Red Star ✴️ Bucky Barnes X Reader

18: Fugitive

"The politician from dinner?"

"That's the one."

"And he's really going around City Hall saying you're harboring the Winter Soldier?" Steve inquired.

"I wouldn't bother you with it if I believed it was a joke." T'Challa responded with bitterness in his voice. "I have been able to convince the others that this is not the case, but we need a plan of action to prevent the news from spreading beyond our borders."

The group sat silently around the board room table, minds racing silently behind their calculating stares.

"If I need to leave--"

"And go where? No," Steve rebutted. "We need to disappear. Make his claims look like hearsay."

"I agree," T'Challa responded. "But that means Barnes cannot leave the prison cells."

Bucky leaned forward, resting his elbows against the table. His lips were pursed while he anxiously tapped his foot. "If that's what's best for everyone, then I'll stay dark."

Dark.

That feeling of darkness. Empty of light or warmth or any sensation, the absence of... Everything. Even your own humanity. They were talking about Bucky like he was a commodity, a thing... A weapon.

Bowman recognized that feeling. She felt it in her dream. She felt it in the cryochambers. She felt it listening to that sickeningly sweet voice of honey.

She refused to have anyone else feel that way. Bowman could hear the defeat in Bucky's voice, but she wasn't going down without a fight.

"What about going nocturnal?" Bowman inquired.

T'Challa leaned forward in his chair, resting his forearms against his knees. "Explain."

"We don't leave the cell rooms during the day, but at night, when everyone is gone, we come out. That way can work as a team without compromising Bucky's safety."

T'Challa crossed his arms, uncomfortable with the idea. "What about being outside? We can't control who walks at night--"

"Then we won't go outside." Bowman countered. "We'll stay in the palace. That way no one sees us again."

"And what about the people that have seen you and Captain? Your sudden disappearance will be concerning." T'Challa countered.

"Steve and I can mill about occasionally to hide the fact anything's changed, but going nocturnal is what's best for everyone."

Steve butted in. "Look, we all want Bucky to live without consequences. But that isn't possible right now, not while the kingdom still thinks he murdered their king."

T'Challa's lips pursed.

Steve continued in a solemn tone. "It's best to go with the safest option. I say we go dark--"

"-- and I refuse to see him treated like a prisoner in the one place that promised him freedom!" Bowman bit back. Her outburst seemed to come from nowhere, but the bitterness in her voice was clear: she was not backing down.

"Nocturnal is a compromise." She spat, turning her eyes to T'Challa. "I thought that's what world leaders are supposed to do."

T'Challa nodded, taking in her words. It took him a moment to soak up her relatively well-founded criticisms. "Going nocturnal could work. But it's risky."

"Taking him into your country was risky." Bowman rebutted. "You've already accepted the risk. Now's the time to start treating him like a refugee and not a fugitive."

The group sat silent.

"Nocturnal it is." T'Challa nodded. "It's risky, but doable. No leaving the palace, and no leaving your rooms until nightfall."

With a firm nod of agreement from the other members, the group disbanded.

---

The walk down the hall to their rooms was awkward.

Bowman was still fuming, high on adrenaline that seemingly came out of nowhere. Bucky was glad she stood up for him, but still hadn't completely processed why.

Steve was weirdly proud of her act of selflessness, though he disagreed with the final outcome. He agreed this is what was best for Bucky, it wasn't the safest, and right now, the last thing he wanted was to lose another friend.

The three split to their rooms with Bucky and Steve muttering a soft "good night". Bowman didn't respond, going into her room without another word.

Bucky couldn't stop thinking about it. Here he sat, against his floor once again, throwing the same damn medicine ball into the air and catching it over. And over. And over again. The monotonous task allowed his mind to wander freely.

Why would she defend me like that? And over something so... Small? It's just me, there's not much to defend... And yet she did it. She saw me as something to fight for. Me! And I didn't even see that! I just don't understand...

Bowman's door swung open forcefully.

"Ok, I just have to know-- why?" Bucky forced from his lips.

Bowman just looked up from her bed covers. "Bucky? What are you even talking about?"

"Why did you defend me?"

She looked at him, flabbergasted. "...Because it was the right thing to do?"

He stopped for a second, shooting her a confused look.

"No, like... Why?"

She pushed herself up on her forearms, returning Barnes' confusion.

"I told you, because it was right!"

"Well, sure, but..." Bucky trailed off, trying to figure out how to properly phrase his question. He walked over, sitting at the end of her bed. "You were just so... passionate about it. Hell, you cared a lot more about it than me - Or, at least, you seemed to, but I just don't understand--"

"Bucky." She said forcefully enough to stop him in his tracks. With his attention properly seized, she let out a tired sigh. "You want to know why I cared?"

He nodded.

She sighed, sitting up in her bed. "I cared because I know what that feels like. Being frozen until you're needed. Imprisoned until you're useful. Realizing they only want you for your perks but the second you reveal you're human, you're useless. It's dehumanizing. I couldn't see that happen again."

Bucky released a heavy breath as he sat at the end of Bowman's bed. He wouldn't admit it, not even to himself, but he was kind of glad to hear her words. "I'll be honest... It's just nice to hear someone doesn't think I'm a fugitive, for once."

Bowman let out a soft smile, unsure of how to comfort Bucky. She decided on patting her hand on his shoulder with some comforting words: "Well, I can promise you, that'll change one day."

Bucky just signed, fiddling with his hands. "How can you promise that?"

"Well, because the world changes." She shrugged, trying to bullshit an answer. "And... Because if I can see the hero you are, the rest of the world will too, someday."

Bucky froze for a moment, slightly turning his head but refusing to make eye contact.

"... Do you really think I'm a hero?"

"We're people trying to do the right thing." She smiled, pulling herself out from her bedsheets to wrap her arm around Bucky's shoulder. "That's about as close to a hero as you can get."