#Everyone put in their theories as to what traumatized Mr. Bear.

[itbethatwaysometime]

Uncharted - Chapter 12

Word count: 2.3k

Warnings: None (well not in this chapter anyways. *wink* foreshadowing? Who know?)

A/n: Heyy! I’m back again. I know, so soon, Terry? Wow. So I’ve been insanely proactive with this series. I just finished a shit ton of research. I’m SO EXCITED for you guys to read the rest of the story. I was so happy with the direction of the story and I have plenty of angst, fluff and tears in store for you. Anyways! Happy Reading!!!:)))

The start : Part 1

Last chapter : Part 11

Hydra Base, Unknown Location

“She’s a pretty one, isn’t she?,” Madame Hydra sips her cup, patiently. “What a shame.”

“What a shame, what, ma’am?” Her right hand man asks, standing obediently at her side.

“That she’ll have to be… disposed of.”

———

You woke up to a stream of grey light peeking out from the curtains. It was a rainy day, the rain tapping rhythmically against the glass pane, music to your sleepy ears. You let wakefulness slowly sweep into you, a tidal wave put through slow motion. The aches and pains were there, and a head was laid comfortably on your stomach.

He’d slept fitfully during the night, never waking up, but stuck in a vicious cycle of dreams. He hadn’t been in anything fearful, he wasn’t drenched in cool sweat or breathing hard. But, Tony, even in his sleep, looked tired and a million times his age.

You on the other hand, were feeling some of the aches and pains that littered your body. You laid your head back onto your pillow with a thump.

You’d have to go talk to everyone else. You were surprised the rest of the team hadn’t barged in and urged you to talk yet. They seemed to have left you alone, but you’d have to confront them today. They deserved that.

You let your eyes drift close for a second, but a familiar pair of footsteps entered your apartment. Steve. He seemed to have frozen on the spot. He’d made it a habit to just come stalking into your home. He just said that your kitchen was always fully stocked, he even offhandedly made a comment of taking advantage of your “motherly” instincts. But, maybe he was just lonely. Upon seeing you, he shrugged apologetically and you smiled in understanding. When he laid his eyes on Tony, his eyes softened immediately and he stared contemplatively at Tony’s sleeping form.

You mouthed:” Bad night.” And he nodded in understanding. Although no one actually knew to what extent of a “bad” night it was for Tony except for you and Steve; Steve being absent for what you thought was the most traumatic part. Tony was a master at squashing down anything he was feeling with a million watt smile and going on the defensive when confronted about his struggles. Steve knew what a “bad night” was.

You carefully extracted yourself from the mess of tangled limbs, he was so conked out he didn’t even wake up, only managed a grunt of disapproval before hugging the pillow to his chest.

Today you were able to wobbly walk on your own,. You slowly made your way to the kitchen, a cup of coffee waiting for you.

“You feeling okay?” Steve asks, voice earnest. He genuinely wanted to know.

“Better than yesterday, anyways.” He squeezes your shoulder before going back to cooking your breakfasts. You picked at the lip of your coffee mug, working up the courage to ask the question that’s been milling around your head all morning. You’d pondered about it while watching the raindrops cascade down the city in heavy sheets of diamond drops.

“How was… Bucky, after Tony um, well Tony was Tony.” He shuffled some eggs around in the pan while you patiently awaited his answer.

“Honestly, I can’t really pinpoint something… specific. He seemed so… ready to pounce on Tony, defensive, but not for having Tony accusing him. But for…” He trailed off looking at you, stalling whatever he was going to say.

“But for what?” You prod.

“But for Tony being angry at you.” You were midway through lifting the cup to your lips when he said that. You froze for a second. He was defensive, for you? That hardly made any sense. You’d thought he’d felt threatened under Tony’s shouts.

“For me.” You repeated, still trying to wrap your head around the fact. Steve nodded, also seeming to be thinking hard about the new information.

“I’m going to see the rest of the team today.” You say, carefully avoiding the subject you were discussing earlier. “Are they mad?”

