Secretive - Bucky Barnes

28 || Worst-Case-Scenario || 🔪

[Nova]
The pilot lets us dive out right above a huge forest in the Bretagne. I barely had time to sleep, still a little exhausted – and honestly, a little ashamed – of crying so long in Steve's lap. In a lap of someone having acted behind my back just because I was willing to find anybody to comfort me, build me up before any part of me could shatter. Pathetic. These things are some I need to get along with myself, not burdening the people around me.

So, not able to behave any different, I merely walk five metres ahead of Steve, not really glancing back or trying to answer more than a few syllables to any comment or question. Literally giving him the cold shoulder underneath the trees, whose sticks look like black veins on the clear night sky. 

The stars seem far away now, farer than usual. A cold shiver runs down my spine whenever I register a short glimpse in between the branches, the bad omen leaving a sour taste in my mouth. I had not had it back in the plane, but deeply in my guts, I feel something terribly wrong.

Swallowing it down, I am glad for the vibration of my phone, for the distraction. I cannot use another Worst-Case-Scenario in my life.

Illuminating my face with the display, I immediately wished I would not have spent, wasted a time finding out who wants something from me. There is a message of James – however he has gotten my number -, apologizing, asking if I was alright. Guess it did not slip his attention I had let Steve alone deliver the report about our safe landing.

Rolling my eyes, I push the phone back into the pocket of my suit. As I recently discovered, Tony must have put a perfectly sized space into it right on the side of my thigh underneath the Shuriken's slopes. Black as the night itself, I continue my pace towards the given coordinates, ignoring Steve's silent attempt of asking if something was wrong.

Who does James think he is? Have I not been direct enough? Have I not told him to keep his distance? I cannot cure him if I let him in again. Instead, I would die with every single syllable his beautiful lips form, getting mad at demons long gone in his past, their ghosts still chasing his every night dreams. The only thing fortunate about not having slept in the tower once – except the first night, that is – is, I never got to hear his heart tearing, throat shattering screams everyone talks about so often. Yet.

I have got to get them away. Urgently.

As if on cue, Steve taps on my shoulder. »Could you please stop behaving like a sulking child?« His voice is the only thing louder in the silence of the forest. Since I luckily learned how to push down the unnecessary information, none of the chirping insects and night creatures are able to create headaches anymore.

Shrugging his hand off my shoulder, I put a little more weight into my steps, stamping down on damp soil and surely leaving footprints. »I'm not behaving like a sulking child.«

»Yes, you are.« he groans, not daring to lose another word on this. Probably afraid to freight me and make me escape like a scared deer.

Leaving this uncommented, I search for another topic, taking a huge step above thick black roots sneaking out of the ground like arms of corpses. I definitely would refuse walking here on Halloween. »It isn't far anymore. A kilometre, maximum. So better keep looking at our surroundings instead of trying to figure out what has gotten into me.«

Under his breath, I think I can make out another remark of the sulking child stalking around in his front.

Soon enough, Steve and I find the meadow we have been looking for. We split up, securing the area in a circle around it; from what Tony told us, there is an invisible squared building right in its middle, and I am surprised by the fact my senses are outsmarted. There still is no sound in the dark of the night, no voice, not even a breath. Nobody on my half of the circle Steve and I draw, right through the brushwood encircling our target. The feeling of cameras and eyes everywhere rises inside me, making my muscles stiff all over, the hair in my neck stand.