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WHO: Agra 10 gets another Captain America, and this one is Bucky Barnes!
WHERE: Starting in the square, then pretty much anywhere you want to run into him around town/the forest
WHAT: Arrival and exploring (NOTE: If you'd like to continue/assume our TDM thread as canon, just go ahead and I'll roll with it!)
WHEN: Bucky's arrival, a few weeks into the first event
WARNINGS: Will mark if any appear!

The last thing Bucky remembers is being on the Bishop with Steve. Then, suddenly - he's in the middle of a run-down square in a run-down city and there's a glowing... thing downloading information into his head.

All in all, it's kinda like any Tuesday in the Fleet. Almost. Except not. Especially not since after things changed.

He's alone - at least, he is at first. Which means he goes looking for Steve, once he realizes he's got no communicator and, honestly, pretty much nothing else, either, except for the plain coveralls he's wearing and the red, white, and blue shield that might be familiar to some.

He eventually finds his way into places like the hotel, the hospital, and the power plant. He's not afraid to poke around, and anyone he spots that doesn't look like a threat will be approached without hesitation.

At first, he's looking for Steve - or for acquaintances from the Fleet. But that doesn't mean unfamiliar people get the brush-off. He'll come right up, ask if you know what's going on, and probably offer help if it looks like you need it.

It's pretty much part of the job, after all.

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Katara feels a little bit like she's being taunted.

The building is marked "秘密隧道" as clear as day, and she wonders if there really is a secret tunnel inside, or if the words were put there as some sort of message to her. It's a little embarrassing, really, and it would be even more embarrassing if anyone else here knew about her history.

Even worse, that dumb song is stuck in her head now.

She paces back and forth in front of the building, humming that stupid song quietly to herself as she tries to decide how to proceed. On the one hand, it feels like an invitation. It's marked in a language she can read, unlike many of the other buildings, and the wording is a callback to her own experiences. On the other hand, going in alone is a terrible idea. Besides, hasn't she had her fill of secret tunnels after the last time she got caught in one for hours on end?

She kicks a pebble and sighs, burning with curiosity. Maybe someone else would be willing to go in with her? She could probably convince one of her new friends to take a chance.

Out of the corner of her eye, she notices an approaching figure, and she turns to see who it is. No one familiar, but she gives a friendly wave regardless.

Bucky definitely doesn't recognize the writing - or the person pacing in front of it, or the song she's humming (sharp hearing), but honestly that just makes the whole thing more intriguing. Which means he's already approaching when she spots him and waves; he lifts a hand in response, hiking closer to give the lettering another once-over, before he turns to the girl in front of it, looking a mix of wary and hopeful.

"Hey. Don't suppose you know what this is all about?"

He kind of means... well, everything, from the place they're standing in right now to the entire planet. He just got here, but he doesn't know if that means everyone else has, too, or if he's just late to the party.

Pointing to the painted calligraphy, Katara gives a noncommittal shrug. "It says 'secret tunnel,'" she translates for him. "So, someone either has a real sense of humor or there's actually a tunnel down there. If my friend Toph were here, she would be able to tell, but..." But Toph isn't here.

"I'm Katara," she adds hastily, before the absence of her friend can visibly get her down. "Did you just arrive?"

Bucky eyes the writing with a soft, "Huh." That's not ominous or anything; he peers as far into the entrance as he can, but even with better-than-average vision... yeah. Not much. "I can't tell, either."

He blows out a breath, but nods a little at the introduction, replying in kind: "Captain Barnes." But honestly, in this kind of situation, "You can just call me Bucky." It's not like he's about to really stand on rank at the moment, unless something really shitty goes down.

And at the question, he nods, "Yeah. Couple hours ago - I'm still finding my way around. Have you been here long?" Because that kind of a question indicates maybe she has been - but maybe she hasn't.

Katara nods briefly. "A few weeks now. We're all still exploring and figuring out what's what, but I can show you around later, if you want. There's a greenhouse near the square with lots of fruits and vegetables, and the water in the fountain is good to drink. There's a big inn, too, and most of us have found rooms there that are okay to sleep in." Those are the most barebones of the basics, and she'll give him all the pointers she knows if he's interested. For now, the tunnel is the most pressing thing.

