Lana shifted the straps of her backpack for the third time possibly. She looked behind her to see Bucky still following her with his eyes alert and looking everywhere. He still had his knife gripped in his hand; Lana understood though as she had her knife in her hand. "Where did you get your knife from?" she asked. Bucky snapped out of the trance he was falling into and looked at Lana.

"It's from HYDRA," he said. "What about yours?"

Lana looked down at her bloodied knife. "Lifted it from a pawn shop," she answered casually. Her knife wasn't the first thing she's stolen.

"Did you mind control the owner to give it to you?" Bucky asked with an edge of sarcasm in his tone.

"No. There was too many people around. I'm sure they would be very confused as to why a pawn shop owner gave a girl a knife without her paying for it. Stealing it was easier."

"You steal often?"

"Yes," Lana answered as she approached a fire escape connected to a brick building that looked no different from the other buildings she and Bucky have passed. She stopped, which made Bucky stop behind her. "This is our shortcut; watch your step." She stepped up the fire escape with Bucky following behind. A couple flights of stairs later, and they were on a rooftop showing the New York skyline in the distance. There were other rooftops that were close enough to jump over to.

"What kind of shortcut is this?" Bucky questioned. Lana turned around to see Bucky looking at her with an irritated grimace.

"Relax, Grumpy, we can jump the rooftops. That way, there will be no petty criminals or HYDRA agents seeing us. You're welcome," she replied smugly. To prove her point, Lana started running to the next rooftop. She stepped on the ledge and jumped over to the next rooftop. Lana landed safely with a tuck and roll move, and she stood up to face Bucky, who could barely be seen due to the night sky. "Are you coming?" she asked teasingly. She watched as Bucky came barreling to the edge of the rooftop he was on. He jumped over and tucked and rolled farther than Lana did. As he stood up, Lana gave him a slow applause. "Nice jumping skills, Bucky. We have a lot more rooftops to cross, so let's go while the night is young." Bucky rolled his eyes at Lana dramatics and began running to the next roof. Lana began running as well as trying to get ahead of Bucky. "Don't get too far ahead of me!" she called out.

After what felt like hours of running and jumping across rooftops. Lana and Bucky stopped on the rooftop of a building that was reaching into another neighborhood. Lana sat with her legs stretched out as she drank from a plastic water bottle that was in her backpack. She looked over to see Bucky laying down nearby. He seemed a little out of breath, but not winded like Lana was. She unbuckled her backpack and removed it from her shoulders. She noticed Bucky look over at her as she unzipped the bag and brought out another water bottle and a neatly folded, blue blanket. Lana rolled the water bottle to Bucky and tossed the blanket in between them. "We should sleep the rest of the night off, and then we can get on the streets before sunrise," she stated. "You can use my blanket as a pillow or a blanket," she added with a cheeky grin. Bucky took the water bottle and sat up to drink it, but he didn't grab the blanket. After taking a long drink, he twisted the cap back on the bottle.

"You can keep the blanket," he muttered. Lana nodded and brought the blanket into her lap .

"Okay. Are you going to get some sleep then?" she asked with slight concern. Surely he was tired from all of the running and jumping?

"No, not right now." Lana watched Bucky stare at the water bottle in his hands; she couldn't read his expression because of the night and Bucky's long hair covering his face. "What did you see?" he asked quietly, which surprised Lana.

"What?" she asked.

"When you read my mind, twice, what did you see?"

"Oh," Lana said as she tried to remember the things she saw in Bucky's head. When she gathered those memories, she turned her body around to face Bucky. "I saw it all from your point of view. I saw you falling from a train, and it was followed by you being dragged away by a man in winter clothes and a fur hat. Your arm was half gone as well." She paused briefly when she noticed Bucky's right arm grab his left arm as if he was remembering these things along with her. "Then you were in a room getting the rest of your arm sawed off. It looked painful. But then, you got a metal arm in place of your flesh arm." Bucky squeezed the water bottle with his left arm to the point the cap was coming off. "There was also this middle aged guy who was saying something to you about being the new fist of HYDRA or something," Lana continued.

"Arnim Zola," Bucky commented more to himself than Lana, but Lana heard it.

"Anyways, I remember seeing lots of- violence," she added awkwardly; she wasn't sure how to explain this next part to Bucky. "There were numerous memories of deaths that followed. Deaths caused by-"

"Me. I know," Bucky interrupted with guilt in his voice. He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Yeah," Lana added quietly. "But what I saw next was you fighting on this weird aircraft thing. You were fighting a man in this rather patriotic costume. He seemed to know you; he was trying to get you to not fight him because he didn't want to hurt you. He knew your name, as if he was trying to get you to remember. Then he said something to you about the end of the line or something, and you stopped fighting him. The last thing I saw was you in the river, rescuing that man and dragging him to shore." Lana waited for a response from Bucky, but he didn't say anything. He still was crushing the water bottle. "Bucky?" Lana asked quietly.

