bakerstreet | the picture prompt meme

Well, I can understand that.

[Some people just attract trouble, while there are others who are attracted to it. Which one was Bucky? He probably would never find out.

He can hear him scrubbing at the metal, and decides that the noises are loud enough that he wouldn't be questioned too much for mentioning it.]

Is your prosthetic metal? That's unusual.

[He isn't thinking in terms of evidence at all, not right now. Whatever his curiosity about this guy, he doesn't expect him to be some sort of wanted criminal. Maybe another vigilante, actually. Wouldn't that be something?]

[The methodical scrubbing pauses, Bucky's hand briefly stilling on the cool metal.]

Yes. [The truth.] How'd you know?

[He hadn't been exceptionally quiet, no, but it's still a leap from a blind man.]

[And the noise stops. That tells him more than anything else would have, probably. It tells him that it's probably not something he should know.]

I could hear it. [Also the truth.]

I was just curious. Is this a new thing?

[He tries not to look too interested. Not like he wonders if this is a crime-fighting thing.]

[And now he can't help but wonder just how deep Matt's curiosity runs. There were photos, reports, newspaper articles-- the soldier with the metal arm on a freeway in DC. At the Triskelion. On the helicarriers. It's not a secret, not any more. It's only a matter of time before he figures it out.]

Not new. [Not by a long shot.] Just... an experiment.

[Matt hasn't made the connection yet, but the fact that he's thinking along the lines of vigilante shows that the tidbit is whirling around somewhere in his subconscious.

He's heard the news- everyone has. It really is only a matter of time before the details add up. Maybe another word or fact related to the story and it'll all click together.]

An experiment?

[That's an odd way to put it.] You mean a new prosthetic technique?

[He needs to leave. But bolting is suspicious, will only result in the police being called - the man's a lawyer, after all. He can-- he can stall, maybe. And edge for the door.]

Something like that. [Bucky can't quite keep the bitter edge out of his tone.] Too dangerous for the public.

[Too dangerous for the...

That's when it clicks.

Matt rises abruptly to his feet, moving much more quickly to block the door. If he has a most wanted criminal here, an assassin and a spy, then he can't just let him go.]

You're him. The one that was all over the news.

[Damn. Bucky halts, gaze darting between the door Matt's now blocking and the window. He could survive the fall. He's done it before.]

Yes.

[He can already feel the Soldier settling back into his bones. He could handle this. No one would ever know--

No. He can't-- he's not Bucky, but he's not Soldat either. He can't be.]

It's not-- not what you think.

It's not? You just confirmed it.

[And now Matt is on edge, more than before. He listens closely to any signs in the man's heartbeat or breathing that he might be preparing to attack or make a run for it.

Shame if the office had to be damaged because of this, but... some things are just too important to let go. Matt has to keep up with his principles, and if what he's heard is true, the Winter Soldier is by far the most dangerous criminal he'd ever faced before in his life.

Not an encouraging thought, that one.]

What do I have wrong?

[Bucky takes a careful sidestep, trying to edge towards the office proper. He keeps his front to Matt, back to the wall and hands loose and open at his sides. ]

I'm not here to hurt anyone.

[It's the truth. His heart rate is elevated, skittish, but he's not lying. He doesn't want to hurt anyone-- but he won't let himself be taken again. ]

I'll go. No one else needs to know.

[Matt remains firmly in front of the door, listening very closely to Bucky's movements and heart rate.

Interesting that he isn't lying, but not necessarily enough to just let him go.]

I need more reassurance than that.

[What does he need? Matt isn't even certain. What he really wants is to keep an ear on him for a little while, make sure he honestly isn't up to anything. Find out why he isn't. For a spy and assassin, he is awfully open about many things, after all. That can't be ordinary.]

[Of course it's not that easy. It never is. He's a little surprised Matt hasn't called for the police yet, though - he's on the Most Wanted list in this country, probably others. He'd been filmed in DC. Any sane person would have been out the door already, with the cops and the FBI and every other three-letter agency hanging on their every word for a chance to catch him. The fact that Matt hasn't... Bucky's not sure what it means.

