After Y/n was taken into custody and placed in the Sokovian facility, everyone had seemed to move on, some feeling safer with her locked up, some feeling more scared now that another one of the world's heroes was gone, and some feeling indifferent to the entire situation. But new big events had sparked the interest of the people.
Steve Rogers' memorial was only a few days away and between that and the new uprising group of violent activists, it was keeping everyone on their toes.
Sam Wilson stood at the podium facing a group of cameras and paparazzi, "Steve represented the best in all of us. Courageous, righteous, hopeful. And he mastered posing stoically. The world has been forever changed," he sucks in a breath as a camera shutters.
"A few months ago, billions of people reappeared after five years away, sending the world into turmoil. We need new heroes. Ones suited for the times we're in. Symbols... are nothing without the women and men that give them meaning. And this thing..." he looks down at the vibranium shield in his hands and chuckles, "I don't know if there's ever been a greater symbol. But it's more about the man who propped it up, and he's gone. So, today we honor Steve's legacy. But also, we look to the future. So, thank you, Captain America. But this belongs to you."
A man comes up to the stage and gives Sam a handshake, pulling him in at the last moment, he whispers in Sam's ear, "This was the right choice."
Sam stiffens and gives him a tight smile, walking off the stage into the crowd. He meets with James Rhodes on the side of the room, "Take a walk?". Sam nods gratefully and the two head out to a nearby park.
Walking along, Rhodey asks Sam what he's been doing recently with the new change of everything, "Yeah, I've been a-at home with my sisters and my nephews, man. When I left, they were babies. I come back and they're little men. It's crazy, you know?"
"Yeah. Well, you should bring 'em out to DC some time, I'll teach 'em how to fly. Y'know, I mean the right way," Sam laughs at the joke poked at him.
Rhodey laughs along but sighs looking off into the distance of the park, "Crazy to think that nobody's gonna be carrying the shield."
"Hey, we went seventy years without anybody carrying it while Steve was in the ice, so... I think we'll be alright."
"It was a different time, Sam. So, you're gonna make me ask? Why didn't you take up the mantle?"
"When Steve first told me about the shield, the first words I said were, "it feels like it belongs to someone else." That someone else is Steve. I just don't know if I'd be able to live up to what everyone would want me to be."
"World's a crazy place right now. People are... Well, nobody's stable. Allies are now enemies, alliances are all torn apart... The world's broken. Everybody's just looking for somebody to fix it. They're looking for someone like you."
Sam takes in his words, but only comes up with a vague answer, "Yeah..."
"It's a new day, brother... I'll be in touch," Rhodey gives Sam a departing pat on the back and leaves him on a park bench to think about everything.
. . .
A group of men walks in a museum corridor, passing by an intern, talking about some sort of new project they have going on. They speak quietly in the large museum, everything is serene until the sound of a window breaking erupts.
A man jumps down from the ceiling, a left metal arm and a machine gun in his hand, you could see the fear in the men's eyes from a mile away. The man walks up to them, fighting each one, blood spills across the newly waxed floor of the museum.
Finishing off the last man, the assassin speaks in a tired, gruff voice, "Hail HYDRA."
Off in the distance, there is a faint rattling of a man trying to unlock a door quickly, the assassin turns his head to see a witness to his crimes, as the assassin looks, the man mumbles, "Shit."
His breath trembles at the sight of the metal-armed man and whispers, "Please. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything," the man repeats over and over, holding his hands in a praying motion, begging for mercy.
The soldier doesn't care, he got his orders and he knows that he can't mess them up by leaving a single eye witness. He holds up a gun right to the middle of the man's head and pulls the trigger, and the noise of the gun sounds through the room, Bucky Barnes wakes up from the unpeaceful sleep he was having.
He looks at the time and knows what he has to do. He gets ready and walks to his therapist's office.
"So, Mr. Barnes, are you still having nightmares?" Dr. Raynor asks him, but he just stares at her, "James, I asked you a question. Are you still having nightmares?"
He pauses for a minute and continues to stare, "No."
"We've been doing this long enough that I can tell when you're lying. Well, you seem a little off today. Did something happen recently?"
"No."
"You're a civilian now. With your history, the government needs to know that you're not gonna...It's a condition of your pardon. So, tell me about your most recent nightmare."
"I didn't have a nightmare."
Dr. Raynor breathes deeply and pulls out her therapy journal.
Bucky rolls his eyes and scoffs, "Oh, come on. Really? You're gonna do the notebook thing? Why? It's passive-aggressive."
