4.4 | Trigger ✓

04 | добросердечный

A/N

Wattpad's been acting up lately, if you've noticed, and Draconian had recently vanished into that empty black hole in cyberspace. So if you're able to see this chapter, please let me know here?

Thanks loves. Anyone seen Spiderman yet?

x Noelle

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0 4

д о б р о с е р д е ч н ы й

(benign)

SAM WASN'T HAPPY to see the bruises on Dakota's neck. She'd tried her best to cover it up with as much concealer as she could, but the dark bruises still showed through, and the look on Sam's face was livid when he saw them.

Fortunately, he'd wisely kept his mouth shut during the drive back home, and the car was filled with a tense silence that even Steve couldn't dissipate. Sam was fuming, Bucky was staring blankly out of the window with waves of guilt practically radiating off him, while Dakota and Steve were exchanging worried glances through the rearview mirror.

But the moment they were home, Sam lost it. He bruised his knuckles punching Bucky square in the jaw, a move that the latter didn't even attempt to deflect, and then started launched into a heated argument with Steve, who refused to hear a word about Bucky moving out.

" – twice!" Sam was saying resolutely. Both he and Steve were in the kitchen, their stances equally stubborn and unrelenting. "He hurt her twice, and I will not – I will not – stand here and watch it happen again!"

"It won't – "

"Oh, no, don't you say that. Don't say it if you can't make a promise that it won't happen again. She's like my sister, Steve, you don't fuck around with my sister and get away with it."

"I know you're concerned about her and so am I. But he's my best friend. He's got nowhere else to go."

"We've been through this! You chased and covered for him during the Sokovia Accords. I went along because I knew it was the right thing to do. But this? What part of this is right?"

She started for the kitchen to tell Sam that it was alright. Bucky could stay. He was dangerous, but he couldn't leave. She couldn't let him leave. That urge to help anyone lost, broken or sad was ingrained in her nature, and she wanted to help him.

She cast another glance at Sam and Steve, before turning back to the living room. Then paused when she saw that the place was empty. After a quick glance over to the shared bathroom and the other rooms, she realised that Bucky was gone.

She didn't even think.

She grabbed her coat and cell, then rushed out of the house, taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Cold wind nipped at her face as she hurried down the street, but she didn't care. Three streets down, she found him. A backpack she didn't remember him having was slung across his shoulder; the hood of his jacket pulled over his head. He headed across the junction, avoiding people with his head lowered.

"James!" Her voice was loud enough to be carried by the wind.

He stopped.

Sighing in relief, she ran up to him and stopped when she was several feet away. "Hey." She placed a hand on his arm, then backtracked when he tensed. He looked anywhere but at her, and his jaw was clenched. "Where're you going?"