Words On My Skin

Chapter 17

Bucky and Sam? Together?

For interviews?

Oh god. Poor Bucky.

You stood off on the sidelines, tablet in hand, watching as the host talked into the camera, doing the intro while the crowd watched. You could feel Bucky's anxiety, which was beginning to make your anxiety increase, as well. Large crowds and somebody asking a bunch of personal questions – aside from you – was something that Bucky would rather cut off his own toe than partake in.

Please don't let this go badly. For the love of fuck. Please let this go smoothly. He didn't even have Steve for a buffer, until later.

It was totally rational to be worried, since he'd gotten his hair significantly chopped and was pissed about it.

You thought he looked like a GQ model, practically ready to jump him the second that you saw his new haircut, but he'd liked his longer hair. He didn't want to look like Bucky Barnes from the forties, like everybody remembered him in the history books. He wanted to be his own, new Bucky Barnes.

It was easy to see where he was coming from, since the general population thought of him as either Sargent Barnes from the forties, or The Winter Soldier.

...but, you had to admit, he looked fine as hell.

Thankfully, he'd calmed down a bit after you told him that you thought it was attractive. It's just hair, it'll grow back. That's what you told him, anyways. You loved his hair, no matter what length it was.

"Bucky. Stop fidgeting." You chastised quietly, knowing he could hear you with his super soldier hearing. You saw him stiffen for a moment, nostrils flaring before his chest rose and fell as he took deep breaths. To anyone else, it would look like normal breathing, but you knew better. You could feel him attempting to calm himself down. "Good. Relax."

You watched his eyes flick over towards you for a moment, as he sent you a small smile, before glancing back at the flashy host, who was introducing him and Sam to the audience.

Though there were a lot of men and women in the crowd, the women's piercing shrieks were overpowering. Sam waved enthusiastically, smug smile on his face as he watched the crowd gush over the two Avengers sitting on the stage.

Bucky, on the other hand, gave nothing but a small lift of his lips.

The host barely gave them much time to get settled, before launching into a string of questions about what happened with the Accords. Secretary Ross had briefed everyone on how to answer the political questions during the talk shows, during the meeting a few days prior, which were little snippets of information to reveal withoutactually giving anything away – as most politicians did.

The Sokovia Accords had been one of the most talked-about topics in politics since HYDRA had come back into the picture and Natasha had leaked a shit load of encrypted files on the internet. The general public was pretty split up in their views about the accords where the Avengers were concerned, just as the team had been when they had their fight.

You'd seen the news reels, but you didn't get the full story about the fight and arrests until you'd befriended the team – deemed worthy of the information.

Enough documents had been read while doing paperwork – and listening to the news – that you understood the Sokovia Accords meant that any enhanced individuals were registered on a list, their fingerprints and DNA samples were stored, and those with dangerous enhancements were to be tracked with a bracelet. Those who were on the registration were not allowed to take any sort of action outside of their country.