"You don't talk. I write."
He sighs, "Okay. Okay. I crossed a name off the list of my amends yesterday. Don't worry. I used all your three rules. Senator Atwood. She was a HYDRA pawn for years. Helped her get into office when I was the Winter Soldier. And after HYDRA disbanded, she continued to abuse the power I gave her."
Bucky thinks back to his previous actions of his amend-making, "Make this go away. If Congressman Lockhart wants to speak up, silence him for good," Senator Atwood speaks into her phone in an empty parking lot.
"So, rule number one, you can't do anything illegal," Dr. Raynor confirms.
"All I did was give some intel to the aide to convict her. And I wasn't involved in anything else."
"Rule number two?"
"What was rule number two?"
"Nobody gets hurt. It's a big one."
"Then why isn't it rule number one?" Dr. Raynor clicks her pen and scribbles something down in her notebook, Bucky throws his arms up and sighs, "I didn't hurt anybody. Come on!"
"And what about rule number three? The whole point of making amends is to fulfill rule number three."
"You know, you're a cynic, Doc. Of course, I completed rule number three."
Thinking of the memory again, Bucky's mind travels to the car he hacked to malfunction, and his amend-making statement. "I am no longer the Winter Soldier. I am James Bucky Barnes...And you're part of my efforts to make amends," he said as politely as possible, presenting a wide semi-uncomfortable smile.
"So, you did it all right, but it didn't help with the nightmares."
"Well, as I said, I didn't have any."
"Look... one day, you're gonna have to open up and understand that some people really do want to help you and that they can be trusted."
"I trust people."
"Yeah? Give me your phone," Bucky groans but hands over his phone, Dr. Raynor unlocks it and scrolls through it. "You don't have ten phone numbers on this thing," she keeps scrolling through, "Oh, and you've been ignoring the texts from Sam. Look, you've gotta nurture friendships. I am the only person you have called all week. That is so sad."
Bucky shifts uncomfortably in his seat, he knows she's telling the truth, but he still doesn't like to hear it.
"You're alone. You're a hundred years old. You have no history, no family..."
"Are you lashing out at me, Doc? Because that's really unprofessional, you know? When did that start? Yelling at your clients?" Dr. Raynor glares at him from across the room, clicking her pen loudly, she scribbles something else down.
"The notebook. That's great. All right, give me a break. I'm trying, okay? This isn't... This is new for me," he starts to open up as soon as she pauses her writing, "I didn't have a moment to deal with anything, you know? I had a little...calm in Wakanda. And other than that, I just went from one fight to another for 90 years."
"So, now that you've stopped fighting, what do you want?" Putting down her pen, she crosses her legs and closes the book to focus on the answer he is about to give.
"Peace."
Dr. Raynor's expression drops and she stares at him like he's an idiot, "That is utter bullshit. I was an excellent soldier, so I saw a lot of dead bodies, and I know how that can shut you down. And if you are alone, that is the quietest, most personal hell. And, James, it is very hard to escape. Look, I know that you have been through a lot, but you've got your mind back, you are being pardoned. I mean, these are good things. You're free."
. . .
Bucky starts walking home when he hears an argument, he approaches the situation carefully when he sees his neighbors.
"Hey, hey, hey! Hey!"
"Your can isn't even half full. Why don't we just share?"
"What?"
"You don't gotta body me, Yori."
"It's Mr. Nakajima."
"Okay."
"Mr. Nakajima!"
"Okay! Mr. Nakajima."
Bucky runs up to the old man, "Hey! Hey! Yori, what's goin' on? I thought we're getting lunch."
"Unique is putting his trash into my trash."
"It's trash."
"And the time has come for me to smack..." Mr. Nakajima starts to lunge at the other neighbor, but Bucky stops him, "Whoa!"
"It's just trash."
"Hey, man. I'm Unique. It's like Monique, but it's got a "U" in there for uniqueness," Bucky gives him a tight-lipped smile and shakes his hand. Unique walks away, leaving his trash bag next to his full can.
Once Unique is out of earshot, Bucky turns to the man, "Yori, you can't keep fighting with your neighbors. Come on, let's get some food."
"No, go away."
"But Izzy. We always go to Izzy on Wednesday."
"I'm not in the mood today."
"Hey, what if I buy?"
"Fine, but no talking."
. . .
