The Viper

Surrender

After I changed, I came back into the kitchen to see Bucky with a first aid kit, and everything he could need to patch up my wounds.

I sat up on the white kitchen counter, and he settled himself between my legs and got started.

"So, now are you going to tell me what happened?" He asked calmy.

I chuckled and began to answer him.

"It was him again. The Taskmaster."

He looked at me with furred eyebrows, as he started cleaning the road burns on my legs. "You know him don't you."

I chuckled again. "Yeah. His name is Ryker. When the Winter Soldier left us, he became my new trainer. Only we weren't just student and teacher. We began to see each other in secret, and it was all going well until Dreykov found me and him having sex."

He blushed a little when I said that.

"Anyways, we were kept from each other after that , and he was made into this Taskmaster that kept an eye on all the widows. But he took extra care of me. He would break into my cell all the time to beat me, or break in to do things that I didn't give him permission to do." I looked at him to see if he understood what I was saying without me having to admit it. He gave me a silent nod.

"So, I met him tonight, and we shared, clearly, a couple blows, and he took my poisoned gun, and shot me with it. Nearly killing me."

He stopped cleaning my legs and looked up at my face. "What did he want with you tonight?" He asked, moving up to my face, to clean my wounds.

"To kill me." I started. "We were rivals, he was the one person who would beat me, and I could never beat him at his own game. He wants to finish it, and he thinks he did."

Bucky took the washcloth in his human hand and gently brushed it across the cut on my forehead, being as cautious as a new mother is with a baby.

"I'm sorry." He said.

I looked at him in confusion.

"Why are you apologizing?" I asked.

"I should have been there with you."

I shook my head aggressively. "James, you know I didn't want you there. I can't bear to watch you get hurt anymore."

"How about me?" He asked, moving on to the cut on my lip, "Why do I have to sit here and watch you nearly die on the kitchen table?" He asked.

I stayed quiet, unable to answer his question. Part of it because he was cleaning my lip, and the other part was because I didn't have answer.

Once he was done with my face he started my arms.

"What's going on?" He asked.

I furred my eyebrows again in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

He looked at me in the eyes with his piercing blue stare. "Why did you run?"

I sighed. I knew this conversation was bound to happen. I keep pushing it off and lying cause I want him to forget about it, but it's clear. He forgot a lot of things, and this was for sure not one of them.

"I did it for you." I flat out said.

He stayed silent, waiting for an explanation.

"Bucky I'm a ticking time bomb. Your life has been full of killing, fights, war and all the in between. Once I was free from Hydra, I knew that you would do anything in your power to save me and help me get better. But at that point you shouldn't have had to. You never got the life that you wanted and if I am in your life you'll never have it. I can't live with myself knowing that you aren't living for you."