woundedwinter | Sandbox thoughts

Sandbox thoughts

Torchwood.
The last place Bucky was looking to find answers was in Cardiff, of all damn places, but he had run out of options.

Seventy odd years ago he was a solider, a sniper in the 107th and he had everything a fella could want. A best friend, a damn good career and a unit he cared for. A mission in the mountains had gone wrong. They were ambushed and in a desperate attempt to save his friend, Bucky fell. He didn't tumble down the side of the mountain or crash into the ice, though. He was swallowed up by a burst of blue-white light and six months ago he dumped in the middle of New Mexico with an artificial left arm and no memory of what had happened to him or why he'd been flung so far into the future.

He called in what favors he could, talked to anyone who would listen, desperate for answers. What had happened to him? Where had he gone? The Howling Commandos were long gone. He had nothing left.

It was easy to strike the deal in the end. Work with Torchwood and try and find the answers. They dealt in the weird and unexplained and god knows Bucky had enough of that.

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Great. If Sylar is coming things have clearly gone pear shaped with the rest, but that was how things ran with the Howling Commandos so he's used to the chaos.

"No thermal signatures but something grabbed Steve into the dark and he's not calling out." And sue him but he's worried as hell, losing Steve after finding him so soon might just fucking end him but his training keeps Barnes on mission.

"Sounds like we walked into the mother and father of all traps. Again." Because he remembers Rio and pulling the Hargreeves brothers into the fold once the dust settled.

“Rift phenomena,” is all Sylar says as he appears behind Bucky. His eyes close and he places his hand slowly on the wall. Clairsentience is not one of his favorite abilities, but it does come in handy. The memory of objects, of what happens to objects and the emotions left in them by the things that touch them is powerful. He gets bits and pieces of a story here—

But not the right one. These are the people of Torchwood Five. Three women, two men, and one non-binary person. All human. All sleeping with each other in various configurations off and on. This job does that, it seems. Provides reasons to have sexual relationships. He snorts and carries on until he sees one of the women succumbing to radiation burns…. And then evaporating.

Gruesome. But that explains the lack of bodies.

“Nothing non-human came through here,” he says before he picks up a clicking sound directly above them. His voice softens. “Barnes, when I tell you to, drop and roll to your left.”

Torchwood has a steep learning curve but so far Bucky has managed. He doesn't startle at Sylar's appearance or argue with his direction. While he might not be the most trustworthy, he hasn't left anyone on the team to die.

"Keep him safe," is all he says before he drops and rolls. Steve has to make it though this safely.

That doesn't mean Bucky moves passively, he's got a gun up and trained on the target, his other hand on one of his many knives.

Sylar sighs. Keep him safe. Torchwood Three is going to have a new imprint on their walls soon. He hates it so much. “Keep yourself safe,” he says, reaching upwards to yank the air down around them. Something horrible squeals and as Bucky releases his knives towards the bulbous blob being pulled into view, it bursts and covers them both in red, steaming hot liquid.

With it, Steve falls as well, in a fetal position, just as drenched as the rest of them. Sylar breaks his fall with a little telekinesis before he shakes the blood like substance from his body like a dog.

“Jack? Nine left.”

Ugh. Has he mentioned how much he hates this? Bucky hooks an arm around Steve and drags him closer while trying to keep Sylar safe.

As much as he might complain, Sylar is part of their unit and Bucky isn't about to leave him behind.

"We need to regroup and get the hell out of here." If they can come back with a bigger team, they can clear out any threat.

“Jack?”

Is Sylar ignoring Bucky? Yes. In the hierarchy of people they are important, Bucky is just above the newcomers he is sure that Jack will adopt into their annoyingly growing family.

Besides. Bucky had Steve right now to worry about, and he’s gasping and struggling now that he’s come to. Must have been swallowed. That sucks.

“Jack— Damn it. Get up. We’re going to find them.”

The base thankfully isn’t that big. Even the Hub is bigger and that is just a few stories under ground and not much to look at.

John, though, likely has it under control by then. A banshee, or a close alien approximation of one, is trying to sing but can’t when Sylar makes it up to them.

