BATTLE BORN ; Bucky Barnes

nine ;

It was currently a Sunday morning, and James was still asleep, or at least pretending to be, Scout noticed he didn't sleep or eat much but didn't say anything to him for fear of setting him off. She was stood in the kitchen in her pyjama pants and a hoodie, trying to decide on pancakes or waffles for breakfast. Normally, on a weekday, she'd just drink a juice on her way to morning class, on Saturdays she'd have cereal or toast, and on Sundays, she'd cook a proper breakfast, every second Sunday she'd have a full English, but the other Sundays it would be something like pancakes. Ultimately, she decided on pancakes and began making the batter when James made himself known. She was in the middle of whisking and humming a tune she'd heard on the radio the day before when he walked out from the corridor wearing sweatpants and a long sleeved tee shirt. She glanced at his metal hand, she hadn't asked anything about that and he was thankful. He watched her silently for a second, her hair loose and messy around her face, it's usual curls dropping. He blinked a few times, he'd never seem to get used to her presence, she was so small, but at the same time, her personality made her seem larger. As he was watching her, his vision swam, going practically white, then black, then nothing.
"James?" He'd collapsed on the floor, thriving around, and then went still. She swore under her breath and fell to her knees beside him, checking his pulse and breathing, it was steady and she sighed from relief. Trying to find what was wrong was a little harder. Other than him being passed out on the floor, he seemed okay, he was the right temperature and everything else she'd learnt at medical training. Scout rolled him with great difficulty as he weighed a lot in muscle mass. As Scout stood up, his eyes flew open.
"James!" She exclaimed, dropping to her knees beside him again. He looked dazed. "Have you been eating enough, getting enough iron, protein, sleep?" She asked quickly, helping him sit up. "Did you hit your head?" She questioned, placing her fingers to his head. He pulled away, wincing.
"I'm sorry, but please, let me look after you, James." She said. He leaned back against the counter, and she ran her fingers through his hair to check for any head wounds, luckily for James' hair and Scout's patience, his head remained intact.
"You're okay." She said, pulling back. She wanted to see if he was injured in anywhere else, but she knew he needed space, and so she was torn, torn between helping James mentally, and helping him physically.
"You need sugar." She decided that his fall could be down to low blood pressure and sugar. She didn't have much to remedy that, mostly because she didn't like sugary things, but also because eating healthily was a good habit to get into, however, she did have some chocolate, which Scout ran to the pantry to retrieve. James had tried to stand up and found his vision swimming again. He sensibly sat down again. Then, as he was thinking, he realised he didn't quite recognise the place he was, for that matter, he didn't quite remember his own name. He scrambled backwards as a noise came from his left. He was beginning to panic. The noise of rushed footsteps came towards him, and he swore that he saw an angel, short light brown hair, wearing pyjama pants and a hoodie. His mouth couldn't seem to make a coherent sentence; he didn't know what was happening. The angel looked puzzled.
"James?" She asked. Her accent wasn't recognisable, it wasn't American, that was for sure, but it wasn't British either. He didn't know anything and it was infuriating. "James, are you alright?" She asked, handing him something, maybe chocolate. "James, do you remember where you are?" He shook his head, at least he knew his name was James now.
"I- my head hurts." He said. The angel cursed under her breath and quickly ran for the phone.
"Hello, yes, I need some advice, no, not an ambulance. My friend, he fell, and now he can't remember anything, he said his head hurt, but I'm a doctor in training so I've made sure everything is safe, no, no ambulance. I can handle this." The operator said something and Scout sighed, looking over to James, who was looking very vacant. "Okay thank you. Bye." She ended the call and walked over to James. He'd eaten the chocolate, which should have increased his blood sugar levels, and then she grabbed his flesh arm, throwing it around her shoulder and helping him stand up.
"You're not allowed to sleep for a few hours okay, you hit your head, you'll be okay, just stick the TV on or something." She said and helped him sit on the sofa, with the ability to watch him from the kitchen, she got back to making the pancakes. Once finished, she set three on a plate for her, and four for him, maybe, she thought, this will mean he can open up a little more. She sat next to him as he watched the news. She watched as her friends, The Avengers, helped protect another city, well, as always, half-protect, half-destroy. She watched the shoddy camera footage of Iron Man fighting with Hulk, flying through a building. It was frankly terrifying to watch them fight each other. She quickly tried Natasha's phone, but it was off, dead or she'd ditched it. Worry rose in Scout's threat, but one sentence destroyed all of that.
"I'm James Buchanan Barnes, I should be dead." He said, slowly, like he was just realising.
"What do you mean?" Scout feigned innocence.
"I was born in 1925, I fought in World War Two, I should be dead." He repeated and it shattered Scout's heart.
"What do you want me to call you?" Scout asked.
"I- don't mind, James is fine, but my friends called me Bucky." Scout smiled and nodded. It was solid progress. All it took was a little hit to the head, or as Nat called it, cognitive recalibration. He murmured about how he should be dead under his breath and Scout wondered if he knew why he was alive.
"Do you know... why, you're alive?" She asked slowly. He looked panicked, like a deer in headlights, but before he could answer, and before they could finish their pancakes, on a normal (or, as normal as you can get with two ex-assassins) morning, their door burst open, instinctively, Scout threw herself in front of James, looking at the faces of whoever was after them.
"My room! Get the two bags from the wardrobe, guns on the bookshelf, GO!" She yelled, and once Bucky was safely in the corridor, she threw herself into flames and charged at the goons who were lining up one by one. Scout was gone, there were no emotions left, the powers overtook them, only Tempest was left. She charged at them, finally exercising her powers for the first time in a good few months. She killed by setting on fire, it was horrific but she didn't care. As she was extinguished by none other than a fire extinguisher, she felt exhausted.
"Catch!" James yelled, throwing her one of the several guns she had hidden around the apartment. She caught it, and quickly fired a few rounds at the many soldiers that were coming for them, slowly, Bucky and Tempest retreated towards her room and the fire exit. Slinging her bag over both shoulders, she smashed the window with the sheer force of her wind abilities. She waited for Bucky to jump out of the window, and then shot off more bullets.
"What do you want?!" Tempest yelled. She was no longer Scout.
"You have something of ours." One of the voices said.
"Oh, how you're mistaken," Tempest said, sending a fireball towards them. "He is no longer yours." She said, trying to increase the air resistance between the bullets and the air around her, to stop them from hitting her, and launched herself out of the window and across the fire escape, not bothering with running down the stairs, instead using her powers to lower herself safely down to the ground next to Bucky.
"What's going-?" He began to ask, the hit to the head must've done more damage than she originally thought. His muscle memory of shooting and running was there, but he couldn't remember his time with HYDRA, luckily for them, it would help their next set of aliases. The assailants began following them. Tempest noticed, interrupting Bucky to relay her message.
"Run!" She yelled and took off at a sprint, the bag on her back bouncing with every step she took. Having been out of the game for a few months, she had lost some of her stamina, but she was still very fast, using the wind to help push her forward. Behind her, she used what little concentration she could spare from the chase on bursting the water pipe, slowing HYDRA down. Bucky was matching her pace, looking at her with wonder. Bullets were flying everywhere again, and Tempest launched herself behind a bin, taking out another gun to defend herself.

