Excuse Me, I Don't Suppose You Know How To Time Travel?

Chapter Eight

Held On To Hope Like a Noose, Like a Rope

Normally, when he was woken it was to an empty room and silence. This time, Harry woke to a man yelling, and hands clutching him as they shook him awake. When he forced open his eyes, the anxious eyes of the Winter Soldier met his, desperation clear across tha man's face.

"Soldier?" he murmured, the man let out a sigh of relief, taking a step backwards and allowing Harry to collapse to the ground. Tremors ran through his body, his bones heavy from cold as he gasped at the warm air. The Soldier watched him carefully, his breaths began to still as the man knelt down besides him.

"Do you think you're able to walk?" the soldier asked. Harry stared at the man, the question repeating in his head before a shrill noise began, splitting the air. The Soldier tensed again, pulling a gun from a holster as he turned towards the doorway as the siren continued.

"Can you walk?" the man repeated, glancing again at the door as Harry hesitantly nodded. "We don't have much time."

The man stepped towards him again, offering him a hand, but this time Harry flinched backwards, staring at the metal palm in front of him - the same hand which had kidnapped him, and had killed Howard. Guilt crossed the man's face, pulling the arm back as he knelt down in front of him, the doorway behind him.

"Junior-, kid, I'm getting you out of here," the man told him, staring at him earnestly. "I just need you to trust me, alright?"

Harry stumbled slightly, giving the man a long stare before he came to a decision. This was not the Winter Soldier, who had kidnapped him from his mum, twice, and who had killed Howard and Maria Stark without as much as a blink. This was the man who had been willing to fight a futile battle when HYDRA had threatened to wipe him - who had mentioned 'Stevie' moments before he had faded into his own mind. Harry nodded, forcing his trembling legs to his feet.

The man started towards the door, leaving Harry to follow behind. They stopped at the end of a corridor, the Soldier tensing again before he grabbed Harry, pulling him into an alcove, placing himself in front of him. The sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway, and Harry could feel his heart in his chest as the HYDRA agents walked past, towards where he had been trapped, ignorant that he was in the shadows. When the footsteps faded, the Soldier and Harry continued, casting a final glance at the empty corridor. They turned right at the next corner, leading them up some stairs into another long corridor. Eventually, Harry's heart beating in his chest, they stopped at a door which's hinges was already broken, a handprint imprinted on the steel, the wind from outside pouring through it.

As the door opened, Harry flinched away, the world outside seeming unbearably light. The ground was covered in snow, reflecting the sun which sat high in the sky. The wind poured in, carrying with the smell of trees, and for the first time since he had been taken by HYDRA, since Howard Stark's body had lain at his feet, Harry felt a small spark of hope burn in his chest.

He was broken from his reverie by the sound of Soldier's voice.

"There's a road not far from here," the man began. "If you head east from here, you'll find it. If you follow it, you'll find a town."

Shock ran through Harry at the order, as he blinked in confusion, a question bursting from his mouth.

"Aren't you coming with me?" Harry asked, turning to face the man, who for the first time was standing tall, looking again like the man who had captured him. The Winter Soldier hesitated, glancing at him, allowing emotions to once again flicker across his face.

"I can't. You need to get out of here, punk," he said, pushing him towards the door. Unbidden, thoughts of Petunia pushing him out of Privet Drive rushed through his head, but he forced down the amusement at the comparison as he took a step away. "There should be people there soon - he'll, they'll keep you safe. You just need to trust them."

"I can't just walk away-" Harry protested, ignoring the sound of shouting which could be heard in the distance. These were the same people, organisation, who had killed his father, his mother, and countless other people. And he, as small as part as it may have been, had been a part of it. "I can fight!"

It took him a second to realise he was echoing the words he had told his mum before she had been killed. The man turned to him, grief and amusement crossing his face. He shook his head, muttering something which sounded suspiciously like "I told them so," before he knelt, looking into Harry's eyes.

"Harry," the man said, kneeling so he looking directly into his shocked eyes. "I know you can fight, punk. That's why you need to get out of here, before HYDRA finds out what you can do. If they discover what you can do, they'll never let you go."

Harry's stomach clenched. It was at that moment that Harry heard the familiar sound of a gun's safety being switched off, along with the sound of footsteps as HYDRA agents approached them.

"Kid, you've gotta run," the Soldier said, pushing him towards the door. "I'll hold them off. I'm not gonna let them get you."

