彡

❛ sugar daddy material ❜

episode three, season one

Hestia huffed as she walked between Sam and Bucky in a prison in Berlin, Germany.

They barely got to see Alpine, and when they did, he didn't spare her a glance and jumped straight into Bucky's arms. It was safe to say, Hestia felt betrayed.

But now, they were here to talk to Zemo and Bucky seemed to have a plan so Hestia deemed it safe not to think that much.

"He's just through that corridor." the guard that showed them the way announced.

Bucky nodded as he slowed to a stop, Sam and Hestia following his lead. "Give us a sec." he turned to the two. "I'm gonna go in alone."

"What?" Hestia asked startled as she looked at him.

Bucky sighed. "You two are Avengers. You know how he feels about that."

Hestia frowned as she crossed her arms. "I don't really remember getting promoted."

"And it's not like you two were known frolicking in the sun together." Sam put his hands on his hips.

"He was obsessed with HYDRA." Bucky insisted. "We have a history together. Trust me, I got it."

Hestia snorted quietly. "Do you two also have a child we should know about?"

Bucky shot her a playful glare before he gave them one last look and walked towards Zemo's cell.

Hestia sighed as she turned to Sam. "He's going to do something stupid."

Sam snorted. "Yeah, I know."

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"What are you talking about? You wanna break Zemo outta jail?"

Hestia trudged her feet through a warehouse, following after Bucky and listening to Sam rant.

"Where the hell are we, Buck? Have you lost your mind?"

Bucky sighed. "We have no leads, no moves, nothing."

"Yeah, but he's dangerous, Buck." Hestia added, causing Sam to nod his head at her.

"See? Listen to her if you won't listen to me! We have one of the most dangerous men in the world behind bars."

"And we also have eight Super Soldiers that are loose." Bucky argued.

Sam groaned. "Zemo's gonna mess with our minds. Especially yours. No offense."

The light was turned on as Bucky pocketed his flashlight and turned to Sam. "Offense." he muttered. "Super Soldiers go against everything he believes in. He is crazy, but he still has a code."

"Yeah, and I've been on the wrong side of that code and so have you, hell, so has Hestia!" Sam snapped. "He blew up the UN, killed king T'Chaka and framed you for it. Did you forget that? You think the Wakandans forgot about it? It's a rhetorical question. They didn't. I know why this matters to you, but it's pushing you off the deep end."

"Look, we don't know how they're getting the serum. We don't even know how many of them there are. Let me just walk you two through a hypothetical. Can I?"

"Fuck." Hestia curses quietly. Hypothetical never means hypothetical.

"What did you do?" Sam looks at him.

Bucky shakes his head innocently. "I didn't do anything. The weakest point in any system isn't the software, the hardware, it's the meatware. The human element. Now, in this lockup it's nine to one, prisoners to guards. And if two prisoners start fighting, then the protocol says four guards have to respond."

"So why would two prisoners randomly start fighting at that moment?"

"Who knows? There could be many reasons. But the point is, these things escalate. Lockdown procedures would have to be initiated, and with all those bodies flying around left and right, wouldn't be hard to slip down a hallway or two. And if the fire alarm got tripped while the prisoners were being separated, someone could use the chaos to their advantage."

"I don't like how casual you're being about this." Sam raises his eyebrows at Bucky.

"No, he did something. He definitely did something." Hestia points an accusing finger at Bucky's innocent expression.

Sam silently agrees with her. "And where are we, man?"

A door suddenly opens and a man dressed in a police uniform enters. It takes Hestia less than a second to realize that the man is Zemo.

"I fucking told you he would do something stupid!" Hestia groans loudly.

Sam starts shouting as Bucky stops him from advancing towards Zemo. "I didn't tell you cause I knew you wouldn't let this happen!"

"What did you do?"

"We need him." Bucky says, determined.

"You're going back to prison!"

"If I may..." Zemo starts.

"No!" the three each point a finger at him and Zemo nods his head.

"Apologies."

"When Steve refused to sign the Sokovia Accords, you two backed him up." Bucky looked at Hestia and Sam. "You broke the law and you stuck your neck out for me. I'm asking you to do it again."

"I really think I'm invaluable." Zemo started.

