Desolation Row
Somewhere in Desolation. December 1, 2197.
The first spoonful of chicken soup tastes like heaven to Jane. She hums happily as she sinks her spoon into the mug for more, searching for pieces of chicken even though she was sure she had eaten them all. She had found Mantis – Who was as odd as her name – minutes after leaving Rocket’s bus, the woman had immediately given her a mug and poured soup in it, giving her a bottle of water and a slice of bread. Jane liked her, and not because she had fed her, but because she reminded her of Darcy. Darcy, who she will be seeing again soon. Mantis joined Jane in a spot near the warm fire minutes later, a bowl of soup for herself, and asked her if she liked reading. Minutes later, Jane is surrounded by Mantis and six other Ravangers, who listen closely to her story about the great Harry Potter and his adventures. Granted, it’s a very condensed version, since she didn’t think she had the time to share every detail, but they look enticed by her narration. Between gasps and cheers, Jane doesn’t realise she’s done until she pauses for a few seconds. Mantis’ already big eyes go wide, and she leans closer.
“What happens next?” Mantis asks.
“Yeah, it can’t end like that” One man, Kraglin, adds.
Jane sighs, “I don’t know” She shakes her head, “I don’t know how it ends, Sorry”
Mantis pouts and Kraglin groans, standing as the other men do too. Jane drinks what’s left in her mug and looks at Mantis, who is the only one left after a few seconds, apologetically. Jane sets the mug aside, and opens the bottle of water, emptying it in seconds. She catches Yondu with the corner of her eye, making his way around the camp to make sure everything is in order. He’s the leader, she thinks, and Aleta must be his second in command by the way the other men addressed her and followed her orders. Yondu limps towards Aleta and they exchange a few words, catching Jane staring before she quickly looks back at her empty mug.
“You want more?” Mantis asks.
Jane shakes her head, “No, thanks” she licks her lips, “Mantis what happened to Yondu?”
Mantis pauses mid-licking her spoon and tilts her head, looking confused by Jane’s question. Jane had seen Yondu limp, and it wouldn’t be so strange if she hadn’t caught the man grimacing a few times when he did, leaning slightly against every surface available when he wasn’t walking.
“Why does he walk like that?” She asks again.
Mantis giggles, “He now walks funny” She then goes serious, “We were attacked while leaving Glassmere”
Jane frowns, “By Arcadia people” Mantis nods, “He got hurt?”
“Yes”
“We don’t have a doctor now but he says he’s fine, so…” Mantis shrugs.
Jane looks back at Yondu, who is now alone. She turns to Mantis and tells her she’ll be back before she stands and makes her way towards Yondu. When the man sees her walking his way, he straightens and lifts his chin, but Jane can see he maintains his weight on his good leg. She notices a few men stare at her while she walks in their leader’s direction but she ignores them, clearing her throat when she’s infront of the older man.
“How are you finding the place?” Yondu asks.
Jane nods, “It’s- I find it lovely” she answers, “Thank you for everything”
“Good, good, Aleta tells me you met Rocket at-“
“What happened to your leg?” Jane blurts out.
The man waves a dismissive hand, “Job hazzard”
“Did you break your leg?”
“Nah” he shrugs, looking down at his feet “Stub my toe, ‘s all”
Jane frowns, “Where did-“
Yondu looks to her with pursed lips, “If you want to see your friend he’s in the same place you left him”
He points at the bus adjacent to them and then turns his back to Jane, before he starts walking away from her. Jane takes a deep breath and looks around, a few men were still staring at the exchange, and when Yondu whistles they look away, murmuring and chuckling softly, Jane sighs heavily narrowing her eyes at them before she follows the older man.
“You could have broken your toe” She says, walking at a hurried pace.
“It’s fine, sweetheart, don’t mind it”
“Look, if it’s the toe-“
“Leave my damn toe alone!” Yondu grunts turning to her, “It’s fine!”
Jane clenches her jaw, “then let me see”
“No!” Yondu narrows his eyes.
