AN:
There are some content in this chapter that has me wanting to tack on a TRIGGER WARNING.
Since I abhor spoilers, you want an idea as to what the warning will be, please press the end button or scroll to the very bottom. I've added a bunch of . so the end of the chapter can't be seen.
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Chapter 27: Valeriy Ayers - Oreos
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'Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah… blah…? Sure Gramps. Sure. This makes so much fucking sense.'
All the words were English. English riddled with an absurd amount of jargon and project numbers. Most of which I had to search up on our database.
'How much did they do in only four years?'
If only the person who up kept the databases after I walked away did a satisfactory job. They found someone who translated their gibberish into a different kind of gibberish. Gibberish I couldn't make sense of.
So that left me trying to translate the original gibberish with information that was probably five years too old….
'I should have never walked away. This would be so much easier….'
But from how my stomach churned, I doubt I'd have lasted at all. Or I'd be having some health problems.
'Maybe if I bash my head against the binder enough times, it'll magically make sense.'
Even if it's never worked before.
Leaning away from the big binder of Gramps notes on some new energy source, I flopped onto the warm broad back behind me. My head landed against the soft spot between his spine and shoulder blade.
A large hand rested on my head and those fingertips dug into my scalp, massaging away the tension there.
I stretched up against his back towards his hand, a content hum escaping out of me.
"Maybe you should take a break," Bucky said through the music playing on my earbud.
"I'm only on page fucking three…. How are your lectures going?"
Prerecorded online lectures from different campuses. The mandatory English course, which Eve butchered and pieced together the lessons after screening the readings. War and disturbing subject matters have been completely cut.
"Good. Still not sure what I want to study yet. There's so many options…. I'm working through the mandatory courses in the meanwhile," he answered, hitting pause on his video and taking his hand away from my head.
I had half the mind to just grab onto his hand, but he turned his torso as well.
And then gave his hand to Ixie.
I could feel myself pouting and trying to shoot laser beams out of my eyes. Maybe Amber figured out a way to make real eyeballs do that. There wouldn't be a stare down I would lose with those things.
"It's about dinner time," Buck pointed out, gingerly moving the dogs off of us. "Do you feel like pizza?"
"Pizza!" I chirped back.
It's practically routine now, him going for the oven to warm it up and me heading into the freezer to grab the food. A win-win. I'd avoid burning my eyeballs again, and he wouldn't get a blast of cold air.
I grabbed an armful of boxes. I was hungry enough to finish one and Bucky needed more than two.
'…We may be eating too much pizza….'
Supposedly, Eve got us a two week supply. There's three left, and it's only been a few days. Would explain the pimple growing on my forehead.
With a shrug, I made my way out of the freezer and tossed the boxes at Bucky, fully enjoying the sight of the young man grabbing them right out of the air without so much of a glance.
'Definitely has eyes on the side of his head…. Probably.'
"You know what?" I gasped, hobbling my way to the box of new binders.
"Figured something out?" Bucky urged, humouring my outburst.
"That thing sounds like it came from something living, so Gramps probably got that thing from something Amber made. This binder would make so much more sense if I had a handle on the other thingy."
"Sounds like a puzzle." He didn't bother looking up from tearing the plastic wrapping off the pizzas.
"I guess? Mixed with a scavenger hunt without the list. Hopefully, this stuff becomes fun for me again…. But the info in the binders might be randomly useful. Maybe it'll give me an idea as to what the fuck I can't fix in your arm."
"I feel that after I graduate from university, I still won't understand the binders here."
"Probably? New discoveries are always making info in books obsolete. They don't bother to change it either because of money or rep. So…" I shrugged. "From what I figured out yesterday about the neural communications, a bunch of binders on… that? Probably that shelf is old useless info."
"If I study the right subject, I'll be able to understand some of the binders here?"
The face he wore, eyeing the shelves and that little pout to his bottom lip. He definitely cracked open a few of these binders and found gibberish written in English.
If only he flipped to the back of the binder and found my notes dumbing down most of it. Only way I ever understood anything they wrote and shoved my way.
"Maybe?" I shrugged. "I grew up with this madness, so I have a base of info to build on. Got no idea how other people understand this mess."
'I had no idea Gramps and Amber worked together on so many projects since I left the team….'
