Ultimately he did accept the invitation to stay the night. He had nowhere else to go, and no willpower or strength to move more than necessary whatsoever, and the Captain's hotel room had a second bed. The bed felt strange, too soft, after the army and the cryo chamber where Hydra had stored him and the nooks and crannies where he'd caught catnaps in the time since his escape, but after a while he drifted into a fitful sleep filled with dreams involving a handsome young army sergeant and his scrawny best friend who kept getting in fights with bigger guys. He kept trying to slow down the dreams so that he could get a look at the details, but every time he tried the dreams just changed.
Despite his normal hyperalertness, the sun was long since up and the Captain (Steve. He should think of his best friend by his proper name. And himself, for that matter. He had a name now!) had already been for a run and been back long enough to shower and retrieve a mountain of food from the hotel's continental breakfast by the time that Bucky dragged himself out of bed. He didn't feel any more rested than when he'd lain down the night before, and movement was pain, and he was too queasy to actually want food, but he got up anyway because he felt uneasy lying abed.
"Hey! Have some breakfast. What do you want to do today? I was planning on driving to New York today, but if you want to stay here I'm going to stay too. I've been for my run already, but I'm up for going again if you want to. Or hitting the gym, or..."
"No." Bucky cut him off, "Nothing physical." Feeling Steve's eyes on him, he grudgingly picked up a piece of toast and nibbled on it.
"Okay. Well, would you come with me to New York? Please? You don't have to fly or deal with people or anything, we'll drive up and I'll keep telling you stories on the drive to try to get your memory back then?" Steve asked hopefully. "And we'd be staying in a much more secure place. I bet you'd like that."
Bucky wanted to protest that he didn't deserve the kindness and withdraw back to the streets and his half-baked plans of revenge, but safety and rest were too tempting and Steve would probably keep begging until he gave in anyway and he didn't have the energy for that. "Alright." He conceded. "Where are we going?"
"Avengers Tower." Steve beamed. "Tony decided my old apartment wasn't secure enough, so he had all my things moved there while I was on the run from Hydra. I wish he'd asked, but after that mess I do agree that it's better for me to live in a more secure place, away from civilians." And one wall was full of bullet holes, courtesy of you, but I'm not going to mention that. "Anyway, we've all got a private floor of our own, and there are shared common spaces and labs and a gym and all sorts of things downstairs. Plus all sorts of secret entrances so we can avoid the fans at the front door when we want."
"Wow."
"I can show you around."
Nope. Nopenopenope. Not ready to stop hiding. Especially not when he was feeling so battered and wiped out. Not happening. "How about not just yet? Your teammates probably don't like me much. Besides, we've got a lot of memories for you to help me regain." Bucky forced himself to start on another piece of toast because he could tell Steve was paying attention to how much he was eating. "When do we leave?"
"Excited to get back to good old New York City?"
Mostly I'm exhausted and already need to sit down again, but yeah let's go with that. "Yeah. That's where we used to live, right?"
The next night was worse than the last. Was the tower colder than the hotel or something? Bucky couldn't seem to get warm, and he kept jolting upright in bed in a cold sweat, upper body screaming dizzyingly in pain at the movement, thinking that he'd seen someone in the shadows. Finally at four thirty he gave up and went looking for where Steve's extra blankets might be stashed.
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