"I wish Zuko was here," she mutters, mostly to herself. The prince of the Fire Nation--or was he the Fire Lord by now?--would be able to provide light for them in the tunnel, if there actually was one... apart from boosting Katara's morale. She starts casting around on the ground for a stick large enough to serve as a makeshift torch.

"What I don't understand is why they'd write 'secret tunnel' on the building," Katara says, gesturing widely at the wall. "It's not a secret if you label it. Why not just write 'tunnel'?"

"Do you know how many people are here?" Bucky asks; he's peering back into the tunnel, but definitely still interested in the answer. Maybe Steve is here, too - or maybe someone else he knows. Or he could be alone from the Fleet - but what matters is that others are here, and that means they probably stand a better chance together than they do alone - especially if some of them can read at least some of the writing.

He squints a little more, but then sighs and glances back at Katara. "It does kinda sound like a big joke," he has to admit - because she's got a point. You don't label secrets. Not like that. "You haven't tried going in yet?"

"I'm not sure how many, exactly," Katara says, crouching down to pick up sticks and bundle them together. "Nobody else from my world--at least not that I've seen, but I haven't met everyone yet. There's Tommy and Clint," she begins, naming off some of the people she's met. "Natasha, and Lance, and the Vision. Not just Vision--the Vision." Which reminds her rather pointedly of the Duke back home, though the two of them couldn't possibly be more different.

"I haven't gone in," she confirms with a shake of her head. "Last time I went through a secret tunnel, there was a cave-in and we got lost for ages."

Once she's bundled enough sticks together and stuffed a handful of grass into the top, Katara bends a stream of water out of her pouch and holds it in her hand, forming it into a sphere of ice and then compressing it into a rough lens. This in turn is used to focus the sunlight on the grass, hoping to catch fire to it. "Come on..."

That definitely gets Bucky's attention. "I know a Clint. And a Natasha - and the Vision." Not necessarily all from the same place (and yet, actually, possibly all from the same place - what the hell is his life, really). He blows out a breath, trying to keep his face neutral when he asks, "Anybody named Steve?"

His mouth twists at the idea of a cave-in - yeah, not his idea of a great time - but then he's admittedly distracted by the fact that she... what the hell is she doing with that... water?

Bucky's seen a lot of weird shit in his life. But that is... different. "That's a trick," he points out, eyebrows definitely a bit higher on his forehead than they were before. But after a second, he catches on to what she's doing - and not just the method she's using to do it. "You prefer that over the, uh, old-fashioned way?"

God, he would kill for a flashlight. Or even some matches.

"You know them?" Katara asks, mildly surprised, suppressing the unbidden wash of bitterness that rises in her throat at the idea that this newly-arrived stranger would know at least three other people here, while she's alone. It's not his fault, she reminds herself, and it's not like she wants her friends to be stuck in this place anyway. His question about a man named Steve has her turning back to look at him, pursing her lips slightly.

"Actually, yeah. He had a cat, and... a shield, just like that one, actually," she says, nodding at the vibrantly-painted metal. "He was nice," she adds, turning again to focus on her task of lighting the torch.

"I don't know what your old-fashioned way is," she says, unsure of his meaning. "If my friend were here, he could just make fire for us. But this is how the benders of my tribe have lighted fires for generations when they didn't have flint to strike a spark. Nothing more 'old-fashioned' than that."

"I guess it depends, but yeah," Bucky admits, giving her a smile that's definitely got a hint of a grimace underneath it. "It's complicated." He knows versions of them, but who knows if those are the versions that are here.

And it could be the same for Steve, and he knows it; still, he can't help the way he lets out a quiet, "Oh, thank God," when Katara says he's here - with a cat and a shield, too. That sounds like Steve. His Steve - well. One of them, anyway; that thought twists his gut a little, but then, he asked for Steve, not Grant. And now is not really the time to be quizzing her on everyone she's come across, and he knows it.

"Old-fashioned way's with two sticks," he offers, though flint would count, too. That's still more advanced than what they have, though, so. "But if your way works, then I'm willing to let you handle it." Bucky takes a step or two closer to the shadow cast by the tunnel entrance, but he still can't see shit, and trying again isn't going to solve it. "How long d'you think that'll last?" He nods to the makeshift torch. "You want me to put together a couple more, give us more time in there?"

