fossilised | For Steve

Bucky watched this exchange with a blank expression on his face, even as Agent Carter turned her head back to look at him speculatively and then back at Steve. She walked over to him, poised and perfect, and raised one cultured eyebrow.

"You will remain in here, Privates, until I have spoken with Dr. Erskine, is that understood?"

She didn't wait for a response before she turned and walked out again to leave them alone the rest of the recruits already going out for the start of their day's training. It left Bucky just looking over at Steve, expression melting just slightly.

"--sorry. I can't let them turn me into a soldier again."

"We would have found another way to do this if you'd told me earlier," Steve said gently. "But I think it will be all right now. You already had the training. I guess... I'm going to need it more than you, right? Just looooong the way I did in the picture won't do me any good without discipline and-- You can always train me, right?"

Steve sat down on the edge of his bunk and leaned down to tie his heavy boots properly. He looked strange in that uniform, something Bucky had never seen, the smallest uniform on offer still too big for him. Steve had to turn the cuffs of his pants up. And his sleeves too. The dog tags looked too big on his chest. The boots were too big too.

As silly as he looked, he was still making an effort. Steve Rogers never gave less than all of himself in anything he did.

"Will you be all right here, Buck? If we stay I mean."

Bucky looked as if he belonged in the uniform, aside from the hair, he even had the look that a lot of older soldiers got, the ones who had seen a lot of campaigns. The slightly hollow, slightly far away look, that said he had seen too much violence and he might never be the same again for it. Whereas Steve was so obviously green, with those wide innocent eyes and baby-faced charm.

"I've got through worse."

Basic training might not be fun, but he would find a way to get through. Not that Steve needed to know about the 'worse'. He knew that HYDRA had managed to get hold of him, that was it, and that was all that was necessary.

It didn't take long before the door opened again to reveal Agent Carter looking less than impressed. "I don't know where you heard the name HYDRA, Private Rogers, but I expect you to forget you ever knew it. Now get to basic training immediately. Private Barnes, you and I are going to go and see the barber."

Steve stood up. He didn't like authority figures who thought they understood the world when they couldn't look down and see what was right in front of them. He hated bullies. He wasn't going to allow Bucky to be molded into something he didn't like. But Steve also understood that it was better to talk than to fight and so he headed over to where Bucky and his single glove stood, at ease, hands behind his back.

"That's not going to work for us, ma'am." Steve looked up at Bucky with an apologetic smile. "Show her your hand...?"

It might not work. It might get them into trouble. Bucky might have to help him fight his way out of here. If that was the case... They'd figure out another way to get him what he needed. It was too bad that Erskine hadn't come through for them but Steve was used to disappointments. He never fit in anywhere. He never tried to any more. And that was so no one could really effect him.

No one but Bucky. Steve was loyal to his friend to a fault.

Peggy Carter would not be pleased if she knew she was being mentally compared to a bully, when she was just making sure that regulations were obeyed and her job was done right. But that was sadly the way of it for a woman in the military, she had to work twice as hard and was either seen as a ball-busting bully, or a delicate flower who couldn't do anything but make the tea. Her eyes flicked down to that gloved hand. She had assumed it was an embarrassing birthmark or something, he wouldn't be allowed to enlist with a defect that might stop him holding a gun correctly.

Bucky looked long and hard at Steve for a moment, before he obligingly pulled his glove off to reveal the segmented and shiny metal beneath. Her eyes opened wide and she immediately moved to block off the door.

"Explain, now."

"No."

"Damn it, Private, this needs an explanation!"

"You wouldn't believe us. I know the truth and I still wouldn't believe us," Steve said kindly, eyes lifting from the perfectly formed metal. "But this is tied to HYDRA and a similar project to Rebirth. Dr. Erskine isn't the only one with the serum he's working on." Steve had the time line messed up. He didn't know that the doctor would die and the serum would be stolen. Or that Bucky would steal more from a not yet made friend in a few decades.

But he didn't need to. All he had to do was convince his CO that he wasn't crazy.

"I'm the candidate. I'm the one who needs to graduate this program. Bucky is my bodyguard." Wow. It made him sound a lot more important than he was. "Will you help us? We need to get this done with to stop HYDRA."

Erskine had confirmed that he hoped Steve would be the one to get the serum, but that he needed to go through basic training first, so perhaps it wasn't out of the realms of possibility that he needed a bodyguard. He certainly did look skinny enough to need one...

