TALES FROM FALLEN WARRIORS ─ marvel

III. Control

Chapter Three
Bucky

I can't stop thinking about the supposed hunter in the woods. One minute I was just watching Lena stalk her prey in wolf form, then the next a dart is flying by her head and she's snarling at an unknown threat.

It's possible it was just a hunter. It's also possible it was something else entirely.

I keep thinking about our trip to Greece several weeks ago. Strange occurrences just like today happened, and it turned out a psychopath wanted to experiment on and kill Lena out of desperation and revenge. She was gone for days, and when we found her again, she was drugged, freezing, dying from blood loss. She couldn't tell reality from fiction, she looked so frightened, so frail...

It was the most scared and helpless I've ever felt. I almost lost the love of my life and there wasn't anything I could do about it. What if it's happening again?

These thoughts plague me throughout our trip to the store. We get a raw turkey, some spices to go with it, some potatoes, corn, and some vanilla ice cream before heading back to the cabin. Lena offers to teach me how to cook again and I accept, welcoming the distraction, but the task does little to quiet my fearful thoughts. While we're preparing the turkey, Lena grabs her phone and starts playing music, no doubt in an attempt to soothe me. She created a playlist of songs just for us while we had been in Greece and she presses shuffle on it, the algorithm choosing a Sam Cooke song called 'Twistin' the Night Away'.

Lena grabs onto my hand and twirls, giving me a small smile. She then grabs onto my other hand and indicates to me with a raise of her brows that she wants me to dance with her.

I'm unable to deny her anything, so I begin twisting my body from side to side, watching her smile grow as she copies my movements. Feeling encouraged, I move a little closer to her and let go of her hands, instead grabbing onto her hips, pressing my forehead against hers. She in turn drapes her arms around my neck, holding me tightly to her. Our twisting becomes rocking back and forth, our hips pressed together, her smile turning into laughter. I feel a smile of my own grow, especially once I dip her, making her giggle in glee. We continue to dance like this throughout the duration of the song, our laughter filling the small kitchen, but once it ends and switches to Frank and Nancy Sinatra's 'Somethin' Stupid', reality crashes back into me and my worries return.

We finish making dinner and once again eat in the living room. Lena turns on the tv and finds another movie for us to watch, this time it's one called 'The Wedding Singer'. We watch in silence, and as I eat the food we prepared I try to focus on the movie, but my mind is too occupied. All I want to do is go out and try to see if that 'hunter' is still out there. I mean, if it really was a hunter then why are they shooting at a wolf? Did they mistake Lena for a deer? I find that very hard to believe. I find this all very hard to believe. 

"I can see your brain going a mile a minute, Buck," Lena comments, setting her plate down on the tree stump coffee table in front of us. "What are you going to do? Search the whole mountain range and interrogate every person you come across?"

"I was thinking about it, yeah."

Lena lets out a sigh, grabbing onto my plate and setting it down next to hers. "I know what you're thinking, and this isn't like with Analiese. I'm sure it was just an accident, a fluke thing. If someone really meant me harm they would have shot at me again, and they would have shot at you too."