Avengers High School - Winter Soldier

7- Flashback

Bucky had been at his new school for two weeks and was pleasantly surprised with it all. Whilst he didn't like homework, he loved seeing his new friends everyday and feeling normal. He was sad he had missed out on so much.

He had obviously made it onto the football team with Steve, Sam and Thor as well as a few others. Rumlow's entire crew made it - minus Zola. Surprisingly, they hadn't bothered him too much. They were going to attack sooner or later though, but Bucky wasn't too nervous in anticipation.

In order to keep up his fitness from years of training, Bucky got to know his neighbourhood well enough to find places to workout (he had only been living there for two months) as well as with his friends. Whether this be running around a park nearby or doing pull-ups on a fire escape, he managed to maintain his strong physique.

Unfortunately with this, and small everyday triggers, his past popped into his head more frequently. While he was distracted with school, he found himself growing nervous for someone somehow founding out who he really was.

One person was Natasha. He loved her as a friend but he could tell she was desperately trying to piece him together. She was growing familiar to him too but he couldn't remember where from - and it was simpler to ignore the nagging feeling.

It was Wednesday of week 3 when Bucky had what he'd call an 'episode' - a flashback. He'd been lucky and hadn't had one at school, whereas he would back home all the time, every night.

It had started in history with Steve and Clint. They were watching some old documentary, and there were gunshots. Bucky had been whispering with Steve and Clint but at the sound of the gunshots he immediately whipped his head to the board, extremely alert, and his hand flew to his hip, instinctively searching for the gun that wasn't there, whilst slightly throwing his left arm up protectively like a shield.

He felt his heart start to race and his hands became shaky as he was mentally stuck between a classroom and fight. Images screeched through his mind - of people, screams, blood, guns.

It felt like he was lost for hours, lost in his mind, when it was only a second or two. As he regained control of himself and realised where he was, he tried to avert his focus back to Steve and Clint. Clint hardly noticed what had happened, but Steve was observant of Bucky's behaviour for the rest of the class.

Buck wore a frown after that and was extremely quiet as a piercing headache grappled his brain. For the rest of the day, he was jumpy and overly-alert. It scared him how he reflexively clenched his fists and got ready to fight whenever someone touched him or there was a loud noise.

It was towards the end of the day when Bucky was in his Business lesson and he fully had an episode. He was with the entire friend group in that class as well as Rumlow's full crew too.

He was doing his worksheet and chatting to Steve and sometimes Bruce when he heard it.

The distinct Russian word солдат , meaning soldier.

In an instant, he felt himself losing control over his mind and the programming fought to takeover. He only ever heard that word when he was...

NO , he yelled at himself internally. His whole body shook as he fought to stay in control, head jerking from side to side to fight it. Shaky hands clenched his own head, eyes squeezed shut. It wasn't even a proper trigger word, but it produced a strong enough flashback to be one.

His head felt like it was going to split open and his body ached with the ghostly feeling of training. His handler's voice echoed in his head. FIGHT! FASTER! DON'T BE WEAK. Kill. SHOOT! Weakness will be punished. Winter...