Disruption. | Bucky Barnes

Chapter 41.

The man looks at us up and down, he begins to shut the door but something in me pushes me to hold it open.

Steve and the stranger look at me, as I greet Steve's gaze I plead with him silently, we need information, we need to find Bucky.

He nods as if he understands my request and turns to the door, "sorry to interrupt your day," he smiles kindly, "have you recently moved into this apartment? We're looking for a friend who once lived here."

The man eyes both of us for a moment and then shakes his head fast before shutting the door on us.

Defeat starts to creep over me and Steve puts his hand on my shoulder, "we can ask around, do you have your phone?"

I take it out my back pocket, because Nat had it in Poland so I couldn't check up on what was going on, I luckily didn't lose it by being captured, and strangely, she kept it for a time, waiting for the right moment, she apparently said, to give it to my father.

After the pictures came in of my body, she passed it on to him, and he said he kept it in his safe, just until he was ready to go through it and see what he could maybe keep.

I find myself grateful to still have it, a few times over the last week going through my pictures of Bucky and I, or just ones I had snapped of him when he wasn't looking, when he was sleeping, the odd moment between us I wanted to capture with a photograph.

"Do you have a picture of him we can use to show people what he looks like?" Steve asks and I nod, scanning my images for what I know is the perfect picture.

I pull it up on my screen and smile, I took it in Vienna, he was being a total dork and I caught a picture of him laughing and then just casually smiling, a picture that embodies him perfectly, if you've met Bucky even once, you'll know it just from that smile.

Steve smiles at the picture, then chuckles to himself, "I've gone from looking for you with Bucky, to looking for him with you." He does that kind smile he's often wearing.

We make our way out to the street, Steve makes me send the picture to him and we head off in separate sides of the market, I take the right while Steve takes the left side.

The first vendor is a man selling bouquets of flowers, each bunch bright and beautiful, the smell radiating from the stall is overwhelming.

I greet the man the best I can and he offers me flowers that I have to decline, showing him the picture on my phone and waiting, watching as he frowns and then nods, "weeks ago, he buys fruit," he gestures to a stall on Steve's row, "every day!"

My body seems to pick up from the defeat I was feeling, the first thing we tried and we already have a positive lead, "thank you so much!" I smile at the man, mentally telling myself I could show my appreciation much more if I knew the Romanian translation.

I rush to Steve and he smiles brightly, "they all say the same, that he only tends to buy fruit."

"That's exactly what that guy told me!" I gesture behind me at the flower stall and look down Steve's row at the man selling fruit and vegetables from his stall.

We head down street and the man greets us casually, offering fresh strawberries and grapes, telling us to sample his fresh plums which he extends to us in a wooden bowl.

Steve and I each take one and as I bite into mine, Steve asks him about Bucky, showing his picture on his phone, the mans face warms.

"Yes! I know him," his smile turns to something sad, "heartbroken man, you can see in eyes! He left for Poland, weeks ago, not been home since."