stevebucky - hiraeth

8. Damsel in Distress

The quinjet settled on the lawn of the Compound and the doors opened, letting the Avengers out. Barnes tried to pick up Steve again and accidently dropped him on the floor, limp. Barnes cursed and tried to do it again.

"Barnes, it's fine." Clint grabbed his arm and Barnes pulled it back, glaring. "Let me."

Clint tried to pull him up and couldn't. 

"Good god," Clint huffed. "How heavy is this guy?"

"It helps to be a supersoldier," Barnes snapped. "Let me."

"You only have one arm, man. You just dropped him."

 Behind them, Nat rolled her eyes.

Steve suddenly lifted off the floor, washed in an aura of red light.

"Idiots," Wanda chided in her accent, manipulating the energy with her hands and stepping out of the quinjet, Steve floating in front of her.

Barnes scowled, watching her leave. Clint, Nat, and Tony followed.

Sam patted him roughly on the back. "Miss Wiggly Woos' got you covered." he said, chuckling.

"Shut up, Flappy."

"Never, dumpster prince."

"What the- what kind of an insult was that?" Barnes spluttered.

"Just seemed fitting." someone called seb an angry dumpster prince once and every time i think of it i start laughing 

Sam left, following the others in the Compound. 

Scott was still there, standing awkwardly.

"You were there," Barnes said, not even turning to look at him. "What was it like?"

"He cried all the time. Sometimes he'd just say your name over and over again."

Barnes winced.

"He must have really cared about you."

"Yeah. He must have." Barnes muttered bitterly, and he and Scott walked to the Compound.

                                                                                -

As soon as everyone was inside, Steve let out a very long and anguished scream and Wanda dropped him out of surprise.

"Sorry," she muttered, raising him again and going down the hallway to his room. Barnes followed.

Steve's room was sad, to say the least- grey walls with nothing on them and a wood floor, white furniture(bedside table, bed), and a half-full closet.

"He never spent very much time in this room," Wanda mused.

"He's barely got anything in here," Barnes remarked, looking through his closet.

"Actually, he's got a lot in here. In his closet...I mean..." Wanda trailed off when she saw him looking at her, perplexed. "Nevermind."

She slowly put him on his bed, his head lolling to the side.

"Thank you, Wanda," Barnes said quietly.

Wanda nodded. "Of course, James."

They both left Steve to sleep. He seemed almost peaceful, for once- mumbling things every now and then, his hands twitching.

Barnes went into the kitchen, just then realizing how hungry he was. He had barely eaten anything during the past couple of days, too distracted by his own worries and stress.