"Even a bodyguard undercover has to look like a soldier," she said, voice softening slightly. "I appreciate the position you're in, but all I'm asking for is a haircut."

Bucky's jaw grit so hard that he looked as if he might chew and spit rocks, before he eventually nodded just once. He didn't want this, he didn't want to be made faceless, but she was right. One haircut, it wouldn't change anything in the long run.

It was never appropriate for a man to wear long hair but it had grown on Steve to see Bucky in it. He liked the fringe that curled across his cheeks and he liked it when it hung wet and damp against his neck. Steve wasn't entirely impressed with the idea of letting Bucky be anything but himself, but this wasn't his call and it wasn't his play.

"Can you-- can it be just short enough not to get him in trouble?" Steve looked ridiculously young, though he was actually a little older than some of the enlisted men in this program.

Peggy pressed her perfectly painted lips together and then glanced sidelong to Bucky and nodded. "We can probably let it go an inch or so longer than regulation," she said with just a hint of amusement and nodded her head for Bucky to follow.

Steve didn't need to be attached at the hip to his friend, but he followed too until Peggy pointed the way for him to go out to meet the others. Steve thought he knew what hell was. But that was until he started basic training.

Would Steve still be sure this was what he wanted even after a morning of gruelling exercise? Or press-ups, sit-ups, assault courses, and running with a heavy pack on? The weight of his dog tags at his chest, real ones with his name and number inscribed on them, not just some dream he had after another lonely night in his cold little apartment.

It was late afternoon by the time Bucky rejoined everyone else. After he had gone to the barbers, Peggy had taken him to Erskine and the General of this base so that the four of them could have a serious talk about HYDRA, his arm, and what the hell was going on. Not that he had given a lot of information, enough to say he had been captured by them once upon a time and that he was here to protect Steve.

When Bucky caught up with Steve it was during a six mile run around the surrounding area. He ran beside him with the ease of a man strolling, as if he could go twice as fast and not feel it. But then, with the serum, he could outrun a car over some distances. He looked more like the Bucky that Steve knew now, hair short and uniform on.

Steve was going to defeat the Axis. He was going to punch Hilter and bring him into custody. He was going to save Bucky and defeat HYDRA and the Soviets. He was going to keep the people of war torn Europe safe. He'd help them rebuild and then come back to America and clean up the corrupt unions and the city governments. He'd help those that couldn't help themselves. No one would ever be cold or hungry again--

This is what Steve told himself as lagged further and further behind. He was not running anymore, but walk-hopping, trying to breathe and keep his feet moving. He was in pain but he was working through it, his uniform soaked and his hair flat against his scalp.

And then Bucky showed up. Fell into easy step with him. Steve felt his lungs loosen up and found a second wind becsuse this was what they were always suppose to have together. Bucky made him stronger. Even if he didn't realize it.

"How--was--it?" he panted, knees up again and arms pumping. "Looking--sharp!"

A part of Bucky felt a swell of pride as he watched Steve run, and it was a new sensation. He had never been here for basic training last time, he had never seen his underweight and under-performing best friend take every challenge they had to throw at him and succeed. He had never seen the grit and determination in full force before.

He saw it now. It was amazing.

"It was fine," he said, not even slightly out of breath. "I have to do the full six miles, but I'll run what's left of yours with you first."

He knew that they had all been running for a long time already, and surely Steve only had a mile or so left to go. Bucky could easily make his up after.

"You don't-- Buck you don't--" Steve had to slow again, back to his little walk hops, because talking was just impossible. "Djya even feel any of this?" He laughed already knowing the answer, sucked in as much breath as his lungs could manage, and pumped his arms to get back to it. A mile wasn't so far. He could already see the camp. The rest of the way was even slightly down hill.

He could do this. He had to do this. And Bucky was going to be with him the entire time.

The last mile was, therefore, easier than any of the others. Steve felt accomplished even if the rest of the group was all standing around, contemplating going to see if his heart had given out along the way.

No one cheered for his appearance but they didn't have to. Bucky was here. And Steve felt great.

And sore. And mostly dead. But great!!

One of the men in the group dug a dollar out of his pocket and slapped it into the waiting hand of another, payment of a bet that the scrawny newest recruit would even manage to make it back at all. There was a little good natured ribbing between the two, but nobody really paid much attention to Steve or Bucky.

