music and mayhem

[advanced]

who: Bucky and OPEN
what: A variety of prompts, serious and more light-hearted, for existing and new CR
when: The month of September
where: Quarantine and the ruins
warnings: Minor injury/blood discussion

[i: thief at the hospital]

[Bucky has used the last of what Steve brought him on the night he was pulled from underneath the girder and patched up, but the wound still isn't completely healed and he doesn't want to risk it getting infected from substandard care. The bastardised serum he has might help keep infection at bay, but he's still human and he knows better than to risk it.

So clearly the best thing to do is head on over to the hospital, right?

Anyone passing by the hospital on a few days throughout the month might catch sight of a man subtly climbing in through one of the upper windows, and then climbing out again a few minutes later with his hoodie noticeably more full as if he's been pilfering supplies... mostly because that's exactly what he's doing.]

[ii: a stitch in time]

[Following the hospital raids, Bucky can be found out in the ruins tending to himself.

He has his shirt off, meaning that his metal arm is exposed to view for once, and is dealing with a nasty looking gut wound. It's already been stitched up, he's not in danger of keeling over any more, but he's cleaning out the dried blood and wrapping with fresh bandages.]

[iii: kiss and tell]

[After the disaster with Obi-Wan, Bucky has been keeping a very close watch out for those stupid little lights, determined not to get himself trapped under someone else's influence again. But they're more numerous than he'd like and sometimes one doesn't get seen until it's just a bit too late...

A warning to anyone getting themselves caught with Bucky in the kiss and tell, he may not react well and it could lead to fighting rather than kissing.]

[iv: songs from the old days]

[Bucky doesn't have much of a solid base, more a few bolt holes that he uses in a random pattern to keep him from being easy to track down, and that means that he doesn't have much in the way of possessions. It has to be easy to carry and flee with at a moment's notice, after all. But he has one or two indulgences that he's picked up on a whim, driven by half remembered days from before the Soldier.

He has a kite that he can sometimes be seen perched on a rooftop flying in the breeze, looking unaccountably peaceful. He also now has a record player. He found it in a little curiosity shop, a proper old one with some vinyls to go with it. He doesn't play the music too loudly, but anyone passing by some of the abandoned buildings or ruins might hear the quiet strains of the Andrews Sisters.]

[v: wildcard]

[Bucky can also be found at nights having nightmares, skulking around at the gun range watching others play, or generally observing the world around him. If you would like to play any of these, or have a completely different idea for a prompt, just go for it and I'll follow your lead! You can also hit me up on bibbety for plotting.]

Comments

[advanced]

[There's not a whole lot of people these days that will have seen the footage, seen the released evidence from HYDRA, and come to that conclusion. It feels like an evasion, an itch between his shoulder blades like a sniper's scope pointed right at him. Maybe that's not fair, but he can't help it.]

What makes you think that?

[His tone is still level, but something in his eyes warns her that he's getting tired of half truths.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

[She sees the look in his eyes and she shifts a little, trying to decide where to go with this. It's not like she can just leave the subject there, dodge the question and not deal with the fallout. He's too sharp, and what skills she has in deceptions are better suited for picking out others' lies, or to draw someone in before slamming their head into a steel door; depends on the circumstances. She sighs softly. Nothing for it, is there?]

Because I know what those kinds of people do.

[Her voice is hushed, like someone else might hear. And it's still a half truth, but it's giving him something real instead of that implication that she might be normal.]

[advanced]

[Now that really is a revealing piece of the puzzle, but it still doesn't give a full picture. That she seems like she's trying to help might mean she's been a victim too, but it could be an act to draw him in closer.]

How?

[He knew the other Soldier candidates, she hadn't been one of them.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

[She pauses, considering as she looks up at him.] If I tell you, will you let me help you?

[It's a question, not a demand, but she's willing to trade pieces of the truth. Not the whole truth, because no one's gotten that from her. Too many different layers and different traumas, and it's easier to give them up in pieces.]

[advanced]

[Bucky can definitely relate and understand to not giving up all the pieces, there are things in his past that he will never divulge to anyone as long as he lives, not even people he trusts completely.]

That depends what the answer is.

[It's not a no, but he's not giving a promise that he might not be able to keep if her way of knowing this is not acceptable to him.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

[ She nods, accepting his answer. It's not a no, and it's honest, so that's something. She's not sure if she would be able to offer any better if their positions in this were changed. Because of course it matters what the answer is. ]

When I was nine I was picked up in the crossfire of a SHIELD op. They handed me over to some STRIKE agents who stuck me in an off the record safehouse. They made me think they'd saved me, told me they'd rescued me from the Russian mafia, and I couldn't remember anything different.

