December // A Winter Soldier Story

17

ｄｅｃｅｍｂｅｒ ２４ｔｈ， ２０１３

２７°

ℒℯ𝒶

It's midnight on Christmas Eve, and Steve and Lea are searching Washington, D.C. for a lost friend of theirs.

Steve is positive that Bucky would come back here. After all, D.C. is the last place Bucky remembers seeing Steve, and Steve is the only thing in the world that can break through the heavy barriers in his mind. Bucky would be curious, Steve thinks. He would want to know what is so special about Steve that he is able to burst through Bucky's walls and actually reach him. Ergo, Steve assumes that Bucky's first thought when leaving Lea's as to where to go would be to go to Washington, so he could learn more about his past and try and find Steve.

This is how Lea and Steve end up on Pennsylvania Avenue at midnight on Christmas Eve, searching for a one armed man who is probably here, but also possibly not.

It is freezing outside. Lea's gloves cover her fingers completely, but the relentless wind is working its way through the fabric, much to her distaste. Her leggings aren't doing her much good, either, as the wind is pushing through the thin black fabric of them, too. She is usually much better at handling the cold, but ever since Bucky left it's been hitting her harder than ever. She also doesn't typically wander around cities for hours in the middle of the night during winter; this may be the real explanation behind why she is shivering so violently.

She almost hopes that Bucky isn't here. If he is out here, in this freezing weather without any kind of a coat, then he's got to be miserable. She imagines him sitting in a dark street corner in a bad part of town, clutching at his arms and praying that the cold will stop long enough for him to sleep.

She hopes to God he isn't doing that right now. But she's scared that he is.

Steve is walking slightly ahead of her, his hands tucked into his pockets as his eyes scan everything in sight. His body language suggests that he is anxious. Anxious to find Bucky, anxious to save him from this dreadful cold as well as his own mind, anxious to make up for all those years he thought Bucky was dead and didn't save him from Hydra's torture.

Steve won't tell her everything she wants to know about him -- he shies away from most questions -- but she has grasped enough of his and Bucky's story to recognize that the guilt Steve feels over nearly everything that's happened to Bucky weighs him down heavily. Steve blames himself for much of Bucky's pain. Lea knows that Bucky doesn't blame Steve, but Steve doesn't know that. Maybe he thinks Bucky blames him, too.

Lea isn't sure how she managed to come across such broken men, but she feels like she needs to help them now that they are in her life, even if they are just a temporary presence. No one knows loneliness better than Lea, and she knows immediately when other people are suffering from loneliness, as well. Steve and Bucky are lonely beyond belief. They need other people who are willing to help them and fight for them, just as much as Lea needs someone to fight for.

Before Lea can think any more, however, Steve turns right, guiding them north. They've already explored most of the monuments, so it's time to steer their search deeper into D.C. Once they get onto a new street, Steve turns to her, giving her a quick glance before continuing his scanning of the area.

"Tell me more about yourself, Lea," he says, his stride long and smooth as he hurries along. "All I know about you is that you somehow managed to earn the trust of the Winter Soldier, which is a pretty hard thing to do."

Lea frowns. She's never heard Bucky called that before. "Winter Soldier?" She echoes.

Steve gives her a look, seemingly surprised that she's perplexed. "It's a name he earned while being an assassin for Hydra, probably because he was being kept in northern Russia. That's all anyone referred to him as for the whole time he was imprisoned. Either that, or a number. Most people know him as the Winter Soldier, or as James Buchanan Barnes, which is his full name. Only you and I and a few others call him Bucky."