"That man's name was Steve," Bucky replied with a tone Lana couldn't recognized. Was it sadness? Recognition?

"Was he your friend?"

"Yeah, I think so," Bucky answered. Lana realized from the uncertainty in his voice, that the lack of memories wasn't entirely because Lana didn't look into Bucky's mind for long.

"What did HYDRA do to you?" she questioned. She expected it to not be good.

"They used me," Bucky answered. Lana could almost understand what that was like.

"They tried to do that to me too, but I escaped."

"No, not the way you think. It's not like you," he snapped. Lana leaned back in shock from the anger in his words. "I was a puppet. A machine with one mission; kill the target. And I did that for fifty years!" He threw the water bottle across the rooftop in his anger. Lana drew back in fear as she watched Bucky clench and unclench his fist. Lana felt ashamed for all of the times she complained about having to be under HYDRA, even if it was for a week, or how Strucker gave Lana her powers that took away everything she had. She felt ashamed of her bitterness because at least she wasn't used like Bucky was. Lana looked down at the blanket in her lap. She quickly unfolded the blanket and stood up. She might get punched for this, but Lana considered this her way of trying to make things better. She quietly approached Bucky and draped the blanket over his shoulders. Lana quickly sat down and wrapped her left arm around Bucky's shoulders in a side hug. She felt Bucky tense up under her arm.

"I'm sorry," Lana whispered. She felt relief that Bucky hadn't punched her yet, but that feeling quickly went away when Bucky roughly pushed her away. It wasn't a punch, but there was still a dull pain in her side. Lana sat up and looked back at Bucky. He still had the blanket over his shoulders, so at least all of Lana's efforts weren't a loss. She sighed. "It wasn't the same as you, but I know what it's like to be mistreated by someone. Granted, it wasn't HYDRA, for the most part."

"And just how were you mistreated?" Bucky muttered. Lana heard this and held back the annoyance rising up in her.

"My mother, she hated me ever since my father died. She blames me for his death even though I couldn't do anything to stop it. Ever since my father died, my mother ignored me. When she did give me her attention, it was only to berate me for causing my father's death. One night, when I was twelve, she got drunk and beat me and said awful things about me. And-" her voice cracked, and she paused to wipe a tear away. She took a deep breath and looked out to the New York skyline and decided she's said enough. "Anyway," she continued, "I know how it feels to be mistreated, Bucky. I just want you to know that your not a puppet or a machine anymore. You're Bucky, my partner in crime," she said with a small smile. She glanced over to see Bucky turning his head to her.

"Partner in crime?" he questioned. Lana turned her head to see Bucky staring at her with a confused look. She chuckled at his confusion.

"Yes. I assumed that we're going to be stuck with each other for a while, so I should call you something. Partner in crime sounded more fun to me. Wouldn't you say the same?" Lana tilted her head. She watched as Bucky's lips managed a small smile.

"Okay, whatever you say, kid."

"I'm not a kid; I'm seventeen," Lana defended.

"Yeah, well I'm ninety-seven." Lana raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Ninety-seven?" she echoed. Lana moved closer to Bucky and looked at him intently. She pushed back a side of his hair and tucked it behind his ear. Bucky looked at Lana out of the corner of his eye, but Lana didn't heed much attention to it. She poked his scruffy cheek with curiosity. "How? You're so- young," she commented with blatant bewilderment.

"Cryo freezers," Bucky answered as he moved Lana's hand from his face. Lana stared at him with amazement.

"That's rather impressive," she mused.

"I guess." A silence appeared once again as Lana turned to face the skyline again. Bucky sighed. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"For what?" Lana asked, not even bothering to look at Bucky.

"For trying to reach out to me. It's been a while since someone tried to do that to me. Sorry about what you had to endure from your mother." Lana shook her head.

"It's in the past. I'm just glad I'm away from it all." She sat staring at her feet until she felt fabric being thrown over her shoulders. She reached up and felt the blanket on her. Lana looked over to see Bucky giving her that small smile that's becoming familiar to her. She looked down and lightly laughed. "I'm looking forward to the adventures to come, Bucky."

"Me too, Lana."

A/N: Chapter Two is here, folks! I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who read the first chapter; I really wasn't expecting this many views/visitors. Shout out to WrittenWithLove for dropping the first review on this fic. And another shoutout to I_AM_SiriusLOCKED for the inspiration and responding to my review of her awesome fic "Finding Bucky". And another shoutout to my friends C and R for getting hyped with me about all of the views/visitors. Papa bless all of you. Here's to more chapters in the future!

-SirFangirl