He chuckles slightly at your concern. “No, not mad, just worried.” He puts away the dirty dishes,” I have to go back to Wakanda to see T’Challa… I’ll be back in a few days.”

He pulls you into a hug and kisses the top of your head.

“I’ll see you soon. Take care, okay?” You nodded against his chest.

——–

You entered the common room to a very interesting sight. There seemed to be a playful argument happening. Some of the team cheering whenever someone laid an impressive statement, some others humming with disapproval. Sam Wilson and Peter Parker stood facing each other debating who had the better suit. This was the sort of childish stuff you lived for and it happened frequently enough for the common room to be considered a kindergarten playground.

“Well, mine looks like a hundred times cooler.

“All you have is spandex. What can you do with that?”

“Since you’re like a normal person and you can’t fly, you overcompensated and made yourself wings.” Pietro oo’d at that, mimicking a burn on his forearm.

“I can just cut your webs.”

“I can just clog up the system.”

You clear your throat. “Um guys?”

“(Y/n)!” You hear Peter shout, suddenly he’s right in front of you, words gushing out of his mouth, like the over excited teenager he was.

“Oh my god, the thing you did in the cell was so cool! Like you were against the Winter Soldier, man. THE Winter Soldier, and like ya you got a little beat at the end, but you were amazing. Like he hit you like this,” He pretends to swing a punch,” and then you dodge him like this, “ He pretends to dodge a punch while making humph, sound,”And then he went all like murder-y, but you opened you portal thingy and it was SO cool, I’ve only seen it once, it was like, pshhh,” he imitates the sound of you opening a portal and makes the movement with his hands,” and then you pulled his ankle, god that was so badass. Anyways, I was wondering if you could train me a little bit?”

You try to filter in the monologue he just spit out, only catching a few words here and there because he was speaking so fast.

“Ya sure, whenever you want, I don’t mind.” He was a good kid, good intentions and straight morals. A little hyperactive, and honestly, you thought he was a little young to be on the team, but you liked having him there.

“Awesome!” He smiles wide and swings his attention back to the argument.

Sam approaches you with what you called the ‘dad-look’. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at you seriously. You sheepishly look at him, knowing that you worried the shit out of him.

“You okay, though?” He says, finally. “Ya.” He pulls you into a hug and lets go, going back to berating Spidey about his ‘juvenile’ suit.

After that, you were met with an armful of Wanda. “(Y/n), I was so worried.” She says, softly.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry. But, you know I had to.” Wanda had been the only person you talked to about Bucky. She understood, with her powers she constantly has glimpses of the emotional baggage that Bucky carries around with him. She’d tried to describe it to you once, but even she thought it would be too much to bear.

“I know,” she pauses and grabs your shoulders,” I’m warning you, Natasha is not happy.” You groan internally, out of all the people you’d had to confront, Nat would be the worst. She had this way of making people feel guilty for whatever they did, but you loved her nonetheless. You walk over to the adjacent room and find the redhead in a discussion with Bruce. You take deep breath and brace yourself.

“Hey, Nat.” You say, she turns her head round slowly, eyeing you up and down. Bruce did the smart thing and scurried off quietly.

“Why?” Is the question that came out of her lips. You frowned, that wasn't what you were expecting.

“Tony changed the group of scientists that were working on Bucky, he’d be transferred from the cell he was into the apartment on our floor. I went to get him and when I found him…” You trailed off.You’d sit down next to her by now and she was looking at you patiently.

“Nat, you should've seen the look on his face… I couldn’t just leave him like that.”

She looked at you thoughtfully for a second, doing the thing that Nat always does. Her expression remained emotionless, probably assessing the information you just gave her and gauging some sort of theory in her mind. She looked at you as if she knew something you didn’t.

You waited patiently for her verdict, luckily, none came.

“Tony ordered pizza, it’ll be here soon.”

You smile gratefully, knowing that she purposefully didn't say much. “Ok, I’ll be down in five minutes I have to get something upstairs.”

