I want to drink the honey blood (rated R for gratuitous violence)
Steve doesn’t know why Bucky’s upset but when he finds him in the gym crying like he’s never seen him cry before, the stuffing of several punching bags is lying on the floor around him fleetingly Steve thinks it looking like he’s the one falling apart not the punching bags. Well a lot of the gals he used to go with called Bucky a teddy bear, the image might make him laugh under different circumstances instead he makes his way to Bucky and holds out a hand to pull him to his feet. The exchange is wordless and as Steve watches Bucky move through the gym he feels lost he’s been slowly finding joy since he woke up recovering from his displacement in time and learning not to dwell on the sadness of the past but he finds sadness everywhere he looks now and he has no idea how to fix any of it.
When Buck returns, hair tied back and fire in his eyes. Steve follows him to battle for the first time in his life, instead of the other way around. The jet is eerily quiet as they make there way to a possible hydra base, as they approach the heat signatures confirm their suspicions. When they land Steve finally sees why the Winter soldier is so feared and revered among the most dangerous people in the world.
Bucky’s vision is reddening around the edges he knows that he only way he can clear it is by spilling red over his hands, so he does. There’s a guard in the tree line, James slits his throat and watches as the blood spills over his hands and listens to the agents last breaths bubbling through his blood.
Next mission is two close together both equipped with a radios, so James uses quiet a hand on the chin and back of the head, a hundred and twenty pounds of torque and snap. it's instantaneous and far better than any hydra scum deserve.
Sniper in the tree. Garroted. Wheezing as he falls from his perch, not to difficult to kill he was too much of an amateur to see captain America breaking in to the base, he’s hardly going to see the winter soldier when he doesn’t want to be seen. Not that anyone could.
James guts a scientist, or what hydra calls a scientist, splitting his torso from his bellybutton to clavicle, a handler he recognises has his heart ripped out through his throat it’s still pulsing as it drops from his hand the splash of the blood hits James lips.
The red lights flash as the agents descend twelve of them all trying to take him alive, there are no bullets flying. Yasha kicks an agent in the head hard enough to send teeth flying as another is used as a shield against tranquilliser darts the dosage meant for a super soldier kills him instantly, unfortunately he doesn’t suffer which makes Yasha sad, but he kills one by turning his ribs into shrapnel in his lungs, the desperate screams restore Yasha’s mood.
Some he just stabs which is a little satisfying but there’s no grace in it, no finesse. He can do better and he does the final remaining piece of hydra scum in the team is a coward one who will die in his own filth, Yasha stabs him a little but then he uses his hands to tear him apart bones and blood and guts he looks like a wild animal has attacked him, well it isn’t far off.
The next agent he intends to snap the neck but ends up tearing it clean off, the fountain of blood is sweet, it tastes like victory. The remaining scum not wiped out by Steve are all scientists Winter hopes they learn something as he kills them, perhaps the error of their ways, it’s doubtful.
Bucky returns to the mansion reborn, baptised in the blood of those that unmade him. Steve is scared, but when Bucky claps his shoulder for that second he looks in those eyes and it’s so unmistakably his Bucky. Steve knows that Bucky will never be the same as he was in the 40’s but he thinks for the first time he may not be completely lost to time.