Daybreak Bucky Barnes [English Translation]

SIX

" i'm nobody. who are you?
are you a nobody, too? "
___________

The next morning I was awakened by a combination of the bright sunrays shining through the wide window into my face and an abrupt shock that felt as if someone had thrown himself on the unoccupied side of the double bed.
"Breakfast!", screeched a happy voice and I opened my eyes in fright.

Wanda was sitting next to me - she was now wearing a wine-red blouse, her hair  was tied to a messy bun - and on her lap was another tray, but this time cake, fruit and cornflakes, as well as tea, coffee and orange juice piled up on it. Whoever had prepared the food seemed to have the intention of feeding an entire company.

Wanda looked at me with big eyes. "Can I?" she asked, pointing to the bowl of whole grain flakes.

Sleepy I sat up. "Yeah, sure."

While I was still trying to classify the unusual setting as a friendly one, and kept my eyes closed for a few moments, before heard the crackling in my ear from someone eating cornflakes without milk.

"Tell me, don't they give you any food here?", I asked amusedly. Wanda made an indecisive hand movement, with a few cornflakes spilling over the edge of the bowl and landing on the white pillowcase of the bed. "Well, yes, actually, but eating with friends is much more fun."

The red glow appeared around her hand as the cornflakes flew back into the bowl in an orderly fashion and left no crumbs on the bedspread.

I had to smile. Friends? I had only been here for one day and Wanda already considered me a confidante. If only it were that easy with the other superheroes who lived in this complex.

As if she had read my mind, Wanda said after tapping the last crumbs from the bowl into her mouth: "I think Cap likes you."

I tried not to blush. "Oh, really?", I replied embarrassed and took an apple from the tray.

"Yeah." Wanda took a cookie from a bowl and dipped it in the coffee. Ew. "I heard him talking to Barnes about you. He says he trusts you and has high hopes for you."

Oh, great. Now I had a reputation to live up to.

"What do you think about..." - I tried to use their name for the Winter Soldier - "...Barnes?"

"He's okay, I guess. After all, he backed Cap when the going got tough. I think the real Bucky Barnes is buried deep beneath that mean, hard exterior, and with the right resources, we might be able to bring him out."

While we ate most of the breakfast, Wanda, at my request, told me a little bit about everything that was going on.

"So that Cap and Stark were totally enemies, you already noticed. Stark wants to put the Avengers under a regulation so that we lose our freedom of action and autonomy. Cap didn't want that; for him it was essential to be independent, and that's not possible if we are under the authority of some institution. The dispute was at first really only a debate when a bomb was detonated in Vienna at the congress that was to discuss this issue. The Winter Soldier was immediately suspected, since he was at large and the assassin bore a certain resemblance to him."

I had heard that. These events had happened a few days before my father's death, when my world had been intact. Like everyone else, I followed news about the Avengers with moderate to greater interest.

"Cap went looking for Barnes because he didn't want the authorities to get hold of him and actually tracked him down in Romania. In the process, however, they were captured by the police and brought to Berlin. After an enormous catastrophe, Barnes was able to flee the facility and Cap and Sam finally found him. He seemed to be halfway normal again - he had run amok in the facility - and when they found out the true identity of the bomber, a Sokovian ex-soldier who wanted revenge for the death of his family during an Avengers intervention, they called their team together. In other words, the Avengers who would support them against Stark if a fight actually broke out."

"Who was on which teams?" The distribution of dynamics was honestly not quite clear to me. I knew most of the Avengers by name, but I could never have assigned them to a group.
"Stark was supported by Colonel Rhodey, Natasha, Vision, and King T'Challa - who at that moment wanted only to take revenge on Barnes for the death of his father, who died in Vienna. On Cap's side were Barnes, Sam, Scott, Clint and me."

I quickly tried to match the first names to the full identity of the characters, but Wanda continued to tell the story without being moved.

"So we fought," she said, "and Cap and Barnes escaped to stop the Sokovian assassin, who they now knew was in Siberia. Stark, who was now actually relatively conciliatory - he had realized that Barnes was not guilty - followed the two and we, that is Team Cap, were sent to an underwater prison."

Wanda grabbed another cookie. "Up there in Siberia, Zemo, the Sokovian's name, showed Stark, Cap, and Barnes a camera recording of a Winter Soldier's mission, showing that Barnes had caused Stark's parents' car accident. Stark became furious, they fought, Cap and Barnes narrowly won - and then they fled here to Wakanda with T'Challa, who had admitted Barnes' innocence. Cap broke us out of prison and now most of us are here waiting for Stark to cool down enough for us to mingle again."

"What about Barnes?" I asked. "From your story, it appears that he once 'ran amok' and then again was relatively moderate. Why is that?"

Wanda looked nervous all of a sudden. "I don't think I should explain it to you, it should be him or Cap."

