The rain poured down on the window shield of the Winter Soldier's pick-up truck. It was only 4 in the afternoon but the dark clouds made it seem like it was night already. The headlights on the truck were the only lights on the dirt road, and the only thing they illuminated was the dark green tress and brush of the thick forest.
He barely made it out of Nick Fury's grasp, and more importantly; out of "Captain America's"
"You know me."
The words bounced off the walls of his mind, and had been since he left the Smithsonian. He knew what he had to do, but it wasn't going to be easy.
He sighed, "Maybe."
The road stretched on and he only spiraled deeper into his thoughts. Soon the thick green forest changed into flat farmland, the rainclouds broke and the stars and even the moon were out. It would've been a charming night if the urgency of being chased weren't nipping at his heels.
He pulled up to an empty farm around 1 am, tired, irritated and even more confused than he was when he left Washington. He was going to find out who Bucky was, or more importantly who he was now.
Driving into the barn, he parked, flicked the keys out of the truck and jumped out. For a second he wondered if anyone actually lived out here, although he brushed the idea off and started unloading the truck. He unloaded most of the things he'd picked up off HYDRA in Washington, it wasn't all there but it hopefully it would clear some things up. A box of files about his medical records, and a big folder titled "Winter Soldier I."
He spent the next two days going through files, if anything it only created more questions than it answered.
He spent the next week looking around the farm. He had no idea exactly where it was only that his memory brought him here.
The memories. It was driving him insane; at night he woke up from night terrors of people he didn't know dying. During the day he felt like he was having de ja vu every 30 minutes. He tried creating a timeline of events using the files and memories or nightmares written down sloppily when he was half asleep. It was frustrating, to say the least.
He was a week and a half in before a knock on the door woke him up early in the morning.
When he answered the door a young woman stood before him.
He wasn't sure he was expecting but he wasn't expecting this. She held two coffees stacked in one hand and the other hand she had a handful of papers and a pen. A very big truck was also parked in the driveway.
"Morning. Sorry it's so early, I brought coffee."
Bucky's brow furrowed, confused, "…come in?"
"Thanks, this will only take a second." She handed him the coffee and her long black hair swished behind her as she stepped.
"What's this about?" Bucky asked following her, he sat at the table, and she set the papers beside him.
He looked at her the second time and noticed how dark her eyes were and the slight tan of her skin. She was pretty. Distractingly pretty.
Bucky took a sip of the coffee.
"You're illegally squatting. However, the place has been up for rent for a while now, by my boss, Daryl Howard. I'm Winter King, his assistant manager. Lets get to the point. So, you can either sign an 8 month lease, it's 800 a month, or you can leave."
Winter sipped her coffee.
He raised his eyebrows, tilted his head, and picked up the pen, "Winter King sounds like a super villains name," signed his initials beside the places marked, "I can pay first and lasts months now."
Bucky got up and went into the duffle bag laying on the ridiculously old couch, aside from all of the documents about himself, he also took $10,000 from hydra's vault.
"Okay. What does BB stand for?" She picked up all the papers and pulled out a deposit record sheet.
"Bucky Barnes." He set two wads of cash on the table. "There should be $2000 here."
"Bucky Barnes sounds like a rednecks name." She handed him the pen and paper.
"Good thing I'm living on a farm then, huh?" He raised his eyebrows and drank more of the coffee, she rolled her eyes.
Bucky signed the paper and handed it to her.
"Alright Mr. Barnes. Daryl is your landlord, call him if anything goes wrong with the house." She picked up the rest of the papers and made her way to the door.
"Wait. 800 is pretty cheap for a 2 bedroom house and a barn."
She stopped with the door open a crack and turned.
"Well, it's been unoccupied for almost 30 years. Daryl heard you were out here and was surprised the electricity was still working. He owns a lot of the land out here."
"Do you know who lived here before that?"
"I'm not sure. You'd have to talk to him. His numbers on one of the papers I left you…why?"
"Just curious. Alright, Ms. King."
She smiled and left.
And that's how he met her. The Bane of his existence.