.

.

.

His hold tightened just a fraction before he let go. He shoved his hand into his hoodie pocket, mirroring his cybernetic.

Sending one more smile, I walked out of the store and headed straight for Victoria's Secret. 'And that takes care of Bucky.'

My fingers flew across my phone screen, setting up an alert perimeter for Bucky around H.M.V. if he were to leave the area. Slipping on my glasses, I scanned through the security cameras in the lingerie shop with one lens.

The other lens was set on the hallway around me, forcing me to navigate in third person. Gave me a view of everything around me without having to turn my head.

By the time I reached the lingerie shop, my stomach churned at the disorientated floaty spin my brain assumed the floor under my feet was doing.

'Hmmm, the four day break undid some neural pathways. Will have to get back into the habit of navigating via cameras.'

I had to free up some of the lens space to drop a tracker on one of the employees who would close up tonight. Needed my actually vision for that delicate task.

'And that takes care of my signal.'

Easy enough to slip past the people in the changing rooms, picking the lock of one of the doors for some privacy to get a blond ponytail wig situated on my head. A short pause for an employee helping out a customer later, I raced for the attached hotel while controlling their cameras. The elevator lobby, stairs and service elevator to keep an eye on who goes up.

Then a quick capture of empty footage to loop over any I would have popped up on. The elevator lobby, the elevator and the hallways.

'No signals coming out of the room. So they don't have remote senses here,' I noted while trying not to rip off the gloves I pulled on. They kept any fingerprints and D.N.A. to myself.

They'd never know I was inside this room.

The lock took a few seconds to get past. A couple seconds longer than if my dominant hand wasn't twitching from the electric current running through the pins that kept my bones in place. Another second was spent returning the lock cover to normal.

On my way in, I pulled up the scarf to cover my head. Just in case something of me might be left behind. If they found out I was in here, that'd make them utterly useless to me.

'No cameras and no mics. They don't have surveillance in their own room...? Probably paranoid of Eve in case her chains are loosened. Don't want to risk it, huh? No fun.'

One eye swept the meticulously neat room with two beds. The other kept an eye on various camera feeds.

'Ex-military... again....'

They were all ex-military. Mercs.

Nothing hidden in the bible or any of the drawers. Not even between their underwear.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I pulled up a holiday selfie of two kids with the old man Bucky clocked as Hydra in front of a window.

'Hmmm.... five windows right and two floors up... that seems about right...?'

Going by the view in the picture and from outside of this window, the room should be around there. So tempted to poke around that room as well. See what I could find out about Hydra without Eve's lens changing random details that were probably extremely important. Like their bloody damn logo.

Nobody should even be in their room. I could see the old man in the wave pool. His grandkids should be around there. Likely in the pool with him or maybe exploring one of the many waterslides.

With a sigh, I zoomed out and brought my attention back to the room I was in.

Next up, the paper pad by the phone on the nightstand between the beds. Hopefully they were dumb enough to write something of use on it. On the smooth surface, I couldn't find any indentations. No luck.

Nothing under the beds or between the mattresses. Nothing besides a sizeable dust bunny or two, and some kid's plastic candy ring.

'The safe it is then. Oh? Fancy.'

They brought their own damn safe.

'Hahaha, as if that'd actually slow me down.'

My injured hand would slow me down more than this safe could.

Placing one hearing bud on the top surface of the safe and keeping the other in my ear, I took barely a minute to get inside. Everything stacked oh so neatly.

'At least it's easier to put things back,' I thought, snapping few photos for comparison before I leave.

Took photos of everything. Files. Passports. Every page. A few bills of each currency they had.

If the files don't pan out, and if it came down to it, I could try to trace them through the movements of the currencies or go after their families.

A cinnamon bun popped up over my phone screen. Bucky. Picking up, I continued to take picture after picture.

"V-Val...?"

"What up, Buddy?"

"Everything alright?" he asked.

"Yup. You?"

"Reading about a movie called Spirited Away. It's in the same drawing style as the movie last night."

