Lapis | Bucky Barnes.

XIII. responsibilities

Music was softly playing in the background, the wind whipping Keira's hair around her face as she looked out at the landscape to her right, a serious and determined look on her face.

None of them had spoken since they had left the compound. It had already been a day since they had escaped, the only words exchanged between the group being Keira giving Bucky indications to follow or the three deciding what to buy every time they stopped at a service area, where only Keira and Rick went while Bucky remained hidden in the car in fear someone would recognize him.

None of them had any intention on commenting what had happened at the SHIELD compound, instead pretending they were in a phase of transition where every unnecessary word was going to be ignored bluntly. Keira would eventually glance up at Bucky to find him either extremely concentrated or slightly relaxed, or at Rick whom she found crying more than one time when he wasn't asleep. For what concerned herself, she didn't find any chance of sleeping because she wanted to be alert every second, although Bucky had tried to convince her he had everything under control. She believed him, but couldn't find it in herself to relax until they were in Nevada.

When they finally arrived in Tahoe City, where Keira and Rick's parents had bought a house for the vacations, after two days of travel, Keira finally found it in herself to take a sigh of relief and slump her constantly raised shoulders, managing to leave the gun in her belt instead of in her lap.

Even as they settled in the old and dusty house, none of them spoke for the next two days. Keira spent all her time trying to clean the house although there was nothing much to do, since the place was almost empty of personal belongings, the furniture looking as if it had been bought the day before. Rick and Keira's parents had bought it in an attempt to make things work between the two, and to give their children the chance to spend summer away from the chaos of New York, but they never had the chance to move in there since Keira and Rick's mother left that same winter, and their father never found enough strength to either sell it or rent it.

It was the only possession Keira had that her parents had left her, managing to pay the taxes thanks to the money she had received from selling the house in New York, although she had wished she didn't need it. She thought she was going to stay in New York and work for SHIELD forever, but things change, and they had changed drastically, for her.

Now she was officially a fugitive, hiding away from curious eyes with her brother and the most dangerous criminal in the United States, having no idea of what to do next.

It was only after two days that Rick finally spoke up after he had spent both of them either helping Keira or Bucky out. He had looked more relaxed than he was during their trip, and Keira realized he had finally made up his mind with what she could only guess had happened.

"I'm going back to SHIELD." He had exclaimed while the three were silently eating breakfast, Keira glancing up at her brother with a cold look on her face, while Bucky simply furrowed his eyebrows. None of them said anything.

"I stayed here to make sure both of you were doing fine and were far away enough from SHIELD, but I can't stay. I was the one who killed Trevor, and I'm going back to confess so that the two of you can live without needing to escape."

Keira had no idea Rick could actually speak without showing any type of emotion. He had always been the sensible one between the two, the one who needed comfort when the absence of their parents got unbearable or scolding when he did something he wasn't supposed to do or said a bad word. Keira had always been there to do those things because no one else would have, and she had learnt that Rick never spoke without showing exactly what he was feeling. In that moment, though, he wasn't. She couldn't perceive his emotions, and almost felt like extending her arm to use her powers on him, but decided against it.