Chapter Text
Natasha was missing and it took Bucky a day and a half to figure out who was behind it. The last time he heard from her, she was tracking down someone from the fallen Red Room. He insisted that he helped her, insisted that they went on this mission together, but she refused. She always refused help and he really didn't want her to go down that rabbit hole alone but he didn't want to push her either, so he told her she could call him whenever she needed. That was three weeks ago and the only other person who knew where she was going was her accountant, so when her accountant ended up calling him asking where she was, he went on full Find Natasha mode.
He wanted to go alone because God knew he could handle himself, but he thought he could really use some back-up on this. He didn't want to bother Steve or Bobbi - Natasha wouldn't have liked it - so he called the only other person he could think of. And if he wasn't sure that there was something hidden in the great Russian tundra he was about to ransack, he wouldn't have done this. But alas, he left Hawkeye a message and gave him specifics about the op. Bucky didn't care if he showed up or not, but he was kind of counting on it.
What he expected was Clint Barton with his arrows slung on his shoulder, one hand on his bow and another on a hotdog sandwich. What he got as a girl in a purple catsuit with luggage and sunglasses on. Great, Bucky thought, he sent his sidekick.
"I can see that you're disappointed." She called out as she approached him.
"Where's Barton?" He asked when she was in normal speaking voice distance.
"He's preoccupied at the moment. Being a building owner keeps you occupied." She shrugged and looked at the jet behind him. "That's a pretty bird."
Bucky had an option. He could send the girl home because he didn't ask for her or take her with him to Russia. He took a deep breath and led her into the quinjet he had borrowed from SHIELD. The girl, Kate, dragged her luggage behind her and he almost groaned out loud at how ridiculous this whole thing was. He sat in the cockpit and checked their stats, closing all exits and getting ready to leave.
"So... " Kate stood in the middle of the plane with a small pouch in her hands looking very confused. He'd almost forgotten that he wasn't going with a seasoned agent. God, he was going to kill Clint Barton.
"Sit here and don't touch anything." He sighed again and took a deep breath. This was going to be a long flight. Kate sat in silence for the most part, looking out of the window and humming to herself. She'd ask him a random question every twenty minutes though. Where exactly were they going? Why didn't he ask for Captain America to back him up? Why did he call Clint? Did he know that Lucky was the goodest boy in the world? Did he have snacks? Did have in-flight entertainment? How often did he clean his mask? Wasn't it more efficient to have his hair tied back on missions?
Bucky answered her questions promptly: Somewhere in Siberia. He's busy. He knew Natasha. Who the hell was Lucky? He had snacks in the compartment beside her. Everyday. No comment. It was like talking to Clint only with more pop-culture references he didn't understand.
"So... you and Black Widow, huh?" The sun was setting somewhere over Poland when she asked. She'd been eating some trail mix that she's brought along with her.
He didn't answer. Everyone who knew them knew already. He didn't want to tell stories about them. It was an extremely long one with recurring themes of coming together and falling apart. It wasn't like in the movies. "Clint told me you've been on-again-off-again for like a hundred years or something. I'm guessing this time, it's on?"
"It's complicated." It always was when it came to them. He wished that in an alternate universe, they weren't this chaotic, that they led a simpler life, that they didn't keep missing each other. He also wished that Bishop would sleep or something. How was she still awake?
Kate was silent for a while as she typed in something on her phone. He glanced at her and it looked like she was on one of those bird apps. Kids these days.
When he thought she had dropped the topic, she suddenly spoke. "You love her?"
It took him some time to answer, not because he didn't know the answer to the question, but because no one's asked him that question before. His and Natasha's friends kind of all just went along with whatever it was they had. One day they were together and the next they weren't. Was that love?
"You love her." She answered for herself. When Bucky looked back at Kate again, she had this grin on her face. "No one would stupidly and willingly go to icy hell Russia for someone they didn't love. It's cute."
She finally unzipped the little pouch she had with her then and pulled up a bunch of little tubes and lined them up on the console. The sun was lower in the sky now. She started wiping her face with a sort of wet tissue and then applied a cream. All Bucky could do was watch. He's seen this ritual done before, but never before a mission. Maybe she was finally going to sleep?
"What? The air here is dry as fuck and I'm not about to age ten years for a mission."
"I didn't say anything."
Silence fell between them again and he was actually satisfied that she didn't press on. He didn't like talking about personal things when he was on a mission, it was difficult for him enough as it is to talk about personal stuff period. But on a mission? With someone he barely knew? No. He wasn't going to do that.
"You know Romeo and Juliet?" She said after a while.