[ She thinks he's smart enough to pick up the pieces. Doesn't know if it'll make him trust her any better (there are things about herself she doesn't trust) but it seems better than her usual story about being in the SHIELD academy when Hydra had revealed themselves. It's also true, but it's not the answer to the question. ]

[advanced]

[He feels his spine tense so much that it almost feels brittle as she tells her story. He's not stupid, he knows that a huge majority of the STRIKE agents were HYDRA, and he knows that anyone telling that kind of story to a locked away kid wouldn't be on the straight and narrow.

So she had been raised by them? She was probably trained, then, likely messed up in a whole hell of a lot of ways. But had she converted to their way of thinking? Or was she being genuine with her sympathy?]

So you've seen me before. Not in the museum, not on the news?

[Does she know the words? If she knows the words, she has to die, there is no other option.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

[At that question she tenses, and there's a stillness. Her eyes briefly flickering to check the angles, distance, could she grab her bag and run? There's a moment where it seems a better choice than lying or telling the truth. There's that part of her that wants to get out, because she feels exposed.

But she stays.]

Just once. I didn't know who you were, then.

[Her voice is small and quiet, her hands curl in on themselves because she can't remember it without the way it curls in her chest. She thought he wouldn't jump to the right question so quickly, but she knew he was sharp.]

I didn't know SHIELD were supposed to be the good guys.

[advanced]

[It's her body language far more than her words that make him inclined to trust that she's telling the truth, that closed off and nervous energy that comes from being hunted by people you thought you were supposed to trust.

They probably hurt her, even if not in the same way as him. Training in HYDRA was never for the weak, and she had only been young.]

What happened? How did you find out?

[He knows that this is turning into an interrogation, that he's demanding answers without giving any, but he has to know.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

I got out, or I thought I did. I ended up in the SHIELD Academy three years later.

[She's aware in hindsight that if Natasha had been tracking her, it meant that sooner or later they must have had eyes on her too. Was that how Ivan had found her? Her whole life is tangled together in the worst ways, and she hates it, because it makes answering questions like these difficult.]

I put the pieces together when I was on the run.

[When the helicarriers came down and the Academy fell, she'd thought if she kept moving they couldn't find her. And if she's honest she'd been running from Natasha too. Running to keep Sana safe.]

[advanced]

[He has no way of knowing if she's telling him the truth or not, but he's inclined to believe her. Her body language and tone are all consistent with the story she's telling, and he knows what HYDRA is capable of.

So he finally backs up a step, still tense but no longer actively aggressive.]

Then you should know better than anyone to keep away from me.

[krasnaya_vdova]

[ Her lips quirk a little lopsidedly as he comments that she should know better than anyone to keep away from him. And he's probably right, but at the same time, she's never been particularly good at doing the smart thing. And that same history that means she knows how dangerous he is also means that she cares about if he's okay or not. ]

I guess you're right. I just want to make sure you're okay.

[ She could be reckless sometimes; and maybe this was too, but it didn't change that she found herself concerned about whether or not his injuries were okay. She doesn't push closer, though, just watches him. ]

Will you let me help?

[advanced]

You were there, you must have seen what I can do-- what I did, why do you want to help me?

[He doesn't think that she's trying to get close in order to attack him when he's vulnerable. Besides, even if that was her plan, he's pretty sure that he could handle taking her down if it came to it; he'd rather it didn't, but that sense of security at the back of his mind helps.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

I know what you're capable of. But that's not..

[She frowns, sighs as she tilts her head. She's trying not to give away too much; less out of a desire to be deceptive and more that neither of their stories are good. Not the sort of thing you share. But given her own origins, the idea of second chances has a particular weight.]

I just don't like to believe that's all that matters. You haven't hurt me. So I still want to help you, if you'll allow me to.

[advanced]

[There's a frozen pause, before he sits down and gives the slightest of nods.

It's certainly not trust, they've just met and there's a lot about her that's still shrouded in secrecy, but it's a gesture of a willingness to believe what she's saying for now.]

It's fine, I got stitched up a while back.

[It's just infected and the internal bleeding was never really dealt with.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

There's dried blood in the stitches; that's not fine.

[Her voice is calm, her expression a little wry. She knows it's not quite trust, but it's something and that's good enough for now]

I've got a first aid kit in my bag.

[That way she warns him first. And then she's fishing it out of one of the side pockets of that duffle bag that she'd dropped at her feet. Upside of keeping her life packed into a bag is she knows where everything is, and she can pull it out without digging through weaponry.

She still makes sure not too move too fast, but she's a touch less cautious.]

[advanced]

I'll heal.

