Deja Brew

“Fuck,” Steve breathed out as he climbed off of Bucky and collapsed onto the bed next to him.

“Didn’t we just do that?” Bucky teased, trying to catch his breath as well.

“Shut up,” Steve laughed. “I’m going to go get cleaned off.”

Steve forced himself to get off the bed, despite wanting nothing more than to cuddle up with his boyfriend.

“But what about cuddles?” Bucky pouted.

“I feel sticky and gross, so I need to shower. I promise I’ll be quick.”

Bucky continued to pout, giving Steve an idea. He walked over to his dresser and began rooting around in it for something.

“As much as I hate to see you walk away from me, I sure don’t mind the view. Especially when you are naked,” Bucky joked from the bed.

Steve could feel himself blush, but ignored it. He finally found what he had been looking for.

He shut the drawer and walked back over to the bed. He unceremoniously plopped a pile of fabric on top of Bucky, before walking towards the bathroom.

“What did you just throw on me, Rogers?” Bucky asked.

“Well,” Steve started, turning back to face Bucky. “It’s a pair of comfy sweatpants and my favorite sweater. I figured if you’re so upset about me leaving for five minutes, maybe wearing my clothes would help. Also, I know that sweater will be huge on you and you will look fucking adorable in it.”

“Thanks Stevie,” Bucky blushed.

“Sure thing, Buck.”

With that, Steve made his way to the bathroom.

The bathroom on his floor was massive. The counter of the vanity was made of granite, with three sinks in it. Why that was necessary, Steve could not tell you. There were also two separate tubs. One was a beautiful clawfoot tub that looked like it belonged in a palace. The other was large enough to fit at least four people and was full of jets. Then there was the shower. While it had a normal shower head mounted on the wall, Stark also made sure to install a rain shower. At first, Steve thought it was unnecessary. Now, however, it was the one that he prefered to use. Not that he would ever admit that.

He started up the shower and stepped into it. He enjoyed the feeling of the hot water cascading down his back. It was relaxing after the intensity of the last hour.

After a minute of reveling in the warmth, Steve grabbed his favorite body wash and started to clean himself off. He made sure to scrub every nook and cranny, to insure he cleaned up the mess from earlier. He rinsed off the suds and then reached for the shampoo. He quickly lathered it though his hair and rinsed it out. He stood for a few more glorious seconds under the water before shutting it off. As much as he loved that shower, he did have a boyfriend to go cuddle.

Steve grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist as he stepped out of the shower. Somewhere outside the bathroom, he heard a thump. He didn’t hear any sounds following, so he assumed that Bucky had just dropped something.

He made his way over to the vanity to take a good look at himself. He could see the faint remnants of the marks that Bucky left all over his body. When he removed his towel to dry his hair, he could see fading bruises on his hips where Bucky had held him. He wrapped the towel back around his waist, and gave himself one last look. He couldn’t help but smile.

For the first time since he had woken up from the ice, he was finally happy.

At least, until he heard Bucky screaming.

Steve rushed to the door to try and get to Bucky, only to find that it wouldn’t budge. He kept turning the lock, but the door stayed closed.

“Steve!” He heard Bucky crying out for him.

“Bucky!” He shouted back.

He had to get to his baby. He took a few steps back, then ran into the door to break it open. When that failed, he went back even farther before ramming into the door.

“Bucky, I’m coming for you. I’m going to keep you safe, baby,” Steve yelled through the door, hoping Bucky could hear him.

As he heard Bucky’s now muffled screams throughout the floor, he kept running harder into the door. Even when it had gone silent, Steve kept trying to break down the door. He had to get out. He had to get to Bucky.

He had to try one last time. He went to the far side of the bathroom and bolted towards the door. At the last second the door opened, causing Steve to run into the wall, leaving a super soldier sized dent in it.

When he came back to his senses a little, he looked to see who had opened the door. He found himself met with Stark, who looked both terrified and slightly irritated.

