Bucky Barnes had a lot of things in life. Super-strength, a metal arm, a small flat in Brooklyn, a white cat called Alphine that he found on the streets. He also now had one thing he didn't have for a long, long time. Freedom.

In all honesty, he never truly knew what freedom meant under Hydra's brainwashing. His mind wasn't familiar with the concept, though he had previously been free. But one thing one humans always yearned for, even if they didn't truly understand it, was freedom. And, God, he had ached for it back with Hydra.

And even as the Winter Soldier, he found tiny freedoms when he didn't have guard dogs breathing down his neck. Squeezed into the little crevices of his life where he could be alone. Where he could watch life continue on without ever truly knowing he existed. Did he sometimes get caught by his handlers? Absolutely. Did he always get brutally punished for misbehaving? Of course, he did. But it never truly held him back, not when there was nothing for him to lose.