Flight
Bucky stares down at Y/N in pure panic. She looks terrified as another branch snaps under Rumlow’s foot. “Bucky,” she whispers, horror written all over her being. “Buck-,”
“He can’t help you sweetheart.”
The sound of his voice closer and deeper, a smirk hiding in its depths, spurs Bucky into action. “Go,” he whispers. Bucky rolls off of her, positions himself between her and the approaching man. “Go, Y/N! Right now!” He’s on his knees, hands raised, the picture of a desperate man.
“No,” she sits up on her knees too and grabs Bucky’s shoulder. “No!” Y/N meets Rumlow’s eyes and starts to say something when her eyes drift down to his hand where a knife glints. She pales. “Rumlow, listen-,” Y/N starts to plead.
He shakes his head, “Uh-uh sweetheart, you made the wrong choice when you picked him a second time.” Rumlow’s eyes track her hand as she defiantly runs her hand down Bucky’s arm to his hand. She twists her fingers with his.
With a rebellious look on her face she meets his eyes. He laughs as he looks away and huffs out a disbelieving breath. “You don’t own me. And I don’t want you.”
“No. I don’t. Barnes does though somehow. Look at him,” he curls his lip. “On his knees. Letting you defend yourself when he should be on his feet for you. Defend you with everything he has. The truth is you don’t mean all that much to him. And yet he fucking owns you. Keep you, lose you,” he shrugs. “Doesn’t fucking matter to him.”
Bucky’s muscles coil and he starts to stand but Y/N tightens her hand, makes him stay in place. “We will defend each other together. I can’t be broken easily.”
Her hand slackens just a fraction and before she can stop him Bucky’s jumped to his feet and walked forward a few feet, getting right in the other man’s face. “Don’t you fucking talk about what I won’t do for her, for us. I’ll do fucking anything.” Bucky pays no mind to the knife in Rumlow’s hand.
“Rumlow,” Y/N says before Bucky can say anything else. “Please, I-,”
“Brock.” He interrupts.
She pauses and frowns, getting slowly to her feet as Bucky stays planted firmly between them. “What?”
A sick smile twists his features. “Brock. Say my name, baby. Say it sweet like you used to whisper to me.”
“I never-,” she spits right as Bucky lurches for him. It’s sloppy and uncoordinated. And he’s angry and afraid where Rumlow is focused and calm. He dodges Bucky’s attack and grabs his bad arm, twisting it behind his back until he yells out in pain. She stares in horror as both men now face her. Brock has Bucky’s arm held in an angle that the slightest pressure from Rumlow will snap it. His other hand comes up to hold the knife at Bucky's throat, not yet touching his skin.
Bucky lets out a hard breath as he stares at Y/N. “I’m sorry Y/N. I'm sorry, doll.”
“Say it, Y/N. Say it. You would breathe it so sweetly to me when we were together. You were so happy with me. I made you happy. But no matter how many fucking times I shove Barnes down, prove that he's worthless and broken-,” he presses the blade into Bucky’s throat. “-you still fucking pick him. No matter how low and pathetic he is, you pick him. I erased your fucking memory and somehow….still him.” He shakes his head, “Not anymore, baby. Now say my fucking name!”
A bright red drop of blood rolls down Bucky's neck as she holds her hands out in a pacifying manner. “Brock,” she makes her voice sweet and low, seemingly submissive. “Please don’t hurt him.”
A beat of silence passes in which Brock adjusts his grip on Bucky so he has both arms twisted up behind his back. But Y/N has been watching Bucky at the gym for weeks. He’s stronger, larger. He could get out of Rumlow’s grip, she has a feeling, if it weren’t for the knife. Maybe she can distract Rumlow, get him to loosen his grip so Bucky can get away.
Her attention is brought back to them when Rumlow holds him harder, making Bucky wince and squirm, hissing when the blade then digs further into the delicate skin of his throat. “Why shouldn’t I? He’s kept me from you for years.”
“Brock,” she says gently. “I know. I didn’t tell Barnes,” she spits his last name, feigned disgust coating her tone. “But I remembered everything. And you were right. They’ve all been lying to me.” She meets his eyes and feels like she’s spitting poison when she whispers. “I love you. I always have. They’ve been trying to chain me to them but I want to be with you. I want you. I can’t fucking stand him. My skin crawls when he touches me. I feel nauseous when he looks at me.”
He seems confused for a moment and Y/N does everything in her power to keep her eyes on Brock’s face. Bucky’s will be filled with hurt and betrayal and if she sees him looking so twisted with pain it’ll only mirror on her own face and give them away. Bucky stays silent though, getting a sense of her plan.
Brock regains some of his composure, looks proud of himself. “I knew it, baby.” Sickness truly pours into her soul as he lets his eyes rove over her body. Y/N fights the urge to shield herself with her arms. “I want you to be a good girl and say it again. So, this one-,” the knife is pressed harder, more blood flowing downwards. “-will finally understand who you belong to. Say you love me.”
“I love you.”
A slimy smile overtakes his face. “My name.”
Her voice cracks with strain and emotion. “Brock.” Bucky meets her eyes briefly, sorrow and longing and an apology swimming there. “Now please…I know you can’t let him go but please promise you won’t hurt him.”