[He has a little too much faith in his bastardised super soldier serum. It helps him heal so much that he forgets, sometimes, that it's not a tool for immortality. Just because it makes him faster and stronger, more durable, it doesn't mean that he's not still human.

The wound is nasty, he got pierced right through the side by a falling girder, but it's about two weeks old by this point and inflamed at both the entrance and exit points.]

You do a lot of field first aid?

[krasnaya_vdova]

[She moves in close enough for a good look, perched on her heels and she frowns, eyes looking at the inflammation. At the question, she shrugs her shoulders.]

A fair bit. Place I was raised, they expected us to be able to patch ourselves up.

[Her answer is vague, but there's something that tightens in her jaw for a moment.] It looks infected. How bad was the bleeding?

[She knows what it's like to trust your body to warn off injuries. She also learned early that sometimes that's not quite good enough. She was hoping this was an issue of swab some disinfectant, change the wrappings, but she doesn't like the look of it.]

[advanced]

Not too bad, someone stitched me up as soon as the girder came out.

[That someone being Steve, but he really doesn't want to go down the route of naming him, that's a minefield he isn't ready to step into. Not even in his own mind.]

If it's infected then it needs cutting open again, drain the infection out.

[krasnaya_vdova]

No internal bleeding?

[If they're talking about infection, might as well know the full scope of what she's dealing with. She doesn't have one of SHIELD's neat little sensors for field testing blood pressure. But she isn't particularly liking the look of this. He was fine. Right.]

Yeah. [There's really no getting around the need to vent the infection so it can heal. Sealing it afterward she has some neat stuff for. Disinfects her hands to be on the safe side, even if this is far from a sterile environment.] Think you can?

[The alternative was a little less comfortable.]

[advanced]

[There's no way he would let her touch him to cut him open, he's already going to need her help sewing himself back up because he can't reach the exit wound on his back properly to do it.]

Yeah.

[His eyes darken, looking up to meet hers intensely, ignoring the question of internal bleeding for now because there's nothing they can do about it even if there is.]

I don't like being worked on. [It's not hard to guess why, it's something very associated with HYDRA.] If I turn on you, run.

[krasnaya_vdova]

[ Yeah, Ava was really hoping he could do that part himself. For obviously reasons. She meets his eyes, his gaze intense but she doesn't flinch, her blue eyes bright. Instead she just sighs, rolls it over in her head for a moment. Because she's stubborn. ]

You're going to put a hand on my shoulder while I work. I'm going to be careful, but if I do something you don't like, if it's too much, let me know. I'm more durable than I look; you won't hurt me unless you're trying to.

[advanced]

[It's a fool's assumption to think that he might be able to realise he's going to do something to her, sometimes it's like a switch flipped inside his head and he knows that he's capable of killing her. He doesn't want to come back to himself and find a corpse at his feet.]

Fine.

[He doesn't exactly have a better plan.

He raises his right hand, he's less likely to hurt her by accident with his flesh hand, and places it lightly on her shoulder. He uses his other hand to draw out a switchblade from the waistband of his pants and slice open the wounds without care for the pain or blood.]

Work fast.

[krasnaya_vdova]

[Foolish, yes, but that's not entirely new. Sana always thought she was a little too reckless, a little crazy. It's not a great system, but it's the best she can think of under the circumstances. Hoping that she can read it in that point of contact.]

Good.

[She doesn't flinch when he touches her, but there's a sense of tension in her body that's always there. She has the tools laid out, the curved needle threaded, just watching him as he pulls out a switchblade. Then he slices open the wounds, and she nods as she gets to work.

It's not a pretty sight, blood and the visible evidence of infection, but she works fast. Cleaning out the infection, rinsing the wound, then using gauze and pressure until the bleeding slows. She uses an antibiotic ointment instead of a typical disinfectant; avoids that hospital scent. Her hands are fast, precise, and then she's got the needle in her fingers.]

James, don't move.

[Her voice quiet, but she doesn't look away from the wounds. Pressing the edges of the wounds together, and then she's pressing the needle carefully through flesh.]

[advanced]

[His world has narrowed to just the two of them and the effort to hang on to himself, every breath seeming more strained than the one before. It's hard not to feel the touch of a HYDRA scientist, difficult not to see the surroundings of the many bases he found himself working out of and being worked on in.

He manages to hold it together as she cleans out the wound, his eyes glazed and fixed on the middle distance, lips clamped together, and jaw clenched so hard that a muscle is jumping by his throat.

But then the needle goes in.

His hand tightens around her shoulder like a vice, all the strength of the serum and his training going into trying to inflict as much damage as he can while not letting go.]