;

"So your name isn't Scout Livingston?"
"It is Scout, well, sort of. My name is Georgiana Scarlett Windsor. Scout comes from my middle name, well, I think so anyway." She said, glancing down at her wrist, where the tattoo she'd covered would be. They had escaped with a well-timed explosion of gas main thanks to Bucky. Most of the assailants were blown up or didn't fancy their chances against two genetically modified monsters. They were now sat at a cafe, new clothes on and caps pulled low over their faces.
"James Buchanan Barnes, better known as Bucky." He said, reaching his hand out.
"Georgiana Scarlett Windsor, better known as Scout." She shook his hand, it marked a new start for the two of them, perhaps James would talk a little more, and Scout may shut up.

;

"Someone must've tipped them off," Bucky said, in reference to the HYDRA soldiers who'd tried to kill them. Scout thought back to all the interactions she'd had with everyone at med school, the small shop, the laundromat, no one stuck out as HYDRA material. Except maybe-
"John. My medical class, he was always suspicious of me, asking about you since that first day, wanted to be partners all the time, I thought he was just flirting but-"
"Does he know where you are? Could he have tracked you." The Winder Soldiers memories were returning.
"He couldn't have, I was careful."
"How careful?"
"I never let him touch me, not once. Didn't accept anything from him, drink, gifts, nothing." Scout explained. She had been on edge ever since SHIELD fell, not even telling James- Bucky that she was an assassin, an Ex-SHEILD member. All she told him was that she'd made a name for herself.
"So how are we gonna get out?"
"Airport, I've booked plane tickets to Ukraine, the first plane I could get, it's in seven hours. We have seven hours to lay low." She looked at the shops across the road, analysing everyone who was passing by. No one seemed threatening to them. Not yet anyway. She looked at the TV store, it was showing coverage of some sort of action movie, with an island rising into the sky. It was then that Scout realised that wasn't an island, and it wasn't a film. It was real life, and that was a good chunk of Sokovia.
"Oh God." Scout murmured. "Oh God, oh God, oh God." She said over and over. Bucky looked panicked, he reached for a gun but Scout's reflexes were too quick.
"Don't." She said, her warm flesh hand over his cold metal one.
"I, we need to get to the airport." She said as she watched the footage of Natasha, Thor, Tony, Clint and Steve get battered by robots.
"Okay," Bucky said, standing up, Scout re-adjusted her cap. She grabbed her bag and began walking, paranoia filling her senses.

;

Scout didn't remember most of the plane, she had passed out from exhaustion, using her powers that much after not using them for a long time had drained her totally. She made it to her seat, by the window, and promptly passed out, leaving Bucky to fasten her seatbelt and worry himself into oblivion about the plane. His memories were slowly coming back, little by little. First, his oldest memories came back, Coney Island with Steve, a pretty brunette girl with large eyes, a science fair. Then he remembered the Army, and there were a lot of blanks there, he remembered the sensation of falling and then nothing for a long time. He remembered a blur of faces and it made him sad, and angry at himself. He woke up, they only had a few more minutes until they would land and everything was okay. Scout's head was resting on his shoulder, her hair tickling his cheek a little.
"Scout." He whispered, pushing her awake. She blinked a few times, raising her head off his shoulder.
"Sorry." She muttered, still in the process of waking up.
"We only have two minutes of our flight left." He said. Scout nodded.
"We head straight to a safe house." She said. "I have work to do, you need to recover." She said.
"A safe house...?" He asked.
"Long story short, I'm, I guess I'm a wanted criminal." It wasn't exactly a lie, for a little time she had been a wanted woman, he was after her, HYDRA was after her, just like they were after Steve and Natasha. His eyes widened, and he looked a little repulsed by this. Scout wasn't offended, she knew that he'd probably hate her alias, but it was the best version of the truth she could give him.