May 15, 2014.
Bucky has a hate-love relationship with sleep. Sure, sleeping was pleasant and inviting, but then the nightmares came. Then Bucky would despise the need for sleep. He was thankful for the loud boom of thunder that woke him up from his fitful sleep. Bucky assumed that sleep wasn't coming back for the rest of the night, so he grabbed his journal off of the couch and got up from his slightly uncomfortable sleeping position on the floor. He walked to the panel of two light switches and flipped the switch that turned on the two wall lights near the balcony door. Sitting under the light, Bucky opened up his journal. He read the last entry he made before going to sleep. It was about getting to the safe house, or safe apartment as Lana called it; Lana cooking the canned spaghetti ("There seems to be a canned everything," Bucky wrote); and listening to Lana talk about her past, which wasn't that great from what Bucky's heard. He looked over more than once two sentences he wrote.
She's done bad things. But so have I.
Bad things- they had that in common. They've done bad things. Bad things have happened to them, not good things. Never good things.
The nightmares were shown again in flashes, so Bucky closed his right hand and dug his fingernails into his palm. He focused on the pain and tried to think of something else, but he couldn't get his mind off of the nightmares. Then he remembered he had his journal resting in his lap and picked up his pen and wrote about his nightmares.
More faces. More screams. Always the same. Always death.
He closed his journal and tossed it and the pen aside. Bucky closed his eyes and listened to the pitter-patter of the rain in hopes that it would take his mind off of things. His eyes snapped open when Bucky heard Lana mutter something in her sleep. It must've been a dream she was having, hopefully not a nightmare. He went back to listening to the rain and tried to remember something from his past involving rain.
The memory he saw was definitely before World War Two. Before Steve became Captain America, and when Bucky was taking care of him most of the time. Steve was sick with some kind of sickness, and Bucky was taking care of him while Steve's mom had to work at the hospital. Steve kept ragging on him to get to school before it was over and that he can take care of himself, but he'd contradict that statement with a heavy cough. Bucky said that it was fine if he missed a day or two because the teachers would understand why Bucky was gone since Steve was gone as well. "Besides, it's a beautiful day," Bucky defended before going to open the window to give Steve some fresh air. Not even a minute after he opened the window, Bucky had to close it as rain poured over Brooklyn. Steve found the irony funny, even if he couldn't laugh without risking hacking up a lung.
"Beautiful day, huh?" Steve quipped.
Bucky chuckled and shook his head, "You're a punk."
"Jerk."
Bucky smiled at the memory and immediately went to his journal to write it down. Thunder roared outside which made Bucky jump in shock. He shook his head and went back to writing again. Lana stirred in her sleep, which Bucky could hear but not see due to the couch being in the way.
"How long is this stupid storm going to last?" Lana asked tiredly. Bucky saw her silhouette get up from the mattress. She walked over to Bucky, nearly tripping over the couch on the way to him, and sat down next to him. "Thunder wake you up?"
"Yeah," Bucky replied. "You were talking in your sleep a while ago," he said with amusement.
"Was I?" Lana chuckled. "What did I say?"
"I don't know. Couldn't quite hear you."
"Okay." Lana looked at Bucky's open journal. "What're you writing about?"
"Memory," Bucky answered as he handed Lana the journal. He watched Lana read what Bucky wrote. She laughed quietly as she gave the journal back.
"Did you two miss school so much that the teachers were used to it?" Lana questioned.
"Yeah." Bucky racked his brain for something to remember about taking care of Steve. "I only skipped when his mom was working in the hospital."
"Was she a nurse?"
Bucky thought about that question. He nodded, "Yeah. Tuberculosis ward."
Lana let out a noise of disgust, "Poor thing."
"She didn't mind it as long as she got to help people. Steve's the same way too."
"And people say that personality traits can't be inherited," Lana commented as she rested her head against Bucky's shoulder. "You're getting a lot better at remembering things."
