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Living in modern times is not easy when you are someone who has been displaced from their original time period. That’s the case with Steve and Bucky, best friends who fought together in WWII and weren’t able to reunite until 2014, while still being roughly the same age they were 70 years ago.
Despite still being relatively young, Rogers has had some trouble adapting to the new age he found himself in all of a sudden. Yet he was able to get used to most of it as time went on. For Barnes, it took longer and was harder, since the circumstances that brought him to the present day weren’t exactly the same as the ones that brought his best friend from childhood.
Still, after being freed from Hydra’s control, Buck started on his path to adapt himself to the modern era. So, nowadays, Captain and Sergeant are more or less used to life in the 21st century. Still, there are some changes they have noticed, Steve in particular, that are for the worst when compared to the 40s, ones that don’t sit well with either of them.
One such appalling difference is the increase of harassment towards women in public.
Steve came to learn about that particular problem that has risen prominently over the last few decades from the words of his female co-workers. Sharon, Natasha, and Wanda were talking about the subject one afternoon when Rogers made a stop by the kitchen and overheard them. When he realized what they were talking about, he joined the conversation, asking with concern about the topic of casual misogyny in the streets.
After that, he was left feeling upset, which Bucky noticed and asked about. Steve ended up telling the other man about what he talked about with his fellow teammates not long ago, expressing how bad he felt because of it and how he wished he could do something about it. Barnes, who also felt outraged, reassured his friend that just because they couldn’t –as Avengers– do much or anything about it, it didn’t mean that no one would.
And that last statement turned out to be true, as not long after that conversation took place, rumors started arising around New York City, which eventually reached the Avengers themselves.
“You guys heard about this new vigilante in the city?” Clint asked while reading from his tablet and drinking coffee.
He was sitting on the couch in the lounge, surrounded by some of his teammates, to whom he aimed the question, wanting to discuss the subject with them. The first one to engage him in conversation and answer was Sam, his curiosity piqued by the information.
“No, what about it?”
“Apparently there’s this guy who beats the shit out of men who harass women on the streets of New York.”
Natasha was the one to reply, given that she had beaten Barton to the punch after reading over his shoulder the article on the topic. She was standing behind her best friend, slightly leaning forward, one arm bracing on the back of the couch while the other lifted her own cup of coffee to her lips.
The tidbit of info she added was enough to elicit a response from Steve, who was sitting on one of the armchairs, across from Clint and Nat, and with Sam seated to his right.
“Really? Well, I guess that’s good? I mean, the police should take care of that, but obviously, they can’t be everywhere all the time.”
“Seems like they keep popping up out of nowhere down there,” Barton observed with a snort, mentioning the growing number of vigilantes in NYC.
“Between organized crime, corruption, and everyday delinquency, I’m just glad someone’s looking out for women,” Romanov commented, sounding relieved. “Even if it’s just some random guy.”
“Yeah. Better some rando than no one at all,” Wilson agreed, crossing his arms atop his chest.
He then proceeded to eye Bucky with some suspicion, curious about why the Sergeant was keeping silent about the matter. Barnes was sitting in front of him and to Clint’s left, occupying the other end of the couch while he quietly sipped on his coffee. He was aware of the conversation but chose to stay out of the discussion.
“Still, vigilantism shouldn’t be the solution to this kind of problem,” pointed out the Captain, grimacing a little. “Or any, for that matter.”
“Of course not, Rogers,” the Widow retorted, rolling her eyes at her friend. “But the world is a messed up place and we have to live in it. Utopia is still far away, if it’s even possible for us.”
Despite all of them somewhat agreeing and recognizing that the vigilantes’ presence was a “necessary evil” in order to get to those people the police couldn’t reach in time, little did they know that the person they were talking about was someone quite close to them.
As far as the story went, many girls and young women had been alleging that as of lately, someone had been going around the city intervening in situations of harassment, from cat-calling to attempted assault. Nobody knew who the person was, yet all those women were extremely grateful for the stranger’s help defending them.
After hearing from Rogers weeks ago about the terrifying dangers women face on the daily, Bucky decided to take the matter into his own hands.
That was why he started taking trips to the city whenever possible in order to walk the streets and spot instances of harassment that he could stop. He tried to dress as inconspicuously as possible, in order not to be recognized by people, although some women managed to do so anyway. Yet after politely asking them not to tell anyone it was him who helped them, the information remained a secret.
The first time he did it, it was the middle of a Friday afternoon.
A woman in her early twenties was walking down the street in a less busy area of the city when she walked past an alley where there was a man standing, smoking a cigarette. He eyed her with salacious interest, making her feel anxious as she passed by. What she didn’t see in the scant seconds she glances at the alley, was a second man standing a few yards behind the first one.
The man smoking, after seeing the woman walk by, started to say something to her then. Along the lines of:
“Hey, baby, wanna suck–”
But before he could end the sentence, the other man ‒who was wearing a baseball cap‒ walked up to him, roughly turned him around, and punched him in the crotch with a hard and cold metal fist.
“Suck this!” Exclaimed the angry assailant while the woman looked in surprise and wonder just a few feet away from the alley.
As she stared at the stranger that came to her aid, she realized she recognized him from somewhere.
Once they both crossed gazes, Bucky noticed that she knew who he was, so he motioned with the same metal hand he used to punch the scumbag to make a silencing gesture, implicitly asking her to keep quiet about his identity. She nodded eagerly before the vigilante walked away, leaving the other man lying on the pavement and cupping his private parts in pain.
Over the course of weeks, Bucky had been repeating the same MO: walking the more deserted streets of New York City, checking out alleys, and intervening whenever a guy stepped out of line. Easy to say that a good chunk of the male population had begun reconsidering the way they treated women.
So, in the end, the streets had become safer, even if just a little bit.