If it weren't for the shadow looming over the papers, I would have jumped when a warm arm snaked around my shoulders with just the lightest squeeze. His soft locks brushed against the side of my face as his head leaned against mine.
"It takes time," he stated softly. "The brain is a muscle too. It needs to warm up."
I half sunk into his side. "Yeah, and five years is a lot to catch up on…. I was worried that they wouldn't reach out to each other when they got stuck. I was their middleman. Knew who to go to when one of them was stuck with something out of their specialties. It's nice to know they don't need me."
"…Have you talked to your friend…?"
My nerves clenched and twitched at the notion. "I haven't…. I'm scared," I admitted.
"…She sounded upset, last time I heard her."
"…You heard the conversation in the R.V.?"
My heartbeat pounded away in my ears. Adrenaline pumped through my system. Made me want to run right through the near indestructible glass.
Bucky tipped his head in a nod. "I thought you said best friends don't give up on each other," he tried to keep his voice light.
"I'm not giving up on her. I'm just nervous about pissing her off again," I huffed. "She clearly doesn't want to talk at the moment. She had Sparks fucking call me instead. So I'll give her space. It's what she wants."
"…I could talk to her?" he offered with all the confidence of a shy kid stuck in a school play. "You did your best to watch over her."
"Thanks Bucky. But we'll be okay. As you said, we're best friends. She'll reach out to me when she feels like it. If I didn't have these nervous moments with Amber, I'd probably bug you about contacting Captain Rogers."
Those bright blue eyes averted to the side. Even pulled his arm back, letting his hand fall between Ixie's ears.
"For now, you figure out what you want to study, and I'll figure out what the hell these binders are talking about."
"Meanwhile, your pizzas are about to char."
Bucky raced for the oven, bolting right over the kitchen island in his way. Ixie, she ended up scrambling about the slippery surface trying to follow after him.
With one cybernetic hand holding the tray, Bucky wrapped his right arm around the dog and hauled her off the countertop. There was barely a pause between placing Ixie on her paws and cutting the pizza. He somehow made it almost look like one smooth motion.
Barely looking up from the gibberish, I grabbed onto Zeph's wagging tail before he tried to stick his snout into our food.
'Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…? Yup seems to be where Gramps got that thing. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah….'
"Here," Bucky offered, holding out the plate of my fungi pizza only to pull it out of the sneaky little bastard's way. He set it down on my makeshift table surface, shooing Zeph's snout.
"Thanks."
All three of them settled back in their original spots. Bucky at my back, starting up his lecture on his own makeshift table. The dogs cuddled against our sides, spilling out onto the other petals.
Pizza was definitely best when working away. With the whole being easy to eat with one hand thing going on.
With all the munching finished, dirty dishes were given to the kitchen sink to wash. Then started our post-meal ritual for the next ten minutes or so.
I sat on the couch, my torso and head supported by the upper petal of the couch along with a bunch of pillows and blankets.
Bucky stood a ways away, staring down a barrel pointed my way. His hand practically shaking in his attempt to pull the trigger.
The struggle and conflict that bounced around his body. The readjustment of his grip on the dart thing. The little shifts in his stance. Those bright blue eyes wide with so much fear. From how they darted about, I doubt he saw my face in front of him.
"…Would it help if I ran at you?" I lightly suggested.
His arm dropped to his side, the muscles on along his jaw working as his teeth ground together. "I'll hurt you… and you might break your nose."
Bucky raised the dart gun again, struggling to will himself to pull the trigger.
Me looking peaceful and not at all threatening would make it that much harder to shoot.
If I threatened the dogs, he'd probably act. More likely to grab them and run off into the forest than to actually pull the trigger.
If I did something that immediately endangered them, he just might fire a dart…. But he'd never see me the same again. He'd be far more paranoid about me lashing out at him.
Something I don't want for him….
Or for myself….
His eyes dropped to the space between us.
'Until the next meal then.'
His arm followed his eyes and then he tucked the dart gun out of sight. Disappointment and irritation radiated off of him.
"We don't have to do this," I said, reminding him of an out.
"You need to learn how to protect yourself. Or at least handle a gun properly. So I'm doing this if it means she doesn't start breaking more of your bones," he stated with his hand waving about the ether. "You can't always rely on dumb luck."
"…It's not all just dumb luck. Any information, no matter how mundane, can be useful," I mumbled.
