seeking a friend for the end of the world

( The world is a shithole. Actually, that's putting it mildly, really, but Bucky's trying to be optimistic these days since there's nothing to be optimistic about anymore. As soon as the virus started spreading, he got his gear together and headed straight to the woods. Anything like this, you need to be as far from people as possible and he wasn't going to depend on his enhanced immune system to defend him from something like this. It changes people, rewrites them from the inside-out, and he's not sure that super serum can protect a person from that.

He tries to only go into populated areas for supplies and since he can hunt pretty well and survive on his own, supplies usually constitute bullets. On his last run, he'd gotten a compound bow out of a shelled-out sporting goods store and he's been looking for arrows ever since because what he can make in the woods isn't going to be strong enough for the draw on the thing. It's a white elephant right now but he's loathe to part with it. He does his runs at night when he can exploit the weaknesses of the totalitarian government that came into place after society disintegrated; dealing with scared soldiers with shoot-to-kill orders is not his idea of a good time.

It's a good run until he sees someone else and he touches his hand to the hilt of his knife just in case. Smaller person, doesn't move like one of the infected, clearly not military. An idiot. Fantastic. He tries to get the drop on them from behind. )

Either you've already gotten infected and aren't showing symptoms or you're a complete idiot. What are you doing out here? It's not safe.

( It's an understatement, really, the lack of safety and he almost laughs about it; two years ago, he might have been talking about a teenager sneaking out of their house at night and now it's not safe for anyone at any time of day. For this person to have survived this long, they're not completely stupid. He's closer now and he can see that it's a woman. )

I could have killed you or one of the patrols could have shot you without asking questions. What's worth those two outcomes?

stowed away

After the Wakandans manage to get all of HYDRA out of him, Bucky thought he should pay it forward somehow. He doesn't know how to do it, exactly, until he realizes that everyone that had tried to protect him had ended up in the Raft and then the decision is easy: he's getting them out. He's done his fair share of prison breaks as the Winter Soldier and even though the Raft is the most secure place on Earth, there's nothing secure enough to survive the brain he's been burdened with after 80 years of HYDRA control. It's a difficult op, to be sure, but not impossible. Besides, he has help once he gets his guys out so fighting back out of the place is much easier than getting in.

There's one image that stuck with him though and that had been Wanda Maximoff strapped down and contained as if she were so dangerous that she couldn't be allowed to even have the freedom of movement the same way as the other prisoners. She's a small woman to begin with but she'd looked so small and so blank when he got to breaking her out that it reminded him of years and years of being the Winter Soldier, of being controlled in every aspect of his humanity. He wouldn't wish it on anyone and certainly not on someone like Wanda, who is young and should be living her life.

It makes his decision to hide with her easy. The others split off to where they belong but he and Wanda, two of the most wanted people in the world, end up together. He knows that she doesn't need him to survive - her powers are far stronger than his strength - but he wants to protect her anyway. She's the one doing most of the protecting since she's keeping their hideout shielded from view but he contributes his part as much as he can. He cooks, he cleans, he's learned how to shear sheep and prune trees. It's not the life he'd envisioned but it's the one he has. It's a quiet day today, trees bare and snow falling, and he's just come in with a bundle of fresh-chopped firewood.

"I think we're going to get another storm, Wanda. I went ahead and chopped some extra just in case. Any way you can wave your fingers and give me a weather report or is that not in the long list of things you can do with a thought?"