“I really want to be mad at you for property damage, but you did get trapped in there, so I’ll cut you some slack,” Stark said. Steve couldn’t tell if he was just being a prick or if he was trying, and failing, to use humor to lighten the mood. Steve figured the former was the more likely scenario.

“Where’s Bucky,” Steve demanded.

“Why don’t you put some clothes on before we talk,” Stark suggested.

In response, Steve crowded him up against the wall and looked him dead in the eye.

“Where the fuck is my boyfriend?” He repeated through gritted teeth.

Tony went white as a sheet. It was rare that Steve ever got this mad and he knew when he did, it was not fun to be on the receiving end of it.

“Stand down Rogers,” Natasha said from off to the side. Steve wondered when she had arrived. Or was she there the entire time, and he just hadn’t noticed.

Steve backed away from Tony, albeit reluctantly. He turned to Natasha to try and get a read on her. As expected, her face and body language revealed nothing.

“What happened?” He asked her, knowing she would at least give him something that resembled an answer.

“The tower was breached. Fury wants us all on the common floor. Put some clothes on so we can see what he knows.”

Steve gave her a slight nod before he made his way to his bedroom. He was not expecting the sight that met him upon entering. The room was an absolute mess. The sheets were all over the floor, his dresser was face down on the floor, and the lamp on his nightstand was shattered on the floor. Bucky had clearly put up a fight, but it wasn’t enough.

He walked over to the dresser and lifted it back up so that he could dig through the drawers. He pulled out the first pair of sweatpants he could find and a sweater. He threw them on quickly, not caring that the green sweatpants with the orange sweater clashed. He just needed to be clothed to get answers, he didn’t need to look coordinated.

Natasha and Tony were waiting for him in the foyar. The three of them walked to the elevator in silence. Without needing to be asked, Jarvis shut the doors and started moving towards the common room.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the common room. When they stepped out of the elevator, more silence awaited them.

Sitting at the conference table were Clint, Pepper, Thor, Banner, and Fury, all looking at Steve with varying degrees of pity. Except for Pepper, she looked at Steve like she knew exactly what he was going through, because she did.

She was the first to stand up, making her way over to Steve and wrapping him up in a hug.

“Everyone’s going to tell you that it’s going to be okay and you’re going to want to punch every single one of them,” she whispered to him, making him let out a huffed laugh. “If you need someone, please don’t hesitate to talk to me. I’ve been where you are before.”

“Thanks, Pepper,” he whispered back to her, giving her a soft squeeze before letting go.

He then turned to face Fury. He put on a brave face, getting ready for the conversation that was to come.

“So, what do we know?”

“About an hour ago, a tour of Stark Tower started. Some of the people on this tour were members of a group called Hydra,” Fury began, only to be cut off by a fuming Steve.

“What? No. That can’t be possible. We destroyed Hydra during the war. One of the first things that you told me when I woke up was that Hydra was gone.”

Fury glared at him, waiting for him to finish his rant. When Steve was finally done, Fury started back up again.

“I was relaying what I was told. Clearly, the people that gave me the information were wrong. Maybe this could be a new group of people who decided to resurrect it. I don’t know. All I do know is that they managed to get into the tower, get up to your floor, and take your boy without getting caught.” He paused for a moment to look at Tony, who was staring down at his phone. “Mr. Stark, anything on that phone going to tell us how they broke on here?”

“Hm?” Tony mumbled, looking up from the device. “Oh, no. I don’t have a clue how they broke in, and I don’t like not knowing things. J, any thoughts?” With that, Tony buried his head back on his phone.

“I am unsure as well,” Jarvis chimed in from above. “It is likely that they had someone working in the building to assist with the plan. I have also just received a message from someone claiming they have Mr. Barnes. Would you like me to read it?”

“Obviously,” Steve nearly shouted. “Jesus Tony, you would think your stupid robot butler would be smart enough not to ask stupid questions.”

Tony’s eyes snapped up and leveled him with a glare.

“I know you aren’t the biggest fan of Jarvis, but that doesn’t mean you need to take your anger out on him right now.”