Steve doesn't believe what he's seeing when he leaves his hotel room. It's been a year since he saw Bucky but, even with all of that time, he knows what the back of his head looks like. And, even if he didn't, the shield on his back gave him away almost immediately. Still, Steve can't trust it. He can't even breathe at the moment, let alone do much more. He's dreamed of seeing Bucky again--his Bucky-- but there is too great a risk that, shield or no shield, this still wasn't the one he'd loved so much.

It would break Steve to both have and not have him at the same time. But after a year without him, even being shattered feels better than being empty.

"Bucky?" He calls out, still unable to move. It's like he's seeing a ghost and all the hope and desperation is plain on his face.

"Buck? Is...is that you?"

Bucky knows by now that Steve is here - that at least some Steve is here - but without communicators, it's been a slow process of trying to track the dumbass down. After he'd made it out of that "secret tunnel," the "hotel" had seemed like the next best place - that was, after all, where Katara had said that most people seemed to be staying.

Still, it's a big, empty place to be searching. And Bucky's trying to steel himself for the possibility that when he finds Steve, it might not be the one he expects, after all.

Still, that sure sounds like Steve's voice - the right Steve's voice - behind him, as Bucky stops dead in his tracks, turning like he almost doesn't expect to have heard what he'd thought he had.

"Depends on which me you're looking for," he offers, but there's something like hope trying to break free from his chest, when he catches sight of Steve's face, to go with his voice.

Steve wants to laugh. The noise that comes out is something between a sob and a hysterical bark. This sounds like his Bucky. It looks like him. Without meaning to, Steve walks a few steps closer and stops just out of reach. He doesn't trust himself not to grab and yank Bucky in if he gets nearer.

"I'm lookin' for the jerk who I spent some time falling in love with on a spaceship," he starts off boldly. Either this will confirm his suspicion or make set the groundwork for who Steve is now to this new Bucky. Still, his heart is almost pounding out of his chest with the hope and almost certainty that this is the man he lost. His Bucky.

His Bucky.

"Have you maybe seen him?"

Bucky can't help it; he snorts out a sound that's almost a laugh, even as he can see Steve almost falling apart in front of him. And hell - yeah, it's been a long couple of days, but Steve's face... well. Steve did always tend more toward melodrama, but there's something about the look on his face that makes Bucky suck in a breath, and step closer, even when Steve's stopped.

"I mean," he says, lips twitching up a little, "there's no mirrors around here that I've found yet, but... I think I might be your guy."

So stop looking so suckerpunched, is what he wants to say, but instead he just reaches up to touch the side of Steve's face, because he really wants to wipe that look off of it, and replace it with a better one. "Although that might've gone real interesting, if I wasn't."

"It seems a lot of things are complicated here," she says with a sigh. Katara hasn't yet knowingly encountered the issue that Bucky now faces, wherein versions of his friends are present which might not be the people he's familiar with. She can't even imagine what it'd feel like to be faced with someone so close and yet so far from someone she loved. Her description of his friend seems to match the one he's familiar with, at least.

His comment about using two sticks to make fire has her humming in conideration. "I guess they do use that method some places, but I grew up at the South Pole, so wood is a bit of a scarcity where I'm from. We use a lot of animal bones and dried seaweed in our fires, and we'd be extra careful through the dark months to keep fires burning in lamps fueled with animal blubber."

The torch manages to catch fire after a moment, much to Katara's relief, and she blows on it gently to encourage the young flame. "This should last... twenty minutes?" she guesses, given the length and thickness of the sticks she gathered. Thawing her ice lens, she streams it back into her pouch. "Yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a few extra." She supposes they really will go in, then, in spite of her apprehensions.

"Aren't they always," Bucky says wryly. Because even if here is new... it's definitely not a new experience.

Though he perks up a little, at hearing Katara's from the South Pole; "I've gotta admit, ten-year-old me has about a million questions," he says, with a soft laugh - even if his expression slips back into something more serious, a moment later. "Did you come here straight from there? I'm kinda used to waking up in weird places by now, but - " Not everyone is.

If she's not, though, she's certainly handling it admirably.

And it does indeed look like they're going to check this place out. He has to admit, he's curious - and if they handle it cautiously... well. Maybe it'll be worth it. He nods, getting to work gathering up the same supplies she used to make the first one, studying it for a moment before doing his best to follow her lead, looping everything together to make two more makeshift torches. It's a good idea - Katara's resourceful, especially with that water in her pouch. "Is that bending?" he asks, motioning to the pouch. "If we have that where I'm from, I sure haven't seen it."

