Chapter Text
They pulled up at the cabin the next evening with a stack of pizzas, as requested. Natasha answered the door and beckoned them inside. 626 staked out a spot under a couch the second Bucky let her out of her carrier. "There's food, kids," Natasha called, and a brown-skinned girl with dark, curly hair peeked out of the door behind the couch. "This is James and Steve," Natasha said. "James--"
"Bucky."
"Bucky is the one I told you about. Come and get some food."
The girl came closer, wary, and there was a sudden gust of a wind as four slices disappeared from the open box and 626 yowled.
"What the hell?" Bucky demanded.
"That's Pietro," the girl said quietly. "He's fast."
"Um, Pietro? You can't scare my cat. She doesn't deserve that."
There was no response. Natasha nabbed a slice and said, "I set you boys up in the master bedroom. I'll sleep on the couch. The walls are not soundproof, so—"
"Not—not, um, that's not an issue," Steve said, blushing.
Bucky didn't like Natasha's condescending little smirk, so he butted in, making very sharp eye contact with her. "Sure it is, Stevie does me real good every night."
"Oh my god," Steve moaned, covering his face. "Why would you say that?"
"Defending my man. He's real talented. Has been since the Depression."
"Stop, please stop," Steve begged.
"But just for you, Romanoff, we'll take a break."
"He's lying," Steve mumbled through his fingers. "Don't listen to him."
"No, I want her to know the can of worms she's opened."
Natasha wasn't fazed, unfortunately. "I think Steve is going to die if you keep going."
She was probably right, so Bucky gave up and started on the pizza.
The girl started opening other pizza boxes. "They don't have beef or pork, do they?"
"Don't think so," Steve said.
"Good. I just…now that we're free, I want to try again."
Bucky looked over at her. "Kosher?"
"Yes, are you?"
"My family never kept kosher, but yeah, I'm Jewish."
The color was starting to go down in Steve's cheeks, and he asked, "What was your name again?"
"I didn't give it." She had a soft voice, some Eastern European accent, with something very dangerous at the center, something that said she could easily snap, that she wasn't entirely sane. Bucky wondered if he sounded the same to others. "Wanda. Did Agent Romanoff not warn you about us?"
"Not at all, should she have?" Steve asked easily, though Bucky knew he could fight on a second's notice.
Wanda took a slice of pizza and looked at Natasha. Nat shrugged. "Figured you kids have had enough of other people making choices for you."
Wanda nodded, picked another slice, said, "Go ahead, then," and retreated back to her room, shutting the door behind her.
Natasha pulled out a chair and took a seat. "Clint and I found them in a Hydra cell base. Prisoners. I thought they were genetic experiments, but they say they're mutants, and Hydra was trying to use their powers, and break them. Use them. You know the drill. We cleaned up the base, extracted the kids, boom. They say they don't have any family, which is probably a lie, but I gotta let them work through it. They have very dangerous powers, so that's why we're out here. We're making sure they're physically stable and emotionally stable enough before we set them up somewhere."
"Why bring us here?" Steve asked as he and Bucky sat down as well.
"Because my agent is getting here in the morning, and if what he found is what we were hoping to find, Wanda has powers that might be able to help Bucky."
"What?"
"Yeah, she has sort of telepathic—I know, Barnes, but we can be careful about it."
Bucky was not convinced it was a good idea to let the crazy girl dig around in the crazy man's head, but they didn't have to talk about it tonight. "Maybe."
"So. You seem better."
"Since when I was relearning how to eat and shower? Thanks."
"Steve, you didn't tell me your boyfriend was funny."
Bucky rolled his eyes and Steve said, "Uh, what have I told you about my boyfriend?"
"Hmm," Nat said, considering. "That he was always there for you, that he's the most important person in your life, and that you're madly in love with him. We haven't talked that much since SHIELD fell."
"I don't think I said madly in love."
"You really didn't have to."
"You can say that," Bucky chimed in. "If you want." He turned to Natasha. "He's thinking it. He loves me."
"I do," Steve agreed, hooking his foot around Bucky's ankle. He didn't joke, didn't tease about that, like he was afraid if he didn't say it sincerely enough, he'd lose Bucky again. Bucky gave him a warm smile, and Steve returned it.
"You two are sweet," Nat said.