The General stepped forwards and frowned at the whole lot of them. "Alright, ladies, that was pathetic. I've seen better times from my kids, and they're not even out of diapers. Hamston, you got the best time, take first dinner this evening. The rest of you, get down and give me fifty push-ups. Rogers, a hundred, you were last. Barnes, do you think this is a social dance? You've done a half mile chatting to your friend, I want twelve miles from you, maybe a little sweat will make you understand. That's twice around the course, double time."

Bucky scowled right back, and then glanced at Steve as if getting permission to leave his side again.

"I said now everyone!"

One hundred push ups was about sixty more than Steve could do. The general had one of the last to finish men wait with him, counting, as Steve forced himself through each grueling moment, resting only when his arms were shaking too badly to continue.

"Fifty- two... Rogers seriously. I'm starving," Jennsey complained, arms crossed and prematurely balding head shining in the sun as Bucky finished his twelve mile run in double time.

Steve was just a scrawny pile of sweat, body trembling with effort as he managed fifty-three, gasping.

Jennsey called that off too and started to pace. Never mind that Steve was in the verge of an attack.

"Sixty-eight. You're welcome Rogers," he muttered, skipping ahead. Steve ignored him.

It was a good job that nobody had really remained behind to check on Bucky, because he completed the twelve mile run in an impossible time and was barely panting by the time he pulled to a halt in the main yard where Steve was being put through his paces.

"Enough."

Bucky bent down and grasped Steve by the shoulder to pull him insistently to his feet. The man was going to give himself an asthma attack, and then where would they be?

"Fifty is what all the others did, that's enough."

He completely ignored Jennsey, but he wouldn't if the man tried to intervene.

Bucky could lift him easily and though he didn't fight him, Steve tried to gasp out that he was absolutely fine and that he didn't want to be treated any differently. If the General wanted him to do one hundred push ups, he would. Luckily, with Bucky there, and with Jennsey being more than willing to leave them to it so that he could have something to eat, no one would know what Steve did or did not do.

Lucky again, really, because his arms simply wouldn't let him do it. His muscles had been strained too far and they were little more than jelly.

Sitting down with his knees up, Bucky seated beside him, Steve held onto his upper thighs and practiced his deep breathing ubtil he could talk again. It took almost three minutes.

"I gotta do this Bucky." His face was beat red and he had probably sweated every fluid he'd had in him out again. "Just like everyone else. It's only fair."

"You did. Everyone else did fifty, you did fifty."

He folded his arms in a gesture that said he was not about to back down on this. Somehow, somewhere along the past few days, he had latched onto guarding Steve properly. A disquieted part of his mind whispered that it was because it was like having a handler again, a purpose, he knew what to do with a target to either take out or protect. Another part of him said that it was because this was Steve, who he didn't quite remember, but who said Buck in such a way that made him feel.

"I haven't done them."

So there, not everyone had done them.

The laugh that came was soft and Steve looked like he might lean into Bucky for just a moment before he caught himself and stretched his legs out in front of him. "We should get in. He was worried about there not being any food and I don't know about you, but I could eat."

Steve stood, legs still a little filled with jelly, and offered Bucky a hand up. It was ridiculous. His best friend just ran twelve mile in the time it took him to do a few dozen push ups and was barely breathing hard.

Dinner was delicious. It had absolutely no taste but it was different and more filling than the rations he was use to eating. And Steve was in a great mood too, even if it was only be and Bucky left eating now. The rest of their crew had gone back to their barracks.

Peggy arrived just before dessert and stood with her arms held behind her back, just behind Steve, but the blond was busy grinning at Bucky to notice.

"Well privates. We need to speak again."

It felt oddly quite nice to be the cause of Steve laughing, especially in such a fond way, but the closest he got to showing it was still only a slight thawing of his stony expression. It was like he had forgotten how to smile, or that what had happened had left such a deep impression on him that smiling would be a herculean task.

He could go a long time without eating if he had to, something he had been trained on, but he always ate when food was put in front of him. His body needed it a lot, the serum burned through calories like a wildfire, so he even mopped up the weak gravy with his finger before Agent Carter reappeared.

"About what?"

His question was neutral, but it couldn't help but sound slightly insolent because he added no title of polite address in there.

