Okay.  Astrid repeated the word in her head. Okay. Okay. Okay.  It had only been 20 minutes since the word escaped her mouth, yet it still seemed so foreign.

The walk was silent. Dead silent. They were both dripping wet, and smeared with the blood of their own wounds, and others. Astrid, as eagle-eyed as ever, had soon come to the conclusion that James had absolutely no idea of where he was going or what exactly his plan was. And she was right.

James, indeed, had no clue of what exactly he planned to do. In his role as the Winter Soldier, Hydra meticulously arranged for his transportation and places of shelter, leaving him with the singular task of reaching his destination and doing what he does best, killing. But now, with a 14 year old girl bleeding girl by his side, in a city he has no recollection of, he was as good as lost. 

Washington DC was warm. Nowhere near any extreme temperatures, but it was mid-spring, and an American spring was arguably equivalent to a Russian summer. Yet, Astrid still found her body shivering. She didn't feel cold, but her body itself was like an ice-box. The darkness that ran through her veins made it so.

James, observant as ever, noted the subtle shivers rippling through Astrid's frame. But, that's all he could do ─ notice.

Presently, they found themselves on a relatively deserted street, situated near a bridge. Beneath the bridge, a small lake choked with a large amount of waste caught her eye, a jarring testament to the environmental negligence of the roads they walked. The staggering pollution surpassed any she had encountered in her international missions. Mental notes were made, judgments passed ─ America, she concluded, was dirty. 

Beneath the bridge, a handful of individuals sat along the walls. Fortunately, they looked too pre-occupied or rather, engrossed in their own pursuits of substances and herbs to notice a man with a metal arm walking by. The duo considered themselves lucky enough to have made it 20 minutes without gaining too much attraction.

Astrid became lost in her own thoughts. A privilege to a girl like her. Astrid absorbed the world around her with the wonder of a newborn. Every detail seized her senses—the quaint neighborhood houses, distant echoes of barking dogs, and the sprawling network of electrical lines that ran for miles. She allowed herself the luxury of curiosity, a fleeting sense of security in an otherwise uncertain existence.

Astrid felt her body walking for itself, merely following the invisible path James had walked. And then in a split second, her body found itself at a sudden halt. James had stopped. But no words nor sounds left his mouth. Neither instructions nor directions were given.

"Why have we stopped?" Astrid's question pierced the silence, met with a pointed gesture towards a nearby car ─ their next target, it seemed. "You see that car over there?" The girl's eyes found itself fully grazing over the silver car on the left side of the road ahead, following the man's gaze.

The girl nodded confusingly, yet still awaiting the point of the man's question.

"Um," Bucky contemplated his choice of vocabulary before continuing. "We're gonna steal it." 

The girl shrugged and nodded, "Okay." She then walked off into the direction of the car. James, a bit taken back by the girl's rather instant compliancy, followed shortly.  

Now stood in front of the car, they faced the task of hotwiring it, a skill they both possessed. The window was coincidentally, but nevertheless in their favor, quarter way down. James's arm was too big to fit inside the small given space, but luckily for Astrid, she had been a fairly slender girl. It gave her an advantage in many aspects, one ironically being able to take down men twice her size.

Her arm was able to find it's way through the unrolled window. But, as Astrid's hand finally reached the door handle, she felt a cold metal touch place a strong grip on her shoulder.

"Wait─" James started, but Astrid had already unlocked the door. 

"─What?" Astrid questioned in a panic, quickly removing her hand from inside the car. What had she done wrong?

To their fortunate luck, no alarm went off. James removed his metallic hand from the girl's shoulder and shook his head. Somehow, he had only then fully realized the condition of which the car was in. It was an old make, and had definitely been stolen before. Karma, it seemed, had finally caught up with its previous misdeeds.

Astrid remained rooted in a state of panic, her mind a tempest of apprehension and unease. It was the seemingly insignificant moments like these that ignited her primal instincts, triggering a cascade of fight or flight responses. Akin to a loose grenade on a battlefield. She looked to her surroundings. Every shadow, every sound, could be a potential threat.

James, quick to pick up the state she had allowed herself to  shook his head. "No, I-  uh, I expected an alarm to go off." He was quick to reassure, using his hands to furthermore express his words.

Dismissive of her own vulnerability, Astrid's exasperation surfaced. And with a sudden change of attitude, simply rolled her eyes and scoffed under her breath in annoyance before getting into the passenger seat of the car.

James taken aback for the second time, lingered outside the car for a bit longer. He could hear the sounds of things being pulled out, being pulled apart and being tied back up coming from inside the car.

He used the little time he had to look at the roads ahead and behind.

He then thought back to that promise he made the hour prior. He'd get her away safely, then they can split up and would never have to see each other again. Bucky knew he had to fulfill that promise. But he was gonna need a plan. Which he still unfortunately didn't seem to have.

The sound of wires twisting had long died out.

"Are you gonna get in or just stand there until the owners of this car show up?" The accented voice of the adolescent sounded, breaking him out of his train of thought. It was a joke. At least, James thinks it was.

Nonetheless, he still found himself climbing into the driver's seat of the car. Astrid had somehow already finished wiring it. 

Things were going smooth. Too smooth. Their luck within the past hour was equivalent to more than 2 lifetime's worth.