Since she seemed to be really stubborn, I dropped the subject and freed myself from the blanket. In front of the window I recognized a breathtaking landscape, which could be seen from the research facility from a certain elevation. The waterfall, which had become a river in the valley, meandered glitteringly through the steppe and I watched a few large mammals, perhaps antelopes, as they scooped water from the river.

While I was immersed in my observations, the door to the suite opened and Steve entered. He was wearing a white t-shirt and dark jeans and I noticed with embarrassment how the fabric of his shirt stretched across his muscle-bound torso.

The same embarrassment flashed across his face when he saw me pausing at the window.

"Oh, good," he said and smiled. "You're awake."

He completely ignored Wanda, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, with grapes floating around her.

I nodded slowly. "Sorry for occupying your bed."

The last thing I remember last night was Steve insisting that I sleep in his bed while he finds another place to stay. I had been too tired to make a big protest, which made it all the more embarrassing.

I had to frown on my own thoughts. I didn't usually behave so calmly in a situation like this.

"No problem Orla, I've already assured you that you're my guest" He crossed the room and lowered himself onto the messy bed, watching me the whole time.

I turned my back to him again and let my gaze wander further across the steppe. It was really idyllic up here. An extremely strange place to set up a research station. But what did I know about scientific institutions...

"Orla?", Steve suddenly broke the silence that had only been cut by the muffled bumping of Wanda's grapes on the blanket at regular intervals. "Do you feel ready to talk to Bucky?"

I turned to him. "Now?"

He nodded and I sighed. Actually, I had hoped to get some time off, but nothing seemed more important to Steve than the safety of his best friend.

"All right. I just have to get ready."

I randomly grabbed some clothes from the pile Wanda had left me and disappeared into the bathroom.

While I was doing my morning hygiene, I tried to get behind Steve's contradictory behavior. He seemed to radiate so much self-confidence and yet the last few minutes had been marked by extreme silence. And yet we had gotten along so well last night. He was probably tired. Or simply not very talkative.

Wanda obviously liked to wear pants that cut off the air, right next to clothes that were so airy that I would never put them on voluntarily. Her sweatshirts and shirts, however, were extremely comfortable.

So only a few minutes later I left the bathroom completely finished. Steve and Wanda giggled about something - well, Wanda giggled and Steve grinned - and again it struck me how familiar they were with each other. They were much more than just superpowered people who had run into each other by accident.

"We can go," I announced myself and Steve quickly got up from the bed.

"Bucky is in the farthest part of the complex," he explained. "I don't think he's dangerous to anyone here, but it was his own desire to be as isolated as possible from the rest of the complex."

I took note of the information with a nod. Apparently, the Winter Soldier possessed self-awareness, at least to some degree, which reminded him how quickly he could become a danger. If he was aware of this fact, it was definitely a positive clue.

I waved goodbye to Wanda while Steve buried his hands in his pockets and kept silent.

Under Steve's guidance, we walked through the entire complex, which was divided into at least four sub-buildings. These were connected by individual above-ground tunnels whose windows allowed us to admire the view over the breathtaking desert landscape.

All the way through, Steve was wrapped in thoughtful silence and I noticed how tense he was. The Winter Soldier was apparently housed a few stories below ground as we descended several flights of stairs towards the end and the wide windows gave way to artificial light.

Finally Steve stopped in front of a closed steel door that could only be opened with a code.

"He wanted it that way, not me," he defended himself when he noticed my irritated look. "He doesn't trust himself one bit." That I didn't either, I preferred to keep that to myself.

"Are you ready?" Steve asked and gave me an encouraging smile. His hand hovered over the code key.

It was just a conversation. I didn't have to agree to this ludicrous plan. If this invention was disastrous, Steve himself might have to realize that his best friend was lost forever. It's just a conversation.

"I'm ready," I said and Steve opened the door.

The room that appeared behind it was barely lit. A faint light burned on the opposite wall, allowing a view of a narrow bed, a sink and two chairs with a table in the middle. The Winter Soldier sat on the bed, his gaze expressionlessly directed towards the floor. When he heard the door open, he raised his head.

I heard the door behind me fall into the lock and Steve's footsteps slowly move away on the other side. Great.

"Um, Mr. Barnes?," I asked cautiously, hoping that he would not retaliate in any way for my attack yesterday.

Light flashed off metal as he rose and his - now intact - left arm shimmered in a threatening silver hue.

I had no doubt that he was now completely deadly, and since I didn't want to test my luck, I guessed diplomacy was the way to go.

With feigned confidence, I pulled back the chair that was on my side of the table.

The Winter Soldier, now dressed in a dark jacket, remained motionless; his unnaturally blue eyes were fixed on me.He was not quite as muscular as Steve, but the lethality clung to him with a very different intensity. He looked like the slender blade of an elegant longsword, which, once properly curved, did more damage than the heaviest morning star.

"Steve said you want to talk," I broke the silence that was drawn into infinity by his icy silence. "I beg you; then speak."