"Mmm. I do love that movie, but don't get it. I'll figure out another movie you can watch from the same director. But that one has a couple of things that might not agree with you. Maybe another time."

"...Okay."

"Sorry."

"No, I don't want to...."

"If you find George of the Jungle or Men in Tights, I'm down to watch that with you. I could use the laughs."

"I'll keep an eye out for them."

"If not, we can watch them when we get to where we're going."

"...."

"Anything else?"

"No."

"See you soon."

"See you soon..." he said, and we hung up.

'That took longer than I thought....'

But still, I had to take my time to make sure everything was back in place. Did not help that one set of my fingers were utterly set on twitching every so often. Nothing could be a hair out of place. It'd be likely that their type would notice and them noticing would make all I did here obsolete to me.

Checking that the footage of the hall outside was clear, I heard the lock engage behind me. Almost forgot to take off the blond wig in the elevator before making my way back to Victoria Secret.

'...Okay....? A European language....'

I flicked on the translator mode for one lens to superimpose English over the words in the pictures I took. Get a gist of what they had on me before getting back to Bucky.

'Estonian? 'Kay...? I guess I should see if that country links to any of this mes – shit.'

They knew a lot more about me than I guessed. They file was all about me. From my code name Cookie Dough to the scars that marred my skin. Things most people wouldn't know or notice. They have enough to interrupt anybody who generally matched my description. Just as they've been doing at this mall.

'This got so much creepier now.... Going to just... wait this out....'

Wait until they're done dropping pretty pennies on this stupidity.

With that thought, I tucked everything away and grabbed a bunch of bras in my size to try on. The first one that fit and didn't piss me off, I bought along with a handful of far too colourful panties. I almost forgot to disable the fake signal on the employee before I made my way over to H.M.V. as if I hadn't raced about the mall. As much as my throbbing ankle disagreed with that.

'Hmm.... I wonder if he really was a charmer like in the stories way back when or girls just threw themselves at him.'

Since one was most definitely trying. Though from the looks of it, Bucky didn't have a clue to all the flirting the pretty brunette was shoving his way. He was completely absorbed with reading the summary on the back of a Blu-ray case.

'Oh the poor girl.'

"Hey there, handsome," I chirped, reaching up and tucking a lock of soft hair behind his ear. Made sure to scratch at his scalp for the reaction I wanted. "Manage to find a movie for tonight?"

He gave a little nod, clinging onto the thin box in his hands as his expression started to take a turn for confusion.

At the other girl's squeak, I faced her. "Oh, a new friend! Would you like to join us for... Snatch...?"

'This might actually be a good one to see if he's good with something gorier...? After general violence is an okay....'

"Ah," the cute brunette fidgeted for a second in place, eyeing the bag in my hand and the two of us. "It's a good movie. A bit hectic, but good. I recommend watching with subtitles."

I sent her a friendly smile, handing the box back to Bucky and motioning for the cashier with a tilt of my head. "Then we must watch this."

He got the hint, and went off, sending me a worried glance on his way.

"I'm-I'm sorry," the young woman stuttered. "He didn't mention he had a girlfriend. I-I – "

"Oh, don't fret. He totally doesn't realize when people flirt with him."

"You're not...mad?"

I sent her a soft smile and a shake of the head. Hopefully something friendly. "Thanks by the way, for picking a movie for us."

"N-no problem."

"Have a good evening," I said, skirting around her towards Bucky.

"You too." With that, she scurried off.

'Hmmm cute girl,' I thought, hooking my arm around Bucky's.

"...She was...?" he started.

"Yup."

"I... I didn't...."

"It's okay. I did what I could to let her down easy?"

"I heard everything."

"I know."

"You invited her to join us."

"She wasn't going to say yes."

"What if she did?"

"She wasn't."

"...."

"I'm sure she wouldn't have agreed, and save Snatch for another time."

He gave a nod. "...Now what?"

"T&T? Stock up on food. We'll be where we're going in a day or so? This should our last stop for food."

.

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Author's Note:

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