Harry hesitated as took a step out of the doorway, glancing once behind him before he began to run, his legs still heavy beneath him. He flinched as gunshots began behind him, accompanied by the yelling of a fight. Harry's breath caught in his throat, but he forced his legs onwards, towards the trees.

From behind came a scream of pain, and Harry stumbled, turning to face the familiar sound which echoed through the doorway, and through his head. Before a thought had even filled his heads, his legs were once again moving, but this time towards the Soldier.

He burst through the doorway, colliding into a HYDRA agent. The man let out a shocked grunt, pointing a gun towards his head which he met with a kick to the other's stomach, ignoring the Soldier's cry of 'kid?'

Harry ignored the Soldier's worried yells, throwing his elbow into the HYDRA agent's face as the man fell to the ground. He took a step backwards, meeting the Soldier's back with his own.

"I thought I told you to get out of here," the man said, his voice quiet as he pointed his gun towards more HYDRA agents.

"You did," Harry agreed, raising his own hands to meet the other HYDRA agents.

They were surrounded, HYDRA agents on either side and the only option of escape the door, which and beyond that, trees. But there was a hundred metres between them and those trees, and a dozen HYDRA agents who had guns who would be behind them.

"Now, now, Soldier," one of them said as he approached the man, in the same way one would a wounded dog. In turn, the Winter Soldier took a step back, placing himself between Harry and their guns.

The man continued, looking at the soldier, "Do you really think you're going to be able to keep him safe? Do you think they will accept you when they know how you kidnapped Steve Rogers' son?"

Harry jerked, looking towards the man at the name of his father. Behind him, he could feel the Soldier tense.

"Just shoot him!" another one of the men yelled, causing the soldier to tense, raising his metal arm threateningly.

One of the men Harry was facing took a step forward. Harry froze, recognising one of the men who had trained him, leaving countless bruises and scars which would likely never heal.

"Come on, Junior," the man said. "We know you, we taught you how to fight, we've made you a fighter. Do you really think your family is ever going to be able to accept what you've done?"

The Soldier's words from earlier, they'll never let you go, repeated in his mind. Behind him, his rescuer tensed, but Harry met the man's gaze readily, as he allowed a fire to begin forming within his chest.

"You don't get to say that, that you made me a fighter - I was born with it. I got it from my parents. And I'm never going to stop fighting you."

Harry raised his arm, clenching his eyes shut. He heard the click of a safety, but before the man could shoot, Harry focused on the fire within him and pushed.

It rose up through him, the lights above them flickering overhead as the HYDRA agents began to shift, their hands clenching on their guns. As the HYDRA agents raised their guns towards them again.

The HYDRA agents were pushed backwards, tumbling to the ground as the walls around them beginning to crack, before splintering apart. Distantly, Harry could hear yells as ceilings began to fall, and yells of horror as the HYDRA agents began to run for the outside, but all he could think of was the fire building up within him as he forced it out.

The Soldier let out a yell suddenly, and then the loud crack of a gunshot resounded in the room, Harry only managing to open his eyes as the Soldier pushed him to the side, the bullet slicing his shoulder. Harry stumbled backwards, the Soldier meeting him as he fell, letting out an angered scream before pointing his own gun towards the HYDRA agent who had fired the gun. Distantly, Harry heard the sound of the agent falling to the ground, but all he could focus on was the pounding within his own head and the blood which poured through his fingers.

The building continued to fall apart around them, the Soldier lifting him to his feet as they stumbled towards the door. As they stumbled out into the cold, the Soldier turned, the two watching the building as it fell, flames claiming it. They stood there for several moments, smoke beginning to rise from the ruins, the cold wind biting them, before the Soldier returned his attention to Harry and his still bleeding shoulder, crouching near him.

"Get out of here. They know what you can do now, and they're not going to stop," the man ordered, gesturing towards the trees. "I promise, you're going to be fine - you just need to get to that town, find the avengers. He'll look after you."

"What are you going to do?"

A smile trickled over the other's face as he stared at him, before he finally answered, "I'm going to do something stupid. Now, get out of here."

He allowed himself to heed the man's words, casting a final glance at where the Soldier was standing, looking towards where the yells were sounding. The sirens of the building continued in the distance, but Harry forced his legs to keep moving, as he moved further into the darkness, away from HYDRA.