In the bar Bucky and Mr. Nakajima sat side by side, Bucky drinking out of a beer bottle and Mr. Nakajima looking over the newspaper. He hands the newspaper to Bucky, "Take a look. Nobody made it past 90 this week."
"So young. Such a shame," Bucky shakes his head while looking over the obituaries.
The bartender walks over to the men, "You guys didn't order the usual, huh? Feeling a little adventurous?" She asks, with a smile, she walks away and attends to another customer, leaving them alone.
Mr. Nakajima leans over and tells him, "You should ask her out."
"No."
"Why not? You are lonely," Bucky rolls his eyes, why was everyone saying that today?
"I am not lonely, I have you."
Mr. Nakajima gives him the same look Dr. Raynor gave him earlier in the day, the same disappointed look, "You have no lady friends, I am old, you need to get out with people your age!"
His age.. yeah, the only other person his age left him a few weeks ago to spend the rest of his life with a woman from the '40s.
"I have plenty of lady friends!"
"Mmm... I'm sure. Where are they then?"
The question stunned him, he couldn't say that Carol was off-world, Valkyrie was busy ruling an entire realm, Wanda was off the grid, Nat had passed, the Wakandans were untraceable, Pepper wasn't exactly too fond of him, Hope Van Dyne was never too close with him, and Y/n.. well that was too complicated to explain.
They've had a bumpy relationship throughout the years knowing each other. They first met when Bucky was on the run, Y/n was fairly new to the team, just joining after they enlisted her help in the battle with Ultron. During the battle over the accords, she took Steve's side and fought alongside Bucky, he appreciated it but they never really talked, they were kind of in a state of panic at the time.
She managed to escape with Bucky and Steve but requested that she was dropped off in a forest somewhere, to leave all the risen conflict. She ended up being rescued by the Wakandans right around the time Bucky was starting to recover, they spent some time together there, but never really enjoyed each other's company.
Anytime they would talk, it would result in some sort of argument, so they agreed to disagree. There was some obvious unresolved tension between them, but they never brought it up. Other than Steve or Sam, she was probably the closest thing to a friend that he had, even though they didn't necessarily take a liking to each other.
Bucky couldn't explain that his closest 'lady friend' was someone he didn't like and that she was locked up in a maximum-security prison in a cave overseas because she can singlehandedly take out an entire army of aliens with a flick of her wrist and she's considered a lethal weapon.
With no response from Bucky, Mr. Nakajima scoffed, "See, you are lonely," the bartender walked over again, "He would like to take you out on a date. Maybe to bingo or a night of pinochle?"
She smiled, "Pinochle. Yeah," Mr. Nakajima confirmed looking over at Bucky who currently was staring with his jaw open and eyes enlarged at the forwardness of his friend.
"I'm really sorry about him," he told the woman.
"Why are you sorry? I'm game. Tomorrow night, then?"
"Tomorrow night's great," Bucky chuckles, "Just maybe not pinochle."
"What's wrong with pinochle?" She teasingly smiles, "I have a shift, but if you wanna come back here, I should be done around 10:00," she winks and leaves again.
When he knows she can't hear him, he turns to the old man, "I can't believe you did that!"
"It's a dance to these things."
"You can't... You gotta warm up and I haven't danced since 1943... it feels like..."
He notices a tear fall from Mr. Nakajima's face, "What's wrong?"
Mr. Nakajima pulls out his wallet and takes out a picture of a young Asian man, "He had a job with a consulting company. And, uh, he was working abroad and he was killed. The police said "Wrong place, wrong time," but... I will never know what really happened to him. I felt it was strange," he puts his hand over his heart, "In here."
Bucky's eyes widen at the picture and his breath hitches, barely recognizing the man in the photo. Mr. Nakajima gets up and walks out of the bar, still holding the picture in his hand, leaving Bucky alone with his thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 1 is finally out! Phew, sorry for the late update, but it's finally here!
I've been pretty busy, but I finally have some down time so look for new chapters soon!
This one was pretty slow, but expect some action soon! This was just a good background for Bucky and his life right now, and of course Dr. Raynor the icon, I also think it's good background for Bucky and Y/n, and their relationship.
For Y/n's background - she was a criminal for a while but then she was recruited for the battle of Ultron in Sokovia and shortly after, Tony took her in and made her an Avenger, there was a contract of immunity that he signed, putting her under his protection. She took Steve's side in Civil War because she didn't want to go back to living under government rules in fear that she could be locked up. Everything else is pretty much explained up there ^^ in the chapter, she was also blipped.