Chapter Text
The thing with having severe PTSD and depression stacked together like a plate of still-soggy-in-the-middle-but-burnt pancakes, is that it leads to a lot of sleeping problems. Because of this, Bucky can either sleep in really late for six days straight or stay awake for over 70 hours and then pass out for the next 18 hours like it's nothing.
But tonight, Bucky is wide awake at 2 AM on a freaking Sunday night—morning?—and is still strolling the dark streets of Hell’s Kitchen with little to no care in the world. How he even ended up here is beyond him. Earlier, back when he was still at the Tower, he had just put in his headphones and went to his ‘depression playlist’ (as Clint likes to call it) and started walking in any direction his legs pulled him in.
The Avenger's Tower is in Manhattan, and Hell’s Kitchen is about a two-mile walk from there, so it isn’t like he’s that far from home. Though, no one with a right sense of mind would ever think of walking two miles in the middle of the goddamn night only to end up in the middle of the crime capital of New York. Well, except for Bucky Barnes, who’s mind is so messed up that those little details don't really matter much anymore.
Bucky sighs and reaches into his pocket to skip one of the songs on his Spotify playlist. He’s feeling down but not down enough for this song—Missing by Evanescence—in particular. His thumb ghosts the skip button and from the right side of his ear he can hear some people going at it in the alley in between the two buildings he’s passing by.
Bucky listens in, and there is the evident sound of fighting coming from the alley. Punching, kicking, the sound of someone's bone and flesh hitting against someone else's bone and flesh can be heard from the darkness of the alley. Grunting follows the more violent sounds, and Bucky figures that whoever is getting their ass kicked either deserves it or is being mugged. But, he doesn’t care enough to investigate, he’d rather stay out of it really.
That is, until he hears a gunshot ringing off the walls in the alley and hitting his ear like an alarm reminding him of every bad thing he’s ever done in his life.
Except, his therapists say he’s done nothing wrong and he wishes that he were at a point in his life to believe them.
Bucky pulls his headphones out of his ears and carefully slips into the alley, hiding in the shadows just like he’d done as the Soldier so many times before. But by the time Bucky gets to the scene, the goons with the gun are already running in the opposite direction. They’re jumping over the fence placed in the middle of the alley to separate it from the other buildings on the other side.
Bucky wonders for a second if the person who was shot is dead as he watches the goons get away.
Thankfully, there is a groaning sound coming from the person who was shot, and Bucky quickly moves away from the shadows to help the person lying on the ground.
The person is wearing some sort of costume.
They are dressed in red spandex, it looks tight against his skin. His whole body is covered in a red and black trim costume. His face is even covered by a mask, with tiny red devil horns sticking up from above his forehead, and his eyes are completely covered by the mask. The only thing visible is the underside of his nose, his mouth, and his chin.
The guy has a decent amount of dark stubble on his chin and cheeks and Bucky assumes from the trimmed facial hair that the guy is male.
“Oh shit.” Bucky curses as he kneels beside the man withering in pain. Bucky knows who this red costumed man is. He’s seen him in the news and sometimes in the morning paper. He’s the vigilante that Steve, Nat, and Sam have issues with. He’s the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. He's Daredevil.
“Don’t call the cops.” Daredevil hisses through clenched teeth. “And don’t call an ambulance.” He adds as he tries to keep his voice steady but fails to do so.
“That’s a dumbass thing to say and you know it.” Bucky tells him. “I’m calling 911 so you don’t die in a shit smelling alley in this god forsaken city.” Bucky pulls out his phone from his pocket to dial 911, but Daredevil’s hand quickly snatches the phone from him and he simultaneously crushes it in his grip. He finishes his assault on Bucky's phone by throwing the shattered device into a puddle in the middle of the alley.
Bucky would punch the guy if he isn’t already in so much pain.
“I’m sorry, but I have an identity to keep secret.” Daredevil hisses at him.
“You’re going to bleed out a die.” Bucky tells him as he stands up. He has every right to just leave Daredevil here to bleed to death, but his guilt as the Soldier is telling him to save his life. This simple action could begin to make up for all the wrongs he’s caused.
“I’ve had worse.” Daredevil chuckles but coughs as he does. He’s definitely not getting any better.
“You sound just like my best friend.” Bucky says shaking his head. Steve would probably learn to accept and even befriend this vigilante if he learns that the stubborn bastard is just like him.
“I hope that’s a good thing.” Daredevil mutters and then gasps as the pain begins to worsen.
“It’s an awful thing.” Bucky tells him. “He’s a little shit, but I love him, so I guess by association that means I have to at least like you enough to help you…” Bucky tells him. “Even after you destroyed my phone.” He adds and from the pause it seems like Daredevil is about to protest but instead Bucky just carefully lifts the guy into his arms, bridal style.
“You know…” Daredevil mutters, voice picking up in amusement. “I’m the hero here, so I’d figure it’d be me carrying you like a damsel in distress and not the other way around.” He snickers and then coughs again as Bucky starts walking with the man in his arms.
“Do you always flirt with the people who save your sorry ass or just when you’re delusional from pain?” Bucky asks him in slight annoyance, the guy has real nerve to be flirting with him right now.
“It’s not flirting.” Daredevil tells him, and Bucky rolls his eyes. He figures he should ask the guy where a safe place is to take him before he passes out from the pain.
"Where am I taking you?" Bucky asks.
"I'll give you directions." Is all he says. Bucky wants to argue, to tell the guy bleeding in his arms to just give him a fucking address. But he sighs and lets it go figuring that arguing with the guy will be like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
The Devil can barely tell him the directions to a small office building that Bucky can take him to take refuge in but thankfully they get there without any more issues. Bucky just assumes that the building he's taking Daredevil to, the owners know him or owe him a favor. Either way, Bucky hopes they aren't breaking into the building they're headed to.