"I know." Bucky felt proud that he was, in fact, getting better at remembering. Remembering lets him know that he wasn't always the Winter Soldier, and so do the new memories he's making. He looked down at Lana, who was rubbing between her thumb and index finger a part of the sleeve of Bucky's jacket. Bucky smirked and picked up his pen again.
"Ever the writer," Lana said jokingly. Bucky didn't say anything back as he flipped to the page where he wrote about he and Lana getting to the safe apartment and drew a line under the last paragraph.
Thunderstorm woke us up. Lana read the memory I wrote down. She has her head against my shoulder as I'm writing this. She does it often. Leaning against me. I don't mind. I'm getting better at remembering. Remembering makes me feel… human. Yeah. Human. It doesn't make me feel like who I was before the fall. I can't go back to completely being me. I guess I can live with it. This new life isn't so bad. I think that's only because Lana's here. She's… family. I don't think I've used that word in a long time. It's still true. Funny. I thought she was someone out to kill me at first. But she wasn't. I didn't expect to get along with her that much. Sometimes, I think she reminds me of what I remember about me in the past. Sometimes.
Bucky decided to stop writing and closed his journal. He saw Lana's arm stretch across him in a hug. "I think you're family too," Lana said. Bucky smiled. Family. That's starting to become a favorite word of his.
When the rain stopped, it was what was supposed to be daylight had the gray clouds not been there. Bucky and Lana finished off the rest of the granola bars for breakfast as they planned on getting food that wasn't canned after Lana exchanged her euros and US dollars for Romanian leu.
"Can you teach me how to fight?" Lana asked, which got Bucky's attention.
"Fight?" he echoed.
Lana nodded, "Yeah. I'm not the best fighter. I mean, did you see me in Timișoara? I was in a chokehold." Bucky remembered seeing that and felt bad that he didn't protect Lana from that. "All of the times I didn't die from a bad guy was either luck or my powers, and I can't always rely on those two. Therefore, I should become a better fighter. So, can you teach me how to fight?"
Bucky wanted to chuckle at how Lana spoke like she was a businesswoman or something, but was more focused on answering Lana's question. "I can. When d'you want to start?"
"After we're done shopping," Lana replied as she got up from the couch to throw away the granola bar wrappers.
Surprisingly enough, markets were open despite the gray skies and rain-slicked pavement. Most of the stalls were selling mostly fruits and vegetables, but there were some stalls selling baked goods and snacks custom to Romania. There was also a butcher's shop nearby. Bucky was at a stall that was selling plums when Lana walked up to him with a brown paper bag in her hand.
"Hey, I got us something for- are those plums?" Lana asked excitedly.
"Yeah," Bucky answered, confused as to why Lana was so excited about the fruit.
"That's my favorite fruit. I didn't know they were in season yet." She looked up and got the attention of the owner of the stall. Bucky was impressed that Lana was able to speak in Romanian about the price of the plums to the owner. The owner told Lana the price, and Lana gave him a few leu notes. The owner thanked her and gave her a plastic bag to put the three plums in that Lana grabbed. Bucky smirked as Lana thanked the owner and walked away with a bounce in her step.
"You did pretty good talking with that guy," Bucky complimented when he caught up to Lana.
"Thank you." Lana opened up the plastic bag and grabbed one of the plums. She took a bite and smiled in satisfaction. "Yeah, still my favorite fruit."
Bucky was told by Lana that they should go find a library like Bucky wanted. "Consider it my repayment for your agreeing to teach me how to fight," she stated. Eventually, they found a library that had computers in it as well. Of course, Lana also took it upon herself to teach Bucky how to use a computer.
"They have really stupid names for these- what are they again?" Bucky asked.
"Websites, but what's on screen right now, it's a search engine," Lana answered before taking a bite of snack she got at the market (bulz is what it's called). "And what do you mean by stupid?"
"Well, Google, Yahoo, Bing- who came up with these names?"
