VITALITY ↝ B. BARNES [1]

[18]

As the beverages continued to flow and the music played louder and louder, the Avengers were finally able to let loose and enjoy themselves for the time being, even if outside the compound was a less-than-friendly place for them. The looming threat still held close from HYDRA, but for that night, Elysia was determined to join her friends in the temporary feeling of normalcy.

As the night went on, Elysia noticed Steve carrying around a camera, snapping pictures of his friends one by one. An effort to preserve the moment, she presumed, though as Steve made his way up to Elysia and Bucky, who now sat on one of the couches watching the party unfolding before them, the blonde man leaned forward, just enough for Elysia to hear him.

"Mind if I get a picture of you two?" he asked. "I'm putting a book together for James. I figure pictures might help, before he meets everyone."

Elysia nodded with a smile. "Of course, Steve. C'mon, Buck, smile."

Bucky wrapped an arm around Elysia's shoulders, pulling her close as the two smiled in Steve's direction. He snapped the picture before thanking them and moving on to where Wanda and Vision stood with Clint near the food table. Elysia leaned back against Bucky, laying her head on his shoulder as he pulled her closer, not caring which of their friends was watching.

"Is it weird?" Bucky asked, glancing around the room. "Everyone knowing about us?"

Elysia shook her head. "I was scared at first that it would be, but no. Feels normal, really."

Elysia looked around the party again, at the loud music that was beginning to hurt her temples and the laughter that echoed throughout the room. She hadn't been to a party since shortly after arriving at Arizona State, nor had she spent much time with the entire team in one room since the night of the retrieval mission to save Bucky, and she could feel her energy beginning to fade as the hours went on.

She stood up from the couch, eager to move and offering her hand out to pull him up. "I need to walk, stretch my legs a bit, just get away from the noise. Wanna join me?"

Bucky nodded, taking her hand and allowing her to help pull him off the couch. They slipped away from the party, unnoticed as they took the stairwell down to the next level, wandering through a set of labs not unlike the ones she once spent so many days in alongside Tony and Jacob, working on new technology for the new and improved Stark Industries. Away from the music and laughter, it was peaceful, just the moonlight and the feeling of Bucky's hand in hers.

"Not the party type?" Bucky asked, and Elysia shrugged in response.

"Not usually," she said. "Maybe in another lifetime, but even in college I've always been the more under the radar type." she watched as his eyes wandered up to her bright pink strands of hair, and he looked back at her with a skeptical smirk. "No really, it's true." she insisted. "The only big parties I've ever really been to were galas Tony used to throw at Stark Tower, and even then I'd spend most of the evening down in the labs. A white lab coat pairs quite well with a formal evening gown, if I do say so myself."

"I'm sure it does," he said with a smile, though she could tell it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I used to love these things." Bucky admitted. "Parties looked a lot different back in the day, we used to just go dancing, but the music, the crowds, the lights, it all used to be so fun. Nowadays, there's just too much going on and I feel like I'm still scanning the room for any source of a threat."

Elysia squeezed his hand reassuringly, and the two of them paused out the window, watching the peaceful night sky. "We'll get that again," she assured him. "As soon as we're all safe, we'll go out, just the two of us. We'll both rejoin the world."

"I'm going to take you dancing," he promised, holding her hand up and twirling her around with a grin. "We'll go on a proper date. Dinner, dancing, maybe out to a movie?"

"It's a date, you old geezer," she said with a smirk, leaning back against him as they looked back out the window.

A ripple of red in the distance caught Elysia's eye as Wanda's barrier began to shimmer at the very edge of the property. At first it was small, and Elysia was almost able to chalk it up to a trick of the moonlight hitting the barrier, but as the ripples grew more and more frequent, it suddenly sputtered out, leaving nothing separating them from the outside world.

"Buck," Elysia breathed, the electricity already beginning to thrum in her veins as the anxiety took hold. "Do you see that?"

"We need to get back to the others," he said urgently, taking off back in a run towards the stairwell and grabbing her hand again to pull her alongside him.

Bucky and Elysia had almost reached the stairwell when a tremor ripped through the building, the thunderous explosion from upstairs shaking the ceiling and sending it toppling down over them. Bucky reared back, pushing her out of the way of the dust and debris as it collapsed over the stairwell, their only path to rejoin the others.

"Come on," Elysia said, moving back down the hall towards the north stairwell, which would bring them to the exit of the compound. "We need to get out of here, we can regroup with the rest of the team outside."

They rushed down the stairs, throwing open the door to the ground floor of the compound as Elysia navigated the labyrinth they'd both called home for the past few weeks. They'd almost made it to the exit when a shout rang out in Russian, echoing around the room as soldiers poured inside, trapping them from all angles.

HYDRA had found them.

"Get behind me," Bucky said as he and Elysia stood back to back, covering each other as the soldiers surrounded them, Elysia's electricity flaring up in her hands as she looked back at the soldiers now flanking them, blocking them from any hope of an escape.

"We're going to be okay," she assured him.

She couldn't quite pinpoint the exact moment the air in the room had shifted, but she could recall the sinking feeling in her stomach as the words echoed around the room, each of them feeling like a knife in the gut, accompanied by Bucky's screaming. Each word twisted the blade further and further, until they were the only things present in her mind as the thing she'd dreaded the most was finally put to the test.

Longing

Rusted

Daybreak

Seventeen

Benign

Nine

Homecoming

One

Freight Car