Chapter Text
He doesn't know how long he has stood there, staring down at the open compass and the photo inside. He knows it's been long enough for the tears on his shirt to dry.
He probably would have stayed there for much longer, just staring, if Coulson had not come in to fetch him.
"Sergeant?" the agent asks, and Bucky's head snaps to him. "Banner's spectrometers got a hit on Loki. He's in Stuttgart, Germany. The Director wants you to suit up and get him."
Bucky nods and rasps out, "Okay," before following the agent into another room, supposedly holding his new Captain America suit. (New? he thinks bitterly. It's more like I'm the new item for the mantle.)
Coulson holds open the door for him and closes it behind him once he enters. Bucky sighs to himself as he turns away from the closed door.
That is... not what he was expecting.
He certainly was expecting red, white, and blue, but maybe not this vibrant. It looks so impractical. Bucky sighs reluctantly. He guesses it will have to do. As long as I'm not in a real fight.
Bucky decides he really doesn't like SHIELD when they make him get on another plane to get to Stuttgart. Honestly, he went on a suicide mission in a PLANE. Also, who the fuck designed the suit? It's uncomfortable, it's flashy, and a whole lot of other things that he hasn't decided on yet.
Bucky peers out from an alley at Loki, walking through a crowd of people while making a villain-y speech. He's got the most ridiculous helmet. Great, Bucky thinks, a dramatic asshole. Suddenly, a man stands up. Bucky, seeing what Loki is going to do, sprints from the alley.
At this moment, he decides he's going to blame every stupid or life-threatening thing he does on Steve's ghost.
He makes it just in time for the blast from the scepter to hit the shield and go right back at the god. He decides he wants to make a snarky quip, but... his mind blanks. Fuck, he thinks.
"You know," Bucky begins. "I was gonna make a snarky comment, but I couldn't come up with anything in time before you decided to kill someone. Says something about your character, doesn't it?" Bucky is slightly disappointed that the crowd had run away to safety because that quip was excellent, if he says so himself. Loki glares.
"The soldier—" Loki says as his glare disappears and a grin breaks across his face. "—the man out of time."
"I'm not the one out of time, Loki," Bucky snaps as the quinjet appears above him, Romanoff piloting.
A gun unfolds from the bottom as her voice echoes over the speakers of the quinjet. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."
Loki glares again and fires at it, Romanoff maneuvers it out of the way just in time as Bucky and the god fight. Suddenly, Loki throws the shield out of Bucky's hands and snarls, "Kneel!"
Suddenly, there's a voice saying, "Agent Romanoff, you miss me?" and music playing over the speakers of the quinjet.
Both Loki and Bucky's gazes snap up to Iron Man—Tony Stark—flying in and firing a repulsor at the god. While he's down, Bucky gets away from Loki and grabs the shield off the ground. Both Bucky and Stark take defensive positions against Loki, who is on the ground.
"Make your move, Reindeer Games," Stark says. Bucky's eyes widen at the display of magic when Loki's ridiculous helmet disappears while raising his hands in surrender. "Good move," Stark continues as they both lower their weapons.
"Dr. Stark," Bucky greets.
Stark seems to be surprised when he responds with a curt, "Captain." Bucky's heart clenches slightly when he realizes that Stark must think he's Steve. He won't correct him for now.
Somehow, SHIELD got their hand on magic-suppressing handcuffs just for Loki, but Bucky doesn't question it as he puts them on the god. Despite being awake for only two weeks, there's already a long list of things he won't question. He supposes he can add magic to it.
Bucky leads Loki into the now-landed quinjet and tells him to sit. He, surprisingly, listens.
Bucky goes up to the cockpit to ask Romanoff, "How long until we get to the helicarrier?"
"About an hour, why?" she asks.
"Nothing." He goes and sits across from Loki. Stark stands near the exit of the jet, staring at the god as it takes off.
Bucky takes slow, deep breaths to calm himself before taking off the ridiculous cowl.
Stark's eyes widen. "You're not Rogers."
"No, he never made it off the train," Bucky responds curtly, hoping the billionaire will get with the program that he doesn't want to fucking talk right now.
He doesn't.
"Right." Bucky can see the gears in his head turning, scarily similar to Howard. "Why did I always think you fell off the train instead of Rogers?" Bucky shrugs. Stark's eyes rove over the star-spangled suit he's wearing. "You picked up the mantle then? After... he fell?"
"Kind of."
"Kind of?"
"Sure."
"You're not very talkative, are you?"
"Would you be if you woke up seventy years later in the twenty-first century after crashing a plane on a suicide mission?"
"...Oh." Bucky senses Loki looking between them with interest, but he doesn't say anything. Stark snaps his fingers. "That's why you asked Romanoff when we'd get to the helicarrier." Bucky glares in response.
Suddenly, lightning flashes across the sky, shortly followed by thunder. Bucky tenses, along with Loki. Despite being near a panic attack, Bucky finds vindictive glee in asking the god, "Scared of a little lightning?"
"I could ask you the same thing," he shoots back.
"Touché," Bucky mutters. "I just don't like planes."
"I'm just not overly fond of what follows."
Bucky's near-panic-attack-like brain struggles to comprehend what he says and to remember the little Norse mythology he knows. Loki had a brother, right? The brother was adopted... no, Loki was the adopted one. Right? Yeah, because Loki is a Jotun and Thor— Thor! "It's—" He's cut off by a thump on top of the quinjet. Every occupant's gaze snaps up.
Stark opens the ramp of the jet, which Bucky finds incredibly fucking stupid on his part. Thor—Bucky is confident it's Thor because of the hammer and cape—lands on the ramp and shoves Stark away, the armor-clad man landing on top of him. He lets out a groan as Thor grabs Loki by the neck and jumps out.
Stark scrambles up to his feet. "Now there's that guy."
"Another Asgardian?" Romanoff asks.
"Thor," Bucky manages to get out from his position on the ground, fighting off a panic attack.
"You're sure?"
"Had a hammer." He can feel Stark's eyes on him, but he doesn't care. He just wants to be off the fucking plane.
"Well, Thor or not, if he frees or kills Loki, the Tesseract's lost," Romanoff says.
"I'm going after him!" Stark exclaims and jumps out of the jet, leaving no room for argument. Bucky manages to stand and closes the ramp, letting out a deep breath.
"You're not going too?" Romanoff asks.
Bucky shakes his head. "Fightin' off a panic attack, Romanoff, don't think it'll be a good idea," he says, his Brooklyn accent thickening. Romanoff looks at him, unconvinced. He sends her an uncertain smile.
It's quiet for a while before her voice comes from the cockpit again. "Is it okay if I circle around a bit until they come back, or do you want to go back to the helicarrier?"
Bucky swallows and takes another deep breath. "You can circle, it's fine. The thunder is what freaked me out the most."
"Are you sure?"
Bucky nods. "I'm sure, Romanoff."