She crosses her arms, “It could be serious”
“Fine!” He exclaims throwing his arms on the air.
Jane smiles to herself triumphantly and follows him as he limps towards a big rock behind him, sitting on it a he groans lowly. Yondu mutters several curses while taking off his heavy boot, wincing as he does, and when Jane sees his left toe she grimaces. Yondu looks at her and raises and eyebrow, before looking back at his feet. The finger is swollen, pointing at an awkward angle, almost dark purple and the nail is missing. Jane’s hand shoots out to touch his forehead, he tenses slightly. He’s warmer than he should be.
“You have a fever” Jane tells him, “And your toe did break but you didn’t fix it on time” Yondu narrows his eye at he but she continues, “If you don’t… Cut it off, it can poison the blood and-“
“Fuck no!” Yondu yells, “You want- you want me to what?!”
“I’m sorry” Jane says.
When he stops muttering, Jane can see his jaw working his teeth, nostrils flaring. He’s considering it, she realises and when he looks back at his feet and tries to move the toe, he realises he can’t, swallowing tightly and grunting lowly. Jane had read that when a small thing as a broken toes wasn’t fixed immediately, the bone could get infected then and it could poison the blood. If Yondu was in pain and had a fever, it the infection was starting but he still had time to amputate before the damage was irreversible.
“You do it” Yondu says.
Jane tenses, “What?”
“We got no doctor no more”
“I can’t-“
“Yondu” They turn to find Aleta standing behind them, “What’s going on?”
Aleta crosses her arms and taps her feet on the ground looking at Yondu with a disapproving glance, Jane lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding when the man flicks his tongue and waves a dismissive hand at the older woman. It’s an awkward exchange, she realises, Yondu might be the leader of the Ravangers but he valued Aleta’s opinion highly. Jane licks her lips and moves away from Yondu. When she moves, Aleta sees Yondu’s feet and grimaces.
“What the hell?”
Jane looks at Yondu and then back at Aleta.
“He needs to have it cut off”
“She’s going to cut it off”
They say at unison.
Jane turns to Yondu and then back at Aleta, who is looking at her with an impressed look in her face. Jane then sighs heavily. She had seen the procedure during a medical course she took in Glassmere. While on a particularly savage winter, frostbitten toes were not a surprising thing to see, and they always had to cut the off.
“I am” Jane nods.
Bucky opens his eyes as he jolts awake. The previous numbness in his limbs and tongue gone, but he still felt dizzy as he tries to focus his sight. A warm hand is on his shoulder and he put his hand over it, turning to look at Jane, but it isn’t Jane next to him. He releases the woman’s hand and scowls at her, who only looks at him curiously. She’s young, like Jane, and her eyes are big and round, almost too dark, too big pupils that glint when she smiles at him. He shuts his eyes and shakes his head, rubbing his temples with one hand. When he feels a sharp pain he looks at his left arm and sees it’s carefully bandaged, Jane’s doing, and he looks around to realise he’s in the same vehicle Yondu had dragged him into. A large bus.
“Are you alright?”
He turns to the woman, who’s eyebrows are knitted in concern.
“Where- Where is the woman?” Bucky asks, “Jane”
“She’s fine, don’t worry” She smiles, “I’m Mantis”
Bucky’s brow furrows, “Mantis?” she nods, “I’m James”
Mantis glances at his bandaged wound and tilts her head. Bucky acomodates on the small cot he had been laying on and Mantis leans back, giving him space, before Bucky clears his throat. Mantis doesn’t seem to take the hint, he wants her to tell her where they are or something, anything really, but she only stares at him with wide curious eyes. He lets out a breath through his nose.
“Where are we? Are we outside of Arcadia?”
Mantis nods, “Very, very, very far” she answers, “We are camping now, waiting for the sun to be out to recharge the solar panels on the buses, you are very handsome”
Bucky frowns, “Can you take me to Jane?”
