Author's Note:

I'm always trying to improve my ability to pull a person into a character's headspace or feel their emotions, and your feedback will help me know if what I'm trying for is working or not. Even an emoticon or button smashing tells me something useful and can influence what I write more or less of.

I respond to all comments and it's always fun to hear your thoughts ^^

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Rolling away from the stream of sunlight, I sighed heavily. I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep.

"What time is it?" I asked, pulling on a large shirt and wiggling into a pair of shorts.

"It's around noon. Mr. Barnes finally decided to settle down. Spent hours asking questions since you went to sleep."

"Oh?" I hummed, crawling out of bed and hobbling to the bathroom to clean up for the day.

"Asked about a bunch of the stuff in the kitchen and food. Left him with the laptop and he's been looking into hauntings and poltergeister."

"Holy fuck! Eve, is this house haunted?!"

"Not that I know of. There's no bad history. Haven't brought anything funky into the house. Never saw or heard anything in the in the nine years I've had this place. Anything else that makes a place haunted?"

"I don't know. Shit luck and or a burial ground? You're the one who's connected to the internet."

"He probably thinks I'm a ghost still. Briefly searched up artificial intelligence before all this paranormal research."

"Wouldn't blame him. Even Amber and Devon were unsettled when they first went into one of our houses. Yo, you got any crutches here? This hopping hurts...."

And it was extremely slow for how much energy it uses.

"That's what I've been forgetting. I'll arrange for it to be delivered."

"...Did you put him up to befriending me?" I finally asked, before shoving the toothbrush around in my mouth.

"If I were the type to force people befriend you, you'd have a lot more friends, and you'd be better protected. I only set up things to place him at the park and hoped for the best.... He knew less than you did about the kidnapping...."

I had my suspicions, and if I hadn't become so paranoid over the years, I'd have no idea.

"I honestly rather you have not befriended the man. He's dangerous. The people after him are infinitely worse. Everyone is after him. Lucky for him, most of them are scrambling to get an idea of the Winter Soldier's identity. You do not want to get involved with the people who had him for the last seventy years. They're not above coming after you to get to him."

I spat out the toothpaste and rinsed my mouth. "What's new? There are already people after me."

"They're dangerous, Val."

"...Can you keep them away from him?"

"...Valeriy."

"Eve. Are you able to keep him safe on your own?"

"Yes. Of course. But it wouldn't be without incident, and I'm not putting my people at risk for him. With his arm fixed, he'll be able to protect himself. The fact that he doesn't want to kill... it puts him at a disadvantage. Those people would stop at nothing to get him. He's too useful."

His arm would be fixed far faster if Gramps was the one wielding the tools. That is if the old man would just fix the arm and not spend the rest of his life trying to make the ultimate Swiss Army knife of an arm. Though with that drive, we'd probably solve a lot of the technical problems with the cybernetic project.

"How safe would it be to travel with him?"

Eve's exaggerated sigh echoed off cold bathroom tiles. "If he cooperates, it's simple enough for me to move him if need be. You on the other hand, you're not going anywhere. I haven't figured out how to move you. Jekyll is still after you."

"Great. All this just because of Wegner is a tad extreme."

I did poach the man from Jekyll, so I expected a little backlash. But not a full on kidnapping with teams of people.

With a huff, I dried my face and hopped for the door.

"...I haven't figure out what's happening with the information I could gather, but they do believe you're out of town as of two days ago. So you'll be alright here, for a while. I've informed your parents of the events, and that you'll call them when it's safe to do so."

"How much time do you think you can buy me?"

"At the most, a couple of days more."

"Wegner's still on board?"

"Yes."

So that was one less thing on my plate.

"'Kay. I'll call them when I'm ready."

Which might as well be never.

The bedroom door could not be any farther away. I swear a snail could beat me to it at this pace of hopping.

'Ah, fuck it.'

I dropped onto my hands and knees. At least crawling turned out to be less painful, and probably faster.

"I'm sorry, Val. I promised to protect you... and I couldn't...."

'That's out of the blue.'

I couldn't help the sigh. I had no idea why Eve took it upon herself. But she did.

"It's fine, Eve. I'm here now. Safe. Can't blame yourself for the shit I get myself into. I know you do your best to protect me, and it's not an easy job dealing with this family."

I stopped outside of the room my housemate had taken up.

