Timeless || All Stories

1 || Dangerous

the first chapter to the Part Two that I decided not to write :)

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Brielle wanders down the familiar streets of Bucharest, Romania, an excited skip in her step as she admires the bouquet of wildflowers she bought from the vendor outside of her workplace. This isn't anything new; in fact, Brielle purchases flowers from Michael so frequently that he's started to give her a discount only his most loyal of customers receive. But these flowers aren't for her. They're for Bucky and his dull apartment that is in desperate need of bright colors.

After their run-in in Paris, Brielle stayed true to her promise and worked on being able to forgive the man for his mistake. Truth be told, as much as his actions hurt her, she missed James - or Bucky as he's learned to love to be called after processing his memories - more than anything, so it came as no surprise when she was able to forgive him in less than a month.

With promises to never pull such a stunt again, the reunited couple decided to take things slow. Bucky returned to Bucharest with Brielle when her and Tony's vacation ended, but found himself an apartment only ten minutes from her house instead of moving in with her.

As he worked on slowly reintegrating himself into modern society, Brielle furthered her career as a psychologist and continued to help people with the serum she and Bruce created. The two still managed to make time for each other, though, with weekly trips to the street markets together and surprise visits at each other's homes.

Reaching Bucky's apartment building, Brielle's smile can't help but to fade into a worried frown as a pile of newspapers stacked by the door catch her eye. The front page contains a large, blurry, image of what appears to be Bucky running from a burning building and the headline reads 'WINTER SOLDIER CAUTAT PENTRU BOMBARDMENTUL DIN VIENE'.

Running inside, she hurries to the dingy elevator and presses the button for his floor frantically. As the doors slowly close, she presses the charm on her gold bracelet as a safety precaution. The flowers shake in her upset grasp and she can't help but to worry that the stems might break if she doesn't calm down.

The elevator comes to a stop on the tenth floor and the doors screech open, nearly masking the sound of the front door on the first floor being kicked open. Brielle hurries to the door at the end of the hallway, sighing in relief when she hears Bucky's voice coming from the other side.

"That's smart. Good strategy."

She inserts her key and lets herself in, causing his conversation to end as the attention falls on her.

Bucky immediately moves to her side, worry creasing his features as he locks the door behind her. Steve Rogers stands only a few feet away in the kitchen of the small apartment, dressed in the Captain America uniform and with his shield grasped firmly in his hand.

"You shouldn't be here," Bucky warns. "It's dangerous."

"Hello to you too. I bought you flowers, by the way," Brielle says, ignoring his concerns and briefly distracting him from the situation as his frown melts into a soft smile at the thought.

He carefully takes the bouquet from her shaking hands and lay them on the coffee table, not yet owning a vase to put them in.

"Thank you." He presses a kiss to her temple, effectively calming her down without even realizing it. "I love them."

"Good," she hums contentedly, before remembering Steve only a couple awkward steps away. "Now, what's this I hear about a strategy? Because there's a S.W.A.T team on one of these floors, so we could really use one."

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck," Steve reasons, earning a nod of agreement from Brielle as well.

A loud shout and a flurry of footsteps can be heard in the hallway, coming to a stop in front of Bucky's door. The only window in the apartment shatters, causing Brielle to jump and Steve to raise his shield defensively. A blur of green and gold objects fly inside, causing the two of them to release the breaths they were holding once they recognize it to be Brielle's suit.

"It always ends in a fight," Bucky sighs.

The pieces encase her body in the blink of an eye, allowing her heart rate to return to normal as the screen installed against the metal mask lights up.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Thompson," a feminine robotic voice greets her, a startling contrast compared to the JARVIS she's accustomed to.

"You're not JARVIS," she breathes out, unable to focus on the imminent danger now that she feels safe.

"No, miss," the A.I agrees. "I'm FRIDAY."

The door is slammed off of its hinges, revealing several policemen. At the same moment, a grenade is thrown through what's left of the window. Bucky pushes himself in front of Brielle and kicks it towards Steve, who smothers it with his shield.

"Engage autopilot, FRIDAY," Tony's voice flows through the earpiece in Brielle's suit. "Get Bri out of there!"

Her suit complies with his command, instantly firing the thrusters in the palms and soles and directing her through the window. Relief washes over Bucky as he slams a cop into the bookshelf and kicks another one into Steve's shield, no longer having to worry about her getting hurt in the fight.

Directly next to the window, out of the line of vision of anyone inside, is a new IronMan suit with Tony inside. She smiles at the sight of her friend, the suit allowing her to hover in front of him.

"What brought you here?" She questions innocently. "You stopped by last week for our monthly-"

A backpack is thrown out of the window, landing on the roof of the building next door and successfully cutting Brielle off as she grows distracted by it.

"Your suit broke my window," Tony answers with a chuckle. "So I figured I'd stop by to see if you had a good enough reason."

"And do I?"

"I'm still debating it."

Two floors below them, Bucky launches himself off of someone's balcony and lands on the roof next to them. Breaking into a sprint, he grabs his backpack and hurries across the rooftop. A figure clad in a black suit leaps out from behind one of the air conditioning units, tackling him. A helicopter flies into view and fires at the two, but the bullets don't seem to effect the mysterious stranger. Sam, in his Falcon gear, flies overhead and knocks the helicopter off cours as Steve leaps onto the neighboring rooftop to help Bucky.

Brielle panics as everyone disappears from her line of vision, unable to control her suit to fly after them.

"Don't let them hurt him," she pleads, turning her attention back to Tony. "He isn't responsible for the Vienna bombing."

"I'll do everything I can," he promises. "But you're not safe here. FRIDAY is going to take you home and I'll be there as soon as everything is under control."

"Thank you," she says sincerely, attempting to move to hug him before remembering they're both in bulky suits.

"You can thank me by staying away from dangerous situations."

FRIDAY maneuvers her suit away from Tony's, the thrusters picking up speed as she zooms above the slow cities of Romania.

"We've definitely passed up my house." Brielle points out, furrowing her eyebrows together as the suit doesn't slow down. "Where am I going?"

"Mr. Stark has your home programmed as the Avengers compound."