The Avengers facility was rarely silent, with it nearly always being full of the sound of training, or laughter from his teammates. One of the few times silence plagued Steve was early in the mornings when he woke to the sound of emptiness. Normally, he would go for a run in the woods near the facility, which had likely remained unchanged for hundreds of years, unlike the gym which as full of the newest technologies. When he returned, it was nearly always to be greeted by Sam's sympathetic eyes.

This morning it was not Sam's sympathy which greeted him, but the sound of sirens.

"FRIDAY," he greeted as he rushed into the facility, ignoring Sam's cursing as the food he had been cooking began to burn. "What is it?"

The AI was interrupted as the glass above them opened, and the familiar red and gold fell from the sky. Sam continued to curse, but Tony ignored it, greeting the two with a smile.

"Good morning for this, isn't it? And I was just starting to think that we'd got most of them," Tony said, leaning over to steal a piece of Sam's bacon. "I was getting bored."

Steve shook his head, exasperated, as Natasha walked in dressed in her familiar black uniform.

"What's happened?" Natasha asked, the siren finally fading.

"It's HYDRA," Tony said, moving to face him with the piece of bacon in his hand, which he offered to him. Instantly, Steve felt his shoulders tense, and both Sam and Natasha shot him a worried glance. "A building in Slovakia has gone up in flames."

"Why do they think it's HYDRA?" Steve questioned.

"The authorities had no idea it existed before it went up in a big cloud of smoke," Tony stated, before hesitatingly staring directly at Steve again. "And FRIDAY picked up on some footage of your buddy, Barnes, in a town not far from it."

If it was even possible, Steve felt his body tense more, his fingernails biting into his skin as his heartbeat began to pound in his head. Memories of the last time he had seen the man his best friend had become flashed through his head - the fall to the water, his words, `I`m with you till the end of the line,` and Bucky`s anger in face of the truth. But he also remembered afterwards, waking on the bank of the water gasping for air, but alive. His best friend - some part of him - was still in there.

"You're certain?" he asked, but he already knew the answer. Before Tony had finished nodding Steve began to walk down the hallway, towards where his uniform and shield were kept.

"Steve," Sam called, his voice urgent, and he reluctantly turned to meet him. "We have no idea of knowing if it's really him, or if it's..."

The Winter Soldier, his mind supplied for him. Unbidden, his eyes turned to Tony, before he forced them to return to Sam.

"It doesn't matter," Steve said. "He saved me in DC, some part of him - a part of Bucky - is still in there. I'm not going to leave him behind."

Sam nodded, his face remaining unchanged as if he had expected the answer. "It's probably a trap. They'll be waiting for us."

"I'm willing to take that risk," Steve declared, staring at his teammates, "It's time to suit up."

Harry had lost count for how long it had been since he had begun running. The elation from his escape had faded, leaving exhaustion in its wake. His shoulder shook, though the bleeding had ceased. His legs, still stiff from their time frozen, ached as he forced them onwards. The sounds of the battle had long since been left behind, but the smell of smoke remained heavy in the air. Harry just hope that the Soldier had escaped after setting the place ablaze.

He allowed himself to slow to a walk, gasping for air in the cold wind as he glanced behind him, slowing to a stop. Sticks were broken from the path where he ran, and the dirt clearly showed his footprints. If someone wanted to find where he had gone they would have no trouble doing so. When he finally caught his breath, he began to walk again, taking more care to not disturb the ground under his feet and the branches around him.

Another few minutes passed before the hair on his arm stood suddenly, and he was filled with the undoubtable feeling that something was off, that he was no longer alone.

"Soldier?" he called into the empty trees, which greeted him with silence. His heart beat faster within his chest, and he pushed his back against a tree, staring into the unfamiliar bush.

He couldn`t hear, nor see, anything which would explain why he was suddenly certain he was being watched, that something was there. He was probably just being paranoid, he reassured himself. After all, the HYDRA base lay burning behind him.

It was at that moment when he his heartbeat was beginning to slow that he looked up to the sky, freezing as his eyes caught on what passed just over the braches. Something was above him, its surface flickering as it passed above the trees, reflecting the ground sky above. He pulled himself closer to the tree, staring at the rippling surface until it disappeared from his sight, moving in the direction from where he had run.

How many years had it been, Harry wondered, his chest tightening as he stared in the direction of where the flying machine had disappeared, for muggles to have made something like that. It was nowhere near as invisible as his cloak had been, yet it was far beyond the technology which he had left behind in 1993. Like everything which he had left behind in 1993.