“Sure” She reaches for something behind her, and gives it to him, “Clean clothes for you”
He takes them hesitantly and nods at her, “Thank you”
An awkward silence falls upon them. And after a few seconds, he realises Mantis is not leaving, so he strips off his blood stained shirt and fast as the injury lets him and puts on the clean one. When he glances at Mantis she’s still staring, a lot more evidently than Jane ever did, and he turns to reach for the belt Jane had taken from him, finding it under the seat. Once he’s dressed he leaves the bus, followed by Mantis, who grins at him when he steps outside and sees there are several more cars. Mantis takes him towards where a crowd has gather, and he sees a familiar nest of brown curls in the middle. He pushes past the crowd and calls Jane’s name, when Jane turns to him he, for the first time, pulls her into a tight embrace. Bucky pulls back almost immediately, feeling like he shouldn’t have done that but Jane doesn’t let go of him. He sees Yondu on a chair behind them, with a familiar bottle of blue tonic in one hand and a… severed toe in the other one. When he glances at Yondu’s foot, he sees it was carefully bandaged and then he turns to Jane.
“Bucky” Jane calls, “Bucky, are you alright?” she asks, examining his face.
He nods, his thumb moving a strand of hair from her face. Bucky wants to lean in again and hug her, maybe kiss her, but they are interrupted by the crowd chanting Jane’s name as they start to walk away from the small circle they had formed. Jane blushes slightly before looking back at Yondu.
“I cut off his toe” Jane says.
Bucky frowns, “What?”
“He had an infection, it could kill him and there is no doctor so I cut it off myself” Her words were coming out in a rush, but he could still understand, “I gave him some Oxycon, sorry, but he could have died and cutting a toe off hurts and I cauterised it afterwards so-“
“Jane, Jane, I don’t care” His frown deepens, “It’s fine”
She takes a deep breath and releases it in a breathy laugh, “Sorry”
Bucky realises he’s still cuping her face but he can’t bring himself to let her go. A small voice in his mind tells him that he will have to eventually, and it doesn’t mean in a few seconds. They were outside of Arcadia now, in a few days they will go to The Cinders and she would reunite with her sister, and then he will have to let her go to continue alone. Jane leans into his touch and lips quirking when Jane’s blush deepens, reaching to touch the bandaged arm.
“We are safe” Jane whispers, “You got us out”
And then the voice speaks again, this time to mock him for being so ridiculous to believe he’s actually in love with the woman looking back at him. Bucky nods and gives a step back, leaving Jane’s space before Yondu interrupts them clearing his throat, standing between them and waving his dead toe on Bucky’s face making him give a step back.
“Your girl saved my life” Yondu says.
“She’s not-“
“I’m not-“
They say at unison.
Bucky looks at her and then at Yondu, who raises an eyebrow at him, almost disapprovingly, before he smiles at Jane and shrugs. A man behind him passes him a bottle, Yondu leaves his toe on the man’s hand and takes it, unscrewing the cap off with his teeth. He takes a long sip and then offers it to Jane, who raises a hand and refuses politely, Bucky does the same and they both wait for Yondu to take another long sip. When he’s done, he grins widely at Jane, offering her a wink before he reaches for her hand and kissing the back of it just slightly, the gesture makes Bucky roll his eyes but Jane doesn’t seem to mind, blushing when Yondu thanks her once again. Bucky glances around and his nose catches the smell of food, his stomach making an embarrassing sound he isn’t sure the other two heard until he realises they are looking at him.
“We have food over there” Yondu says, “I gotta go lay down a bit”
“Try not to drink so much” Jane tells him.
And Yondu snorts looking at her and offering a shrug, Jane sighs and shakes her head softly as the man starts limping away with the help of one of his men. A woman appears behind them, and Bucky raises an eyebrow at her, when she reaches for Jane his hand shoots out and stops her. Jane turns and scowls at the exchange and Bucky lets her go, apologising under his breath. She introduces herself as Aleta, Yondu’s second in command, and tells them there’s still food in one of the trucks. He sees Jane yawn and Aleta turns to her.
