WAKE OF WAR │ barnes ³ [discontinued]

four

Bucky was.... not happy to say the least.

His back was turned to her, but she could see the stiffness in his posture and imagine the scowl on his face as he shoved jackets and shirts into a large duffle bag.

She was leaning against the doorframe, ankles crossed with Alpine in her arms. In their sparse living room, Maria perched on the edge of the sofa, feet tapping against the floorboards. Her opened laptop showed a list of flights to Washington, DC and she was arguing fervently with someone on the phone - presumably airline staff.

'Sobirayesh' li ty svoy kostyum na vsyakiy sluchay?'

'Da,' he answers, her words reminding him to pull his Wakandan made leather jacket off its hanger and stuff it into the bag. He waves his hand at her. 'Idi syuda, Zhenka. Syad'te na sumku.'

She drops Alpine onto the floor and drops her entire body weight onto the bag. With much effort, Bucky zips the bulging bag shut. Just in time, Maria appears with her phone in hand.

'Ok, I got you an Economy at 2pm. I sent you the ticket on iMessage so just scan the barcode when you're checking in.'

He lets out a grateful sigh. 'Thank you Maria.'

She cocks her left brow. 'You do know how to scan barcodes right?'

Zhenya swallows a laugh. 

'Yes,' huffs Bucky. 'I know how to scan a barcode.'

'See you later Barnes.' Smirking, Maria picks up Alpine from the floor and exits the room.

Her father picks the bag up and wraps his other arm around Evgenia's shoulders. 'In a few hours, I'm gonna spend some quality time with my soulmate, my best friend forever.'

'Ooooh, Papa! Come on. You can't still be annoyed at him because he didn't move his seat up in Germany.'

Bucky cocked his head. 'Yes I am, but also because he's a public nuisance.'

They reach the door. From the edge of her vision, she sees Maria leaning against their neighbour's door, the cat carrier by her feet. 

'Come here kid,' Bucky says. He engulfs her in a tight hug. She could actually breathe when he hugged her now - the top of her head right next to where his ears where. 'Do your homework and take care of yourself.'

'Papa, you're gonna be back in like... a day.' She peeled his fingers off her back. 'Tell Sam I said hi.' 

And then as an afterthought, she added. 'Please don't kill each other.'

As it turned out, Bucky was not back in a day. 

Evgenia slouched on the couch, her legs rested on top of the coffee table. Maria had left earlier that morning, something about Fury. She wasn't really paying attention, too busy cursing at the TV as she attempted to steer on Mario Kart. 

Now, she was staring intently at the Find My iPhone app. Bucky was in Baltimore. Yesterday he was somewhere in Germany. Yeah, he wasn't going to be back in weeks.

Part of her said to leave it alone and let her father and Sam do whatever they needed to do, they didn't need a third person, they would be fine. But the other part of Evgenia told her to book a flight to Baltimore now. Walmart Steve, Bucky's once-a-day calls which revealed next to nothing about what he was doing and she had seen new news about the Flag Smashers group. 

Something wasn't right.

And if Zhenya had learnt something in her 40 something years of being alive, was to always listen to her gut.

She swiped out of the app, and tossed her phone onto the other side of the sofa. She headed towards the kitchen counter, where her laptop was charging. Zhenya heard the insertion of a key and then the front door clicked open.

Fuck. She didn't know if she should ask Maria for permission or just book the flight herself.

She entered her password - 020215. The day that Natasha officially adopted her.

Maria appeared in the kitchen. She draped her jacket over a chair. 

'Mmmm yeah, don't choose Spirit Airlines, unless you want to die in a plane crash.'

Evgenia cleared her throat. Yeah, she definitely couldn't lie to Maria. Not with what had happened, she was going to add missing stepchild to the woman's list of already growing troubles.

'Sam and Papa are in Baltimore. Something's not right, I know it.'

Maria unplugged the laptop from the cord and pulled it towards herself. 'You need a ticket to Germany, not Baltimore.'

'Huh? WAIT... you're letting me go? That easily?' Zhenya's jaw dropped.

'Instincts are almost never wrong,' Maria said in between clicks of the keypad. 

She was tempted to ask Maria if she was feeling ok but settled for a 'Thank you Masha,' instead.

'Wait a minute,' Zhenya said after a moment of silence. 'They're in Baltimore. I just checked.'

Maria unlocked her phone and thrusted it towards Evgenia. 'Germany, more specifically North Rhine-Westphalia. You need to refresh the app sometimes, it's a little laggy.'

Her stepmom pressed 'Send' on the laptop. 'I sent the ticket to you. Flight's tonight, at 9pm. Promise me that you'll call me before you get on the flight, when you land and again when you find -'

Maria's sentence was interrupted by the entire weight of a teenage girl slamming into her. Zhenya rested her head on the taller woman's shoulder. Maria wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

'I love you very much too but you can let go now.'