I liked calling the stupidity that I get away with dumb luck. I didn't like it when it's used against me as a snub. Even if some part of me knew he meant well.
Another part of me was playing a game. Maybe finally he'd let me at Hydra. Gather what information I could and create some "dumb luck" for him.
Bucky sighed, dropping in the space left for him on the couch. Ixie lifted her head off Zeph and basically locked the man into place. His fingers carded through her fur, seemingly enjoying the feeling more than to actually pet the dog.
Something he did after failing to dart me. Eased his nerves a bit so long as I didn't touch him. He had to reach out to me himself. Even if we were sitting with our sides practically touching.
The first time we did this, I gave him a pat on the shoulder and he tucked himself into a defensive ball with his arm wrapped around his head.
Everything in his body language expected pain. Pain doled out by me.
I held him through it. Assured him that nothing was going to happen to him. That "failure" wasn't going to lead to torture and chairs.
So here I sat, close enough that a deep breath in and we were touching, waiting for him to work through whatever battle was in his mind.
Took a little less time with each iteration, and he would tilt his body to the side towards me. He kept all his weight to himself, but his head ended up against mine. A deep sigh escaping him.
I took the cue and just leaned against him. I reached up, left arm weaving under his chin to play with his hair on that side of his head while pulling him closer.
Every movement I made, I blatantly slowed down and kept loose. No acceleration. No momentum. No pain.
Maybe one day his expectation for pain would fade away.
Hopefully.
My phone bleeped and my hand stilled.
'What shitty timing.'
I knew what the message was about. Took them long enough to get set up. I was hoping to have this dealt with before dinner even passed our minds.
Bucky tensed beside me when it took too long for me to check the screen.
"What the hell does she want?" he practically growled out, voice rumbling so beautiful.
Eve wasn't dumb enough to put anything stupid in the message, so I flipped my phone screen up.
They're ready. Waiting on you.
His fingers twitched towards me. Clear in his want to stop me. To keep me here next to him. Away from whatever it was I do in my room.
As I pulled away from his side, I let my nails lightly drag down his cheek, catching on the short hairs there. His head leaned into my hand before he straightened up as if he was caught doing something he shouldn't.
"There's no death and destruction this time, Bucky. I'll be back before the hour's up," I assured with a smile.
Those blue eyes of his dropped to my lips, narrowing in doubt. Worry weaved together his brows. Unhappiness tugged down the corner of his lips.
If only he'd accepted the craziness that made up my life, he'd have fewer headaches. His own problems gave him more than enough already.
"I'll be here when you're finished," he stated, face turning away. A tap of the space bar started up the lecture, ending the conversation quite sharply.
With a shrug, I slunk my way to my room.
"I'll be back before the hour's up," Eve mocked with my voice in surround sound. "Really now? You think you can get Odinga to keep his yapper shut in thirteen minutes?"
"Depends on how brutal I decide to be, doesn't it?"
The smile on my face couldn't be helped with the excitement pumping through my veins.
Makeup would take too long, so I slapped on the octo mask thing. Let Eve deal with the pimple on my forehead.
Got to be flawless when I'm being the Ayers' daughter pawn thing.
I grabbed the first sleek dress I came across in my closet and slipped into it while I decided on which plan I felt like playing out.
"Eve? Mind rendering the Dollhouse?"
"...Are you sure?"
"Why not?"
"It's unnecessary."
"Since when do you care about Odinga?"
"…Not him I'm worried about."
"Might as well be done with dumbfuck once and for all."
Eve gave a soft sigh. "Stainless steel or princess?"
"Hmmm…. Let's play princess. He always saw me as that."
Twisting that image he knew me as, that's going to be fun.
"Ready when you are."
I quickly fixed my hair up to match everything else. A messy floof and a flip, letting the waves naturally curl around my face and shoulders.
"Channel your inner happy princess, Val," I joked to myself, carefully draping my body over a giant beanbag. Legs lounged out to the side. Even tucked a few pillows under my arm.
"Happy princess my ass."
Eve would work her rendering skills and magic me onto a fancy Greek kline couch instead of the beanbag I was half sunken into.
"Make the damn call."
The artificial ringtone echoed about my room, and my thoughts couldn't help but drift to the cracks in my ribs. I could feel them strain and part. They did not like this position. But everything had its reason. A part to play.
