Notes:

Chapter title inspired by The Killing Lights by AFI.

Okay, so my powers back on after yesterday's truely epic storm, and there are no more tree parts in my yard. So, I had a little time to work on my fiction.

Enjoy!

In Search of Winter

Chapter 2: The Killing Lights

Bucky stared at the blank concrete wall of his cell, listening to the drum of combat boots coming down the hall, two sets in firm lock step, a third shuffling and stumbling. He didn't bother looking up when the foot falls halted outside his door, the guards took turns taunting the terrifying assassin, the boogeyman of Russia, the pathetic Winter Soldier, who was taken down by a single flash bang.

The scream of abused hinges cut through the air and echoed down the hall as the guards pulled open the door to the cell, that was new. He looked up just in time to see a blond man being shoved thought, tripping over his own feet and tumbling to the floor.

"Yastreb," the man pulled himself to his feet, using the bars on the cell door to brace himself, his legs not entirely seeming to obey their masters command. "Malen'kiy yastreb." There was an edge to panic in the other man's voice.

"I don't think your little hawk is close enough to here you," Bucky mumbled, rubbing his flesh fingers against the joints of his left hand.

The new man stopped calling for his hawk and turned very slowly around, the shock on his face was palpable. "Well, shit," he said, looking Bucky slowly up and down. "Sergeant Barnes."

"You know me?" Bucky took in the blond's appearance, black Kevlar vest, purple leather trim, arm guards, tactical pants, combat boots, and some truly impressive bruising along one side of his head. There was matted blood in his hair, but from where he was sitting, Bucky couldn't see any obvious wounds, but then even little head wounds bleed like a stuck pig. Purple leather?

"Yeah, well," the blond scratched the back of his neck, rubbing his fingers into his hairline and down his spine, like his head hurt. "Cap's had us crisscrossing the globe looking for your brainwashed ass."

"Cap?" Bucky tipped his head to the side, continuing to assess the new man. He kept running his hands down the back of his neck, pushing the tips of his fingers into his spine and grimacing.

"Captain America."

"He's looking for me?" he remembered Steve, and Captain America, though those memories were a little more vague. His friend from Brooklyn, who couldn't keep his nose out of trouble, those memories were rock solid.

"Yeah, buddy," the blond leaned against the wall opposite, and slid down the wall. "And he's going to be super sore that I found you first." He put his head down between his knees and took a few slow breaths. "And I got my ass snatched again, and got separated from Yastreb, which is like no-no number one for the two of us in the field."

"Getting snatched, it happen often?" this was not inspiring any kind of confidence in Bucky.

"No, getting separated," the blond shook his head very slowly. "We've only gotten snatched once. Which lead to the not getting separated rule, but that's a story for another time."

"Hawkeye?" a warm feminine voice echoed around the concrete dungeon, causing both men's heads to snap up towards the door.

"Oh, thank god," the new man sighed, the relief on the blond's face was visceral. "Hey, moy malen'kiy yastreb," his voice was soft, but carried.

"Cut the possessive crap, Hawk," the female voice growled.

"Hey," the man hefted himself to his feet again and peered through the door. "How far are you?" Which struck Bucky as a strange question.

"Just across the hall," a hand waved from the opposite cell.

"So just far enough away to suck," the man sighed again. "I found Bucky."

"Does it really count as finding when you get tossed in a cell with the guy?" the girl, Yastreb, the blond had called her. And she called him Hawk? She didn't sound Russian, why call her by a Russian name?

"I'm standing here looking at the guy," the blond, Hawkeye, what kind of crazy ass name was that? Rolled his eyes. "It was our crappy lead, I call that found."

"Fair point," Yastreb consented. "Do you want to talk about our other problem?" A hand reached through the bars across from them, and Bucky got his first glance at the girl, who couldn't top five foot four, long brown hair, curling out of a braid that hung thickly down over her shoulder, and lush curves that her black and purple cat suit did nothing to hide, the left pant leg bare between the bottom of the knee to the top of her black leather boots. Her fingertips waved in the air between the two cells. Hawkeye pushed his arm through the bars and strained to reach her.

"Yeah," he huffed, pulling his hand back. "That's going to suck."

"How much time you think we have?" the girl asked, worrying at the tail of hair at the end of her braid, her bottom lip between her teeth.

Hawkeye rolled his shoulders and stretched his head from side to side. "Bout ten hours, give or take?"

"Plenty of time then," she grumbled. "You think the others have even noticed we're off the grid yet?"

"With your spontaneous electrical issues?" the blond chuckled darkly. "I highly doubt it."

"Nat's probably at least seen that the jet's still not moving," the girl groaned. "She probably thinks we're just taking advantage of a little quiet time." She pushed away from the cell door. "Okay."

"So Barnes," the other man said, turning to face him. "You mind if I call you Barnes?"

"No objections," Bucky drawled, he'd certainly been called worse than his own damned name.

"We have about ten hours to get out of this cell," Hawkeye rattled the bars, which didn't budge. Bucky just watched. "Though in about five hours."

"Four," Yastreb interrupted.

"I can make it to five if I really need to," the blond countered.

"Previous experience tells a different story, hawkass," the girl scoffed, her arms hanging through the bars as she tried to look down the hall.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes and felt around the edges of the door, searching for weaknesses. Bucky continued to sit and watch. "In about four hours," he glared at the girl. "I'm going to be almost totally useless and probably sitting in that corner over there trying to cure entirely into a ball," he just shrugged. "So you and the misses over there, will have to take over from there."