"I would be happy to tell ten-year-old you all about the South Pole," she replies with a small grin, though the corners of her mouth slant back down at his next question.

"I didn't come here straight from my village, no. I've been traveling around for the last... nine months, I guess? With my brother and our friends. It's a long story. So... I guess you could say I'm used to waking up in strange places, but not like this."

When asked about her bending, Katara chuffs a little laugh and nods. "Yes, that's bending. Waterbending, to be specific. Nobody else here has seen it before, either, but where I'm from, there are benders who can control each different element--water, earth, fire, and air. Then, there's one bender who can master every element, and that's the Avatar. The Avatar is meant to be a symbol of peace to all the nations, and serves as a bridge between the physical and spirit worlds."

As she explains, Katara crouches to pick up a few more sticks--just in case--and when the both of them are finished, she takes a centering breath, hands the torch off to Bucky, and draws a stream of water from the pouch. "I'll go in first, since I can strike quickly with my bending if I have to, and you can cover us from behind with your shield. Sound good?"

"Oh my God..."

It's all Steve can say before he's surging forward and pulling Bucky into him, head pressed into the crook of his neck as he just holds his lover and friend. A damp spot starts on Bucky's shirt as Steve silently let's himself cry from the sheer relief of having this man back in his arms. He can't even speak for a long moment as he just assures himself that this is real. As he inhales the scent of home that he'd tried to save from pillows and sheets for a full year. And here it was again.

His whole face is wet and destroyed as he pulls just far enough to press a soggy, salty kiss to Bucky's lips and then shoves his head back where it had been before.

"I never thought I'd see you again. I thought I'd lost you..."

Honestly, the reaction is really melodramatic, even for Steve. It doesn't keep Bucky's arms from closing around him, but it does mean that Bucky's brow is furrowed even as he kisses Steve back, for as long as their lips touch before Steve's face gets buried right back against his neck.

He's definitely frowning, concerned, as he starts to slide one hand up and down Steve's back, planting his feet to stay as steady as possible while Steve just... honestly kind of falls apart in his arms. It twists Bucky's stomach up in a tight, uncomfortable knot, because something isn't right here. Something's off.

"Steve, sweetheart," he murmurs, fingers sliding up to the back of Steve's neck, palm resting flat there. He knows that yeah - it's been a worrying, terrifying couple of days. They're from two completely different universes, and the idea of being torn apart without any say in the matter is shitty. He knows they're subject to forces beyond their control, but... "Come on, you can't tell me you gave up on me after just a couple days, pal."

"A couple of days?" Steve almost recoils to look at Bucky, checking to see if this is a bad joke. The confusion on his face seems to say it all, though. It's not a joke. What it is, Steve can't understand just yet, but he can't care as much as he needs to when Bucky is right here once more.

"It's been a year," he explains. "I woke up one morning and you weren't there. You weren't anywhere. I've been looking for you ever since then, until I got pulled here."

He pushes their foreheads together and Steve takes the moment to collect himself. Part of him wants to just hold Bucky for the rest of the week and not let him go but the rest of him understands that there is a lot for them to talk about, apparently. A lot of time to make up for.

"It was only days for you?"

Bucky hums, because okay - maybe she wasn't at home home when this happened, but it sounds like she was still at least on her homeworld. "But you weren't on a ship," he confirms, even as they start gathering themselves for whatever this expedition is going to turn into. "You were where you were supposed to be. On your home planet."

Because that sure means... something, he's sure, even if he doesn't know what, yet.

And as for the bending... "Huh," is mostly what he can say to that, at first - mostly processing, picturing people being able to do with fire or air what she's doing with water. It's simultaneously fascinating and a little worrying, if only because his mind maybe turns to the damage it can do just as quickly as it can imagine the good.

But it doesn't mean he's particularly thrilled when Katara just announces she's going in first, either. She is, after all (in Bucky's opinion), just a kid - and while kids can be plenty resourceful, he probably has more experience than she does in a couple of areas, including infiltration.

"That depends," he says, taking the torch but standing his ground, shifting so she can't enter just yet. "Tell me what that means, because I don't know how it works and I don't want to bet your life on it when I can probably take more damage than you can."

