Chapter Text
You finally found him glaring at one of the cardboard props that was supposed to represent a flatscreen TV. “Oh, Bucky. Thank Thor I found you.” You cried in relief as you slammed into him and wrapped your arms around his waist. You let your heartbeat calm as you breathed in his familiar smell.
You hadn’t been worried HYDRA had taken him while your back was turned. No. Not at all.
Bucky wrapped one arm around your back and started hustling you out of the couch section. “We need to go.” He said, keeping his voice low.
You glanced at him in surprise as he picked up his pace until you were practically jogging to keep up. Curse your short legs.
“Buck?” You asked, tugging on his arm. “Slow down!”
Bucky shook his head and pulled his baseball hat lower over his eyes. He was glancing around as though he was terrified that someone was going to pop out of one of the room displays and attack.
You dug your feet into the ground and pulled on his arm until he finally came to an abrupt stop. He let out a sigh and turned to you. He murmured your name in warning.
You shook your head and dropped his arm, folding your own across your chest. “What the hell is going on?” You demanded. You watched the way his eyes flicked around the store and the way his hand twitched towards his pocket where you knew for a FACT he’d hidden a knife when he thought you weren’t looking.
Your eyes widened and you stepped closer. You lowered your voice as you leaned towards him. “Is it HYDRA?” You asked, desperately fighting the instinct to glance around the store. Your heart kicked into overdrive again and your own arms relaxed, and you casually stroked the bracelet on your wrist that would turn into an Iron Man style gauntlet if you activated it.
Bucky’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “Worse.” He grunted.
You blinked hard in surprise and leaned backwards abruptly. “Worse?” You hissed. “Worse than mother-flipping HYDRA???”
Bucky lunged towards you and grabbed your hand again as he pulled you through the maze of furniture samples in a seemingly random direction. “We need to move.” He ordered.
You struggled to keep up with him as he lead you deeper and deeper into the endless maze that made up IKEA. “Bucky.” You started.
Bucky shook his head firmly and tugged on you even faster. His hand curled over yours so tightly you were starting to wonder just how much pressure it would take to crack a bone.
“Bucky.” You tried again.
The two of you stumbled to a fork in the road. Bucky glanced this way and that before he tugged your hand and rushed you towards the kitchen displays.
“Bucky!” You hissed.
Bucky didn’t seem to be listening as you rushed past dozens of confused shoppers.
You were about to dig your feet into the floor again when Bucky suddenly came to an abrupt halt.
You slammed into his back with an ‘oof’ and almost crashed to the floor. It was only thanks to your quick reflexes that you managed to grab onto the back of Bucky’s jacket and stop your downward decent.
You shook your head and tried to clear it before you stepped out from behind your boyfriend and glanced at what had frozen him in place.
A confused looking woman in a blue shirt and khakis was looking at you. “Hi.” She said.
Bucky reached down and snagged your hand again as he subtly tried to shove you behind him. You rolled your eyes and pulled out of his grasp as you took a deliberate step in front of Bucky. You ignored the way his hand shot out and gripped the back of your jacket as though he was ready to throw you out of the way at the first sign of fishiness. You felt him reach into his pocket and pull out his knife. He pressed the tip of it against your back, signaling his intention to stab first and ask questions later.
You panicked. “Hi! How are you?!” Your voice sounded high pitched and definitely had the tone of someone who had just gotten got doing something they weren’t supposed to.
The woman’s gaze narrowed, no doubt wondering what the hell you and Bucky had been up too. Her face screamed ‘I don’t get paid enough for this shit’ and ‘If I find one more turd in the fake toilets, I’m going to KILL someone.’
Bucky’s knife slid away from your back but you felt him tense behind you, ready to spring into attack and you panicked again.
“HAHAHA!” You started laughing randomly.
The woman’s eyes bugged out of her head and you couldn’t say that you blamed her for that reaction. You begged yourself to calm the hell down.
You abruptly cut off your laughter and turned entirely too serious. The woman cleared her throat and actually took a step back. Bucky let out the smallest sigh of relief. He was still too on edge though. You needed to get him out of here. Fast.
“I’M HAVING A PANIC ATTACK!” You yelled.
A pin drop could have been heard as every other eye on the floor turned to you abruptly. Bucky’s grip on your jacket tightened and you could have sworn you heard the adrenaline that was suddenly flooding his veins.