"Val, darling. I was hoping to see you grovelling at my doorstep, not over a skype call. I expect more respect than this."
I forced out a giggle, tipping my head to the side. "Oh, Hamadi. This call, for your sake, shall be the last you see of my face."
His nostrils flared. His lips snarled. Didn't like the threat. Definitely did not like how I spoke his first name.
"I'm merely calling to inform you how this will play out," I told him with a smile. "You're currently surrounded. You'll be brought to The Hague and charged for – "
"You will get me out of this mess or I'll take you down with me," he threatened. Grinning ear to ear. "I'll tell them about you. You slaughtered villages at my side!" So very confident he had cornered me. "You Ayers are mine now."
A lazy flip of my hand, dismissing his words. He needed to read that I couldn't care if he tried.
"No wonder Father and Mother are so angry with you. The Ayers will never belong to anybody. Not when governments rise and fall at our whims."
"Your hands are as dirty as mine!"
"You have no proof. Nobody ever has proof we've done anything unsavoury. Your word means nothing against my reputation. After all, you have no idea what I'm truly capable of. But alas, I don't like dirt flung my way. Thus here I am, wasting time on you. This call isn't so much warning you of the men coming to grab you or some ego play you so love."
"Then what the hell is this!?"
His palms smacked down on the table.
I would have flinched from the aggression he was embodying. Would have if I didn't grow up dealing with such volatile people. Knew just how much they revelled in the slightest show of fear. How we'd pounce on it. And just how frustrating when intimidation tactics fall flat.
I had no doubt if I were in that room, he'd have me black and blue, painted in red.
Still, I couldn't help the little laugh. He was trying so hard to intimidate me that it had taken a turn for the pathetically sad.
The gun he clearly had pointed at my face on the screen was going to do jack shit for him.
We made sure it was loaded with blanks.
A little cornered rat with no idea just who led him there.
"You do well to remember this conversation, Hamadi. We never much appreciated you swallowing our bribes to wipe your own ass. So, as soon as I suspect you'll open your mouth about any of our business or even let somebody else spring a leak, I'll have you added to my collection of dolls."
My hand gave a grand sweep to the side. An excited thrum pulled a happy grin onto my lips.
The little screen at the bottom with the fancy room Eve rendered took a disturbing turn. Limbless bodies dropped from the ceiling. All of them struggled uselessly against the strings that hung them up.
The man on the screen stumbled back, gagging at the sight. His eyes couldn't help but stare at the horrors that filled his screen.
"Is it so difficult to stomach? And here I thought you were so proud of being the baddest monster around. I had thought you saw right through me when you invited me out for a little midnight massacre."
"But – but you fired for the rooftops! You were so scared to kill! I was moulding you to be something great!"
I huffed a laugh.
Scared to kill?
Moulding me?
"I have an image to keep up, Hamadi. How stupid and blind can you be? Then again, you think killing helpless people isn't such a damn bore. A bullet to the head. Really now? I much prefer breaking your kind of idiot who think they're just so powerful. Oh so deadly. Killing is no art. This is art," I bragged, motioning to the dolls at my side. "Bringing a person to accept this as their eternity. Preserved forever to fill the time between the boring hours the likes of you bring about in my days."
I read every crack in the man's body language. How he went from horror to fight. The sodding fool actually thought he could fight his way out.
Well then.
"Don't you recognise one of these faces? I know they're a little difficult to make out after I fed them their eyeballs and whatever else is missing. Most of them prefer the toasting laser we have yet to bring to market. It does quite the amazing job of cooking thinly sliced meat. They don't much like themselves raw."
Another involuntary gag from the man.
"But back on topic, Hamadi. Do you really not recognise this one's face? Honestly, that one's the original owner of the mansion you're in. Your missing warlord of a brother! It'll be such a lovely family reunion!"
I clapped my hands together in happy excitement, ignoring the pain that shot up from my right hand.
So easy to read when he recognised his childhood hero. How his body tensed, shifting between outrage and terror. So dumb that he hadn't noticed Eve's changes to the face of the doll next to me as I was talking. Straight up changed the skin colour.
"Hasani!" the man screamed, trying to get his brother's attention. "Hasani!"
"He can't hear you. I've long punctured his eardrums. He hasn't heard a thing in years."
