you were out of reach. They would have him dead before he took a single step.

He should've expected this. It never ends well, not for him. He should've ran you out of town, or left when you weren't looking- something, anything, that would've kept you out of this fight. For his own selfish reasons he broke down his walls for you, let you in. And now you also had to pay the price. He didn't want to be found because he didn't want to cause any more pain, but he let himself be found by you. He let you work your way into his mind and heart, letting you live there rent free. And now, he had to watch it all crumble. Gone were the days of laughing in that bakery as he told you stories of his past. Gone were the days of strolling through the outdoor markets, talking about everything and nothing all at once. Gone were the days of holding you close as Glenn Miller and His Orchestra fills the air, your bodies swaying slightly to the beat. Every bit of normalcy that he had fought for was being dissolved right before his eyes, and his carelessness resulted in you being brought down with it.

His eyes found you once more, slightly surprised to see you already looking at him. You grimaced as the soldiers stood you up, Bucky following right after. Meeting his gaze again, you smiled softly, trying with all of your strength to reassure him that you were okay, and everything else would be okay. He gave you a look that screamed guilt, his eyes darting to the floor. You took a deep breath, trying to keep your emotions in check. Between your pain and the look Bucky just gave you, you could feel tears stinging at your eyes. With a couple breaths they began to subside, just as you were pushed into a police car.

TO BE CONTINUED