Bloody banshees. Constantine has his hands full as he casts containment spell after containment spell, every one of them designed to muffle the sounds and protect the very squishy bits beyond his wall.

This was gonna hurt like a bastard later, but it's not like he's ever shied away from pain.

Seeing the rest of his unexpected party is enough for John to throw down the big guns. His hands blaze as he struggles to keep the power contained.

"If you've got a way out let's take it! This won't hold forever!"

He's going to have the mother and father of headaches later, but if they were alive he'll manage.

“Gabriel, get Peter out of there,” Jack says, slipping his shoulder under the other Captain’s arm as he and Bucky emerge from the darkness. He’s already trying to get the cuff to work, not to open a vortex (it needs much more time for that to recharge), but to overload the electrical system.

He’s dealt with this sort of thing before, after all.

As soon as they are all behind John, he blows the system in a rain of sparks and dust. The creature puffs clean out of existence, and the cold begins to creep in.

Three of his men are bloody. One looks hung over. The kid…. Is Peter scared or excited? Maybe both. “Good job. Down to eight. Let’s head down to the living quarters by the lab. Some people need some showers.”

Peter moves quickly, catching Constantine before he drops. The mage pats his arm and shuts his eyes against a wave of nausea. "There's a good lad."

They shuffle down to the living areas and he groans when Peter sets him on what feels like a bed. He can practically feel the kid worrying about him. "Give me an hour or two and I'll be right as ever."

Bucky still has his arm around Steve, for both support and reassurance. "Let's get you cleaned up pal."

“No way I can look as bad as you,” Steve says, still more stoic despite the joking than he had been from what Bucky remembers. He had just been swallowed by a blood blob and that’s going to take a moment to get over. The pair leave and though Sylar thinks to go with them, he instead stands over John like a gloomy shadow very nearly licking his lips.

He looks a mess, blood all over him, but he’s been in that position before. It’s nothing and— “Gabe, give me a hand,” Jack calls. He doesn’t need help checking in with the rest of the gang but he does need Sylar to turn off that predatory crap right now.

In the bathroom, it takes several minutes for the water to run warm enough for Steve not to look somewhat bewilderingly jumpy about it on his skin. “I thought the future was flying cars,” he mutters to Bucky. “Not magic and aliens.”

His laugh is short as he strips off his jacket. There are lockers with spare clothes and cold weather gear and he starts rummaging for something to fit them both. "Guess Stark got that one wrong huh?"

There are plenty of shower stalls and he only hesitates a moment before pulling his shirt up and off. He's never exactly been shy around Steve, but the last time they were together he had two very normal arms.

Steve doesn’t avert his eyes, though he does peel his own shirt off. He’d been wearing a white tee under a blue collared work shirt, but now both were likely goners. He can’t help but look Bucky over. The guy was his first muse and he’d covered so much of his books with drawings and sketches of him. Secretly kf course. There had been no need to make it weird. The new arm is awful and wonderful at the same time and yes. He’s looking.

“How is it you can’t remember getting that. And I somehow got the shield back? And not for nothing…. That’s pretty amazing, what you’ve got. Looks like something Howard would build.”

Bucky glances down at his shoulder and the heavy scarring where metal met skin. "I don't know. Rift activity is bizarre on a good day. All I really remember is falling in the mountains, then waking up in the desert."

"None of the scars were fresh when I woke up. Doctors said they were years old already."

Years that he still can't remember.

Bucky finishes stripping down and steps under the spray to distract himself. "That's how I wound up with Torchwood. They deal in weird and I qualified."

“And that was before the arm and the time travel,” Steve says, warming back up to Bucky as he finally starts wiping the grime and blood off of him. “But the Rift is the best thing that happened to me since I lost you, pal.”

He could shut up. He should shut up. It’s just too late. The words are all tumbling out now.

“I only had to do six months without you, so I count myself lucky there. Things happened. But it’s like finding you at Azzano all over again. I feel lucky.”

"Only this time it was me coming for you, huh?" Bucky tosses the soap at him, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. "I feel like I can breathe again," because Steve isn't the only one who really should stop talking.