Steve rolled his eyes, but didn’t respond verbally. He stared up at the ceiling as if to tell Jarvis to read the note.

“Captain Rogers,” Jarvis began. “I hope we are not too late to welcome you to the new century. Like you, our organization has survived all these years unbeknownst to anyone. Hydra did not die with the Red Skull, we thrived without him. We have infiltrated the governments of the world, intelligence agencies, everything. The only place we did not have an inside man was the Avengers, at least, until now. We have taken your friend James Barnes and intend to keep him. If you do not want to see him injured if killed, you will become our inside man, so to speak. You will carry out Hydra’s will, or he will be killed. You will have your orders, as well as proof of life, within the day.”

Everyone stared at Steve, waiting to see how he would react. He felt like an animal on display at the zoo. All the spectators surrounding him, waiting to see if he would do a trick or just lay down to sleep. He wanted to yell. He wanted to scream. He wanted to punch a hole through the wall, and he wanted to collapse on the floor sobbing. He couldn’t do any of those things though. None of them would bring Bucky back.

Steve closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself. He opened his eyes and looked at the team.

“So what are we going to do?” He asked them. “Do we at least know who the individuals involved in the attack were? Stark?”

Tony was yet again staring at his phone, oblivious to the conversation around him.

“Sorry, What was the question?” He asked, looking up.

“Do we know who did this?” Steve asked as calmly as he could.

“We know what their faces look like, yes. But we don’t have names of any other info. Jarvis is running facial recognition, but it’s likely that these people are ghosts.”

“Damnit. Fury, what are you doing about this?”

“I still don’t trust Pierce and his involvement with SHIELD at the moment, so I was hoping to keep this between all of us. But I will try to see what I can find without sounding any alarms. For now, I think the best thing to do is wait to see what they want and get that proof of life. Until then, all we can do is be patient.”

Steve was not the best at being patient, if history had proven anything.

“So you just want me to sit on my ass and wait for them to tell me what to do? And then what, do Hydra’s bidding? No way in hell am I doing that!” Steve shouted at Fury.

“Well Captain, it doesn’t seem like you have any other option. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see what I can dig up.”

Steve was fuming as Fury made his way out of the room. He clenched his fists shut, telling himself that punching things was not going to get anything done, no matter how satisfying it would be.

He looked around the room at his fellow Avengers. They all wore the same looks of pity they did when Steve walked in. At least, everyone but Tony. He was still looking down at that stupid fucking phone, and Steve was not happy about it.

Steve stalked over to where Tony was sitting. He grabbed onto the back of his chair and pulled it out from under the table. Without a second though, he walked in front of Tony and pulled him up by his shirt. He then dragged Tony over to the nearest wall, wrapped his hand around his throat, and shoved him up against it.

He could hear the gasps of everyone else in the room, but he didn’t care. Tony wasn’t taking this seriously, so steve had to make him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you Stark,” Steve spat out as he shoved Tony up against the wall. “What the fuck on your phone could be so much more important than trying to figure out where Bucky is?”

Tony looked even more frightened than he had earlier that day. Steve also didn’t have a hand squeezing his neck then.

“Steve,” Natasha said softly, “I know you are upset, but you have to let go of him.”

“Not until he tells me what was so fucking important.”

Steve tightened his grip on Tony’s throat to encourage the engineer to talk.

“Can’t. Breathe.” Tony finally managed to squeak out.

Steve loosened his grip on Tony’s neck, but refused to remove his hand.

“Promise me you won’t be mad?” Tony asked.

“No, but I’ll be more upset if you don’t talk,” Steve told him.

“So remember how a few days ago your identity came out and SHIELD wanted to blame Bucky for it? Well, I hated the idea of losing the brilliant new mind that I had literally just hired so I did something that is either really stupid or a soljtly genius.”

“Stark, What did you do?”

“I may or may not have embedded an untraceable tracker into your boyfriend and I may or may not know his exact location at this very moment.”