Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 2

Sibling Rivalry (Barnes x reader)

"When were you gonna tell me that you were bleeding?"

"When it stopped," you smirked, paying no attention to the wounds from crawling your way out of a Hydra compound, having dug your way through minefields and under yards of barbed wire. "You tend to make things worse than they are."

"That's a lot of attitude for the man who just saved your ass," your partner huffed, grabbing your arm and tying a piece of his own shirt around your wound to stop the bleeding that continued. A small, angry growl escaped him at the sight of the blood that was already soaking into the material.

"Jerk," you winced slightly and sucked in a deep breath when he pulled the cloth tight with a little too much satisfaction. Yanking your arm away with one quick motion, you stood and straightened your clothes to brush the dirt from them, stopping to take a breath of fresh air that filled your chest with a cool satisfaction; a breath that the two of you had waited far too long to take.

But now that you were free, you had no idea what to do.

~~~

"You know me."

"No I don't!"

"Bucky, you've known me your whole life. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes."

"Shut up!"

"I'm not gonna fight you. You're my friend."

~~~

"You're my friend," Bucky whispered, staring at the display that told of a life that he didn't remember; a life with a friend that he didn't recognize any more than he recognized his own face. "(Y/N), I don't know any of this. But he kept calling me that name."

"To the end of the line..." he mumbled quietly and to no one.

He continued to stare straight ahead at the picture of Steve, trying to force any memory from his brain that matched what he was seeing. He hesitantly reached his hand out, running his fingers gently over the likeness of the man who called him a friend, and felt nothing.

"You need to go find him," you said, turning to look at another display but coming to a halt when he grabbed your arm with a pinching and painful grip from his metal hand. "Yeah, okay, that hurts. How about letting up a little?"

"What do you mean, I need to find him? Other than these few lines of pointless words here," he waved his hand towards the display and not releasing you, "I don't even know what I would be looking for. A friend? Do you really think that's what I need right now? I certainly don't need to walk into the hands of Captain America so he can turn me in. I can't trust someone that I don't know just because he says he's my friend."

"He's not going to turn you in, Bucky."

"Don't call me that."

"Why not," you huffed, "that's obviously your name. You're looking for answers, but when they're being given to you, you don't want them. Make up your damn mind about what you're trying to do here. Let me know when you've got it figured out, alright?" You yanked your arm away and turned, only to have him grab you again.

"You know what, if you want to go, then go," he released you just as quickly with a small push, tipping you slightly from your balance. His voice was raised now so that other visitors to the museum were taking notice, but he had no interest in them; only in you. "I thought we were a team. That we were...friends. Right now I'm all you have and you're all I have, but if suddenly this is all too much for you, then please, go."

"Are you joking?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

Your mouth dropped open at his words and his lack of expression, believing that he was being completely serious. He held his glare at you, standing motionless and waiting for you to decide what you were going to do. "You're still him," you whispered, your voice beginning to falter. "You're still the Soldier, aren't you? If you weren't, you wouldn't just dismiss me so easily after everything we've lived through. Do you even feel anything? Are we really friends, or did you just need a second pair of hands to get out?" He still stood steady, but you began to see his expression falter slightly.

"I think that's my answer." Spinning on your heel you turned and ran from the building. Watching you getting farther away without looking back, something snapped within him and he gave chase after you, now panicked that he would never get you back.

"(Y/N), please! Please wait!" He followed you all the way to the exit, catching you just as you crossed the threshold to outside. He was right, the only people you had were each other, and the last thing you should be doing was fighting. "Okay," he panted slightly, reaching his hand out to hold you in place but not touching you, "okay, please wait. Try to understand my side for a second. I don't have a damn clue who I am, right? I have some guy dressed in a giant flag saying he's my friend, and like five walls of information on a life that I can't remember. I'm terrified. And you're all I have to help me figure this out."

"Not if you talk to him."

"I will, just not yet, okay?" He finally put a gentle hand on your arm with a small squeeze, "just not yet. Please don't leave." He looked at you with a nervous anticipation, showing his emotions through the tremor in his hands and you knew immediately that it was real. The once deadly and feared Winter Soldier was now himself scared, and you weren't sure how to deal with it.

"Okay, so when you do decide to talk to him, I'm going with you."

Bucky scoffed, shaking his head with a laugh, finally breaking the tension. "Do you really think you had a choice, (Y/N)?" His hand dropped down to take yours, leading you back into the museum, "he looks like he might be your type too, so hey, win-win for us."

"How about you get your memory back first, then set me up on a date."

"I'm multitasking."