Given, James (as pessimistic as he is) had drawn up a simple conclusion:
Their luck was soon to run short. 

✪

It was only now that it had set in for James that he was indeed... in a car with a teenage girl. 

Well for one, she squirmed a lot. The girl hadn't sat still in all of the 15 minutes they'd been on the road. Secondly, she managed to sigh and roll her eyes, of which every different sigh or eye roll held a different level of offensiveness. And lastly, she was impossible to read. Her expression was always blank, yet still he could tell she had more than a million thoughts racing through her head. He knew she did.

"So, Astrid right?" James started, "Is that short for anything or?" 

James internally hit himself on the head. Is Astrid short for anything?  What could it possibly be short for? James felt the girl take a breath filled with nothing more than a pure dose of sarcasm.

"Oh yeah ─ no, it's short for Robin." Astrid expectedly replied with unadorned sarcasm and a false smile. 

James chuckled. Or more accurately, skipped between a cough. Astrid noticed, she went quiet. James looked back at the now hushed girl.

"Your wound, it's still bleeding." Bucky nodded his head in the direction of the girl's wound. "You'll need to get that cleaned and bandaged."

"It can heal by itself." 

"Not anytime soon."

"You would be surprised." Astrid ended off. You would bs suprised. The statement sparked a whole new set of questions. She could feel it waiting to come out of his mouth. So she cut him off before he could.

"You were apart of the avat-" 

"-So where are we going, exactly?" Astrid emphasized the 'exactly' in hopes of him losing his trail of thought.

Bucky noticed how quick she was to steer away and dodge his question. How quick she was to speak up despite staying quiet the minutes before. He didn't question it. He understood.

Instead, he turned his focus back to the road ahead. The sun still shone bright in the sky . They had managed to get onto the main road along the outskirts of Washington and were now on route into the state of Virginia. 

"A gas station. We need to get as much supplies as we can if we want to make this trip as short as possible." 

James's words confused Astrid. "A gas station is where you get fuel for your cars, is it not?"

James quickly understood where the young girl was confused. "Yes. But most, if not all gas stations have convenience stores,"  The brunette man turned to see if Astrid was starting to understand, "-You know, small shops where you can get, well practically anything. Food, drinks, first aid supplies, all of that."

Astrid finally clicked. And when she did, a sudden wave of embarrassment washed over her. How could she not know what a convenience store is? She went quiet yet again.

James witnessed as the silence took over the car once again.

"...You ever have chocolate before?" The question was extremely random. So much so that it took Astrid by suprise.

"What?" The girl pretended to not have not heard his question properly. A part of her believed she didn't. The other part however felt a strange sense of recollection when the word was mentioned. 

"Chocolate? You ever had it before?" James repeated his question.

"No." (I think). Astrid answered and thought.

"Okay, then we'll get that." James made a mental note in his head. If he was gonna leave a 14 ─ soon to be 15 year old girl in a random faraway state at the end of all this, he was at least gonna make sure she had some knowledge of the real world. And what better way to start than with chocolate?

"Have you had chocolate before?" Astrid questioned, that child-like curiosity peeking through. 

James half-laughed. "Almost every person in the United States of America has had at least one chocolate in their life."

Astrid frowned. "Well, what does it taste like?" 

James gave himself a mental high five. He had managed to make her willingly talk. And about something as care free as chocolate for that matter.

"Well I mean, there's different types of chocolates. So it really depends." James quickly answered, not waiting too long for her to become uninterested.

Confusion washed over the girl's face once again. "There's different types?" Astrid's voiced raised a little higher than she'd like to acknowledge. 

"Yeah y'know - dark chocolate, white chocolate, crunchy chocolate, peppermint...the list goes on."

A small smile of excitement fell onto Astrid's lips. She was...excited? No. The smile quickly faded as Astrid adjusted her legs to sit atop the seat. And suddenly, just like that, Astrid had shrunk back into her mind. A wave of uncomfortability overtook her. She acted out of order. Expressed herself too much. That was wrong. And it probably made James uncomfortable too.

James noticed her sudden shift in demeanor and tapped his finger on the steering wheel anxiously. Is it something he did? Is it something he said? And then, the wave of disgust overtook him. He managed to make a little girl feel dumb. At least that's what he guesses it is. Making her feel bad for not knowing things. And how could she? How could she know what a convenience store is, or how chocolate tastes? How could she when all she's ever known are those 4 cold walls.

They both looked ahead in silence. The wind that passed through the windows and the passing cars being the only noise surrounding them.

They couldn't help the way they felt. They were programmed - hell, wired to think that way. They were puppets on a string and Hydra was the showman.

Because the inevitable truth is they always could run away, but in the end it would be their own minds that would bring them back.

✪

a/n. extremely short filler-ish chapter. i say filler-ish because it's just them before the road trip chapters start. speed wrote this last night and wanted to post it otherwise god knows i never will 😭. didn't want to edit the chapter either otherwise i would just end up scrapping it so if there are any mistakes i'll go over it in the future!!

also i feel like i was speeding through this chapter. so if you guys think the pacing is too fast lmk!! (any feedback is appreciated).

lastly i already have planned the route they'll take from washington (spent 8 minutes looking over the USA map :,) so if you guys wanna have a guess go for it!