Well. Doesn't that just feel like a knife to the gut. Bucky probably looks about as surprised as he would, if Steve had pulled out a knife and stuck him with it.

"Wait, what?" he says, voice suddenly strained, almost a whisper. "A year? Steve, that - "

Doesn't make sense, he wants to say, only when does anything make sense, and who says it has to, given that the two of them are from different fucking universes entirely. "I was just on the Bishop a couple days ago, yeah. You were there. We were both there. And then I woke up here - "

Well. "Fuck, Steve. I don't - " even know what to say, he doesn't finish with, feeling baffled and angry and confused. All he does know is, "Steve. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I didn't - mean to leave, whatever happened."

His fingers dig into Steve's shoulders a little, like maybe he can keep whatever did happen from tearing them apart again. "I was there, and then I was here. That's it."

Edited 2019-09-15 19:44 (UTC)

"A ship? No. I was in the Caldera... the capital of the Fire Nation. But I've been on plenty of ships, of course--the Water Tribe are hunters and fishers. I've even been on a few Fire Nation ships." She cants her head at the mention of being on her own home planet. "Wait, what kind of ship were you on?" she asks, surmising his experience has been quite different to hers.

Bucky's not wrong about the damage that bending can do. Katara has seen the devastation caused by firebending first hand, has felt the terror caused by another waterbender reaching inside and controlling the very blood that flows through her veins. Would he shrink from her if he knew the power she possessed? She hoped that he would never find out--that no one here would ever see that side of her ability.

But, then he basically asks for a demonstration of what she can do, and Katara has never been the one to turn back from a challenge.

Water already drawn, Katara turns and takes a few light, loping steps back from Bucky to give herself room. Hands held close and then pulled wide call the water, controlling her element, and her arms are sheathed in it. She uses the dual water whips in a twirling motion, lashing out at a wide swathe of the tall grass growing nearby and neatly shearing it short with the razor-sharp whip. Spinning, the water forms a wheel around her, and it freezes into a glittering arsenal of icy daggers that fly at the ground and land in precise rows. The ice melts a second later, returning with a gesture to form a loop around her. The others have seen the practical uses of her bending--Bucky is the first to see this sort of demonstration, the weaponized waterbending that marks her as a master of her style even at her tender age.

"My life has been on the line plenty of times," she says, not boastful but as a matter of fact. Her stance, the set of her jaw, the determination in her eyes make it clear that she's not just a teenager playing with magic water, but a proper child soldier. "You probably can take more damage, but my reach is longer. I just... I don't want anyone getting hurt when I can protect them."

"It wasn't you... You must have been grabbed from an earlier time than me. It's not your fault."

He shakes his head and just tries to collect himself. An enormous part of him wants to be furious at the Agrii for this. They took away Bucky and left Steve to mourn another lost love for a year. They made him regret his decision to stay and linger on with a desperate hope that he'd find Bucky somewhere even though he was sure he was gone for good. But when Steve reaches for that fury he only pulls back desperate relief.

Time difference or not, Steve has his lover back. Bucky is here and Steve can hold him again. Kiss him. How can he be upset with those facts?

He sniffles and rubs hard at his face before putting his palms back on Bucky's shoulders and squeezing them in return.

"God, I love you. I regretted not saying it more. Now I feel like I need to say it every single day..."

It wasn't his fault, and Bucky knows that but, "Still feels shitty," he points out, watching Steve rub at his face before reeling the guy back in, wrapping his arms around him for another long few breaths. They've already been through so much and yeah, maybe it's actually brought them together in the first place, and Bucky can be grateful for that, but he can also be pissed it's stayed just as hard, just as complicated, despite all that. He figures you can feel grateful and angry about the same thing at the same time, no problem.

"I mean, absence makes the heart grow fonder, I feel like I've got it pretty good right now," he murmurs, trying for something a little light and teasing, but he just can't hold it for long.

"I'm sorry, Stevie. God - I'm sorry. I missed you, too, and I know it's not the same, but - " It's not a contest, after all. All he wants to do is make Steve feel better, here and now, even if his resources to do that are limited. He does have one big gun in his arsenal, and he figures now is the time to use it: "I love you, too, pal. You know I do, and me being taken away for a day or a year or a century won't ever change that."

He's still livid over whatever happened. But he can be mad at that and here for Steve at the same time. He's multitalented like that.

"How long have you been here?"

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