Run (A Bucky Barnes Recovery Story)

65

Weeks after the incident in the alley, Bucky had become quite close with Steve. Steve was small and unbelievably sickly and they couldn’t play all the games Bucky liked to play because Steve was too weak, but Bucky didn’t care. He was content to sit with Steve and talk or go and see a movie. Steve had a sort of integrity about him that Bucky felt drawn to. He was certain about what was right and Bucky liked that. He wasn’t certain like Steve was. He’d never put much thought into it; he was nine years old, he liked to play rough and laugh. Honor and dignity and dying for a cause had never once crossed his mind, but they crossed Steve’s and Bucky was fascinated.

Bucky liked Steve’s drawings, even though his own art left something to be desired and he could tell that Steve didn’t know how to say that to him. They drew together and played and talked about baseball, of which Steve was becoming a bigger and bigger fan since Bucky introduced him to the finer aspects. And they liked each other. They simply had fun together.

Steve had not been attacked since becoming friends with Bucky and Bucky was glad. Let his reputation speak for them both. Bucky wasn’t going to let some older kids beat up on someone littler than them. Bucky and Steve walked home together undisturbed on most days, but not today. It was another big group, probably the same kids and then some, and Petey MacGregor with a baby tooth knocked right out of his skull and a real taste for vengeance.

Alright, Bucky thought and took a small step in front of Steve. Bring it.

“Hey Bucky!” Pete yelled once Bucky and Steve stopped in the road, halted by the line of buzzing spectators and spiteful bullies. “Howsabout I take one ‘a your friend’s teeth in place of mine?”

“Get lost, Pete,” Bucky said. “I’d hit you again, but you couldn’t stand to get any uglier.” The kids behind Pete burst into laughter and Bucky grinned, pleased with himself. He glanced at Steve. Steve wasn’t laughing. Bucky’s grin fell just in the slightest.

“I could take you,” Steve said loudly and Bucky’s smile vanished completely and the kids were roaring with laughter now. Bucky felt a sinking feeling. Steve was going to get his butt kicked.

Pete’s jeers were turned to Steve now and Bucky really didn’t like that.

“You could take me on without your boyfriend?” Pete laughed and Steve frowned deeply. Bucky knew that frown already. That was the way his mouth set when he was determined.

“I don’t need Bucky,” Steve said and Bucky felt rather stunned. He looked down at Steve, the cockiness falling even now from his shoulders, broken-hearted. He felt like he had been slapped. Steve needed him, surely Steve needed him. If he didn’t, who did need Bucky?

“Then come fight me, you scrawny sissy,” Pete said. His ‘s’s slurred now with his tooth gone.

“Steve,” Bucky started to say, but as he turned, Steve’s books were already hitting the ground and Steve was throwing a punch at Pete’s head. “Geez, STEVE!”

Pete dodged easily and then threw back a retaliation punch that hit Steve square in the nose. Bucky could practically see the stars above his head. He looked dizzy.

“Hey,” Bucky said, all serious stuff now, hunching his shoulders to look more intimidating, and trying to step between Steve and Pete. “Watch it.”

“No!” Bucky heard from behind him and Steve was pushing him away. I don’t need Bucky, he was saying. “I can do this, let me do this!”

“I don’t wanna have to pick up the pieces and carry you home in a wheelbarrow after this,” Bucky hissed and Steve ground his teeth loudly. Then, another punch hit Steve in the jaw from behind Bucky.