INNER DEMONS ▹ B. BARNES [slow updates]

three.

Once they arrived at their destination, Sam stopped in front of a poster of the new Captain America displayed all over the base, eyeing it with a painful look and hidden longing.

"Seems like a good guy," a male voice said. It was a young Latino man wearing a military uniform. "You met him?"

"No," Sam kept moving. "Thanks for doing this on such short notice. Joaquin Torres, this is Lorna Maximoff. Lorna, this is Lieutenant Joaquin Torres."

The green-eyed woman nodded in greeting.

"Wait a minute," Joaquin gaped. "The Lorna Maximoff?!"

"Lori is fine," she dismissed him, following Sam closely as he walked to the plane that would take them to Munich. "I hope you don't mind me being here."

"O-Of course not!" He followed them down the flight of stairs hurriedly.

"Shouldn't have given up the shield!" A pissed-off Bucky strode towards them in his standard black outfit.

"Good to see you too, Buck," Sam replied sarcastically.

"Lorna?" The former assassin frowned at the woman walking alongside the pair. He was shocked by her presence. It's been weeks since they last saw each other, and he never got the chance to take a good look at her. He was either running for his life, recovering from brainwashing, fighting for Earth, or frozen. There was no time. "Since when do you guys hang out?"

"I invited her."

"This is wrong," Bucky whispered.

"I can hear you," Lorna whispered back, unimpressed.

"Hey, hey, look, I'm working, all right? So all this outrage is gonna have to wait."

"You didn't know that was gonna happen?" Bucky asked, ignoring Sam's warning.

Lorna rolled her eyes but remained quiet.

"No, of course I didn't know that was gonna happen! You think it didn't break my heart to see them march him out there and call him the new Captain America?"

"This isn't what Steve wanted," the former assassin complained.

"Oh my God. What do you want me to do? Call America and tell them I changed my mind? Huh?" He chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah, right. It's a great reunion, buddy, be well." He patted the ex-Sargeant on the back and kept walking.

Bucky followed nonetheless.

"You had no right to give up the shield, Sam!"

"Hey," Sam paused and locked eyes with the former Winter Soldier. "This is what you're not gonna do. You're not gonna come here in your overextended life and tell me about my rights," he pointed fiercely. "It's over, Bucky. Besides, I have bigger things to deal with now."

Lorna's chest filled with pride and admiration. How this man could not see how fit he was to be Captain America was a mystery to her.

"What could be bigger than this?"