So, this is an extra early chapter for my reviewer; Princess Prettypants, because she is awesome, her reviews always makes me smile, and I can totally relate on the monday pain thing. Anything to make mondays more bearable for anyone. Oh, and this chapter is long! :-) It is more angst than fluff though... but if you read last chapter you can probably guess that the fluff is on its way. In massive amounts!

I mean no copyright infringement, and I am not claiming to own the Avengers films - I haven't even seen them!

TapTap

Bucky awoke the next day in their transparent prison, trying to cut out the loud young men that had gotten them all captured, and who certainly had not understood just how bad their situation was. Bucky seriously doubted that the meres were going to let them live simply because of ego. No, not so likely.

Instead of taking part of the conversation - read, bragging - going on, Bucky kept looking out. Therefore, towards early noon, he was the first to see movement in that other other bubble, one that strangely had water inside of it, too. Then what was even the point of it.

He realised just what mere moments later, as the mere who had entered dived into the water, while the human stayed on firm ground, sitting down at the edge of the small, protected pool. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Bucky realised that it was a playground. He gasped audibly and closed his eyes on instinct, when the mere pulled the human into the water. He had no words, even internally, for just how monstrous he found meres at that moment.

The next moment, he could have sword that humans were worse. The others, sharing his cell and having been alerted to the scene by Bucky's gasp, were clearly looking now, and they sounded as if it was the coolest thing they'd even seen, a few of them even cheering, as if not only entirely unaware that they might be next, but also without even a shred of empathy.

Trying to shut them out, Bucky tried his best not to wonder if that was how his best friend had died. Toyed with by a mere who was bored...

"Hey, Barnes!" James Barnes, Bucky, to his friends, looked up on instinct at hearing his name called. The guy who had hailed him looked positively smug. "Look who it is, about to be meremaid-food. It's your friend Steve!

Bucky looked out again so fast he almost got whiplash. They were right; it was Steve. He watched his best friend with something between relief - relief at getting to see him one more time - and pure horror. He didn't want to watch his best friend die.

Steve, it seemed, and now that he was turned in the right direction, Bucky could only just make out his friend's face, had not yet realised what was going to happen, and seemed far from a panicked victim at the moment. He was relaxed, letting the very handsome mere run his hands over his skin without resisting or - at least what could be seen from this distance - seemingly feeling any fear as he played in the water with his darkhaired companion.

Bucky swallowed as he watched, suppressing tears as he watched what very likely was the last moments in the life of his best friend. Maybe irrationally, he wished he could be there. Be with him. That Steve at least knew he wasn't alone now.

This was as far as he came in his thoughts, when the mere took a strong grip around Steve's ankle and pulled him under. This time, there would be no coming up.

He tried to force himself to watch, but he couldn't do it. Meanwhile, his idiot companions were enjoying the show - they always had had a thing for teasing Steve. "Maybe he'll shout for you at the end" one of them mocked "or his mother" was the second suggestion. If he hadn't been far too preoccupied with other things, he would have rolled his eyes at their lack of imagination, but now he simply didn't care. So Bucky listened to their unrespectful sounds and waited, his eyes firmly shut. He didn't want to open them, to see Steven lying dead at the bottom of that little pool, but eventually he had to, and he gasped anew at what he saw.

The mere was kissing him, seemingly letting Steve share his air. They kept looking on, Bucky and his cellmates, as Steve was dragged under, again and again, until he started struggling in earnest, seemingly finally no longer enjoying the game. Playtime was over.

"Bucky, Bucky!" One of the stupid boys, never having grown up though he really ought to have done at his age, mocked, as Steven fought the mere. Then, to all of their surprise, the mere broke the surface of the water, dragging Steve up with him. Bucky was so busy being grateful for this small grace - small as it likely would mean nothing in only very little time - but which still meant everything; all of the world, that he didn't notice the clawed mere-warrior outside the walls of their cell looking up at the sound of his name, and frown at some implication only she could know of.