WAKE OF WAR │ barnes ³ [discontinued]

three

'AND ATLANTA UNITED SCORES ANOTHER GOAL!'

The enthusiastic velvet holler of the commentator shakes Evgenia awake from her slumber. She groaned and rubbed her eyes, rolling over on her stomach to check the time on her little alarm clock. 

She frowned at the time: '5:30 AM'. 

At the foot of her bed, a snoring pile of fur is curled up, chest rising and falling. Had Bucky forgotten to turn the television off again?

Zhenya kicks the blanket off her lower body and pads quietly into the hallway, the wooden floorboards feeling rather cold against her flesh foot. She passes the master bedroom which looks the same as it did 4 months ago, when they had gotten the house (albeit now with a bed and a chair). It's door was still ajar but with no one huddled in the bed. 

She peeks in the small living room and finds her father on the floor. His back is to her, but she can see the fast paced and heavy breathes he takes.

'Papa? Are you ok?'

He turns around to face her, a strained smile on his face. In the dim lighting, she can see beads of sweat rolling down his forhead.

'I'm fine, it's nothing. Go back to bed.' He waves a hand at her.

Fine my ass.

She raised her left brow at him and squints her eyes. 'No you're not.'

'Go to bed Evgenia. It's nothing.'

Unconvinced, she marches towards the TV and turns it off, before heading to the kitchen to grab a cup and fill it with tap water. She marches back into the living room and plonks herself on the couch, reaching over the armrest to practically force the cup into Bucky's hands.

He sighed, she was as stubborn as Romanoff. 'Zhenya, please go to bed.'

She settled into the couch, pulling a cushion over her face. 

'OK goodnight.'

Evgenia pushes past the late morning crowd, half jogging to keep up with Bucky's much longer legs. She shoved the rest of the croissant into her mouth and shot the crumpled wrapper in an already overflowing bin. 

When she had woken up Wednesday morning, his spot on the floor was empty and she found a sticky note attached to the blanket he had placed on her.

Went out for a walk. Raynor at 3pm. Love you.

She'd gone about her day as normal: logged onto her online classes, fed the cat, had a later dinner with Maria in the East Village. When she returned to find the apartment still empty, aside from Alpine perched on top of the kitchen stool with a sock in his mouth, Zhenya had frowned. 

She checked her phone and found a text message from her father, sent two hours ago. Evgenia's mouth fell agape. 

A date?

How did her father, who spoke to a maximum of 6 people on a regular basis manage to score a date? She had been tempted to call him right then and call him out on his bullshit, but a small part of her had hoped that he wasn't playing some sort of joke and really was on a date. Zhenya slid the phone into her back pocket and went to go turn the TV on. 

She'd perched on the edge of the sofa's armrest and pressed play on Season 1 of Criminal Minds. As JJ and Morgan appeared on screen, she grabbed strands of braiding hair from the bag between her thighs, and with superhuman speed, had begun twisting her hair into locs. 

When she pressed play on Episode 4 hours later, the bag of hair was empty and was discarded on the floor. Alpine had taken special interest in it and batted at the plastic. Just as she'd gotten up to turn the TV off, her father barged into the house.

She noted the panic stricken eyes, the tenseness of his mouth and the clenched fists.

'Chto ne tak?'

He'd taken a heavy breathe in and hesitated before speaking. 'Ya ubil yego syna-'

'HEY!'

The indignant neon screech of a taxi driver startles Evgenia from her recollection. Her instincts kick in, replacing her sluggishness just as a bionic arm clad in leather latches on her wrist and tugs her away from the edge of the intersection. Her eyes lock with the driver's and she smiles apologetically at the glaring man.

'What the hell?!' Her father hissed from beside her, an edge of fear in his tone. 

Her stomach twists in guilt.

 Is this your first time in New York? Don't you know better than to blindly dive into incoming traffic.'

The guilt dissipates. Her nostrils flare in anger and she was tempted to yell back at him.

Sorry father! I was just busy thinking about how you came home last night at 1 fucking AM, talking about how you just killed someone and freaked me the fuck out but you really just meant the Winter Soldier shot Mr Nakajima's son twenty years ago. So if we consider the domino effect, this wouldn't have even happened if you knew your damn tenses.

Instead, she bites the inside of her cheek instead and swallows the rage. 

'Sorry.'

The red light changes to green, and the crowd surges forward like a wave around them. He releases her wrist. They cross the avenue in silence.

It's not the first time that she's felt this inexplicable sense of fury. Ever since the Blip, she felt more irritable and every little thing had the potential to cause her shortened temper to burst. Just last week, her shirt caught on the doorknob and resulted in Evgenia screaming out every swear word she could think of, which for someone who spoke five languages, was quite a list.

Suddenly, Bucky stops in his tracks. He turns towards the window display of a Macy's, the half a dozen TVs all depicting the same news channel.

A bearded white man stood before a podium with the Department of Defence's emblem nailed into the wood. BREAKING NEWS, read the banner on the bottom of the screen, THE US WELCOMES A NEW HERO.

Zhenya edges closer to the glass. Without any sound or subtitles, she tries her best to lip read.

'Join me... your... Captain America!'

Evgenia inhales sharply, her eyes widening. They were introducing Captain America! They were introducing Sam! She couldn't even begin to express the sheer euphoria she was feeling. For the first time, other Black and biracial kids would see themselves when they looked at the new national hero and be included in the American narrative.

The government official claps his hands enthusiastically, beaming as he steps away from the podium. The camera panned to reveal the cheering crowd, some pumping their fists and others cupping hands over their mouths to yell. 

The doors swung open. The Star Spangled Man jogged down the steps, his left arm brandishing the vibranium shield and his right hand waving at the adoring onlookers.

Her excitement died away. 

Who the hell was this white man and why was he in Sam's uniform?

just realised that bucky's date was the night after his appointment, not on the same day. but it's whatever

Chto ne tak? - what is wrong

Ya ubil yego syna - i killed his son