Lapis | Bucky Barnes.

XIV. awkward flirting

Nothing.

That was the first thing fourteen-year-old Keira had felt, when touching her father's face. He was dying, she had known that for sure as soon as she had seen the pool of blood mixed with water he was almost drowning in, but she still pretended like nothing too terrible was happening.

She had tried to understand what was happening to him, why he had done what he had done, and the rush of power flowing through her veins had made her understand that all those enhanced emotions she felt whenever she would touch someone weren't just her overexcited imagination: they were a superpower.

And in that moment, they were showing her every single day of her father's life since his wife had left. Every single one of his haunting thoughts, every time he had tried to end everything, every time he had tried to find solace in the eyes of his two kids, although their saddened faces only made him feel worse than he already was. He had fallen into a pit of sorrow and grief that he had no strength to pull himself out of, and nothing in his ordinary life was stimulating enough to convince him to take matters into his hands and be better.

His wife had left him. The only thing that had ever mattered to him had abandoned him because he didn't matter anymore, because their marriage wasn't giving her enough stimulation, and he had killed himself. His broken heart had eventually spread the disease throughout all of his body and his children could do nothing but watch as he slowly decayed, death finding him way before he decided to acknowledge it.

And in all of that, his last breath had been used to send all of this sorrow into his daughter's mind, and the first time she used her powers turned out to be the last one. At least, until she met Bucky.

-

Keira removed her hand from Bucky's cheek, casting her gaze away from him when he tried to read inside of her.

"Why didn't you make me feel it?" He asked, getting a hold of her hands before she could escape from him. He wasn't letting her, not that time.

"Because you don't have to. It would be-"

"What? Selfish? But you're allowed to take part of my pain?" Keira momentarily glanced over to him, but for the first time in her life she couldn't stand her ground and stare back. She just couldn't, because inside of his eyes she was going to see everything she tried to convince herself was the right thing to do but deep down knew wasn't.

"Fury ordered me to. Otherwise I wouldn't have." She replied coldly, few tears still lingering on her cheeks as she tried not to be affected by the way Bucky was holding her as if he was trying to give her the support she so desperately needed, but pretended not to.

"Doesn't matter. You still did, and I felt so much better when you did, but it made me feel shit at the same time, because every single time I would see in your eyes a pain only I was supposed to feel, because I deserved it and you didn't. I actually told Fury not to tell you anything about my nightmares, Keira. I couldn't bear the thought of me getting better thanks to you suffering two times more."

"You told Fury?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she stopped trying to wiggle away from his grip.

Bucky nodded, still looking straight into her eyes. Keira didn't tear off her gaze this time, instead leaning over to place her forehead on his own.

"You idiot, it was my fucking job. You had no right to do that."

Bucky chuckled, caressing Keira's cheeks softly as she inhaled deeply. "I had and I did. What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to bear all the pain on your own because, unlike you-" he slightly raised his voice in a joking tone, making Keira roll her eyes. "I want to help you because it's my decision. No one is forcing me to."