“I . . . I’m sorry?” The woman offered slowly.
You nodded jerkily as you eyed your exits. “I NEED TO LEAVE.” You were still screaming, but you couldn’t help yourself. There was a reason you usually acted as an intelligence officer or a sniper and weren’t normally in the middle of the field. You and adrenaline did NOT mix.
“The . . . the exit’s just over there.” The woman pointed a shaking finger to the right.
“THANK YOU.” You screamed as you grabbed Bucky’s hand and started dragging him towards the door. You froze in your tracks. “I’M SORRY! I’M JUST PANICKING!”
You didn’t wait for her response as you turned and raced towards the exit.
Five minutes later, you were standing outside the ostentatiously blue building, your hands on your knees as you sucked in lungsful of that precious 02.
“We need to go.” Bucky said, grabbing your hand and rushing you to the car. You barely had a chance to suck in one last breath before you found yourself being dragged across the expansive parking lot and back towards the truck Steve had let you borrow for the day.
Bucky ran to the passenger door and opened it, helping you in before he raced to the driver's side. He didn’t even bother with the seat belt before he floored it out of the parking space.
You clutched at the edges of your seat. “Bucky, slow down.” Your voice was suddenly very, very calm.
Bucky glanced at you nervously.
“Pull over, Sarge.” You ordered.
Bucky hesitated.
“James Buchanan Barnes. You pull over right now. You hear me?”
Bucky glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that so far, no one was following. He pulled over to the side of the road, keeping half an eye on the road behind the two of you.
You waited until the truck had come to a complete stop before you turned to Bucky. You let your heart calm back to a normal pace as you took in the white-knuckled grip he had on the wheel. Absently, you hoped Steve wouldn’t mind the imprints Bucky was sure to be leaving in the leather.
“Talk to me, Buck.” You said softly. You reached out a hand and put it on his thigh. You ignored the way that he jumped slightly and waited for him to open up to you. It was your code phrase. The one that reminded him that he was in a safe place and that he could tell you anything. You would never judge.
Bucky didn’t say anything for a long minute and then he let out a deep sigh. “I’m sorry.” He said.
You immediately shook your head. “You don’t have to be sorry, baby.”
Bucky glanced over at you and smiled ruefully. “You had a panic attack.” He pointed out.
You gasped in outrage. “That was because you were going to STAB that poor employee!”
Bucky’s gaze immediately darkened. “That was no employee.” He grit out.
You rolled your eyes. “Come on, Buck. She wasn’t HYDRA.”
“She was WORSE.” Bucky muttered under his breath.
You shook your head. “You never did explain what on EARTH could be worse than HYDRA.” You said, highly dubious.
Bucky glanced over at you and then, with all the seriousness of Tony whenever he talked about how amazing he was; Bucky said: “She is a sleeper agent sent here by the Swedish government to perform psychological experiments and extensive mental torture on the American public.”
You . . . froze.
You tried to process everything you’d just heard.
You tried to make the image of your kickass boyfriend who’d almost stabbed an innocent mesh with the image of a stereotypical conspiracy theorist.
It didn’t quite work.
“I . . . I’m sorry?” You asked as Bucky glanced into the rearview mirror before he pulled back onto the road.
Bucky nodded seriously. “The Swedes. Everyone overlooks them. Underestimates them.” His eyes narrowed. “It makes them dangerous.”
You had to physically swallow your laugh back and you nodded. “Sure. Sure. Makes sense.” Your voice cracked noticeably, but Bucky didn’t comment on it. Instead he glanced into the rearview mirror again.
“Well . . .” You trailed off. You . . . you were really going to have to think about this later. When you were alone. “We still need furniture for the apartment, Buck.”
Bucky nodded. “We’ll find another store. One with better taste too.”
You nodded as you stared at your lap.
The Swedes. That was a new one.
A woman walked quickly into an ‘employee’s only’ entrance. “Well?” A voice said.
“They were here.”
“And?”
“Both subjects showed above average ability to escape the maze even before the female faked a panic attack.”
“Interesting. Inform me if they return.”
The woman nodded and left the room as quickly as she’d entered.
The man in black turned back to the surveillance camera footage and smiled.
It was all coming together.