The Future is the Only Home

[The mission was easy enough. The quiet assassination of a visiting dignitary on foreign soil is just the sort of push that they needed; complicating international relations, stoking fear. The accusations would go round for months, long enough to distract from HYDRA's machinations in the meantime. Steve went along mostly because he likes watching Bucky work, not because he's worried about him going off-script. There's something about him that's dangerous in a way that's almost sensual when Steve watches him. It always puts a smile on his face.

He doesn't have the shield, isn't in the uniform he wears for SHIELD, just black utility gear. He's not that man, here. Not a symbol for a world that doesn't understand the things he does to save it, to protect it from itself.

The trip back to the safehouse is short, quiet, but then they're alone. Gives them time and space alone, cleaning weapons to be set aside for clean up to make sure they disappeared like everything else that Bucky touched. Except for Steve. He couldn't always be here, but he was when he could be. Both for Bucky, and because he liked it. Bucky built the world they were trying to create with his own hands, whereas Steve built it in stories and myths and lies.

He moves over next to the Winter Soldier, far more careless than anyone else could afford to be.]

How do you feel? That was good work.

[His tone warm, a smile on his lips as he looks at the weapon he still considers his friend.]