Altruism // Helmut Zemo x Reader x Bucky Barnes

1

Y/n walked into the mechanics garage with soft careful steps, not sure if she had gotten the right address. She glanced down at her phone, double checking. Yep, this was the right place. The garage smelled of gas, the scent almost making her dizzy as she approached the bickering voices that bounced off the concrete walls. It took a few moments to recognize them, but once she did the tension slipped out of her body and she closed the pocket knife she had been wielding. She walked around a car and to the two men, who didn't acknowledge her presence if they noticed it.

"I don't like how casual you're being about this, this is unnatural." Sam looked around, exasperated. "And where are we man, what does Y/n have to do with this?" He questioned, giving Y/n a small nod hello that she returned with a friendly wave.

Before Bucky had time to reply, the click of a door opening rang throughout the garage, turning everyone's attention to the shrinking shadow of a man approaching, only to be revealed as Helmut Zemo once he pushed past the clear plastic divider. Shock covered Sam's face while he moved forward swiftly to confront the man.

"Woah...woah, woah, woah! Hey! What are you doing here?" Asked Sam, held back by Bucky.

"Did he not tell you the plan?" Asked Y/n. "Bucky you need to tell people your plans, it's rude to not." Y/n scolded, feeling bad for Sam having to be shoved into this. She side eyed Zemo as he approached, side stepping closer to the arguing men to get away from him.

"I didn't want to tell you because I knew you wouldn't let this happen!" Bucky explained as if that was a good reason to hide something so big.

Y/n watched as Sam and Bucky bickered about Zemo, wishing she had the guts to say no to people. She was a pushover, and saying no to a friend just felt rude, especially a friend like Bucky who was for the most part alone. It was perhaps her fatal flaw, her inability to say no to someone in need. It made her a great nurse and an even better friend, but a not so happy person. Sometimes she wished she could just yell no to the next person who asked something of her, but the fear of saying to outweighed her need to care for herself in that way.

"If I may..." Zemo began to say something, taking off the prison guard hat. Y/n had to admit, objectively and not out of her own opinion, he looked good in the uniform.

"No!" Shouted both Sam and Bucky simultaneously, fed up with him already. Y/n could see why they needed her around now, they would lose their patience with him quickly whereas Y/n was able to tolerate almost everyone. She wasn't sure how she would tolerate Zemo though.

"...Apologies..." Zemo said, looking down. Y/n almost felt bad for him.

"When Steve refused to sign the Sokovia accords you two backed him. You broke the law and you stuck your neck out, for me. I'm asking you to do it again." Bucky said to both Y/n and Sam.

"And I will Bucky. We're friends, I have your back!" Y/n smiled at him, her whole body wanting to turn around and leave. She really didn't want to do this, but they were friends after all and that meant sticking her neck out for him.

"I really think I'm invaluable-" Zemo began, clearly not learning his lesson from the last time he spoke.

"Shut up!" Sam sighed, tired of Zemo already. "Okay if we're going to do this, you don't make a move without our permission."

"Fair." He replied

Sam looked at him, he also seemed like he didn't really want to do this "Okay Zemo... Where do we start?"

Zemo smirked a bit before leading them through the plastic divider her had came from and to a room filled with many old and outrageously expensive cars. Y/n was too focused examining them to listen to what the others were saying, figuring she would just figure it out eventually. She walked around an old red car, admiring how shiny it was despite how long it must have been since it was driven. She was too focused on it to notice Bucky's approach.

"Thanks, for saying yes. It means a lot." Thanked the generally stoic man who put his hand on the side of the car, only to pull it away when Y/n gave him a pointed glare because he would smudge it.

"Anything for you Bucky, you know that." Y/n smiled at the super soldier. "But are you sure about this? About Zemo? He could turn on us at any minute." She was worried about Bucky, was he truly okay with being around Zemo after everything that had happened between the two?

Bucky nodded. "I'm sure. We need him Y/n, he's our best chance at taking down the Flag Smashers."

Y/n sighed. To be honest she sympathized with the Flag Smashers. They had just become accustomed to a new normal, only to be kicked out of their newfound homes and tossed onto the streets. However she didn't voice her opinion to Bucky, she knew he'd disagree. Y/n had a reputation to be too soft when it came to people. It caused her and Tony Stark to clash quite a bit as he deemed her too much of a softy to be an Avenger, and she didn't want to clash with Bucky and have him throw her off the mission. As much as she really didn't want to do it, she couldn't leave Bucky and Sam alone. What if they were to get hurt?

"Whatever you say Bucky..." Y/n sighed, looking down until Bucky's hand touched her shoulder. The action drew her eyes up to meet his kind blue ones. He opened his mouth to say something when Zemo's voice interrupted and his hand jerked away.

"We're going to need to scale a ladder of lowlives, first a mid level fence named Selby that I still have a line on. From there, we climb." Zemo stated, holding a jacket and a light brown leather bag in his hands. He glanced back to the three people behind him, Y/n throwing Bucky a nervous smile before rushing to follow Zemo.

-

"So all this time you've been rich?" Sam asked as the four approached Zemo's private jet. Y/n was shocked. From how he dressed last time she saw him Y/n had assumed he was just a normal middle class man.

"I'm a baron Sam. My family was royalty until your friends destroyed my country."

Y/n felt shame deep in her body as Zemo greeted his pilot and they boarded the plane. She didn't know much about Zemo. She didn't know his motives for doing what he did to her friends, but she did know that as a result of her friends actions his country was destroyed and she felt terrible. She sometimes at night still felt the pain of the wounds of the Sokovian citizens burning into her skin as she took them from them.

That was her power, to take the wounds from others and give them to herself with only slightly accelerated healing to compensate. Y/n became nothing but a glorified nurse to the Avengers, only receiving words of thanks for her efforts and nothing more, other than Bucky and Steve of course, they were above and beyond making sure she was okay. She had long accepted that the other Avengers were too busy to truly make sure she was okay like those two had done, or were just indifferent to her and her presence. Still, the lack of thanks and comradery from a majority of the Avengers and the searing pain Y/n felt at night when she had nightmares of times she had used her power were factors in why she retired from her position after the civil war.

She looked up from her lap, finding herself in the seat across from Zemo, who was watching her with his head slightly tilted. She must have been lost in her thoughts for a while as per usual, seeing Sam doze off and Bucky with headphones in looking out the window. Y/n crossed and uncrossed her legs, looking around the plane with nothing to do. She was too nervous to bite the bullet and start a conversation with Zemo. Luckily for her, he spoke up.

"We're going to Madripoor." Zemo stated, his voice causing Y/n to look him in his eyes. "You seemed a little out of it while I was explaining it. I assumed you would like to know."

Y/n was hesitant to reply, not knowing if she should be having a conversation with him. Eventually good manners won over her feelings. "Thank you."

Zemo took a sip of what Y/n assumed was champagne judging from the glass. "If you don't mind my asking, what were you thinking of?"

Y/n didn't see a reason not to tell him, letting out a small sigh. "I was thinking of Sokovia..." Zemo's head tilt looked as if it was encouraging her to go on. His eyes had a strange way of making it seem as if she was the only person in the world when she spoke. "My power... I used it a lot back then... I tried to do the best I could to help the civilians."

For a few moments Zemo looked as if he was looking through Y/n and back at that tragic day before replying. "Your power it is an interesting one, however there is something I've always wondered." He paused to take a sip of his drink. Zemo's deep brown eyes met Y/n's, causing a shiver to run up her spine. "You do so much for other people. What do they do for you?"