Hey all! Sorry for the late update, I was debating whether or not to write today. Anyway, please enjoy! And also, I don't own anything.
X_X_X
"Alright, I'm ready," Bucky said as he sat on the ground in front of Wanda.
She raised her eyebrow at him and he fidgeted once more.
"Buck, come on. It's Wanda, she wouldn't hurt you," Steve said from her bed. Bucky glanced at him and kept squirming around.
"Hey, Steve? I think I sense Nat close by. Why don't you go check?" she said, knowing he'd jump up at the opportunity to see her again.
As expected, he sprung up from her bed.
"Are you sure? I could stay here for a while longer, until you're done," he said, but he was already halfway to the door.
"It's fine, Steve, go get her," she said with a wink.
Bucky picked up on it.
"Wait, who's Nat?" he asked.
"A friend-"
"His crush-"
Steve and Wanda looked at each other with playful glares.
"Damn, Steve. I didn't know you had it in you. Two girls at once? That's wild," Bucky said with a smirk.
"It's not like that," Steve groaned.
The two on the floor grinned up at him and he let out an exasperated sigh.
"If you two are done now, I'm going to go greet Natasha," he said, closing the door behind him with a little more force than was needed.
"Thank you," Bucky said, turning back to Wanda.
"Yeah, no problem. I know he can be a little overbearing sometimes. It's like his mind is going into overprotective dad mode," she said with a small laugh.
Bucky grinned. "Yeah, that's a surprisingly accurate description."
"Alright, are you ready now?" she asked.
He took in a deep breath and nodded.
"Whenever you are," he said.
Wanda placed her fingertips lightly on his temples.
His blue eyes locked on hers and she shivered.
"As soon as you want to stop, just let me know. I'll stop," she said.
Bucky brought his hand up to touch her wrist lightly.
"I trust you," he said.
Closing their eyes, they were both pulled into his mind.
Wanda walked around his mind, a lot more crowded than the last time she was in it. She smiled. It meant he remembered most of everything.
"Hey," came his tranquil voice from behind her.
"Hey," she said, turning to face him.
"It's a bit more full than the last time I was here," she said with a smile.
"It is," he said, looking around at the files and screens and whatever else his mind had decided to use to give form to his memories.
"There's a lot more than the average brain," she said.
"Well, when you've lived for over 100 years…" he trailed off.
"Right," she said awkwardly. "Um, we should probably get started."
Bucky looked at her.
"Where do we start? There's so much here."
Wanda hesitated.
"Well, I could try to find the programmings in here, but since I don't know the timeline all that good, and your subconscious probably doesn't trust me, it would be difficult to get close enough to the base of it.
"Although, it would be best for you to call the memories. Ideally, I want you to be the one to find these things and crush them yourself. It'll help you find peace with it. And if for whatever reason some of it resurfaces, it would be easier for you to control since you already dealt with it in here," Wanda explained.
Bucky nodded and took a step closer to her.
"Alright, we can do that. Just don't leave me alone, please?" he said, sounding slightly scared.
Wanda stepped closer and took his hand in hers.
"Never."
X_X_X
The pair had gone through each word programmed into his mind and each time they ripped the ties HYDRA had on each one, a little bit of the clutter cleared. Wanda could also see the change in Bucky. His face became more neutral, his stance became less hunched. Even as he spoke, there was more confidence in his words.
Wanda noticeably flinched back when they got to the last word and he had called to him all the memories related to that. It was difficult seeing herself in his mind, screaming for him to remember.
It didn't help that in his mind, she could also sense what he was thinking or feeling. The guilt he felt was more intense.
"I think that's everything," he said. Sweat lightly covered his face and he was flush with the work he put into removing HYDRA from his brain.
"God, Bucky. I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that," she said, slightly choking on her words.
She'd been right when she told him in the HYDRA base that they hadn't gotten to all the memories he had. There was a lot shittier things they'd done to him.
"It's fine, it's gone now. Thank to you," he said, offering her a small smile.
"Technically, you did all the hard work. I just stood by and watched."
His smile grew and she returned it.
"So, what now?" he asked.
Wanda shrugged. Then as fast as lighting, she spoke the words in Russian.
Bucky blinked at her.
"You know, I never actually knew what they meant. At least until Pierce came in not knowing Russian and had them program me for the English words as well," he said.
She repeated the words in English and he grinned at her.
"It worked!" he exclaimed.
In his excitement, he grasped Wanda in a hug and spun her around.
She laughed until he abruptly set her down.
"I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me," he apologized.
Wanda only grinned and hugged him back.
"It's alright, I understand. I'm so proud!" she said.
They stood hugging until they realized how long they stood in each other's arms. With a sheepish smile, they pulled away.
"So…" he began, cursing himself for not knowing what to do. Back in his era he wouldn't have been in a situation like this.
Wanda held back her smile as he continued to think about his life.
Which brought something else to the front of her mind.
"Oh! Nat is probably here by now," she said.
Bucky's face lit up.
"I can't wait to finally meet the girl Steve's crushing on!"
At this Wanda's face fell.
"Well," she started. "You kind of already know her."
"Oh, right. She was at the airport, right? The redhead? I didn't really get a chance to look at her, though," he said.
Wanda took in a deep breath.
"Um… Not exactly. You met her before then," she said.
Bucky thought hard about it.
"Oh, right! In DC she was fighting alongside Steve. And I think I met her in Odessa, maybe. And then…" His face went blank.
"Natalia?" he finally asked.
"Yeah, that's her," she answered.
Bucky remained quiet for a few minutes.