"He's still awake."

"Bloody hell, Eve. I grew up being watched by you all my life, well most of my life.... But I hear most people aren't used to that. Or comfortable with it. Give him a little space."

I knocked on the only closed door of this hallway. More than likely, he was on the other side.

"Hey, Buddy. Have you eaten yet?"

Silence.

Maybe he was one of those blessed people who zonked right out the moment their head touched the pillow.

"No...."

Or not.

"Do you want to sleep or join me for lunch? I'll cook," I offered.

I sat down against the door. It was probably going to take some time to get another answer. Unless he shrugged.

Laughter suddenly blared at my ears, echoing through the house. "Cook? You're going to cook? Have you ever touched a pot?"

A frown pulled at the corners of my lips. "Dude... Home Ec. was mandatory first year of high school...."

"I saw. It was an utter disaster."

She had me there. More pancakes ended up on the floor than anything else. It was a joke that we passed that course.

"But we passed."

"Fine, just don't burn down my house. I'll go figure out what you can make with what we do have."

"Shit!!"

Flailing arms did nothing to keep my balance, and in hindsight, I could see why leaning on a door wasn't one of my smartest ideas.

The large man stood there, frozen, hand still on the doorknob. The confusion on his face was hilarious. One brow furrowed. His frown grew, but mostly he stayed frozen next to the now opened door.

I guess he decided to eat.

A nervous giggle escaped me. "Hi," I chirped, handing giving a small wave.

He did wave back. Sort of. More stiff and confused than an actual wave.

He was still wearing long sleeves. Even had a glove on his cybernetic. He clearly wasn't comfortable with it. Couldn't blame him for that.

Or could it be that most people would know he's the Winter Soldier at a glimpse of that arm? There was footage of him in the news. Some blurry cellphone footage. Though, it was mainly overshadowed by the whole shit storm with the Helicarriers.

With a swing of my arms, I sat up and crawled for the steps.

He silently followed along. There was no thump to his footsteps. If I didn't turn around to go down the steps backwards, I would have forgotten he was even there.

Carpeted stairs were a blessing, especially when crawling on it.

"Think you can handle making spaghetti?"

"Please tell me it's the thing." Reaching up for the countertop, I used it to haul myself up onto my feet.

"Of course it's angel hair. Who do you think I am? The video's pulled up for you. Good luck cooking." With that, Eve started the YouTube video on the splashboard.

After watching the barely two minute long clip, I shrugged. It looked simple enough.

What could possibly go wrong?

Probably going to spill the pasta all over the floor....

"Mind being my legs, Buhh-Buddy?"

Surprise took over those sharp features of his. It didn't stay long. With determination set in his jaw, he gave a single nod.

A grin pulled at my face. I could have worded the question better. "You find the pasta? I'll get the water boiled."

With that, Eve opened the pantry door and a drawer of pots. Her voice echoed on the speaker as she helped with the search. The video started up again, this time next to the sink.

Hopping with a pot full of water was interesting. Couldn't wait to try it when it's boiling.

I couldn't help the laugh when Eve decided to play a clip of how to turn on the induction stove. It was two extremely self-explanatory buttons.

"I'm pretty sure I know what the power button looks like, Eve."

"Yeah. But the ventilation would be a wise idea." The video voice faded behind the roaring from above me.

A yelp and an involuntary flinch later, I was taking the box of angel hair from my friend. Automatically, a smile slapped itself in place, an attempt to put that furrowed brow at ease.

"You move like a ninja."

"Sorry," he mumbled, staring at his sock covered feet and toeing the tiles. Very reminiscent of a scolded child, even though there was no scolding going on and he was much too tall.

"Aw, that's fine, Buddy. I scare super easily. My brother has a ball with that," I joked, pouring in the olive oil as the video said. Hopefully that was enough.

"Brother?"

"Mhmm." I nodded. "I got one older brother. We're thick as thieves."

His lips skewed a tad before he chewed on the bottom lip. Brows furrowed in thought. He was so confused.

I had to wonder if he remembered he was the eldest brother in his family in another era.

Almost nothing like the young man in Gramps' stories....

Glad I listened to them.

Most of them were focused on Bucky Barnes. The Bucky Barnes before a certain train ride.

It's jarring, the difference between them. Heartbreaking. But even so, there's enough that he didn't play a bystander.