He forced his hands to unclench, and slowly turned, forcing himself onwards to where the Soldier had told him to go.

It wasn't often that the Avengers would arrive at a HYDRA base to find only its ashes. Steve wasn't sure if he should be happy about the occurrence, or if it would join the other half a dozen attempts which left him empty, desperate attempts to find a ghost who didn't want to be found.

"He couldn't have gotten far," Steve declared, though his words were empty. He refused to allow his eyes to stray to the bodies which littered the ground. "Iron Man, have you got any eyes on him?"

The armour stilled, before shaking its head, "No security camera's picked up on him."

"Are we certain it was Barnes?" Natasha asked.

Steve glanced at the smouldering remains of the base, ignoring the hopelessness which filled the pit of his stomach. Once before he had found Bucky in a HYDRA base, and that too had been reduced to ashes.

"He was here," Steve declared. "I know it."

Natasha shot him a sympathetic glance from where she was crouched by one of the bodies. Not for the first time, and never for the last, Steve cursed himself for thinking that his actions would bring about the end of HYDRA.

"Has there been any suspicious activity in the area?" Steve asked, turning again to Stark. "Any signs of HYDRA agents? They might know something."

The Iron Man armour once again shook its head, before its faceplate slid back, revealing Tony's face.

"There are some old SHIELD agents checking out the town he was spotted in, but we could go check it out ourselves," the man offered. "We can check out if anyone's heard anything, pick up a coffee. See if we can see any sign of him."

Despite the hope which Tony's offer might imply, the Avengers all knew that it was the same offer which had already been accepted several times before, and had left him no closer than at the start. He was still chasing a ghost.

"No," Steve decided, shaking his head. "There's no point. He'll be gone by now."

He ignored the worried glances shared behind his back as he turned from the wreckage and towards the quinjet.

It had grown dark at some point during his trek, and his first hint of the town was the lights which flickered in the distance. Despite the hours which he had spent walking, he felt no joy nor relief, his legs numb as snowflakes fell softly from the sky, littering the ground as he walked. The smell of smoke had finally left him, besides that which clung to his clothes and hair.

He jumped as a car passed him, its driver watching concerned from behind its wheel. His heart jumped as it began to slow, and he began to tense, preparing for an attack, but it passed, the driver throwing him one last glance in the mirror. He forced his legs to stop trembling beneath him and continued to walk.

The wind blew as he finally reached the town, the trees surrounding the roads turning into houses, hidden behind fences. Light flickered from inside their windows, lighting the ground before him as he continued to walk. He breathed a sigh of relief as he looked around him, staring at the building which surrounded the road, most of which could have easily been from 1993. However far he had been frozen for, despite the jet he had seen earlier, the world didn't appear so different from the one which he had left behind.

An accented voice called from behind, and Harry turned at the unfamiliar word to be greeted an unfamiliar man hanging within a house's doorway.

"I'm sorry," Harry replied, and understanding crossed the others face. This time, when the man spoke it was in accented English.

"You alright? There's a storm coming, you should be getting inside."

"I'm fine, thanks," Harry replied, carefully shielding his bloody shoulder from sight.

The man continued to watch him, and his mouth opened to begin speaking again before the yelling began to pour from the house, and the man turned, an amused smile upon his face. He shot Harry one final glance and nodded before he closed the door allowing Harry to continue walking. Several minutes passed before he realised that the man had been the first person to talk to him who had not been a member or a victim of HYDRA since he ran away from Hogwarts, intent on finding his mother.

His head pounded as he walked, ducking whenever he passed a camera as the noise behind him grew quieter. He paused as he passed a bin, glancing around him before pulling the newspaper on top into his uninjured arm and ducking into a bus shelter where he fell to the seat. Dizziness overtook him, and he lent his head against the wall behind him as he attempted to catch his breath, clutching his injured shoulder. Finally, when the nausea began to fade Harry forced his eyes open, reaching again towards the paper and flicking to the front page. It was written in a language which Harry didn't recognise, but he didn't care, his eyes flicking to the date at the top of the page.

2015, Harry thought, both relief and horror cascading into his stomach as he read the date, allowing himself to take a deep breath. For the first time since HYDRA had kidnapped him (again), Harry allowed himself to think of Ron and Hermione, and the world he had left behind. They would both be almost thirty-five now, Harry thought, his mind traitorously supplying, if they are still alive. For all Harry knew, they could have been killed by Voldemort, who had undoubtedly been plotting his own return when Harry Potter had disappeared twenty-two years ago. But perhaps they might of married and had kids, kids who could be his own age. Would they even remember the boy they had been friends with over twenty years ago?

