Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter One

The late afternoon sun arcs toward the horizon as I make my way down the busy street, my footsteps echoing off the cobblestone walkways. I push open the door to the internet café, waving to the owner, Stefan, before taking a seat at one of the computers at the back of the room. Apart from the two of us, the café is empty, but I sit facing the door, ready to run if the need arises.

Using the money I stashed in my go-bog, I managed to secure a collection of fake passports and IDs for Bucky and me, and for the last two years, we've been on the run, bouncing from city to city until we eventually ended up here, in Bucharest.

Getting here was the easy part, staying hidden is the hard part, especially from Steve and Sam, who are still searching for us. Living on the run is tough, but Bucky and I make do, spending as little money as possible, taking odd jobs where we can, and moving to a new city every few months. I even try my best to keep an eye on the Avengers' movements, and leak them false intel when they get too close to finding us.

It's not that I don't want them to find us, I do wish we could stay together, but HYDRA has a bad habit of staying alive, and after everything they did to Bucky, I believed that it was best if Bucky and I disappeared for a while, especially since the Winter Soldier is still wanted for his crimes.

I open the web browser and pull up the news, discovering article after article of an attack that took place in Lagos, Nigeria only a week ago. As it turns out, the Avengers were there, and a building was destroyed during their visit.

I click my tongue at the article. "If there was destruction, it wasn't on purpose... The Avengers don't just go around blowing stuff up."

However, as I continue to scroll through the articles, the same words keep appearing over and over again: Wanda Maximoff, Powers, Dangerous.

"Looks like you found another super-powered being to look out for, Steve," I muse to myself as another article catches my eye.

I click on the link to discover that the United Nations has set up a meeting to discuss something called the Sokovia Accords, and that the meeting will take place in Vienna a few days from now. As I scroll, the article goes on to explain that the Accords is an agreement that would make the Avengers operate under a United Nations panel, rather than as a US-based private organization of 'superheroes.'

When I finally get up to leave, the setting sun shines brightly through the windows, lighting up the sky in brilliant shades of orange. I wave goodbye to Stefan on my way out the door, turning toward home.

Bucky looks up from the kitchen counter as I push through the apartment door, his chin-length, dark brown hair tucked behind his ears as his steel blue eyes find mine.

"Hey," he greets me. "Any news?"

"Just a few things," I answer, relaying the information I learned.

Our apartment is small, with only one room and a small bathroom. The paint on the walls is peeling off in places, and the floorboards creak when walked on, but it reminds me of the apartment I grew up in. The kitchen sits along the far wall of the apartment, directly across from the bathroom, and on the floor in the middle of the living space lays the mattress we supposedly share.

At night, Bucky will lay with me on the mattress, waiting for me to fall asleep before moving to the floor. By the time I wake up in the morning, he's fully dressed, writing in his notebook at the kitchen table. His movements are so quiet that I probably wouldn't have known he sleeps on the floor if I wasn't startled awake one night because of a nightmare.

I know Bucky remembers who am I, and how close we used to be, but he's afraid, afraid of the man he was, the man that HYDRA turned him into. I expected that things wouldn't go back to the way they were, but I never anticipated there to be so much distance between us.

"You hungry?" Bucky asks. "I was just about to get dinner started."

"Yeah," I nod, walking over to the windows to cover them with long sheets of newspaper.

Bucky lightly chuckles. "I though it was my turn to cook."

"I mean, you can help," I reply, smiling over my shoulder as I walk back to the kitchen counter. "But I haven't practiced in a while."

Bucky grabs a few ingredients from the refrigerator as I focus my powers, moving pots, pans, and cooking utensils around the kitchen, preparing our dinner. Finding time to practice with my abilities is tough while on the run, since it would draw unwanted attention and put a target on our backs, so I make sure to only use them in the privacy of our apartment, and only if the windows are covered.

After dinner, Bucky cleans up the dishes before lounging on the mattress with me, talking until I fall asleep.