Still a hero.

I chuckled softly, shaking my head. "This would be the last place I would want my brother to be. I don't want anything to happen to him."

The chewing of his lip stopped, but there was still a giant question mark practically stamped on his face. Probably a different question.

"Are you able to read my mind? Like..." his words faded as his eyes scanned the ceiling.

I couldn't help the laughter that spewed out of me. "Hahaha! S-sorry! Hahahaha! Eve and I can't read minds."

"Then how do you know what I'm thinking...?"

A grin threatened to split my face in half. My cheeks were getting sore. "We don't know what you're thinking, but we're not half bad at guessing? And you're rather... expressive."

That surprised him.

Guess he didn't know?

With the beard gone, it's even easier to read what was written on his face.

Oh how I wish I could see the face he made when I joked about having six toes. That was priceless.

Going back to the cooking at hand, I dumped the pasta into the bubbling pot and searched for tongs. Eve opened a drawer of utensils. No tongs, but chopsticks were close enough. A flick of the wrist and all of the pasta was submerged, just as instructed.

A timer replaced the video clip.

"Thanks Eve."

Always on her A game.

There was concern etched onto his handsome face. "Isn't he worried about you?" he finally asked.

He looked so much younger without the full beard, but those eyes. Those haunted blue eyes showed of unspoken horrors they've seen.

"I doubt he knows?" I replied. "And there's nothing he can do either. So why bother him about it? All this, it isn't something new to us. We've all gone through it before."

"You've been kidnapped. You mentioned it that night."

I shrugged out a nod. "Yeah.... Twice."

"I'm good at my job. Though defence is a hard game to play. There are always holes, and only one needs to be found for it to fall apart. Or there are times when I'm out of moves to make. Or there are variables I can't predict or account for. You were one of them, Mr. Barnes. If you hadn't stepped in, that would have been the fourth successful kidnapping of Valeriy Ayers."

"Ehhh? Was that really a kidnapping though?" I questioned, setting up the strainer over the sink.

I had no idea what to label that part of my life. The one Eve wanted to count as the third kidnapping. It was a few years ago, and I rather not think about it.

"Okay. Held hostage then."

"Not quite...? We've been in stupid hostage situations before. Like when some idiot sent us a bomb of all things.... Fun."

Eve sighed heavily. "Fine, we'll just agree that you were held against your will, and that was far worse than the actual kidnappings."

I tried to shrug off the words, and maybe moving to the sink with the boiling pot of water while distracted was one of my dumber ideas. As well as leaving a puddle of water in the middle of the kitchen.

Luckily for me, there was a ninja in the house.

"Thanks, Bu-Buddy."

Body heat rolled off of him in waves. I could feel it in the space between us. He towered over me from behind, and his shadow swallowed the light from the ceiling bulbs.

His hands kept a grip on my elbows, letting me use him for balance. He didn't push or pull on my arms. Just gently nudged me over to the sink from behind me.

It was amazing. The strength and control he had at his fingertips. They were steady, subtly counteracting my off balance swaying. His grip was firm but never tight enough to come close to even hurting. How he managed such an intricate feat with his cybernetic arm, be it his control over the technology or the technology itself, it was utterly impressive.

But in the middle of straining the pot, his metal arm twitched violently and shoved my left hand under the stream of recently boiling water. All while my fingers twitched from the electricity flooded through my muscles.

The warmth behind me disappeared within a blink.

"I'm sorry," he barely breathed out. "I – I..."

"It's fine, Buddy. Don't worry about it," I waved off, feeling the burning throb to the now dark pink skin on my hand.

I quickly turned on the cold water and shoved my hand under the flow. I made sure to send him a smile over my shoulder.

Nothing to worry about, and part of me was glad that it took a while to actually get to the sink. Let the water have a chance to cool a tad.

Nor could I blame him. Wasn't his fault that his arm wasn't working properly.

"Mr. Barnes!!!" Eve's voice shrieked.

I whirled around. Something had to be seriously wrong with –

"Holy fuck! Drop it!!! Why the flying fuck did you do that!?!"

A knife clattered to the floor tiles from his hand.

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Author's Note:

Finally got around to why Eve and Val seem to be able to read Bucky's mind. He has no idea that he wears his thoughts and emotions on his face. (He could probably carry half a conversation with his face along. ^^)

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