They end up in an office for a small law firm, Nelson and Murdock, and apparently, the vigilante, Daredevil, and his vigilante team, the Defenders, are to be represented by Nelson and Murdock, if they are ever caught. As in, their secret identities are found out.
Bucky sets the bleeding man on top of the desk in the Murdock guy’s office. According to Daredevil, Murdock keeps a first aid kit in the drawer of his desk.
“I do hope the Nelson and Murdock guys aren't going to hate you for staining their pretty white tiles with blood.” Bucky says as he opens the first aid kit.
The first aid kit is huge; it's full of supplies a first aid kit doesn’t usually have but has just enough useful items for Bucky to use in order to help the man out with his injuries.
“I appreciate you bringing me here…” Daredevil just says in response, with no acknowledge to Bucky’s comment.
“Yeah, well I didn’t have to, since you broke my fucking phone.” Bucky reminds him. “I also don’t have to stitch you up either, but here we are.” He says, and Daredevil gives him a confused look.
“You don’t have to do that.” He states. “I can do it myself.”
“Nope, screw that, I’m helping.” Bucky states.
“You should go home and sleep, it’s late.” Daredevil pushes.
“Sleep is for the weak.” Bucky replies. “If you need to scream go ahead.” Bucky tells him and begins addressing his wounds.
Bucky carefully removes the patch of costume covering Daredevil's injuries to reach the bullet wound on the side of Daredevil’s body. Thankfully, the bullet went all the way through and didn’t hit any important organs at all. The guy should be called Devil’s Luck or something because he could have been much more seriously hurt.
He is still hurting bad though. He notices Devil clenching his jaw and gripping the desk he is sitting on until his knuckles start turning white under his gloves. He is also gasping in pain and flinching whenever Bucky cleans the wound with disinfectant. He is even more vocal as Bucky starts threading the needle through his skin to close the hole the bullet left behind in his side. But Bucky just figures it's better than him not being vocal. Vocal means alert and alive. Non-vocal means unconscious and near death.
Once Bucky is finished with patching up Daredevil’s injuries, he trashes all the blood-soaked cotton swabs and gauze and then packs everything still useful and unused back into the first aid kit. He then puts the first aid kit back into the drawer where he found it earlier and then he hands Devil a cup of water and four extra strength pain killers.
“Thank you.” Devil says and takes the water and pills. He downs them all in one go and sighs after he finishes the cup of water.
“You’re welcome.” Bucky tells him.
“It’s getting late.” Devil states and Bucky nods.
"You gonna just crash here?” Bucky asks.
“No…I’ll be walking home.” Devil says with a shrug.
“You’ll pass out before you get there.” Bucky warns. “I’ll take you home.” He decides. “And I promise I won’t tell a soul if the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen turns out to live in a dump, a mansion, or even a sex dungeon.” He laughs at the last one because of course the guy might be into some kinky shit. Just by the way he’s dressed and holds himself; it’s obvious he has some really kinky skeletons in the closet.
"I’ll just crash here then…I don’t need a civilian seeing my kinky sex dungeon.” Devil jokes, smiling with cracked and dry lips. The guy really needs to hydrate more often.
“Well depending on what you’re into, I doubt it’ll phase me.” Bucky jokes back.
“Do you always flirt with your patients?” Devil asks him, leaning back on the desk.
“You’d be my first.” Bucky chuckles. “Need help stealing a seat in the lawyer guy’s nice leather chair?” Bucky asks him, figuring he's not taking the guy home and instead is leaving him here to heal up until morning.
“Please.” He breathes, and Bucky lifts Daredevil into his arms once more and walks around the desk to place him in the office chair. Daredevil sighs as he sinks into the chair, probably pretty pleased to take a load off.
“So, why exactly were you fighting those guys in the alley anyway?” Bucky asks, honestly curious as to what was happening before Devil got shot. He wonders if he really is a hero and not some dumbass with anger issues and a death wish taking those things out on some poor unsuspecting criminals.
But Daredevil looks up at Bucky and sighs before he speaks.
“They were some goons helping some mob boss run a human trafficking operation.” Daredevil explains. “I wasn’t expecting to meet them tonight, I had planned to go after them tomorrow, I needed more time to get more information from them… but then things went downhill and then you showed up.”
Bucky notices Devil's small smile flash at him at the end of his sentence. The poor guy's still delusional.
“I hope you can catch those guys then.” Bucky says, feeling his chest constrict. His therapists often tell him that his situation with Hydra is an equivalent to that of human trafficking, and so topics like that always do make him a little upset. He feels for those victims, he can relate to them.
“Yeah…” Devil sighs bringing Bucky's attention back to him. “I’m also sorry about your phone…” He adds. “I can send you a new one, paid in full, I just need your address.”
“Don’t got much of a home for you to send it to.” Bucky tells him, not about to give away his own identity. It had taken all of Stark’s power to keep his trial out of the media for him to just tell strangers who he is.
“Guess I’ll just have to find you then.” Daredevil says.
“Guess you do.” Bucky replies.
He takes a moment and glances at the clock on the wall, it is almost 4 AM, he needs to leave soon so he doesn’t worry Steve when he wakes up to check on him before his morning run.
“You better stay safe, don’t want our next meeting being me pulling a knife out of your chest.” Bucky warns.
“I can’t make any promises.” Daredevil smirks and Bucky rolls his eyes, shaking his head in disbelief. No human should be this much of a disaster, and yet Daredevil exists.
Bucky bids Daredevil goodbye and leaves the building feeling something light and warm growing in his chest. He can’t exactly pinpoint what it is, but he kind of likes it.