He needed to find out what had happened since he had been abducted, what had happened to Voldemort, to Ron, to Hermione, and to the other various people who he had known. He even needed to know what had happened to Professor Lupin. A small part of his mind began to hope, a desire filling him to return to the old castle, to its long hallways and talking portraits. To his home. He even missed Mrs Norris and the ghosts. And maybe, just maybe, Harry allowed himself to hope as snow fell in his hair, he might be able to return there. But as soon as the hope came, it faded.

A lifetime had passed while he had been asleep, while he had been with HYDRA. Hoping to return to Hogwarts was as foolish as the hope which had led him from it in the first place.

He couldn't just sit here, and wait for the Soldier who may or not turn up. If he was to judge by the sounds which he had heard when he ran from the HYDRA base, the man had been attempting to end any of the agents who had remained and destroy any trace of HYDRA. Yet there was no certainty that he had succeeded, and there was every chance that this town would soon become full of HYDRA agents, searching for a runaway teenager.

The Soldier had been the one to help him escape, placing his own body between him and the guns of HYDRA agents, but yet he had also been the one to place him there. If they had brainwashed the man once, there was no telling how many times they could do it again.

Wiped.

Strangely, Harry felt almost as he did when he had first discovered the wizarding world. At Hogwarts, it had seemed he had been thrust back in time, to a world which was entirely strange. Now though, though he had been thrust only an odd twenty years into the future, he was just as lost. Once again, he was alone.

But he refused to be captured again by HYDRA. He refused to go back there, and continue to destroy all that his parents had stood for. All that he had stood for.

Harry's stomach suddenly let out a loud grumble, and Harry sighed. Another car drove past, its lights reflecting on the bus shelter as Harry pulled his legs closer, attempting to come up with the beginnings of a plan. Firstly, he needed to find food. He needed to find out where he was, and he needed to find a place where he could hide. A pang of loneliness ran through him and he clenched his eyes clothes, thinking again of the friends who he had left behind. Once upon a time, they would have been at his side, helping him. For the first time since he had found himself in 2015, something akin to grief began to form within his stomach.

"Are you alright?" a voice called, Harry jumping at the sound. A woman, dressed in dark clothing stood outside a car which had pulled to the curb during the time he had been consumed in his own thoughts. Though her words were casual, and her face conveyed only concern, Harry's stomach clenched as she took a step closer.

"I'm fine, thanks," Harry forced a smile onto his face, continuing to watch the dark-haired woman's approach. Outwardly, the woman looked normal - her clothes, though dark, could have belonged to anyone. She didn't look threatening - not like the Winter Soldier - yet there was something about her eyes which struck him wrong, "Just waiting for a bus."

The woman took another step closer, glancing at the wall of the shelter - multiple adverts in a language which Harry couldn't understand, but also, the times. She cast Harry both a glance of disbelief, her eyes flickering over his blood-soaked shirt.

"The next bus doesn't come for another few hours," she declared. Behind her, the car door slammed, and another pair of footsteps began to approach. "Do you have anybody we can call?"

A man appeared behind her, similarly dressed in dark clothing, watching him suspiciously, and Harry felt his stomach dip as he understood the feeling of wrong which had begun with the woman's approach. They were speaking English, she had greeted him in English. As the woman began to kneel beside him, Harry kicked into her knees and she fell to the ground, before jumping to his own feet and preparing to throw another punch - but she was no longer there. The woman sprung to her feet, turning to face him with her hands outstretched, while her companion turned a gun towards him.

He was outnumbered, both HYDRA agents were far bigger than him, and his shoulder was still aching. He was no Winter Soldier or Captain America, who would continue to fight even if with a dozen HYDRA agents trained upon them.

"I'm not going back there. I'm not going to your weapon, your junior, anymore. I'm not going back," Harry growled, throwing his arms outwards. The HYDRA agent's face flickered, and she opened her mouth as the familiar crack of a gun filled the air. Time seemed to slow down, before he pushed his arms towards the noise, opening his hands as if to catch the bullet. The air around him pulsed as the bullet came closer, before it exploded, the bullet flying into a wall behind it and the two HYDRA agents being thrown backwards. Behind him, the bus shelter was ripped from the ground, and the windows in the nearby shops cracked, the sound of the shop alarms filling the street.

