Four months after Endgame/Two months before The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Irina, for once, wasn't having nightmares.
Bucky walked into the nearly empty room with a sleeping Callie and saw that Irina had handcuffed herself to the chair. While he knew it was habit for her from her days in the Red Room, and something she still couldn't shake years later, he also knew that handcuffing herself was dangerous.
He laid Callie in the chair and the little girl curled into a tiny ball. He knelt next to Irina and gently uncuffed her and she let out a small protesting groan before her eyes fluttered open.
"Wha-" she mumbled in almost a whisper.
Bucky stroked her hair as he said quietly, "Doll, it's dangerous to do that."
"It's habit. I can't break it. No matter how hard I try."
"I know. But we'll continue trying to break your habit, okay?"
Irina held up the handcuffs. "Hide them."
He nodded and hid the handcuffs in a spot he figured pretty well hidden before rejoining Irina.
Callie had woken up and was being rocked by her mother.
Bucky sat next to his girls and asked, "What's wrong, sweet girl?"
"Bad deam," Callie replied with a whimper.
Bucky tucked her hair back. "You had a bad dream? What was it?"
"Puple man an woosh."
"You don't have to worry, Callie. The purple man is gone, and no one will become dusty again."
"Pomise?"
"I promise. Mama and I will protect you from all that, okay? No bad purple men will come after you again, okay?"
"No woosh?"
"No woosh."
"Mama Dada woosh?"
Irina nodded. "Mama and Dada got wooshed too, but we're all back together now."
Callie cuddled into her mother, pulling her father closer and smiled.
The little family sat in a quiet silence and soon, small breaths evened and the couple glanced down at their sleeping daughter.
Irina rested her head on. Bucky's shoulder and he, in return, rested his head on hers as he pulled her close, making sure not to wake a sleeping Callie.
Irina glanced up at Bucky. "Are you going to sleep anytime soon?"
Bucky shook his head. "Probably not. Why?"
"Can you... Hold my wrist? The cuffs were a weird send of comfort, and-"
"Doll, they were hurting you."
"I know, but it's familiar. Please?"
Bucky signed and nodded. He held her wrists, making sure to be careful of Callie who was sleeping between them. Irina's eyes closed and her breaths soon evened. Bucky stared sadly at her, then a small smile formed as his gaze turned to Callie. He'd do anything for his girls, even if it meant not sleeping himself.
YOU ARE READING
Fields of Bone // TFATWS
AksiTrying to maintain a normal life whilst being a Super Soldier and a former assassin isn't easy. And being dusted for five years certainly didn't help. New threats emerge and the shield, given by the captain himself to a man who built a pair of wing...