There was a moment where Bucky couldn't tell if she was teasing or not, but he decided it didn't matter. "I think it's about all we have left."
She nodded. The rest of the evening was quiet. Wanda came out of her room twice and tried to make friends with the cat without success. Pietro finally showed himself. He looked a lot like Wanda—brown skin, dark eyes, same facial structure—but taller and with silver hair. He was skeptical of Captain America but less so of Bucky until Bucky explained Steve had rescued him and killed an entire intelligence agency in the process because if it was even possible for Hydra to infiltrate SHIELD, then SHIELD was already too rotten to save.
Well after sunset, a car pulled up. Bucky jerked up but Natasha said, "Just Clint. He brought an air mattress."
Bucky settled back into his position, head on a pillow in Steve's lap. "Is he your agent?"
"Nah. They'll be here tomorrow." She slipped outside and returned a few minutes later, hauling a couple bags with Clint following.
"Hi Cap, hi Bucky. Hi newbies. I'm Clint." He spread out an air mattress and turned on the pump. "Does anyone need me or can I crash here? Actually, hold any thoughts, that pump is loud." He finished inflating and turned it off, his eyes settling on Steve's fingers threading through Bucky's hair. "Hey, wait, are you two a thing now? 'Cause when I made that Grindr joke I was just messing with you. Well, I was trying to figure out what Captain 1940s thought of gay people."
"We lived in Red Hook," Steve said. "Most of our neighbors were queer."
"I think," Bucky said, "I think we must've thought we were—I mean, each other was the only straight fella in our apartment building. I guess. I don't remember so well."
"Well, congrats on waking up to a kinder future, such as it is."
Steve's fingernails scraped gently against Bucky's scalp, and fuck that felt nice. "We're together, we're fucked up, same shit, different day," Steve said. "Kind of."
"Ooh. I like swearing Steve."
Bucky snorted. "You like swearing Steve, you'll love angry queer Brooklyn accent Steve."
"I do love that," Clint confirmed. "Please demonstrate."
"I'm not a circus dog," Steve complained.
"Nothing wrong with the circus," Clint yawned. "I am going to sleep, which means I'm going radio silent. Good night." He removed his hearing aid and flopped down on the air mattress.
That spurred everyone else to retire. The twins headed into their bedroom, Natasha tucked in next to Clint, and Steve and Bucky went to their room.
"You all right?" Buck asked. "Being here?"
"You're here." Steve kissed him. "I'm just fine. You?"
"Okay. They're all right. I'm nervous, but it can't get worse, so...I'm okay."
The cat hopped up onto the bed and prowled around Bucky and Steve's feet until finally settling nearby, purring.
"Love you," Steve whispered.
Bucky half-smiled, too sleepy to offer much more. "Love you too, sweetheart."
They would've probably slept the whole night if not for the piercing scream from the next room over and the almost instantaneous gust of wind that blew their door open.
Steve was up like a shot. Bucky followed. Natasha was sitting up on the air mattress. "They'll come back. He was looking out for us. She has some messy powers. Did anyone get nightmares?"
"No," Bucky said, frowning.
"Someone screaming?" Clint mumbled.
"No, dear, just a herd of elephants."
"Wake me up if you say something I need to hear."
"Can she cause nightmares?" Bucky asked.
"Yep," Nat said. "Learned that one the hard way. Can't tell you how disconcerting it is to dream someone else's PTSD flashback. But she shares nice dreams too, accidentally."
"Can she do it on purpose?"
"Yeah. That's why I'm hopeful we can shortcut deprogramming with you. You've been through enough."
"What's the long cut?"
"Drugs, audio files, locking yourself up for days, weeks, months. It's not fun, and to be honest, we don't have time if we want to do this public thing."
"Talk in the morning," Bucky said.
"Yeah. Good plan. Night, boys." She lay back down. Steve and Bucky went back to their room.
"Maybe you should do me real good every night," Bucky said, sliding back under the covers.
"Yeah, not here though."
"I know, I know."
"Let's…can we get through the next step?"
"And the next one, and the next one, and…I am an adult, and I want to get laid."
"I want to try and get these trigger words out of your head, and if it's that easy, then…yeah. Then you can—you can seduce me, actually."
"Oh, I will."