Kecskemét, Hungary. May 13, 2014.

Lana silently tapped her index fingers on the steering wheel as a song from her mixtape played quietly. She glanced over at Bucky sleeping in the passenger seat before turning her attention back to the road. The sun was casting an orange glow over the road in front of Lana. She relaxed in her seat a little seeing as there weren't any cars sharing the road with her. Her mind flashed back to her conversation with Dmitry before she left Bratislava.


"Why are you back in Europe?" he'd asked.

"I'm helping Bucky. He needed to get somewhere," Lana answered, not wanting to make the mistake of telling where they were going.

"You're not going back to Sokovia, are you?"

"What, no, we're not going there."

"Good. I know that Strucker is still there. Even then, I'm not sure how the public would react if they saw-"

"Have you been working with HYDRA?" she interrupted. She didn't want Dmitry to talk about the past. Dmitry sighed.

"No, no. I know from the file dump that happened last month. I also know what exactly your friend used to do." Dmitry gave Lana a look that read of concern.

"So?"

"Don't you think it's a little dangerous working with him? He's killed people."

"So what? He doesn't do that anymore, and I can stop him." Lana crossed her arms over her chest. "Besides, how am I any different from him?" She looked down at her feet and frowned.

"Hey, look at me," Dmitry grabbed Lana's biceps and craned his head so that Lana could see him, "Don't dwell on what happened in the past." Lana glanced up at Dmitry and nodded. She stood straight again and gave Dmitry a small smile. She saw the smile on Dmitry's face, but there was a look in his eyes that betrayed whatever Dmitry was trying to convey through his smile.

"What are you hiding from me?" she asked. Lana saw Dmitry's change of expression and was even more curious to know what he was hiding.

"If I tell you, will you promise me to not go back to Sokovia?" he asked.

"I promise," Lana answered, but she was partially lying.

"The rest of the experiments, HYDRA still has them. In fact, some sources have told me that they're wanting to replicate them." Lana stared at him in shock.

"I thought you weren't with HYDRA," was the only thing she could get herself to say.

"I'm not. I just have people who get dirt on them in case HYDRA tries to come after me. Of course, I won't need them now that the file dump happened. But Lana, don't go back to Sokovia."

"What about the replications? They could kill people, Dmitry."

"I know, but if they know that you're alive- think of what could happen, Lana." Lana looked away and let out a shaky breath. "Worry about you and your friend. No one else, just the two of you. Got it?" Lana looked back at Dmitry and nodded.

"Got it." Dmitry smiled at Lana and wrapped her in a hug.


Lana blinked the memory away and focused on the road. She worked on quelling the worry in her until she heard a grunt from Bucky. Lana glanced over to see his face contorted and his fists clenching and unclenching in his sleep. Lana knew it was a nightmare, but she didn't see what it was about because she's staying true to her promise. She waited nervously for Bucky to wake up and was scared for what he might do when he woke up. It took everything in Lana's power to not swerve the car when Bucky woke up with a loud gasp. She looked again to see Bucky looking around wildly, trying to determine if he was awake or not. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "You okay?" she asked, which made Bucky jump in shock. She felt Bucky staring at her as she turned her attention to the road again.

"Yeah, fine," he answered. "Where're we at?"

"Kecskemét, Hungary."

"That far?" Lana looked in the rearview mirror to see Bucky's metal arm reaching for Lana's backpack.

"It's only been about four hours since we left Bratislava," she said as Bucky pulled the backpack into his lap and unzipped one of the pockets. She glanced over to see Bucky pull out one of the bags of trail mix Lana stole from Maria's ship. Lana smirked. "Hungry?" she questioned jokingly.

"Starving," Bucky replied before shoving a handful of trail mix into his mouth.

"Don't eat all of our food," Lana teased. "That bag of trail mix looks like it wouldn't fill one-fourth of your stomach."

"And why's that?" he asked after swallowing the trail mix.

"Because you look like your metabolism runs faster than a cheetah."

"I don't think it's that fast."

"But you do admit that you have a fast metabolism. Was that always a Bucky Barnes-related trait?"

"No, that was after I joined the army," Bucky stated. Lana raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Did I just trigger another memory?" she asked.

"Yeah," Bucky answered solemnly.

"Oh, is it a bad one? Sorry."

"No, don't blame yourself for it." He looked over to Lana. "D'you want to know how I survived the fall?" he asked.

"Only if you're okay with talking about it."

"I am."

"Then tell me the story of how the great Bucky Barnes survived falling from the train," Lana spoke dramatically.

"I wouldn't call myself great," he commented and began his story before Lana could protest against Bucky's self-loathing. She listened as Bucky explained how his army unit was captured by HYDRA and kept to work on "some plane" according to Bucky. Bucky said that he got sick while working and had to be Zola's test subject instead. He said he remembered Zola saying to one of the assistants something about remaking a serum of some kind. "I don't really know what it was, but I'm sure it was what made me survive falling off the train."

"So, HYDRA saved your life," Lana commented quietly.

"I don't think it's really saving it."

"Well, yeah, but you could say they stopped you from dying early." Lana noticed that Bucky didn't say anything back to that. Lana felt disbelief as her mind brought up the possibility that Bucky thought he should've died when he fell from the train. "Hey, Bucky," she said after a silence that lasted too long.

"What?" he asked quietly.

"Thank you. For letting me help you, and for watching my back," she said. "I'm glad that you're still alive. Because if you weren't, I wouldn't be having probably the greatest time of my life," she added with a grin.