You left the room swiftly, relief filling you up. You walked back towards the common room to get the Spider boy. You’d decided to start training him straight away. There wasn’t any time to lose and he seemed eager to learn. Teaching him now wouldn’t hurt him.

“Hey, Peter! Come with me, I’ll show you something cool.” You wave him over. He nearly trips out of his chair trying to get to you. You laugh as he tries to play it cool, smoothing a hand down his shirt and into his hair.

“Ya, I decided to start training you right away. I don’t have much to do these days, anyways.” Fury had laid you off missions, for at least a month, to heal up. Although you were still limping, and anything coming near your ribs made you jump, also the bruises were quite dark, but despite those things, you were feeling pretty good.

“Ok. OK, that’s cool, I’m cool with that. Are you cool with that? Also where are we going?”

You laugh again, this kid was endearing.

“We are going to Steve’s apartment, I left my batons there. Then, we’ll come back for lunch and go train.”

“Sounds good, Mrs.-- um (y/n).” He corrects himself quickly.

You lead him to Steve’s apartment and gently open the door, you’d gone straight to his apartment after the mission and it’d seemed that you forgot them here. Steve was still away on his mission in Wakanda, he’d called in saying that he’d be back in two days, which wasn’t long, but you’d rather cuddle up and watch a movie.

When you walked in the kitchen, you saw that the light was turned on. You frowned, you swore you’d turned them off after leaving the last time you were here. You looked into the sink and saw dirty dishes that hadn't been there the last time you came. You raised your hand up, telling Peter silently that you wanted him to stay back.

“Hello?” You say, cautiously, rounding the corner of the kitchen island. “Who’s there?”

And then, you find yourself pinned to a wall. Again. You groan out in pain, there’s pressure on your fragile ribs and on your sore muscles. You open your eyes and see burning blue ones staring back at you.

“God, Bucky.” You shudder, as he lets go of you, leaping away is if he’d been burned.

“I’m- sorry.” He whispers out.

“Don’t worry about it. Happens to the best of us.” You try and reassure him while getting up. Seeing you I struggle, he immediately goes to your side to help you out. He puts a gentle arm around your waist and hoists you to your feet. And for a few seconds you’re inches away from his face. You see the line of his beard, his rounded pink lip, his arched nose and heightened cheekbones. You see his eyes, shyly roaming your face.

Suddenly, the teen you forgot about clears his throat. Bucky looks up at the boy and immediately retracts his arms and steps a good distance away. He eyes Peter warily, but says nothing.

“Hey, um, Mr. Barnes, I’m Peter, Peter Parker. We met at the um, Berlin Airport.” He winces a little, when he realised he mentioned the airport, but all you could do was chuckle quietly. You stole a glance at Bucky and saw that, for the first time, a small smile graced his handsome features.

“Sorry I barged in like that Bucky. I forgot something and had to get it back.” You walk over to the couch, flipping over the cushions. You’d sworn you’d left them here.

“It’s ok.” As you look for your weapons, Peter starts speaking to Barnes. Or more like speaking at him.

“So, don’t take this in a weird way or anything, but like, Mr. Barnes I think you’re so cool. Like with your arm and stuff. Like when we were at the airport, man, that was crazy.”

You could see Bucky get more and more uncomfortable, but it wasn't in a bad way, a pink hue tinted his cheeks as he looked down to the ground and scratched the back of his neck.

“Thanks kid.” He responds, after a beat.

You whoop in triumph as you finally found your two batons, walking over to the teen and the soldier. You took a good look at Bucky and he seemed to be starting to get antsy. Shifting from feet to feet and darting his eyes everywhere. Alright, it seems that he’s had enough social interaction for one day.

“OK, come on Peter, let’s go eat,” you were about to ask him to join you but obviously that wouldn't be too great of an idea if five minutes of barely any conversation was enough to get him antsy, let alone a group full of boisterous people.

So you settled for:” I’ll see you later.”

Once you were out of hearing range, he whispers into the empty room:” I’ll see you later too.”

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