Stockholm Syndrome || Stucky

Chapter 2-Strong

A/N
.......... = perspective/place/drastic time change
Example text = flashback

..........

Steve made his way back to the mans room. Still a little shaken up from the meeting with Wanda. The same thing had happened months before, at least this time he stopped it before it got a little more serious. He shrugged off the feeling and looked through the glass, slightly excited to see the man waiting upon his return.

He opened the door and walked inside, the man looking at him and smiling instantly, Steve returning the smile. "So.." Steve said, picking his notebook and file up off the chair where he'd left it and sitting down. "You were about to tell me your name?"
The man shook his head. "Where did you go?" He said, very quietly. His voice raw from not using it in so long.
"Excuse me?" Steve asked, sitting back in the chair a little more comfortably. The man looked away from Steve, staring back at the wall blankly as he had done yesterday. "Sir?"
"You heard me." The man said, still in the same whisper. "You left. Again."
Steve felt almost bad and nodded. "Yeah..I did. But i'm back now. Back for the whole day-"
"Then you're just gonna leave again?" The man cut in, glaring back at Steve.
"It's my job. I have to leave when it's get dark." Steve told him, holding onto the notepad tightly. "I'm sorry, I do apologise for the way I left earlier."
The man nodded. "But where did you go?"
"Well, last night I went home." He said. "Then today, a..friend needed help."
"The guy at the door?" The man asked, intrigued in the first conversation he'd had in what felt like years.
Steve nodded. "Yes the guy at the door."

The two sat in silence for a while before Steve eventually spoke up. "I still haven't caught your name?" He said, clicking his pen. Ready to scribble down whatever the man said.
The man looked lost at Steve, like he didn't remember. Like he couldn't remember. "Everything okay?" Steve asked, feeling concerned for the man.

..........

"James? James, Jimmy dinners ready. Will you please come out your room?"

..........

"The 107th. Sergeant James Barnes, shipping out to England first thing tomorrow."

..........

The man swallowed and looked down. "Sergeant..Sergeant..Sergeant.." He mumbled under his breath for a while, before eventually looking up at Steve. "James. James...Barnes."
Steve wrote it down and shrugged, looking back at James.
"You don't look like a James. Anything else I can call you?"

..........

"James? James? You sure as hell don't look like a James.." The smaller boy said, looking up at the other.
"I'm telling you, it's my name!" He said, laughing slightly. The smaller boy shook his head and scrunched his face up.
"You got a middle name I can call you by?" He asked.
The taller boy smirked slightly and laughed a little more. "Buchanan." The smaller boy let out a small laugh and covered his mouth.
"Sorry..sorry." He said, taking his hand from his mouth. "Bucky?"

..........

The man nodded. "Bucky." He said, Steve immediately writing it down as he had done before.
"Alright, Bucky. That's better..." Steve said, smiling a little more. "Do you know who brought you here?" He watched as Bucky shook his head.
"No, sorry." He said, looking down at his wrists. At the straps that bound him to the bed, once again trying to break free of them, but failing. Steve watched him struggle and felt bad, he couldn't do anything. Could he? Bucky didn't seem dangerous.
"Hungry? Notice you haven't eaten since they brought you here." Steve said, looking over at the untouched tray of breakfast he'd brought in earlier.
"Well, if you know how to eat with your hands bound be my guest." Bucky chuckled slightly, looking up at the ceiling.
Steve looked down in embarrassment. "I could, get someone to spoon feed you?"
"Please, I have a bit more dignity than that." Bucky told him, chuckling a little more.
Steve nodded, his ears turning slightly red and hot. He quickly tried to shake the feeling. "Anything else I can interest you in?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"A bit of freedom might be nice." Bucky answered, exactly as Steve thought he would.
Steve joined in with his chuckle and nodded. "I see how you could benefit from that, yes." He said, looking back up at Bucky briefly. Both making eye contact and looking away quickly.
"So can you?" Bucky asked. "You know..just for an hour or so.." He pleaded. "I promise I wouldn't hurt anyone..if that's what you're scared of.."
Steve sighed and nodded. An hour couldn't hurt, right? He thought for a moment, before standing up and putting the notepad and file down on the chair as he did so. He walked over to the bed cautiously, carefully removing the bounds from his right arm as not to hurt him and then moving away, not wanting to have been wrong about Bucky. Bucky looked at him hurt, hurt Steve would think he was actually going to harm him. Steve moved over to the left side of the bed, examining the metal arm in bewilderment. Before eventually removing the bounds from there as well and going back to his seat.