you're not abandoned there's always someone waiting

[sizeofyourbaggage]

CHARACTERS: Sam, Bucky, Misato, and Damon
WHERE: Waypoint Shril
WHEN: Day 32-ish, right after this
SUMMARY: Sam brings home a potentially murderous hobo, but it's fine, he'll fit right in.
WARNINGS: none right now, will update as needed


Right about now, Sam’s real damn grateful for just how extravagant the hotel suite is - because it means it’s quiet, private, and they’re not likely to be disturbed by anyone except the other people who occasionally reside here. But Misato’s at work, and Damon and Elena are… off wherever the hell they go when they’re not here. They’ve got the place to themselves.

Bucky’s stretched out on the couch, honestly looking like he’s seen better days. Not that that’s really all that different from how he usually tends to look, but… it’d started to be, before their latest fight, when Sam was hassling him about washing his hair so he could braid it. Sam himself is sitting on the ground beside the couch, leaning up against it. One arm is draped over the couch cushion so he can hold hands with Bucky, their fingers laced together, and his other hand is tangled in Bucky’s hair. His clothes are damp, but he’s half dozing anyway, his head pillowed on his shoulder.

Most of his half-asleep mind is focused on Bucky’s presence in it, but he’s still listening out, as though he’s on guard. So he startles a little closer into wakefulness when he picks up the presence of another member of the Nest, but settles back down when he recognizes it as someone he trusts, someone who belongs here.

No need to try to pull himself completely from exhaustion, then, and he just brushes his mind against theirs in a semi-conscious greeting.

Comments

[wille]

If Sam and Bucky fit into the picture of domestic bliss, Misato is the depressingly harried career-woman chasing after the elusive dream of a work-life balance. It has been nearly two days since she has been back at the hotel, her previous visit limited to a rushed shower and a quick robbery of whatever and whoever's food left around the place. If she's at all exhausted, it doesn't show from how violently she jerks the door open, slams it shut and how loudly she yells, "Tadaima!" 

I'm home. A difficult habit to leave behind.

It's only after she has slipped off her shoes that she senses a new presence nearby, like noticing a strange sound in one's own home. That sense of knowing she's not alone in the room. This time, she tiptoes through the opulent hallway to peek over the wall at the living room, eyes wide and mouth open in a hardly concealed oh, never one to keep her expressions under wrap.

Her next words are muttered, hand over her lips. "You know you can use my room, right?"

[bracchium]

Bucky's usually not the type to sleep through much noise. Too long under HYDRA's thumb has taught him to never quite delve deeper beyond the twilight stage of consciousness unless he's being frozen. Yet, he doesn't startle until Sam begins mentally pulling away. The illusion of a breezy summer day and jade waters flickers and fades as he stirs. Most of the programming's heat has faded into little more than a bright fire, not nearly the white-hot blistering pain of before. Still, he's reluctant to go climbing back into his own head after the events of the afternoon.

He would agree that he doesn't look great, between rationing his food and isolating himself and the brief visit to the refrigeration unit. Sweat gleams on his forehead as he works to open his eyes. Someone's here, someone he doesn't know.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

Sam's smirk is somewhere between amused and exasperated when Misato barrels on into the hotel room, but there's no denying the quiet rush of affection at hearing her shout that she's home. When he calls, "Welcome home!" back, he doesn't notice that it isn't in English.

He does notice Bucky's attempt to open his eyes, though, and his reluctance to return to his own mind. Sam slides his fingers through Bucky's hair, and mentally his wings stretch back around Bucky's presence: a silent offer for him to stay, as long as he wants. It's not like Sam's mental shields really work all that well with Bucky these days, anyway. There's the impression that Misato's a friend, that Sam trusts her, before he looks up at her question.

Oh he sees that expression, Misato, don't look at him like that. "I had to carry him here, we weren't going further than the couch." He says as if he wasn't the one who insisted on giving Bucky a piggy back ride, but still. "Misato, this is Bucky Barnes. Bucky, Misato Katsuragi."