"Shut up." Hestia ran a hand through her hair before she looked at Bucky. "Fuck you and your puppy eyes."

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"So our first move is grand theft auto?"

Hestia looked around with eyebrows raised at the multiple expensive cars as Zemo responded.

"These are mine. Collected by family over the generations. I spent years hunting people HYDRA recruited to recreate the serum. Because once it's out there, someone can create an army of people like the Avengers."

Hestia hummed slightly as she shared a look with Sam while Zemo rummaged through one of his cars and gathered some stuff.

"I ended the Winter Soldier program once before. I have no intention to leave my work unfinished." Zemo sighed. "To do this, we'll have to scale a ladder of lowlifes."

"Well join the party, we've already started." Sam announced rather bitterly.

"First stop is a woman named Shelby."

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Hestia whistled slightly in admiration as she gazed at the plane in front of her. "Damn, sugar daddy material right here."

Bucky and Sam sent her a weird look.

"So all this time you've been rich?" Sam questioned.

"I'm a Baron, Sam. My family was royalty until your friends destroyed my country."

"Royalty?" Hestia smirked as she adjusted her sunglasses. "Say less."

Bucky nudged her and Sam made a gagging noise.

Zemo approached the butler that was waiting at the stairs that lead to the airplane and the two talked in russian. They kissed eachothers cheeks before Zemo walked up the stairs and motioned for the others to follow.

Hestia walked up first, Sam and Bucky close behind her. She gazed at the inside as she entered, and Hestia was impressed.

"Hey Zemo, do you do donations?" Hestia asked as she walked around.

He raised his eyebrows.

Hestia took it as a good sign.

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"Apologies if it's a little warm, the fridge is out. But I will see if there is some good food in the galley."

"Of course, the fridge." Hestia muttered sarcastically as she watched the butler hand Zemo a drink.

Zemo sipped from his drink. "You don't know what it's like to be locked in a cell. Oh, that's right. You do."

Hestia scoffed as she put her feet on Bucky's lap from where she sat opposite of Zemo. He shot her a look, she gave him one back. He ended up not taking her feet off of his lap, in fear of her reaction.

"Why don't you tell us about where we're going?" Sam finally asked.

"I'm sorry, I was just fascinated by this." Zemo remarked as he raised a small notebook in his hands. Hestia recognized it - Steve's notebook. "I don't know what to call it but this part seems to be important. Who is Nakajima?"

In less than a second, Bucky got out of his seat - Hestia quickly scrambling her feet off his lap - as he put a hand around Zemo's throat. "If you touch that again, I'll kill you."

Zemo nodded mutely as Bucky got back to his seat, his expression sour. "I'm sorry. I understand that list of names. People you've wronged as the Winter Soldier."

"Don't push it." Bucky glared at Zemo.

"I've seen that book." Sam mentioned and Hestia pursed her lips. "It was Steve's when he came out of the ice. I told him about Trouble Man. He wrote it in that book. Did you hear it? What'd you think?"

Bucky thought a little as Hestia put her feet back on his lap. "I like '40s music, so..."

"You didn't like it?" Sam asked incredulously.

Bucky shrugged. "I liked it."

"It's a masterpiece, James. Complete. Comprehensive. It captures the African American experience." Zemo agreed.

Hestia gave him a sour look as Sam looked at him. "He's out of line, but he's right. It's great. Everybody loves Marvin Gaye."

"I like Marvin Gaye." Bucky frowned.

"Steve adored Marvin Gaye."

"You must have really looked up to Steve." Zemo added. "But I realized something when I met him. The danger with people like him, America's Super Soldiers, is that we put them on pedestals. They become symbols. Icons. And then we start to forget about their flaws. From there, cities fly, innocent people die. Movements are formed, wars are fought. You remember that, right?"

"Watch it." Hestia snapped as she glared at Zemo while he continued.

"As a young soldier sent to Germany to stop a mad icon. Do we want to live in a world full of people like the Red Skull?" he shook his head. "That is why we're going to Madripoor."

"What's in Madripoor?" Hestia crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"It's an island nation in the Indonesian archipelago. It was a pirate sanctuary back in the 1800s." Bucky responded.