Rumlow ignores her, seems to be getting off on the sound of her voice alone. “You sound so sweet. Oh, Y/N, you used to sound so sweet for me. Withering and moaning underneath me. You told me to stop, tried pushing me away, but I knew you wanted it. I could hear it in the way you whimpered for me. I could feel it when you withered and then when you came-,”
All color has drained from her face. She didn't know. Her eyes swim with tears as they meet Bucky’s. By the look on his face, Bucky hadn't known either. And she knows in that moment that she won’t be able to control what happens next. His whole body is suddenly overcome with all consuming, righteous rage. “Brock,” her voice splinters again. “Stop talking.”
“What is it Barnes?" Rumlow shakes him roughly, "You never fucked her as good as I did-,”
The wrath breaks free. “You fucking raped her!” Almost too easily Bucky twists away from Rumlow’s grip, although not without a sizeable slash to his neck. Rumlow starts to move forward to overtake an unbalanced Bucky.
Y/N darts forward and shoves at Brock, who nearly loses his balance when he grips her arm and flings her to the ground. His boot comes down squarely into the center of her back. “You’ll be punished for that.” He removes his foot only to bring it back down into her ribs so hard she sees stars and hears a devastating crack. There was no holding back with that kick and for several minutes she can't move, can’t even look up.
She looks up just in time to watch the two of them go to the ground. An animalistic scream leaves her. She won’t lose everything again, she won’t. But by the she manages to stand, her ribs in agony, they’re fighting in earnest. And she can’t see that fucking knife.
Rumlow rolls them so he’s on top, landing a punch to his jaw as Bucky struggles to kick him away. A sudden weakness seems to have overcome Bucky as she picks up a large stick and slams it into the back of his head with all her strength. When he slumps to the side, clutching his head, she sees where the knife has ended up. It’s lodged firmly in his stomach. Tears blind her eyes as she looks to Bucky’s face. “Please run, baby,” he whispers. There's a finality in his voice.
Rumlow is starting to recover himself. “No.” Bucky’s very pale.
“Please.”
“No.”
Rumlow laughs and Y/N looks over to him as he grips the other end of the branch and rips it away from her hands, scratching her skin and making her palms bleed. His face is starting to bruise horribly, blood is dripping from his mouth and ear. Comparatively, Bucky must have had the upper hand while she couldn’t move, until the knife that is.
Bucky is unharmed for the most part, the better fighter.
Except for that knife.
“Better run, baby.” He grins at her with bloodstained teeth. “After this you’re mine forever. Or do you wanna watch Barnes bleed to death.” He grabs the hilt of the blade and rips it out before slamming in back it. A tortured scream rips past his lips and then Rumlow twists it. His yell is bloodcurdling, knocking the breath out of her. She wants to beg for his life but that isn’t what happens because she knows she has one better. Somehow, flight over takes her and the next thing she knows she’s flying through the forest.
Y/N hears another tortured scream.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she knows she’s the more important prey and Rumlow can’t risk her getting away. He’d follow her. He might have said to run but he thought that Y/N wouldn’t dare leave Bucky’s side.
And someone does follow her.
This is her only way to save Bucky’s life. A strange sort of peace overcomes her as she runs as fast as her broken ribs will allow her to.
Y/N makes it to the creek before her vision starts to go and she trips. Rumlow darts out of the darkness and grabs her by her hair. Darkness has fallen around them as he drags her back and throws her onto a patch of grass.
He straddles her waist, letting his whole weight bare down upon her. Another scream rips through the air as he lands a hit to her broken ribs. “Fuck you, Y/N.” His fingers drag up her body, pausing only to roughly grope her breasts. “You always were a fucking fighter. Never knew your fucking place.” Rumlow slaps her hard as she cries out. “Stop screaming. Goddammit, you know I hate that.” His hand slips to her throat, “Good thing I know how to keep you silent.”
His hand lifts her head a few inches, only to slam her skull back into the ground.
This time her vision takes a full minute to come back during which Rumlow has been cursing her and groping anywhere he can. She scrabbles at his arms and face, digging her nails in hard.
She would prefer to die next to Bucky, looking into his eyes and reassuring him that it wasn’t his fault, that none of it was. But this is a close second, giving him a chance to get away.
Rumlow though, has had enough of her. His hand closes around her throat and starts to squeeze. There is an intention there, to kill her. It tightens and tightens as strange images start to swim in her vision. She thinks they might be her memories. How unfair, that they would come now.
A choked sob breaks free from her mouth which makes Rumlow press harder. Her eyes drift up and she realizes she can see the stars. The stars look back with such sadness it makes her cry harder because you'd think the earth was crumbling away with that amount of sadness. And maybe it is. She wonders if her sky is alright, if he's managed to stop the bleeding.
Rumlow leans down and kisses roughly her as her vision starts to blacken again. Y/N closes her eyes instead. Peace settles in her bones as she starts to lose consciousness, because she’s saving someone she loves. She loves him so much that she would die for him.
She can feel her death approaching. It's both warm and cold but the pain has stopped and it doesn't seem so bad.
Rumlow is laughing. He’s calling her a bitch. He’s making her silent forever. He’s making her his forever because he’s taking her life.
It doesn’t matter.
“Y/N.”
“Hey Buck.”
He’s nestled between her legs, his head against her chest. “I love you.”
Her fingers thread through his long locks. “I love you too.”
Everything is white. The air is cool and soothing. White curtains flutter on the breeze. “Don’t leave just yet, darling. We have things to do yet.”
“I’m afraid.”
“I am too. But it’s not your time. I’m waiting for you to come back.”
Someone knocks Rumlow away from her just as she finally stops breathing.