You Get Me | A Bucky Barnes Love Story

Fifteen ~ Bring Me Back

November 3rd

Bucky:

So, the other day, Maya tried to bring me into the shadow dimension... and it didn't go so well. Maya actually brought me into the shadow dimension, almost effortlessly, actually. But she couldn't get me out. So I've been stuck in here for the last three days. Maya has been bringing me food from the actual world and bringing it into this dimension, so I can eat. She's been spending a lot of time with me here, so I don't feel alone I guess.

"Hey, so I have an idea," Maya said immediately after bringing herself to her dimension.

"Oh, I wonder what this might be about?" I sarcastically replied, knowing very well what it was about.

"Oh, I don't know. I think we should kill this high-ranking officer in the military. What are your thoughts?" Maya said trying to hold back her laugh.

"Okay okay," I said with my hands above my head in a surrendering motion. "What's your plan?"

"Okay, so you know how I had to touch you to bring you in here?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"That time I just grabbed your arm - with your jacket on - and brought you here. But if the contact between us is skin-on-skin, the connection between us might be stronger, and the conduction of my powers from me to you might be better. It's just a theory though,"

"Well try it," I said, excited at the possibility that I could get out of here, and so everything I saw wasn't tinted purple and everything I touched didn't treat me like I was a ghost.

Maya grabbed my hand and I could feel myself blush a little - I don't know why, but I did. I slowly embraced her tight grip and adjusted my fingers so I could grab back. Maya closed her eyes in concentration and I started to see the world go back to the way it was supposed to be, not purple. Up until that point, I thought Maya's tactic was working until she opened her eyes and we were right back where we started.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit, I don't know why it's not working, I've done this hundreds of times," she said, clearly frustrated. I took a moment to think about what she said, why maybe she couldn't do it now.

"Okay. But that was when you were with HYDRA, when you weren't in control, no?"

"Yeah-"

"And that was when you didn't know what you were fighting for, or who you were,"

"Yeah-"

"Yes, so that's my point. HYDRA's Shadow was using you as a body, so you need to use The Shadow's abilities to Maya's advantage. You most certainly aren't the same person you were when you were with HYDRA, so use that, because people are stronger when they know what they're good at." I rambled on.

"Okay..." Maya said with a more confident expression and a small nod. She then grabbed my metal hand, that time I was more hesitant to grab back because I didn't want to hurt her with it.

 At that moment, Maya was one of the first people ever that had treated my metal arm like a human one, and it was really, really refreshing. Maya closed her eyes in concentration and made a focused face. I couldn't help but admire the light spray of freckles across her face, and the way her cheeks were naturally as pink as her lips, she was always flushed. But either way, I had to admit, she was straight-up gorgeous.

I started to notice the world around me fading to its normal colour. "C'mon doll, you got it," I said in encouragement. A few seconds after Maya opened her eyes and smiled, I couldn't help but crack a small smile myself.

"I got it," she said plainly, but the smile never left her face. All of a sudden, she jumped up and hugged me. She was dangling about half a foot off the ground while her arms were around me. I slowly wrapped my arms around her, feeling weird about the action. No one had ever hugged me like that since the '40s, it was a new feeling. I was just getting used to the feeling when Maya retracted her arms. She looks at me with light in her eyes, "...We should have a movie night! because you have a lot to catch up on."

"And you don't?"

"No I do, just two years less worth of stuff to see. And haven't been out for seventy years."

"Hey, I've been out for two years as well," I say.

"And I assume you didn't have any interest in trying to keep up with pop culture for two years?" I had nothing to say "Exactly. When I first got out, I used to sneak into the theatres because it was a good place to hide when I couldn't find any other places to lay low. Y'know, hiding in plain sight?" she said while heading to the kitchen. I followed her.

"Hold on. Then how did Natasha find you living in a hotel in Venice?" I asked while she got some red and white package out of the pantry and threw it in the microwave.

"That's because I gave the boat I stole to get to Venice to the owner of the hotel. I also worked as a cleaning staff there." Maya took the bag out of the microwave and opened it up. 

"What is that stuff?" I asked.

"Come on...." she dragged, "You don't know what this is?" I shook my head. "It's popcorn!"

"Wait, what? There's no way," I came closer to look at the red and white bag, and surely enough, it was popcorn.

"What grandpa, you never had these things in the forties?" 

"No I don't think so," I said in frustration from the grandpa remark.

"Damn. So it's more than movies that I have to teach you about. It's a good thing we're roommates." She walked to the couch and sat down while I stood there, then she motioned for me to come sit beside her. "I'm not really giving you any options for now, but what's on your bucket list?"

"Um, Sunset Boulevard, West Side Story, Footloose, those are really the only movies I've heard of since I got out," I say.

"Ok well tonight we're watching Singin' in the Rain, and you're reading the great Gatsby as soon and we get back to our room."

"Maya, I've already read it-"

"Nope. No excuses. It's my favourite book and you're reading it. Now watch the movie." And right in the cue, the opening titles came on the screen.

~

At the part where Gene Kelly was actually singing 'Singin' in the rain', I looked over at Maya who was looking at me. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing's wrong. Everything's actually really good right now."

"Well then what's up, why are you looking at me like that?"

"I just have a question."

"Okay. What is it?"

"What does it mean when you call someone doll? Like if someone from your... time period, I guess, were to do it?"

"It's like a pet name, like honey or sweetie or baby, for someone who thinks of that person, in like, an intimate way I guess. Why do you ask?"

"Oh. No reason." She turned back to the movie smirking... I kept wondering why she would ask that question, and how she even knew that pet name.

Oh... fuck.