"We clocked your run," the agent said, shifting her hands to her small waist. Her hourglass form had Steve's eyes drifting a little now that he was glancing around at her, his attention drawn understandably away from her face. It did hurt his neck to look up, of course, his neck could only crane so far.

"You.. How fast was he?" Steve had been caught staring so he needed to say something.

Peggy smiled and Steve smiled right back at her, feeling a little oddly in his stomach. "Over seventy Miles an hour around the curve? Care to explain that private? Bionic legs to go with the arm?"

Bucky noticed the way Steve clocked Agent Carter, like he was a boy noticing a pretty dame for the first time, and for some reason that too felt familiar and yet a little bittersweet. He was too busy watching Steve to pay attention to what she said at first, only realising that she was addressing him when Steve looked surprised over the speed.

Faster than any human really could travel.

"I was told to go double time." That was pretty much his explanation. His normal jogging speed was around half that, so he had gone double time. Which, admittedly, was very close to his absolute top sprinting speed, not something he could sustain for more than half an hour or so.

"Are you trying to be funny?" she asked him, eyebrows raised, but Steve was pretty much staring at Bucky as if he was some strange God come to earth. Another Jesus Christ. Who could run so fast? Who could even dare? Was this what the serum would do for him?

No wonder it was so dangerous and so deadly. No wonder it was so full of intrigue. If the soldiers of the future were all like this, couldn't they destroy the world? What did ordinary people do?

Bucky said he didn't want to hurt anyone...

Steve felt sick to his stomach, that happy flutter gone, leaving him only with a terrible ache. His eyebrow knitted together as Agent Carter spoke about needing to do tests, about wanting to get in some calibrations, and Bucky's fear at being made another soldier had Steve standing up.

A little too quickly, probably, since he put his hand in the mashed whatever vegetables this was. It only made him look more sincere. "You're not going to test him. No blood. No forcing him to perform tricks-- No. When you select me for the program, run as many tests on me as you want. But no one touches Bucky."

Peggy frowned. "Are you with the American intelligence? Is that what this is? You're not military. You don't qualify--"

"It doesn't matter what I am," Steve said. "What matters is the future."

Bucky's brow furrowed in confusion, all his attention arrested on Steve as the man stood up to defend him. He wasn't even sure what he felt right then, it was completely alien to him. He had never had anyone take his corner before, stand up to other people properly on his account. It made him feel more-- human. Less like a weapon, more like a man.

He stood up at Steve's shoulder, eyes finally tearing away from him to look down at Agent Carter with cold ruthlessness.

"You don't test either of us," he said, voice brooking no argument from either of them. "We're men, we're not laboratory rats. Understand?"

Peggy's expression softened a bit. "I'm not trying to make either of you into laboratory rats, but we need to understand what's going on here. This is the army, and you're both here on Dr. Erskine's good word, we're not about to just let something impossible slide. What we want to test isn't invasive, just a few callisthenics and strength tests."

If Steve had known that the man ever felt less than human, let alone the way he had been abused to make him forget that he had ever even been human, Steve would have been crushed. That he stood up for Bucky now, however, was just typical. Usual. This is what he did for the people he loved and strangers alike. Even if he got his ass handed to him in the end.

"No tests because he's only here for me. He's not part of the Army. He's not your weapon or your tool. I'm your man." Steve was adamant. Even if Peggy looked at him a little ruefully (and impressed at the same time), Steve was use to being the underdog. And he was used to people not seeing through his height or his size or his sicknesses. "If you can't abide by that rule... Then I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. We'll find another way."

Steve was ready to run if he had to.

"No." Peggy shook her perfect curls. "I haven't shown the General yet. There's only a few of us that have seen the results. You can't show off anymore, Peivate Barnes, because the next person that finds out might not be willing to look the other way. Now. Finish up and back to your bunks. It's another day of training tomorrow."

He hadn't been showing off, he had been following orders. But he understood what she meant and would take that as an implicit order to limit himself no matter what he was told, something he didn't mind obeying because it would keep him at Steve's side and keep the eyes of the military away from them as much as possible.

He grunted and sat back at the table, allowing Peggy to take a step further towards Steve and smile. "Try not to lose that loyalty, soldier." It was nice, seeing good still in the world. "Lights out in ten minutes, you had best eat quickly." And with that, she left the two of them to it in the mess hall.

Bucky hesitated with a forkful of meat halfway to his mouth. "They don't test on you, either." Non-negotiable.

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