"You – !"
He huffed and puffed as if he ran a long marathon, sweat dripping off his chin.
"I do hope you open your mouth. Matching sets are so much fun! Oh you'll love it here. If you piss us off enough, I'll even add your children in. Wouldn't be at all difficult to collect each and every bastard child you hid away. Make a mini collection out of the lot of you."
The man was a menace to all in his life but one young girl he carefully hid away from the rest of the world. A young girl given to him by the love of his life from before all this twisted the brothers into what they were now.
No doubt she was the price too high for him to pay.
And I knew exactly where she was.
"Jamali's food tastes just like home, doesn't it?" I teased, grinning wider at the pure horror on his face.
Like every person before him, he danced the same when the Dollhouse came into play. Only took a little nudge to shattered them so completely.
Hamadi glanced over his shoulder at the door, expecting people to come in already. But they won't until I was finished with him.
He pressed the barrel to his head. His finger desperately pulled the trigger over and over again. Instead of the sweet death he desperately searched for, Odinga only managed to burn the side of his face.
'Rather dead than risk talking, huh?'
But we wanted him more alive than dead. May come in use some day.
"Hey now. Don't do that. It's hard to tell matching sets when half your face is all messed up. Then again, I can just do the same with Hasani. Now where did I put the blowtorch? Maybe I'll just have them save your gun and load it with blanks. Save me the trouble of trying to create the scars with a torch on the lot of you," I mused, tapping my chin lightly.
I reached out slightly behind me, pretending to stroke the cheek of "his brother" with the back of my hand. Eve did a wonderful job of animating the frightened struggle of a man missing his voice box and left only with this sense of touch and smell.
The screams that spilled through the line were… fitting. The pure terror behind the sounds. The hopelessness in his blabbering. I could practically hear the pieces of his sanity slipping away.
"Oh hush now," I snapped lightly. "Did I not say I'll only add you to my collection of dolls if you misbehave? It's more fun that way. To know you brought it all on yourself. Your own damned fault you ended up here."
Hamadi's jaw snapped shut with an audible click.
"But alas, there's a slight chance you're not as dumb as your brother, which I do hope you're not, you're only being charged with a couple of war crimes. We'll make sure you go away for just that on your very long list, and that you'll get out probably after you've gone all wrinkly. Though, if you do find your cell too boring, you always have the choice of joining my collection whenever you wish. You know a fraction of our reach already. The choice is yours to make, Hamadi."
With that, I motioned for Eve to cut the line and chucked the octo mask thing to the side. The operation would be completed with my part staying unknown to anybody else.
"With four minutes to spare."
Four minutes to get this out of my system. The disgust of being so filled with excitement and thrill of shattering a mind to pieces.
I needed to bury this bit of me as far as I possibly could. The sadistic streak in me. Bucky could never find out. He already freaked out at a glimpse of it over Zephyr and food.
The man's faith in me to be better….
Better than those who had controlled him….
"You did a number on Odinga. He's eagerly following every order. As a joke, I had one of them tell him to hop on a leg while rubbing his stomach and tapping his head. This is hilarious."
A live clip from Odinga's webcam came back to my screen. And as Eve said, the man was obediently doing stupid shit with gusto.
I dropped my eyes to my nails. I had no joy in watching a broken man imitate a monkey.
"Is everything in play with Cheboi? He'd get us back into Africa."
"If all goes according to plan, the transition will be smooth."
Which meant it'd go smoothly.
Perfect.
Got our way back into Africa and crossed out another monster out of my life.
The Hague was only four walls. The threat of the Dollhouse was an ever looming mental prison. No escaping that. There's no hole he could crawl into in hopes to hide from us.
"I feel icky."
The dress peeled off of my skin and dropped to the floor. I quickly slipped back into an oversized shirt in hopes to find a bit of myself again. Or at least the girl who explored the city and shared a sandwich with a stranger.
"Not according to what your chemical levels are saying," Eve practically sang.
Irritated, I shifted the monitoring bracelet from its magnetic port on my inner wrist. Cut Eve's sensors that told her exactly was flowing in my bloodstream.
I stared at the shorts in distaste. If I could get away with it, I'd probably run about in a pair of panties.
But Bucky was here, and he was surprisingly shy about the most random things.