"It's kept it's lawless ways. But we cannot walk in as ourselves. James, you will have to become someone you claim is gone."

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"You want me to be some type of concubine?"

Zemo shook his head and Hestia could almost see the amused glint in his eye. "Not a concubine, no. More of a play thing. After all, the Winter Soldier needs someone."

"This is ridiculous." she muttered as she adjusted her red dress. While Sam was a sophisticated man named Conrad Mack or the Smiling Tiger, she was a fucking whore.

"I'm not making her do this, Zemo." Bucky shook his head with his jaw clenched.

"She has no choice. Do you want to know where the serum comes from? Then you'll play the part."

Hestia grumbled as they entered the car that was waiting for them. She sat between Sam and Bucky as she fiddled with her short dress.

Bucky turned to her. "Look, we have to play the part but I won't do anything to make you uncomfortable, you know that."

Hestia nodded as she sighed. "Yeah, I know."

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Hestia was blinded by the lights as they walked through the club, music playing all around. Zemo shot her and Bucky a look that said 'play the part' and then he looked back up front as they entered a bar.

People were drinking and talking everywhere and some were whispering about the Winter Soldier being there. Bucky put a hand in Hestia's back as they followed after Sam and Zemo.

They arrived at the bar as a man greeted them. "Hello gentlemen, and beautiful lady. Wasn't expecting you, Smiling Tiger."

Zemo put his elbows on the table. "His plans changed. We have business to do with Shelby."

The man looked at Sam. "The usual?"

Sam nodded and the man brought out a snake, whose heart he then took out and put it in Sam's drink. Sam eyed the drink before drinking it in one shot, making a slightly disgusted face.

A man tapped Zemo on the shoulder. "I got word from on high. You ain't welcome here."

Zemo nodded. "I have no business with the Power Broker, but if he insists he can either come and talk to me..." he then gestured towards Bucky.

The man looked at him. "New haircut." he then looked at Hestia. "And a toy."

She refrained from squeezing his brain.

"Or bring Shelby for a chat." Zemo finisheed off.

The man left as Bucky put a hand protectively over Hestia and then looked at Zemo. "A power broker? Really?"

"Every kingdom needs its king." Zemo reasons. "Let's just pray we stay under his radar."

"I hate this." Hestia groans quietly.

Zemo eyes Bucky's hand that was hovering over her hip. "Still playing the part, I see."

She glares at him.

A man walks towards them and Zemo turns to Bucky as he speaks in russian. Just as the man puts a hand on Zemo's shoulder, Bucky steps away from Hestia and grabs the man's arm, bringing him towards the center of the room and hitting him hard.

Several other men come towards him and they were all hit by Bucky's metal arm or stabbed by some glass. Hestia's fingers twitched, itching to get into the fight but not wanting to give away her identity.

Just as Bucky was strangling someone with his metal arm, Zemo stops him as he speaks to him in russian.

"Shelby will see you now." the man from the bar says.

Bucky lets go of the man he was strangling as he sighs before putting a hand around Hestia again and following after Zemo, Sam on their tail.

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"You should know, Baron. People don't just come into my bar and make demands." the woman known as Shelby says as Zemo sits in front of her on the couch.

"Not a demand, an offer."

"A lot has changed since you were here last." she retorts as she looks at Bucky then at his hand on Hestia's back. She then turns to look at Zemo. "By the way, I thought you were rotting away in a German prison. How did you escape?"

Zemo shrugs. "People like us always find a way, don't we? I'm sure you've already figured out what I'm here for."

Shelby points at Sam. "You're taller than I'd heard, Smiling Tiger." Sam only looks at her with raised eyebrows and she continues. "What's the offer?"

"Tell us what you know about the super soldier serum." Zemo stands up and goes next to Bucky. "And I give you him. Along with his plaything, to keep him company and the code words to control him, of course. He will so anything you want."

Shelby grins. "Now that's the Zemo I remember. I'm glad I decided not to kill you immediatly. Yeah, you were right to come to me. Arrogant but right. The super soldier serum is here in Madripoor. Dr Wilfred Nagel is the man you wanna thank. Or... condemn, depending on what side of this you're on."

