I know her
Steve and Bucky were finally, kind of sort of, together again. After the whole Civil War and accords thing Steve and Tony sat down talked everything over and changed the accords. The team was now back in New York, in the Avengers compound and everyone, except Tony, was friendly.
Although Bucky was back and could remember some things, Steve did not rekindle the flame they had before the ice. For two reasons, one, Bucky was still recovering memories and didn't remember a lot or ever spoke of remembering their relationship and Steve didn't want to force him into something he didn't like or remember, and two, their love affair started with three.
Steve actually felt guilty and uncomfortable to be with Bucky without Belle. Steve refused to love one without the other.
Actually, Steve felt uncomfortable starting any relationship with anyone and only one person. It felt unnatural to him to have only one. Yep this relationship fucked him up. Unbeknown to Steve, Bucky was well aware of their past relationship, the only problem was he could not remember the third party.
He remembered her body, her touch, her voice, her laugh, her smell, her cooking, dancing, her- her everything. Except for her face and name. In his dreams, he actually saw her face but could never remember it when he woke and never heard her name. She was a mystery. Instead of doing the logical thing and talking to Steve, Bucky wrote phrases she would say, and draw a scene of her from his memory, of course without her face.
That's what he was doing now. Curled up in the corner of the couch with a notebook in his lap and pencil in hand.
It is quiet. Bucky looked up to see Clint leaning over his shoulder. He had been there the past 5 minutes. Bucky hoped he'd walk away without a word but unfortunately this was Clint.
"I get the little guy is Steve but who's the girl?" Bucky had drawn a memory. Tiny Steve was lying on one end of a couch with a book in his lap. On the other end was a girl also reading a book, their legs entangled with each other
...
She had no face.
"Don't know," Bucky mumbled, "Can't remember."
"Don't worry you'll remember sooner or later." Clint reassured him with an awkward pat on the back. "By the way we've got a meeting starting ... 5 minutes ago."
Rolling his eyes, Bucky and Clint rushed to the meeting room.
"Glad you two finally decided to join us," Fury says sarcastically. Clint gives an oops and takes a seat, Bucky says nothing.
"Alright, this is your target." A photo pops up on the screen, it was a woman wearing a bunny mask.
"She belongs to an extended branch of Hydra. She works with a woman called Katlen Vladimir."
"Mama."
"What?"
"The lower ranks call her Mama, to the higher officials she's, 'The mother.'" Bucky said. "She," Bucky points to the screen, "She doesn't have a name everyone called her 'It' or 'The Girl.' I remember doing a few missions with her but not her face. Last I heard she was still in Moscow with Mama.''
He remembered the last time he saw her. He had killed someone super important and the whole world was losing their shit. He was given the reward of not being nice and a girl, he didn't touch her from what he could recall she was only 15. It wasn't given much of a reward.
Mama had given her a new dress which she wore when she was iced. Bucky remembered watching the ice flake over her skin so beautifully and actually crack her mask. He caught a glimpse of her eye that he remembers them being a beautiful shade of Green.
"Do you know where in Moscow they are maybe?" Steve asked.
"There's a place in the underworld called 'The Restaurant' if they aren't there Tokyo also has a Restaurant."
"You've been to this Restaurant thing before?" Natasha asked. She had never heard about it, and had ties to many Russian organizations and was surprised to have never heard of this place.
Bucky took a deep breath flipping over the files he began to draw on the back. He spoke as his pen moved.
"It's kind of like a big part. It's where the rich and sick go to be entertained by live action. Most of everyone wears a mask and uses an alias. It starts off as drinks, greetings, and bets. Then the host comes and introduces the pets and their owners-"
"Pet?" Sam questioned. Bucky decided to dumb it down before he completely lost them.
"Okay... um... they're kind of like gladiators but someone owns them. They fight to kill but the less mess they make and the longer they keep their opponent alive and suffering the more money the owners get and more entertainment for everyone else. In some cases, they'll sell the loser's body or weapons to the highest bidder." Bucky finished his drawing and slid it to the middle of the table. It was from 'The Restaurant.'
In the picture, two people stood facing each other, clothes tattered and falling apart with great wounds. Above were three balconies hundreds of masked men and women stood in suits and dresses cheering for watching the fight below.
"Pets are the fighters. They get nothing out of this besides life. A painful and torturous one at that."
"That is sick," Sam said, gagging.
"Throwing up already? Haven't even told you what the owners do to their pets." Bucky joked darkly no one laughed.
"Why are we hearing this now?" Fury asked angrily.
"As I said, sick and rich. Kill the organization if you want but the members are like cockroaches crawling until the end of time." Fury clenches his jaw and slams his fist on the table. He hated being left in the dark, he hated being powerless. Rich or poor he'd take it all down.
"How did you get in?" Steve questioned.
"I know someone from the Tokyo district. He can sneak a few of us in, masked of course." Bucky easily stated.
"Can we trust this guy?" Asked Fury, he wasn't sure about this situation anymore.
"Define trust." Smirked Bucky.
Everyone groaned.
"He's a good guy. But I don't doubt that he'll have his own agenda to watch for. He'll help."
After Fury left Bucky sat with the others and gave them the base plan of the building or what he could remember. An underground building with 6 floors, too many exits to count, lots of people. This was either going to be super hard or super easy.
Bucky laid across his bed Photo of the target in hand.
"It's her, isn't it. The girl that we saw in the video trying to stop you from.... it's her isn't it." Tony leaned up against his door frame. He had thought about this woman ever since the day he saw that video he had wondered who she was, where she went and why had she tried to save his mother?
"Yes... she heard your mother call your father's name and just froze... she tried to stop me... I didn't.... I'm sorry."
Tony didn't say anything but walked off. He still hasn't forgiven Bucky for what happened to his parents but he had decided to listen and tolerated him, understanding that it wasn't entirely his fault. He wasn't forced but didn't know any other choice. He wasn't a victim but he wasn't the killer either. He was ...complicated.
One day Tony might forgive him, the day wasn't coming anytime soon, but he'd always remember.
A little after Tony left Steve walked in, Bucky should probably close his door.
"Hey, how you feeling pal?" Steve took a seat at the end of his bed.
"I feel like I should put a Keep Out sign on my door." Steve chuckled. "I feel like... shit. I know her but I don't know her. I feel like I should know her and I'm guilty because I don't. I can feel the name on my tongue but I can't say it. I can see her in my mind but I can't clear it. Steve, I know her."