“You should go rest” Aleta says, “Tomorrow you will start a long journey”
Bucky wonders if Jane had told anyone about that. When Jane glances at him, he realises she wondered the same about him, so he remains silent. Jane finally nods and walks pass him, caressing his arm slightly before she leaves towards the bus he had woken up in, with a heavy looking duffle bag on her shoulder. He looks in her direction for a few seconds before he is finally able to tear his eyes from her. When he turns to the other woman, Aleta, she’s eyeing him somewhat suspiciously, eyes narrowed just slightly but enough for him to notice her action.
“Coulson tells me she was one of Aida’s-“
“Not anymore” Bucky cuts her off, he holds her gaze, “Did he say anything else?”
Aleta shakes her head, “No more than necessary” she answers, “Eat something, we’ll talk about the payment later”
The woman leaves, not telling him where exactly can he get something to eat. Bucky starts walking aimlessly and remembers the gun had been left in Jane’s hand, she turns to go find Jane but finds Mantis behind him, with a big, bright smile and a bowl in her hands.
“I manages to scoop you this” Mantis says, leaving the bowl in his hands.
It’s warm, Bucky takes a deep breath in, it smells delicious and it makes his stomach make an embarrassing noise, which she hears but ignores. He nods and offers her a small thanks, when Mantis follows him as he finds a place to sit, he realises she’s not leaving him alone, so he makes sure to find a place they could both sit – in silence – while he eats his meal. The first meal he’s had in over eight hours. He sits near the fire, finding the night too cold, and Mantis sits right in front of him. Bucky wonders if she talks to anyone else, and when he glances around he realises she and Aleta are the only two women that are part of the Ravangers. The soup is good, lots of vegetables and sizeable pieces of chicken, Mantis reaches inside a brown bag she carries and leaves a bun of brean in his lap that he accepts gladly. He throws back the bowl and then wipes the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Are you and Aleta the only women here?” Bucky asks.
Mantis nods her head, “We are an exception” she says, “But it’s because Yondu is in love with Aleta”
Bucky looks at her unimpressed, “And what about you?”
The black pupils in her eyes seem to go even wider when Bucky looks at her. He can see the fire clearly reflected in them as if they were mirrors, She doesn’t blink as she stares at him like trying to figure if she should tell him or not.
“I’m in love with Peter” She says.
Is not what he asked but she seems… Lunatic.
“Peter?” Bucky asks instead.
Mantis nods, her face then morphs into a sad expression, “But he is gone” She blinks several times before she looks at him again, the sweet smile on her face back as she looks around. “He’s in Maraud”
Bucky glances at her, and then back at his bowl, “Why didn’t you go with him?”
She sighs, “He left with the one he loves”
Someone in the crowd a few feet from them call Mantis’ name. Bucky lifts his gaze to find a man signaling her to join them, he saw him before following Yondu around, so he asumes he must be his right hand. He feels Mantis’ hand over his before she stands and with small smile she leaves. The men from the crown, now joined by Aleta and Mantis start chanting again, and Bucky stares at them for a few seconds before continuing to eat by himself.
The bowl on his hands is empty when he remembers the dream he had after drifting into unconciousness. His feet almost itch to stand, go to Jane, and tell her that he remembered Steve and what had happened the night he was taken from his home. He doesn’t, afraid that she might tell him it was a dream or a product of his imagination caused by the poison in his veins and the drug she had used to fight it off. He wants, he needs to believe that it was real. Not a dream but a memory. He wants to be sure that he has something anchoring him to the place he was born in, and only then he will have a reason to go to Catalean other than… Delaying going to the Cinders, leaving Jane and then having to go alone to Maraud. Bucky shakes his head and leaves the bowl in the floor, next to his feet before he runs a hand through his hair and face, trying to scrub away the weariness.
“You should rest, James”
He looks up to find Aleta looking at him, there is something in her eyes, like she’s scanning his face for something. Bucky doesn’t let her, he stands and lifts his chin, before he nods and leaves towards the bus he arrived in. He hears Aleta chuckling, but doesn’t turn to her, instead walking at a fast pace towards a place he knows he will be able to rest. For now.