"I guess that explains why Steve refuses to see her as anything else other than a friend," he finally said. "Assuming he knows."
"She told him," Wanda said, glancing down at her hands.
A hand grasping her own made her look up.
"Come on," he said with a smile. "Let's go hook Steve up with my ex."
Wanda felt her lips twitch into a smirk.
"That's still a hell of a lot better than hooking up with his ex's niece."
With a laugh, they withdrew from his mind.
X_X_X
Wanda and Bucky made their way down the hallway into the large opening where the Avengers in hiding were located. Neither of them seemed to mind that as soon as they exited her room their hands had instantly connected.
When they entered the room the conversation stopped.
"Bucky, Wanda! Did everything work out alright?" Steve asked.
They both nodded.
"Everything should be out, but if it's not, I'm sure we can deal with it. The main concern were the words, and those are out," Bucky said.
Wanda noticed Steve's gaze shift to their intertwined hands and a slow grin spread across his face.
Wanda blushed and turned to Natasha.
"Nat! How have you been?" she asked, letting go of Bucky to give the redhead a hug.
"Good so far. Being on the run is nothing new to me, you know. You?" Nat asked.
"Oh, you know. I can't complain. Not since getting here, anyway," Wanda answered.
Nat's eyes hardened.
"Don't worry, I took care of them," she whispered into Wanda's ear as she leaned in for a hug.
"Thank you," she replied, holding tightly onto Natasha.
They pulled apart and Wanda returned to her spot next to Bucky. She took notice of the tension in the room.
"What's going on?" Bucky asked, cearly having picked up on it too.
"Nothing," Steve answered too quickly. "We were just discussing plans and whatnot. Actually, T'Challa said he'd be more than happy to let you stay here while you recover. You know, for a small period of time until we know everything is good."
"Yeah, that's cool," Bucky said.
Wanda tilted her head at Steve and he skimmed over her gaze.
"Hey, sorry for taking so long. It was hard to get the suit away from Shuri but I'm here now," Sam said, rushing into the room. On his back was a small backpack and at his side was a case which she recognized as the one carrying his wings.
"Are we going somewhere?" Wanda asked.
Nat looked at Steve, who looked at Sam, who looked right back at Steve.
"Actually, it's just us three going. I want you to stay here," he said, finally meeting her eyes.
Wanda felt like she'd been punched in the stomach.
"Why?" she asked quietly.
"I'll just go make sure that we have everything in the jet," Natasha said, quickly walking out of the room.
"I'll join you," Sam said, following her.
Wanda's eyes stayed locked on Steve.
She felt Bucky come up beside her.
"Steve?" he asked for her.
Steve sighed.
"I just want you both to be here and help each other recover from this mess. I know you've both dealt with a lot," he finally said.
"Bullshit," Wanda said.
"It's the truth!" he defended himself.
"A partial truth," Bucky amended.
Steve turned to glare at his friend.
"You're not helping me, here," Steve accused.
Bucky shook his head.
"The lady just helped me get rid of HYDRA's poison- I'm going to help her," he said.
Wanda crossed her arms and waited for Steve to explain.
He couldn't look at her.
"You know," Wanda began, "When I was at the Avenger's base and Vision wouldn't let me out, I thought, 'Whoa, it sure feels like I've been abandoned,' but then I told myself 'No, you haven't been abandoned. Steve will come back for you, he'd never leave you.'"
Steve flinched.
"Then you promised you'd never leave me again only to leave me, again, not even an hour later," she accused, taking a step towards him.
"Then all the shitty stuff happened and I felt like everyone had abandoned me. But then you were there and I thought, 'Finally, he came back for me, I knew I could trust him.' And then, guess what?" she said in a choked sob.
She turned to Bucky. "He wants to leave again!"
Wanda felt her eyes sting and then two arms wrapped around her. The metal arm and the flesh one putting her off balance.
"Wanda," Steve said, his own voice thick with emotion.
"It's fine, Steve," she said.
"Go, it's fine. I'm used to it. I'm no stranger to being left behind, to being the last one noticed. I'm used to being sacrificed for the 'greater good,'" she said with disdain in her voice.
"I get it, I'm no Bucky or Tony or Vision or even Nat," she said, reaching up to wipe the tears that had started to fall. "No offense, Buck," she said as an afterthought.
"It's fine," he said, wrapping his arms tighter around her.
"I'm sorry, Wanda," Steve said, looking down at his shoes. "I just didn't want to bring you along and risk getting you hurt."
"Well, you're already doing that," she said with a sigh. She pulled out of Bucky's arms and turned to walk out of the room.
"Wanda, wait," Steve said, reaching out to grasp her arm. She turned to look at him.
"I really am sorry. I just want to keep everything I hold dear to me away from danger. Away from the risk of being caught. I don't want you to go through everything you went through again because of me. Not again," he confessed.
His blue eyes were shining with unshed tears and through his look, he let her know how sorry he was, but he wouldn't change his mind.
Wanda bit her bottom lip.
"Okay," she finally said. "I'll stay behind if it makes you feel better."
Steve pulled her into a hug and she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his chest.
"Thank you, Wanda," he said.
"But I'll be keeping tabs on you guys," she said, pulling back just enough to look up at him. "And if I think you guys need help, even for a second, I'll be there. Alright?"
Steve smiled down at her.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
Pulling her in for one more hug, Steve kissed her forehead and let her go.
"Goodbye, Buck," he said,
"Later, punk," Bucky said with a smile.
Steve looked at them as they unknowingly stepped closer to one another and smiled. He had a good feeling about leaving them to look after one another.