"I went through the American public school system, same as you Bishop."
"Yeah, you guys aren't that. Not Bonnie and Clyde either." That was what she was thinking about all this time? Which fictional couple he and Natasha resembled? He had to take another breath. He closed his eyes for a moment, the bird's been on autopilot since they crossed the Atlantic. The only reason he hadn't gotten up to stretch his legs was because Kate was there and he was afraid that she was going to touch something and kill them.
"I'll figure it out." He heard her say, but he wasn't so sure if she was talking to him or herself. Bucky had a clear plan. Get there, kill a bunch of Red Room goonies, get Natasha out, and go home. Why they took her, he had no idea. What was important was that he got her out of there. The Red Room was the last place they both wanted to be and somehow that's where they kept getting dragged to.
He felt Kate moving in her seat and he braced herself for another question but instead, music started playing. He didn't listen to music much, that was more of Natasha's thing, and when she did it was most likely classical. This one had words in it. It was nice, but he didn't pay it much attention though, he needed to rest before they landed.
The music ended abruptly followed by a vibrating sound and then a ringtone. "Kate Bishop, aka the better Hawkeye speaking."
He could hear a man on the other side of the phone call but he couldn't understand what he was saying.
"I'm fine." Kate was whispering but it didn't do much. Bucky could still hear her. "Well, you never take me anywhere."
Kate unfastened her seatbelt then and stood to go to the back of the jet, whisper-yelling into her phone. Bucky shouldn't really be listening to the conversation she was having but it wasn't like he can shut his ears. She wasn't the best whisperer either. He was surprised she was getting any service at all at this altitude but the 21st century was constantly evolving.
"I won't die." He heard. "Bye, I'll see you at home."
Kate slumped back into her seat and sighed before turning on the music again. It hadn't even occurred to Bucky that Kate had people waiting for her to come home or that she even had a place to call home to begin with. He didn't have that. Home wasn't a place for him.
They had about three hours to kill before they would arrive in the middle of snowy, snowy Russia. It didn't have that much of an effect to him with being the literal Winter Soldier and all, but he thought Kate's little purple number wasn't going to cut it when it was time to go. He got out of his seat (which startled her apparently) and went to the back of the jet where the fluffy SHIELD coats were. He was borrowing them. It wasn't like he wasn't going to return it afterward.
"You'll freeze to death if you go out in that thing." He handed her the coat and went back to his seat. "Have you ever fought an army of assassins before?"
"Not really." Her face lit up then, turning in her seat to face him again. "Why?"
"Well, I'm not sure what's down there but there's a big chance that there's at least a decent sized group of assassins. They could be as young as twelve years old. Girls."
Kate quirked an eyebrow at him. "Little girls? You called for backup because you're fighting against little girls?"
He could see how she was suppressing a laugh and he rolled his eyes for the nth time since he met her. "They're not just girls. They're killers."
"You're scared of kids. Is that why you and Black Wido--"
"Natasha was one of them a long time ago. The best of them." She was just a kid, he reminded himself, she didn't know what she was talking about. "I need you to be prepared. I don't want to hurt the girls, as deadly as they are, they're victims in this too. If ever, I just need to contain them."
"Contain little killer girls. Got it."
Kate didn't say anything else after that. The remaining couple of hours were spent eating snacks and listening to music. Well, more like Kate eating snacks and listening to music while Bucky prepared a number of exit strategies for them if ever things went south. No matter what, he was going to get this Hawkeye home or else the other Hawkeye was going to have his neck, he knew that much was sure. Clint Barton might have been a very lucky man when it came to physical injuries, but Kate wasn't Clint.
Bucky landed the jet about half a mile away from where the facility was. He gave Kate some instructions: be quiet, don't shoot people for the heck of it, be quiet, if it gets too much she was to flee the scene, be quiet, head to the extraction point the moment it goes south, be quiet.
Kate rolled her eyes. "I know what I'm doing, Mr. Winter Soldier. I'm fucking Hawkeye."
There was a determination in her eyes Bucky's never seen on her before. Maybe he has been treating her like a kid all this time, but that's only because she was, at least to him. He never doubted her skills. If he did, he would have sent her home the minute he saw her. He's heard enough about her to know she was good. Stubborn, yes, maybe reckless, but a good shot nonetheless. Or at least he was counting on it.
They'd hopped on the bike to cover more ground quicker, speeding through the trees until they stopped at what looked like a harmless bunker. "This is... underwhelming," Kate commented, peering over his shoulder.
"The rest of it is--" An explosion erupted a couple of hundred meters away from them which sent the ground quaking. "--underground."