So I pulled up my shorts before hobbling for the door.
A glance out the massive window in my room spoke of the total darkness the mountain was mostly drowned in. No way in hell was Bucky letting me take a bike out even if it were midday. I doubt he'd agree with the idea of me clamouring about the cliff either. He was already frowning every time I walked on my stupid ankle.
With a sigh, I tore my eyes away from the unsettling darkness and set them on one of Eve's eyes. "You remember that strawberry milk thing Tristen used to make? Do we have that stuff here?"
"Not going to go latch yourself onto the Sergeant?"
I froze at that jab. Couldn't help the sneer that curled my lip. "Sorry for bloody breaking so much lately," I snapped, sarcasm dripping off every word. "I just so love cleaning up after the family. And doing your bloody dirty work. So much fun."
"Odinga was your problem, Val."
"No. Odinga was their problem, and they shrugged him off to me. You knew exactly who we were going to work with. You all knew those villages were going to be slaughtered and that was eventually going to bite us in the ass. So don't play naïve with me."
"…I never wished for this outcome…. I don't believe any of us did."
"Whatever," I huffed with a hand wave.
They knew, they chose, and I did as told.
The energy bubbling up inside me wasn't helping at all. The excitement of breaking a person. The anger of having to do it at all.
I wanted to work it out of my body. Climb for the skies or ride through the trees. Neither were particularly smart moves.
"I've warned you to anticipate your parents' movements. Find a solution to their problems that you can live with before they end up with one you can't."
"Yeah, like kidnapping my best friend and telling me that I got her killed? And a month later, they send me to deal with Odinga? You guys didn't even let me go to her bloody funeral! I didn't even have time to mourn! Have to keep up that bloody perfect image!"
"Since when have you been this childish? I wonder if it's because he's letting you do so."
At this rate, I was never going to make it out of my room with all the pausing. Hobbling around already took forever in this gigantic building.
Forcing myself to brush off her words, I continued the long journey out of my damn bedroom. Needed to use the time to focus on anything besides the dark and twisted recesses of my mind. Or the fact that bits and pieces of the Dollhouse actually existed in this lovely world I live in. The people keeping actual limbless human dolls. The people being fed their own body parts.
"At least you still know how to lie convincingly."
"Good god, Eve. I was taught how to lie before my first word. I sure as fucking hell hope I know what I'm doing by now."
But how much of that performance I gave was an actual lie? Most of it was basically a promise. I might not keep him alive as a doll. But the man would suffer if a word I didn't like passed his lips.
If Odinga looked into it, wouldn't be too hard for his paranoid brain to piece together how his idiot brother ended up with me. After all, I was behind his disappearance. Dead but didn't go easy in any way.
'Fucking finally reached the bloody ass door.'
Which of course I had to open myself with the fucking added weight of Eve being a bloody ass. Had to throw more of my body weight into than usual.
My ribs, if they had their own voice, would most likely be cussing up a storm.
The way Bucky's head snapped to me, brows knitted together and teeth gnawing at his bottom lip, pulled a sigh and a smile from me.
The man had his arms wrapped around Ixie, and she stayed rather still for him. Just her tail leisurely wagging.
I struggled with the giant bear I won at the theme park and was sore for three days. And here he was, twisting his torso to face me like she weighed nothing.
A perfectly timed sidestep had Zephyr scrambling to stop himself from crashing into the shelves. I rather not crash into them and be a cushion for the sneaky little bastard.
'Stop channelling your happy princess, Val.'
The last thing I wanted to do was turn that nasty habit onto Bucky. I could see the cracks, places I could prod at and watch how he'd shatter to pieces.
"9:59. Back by the end of the hour." Kept my voice light and airy, draining it of the annoyance at Eve and the excitement that still bubbled.
That did nothing to relax the tension in his hunched shoulders. Damn adorable how he pulled up Ixie closer to his face with the dog's legs sticking every which way.
"…How did it go?" he cautiously enquired. Not prying into what I did, just gauging where my head was at.
"Played out exactly as planned?" I offered.
No lie there.
Played out exactly as planned right to the beat of each break.
'Damn it, Eve.'
Now that I was rather sure I wasn't curious about hurting Bucky, I didn't need to find some distraction to focus on or keep my distance. But her words had me holding back. Not wanting to "latch" onto his side and not wanting to not "latch" onto his side. She'd win no matter what I do.
