Edelweiss || Bucky x Reader

Chapter Seventeen

"Here, hold this to the wound, and don't let up the pressure." I instruct the bleeding soldier that I'm hunched over.

"God bless you." He says weakly.

I quickly salute him and go to move to the next man when Steve bursts out of the building, Bucky now running beside him.

Buck, very sensibly, has a rifle in hand, oh but Steve, this idiot, is carrying a shield painted with the Stars and Stripes. He raids a Hydra factory bearing THE FLAG OF THE ENEMY. I make a mental note to give him a hell of a lecture if we make it out of here alive.

"MOVE, MOVE!" Steve shouts, waving everyone away from the building, down the dirt road leading into the woods. I fall in line with them, pulling out the handgun I had stashed away.

Our feet pound at the earth beneath us as we run. All of us breathing heavily, the smell of smoke and sweat surrounding us. Without stopping, Steve asks me, "Are you ok?"

I glance up at him. He looks absolutely shell-shocked, as if he'd just narrowly avoided death.

"Could ask you the same." I say, trying not to waste my breath.

"Don't ask me anything until we're at least 20 miles from this mess." As we run, the soldiers that had been held prisoners fill in behind us.

"I'm actually feeling a lot better guys, thanks so much for asking." Bucky says sarcastically. Steve stumbles, hurriedly trying to apologize. Unable to help myself, I burst out laughing. Sure, we may be a single bullet away from an untimely end, but we're together.

So long as that's true, we'll be ok.

...

"Hold on. I'm lost. Tell it to me again, from the beginning." I say, eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

Steve sighs and shakes his head. "Alright," He starts, exhausted. "The night of the expo, when I go to enlist." He looks at me to see if I follow.

"Right."

"And there's this German scientist there."

"Right." I nod impatiently. "I get this part, but why did they choose you? You're probably the least viable candidate for a government-issued super soldier."

"I wondered the same thing, so I asked him, and he said what the serum needed wasn't a 'perfect soldier, but a good man.'"

And just like that, the dots finally connect.

"They gave you a serum?"

He pauses and looks at me, slightly confused.

"Yes?"

"You never mentioned a serum, just an experiment." I say, everything now making sense. "That's why... that's why they were so obsessed with you... and that we were siblings..."

"Y/N, what are you talking about?"

I rub at my temples, feeling a mix of emotions. "When I came here looking for Bucky-"

"Hold on, you're not seriously telling me you came here alone?" He stops me.

"Oh, and you didn't?" I say, avoiding his question. "As I was saying, when I came for Bucky...to put it simply I didn't get all that far. They tied me to a chair, beat the hell out of me, and then shoved a photo of you in my face."