Mosaic (Bucky Barnes X OC / Winter Soldier x OC)

Chapter 20: Bucky Barnes - Purple Red Oranges (Part II)

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"And I placed your glasses in the top drawer next to where you sleep."

Something for her to see with if we had to make use of the dark.

"Thanks. I'll be right back." With those words, she disappeared into the bedroom again. Tablet still clutched to her.

'What the hell is she caught up in...?' I wondered, pulling a cushion to the floor to sit on. Setting up the laptop next to me while I returned to the page of Bring Forth Repressed Memories through Hypnosis on the older tablet.

It was easy enough to tell there was more to what the A.I. ghost had her doing. Something they didn't want me involved in. Be it secrets or danger.

Valeriy returned, blindly trying to navigate the straight hallway while reading the tablet. Glasses perched on her nose and a blanket draped around her shoulder. The edge of which scraped at the back of my neck as she climbed behind me.

Wrap blanket around neck. Target inca –

Her fingers crossed my vision.

Grab wrist and –

They combed through my hair. Lightly scratching at my scalp. Curling the locks around my ear.

"...So... we're running low on food," Valeriy pointed out.

"Sorry," I apologised. Having ate most of it.

"Bucky, you need to eat. Was just asking if you wanted to make a shopping list." She handed me her phone with a grin. "Whatever you want. I'll see if I can get it."

The side of her head dropped onto my shoulder. I could feel my own tilting towards her. Lightly resting against hers.

I could hear her scrolling on her tablet. From my periphery, all I could make sense of what she was going over were files. Personnel files. Each one of them above the age of fifty from the pictures.

Cinnamon buns.

That was all I could think of when I stared at the phone in my hand.

Pulled pork sandwiches.

Maybe there was something similar to the ones at the park where we met.

Frozen Pepperoni pizza.

Something the A.I. ghost had gotten more often than other things back at the house.

Plums.

Mentioned in the article I was reading.

Cinnamon buns.

I turned to Valeriy to ask what she wanted, but the face on her tablet....

I knew it.

"I know that face."

'But from where?'

"You do? Dude's old as shit. He's born in the 50s? Yeah, 1953."

"I don't care! I want his son killed in front of him! The bastard should think twice before crossing me again."

"Wh-why do you have someone from Hydra on-on your...?"

"...'Kay. Let me make a note for Eve about that... and this tablet is just files about anyone who's anybody who might... uhhh request the... services of.... Yeah...."

There could be more faces I'd recognise in there. People with pull. Someone with enough clearance that I'd see their face.

"You know what, if I recall properly... he should be at one of our stops. On a trip with his grandkids according to their... Twitter...? We can –"