It all happened so fast. One moment they were finding out where the serum was and then Sam's phone rang. It was his sister, Sarah. And Hestia's heart dropped when she called him Sam, knowing that Shelby heard everything.

And then Shelby was shot.

All hell broke loose. The four quickly walked out of the bar as people started shooting at them. Zemo got separated from Bucky, Hestia and Sam but for once they didn't care as they ran as fast as they could.

"I can't run in these heels!" Sam yelled.

"If I can run in these big ass heels, so can you!" Hestia yelled back as she glared at her red heels.

They ran in an alleyway when several people were shot by someone on the roof and by Zemo who magically appeared in their way.

"You seem to have a guardian angel." Zemo panted as he came to a stop next to them.

"Well, this is too perfect." a woman announced as she took of her hood and held her gun towards Zemo. "Drop it, Zemo."

"Sharon?" Hestia asked incredulously.

"You cost me everything."

Sam held up his hands. "Sharon wait. Someone recreated the super soldier serum and Zemo had a lead."

Sharon tilted her head. "Well that explains why you guys are here. And Shelby's dead."

"What are you doing here?" Bucky asked her.

Sharon narrowed her eyes at him. "I stole Steve's shield, remember? I also took the wings for your ass, so that you could save his ass from his ass. I didn't have the Avengers to back me up. So I'm off the grid in Madripoor."

"Hey," Sam started. "Don't blow smoke, Hestia and I were on the run, too."

"Were. Is. Big difference. I don't speak to my family anymore. I can't. My father doesn't know where I am."

"Sharon.." Hestia cringed at her tone. "We really need your help."

Sharon chuckled. "This isn't over. I have a place in High Town. You'll be safe there."

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"Thank God for you closet, Sharon."

Hestia flattened the black clothes that Sharon gave her. She received a smile from her as Sam started talking.

"What's going on, Sharon? You don't ever wanna come back home?"

"They'll lock me up if I step foot back in the States." Sharon scoffs. "Madripoor doesn't allow extradition."

Sam sighs. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't call, but after The Blip and the chaos, I just..."

"Look, you know the whole hero thing is a joke, right? The way you gave up that shield, deep down, you must know it's all hypocrisy."

"He knows." Zemo said from where he stood near the bar. "And not so deep down."

Sharon raised an eyebrow. "By the way, how is the new Cap?"

"I need a drink." Hestia said immediately as she went next to Zemo. She made herself a drink as Sharon cringed.

"That bad?"

"Don't get me started." Bucky shook his head.

After telling Sharon about Nagel and the serum, and Sam making a deal with her about getting her name cleared, Sharon finally agreed to help them.

Later that night, there was a party at Sharon's place where she sold paintings. People were dancing and laughing, music was blasting through the speakers and Hestia watched amused as Zemo started dancing.

"Wanna dance?"

She turned to look at a smirking Bucky, his eyebrows raised as he looked at her. Hestia snorted. "You do realize this isn't the '40s."

Bucky rolled his eyes as he grasped her hand and brought her to the dance floor where several other people were. "Of course I know that, doll. I have a calendar."

Hestia laughed as Bucky brought her closer, a teasing smirk on his face as he put his hands in her hips. She rolled her eyes as she put her arms around his neck and they danced to the beat, the music drowning any sound.

He brought her closer for a moment, his eyes glued to her form as Hestia closed her eyes and threw her head back, the light reflecting on her skin. She looked back at him, her eyes tightening around his neck and his hands tightened around her and-

"Guys, come on. I found him."

Their little bubble was burst as Sharon arrived next to them. They let go if eachother and Hestia purposely ignored Sam's raised eyebrows as he looked between her and Bucky.

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"Madripoor could give New York a run for it's money."

"They know how to party." Zemo agreed with Sam.

They walked on the docks, through the cointainers. Sharon was looking at her phone for directions as she talked. "With that bounty on your head, the longer you're in Madripoor, the less likely you're ever leaving. All right, he's in there. Container four-two-six-one. I'll keep watch while you guys talk with Nagel."

"I'll stay with you, Sharon." Hestia announced as she stood next to the blonde.

"You sure?" Sharon asked her as Sam and Bucky looked at Hestia concerned.

Hestia nodded. "Yeah, just need some fresh air."