(Matt hasn't yet. Bucky can't afford to do anything but prepare for the worst.)

He chances another step to the side.]

What do you want to know?

[What did he want to know? He wanted to know if not giving Bucky up would be in the best interest of justice. He wanted to know he wasn't going to hurt anyone. He wanted to know that he was doing the right thing.

That's what it always came down to in the end.]

I want you to know whether you're still dangerous, and what they'll do to you if you're caught.

[Because while protecting the civilians is priority, Matt also protects the alleged criminals. Everyone deserves justice.]

[Threat assessment. Good. This is more familiar to him.]

I'll always be dangerous.

[It's not a threat, not even a real warning. It's a fact. Everything that HYDRA put into him is still there - and it isn't just the arm. It's the obedience, the training, the seventy years of experience that makes him a real danger.

(He can take a perfect headshot from over two thousand meters away. He can crush a man's skull with his hand. He can slip in to a room unnoticed and kill every member of a presidential cabinet and be out again before the aide returns with coffee.)]

They'll kill me. Or they'll make me their weapon instead of HYDRA's. I don't know which.

[He'd-- he'd prefer the former.]

[The question about danger is.... maybe not the best one. He knows many extremely dangerous people, including himself, but that's all subjective. It doesn't mean they'll use their abilities for evil, and the more Matt speaks with Bucky, the more he believes the information that he had been a brainwashed weapon.

He knows the value of faith, as well as the danger in it. This may turn out to be a risk he regrets, but everything tells him turning this guy in is the wrong answer.

After a length pause, Matt finally nods his head.]

You can stay with me for now. Better than you wandering the streets like you were.

[He knows he can take care of himself, at least. If he turns out to be wrong about Bucky, better he get into a fight than other people get hurt.]

Edited 2016-06-08 20:18 (UTC)

[The silence stretches long enough that Bucky can feel himself slipping into a sniper's calm - silent, still, and poised to fire at any moment. Or, in this case, poised to run. Even the arm is silent.

But Matt's voice breaks the spell, and the soldier blinks, brow furrowing. It's not the judgement he was expecting. Any rational person would turn him in. He's a murderer. He shouldn't-- he's not safe. But...

I like to help people.

Maybe that includes him.]

...they'll come after you too if they find out.

[It's not a 'no'.]

[He has no idea that Matt deals with people coming after him on a frequent basis. Well, coming after the Devil. They aren't HYDRA, no, but... surely he can handle whoever they might send. Trying to be discrete with Matt is just about as pointless as coming in guns blazing.]

Then let's make sure they don't find out.

[He was much calmer now that he's done what feels right. Almost business-like, as though discussing harboring an international fugitive is no big deal at all.]

Who knows? Maybe we can find some of these HYDRA people and hold them accountable for their actions. Clear your name, if that's what you intend to do.

[Honestly, HYDRA is secondary in Bucky's worries. They'll be after him, of course, probably already are, but well-- cut off one head, two more will take its place. Eventually. The US government, on the other hand, is after him right now.]

Okay. [But then he's immediately drawn up short by the very idea of finding HYDRA and clearing his name. One of those might be attainable - he remembers the places he's been kept, for the most part. (He thinks.) He even went back to the bank vault after pulling his mission-- pulling Steve from the river. He could have killed the technicians. Thought about it. And then... didn't. They're still out there, alive and well.

But clearing his name? He shakes his head.]

Don't-- I did those things. My missions. I remember doing them. You need to know that.

[Not all of them, but enough. More and more every day, bit and pieces of tattered memory. They don't always make sense. He can't always fit them into the spaces in his mind, but-- it's happening.]

[There's honesty that makes Matt feel even more comfortable about his decision. Bucky is taking responsibility even when he doesn't need to, when no one would hold him accountable even under the law. He recognizes and appreciates that, even if he would encourage name clearing anyway.

