Catch Me If You Can | Winter Soldier x reader |

CHAPTER 25

You're a fire- drizzling with summer's colors, swerving, dancing and curving away from the world. You're as vibrant as the piercing and blinding sun, and are as alive as the vicious seas. You were always tittering with flickers, warming all that was around you.  All can admit, you were far beyond ordinary, however, no one can hide the fact that you are also a spark of life they needed so dearly.

But what the fück happened to you?

You're a young woman that's so cold and detached that it was like frost surged upon you. Your eyes, which was once vivid with passion and life was now, distant and lonesome. Slumped into the abnormally icy metal chair, with your hands crossed before your stomach as though you were holding back the churning feeling in your stomach, Bucky thought he had déjà vu. He was reminded of Steve- the frail and feeble one he grown so fond of back in the old days. Although it was a doting memory, recalling was unpleasant since one, Rogers and he were not in the best of circumstances and two- this was not you. Not even in the slightest.

Even though the putrid scent kept tempting him, Barnes kept his eyes away from the corpse in the corner. Usually, the earthy room was unbearable with its soil painted white tiles, but with the addition of the smeared and splattered blood, it only seemed worse and cringe-worthy. Your eyes were fixated on the body, reminding the ex-Winter Solider all the more reason to inquire about the situation. But, he preferred it this way. In the brief moment of silent contemplation, everything seemed alright even though Barnes was very aware that his world was spiraling out of control.

"What..." Bucky winced at himself, pausing when he heard the faint crack in his voice. The man had always known that the slightest stutter would clog the pool of fretfulness you already had inside. And with matters so severe, he needed to be careful and act like the valiant person in the circumstance. Strangely enough, the breaking of his tone only alarmed Goro who almost took upon your characteristics of being apprehensive. Giving the boy a brief look, he returned his gaze towards your fragile frame. "What happened?"

You let out a shallow sigh, using your sleeve to wipe your salted cheeks. You just couldn't look him in the eye. Not after what you did. Carefully avoiding his gaze, you pried your lips to speak, but the words that clung to your tongue wouldn't fall. Your older companion deciphered your demeanor and took it upon himself to do the elaboration. "Erm... just, a lot happened while you were gone."

Irritated by the vagueness, Bucky grew stern, "Like what?"

Goro was taken back, stiffening at the tone, but resumed speaking. "A little while after you left last night, (Y/n) came into my room and mentioned that someone went into her tent and put up an article on the wall. Sure, it was creepy and shït, and we knew it was Mason, but we didn't think much of it. But that motivated us both to go and tell a few people to go check up on their family, and that we'd cover for them while they were gone. Everything would have gone smoothly. The only thing is, we didn't tell them what was going on with Mason. We decided that after they saw everything outside and realized that all that Mason said was a lie, we'd explain exactly what he had in mind."

Buchanan could already tell the rest of the story. Kehthan only did what any other domineering scrawny adolescent would do if his cliques were shattering. "And let me guess, Mason got to them before you both did, right?" The hesitant silence spoke for itself. "Who were the kids?"

"Only a few. Marissa.... Uh, Ethan and Rahul."

Ethan was a good kid, Barnes despised that he was a part of the mess too. But, one way or another, everyone was going to be caught up in the game eventually. The wheels in the man's head had to pause as the most obvious question pried at him. "What did Mason tell them? When Rahul was letting off his steam, he was going on about some nonsense about his family going missing and all that."