Red Star ✴️ Bucky Barnes X Reader

15: Nightmares

Bucky couldn't sleep. Or rather, he could: he just didn't want to.

He didn't know if tonight would be the night that his flashbacks would corrupt his dreams into nightmares. He never liked finding out. It was like a game of Russian Roulette: if you win, you gain nothing, but losing means losing everything.

And he really didn't want to lose another nights sleep.

He could go bother Steve, curl up in their couch cushion fort again. It felt nice not being so alone, and it was oddly comfortable on the lightly-cushioned concrete floor.

But he didn't want to bother Steve. He turned in early on purpose and was exhausted. Last thing he wanted to do was bother him.

Maybe Bowman was still awake? Maybe just talking to her would make him feel better. It probably wouldn't be too hard for her to bore him to sleep. He chuckled at the thought.

In his sleep deprived state, Bucky decided to give it a shot. When he approached Bowman's door, he reached for the sliding window before stopping himself. Nope, he scolded himself. I'm not going to make a fool of myself twice.

He cracked her door open, the dim light from the hallway leaking into her room. He could barely make out her figure curled up under the covers of her bed. The only part of her he could properly see were her toes slowly inching out from underneath her layers of blankets.

He approached her cautiously, trying not to wake her if she wasn't already. "Bowman?" He whispered into the room.

She stirred a bit in bed.

Thinking she might be awake, Bucky tiptoed to her bedside. As he approached, he decided to pull her covers down a bit just so they would cover her toes again. Suddenly, he heard her mumble softly, still caught in her sleepy stupor.

"Yes....dear..."

Bucky blushed, surprised she'd call him something like that. He brushed his left hand against the palm of hers, kneeling at her bedside with a soft smile.

"Bowman?"

Her smaller fingers lightly wrapped around his metal hand, before almost immediately drawing her hand away and tucking it underneath her sheets. Confused, Bucky took a closer look at her face.

He could barely make out her face in the dark, but it became increasingly clear to him that she was, in fact, asleep, and had NOT been trying to talk to him.

Realizing his mistake, Bucky blushed a deep red. It took him mere seconds to put together the fact that he had snuck into an unconscious girl's room, fixed her sheets, and held her hand in her sleep. Creeped out by his own actions, Bucky fled the room as quietly as he could, wrapping his fingers around the edge of the door to ensure it closed silently.

Before leaving, he took one last glance at Bowman. Even if she hadn't intended it, she really had helped Bucky with his insomnia. He returned to his room silent as the night around him and was able to fall asleep without any worry.