Mosaic (Bucky Barnes X OC / Winter Soldier x OC)

Chapter 13: Bucky Barnes - Demons Outside (Part II)

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The helicopter turned. Not quite headed for us, but it wasn't going away. They had narrowed it down to this area. They know I'm here.

Another fence. Then another. Sticking to the shadows created by the houses.

"Hide."

I barely managed to grab onto Valeriy's pack and dragged her back into the hedge. A quick search through the spaces between the leaves, I spotted a pair of legs. Legs belonging to a too heavily armed uniformed police officer strolling into the backyard.

Next to me, the young woman heaved for every breath, though she somehow managed to keep them silent. Making use of her mouth and forcing her breathing to slow. Not even my ears could pick it up.

Even if she could run on her injured ankle, I doubt she had the stamina to handle an all-out sprint out of this. We'd have to stick to short bursts.

Either way, we needed to keep moving.

I tugged on her sleeve. She didn't notice, so I pulled on her arm, moving her entirely. Took her a second to get the hint, following me up through the mess of branches of the massive hedge.

I kept my weight near the trunk and on the thicker branches I could find. Breaking a branch would give us away. A slight rustle might be dismissed as an animal. Some part of me was more than relieved that the young woman behind me managed to be as silent.

"Sorry to wake you, Ma'am. We are currently searching for two individuals."

I froze and Valeriy rammed face first into my back. A quick scan of the men said they didn't hear us or dismissed it.

At her questioning head tilt, I whispered in her ear, "They know about you."

"Oh well?" she shrugged off, her voice coming out crystal clear in the earpiece when she had barely mumbled the words.

How the hell she was so carefree about the whole thing baffled me. She gave my shoulder a quite pat and even pulled a smile. Going by how the corner of her eyes crinkled over the edge of the glasses.

Blue lines and red dots were reflected off the moisture of her left eye. A map of the neighborhood. The dots likely being Hydra agents. Eleven close by.

"...Are those Pacman ghosts...?"

Those weren't merely red dots. There were even two little circles practically on top of each other with moving mouths. One blue. The other purple.

"...Y-yeah...?" Valeriy responded rather cautiously.

But I dropped the annoyance at how this was being treated as a game in favor of listening on the agent's conversation with the neighbor. Gather information. Figure out how much they knew.

"A man and a woman. The man's large, built, with shoulder length brown hair. The woman has long hair. Dark. Might be black or brown. About average height and a broken foot."

"Do you have a picture?"

"No, I don't. Have you seen anyone new in the area? Any unfamiliar faces? They may not be together."

It made sense that they weren't plastering my face everywhere. They didn't want another party to find me first. But they would have released Valeriy's photo if they had it. A quick way to check a lead.

Their information was wrong. Her foot wasn't broken. The hair color was incorrect. They hadn't seen her themselves and whoever did likely had spotted her in low light. They didn't know who she was. Now to keep it that way.