Longing •Bucky Barnes•

•Twenty Four•

"So what do we do now?" Nat said with her head in her hands.

"We keep searching." She said shaking her head.

"For what? We have no leads, no plan, nothing. This is ridiculous." I heard Bucky's voice chime in. I flipped around as everyone else did and saw him standing off in the corner of the room. "You wanna know what we should be doing? Going home."

"By all means soldier, you're not being held here." Mariah said getting defensive.

"Oh I'm aware, the only reason I'm here is for her." He said pointing to me harshly. I shrunk into my seat as I felt eyes fall onto me. "We need to save whoever else is left and then we need to cut our losses and go home. We just lost everything fighting and you people still think we should keep going."

"Barnes you're excused from this meeting." She said standing up a little. I could see she didn't like his outburst but I don't blame her. Right now we needed hope. I needed hope that Tony could be found and wasn't just gone. Even if I had no reason to have faith I didn't have a choice.

"No you people are insane. We just lost, we let him take half of the universe with him and you people don't know how to put it to rest." He said shaking his head. "How badly do we need to lose to get it through to you people it's time to pack it up and go home. Get off your high horse and just take what we have left. Be grateful we're the ones still walking around."

"Bucky." Steve said snapping at him.

"What Steve? We can't play knight in shining armor forever. After all these years you can't tell me that after a loss like this that you have anything else to prove." He said and I couldn't believe how combative he had become.

"Barnes leave this meeting." She said and I saw two guards by the door tense up and move slightly closer.

"Bucky let's go." I said getting to my feet.

I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of there. I get he was pissed off, but I wasn't going to let him make a fuss right now. Now matter how anyone felt they were trying to find Tony. After that I didn't care about anything else, just him.

I pulled him out of the room and he didn't say a word. I dragged him out of the compound and didn't say a word or even looked at him til we got outside. I shoved him forward and he looked at me expectingly.

"What the hell is your problem, why are you acting like this?" I asked him shouting.

I could see his eyes shift as he struggled to speak. He started to say something, but it got stuck in his throat.

"I get you're hurting Bucky, but what is with you and these outbursts? They're just trying to help! People could still be missing!" I said angrily.

"I wasn't saying that-"

"No Bucky! Shut up and listen." I said raising my voice even more. "I want to go home too, I want to be able to put this all behind me, but I can't do that. My dad is still out there somewhere, I can't stop hoping he's coming home. If I don't keep looking for him, then who's going to?"

"Val-"

"No, don't give me some bullshit excuse. You know Tony is out there and you just expect me to give up. I can't stop looking for him because if I give up then I had to come to terms that he's gone." I said yelling at him getting in his face.

"Please just listen-"

"What if it was me?" I asked shoving him back by his chest. I ribs hurt severely but I didn't care. "Would you give up if it was me?"

"Guys?" I heard and saw Nat at the door looking caught of guard by my shouting and fighting.

"This conversation is not over." I said looking at him fiercely.