Honesty ♧ Bucky Barnes

A Daring Rescue

Bucky looked at Steve desperately, but the blonde just shook his head at Bucky, an apology in his eyes.

"Sorry, Buck, but I think he's right. You'll be distracted if you're going in there with the intent to save Erin and kill Pine, and we can't risk that."

Bucky bit his lip, annoyed, but could understand where they were coming from. Erin was the priority here, Pine could wait.

"Alright," he accepted, cracking his knuckles, "Let's get down to business."

"To defeat the Huns," Tony whispered behind him as they turned to walk towards the shadowed building in front of them. The most unlikely set of friends, somehow working together.

Banner and Steve made their way to the left and ran towards the building, ready for their job. Tony turned to Bucky as they continued to walk.

"Power grid?"

"To the left side of the plant, right at the back. Security camera stations are in the north-east."

Stark nodded and flew off, the heat from the metal jet packs in his shoes blasting Bucky in the face with hot air as he went. Bucky rubbed his eyes as they returned to focusing on the darkness after the sudden and unexpected burst of light and broke into a flat out run. He knew where the hostage quarters were, he just hoped that he would reach there in time.

***************

"I can't wait for Prince Charming to turn up," Pine muttered, twirling his knife around his right hand and looking down at Erin. She was in a bad way, her eyelids drooping over her dark eyes and a droplet of blood running down her cheek. She gave a non-committal grunt as a response to his statement and tried to lift her head to look at him. He could see a bruise forming on her left cheekbone.

The gunshot wound in her shoulder looked nasty, surrounded by the sticky signs of dried blood. She was wearing a grey tank-top, and the blood had leached into the fabric, turning it a dark brown. He also had a good view of the scars on the tops of her legs, an autograph from the last time she was here.

It had been ten hours since she had been taken, roughly five hours that she had been there. It couldn't be long until The Soldier turned up in his shining armour to save the fair maiden.

"He's not stupid enough to fall for your trap," the words were very quiet, but he heard them nonetheless. Erin coughed loudly, her head down, and Pine saw a single drop of blood-filled saliva fall from her mouth.

"He gets careless when he's unfocused, Erin. That's why you're here. To unfocus him."

"I think you overestimate how much I mean to him, mate."

He bent down and threaded his hand through the hair on the top of her head, lifting her head up so he could look her in the face. He studied her, the curve of her lips, the shape of her nose. Not an unattractive face, he noted, but he couldn't see what it was about her that had made the Soldier fall for her. She wasn't a classic beauty, but he couldn't deny there was something about her face that could only be described by the word 'intriguing'. He could admit she had a good body, despite the scarring, but that had never seemed important to the Soldier before his escape. Pine let her head fall and took a step back.

"I don't think I am."

About six years ago, he had been told by the cryotechnologists that Barnes had been restless, uncompliant. He had been advised that this may be due to certain 'urges' that hadn't been acted on in a while. He must have brought hundreds of women to the Base over the space of the next two years, each one more beautiful, more enticing than the last. The Soldier had refused to have anything to do with any of them. That was why Pine had been so surprised to learn of his apparent relationship with Erin from Dr Kennedy, he had begun to think that the Soldier batted for the other team.