Chapter 3
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Steve almost caught up.
Combs through the afternoon newspaper as he eats an apple.
It was back in Switzerland. He had to stay there, waiting for the next train.
Turns the page.
It was...during the rougher months. ...The ones he doesn't like to think about.
Slipped up, stayed too long in front of a post office, the camera catching a brief glimpse of him.
He prematurely boarded the next train to Austria (ironic, too damn ironic), reading the next week that so had Steve.
Didn't sleep in the motel like he had planned to avoid being spotted again.
"STARK TECH MAKES DEBUT; EXPERIMENTAL REDWING DRONE GIVEN TO SAM WILSON- THE FALCON"
All he needed was just once, & that'd be it.
Crunch.
So he left.
"PEPPER POTTS: IRON MAN'S NEXT BIGGEST HEARTBREAK?"
There are multiples definitions for the word coward.
You can be a coward for running from a fight. You can even be a coward for staying in one.
You can be a coward for running away from your problems, denying that they even fucking exist.
"Potts, the former CEO of Stark Industries has stepped down from her executive position at the company, leading sources saying that her long relationship with Tony Stark may be to blame. Stark, known as much for his nocturnal happening as he is for the red suited wonder, has remained silent, continuing his college campus "Dream" Tour, granting free funding for young STEM researchers."
He is not the definition of these. He's keeping Steve away from the problem. Hell, everyone.
He knew the HYDRA bases in DC, yet he only ruined the one. He knew where Steve was, but stayed as far, and far distant as he could from the hospital (your damn fault, his stomach turning).
He didn't need to bring Steve in this. Not....This. Not hiding, not running. He deserves an actual life. He never freaking had one.
"Search resumes for assassin, in wake of Amsterdam professional hit. Police are searching for a man believed to be from Sokovian Elite Forces-"
Noise, he thought as he folded the newspaper.
Remembers a time in Brooklyn where he'd occasionally get pissed at Steve for reading the WWII headlines. "London bombed.", "Germany continues unspeakable horrors"
Now, it was horrible every day. Everywhere.
Drinks some of the bottle water he got.
If teenage him saw these, he might go out & hide every copy from Steve, afraid he'd get an attack.
Him now... ....
Closes the paper, taking some & pasting the ads on the Windows again (moisture from the recent storm a few days ago rending it near useless, a wet sloppy paper mache mess like his Grandmother used to make).
He knows Steve will never give up. It's Steve. It's like telling a star to stop glowing, it just....can't.
He can't ignore injustice, and he can't ignore evil. He's never been able to stand on the sidelines like everyone else, and just hope. The difference is made by one man, his Father always used to say.
...Explains why he wouldn't stop searching for him.
Bucky sighed, going over to exercise as he left the depressing paper.
& it explains why Bucky has to stay far away as humanly possible.