There are other ways to deal with guilt. Helping other people... something that's much easier to do when not on the run.]

I understand. You didn't want to do them though, did you?

[That's the key question. The answer seems to be an obvious no, but best to hear it from Bucky himself.]

A weapon doesn't want things.

[It's rote. Cauterized into his brain, probably. But it's not the whole truth, is it? They allowed him enough slack in the leash to plan his own engagements, to think tactically.]

It- I... wanted to complete the mission.

[The Asset wanted to avoid failure. Those lessons, he was allowed to keep.]

You're a person, not a weapon.

[Just as the thought came automatically to Bucky, the response came to Matt without any thought. Afterwards, he begins to wonder just how much this man must be broken if he really did spend decades being used and abused as a tool by this HYDRA group.

The thought is sickening, to say the least. Matt feels his resolve harden.

Giving Bucky some stability seems like it's the most important first step to helping him out. Looking into fighting off his pursuers and clearing his name a distant second.]

Just... finish cleaning up for now. I'd like us to get moving before someone shows up here.

[That's a nice thought. Not true, but nice. It's slow going, becoming a person again.

Like this: he actually relaxes at the order. It should terrify him, how easily that happens, but the simple clarity of having an objective appeals to the part of him that is still the soldat. Go here. Do this. Get cleaned up. The Soldier has been alive a lot longer than Bucky Barnes.

(This is both a truth and a lie, but he doesn't remember enough as Bucky to contest it. He remembers everything about the Soldier.)]

Right.

[He could refuse, and that's the real novelty. Could say no. Won't, because this is something he should do, wants to do, but it still stands. He turns that idea over in his head for a few minutes when he steps back over to the sink, resumes wiping most of the blood off himself. By the time he's finished, he has a salvaged coat, jeans that escaped almost entirely unscathed, and a shirt-slash-rag that's better off in the trash than the laundry, at this point.]

Ready. [A pause.] Do you have a shirt?

[If he knew the reaction orders gave him, Matt would be certain to avoid giving them. What he'd said and the way he'd said it had been mostly offhand, spoken through concern.

He'll have a lot to learn in the coming days.

While Bucky cleans up he remains by the door, listening for any sounds of people approaching the room. At one point he tenses at the sound of distant footsteps, but they remain that- distant.

At the mention of the shirt, Matt nods and walks over to a nearby closet that has some extra clothes in case he or Foggy need a quick change. While various sounds have given him a relatively good idea about Bucky's size, he doesn't know enough to guess for sure if his clothes will fit, so they'll just have to try and see. He ends up picking up a dark blue sweatshirt and holds it out for the other man to take.]

I don't know if it will fit, but you're welcome to it.

[Bucky's a little taller, a little broader than Matt, but the sweatshirt is forgiving when he pulls it on. Not so forgiving with the arm - the fabric catches on the plates - but it's only a few seconds work to make sure that his arm can move unhindered. Then coat, then gloves, then baseball cap, and Bucky is once again a normal, if shabby-looking, civilian.]

Thank you.

[The words are quiet, rough. For so much more than just the clothes. Bucky doesn't understand Matt's reasoning, not really, but maybe he doesn't have to. It's enough to just have a good thing.]

[It's late by the time Matt and Bucky make it back to his apartment.

A few people stopped to say hello on their way, ensuring a connection between the two of them right off the bat. In the building he even comes across a few people who ask, considering the only people who ever visit Matt are Foggy and Karen, and he says that he's giving his friend a place to stay for awhile.

It's a great thing to live in the same place all your life and know so many people, but it can also be a curse. If someone came around with an imagine of Bucky now, there would be plenty of people to point the finger in Matt's direction.

No point in turning back now.

The apartment is large enough for two, actually quite comfortable for the area, though the large bright billboards outside kept most people away. Once the door is shut behind them, he shrugs off his suit jacket and collapses his cane to put away.]

The big couch will be yours. Help yourself to food and drinks in the kitchen. [And there are plenty of drinks.]

the picture prompt meme

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