"You two are married?" Bucky couldn't see its but then again, they'd just met.

"Not yet," Yastreb said from her cell, eyes closed, concentration elsewhere.

"Weddings in two days, fucking Ironman went all out, and Thor was not helpful with his suggestions," Hawkeye walked the perimeter of the cell. "And I'd really like to be back in New York before then, because Vdova will kick our asses if Little Hawk over there talked her into that brides maid's dress, and then didn't show up."

"Vdova?" Bucky'd known someone by that name once; Natalia had been his prized student once upon a time.

"Call signs only," Yastreb grumbled from her cell. "It's a getting snatched rule."

"She's not very nice," Bucky muttered, watching the girl who didn't even look legal yet. This Hawkeye guy had to be at least thirty, what on earth were those two doing getting married.

"She's just stressed," the man shrugged and locked eyes with his fiancé across the hall, gesturing at her using sign language.
"Wedding jitters?" the former Winter Soldier asked.

"No," the couple was clearly having some kind of argument in ASL. "We kind of need to touch."

"That's a little more than I need to know," Bucky neither wanted nor needed to know what kind of activities his fellow inmates got up to on their own time.

"No, no," Hawkeye laughed, rubbing the back of his neck again, the corners of his eyes starting to pinch like he was in pain. "It's not a sex thing, though that is awesome."

"Hawkass," Yastreb growled from her cell.

"Right," Hawkeye winked at Bucky. "The need to touch is a byproduct of our all expense paid vacation to Hydra Prison World last year. I'd go into detail, but I really don't want our captors getting any inside info. And Hulk is so much better at explaining these things."

"The important part," the girl interjected. "Is that we're under a deadline, in less than ten hours, my beautiful fiancé is going to lose consciousness if we don't get at least a fingertip on each other, and I'm going to turn into a human Tesla coil."

"Okay," Bucky pulled himself to his feet. "Let's figure this out."

Bucky stopped struggling with the cell door when the whimpering from his cell mate fell silent and the man slumped to the floor. For a moment there was nothing but silence, the room seemed to fall completely still. He could feel the crackle and fizzle of electricity as the hairs of his flesh arm stood on end and what felt like a sonic boom swept through the hallway, the lights flashing and going out, his left arm fell limp at this side. Yastreb had not been kidding about her electrical problem.

"No," Yastreb keened from the cell across the fall, arches of electricity bouncing from her fingertips and dancing down the metal bars. She let out a heartbroken sob and rattled the door, sparks falling as she desperately pulled at the bars. The poor girl was thrown to the floor as the door suddenly gave way and swung violently outward, clanging against the concrete wall.

The brunette recovered quickly and pushed herself off the floor, stumbling across the hall, her feet faltering and dragging against the floor. "Bucky, bring him here," she said, her words slurring and electricity jumping between her fingers and behind her eyes, the stray hairs sticking out from her head. Bucky just looked at her, frozen in place. "James Buchanan Barnes, you get off your ass and bring my mate to me this fucking instant or so help me, I will fry your ass so good you'll spend the rest of your days drooling into a sippy cup."

Bucky had no doubt in that moment that the fiery goddess in front of him could do exactly what she threatened. He pushed against his metal arm as the internal mechanics started to come back on line, rotating his shoulder violently to force it to reset and obey his commands. Hawkeyes body was like a giant ragdoll as he lifted the man over his shoulder. Bucky's left arm curled over his back, securing him in place. Yastreb's fingers reached for her partner, lightning bolts dancing down her arm, shocking against her skin as it traveled down the cell door bars, the zaps didn't seem to faze her at all. Her hands clumsily brushed the metal of Bucky's shoulder as she reached for Hawkeye, electricity exploding down his arm, holding all three of them in place, before the world shattered to white and they all dropped to the floor.

Darcy pushed into the fingers scratching gently at her scalp, pulling her to consciousness. "Hmm," she rolled over, frowning at the cold hard surface against her skin. "Don't stop, baby."

"I love it when you say that," her mate's voice rumbled through her skin. "You back with me, baby?" Clint pushed his lover up into his lap, Bucky still completely oblivious to the world.

"Yeah," she snuggled against his chest, the feeling of her mates body against hers and their link strong and open in her mind warmed her all the way through.

"Oh, babe," Clint's fingers trailed down her arms, linking her fingers with his. "I can warm you up so much better than this when we get home." The image of their bed at the Avenger's Tower, bathed in half light, as she tumbled into it, her lover leaning down over her flowed through her mind. Darcy squirmed with anticipation.

"What the hell," Bucky grumbled behind Clint, his mind full of dirty images that weren't' his own, starring the fiery brunette.

"Oh no," Darcy pulled away from Clint carefully keeping one hand linked to her partner, as they both looked over at Bucky. There was a pressure at the back of both of their minds that felt way too much like their own link. They reached out for Bucky. The link locked in place, all three minds opening and connecting. "We are so fucked."

Clint nodded in agreement, letting his and fall away from Bucky's arm. "Ironman's going to have a field day with this."

"What the hell is happening?" Bucky pushed Darcy's hand away from him, feeling a pressure at the back of his mind at the loss of contact.

"Welcome to the Hawks, Bucky Bear," Darcy sighed. "We're linked."

"What does that mean?"

"Let's get out of here," Clint stood and pushed the cell door all the way open. "We'll explain everything on the ride home."

Notes:

Feed the muse!