Bᴜᴄᴋʏ Bᴀʀɴᴇs ★ Wɪɴᴛᴇʀ Sᴏʟᴅɪᴇʀ (serzhant) wrote in themandalay, |
Her response made the corner of his mouth twitch, his cheek rippling with the brief motion. He was sure that she knew he'd been out all night, perhaps even knew his reason for it. Back when he was the Soldier, he'd known better than to underestimate the Black Widow, regardless of the circumstances. And now, in this place, neither of them were being hunted. It was hard to believe, harder to accept -- especially after having been on the move for so long. He could see her with his peripheral vision, her reflection in the glass a sharp contrast to his own. He knew who she was, and not just because of the recent conflict between the Avengers. He'd known her in a time where he had been nothing more than the Soldier. But those memories, save for the ones of every single person he'd killed, were fragmented. What he could remember had no context to it, and she featured in a great deal of those memories, but his many attempts to understand had been unsuccessful so far. Was she making idle conversation in an attempt to get more information? Or was it that she really didn't know, and just wanted to talk? He'd never entirely understand why people wanted to talk to him. He wasn't that soldier from the war stories they had known growing up, he wasn't the man that had earned a place on SHIELD's Wall of the Fallen. He wasn't completely sure who he was now, even though he had chosen to use the name Bucky Barnes again. Was he that man, the one that Steve saw, or was he still the Soldier? Regardless of her reason, he wouldn't ignore what she said. He had shot her several times, once with the sole intention of killing her, and it wasn't a matter of owning her anything. It was respect between two people, who were more alike then they seemed. "No," he replied. "I don't like the heat, and the noise makes it harder to sleep. Might as well walk until the city becomes quieter." It was a simple enough explanation, yet she would be able to see beyond those seemingly innocent words. That he was still used to cold temperatures even after being awake for several years, because of the places he had been stored at and the cryo itself. That he struggled to sleep because of the nightmares that plagued him from the first moment his eyes closed, so he resorted to walking in order to avoid seeing the faces of all the people he'd killed. "Why are you out here?" |