bakerstreet | Always come back

Entry tags:

Always come back

ALWAYS COME BACK

smut meme;

They may be a rambler, a gambler, always on the run, a wanted criminal, someone with a higher calling, or just not the type to spend time with you (which may be fine by you), yet somehow, they'll always find their way back to your door. And they'll, again and again, find themselves wanting you, for support, for healing, for feeling alive, for venting frustration and anger, for anything and everything at all.

You'll welcome them with open arms...and an open bed, because you want them, too.

Comment: prefs, info, preferred role, etc.
Reply: to others.
Thread: with them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Prose and m/m pref. Open to cross canon.]

[Prose or brackets, Poes are love.]

((OOC: Summoned by the gif :) ))

Vanya first saw him when she was thirteen. Her siblings, six children with superpowers and her painfully ordinary, were assigned to protect a target of his. She watched their work from a rooftop at her father's side. While he observed her siblings, she looked around, taking in the the view, when she saw him on the next building over, settling his sniper rifle on his shoulder. She'd shouted, alerting her family, but the Winter Soldier got his shot. Right after taking it, he looked up at her shouting, and she felt his eyes like ice before he disappeared into the night.

The second time they met, Vanya was seventeen and her siblings' superhero team was coming apart. She was just playing her violin in the courtyard when he grabbed her. It was an expert job--Vanya's neck was wedged in the crook of his arm before she could scream, and she was unconscious in moments. But that was long enough for her to notice that his arm was metal.

Vanya woke up with her arms bound in a dark room. Hostage situation. She was supposed to be leverage against her family. Vanya knew in her bones that her family did not care enough about her to give into any onerous demands, so she was on her own. She paid attention. All her captors wore masks, but she recognized the Winter Soldier. His eyes were seared into her memory. She watched as he sat silently for hours on end until someone with a harsh voice would tell him he had an assignment or give him permission to eat or sleep.

The Winter Soldier didn't act alone. He didn't even seem to have the capacity to act alone. Vanya tried to talk to him. Maybe he was also lonely. Maybe he was also trapped. She talked a bit about herself, about her family, prodding him for details about himself, telling him quietly that it didn't seem kind for his boss to tell him when he could eat and sleep. He never answered. He only stared at her. Still, she talked, more for her benefit than his, because he was the only one who had ever looked at her like he was listening to what she said. Maybe it made him feel less lonely too.

Vanya got her opportunity to escape two days in. The Winter Soldier was pulled away for a mission, and her other captor was feeding her by hand. She took the spoon between her teeth and shoved it in her captor's eye. While her captor bled out, she ran. His leaders must have figured out how useless she was, because no one came after her. Her family had hardly noticed her missing. Vanya moved away from home two days later.

When she was twenty-four, news broke of a massive classified information leak. The Winter Soldier was involved. There were his pictures in this mass of information. There was his name. James 'Bucky' Barnes. A man entirely lost in time. Vanya had been right--he was a lonely person, now probably more than ever.

It was probably that thought that had Vanya volunteering to testify at his trial when he was caught and accused of terrorism. She was the only known living person who had encountered the Winter Soldier and witnessed his interactions with his handlers. She was the only living witness who could say he didn't work for Hydra of his own free will.

She wasn't allowed to talk to him, but she could see his eyes, and they were just as blue but so much less cold than before. He just seemed so tired. Vanya impulsively asked his lawyer to give him her contact information--she hoped that maybe they could talk after the trial was over.

Well, he disappeared before the trial was through, apparently having broken himself out. Vanya figured that'd be the last she'd hear of him.

And then he showed up at her door in the middle of the night.

It's raining outside. His metal arm is gone. Vanya should probably be afraid, but she just gestures dumbly to her kitchen.

"I'll go put on a pot of coffee," she says. "And get a towel to help you dry off."