"I missed you. Waking up here, it was hard. Jack and the others, they try, but it hasn't been the same."

“It is pretty hard to be friends with anyone else after you’ve had me,” Steve agrees, glancing down at himself. A sink and soap isn’t going to do anything at all, but he doesn’t know how much hot water they have to waste.

He wrinkles his nose a little and just lathers up what he can.

“Jack seems…. Determined. Chatty without saying much?” Kind of like that Peter kid who talks just to talk.

The water switches off and Bucky emerges a few moments later, towel slung around his waist. His skin is rosy from where he'd scrubbed up, trying to get clean as quickly as he could. The hot water is nearly limitless in the future but old habits die hard.

"The sink ain't gonna get you clean enough, get in the shower. I found enough clean clothes for everyone."

He pulls on a sweater first, grumbling as the shoulder seams catch on his arm and he has to give up and wrench the whole sleeve off. "Yeah, he's a talker all right. But he cares about his team, he wants to see everyone come home safe." There's still a lot about Jack that he doesn't know, but everyone who comes to Torchwood has secrets.

"And he'll flirt with anything breathing."

The shower does actually look nice…. Steve gets distracted by the ruined wash cloth and then the sound of Bucky tearing his sleeve off. He catches the last second of it in the mirror and then turns to look over his shoulder at the other man.

“Are shirts in the future made of newspaper or are you a lot stronger than I remember?”

He’ll get clean in a second, this is far more important!

"They did something to me at Azzano, I think." Grimacing he tosses the sleeve away. "Or it was something in the Rift, I don't know. But.. yeah. Not as strong or as quick as you, but more than I used to be." And what he wouldn't give to be normal again? To just be Bucky Barnes, ex-boxer from Brooklyn who was hopelessly, recklessly devoted to his best friend.

"The docs keep wanting a full workup, and I keep finding reasons to tell them no." He can't explain why the exam chair makes him so uncomfortable.

“Yeah but you should. Just in case there’s something not as great as being strong enough to rip your shirt clean off going on.” Steve grins despite being covered in blood. His smile is soft, and he winks at Bucky before he gets into the shower to scrub himself as clean as he can.

The moment the curtain closes, Steve loses his smile. He feels emotion climbing up into his throat and swallows as hard as he can against it.

He might sneak a peek of Bucky through the curtain.

Just to make sure he doesn’t disappear.

While Steve showers he hums to himself, moving around just noisily enough as he gets dressed and checks in with Jack to make sure everything is all right. It reminds him of when they were ages younger, one getting dressed while the other scrubbed down in the same room.

Getting answers would be the smart thing to do. But it also makes him worry about what had been done to him. Why did someone take his arm and give him another one? Why can't he remember?

"You know, when we get back it isn't a long flight to France. You should see the place. Hell of a lot different than the last time we were there."

Steve feels so much better when Bucky is there. He’d tried to busy himself with getting the blood out of his hair but it’s just not working. His hair is matted for all eternity.

“I think I might be done with plane rides,” Steve says, still scrubbing at his scalp. He turns off the water and leans out to grab a towel. “And France. And—. Where actually are we?”

Bucky will pin Steve down and fix his hair once they're out of immediate danger. He can't let go of his instinct to take care of him and he's happy to continue with that once they're safe.

"It's an eight hour drive from Wales, which is where we're based. Cardiff. Right now? We're in Antarctica. Land of snow and ice and damn little else."

“And eight more anomalies,” Steve gripes. “Antarctica. Well I guess you really do end up seeing the world when you join the Army,” Steve mutters and ruins the towel with goop that hadn’t come off of him. He looks better now than he had before, and considering he’d recently been inside a blob, he thinks anything is an improvement.

They should clear out for Sylar either way. The guy still looks like he’d gotten into a fight with a red paint store.

And he wants to talk shop with Jack.

By the time they get back to the others, Peter is bundled up and poking at some of the panels, trying to supplement the power until they can get out again. Constantine is at least upright, but in no shape for another battle.

They'll have to track the other anomalies, but with luck they can wait until the return to Cardiff.

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