"Greatest time of your life?" Bucky questioned in disbelief.

"Well, compared to past life events, I'd say this is pretty great. Sure, there's been a few bad moments, but we're still in one piece and getting close to Romania. And you're a nice travel buddy," Lana answered with a chuckle. She could hear a hum of laughter from Bucky, and Lana felt accomplished that she may have stopped the self-loathing for a little bit. "So," she began, "What's the first thing you want to do when we get to Romania?" She could see out of the corner of her eye Bucky tilting his head back in thought.

"Find a library," he answered.

"Can you read Romanian?"

"Yeah."

"Are you giving yourself a long overdue history lesson?" Lana asked.

"I am."

Lana smirked, "Well, I know a way to do it that is a lot faster than books. Do you know what a computer is, Bucky?"

"Sounds familiar."

"Good, because there's this thing called the Internet, and it is very helpful in giving you information. And we can access it at a library."

"Alright." Lana smiled in excitement at the prospect of telling Bucky about modern technology. Her excitement was boosted when a song she particularly liked started playing.

"Oh! This is a really good song, Bucky," she said as she turned the volume up. "I've paid my dues," she sang quietly and stopped. "-And bad mistakes, I've made a few," Lana continued with a small smile.

"You like this song?" Bucky questioned with slight amusement.

"Yes, I do," Lana replied quickly. She grinned as the chorus began. "We are the champions, my friend!" she sang and shook Bucky by the shoulder at the "my friend" part. Lana looked over and saw Bucky shake his head in amusement at Lana's excitement. "I told you it's a really good song."

Cenad, Romania.

It was dark when Bucky and Lana finally made it to Cenad after dropping the Beetle off in Makó, Hungary. They had to walk to Cenad; the only convenience was that sneaking across the border was easier. As Lana walked beside Bucky, she plugged her headphones into her Walkman and set them on her head, leaving one ear exposed. "Well, we made it to Romania," she said with excitement. Bucky didn't say anything back. Lana stepped closer to him and wedged her way under his right arm.

"What are you doing?" Bucky asked.

"Hugging you, and I'm kind of using you as a pillar of support," she replied with a chuckle.

"Tired already?" Bucky teased.

"Nope." Lana stepped away from Bucky and shoved her hands into her pocket. "So," she began after a brief silence, "Since we're in Romania, do you want to start teaching me some more Romanian?"

"What do you want to know?"

So Lana made it like a game. She would give a word in English; Bucky would say it in Romanian; and Lana would repeat it a few times in Romanian.

"Okay. What's Romanian for 'big brother'?" Lana asked at one point.

"You don't know what that is in Romanian?"

"No, that's why I'm asking you."

"Alright. It's fratele mai mare." Lana nodded with a mischievous smirk on her face that Bucky didn't see. She turned to Bucky and started walking sideways. Lana poked Bucky on the shoulder.

"Fratele mai mare," she repeated. Bucky looked over at her with a look of surprise.

"What'd you do that for?" he asked, which made Lana giggle.

"I'm just having fun." She saw Bucky shake his head.

"It's been a long time since someone's called me that."

"Well, I don't think you know very many people who speak-"

"I mean- you know-"

"Big brother," Lana finished as she turned to walk forwards.

"Yeah, exactly."

"It's nice, isn't it?"

"It's better than some of the other things I've been called." They continued walking and saw some buildings in the distance. Lana bobbed her head to the music until she felt a poke on her shoulder. "Soră mai mică."

"What does that mean?"

"Kid sister." Lana laughed and shook her head.

"Really? Kid sister?"

"I was only returning the favor."

Lana laughed sarcastically, "Alright, whatever you say."


A/N: A new chapter is here! Happy belated Fourth of July for all of the 'Muricans reading this. I tried posting this on the Fourth, but alas, I had family parties and many distractions. I also think Marvel fans should be aware that July 4 is good old Cap-Cap-Cippity-Captain America's birthday. How patriotic! Holidays and birthdays of fictional characters aside, leave a review or favorite or follow if you enjoyed.

*BlibBlabs*

-As of the time I'm writing this A/N, Captain America:The First Avenger is on. I literally paused whatever music/video I had playing in the background whilst writing whenever Bucky Barnes was onscreen.

-My friend left a review on this fic, but he didn't tell me until we met up a few days ago because he's sneaky like that. I already knew it was him though, because I have some pretty good deduction skills.

-The song I mentioned in this chapter is "We Are the Champions" by Queen. Does anyone think the first verse is a spot-on description of Bucky Barnes?

-Also, I've been doing "extensive" research on the movie The Bronze, which has Sebastian Stan in it (for ten minutes, so I've heard). But oh my, does it look bad.

-But I do feel pretty cool since I want to make my own critical opinion on it.

-I've also seen that *scene* which was basically one of the film's (weak) selling points, and I'm like, "Why?"

-Seriously, if the actress didn't want to commit to that scene and used a body double, then why have the scene in the movie? It was only one minute and thirty-four seconds long. Would it really make that much of a difference if it was taken out?

-But you know what? Props to Sebastian Stan for doing that entire scene except for two parts (which he said he would have done if he had more time to practice), and for finding fun in working on that movie, because he actually contributed to the making of the movie. He's the real MVP.

-I just talked about an indie movie in the A/N of a Marvel fan fiction. Well then.

*BlibBlabs Over*

-SirFangirl