i'm dancing | bucky barnes

t h r e e

I awoke in Steve's car, his eyes hovering over my face.

"Piss off." i mumbled, attempting to roll over but being dragged upright into a sitting position.

"Come on, we're at SHEILD HQ. I have a meeting." he told me, handing me a hot cup of coffee.

"So go to your meeting." i groaned, accepting the cup into my hands, taking a long sip.

"You're coming with me. I'm not leaving you alone."

"Steve i had a flashback not a heart attack. I'll be fine." But he refused to take no as an answer.

***

I had changed into a pair of black jeans, a white button up shirt with which i paired a pair of black doc martins.

"Keep up." Steve badgered on about my slow pace. I rolled my eyes. We were making our way to an office belonging to one Alexander Pierce, whose name tasted familiar on my tongue despite my inability to come up with a reason why.

He had wanted to have a meeting with the blonde man, but never disclosed a reason.

Walking towards the man's office, we spotted Agent 13 speaking with him, quickly turning around and walking past us.

"Captain Rogers." she greeted.

But not before she shot a horrid glance my way. I rolled my eyes at her childish behaviour.

"Neighbour." he shot back sarcastically, putting an unnoticeable smile on my face. We approached the door of the office, the atmosphere suddenly changing into one more hostile than before as the man named Pierce wandered into the doorway.

He cleared his throat, the minuscule smile on my face fading with his serious facade.

"Captain Rogers" the man greeted then looked at me.

"Juniper Astrid" I confirmed formally introducing myself.

"I'm Alexander Pierce" he announces, almost proud of who he is. He held his hand out for Steve to shake, then turned to shake mine, though his grip lingered longer on my hand than it did on Steve's.

"It's an honour" Steve says, shaking his hand.

"The honour is mine Captain, my father served in the 104th. Come in now." Pierce smiled.

I recognised this man's voice but I didn't know where from. I must've zoned out, only hearing snippets of their conversation. Words like 'Nick' and 'hostage' were spoken.

"Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" was the question to bring me back.

"I don't know." Steve shook his head.

"Can we maybe.. speak alone?" Pierce asked, smiling at me. I nodded curtly, silently exiting the room and making my way down to the lower level of the building where the roof was made entirely out of glass, as if it were a greenhouse. I sat on an empty bench, waiting for Steve to finish with the meeting, with my phone in my hand.

The next thing i knew, Steve was plummeting through the roof. I shot into action as he landed onto his shield, glass shattering into all corners of the room. He groaned out, straightening and tensing on the floor before regaining enough of his composure to stand.

I furrowed my brows in confusion and intrigue for a moment before i was quite literally pulled back to reality, in which Steve was dragging me out of the building.

"What the fuck happened?!" i yelled over the wind rushing past my ears as we ran alongside each other.

"We need to go!" he yelled back.

I looked behind us to find the external, glass elevator full of unconscious STRIKE agents.

"Please don't tell me that you knocked out the entire strike team!" i yelled at him.

"Okay i won't!" He yelled back.

"May i ask why?!"

"No time!"

We ran for a little while longer until he reached his motorcycle, both of us mounting. I repositioned my arms around his waist, holding on tight as he began to drive towards the bridge.

As the gate began to close, there was a wall closing us off from the rest of the world. And i dreaded what Steve was about to do.

"If you fucking drop me i swear to god Steven!" i yelled as we ascended into the air, over the  gate and back onto the road.

I opened my eyes to find spikes rising from the floor, and if that wasn't enough, there was a quinjet pointing its guns at us.

"Stand down Captain Rogers. Stand down. I repeat stand down." the speakers on the jet spoke as the gun built into the jet was activated.

"Steve." I warned, "Please tell me you have a plan because if you don't i'm gonna-." I was cut off by the gun firing multiple rounds and Steve swerving out of the way, nearly throwing me off with it.

"Hold on!" he yelled.

"What do you think i'm doing?!"  I yelled, a slight of emotion in my usually monotone voice as he grabbed his shield, and threw it at one of the engines. I looked around the massive body infront of me, watching as it jammed into the metal.

I must have gotten too emersed in the view because in a beat we were being hurled over the handlebars and rolling in the road. I groaned in pain, finding Steve already up and looking down at me, pulling his shield out of the jet we apparently landed on.

"What? You tired?" he panted, teasing me even through the difficult situation he's put us in for a reason still unbeknownst to me.

I quickly get up and sprint to the other side of the jet alongside him. Steve threw his shield at the two engines opposite us and so it tilted quickly to one side due to the engines both exploding, almost throwing us both off of it.

"Jump!" he yelled before doing so himself, catching his shield mid-air.

I land into a roll and i was back on my feet in an instant, being pulled off into the distance by one Steve Rogers.

"Where are we going?!" i yelled, pulling my arm out of his as we ran.

"To get the USB." he grunted as he dragged me into the first alleyway we passed. He pulled a backpack out from behind a bin, rummaging through it.

"What do you mean to get the USB? You have it on you. Right?" i asked.

"It's in the hospital."

"You're kidding." i scoffed, "You put it in that fucking vending machine didn't you." I scoffed again, shaking my head in disbelief.

"Relax no one's gonna find it." he assured me, but i wasn't very assured. "Put this on." he threw an oversized black hoodie, which was probably his, a baseball cap and a pair of glasses into my chest.

"Steve?" i ask, pulling the hoodie over my head.

"Yeah?" he pulled his cap on, his glasses in his hand.

"Is this supposed to be a disguise?" i ask, dumbfounded as i put on my glasses and cap.

"Yeah, why?" he asks, genuinely unphased.

"Rumlow only has to take one look at those horrific shoes to know that it's you." I crossed my arms, waiting for him to catch his breath.

edited - 24/01/23