IC Inbox

[advanced]

This is the IC inbox for Bucky Barnes at Snowblind.

Network name: @bucky; formerly @j, @username, and @robertsmith

This is the place to contact Bucky over the Network. Contact by voice, text, or video is all perfectly acceptable, and there is no need to plot with me prior to posting in this inbox.

Any contact for @j following day 125, @username following day 190, or @robertsmith following day 224 will be met with the following message: USER NOT FOUND.

Comments

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He made the choice to come back for you. His choice, not yours. Don't demean his sacrifice by taking responsibility for it.

[redrooms]

[Well, that's... a different way of looking at it, and Natasha's response is slow in coming.]

I'm not demeaning it. What he did was

[Ugh, awkward pause there. Give her a second.]

I just wish he hadn't.

[advanced]

[It's a philosophy he's forced himself to adopt, otherwise he'd spend his entire life crippled with guilt over the things the Winter Soldier did. It all comes down to choice, and he didn't have one. Clint did, and nobody should take that from him, even in love.]

I know. You would have done the same, right? And been glad he was safe if you died.

[redrooms]

Yes, I would have.

[There's just always going to be a part of Natasha that feels like she's done wrong by Clint, and this is just adding to it.]

I'll be alright, Jay. I've lost friends before.

[What a brat.]

[advanced]

[He has no doubt that's the truth, with the kind of life she's led. He's not going to say something stupid like it doesn't mean she can't hurt, because she's not a child to be coddled.]

It might not be permanent. People don't stay dead here.

[redrooms]

[It's obvious he's trying to comfort her, and he's doing a decent job at it. That's important, she knows, such a shift from the first time they met, and she's grateful for it, she's just not sure the best way to respond. She's shaken up in a way she rarely is, and it's making her less eloquent than normal.]

I know. Thank you. And thank you for talking with me, Jay.

[advanced]

[He feels for her. She is obviously very fond of Barton, and she's been nothing but nice to him so far. He hesitates over they keyboard of his tablet, before typing a message:

Friends talk with one another.

And then deleting it without sending it.

He settles on something else, something less intimate.]

Are you alone?

[redrooms]

I'm with Tony. And you?

[advanced]

[There's a long hesitation, but she'll find out soon anyway.]

With Steve.

[redrooms]

[Oh. Hey.]

Good. How is it going?

[advanced]

[Not good. Not good at all.]

It wasn't intentional.

[Is that an answer?]

[redrooms]

Are you glad it happened regardless?

[advanced]

No.

[He could say more about it; and he might have another time, but she has enough on her plate with what's happened to Clint.]

Clint will come back.

[redrooms]

He might. There's no real way of knowing.

[And Natasha isn't the type to be unrealistic, even in something like this. There's a slight pause between messages again.]

But I'm here because of him, and I won't waste it.

[advanced]

[Bucky's nearly certain of it, he's dealt with people reviving here before and it seems more common than not. He's not going to push it, though.

There's a very long hesitation where it seems he isn't going to answer again, but he doesn't want to leave it like this either, so in the end he dashes off one last quick message.]

Stay strong, Natasha.

[And then he's gone.]