a lion among wolves, bucky barnes (hiatus)

twenty-nine

hey guys. the interaction with my last chapter hit a low. be sure to comment on what you thought of this chapter!!!!!!!

ALSO WARNING!! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS INTENSE POTENTIALLY TRIGGERING MATERIAL INVOLVING SEXUAL ASSAULT. DO NOT READ IF THIS IS TOO DISTRESSING FOR YOU.

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
2015

THREE MONTHS LATER

SHE woke suddenly. There was no sun.

The green glow of her alarm clock was the only thing visible. It read 2:56 a.m.. They had to be awake in an hour. For once, June was not plagued by flashbacks and knew she could drift back to sleep.

She propped herself up on one elbow and gazed down at the man beside her.

Bucky's chest rose and fell rhythmically, his breathing deep and at ease. As her vision sharpened, she caught the lines of his face. She could admire Bucky's vulnerability at that moment, the way blue moonlight crept into the room and basked his cheeks and hair, turned his lips glowing purple. He was letting his beard grow out, partially because he wanted to, and partially, June knew, because she'd commented that she liked it.

Bucky was warming up to domestic (though June applied the word loosely) life steadily. He stuck close to her and Steve during meetings or on the rare occasion that the tower had dinner together, but was growing more comfortable with a few of the others. He and Natasha had quickly apologized for trying to kill one another, and now always seemed to have something to talk about. Bucky was fascinated with the leaps science had made since 1945 (cigarettes, it turned out, did not cure asthma) and Bruce was happy to walk him through subjects such as the moon landing (which Clint called a scam, much to Bucky's confusion and Bruce's exasperation) or the Polio vaccine. Even Tony made an effort. He grilled Bucky on the mechanics of his left arm, obsessed with the "fluidity of movement" and grudgingly admitting Hydra had done top-notch work. June wasn't quite sure how to get it across to Tony that saying so was not a compliment to Bucky, but nevertheless everyone was getting along, and it was a relief from so many months of tension.

June settled back down to her pillow. In his sleep, Bucky laid his arm around her, and she burrowed closer to him. It was peace reined in a minimalistic form, and June was grateful. She shut her eyes. Domesticity would end in an hour. Today was the day they ended Hydra once and for all.

• • •

JUNE couldn't remember the last time she wore makeup. As she stared at her reflection in the refrigerator door, she hardly recognized herself.

It was an amazing kind of unfamiliarity. June had forgotten what she looked like without the discoloring on the edge of her cheek that never seemed to fade, or the thick scar on her lip that had always tempted a hand to cover her mouth. Natasha had helped her finally remove the last few stitches from across her forehead, and even that scar could be blended away. June's eyes and lips were lined and pronounced, eyebrows darkened, cheeks pinked and contoured; she felt feminine and young and free from the knives and killings that shackled her to men.

The glamour was, unfortunately, not for June's benefit. While the rest of the team flew to Sokovia to eradicate the last of the Hydra facilities, she and Bucky would be shipped off to Italy, where June was to execute her first assassination in almost a decade.