The Dark Captain

Chapter 41

It was a few hours later when Bucky decided to see what was taking Steve and Arianna so long. The food was cold and people were threatening to take it away so that they could clean and prep for lunch. They gave him an hour to get the other two to the dining hall or the food would be distributed among the staff.

So, Bucky made his way back to the study. He both loved and hated the sense of deja vu. He and Tony had spent all day in the palace, in Tony's quarters, after he had been deprogrammed. They had missed breakfast and lunch in their need to celebrate and to be as close as possible. It wasn't until the sun had started to set that Bucky realized what had happened. Tony had been unable to move for three days after and Bucky had to care for him. They could laugh about how Bucky had paralyzed him by fucking him so good, but at the time, the super soldier kept apologizing. Once recovered, Tony taught him a very loving lesson, though the realization that the billionaire loved what had happened didn't come until after Bucky came back from the blip.

Bucky shook his head before opening the door to the study. He was at risk of losing all that, everything he cared about most in the world. He couldn't think of how amazing his life had been since he was freed. It would only hurt him.

"Guys," he called out, "are you coming to eat or-" The sight of the destroyed room shocked him. "What the hell happened in here?"

Steve looked like he had thrown on his pants as fast as he could, a gun raised. Bucky remembered being that jumpy, where every noise seemed to be an enemy waiting to take him back. Steve must have been using the study often to have weapons hidden in the room, ready for any attack.

Steve lowered the weapon, saying, "Jesus, Buck! Knock next time!"

"Don't be so jumpy, man," the one-armed super soldier said, though he hated that he knew it wouldn't help and that he sounded like Sam. "At least you didn't shoot me." Then, the dad voice kicked in. "Now, what the hell happened?"

Steve shrugged, fixing his jeans and putting the gun in his waistband. "Training."

"Tr-training?" Bucky stared for a moment, then the anger came out. "Training? They have a gym for that!"

Arianna came out wearing one of Steve's shirts. She moved up next to the blond man and took the gun from his pants. She placed it on the remains of an end table within easy reach of her super soldier, but she wanted him relaxed, not on edge. She wrapped her arms around his waist as she looked at Bucky.

"Not for what comes after," she said teasingly.

Bucky sighed and replied, "Too much information, Arianna."

Steve shrugged again, saying, "We used to do it all the time in HYDRA." He hated that it sounded like they had been used to the abuse and pain and hated that it sounded like they had spent a lifetime in that hell, but there wasn't much he could do about it. "She asked to train and-"

She chuckled as she finished, "I got rewarded for kicking his ass."

"I don't need to hear that shit!" Bucky said, "Just-" He took a breath, calming himself. "Just get dressed and come eat before I help the Dora kick your asses for this mess."

With that, Bucky left to tell the staff to go ahead and make lunch. Meanwhile, Steve and Arianna were laughing. It was the first real laugh Steve had since he had been captured and since he had been deprogrammed. While Arianna might not notice it now, he knew that both of them would treasure this memory for a long time.