affliction

twenty-two

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Bucky's POV

I'm trying to look anywhere except at Beth right now, but it's pretty hard to do. She's driving my bike down the highway, speeding ahead of me and Steve. She looks so free, her hair is blowing back in the wind from underneath the helmet.

I felt bad once I found out she had nightmares. Watching it happen was terrifying, I felt like I was watching her die. I can't help but think that she linked her father disappearing to me, so I thought letting her drive my bike would get her mind off of it. I turn my head towards Steve and motion for him to speed up. We both gas our bikes and catch up to her, ending up on either side of her. She looks to her left at Steve and then sees me on her right. I can just tell she's smirking under there. She pulls the handle back to gas it some more, and then pulls the bike back, riding on one wheel and getting in front of us again.

If that doesn't give you an immediate hard on, I don't know what will.

She goes over a bridge that leads to the suburbs and we continue to follow her. Finally, she pulls into a neighborhood. She's slowly making her way down the streets until she finally comes to a stop, taking her helmet off. We both pull up next to her and do the same thing. She doesn't say anything, she just sits and stares at the house that we're in front of.

Steve speaks first. "Where are we?"

She waits a second before answering. "My old house."

"Wait, like.. that house?"

She shakes her head. "No, no. That house was in North Carolina. We lived here before my mom got a new job and we moved there. We hadn't lived there but a year or two until that happened. This was my actual childhood house."

I speak for the first time since we got here. "Hm. I didn't know you lived all the way in North Carolina."

She nodded. "Yeah. I spent years traveling up here." She laughed a little. "I've always wondered what the people driving by me thought. Imagine seeing a kid that's 12 to 15 on a bike going down busy highways."

"Why'd you come here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, really. It felt like home to me, I guess. I'd come here sometimes and just stare at this house. It made me feel like I had a family again." She turns the bike off and stands to walk away, we follow.

She starts speaking again. "You know I almost bought the house when I started doing hits? I had enough money. I was richer than I could ever want to be. I had the real estate agent show me the house and everything. It hurt too bad walking inside, though. Seeing my old room, the table my family used to eat at, the kitchen where I watched my mom and dad slow dance together.. there's no way I could live there. I never wanted to go inside ever again after that, so I stay outside and just stare at it every once in a while."

We don't say anything, we just stand beside her. We stand there for 10 or so minutes before she turns around and goes back to her, or technically my, bike.

Once she's sat down, we slowly walk to ours. It's silent for a second before I speak. "Beth, are you okay?"

She sighs. "Yeah, yeah. I'm good. Let's go." She knocks the kick stand with her foot and starts the engine. She turns back to look at us, smiling a little. "Last one back has to make the other 2 lunch?"

Steve laughs a little. "You're on tiny."

Beth's POV

This time around, I decided to let Bucky and Steve get in front of me. Once we got to that certain light, I took a right and followed Steve, Bucky stayed straight. As it turns out, there's a side road for police use. Apparently Avengers are included in that. We beat Bucky by like 3 whole minutes. He's cooking us something while me and Steve are sitting at the dining table playing a card game.