'I hate playing your fucking games.'
"When's bedtime for you?" I asked as casually as I could.
"…In nine minutes. But I can stay up," he offered almost instantly. "I don't need so much sleep."
"…If you want, we can have some cookies and milk before you sleep," I said as a compromise.
At his eager nod, I poured a glass of milk and stared at the second glass. Did not want to deal with the cleanup if my right hand decided to twitch open…. With a shrug, I tossed the jug back into the fridge and grabbed the packet of Oreos.
Zeph stayed at my left side so that I could lean into him for support when I used my bad ankle. My nerves curled and bubbled, waiting for the moment.
And as always, it came. I threw my arm right up with the packet of Oreos. Right out of the jaws that stole so much from me.
My right foot crossed the left, and I swayed out my hip. Bumped the sneaky little bastard onto his side. Couldn't help the smirk I shot down his way.
'Oh shit.'
My eyes darted over to Bucky. Only breathing when he wasn't freaking out like I tortured Zeph. So that's a win…?
I carefully settled down in the little spot. Bucky cleared of blankets on his right. Always on his right.
'I'll have to work on that when I figure out what's making that arm twitch.'
The confusion in the way Bucky dunked the cookie sandwich had me wondering if they had something like this when he grew up. His brow even furrowed at the first bite, closing in together as he chewed.
'…Maybe it's too sweet…?'
"It's different…" he whispered.
The next sandwich, he perfectly twisted one cookie away from the cream center. A cookie should not be able to move like that, and I could not tear away from the elegant movements of his fingers making the cookie dance between them.
"It looks different…. Tastes different too."
"The recipe and design were changed over the years. Replaced the lard with vegetable oil, and Val likes the double stuff version."
He split the third treat as well and just licked off the cream. Long slow licks.
'Uhhhhhhhhhh….'
He tossed the cookies into his mouth with the hint of a smile.
'Uhhhhhhhhhh….'
He plucked another Oreo, glanced my way, and dunked it into the milk for the about the same amount of time I did with the two cookies I did manage to eat. He stuck it in my mouth. Even tapped my chin to shut it.
'Uhhhhhhhhhh….'
And Bucky went right back to happily eating the cream centers with the licking. I could not, for the life of me, could not look away.
'Uhhhhhhhhhh….'
"You're done with the cookies already?" he asked, between licks. "…Okay…. Do you want the milk?"
He downed the entire glass in a couple of seconds. His head tilted to the side, his eyes just staring at me. Then his thumb came up to my face and swiped along the skin right beneath my bottom lip.
'Uhhhhhhhhhh….'
His pink tongue licked off whatever it was on his thumb… that was once on my face….
'Uhhhhhhhhhh….'
His shoulder shrugged and he stood up, arms wrapped around Ixie again.
"Wake me up if…. You're not alone here, Val," he said, climbing the steps to the top floor.
'Uhhhhhhhhhh….'
Ixie officially became a plushie. Who the hell could lift her like that? Bucky, apparently. The little swagger to his walk didn't even change with the added near 200 pounds.
For having a room set up for him to have some sort of privacy under Eve's watch, Bucky had decided to use the top floor. Probably for the whole vantage point bit. Or the fact that he could lie under the stars with nothing to obstruct the view. In a damn doggy cuddle pile.
'Oh boy.'
Giddy energy bubbled up my chest.
My cheeked flushed as my feigned calm shattered.
'I need to climb.'
As silently as I could, I headed for the hole in the floor, for the basement levels.
No way in hell am I going to risk having my light burn out in that darkness while in the forest on a motorbike. It used to be fun. Now… I'd probably destroy my own voice box from not being able to see….
And Bucky would never stop frowning at me if I did….
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AN:
I hope you guys enjoyed the last bit. Felt like adding something lighter after the whole dollhouse thing...
Let me know if you ended up smiling there. It was what I was aiming for. ^^
Hopefully Val wasn't too much this chapter. Let me know what you think of one darker side of her.
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(FFN deleted half the . so I'm adding something in between to add the other half...)
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Warnings: Torture, manipulation, mentions of cannibalism. (If there is any I missed, please let me know.)
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A thank you to Tinsela and the Anonymous Fifth Beta for beta-ing this chapter. ^^
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