"They had to make it stand out somehow, otherwise people wouldn't remember it. Now," she leaned forward in her seat, "What are you wanting to look up?"
Bucky thought about it with his fingers hovering over the keyboard. Where does he even start? He got an idea and clumsily typed in what he was wanting to look up.
"Going with yourself? Classy," Lana joked. "Oh, click on the first link."
"What's that?" Bucky asked. Lana pointed on the first line of blue text on the screen. "Oh." He moved the mouse (seriously, what is it with these weird names for technology?) and clicked on the link. "Wikipedia?" Bucky questioned. "These names," he muttered. Lana giggled at Bucky's exasperation.
"Okay, this website is mostly accurate."
"Isn't there one that's entirely accurate?"
"Well, this one has references to other websites or books to prove it's accuracy. So, if it has references, then it's probably right."
Bucky sighed, "Alright." He looked at the screen and saw a black-and-white picture of him staring back at him.
"So, that was you in the forties?"
"Yeah," Bucky said distractedly as he was reading the article.
"You look adorable in that picture," Lana gushed jokingly. Bucky was still reading when he noticed something wrong, and he was sure that it was wrong.
"I wasn't born in nineteen-sixteen," he stated in exasperation.
"When were you born then?"
"Nineteen-seventeen." Bucky leaned back in his seat. "Accurate, is it?" he quipped.
"Oh, calm down. Another thing about this website," Lana pushed the keyboard closer to her, "Is that you can fix any mistakes." Bucky watched the screen as Lana fixed the inaccurate birth year. "There, it's fixed. Better?" Bucky looked at Lana in annoyance out of the corner of his eye. Lana only smirked in response. He shook his head and went back to reading the article.
"Howling Commandos?" he read aloud. Bucky moved the mouse and clicked on the text (it was blue, so it had to lead to something). The screen showed an article discussing Captain America's combat unit.
"Huh, you and your buddies were pretty badass back then," Lana commented.
"Is there anyway to get actual pictures of them?" Bucky asked. Memories were forming in the back of his head about his fellow Commandos.
"Yeah, of course. Let me work my magic- figuratively, not literally."
Bucky left the library with photos to add to his journal and a better knowledge of historical events in the world. "So," Lana said as she walked by him, "Did you get your knowledge fix for the day?"
"I did," Bucky replied as he looked at a photo of him with three of the Howling Commandos. He was able to recognize them as Dum Dum Dugan, Jim Morita, and Gabe Jones.
"Good. So, we'll practice fighting when we get home?"
Bucky nodded absentmindedly. Home- another word he hasn't used, or heard for that matter, for a long time. He can say that he finally has a home after so long, and that made Bucky feel, well, hopeful.
A/N: A new chapter with bonding and banter and references! Yay! Leave a review or favorite if you enjoy, and drop a follow if you want to get updated on when this story gets... well, updated.
*BlibBlabs*
-I made a reference to a little inconsistency found in the Captain America Smithsonian Exhibit shown in CA:TWS. I'm sure you'll find it.
-Also, obligatory reference to plums.
-And there was another reference to the Civil War prequel comic.
-I've read about the infamous Avengers #200 comic. Man, that's a weird bundle of paper.
-Also, bulz, is a Romanian snack that's made of roasted polenta stuffed with cheese, bacon, and sour cream. It sounds pretty delicious.
-I tried writing Bucky's journal entries where it's just phrases that sometimes form full sentences. Because who needs commas? Heh.
-I'm pretty sure when he was young, Bucky would skip school whenever Steve was sick and Sarah Rogers couldn't take care of Steve.
-And the teacher would be doing roll call and say Bucky's name only to get no response. So the teacher says, "Is Steven Rogers present?" And when he finds out Steve is gone as well, he's like, "Well, I hope Steven gets well soon," before going back to roll call.
*BlibBlabs Over*
-SirFangirl