The woman lay prone on the ground, but after a few seconds the man struggled again to his knees and grabbing something which had fallen to the ground. Harry took a step away, glancing towards the voices which had begun to emerge from restaurants. Distantly, from behind him, he could hear the HYDRA agent's voice.

"Requesting backup," the voice echoed after him as he began to run.

Stark didn't put his normal music on for the return flight. Instead, much quieter, slower music filled the cabin, accompanied by the glances of the Avengers as they watched him.

"Hey, Cap," Sam said, from his side. "You alright?"

Steve offered his friend a smile which didn't reflect the hollow with his chest.

"I'll be fine."

Sam opened his mouth, but before he could say anything a light began to flash upon a wall, along with the sound of beeping replacing the music. At the front of the cabin, Steve heard Tony let out a curse as he sat in the pilot's seat, typing into the console.

"Stark," Steve asked, stumbling towards the console, "What is it?"

"It looks like we should have gone to that village, after all, Cap," Tony said, just as the quinjet took a sudden turn, changing its path.

"What's happened?" Steve repeated, attempting to steady himself on one of the chairs.

"The old SHIELD agents there have run into some trouble," Tony said, glancing at him. "They're calling for backup. One's down, and another is in pursuit."

Steve's stomach clenched, but he forced a nod, "How long until we get there?"

Stark glanced at the screen, before looking at him again. "We should be there in around five minutes."

Before the Quinjet had landed, Steve dropped from its hanger, landing beside a body which lay, prone on the ground. He knelt beside her, placing a finger against her neck.

"You alright?" he asked as her eyes finally blinked open. Slowly, she nodded, wincing, as Steve drew back onto his feet, glancing at the chaos around them. Glass lay shattered across the road, and a siren filled the air, and somewhere in it, hopefully, was Bucky.

"I've got it from here, Cap," Sam said, kneeling beside her. "You go find our guy, I'll be with you in a few seconds."

Steve nodded, reaching for his SHIELD.

"Cap," Sam called hesitantly from behind him, "Be careful."

There was a crash from down one of the alleys, and Steve turned towards it. Behind him, Natasha yelled at him to wait but he had already begun to run further into the darkness, ignoring the snow which had continued to pour.

"Buck?" Steve called as he paused, stopping to stare at the disarray around him. Rubbish lay littered across the ground, but there was no sign of his friend. He took another step forward and continued to walk.

A dark shadow lay ahead, contrasting starkly against the white snow. Steve slowed to stare at the body which lay prone on the ground, before staring at the alleyway around them. There was no movement, besides the snow which continued to fall from the sky, and he hesitantly knelt.

"I've got another agent here," Steve stated into his com, pausing as a noise sounded behind him.

Before he had the chance to turn, arms wrapped around his neck as an attacker leapt onto his back. Steve cursed, throwing himself into the wall behind him. The arms around his neck tightened but Steve reached over his shoulders to grab the two flesh arms, attempting to pull his attacker lose. The agent's arms tightened, Steve's breath catching before they came loose, and the body was thrown onto the wall. Steve quickly took a step closer, lifting his shield from where it lay on the ground.

"Where's Bucky?" Steve asked as the HYDRA agent struggled to their feet. The HYDRA agent remained silent, and Steve was about to repeat the question when the small figure drew in another breath, before they tensed, moving their arms upwards, their palms faced towards him, and Steve allowed himself to move.

Steve ran into the other's side, the figure falling onto the ground below. The HYDRA agent let out a startled yelp, his hood falling backwards as Steve lifted his shield, preparing to lower it. But as his eyes caught on the terrified face below him Steve froze, staring at the familiar features on an unfamiliar, youthful face.

It was just a kid.

Steve's arms trembled, the shield remaining frozen in place as he stared at the face below him - the brown wavy hair, the nose, cheekbones, and expression of fear all identical to the woman he loved. But he also knew that chin, those eyebrows, and the fierce determination with which the boy tilted his chin in challenge. He saw them in his reflection every time he looked in a mirror.

Steve drew another breath, allowing his shield to clatter to the ground as his own terrified eyes met the identical ones of his son.

It's only taken eight chapters to get here, guys. But we've got a reunion (a meeting?).

Title from 'A Long Way From Home' by the Lumineers.

If you notice any mistakes in this chapter, please let me know. And please, please leave a review. They really do encourage me to write.