Lapis | Bucky Barnes.

XVI. loud silence

It was four in the morning. Keira could clearly see it from the bright clock turning on and off on her bedside table. She had just woken up from an agitated but dreamless sleep. A coat of sweat was covering her forehead and she had long thrown the covers aside, her bare legs finding relief in the chilly air.

She tried to go back to sleep forcing her eyes shut, but stopped when she heard a noise coming from downstairs. She jolted up, her mind suddenly vigilant as she stood up from the bed and slowly walked out of the room, moving through the hallway towards Bucky's room. She opened it only to find it empty and inhaled deeply, her hands untying the tight fists and her shoulders slumping visibly.

Keira rubbed her eyes and made her way downstairs, making loud steps not to scare Bucky, although he would have probably sensed her even if she walked like a cat.

Bucky was standing against the kitchen counter, his body turned towards the open window as his body was slightly shaking, his hands tightly gripping the sides of the sink. Drops of water were falling from his face, and Keira instinctively moved closer to make sure they were just water and not tears.

"Bucky..." She muttered, placing a hand on his bicep as he visibly relaxed against her touch, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Did I wake you up?" He asked gently, turning towards her to grab her hands. Those were, in facts, drops of water dripping down his face, after he had probably washed it in an attempt to stop sweating just like she was.

Keira shook her head. "Couldn't sleep. Did you have a nightmare?"

Bucky completely ignored her question as he grabbed her face, slamming his lips against her own. Keira got slightly taken aback by his action, but gave up as she felt an instinctive pulse pushing her towards him as if she needed his touch to breathe.

It was the second time they kissed in a day, and if the first time had made Keira think it could have been just a separate event caused by the heat of the moment, this time she was starting to realize that there was probably more to it than she wanted to see. Maybe she was really starting to fall for who once was the murderous Winter Soldier, and was now just a man with no identity and a few chances of happiness for his future.

Well, her future had been destined to be sad anyway.

When they finally pulled apart from what had turned into a really heated kiss, Keira smiled stupidly at the man, her heart fluttering like a teenager as extremely cheesy thoughts started crossing her mind, thoughts she had no idea could ever appear in her desolate brain.

"Well, I take it as a yes." She whispered, surprised to find herself able to speak coherently. Bucky was still digging holes in her head with his eyes, and she honestly couldn't get enough of them. She would have liked to stare at them forever, but she had been cheesy enough for one night.

Before he could even process an answer, too many things happened all at once. First, came the disrupting sound of a change of vibrations in the air surrounding them, then came the sight of an object the size of a ball flying through the window, passing behind Bucky and falling on the ground, rolling under the table. But by that time, Keira had already screamed Bucky's name and had thrown herself in front of him, the bomb exploding only seconds later.

Bucky managed to grab Keira's waist and jump backwards, but the explosion was still too strong and sent them both flying through the hallway, where they both painfully hit their heads against the staircase.

It all turned blurry, after that. Bucky desperately tried to move towards an unconscious Keira through the ringing in his ears, grabbing her wrist to check for a pulse and holding the back of her head, only to retreat it right after when he felt a cold liquid dripping down his hand. He didn't even dare to look at the dark red blood and shook his head violently when his ears started to ring lesser and lesser until he just couldn't hear anymore.

He had once done that, during the war. The bombs going off, the guns shooting nonstop, his comrades screaming in pain as they just wished for someone to put an end to their miseries, his own loudly beating heart... sometimes it got too much, so he would grab a piece of his clothing and stuff it in his ears, to try and silence the outside world, even for a few minutes. He would stop hearing, and it felt so much better, as if he could finally find some peace of mind, maybe even forever.

In that case, though, he wanted to hear. He wanted to hear Keira waking up and talking to him, he wanted to hear what was happening around them, because he could see too many legs walking around as if they didn't see them, but he just couldn't process what was happening. It was only when the entrance of the house cleared from people that Bucky felt enough strength to stand up and grab Keira's body, making sure her head didn't hit anything as he weakly walked out of the house, the world still in silence mode.

He only managed to take a few steps, before he collapsed, his knees silently hitting the soft ground as he desperately looked around himself, his eyes landing on an obvious plane standing a few feet away from him. He tried to stand up, but he just sunk lower to the ground and wrapped both his arms around Keira's shoulders, hiding her face in his chest as he tried to stop the blood from falling off her wound.

He was desperate. He had never found himself in such a discomforted state, where he felt utterly useless and hopeless and all he wanted to do was make sure Keira was okay, then die. But before he could despair any further, an image appeared from the plane and reached the two, crouching down on the ground as he convinced Bucky to let him take Keira. Only when he got in his level of sight and he recognized the man as Sam Wilson, he reluctantly let go of Keira and followed him on the plane –quinjet. He collapsed on the ground and, before he could check on Keira, he passed out.

-

Sam tried to stop his hands from shaking any longer as he changed the bandage on the back of Keira's head. He tried not to acknowledge the blood crusting on his fingers as he finished and gently moved away from the seats without moving the girl. She was still unconscious, and it had been already three hours. He wasn't necessarily worried, but he was getting there the paler she became and didn't seem like getting better.

He turned towards Bucky, who was looking better than Keira but still seemed pretty beaten up, then reached Steve, whose sweat on his forehead made Sam sigh in defeat.

"Let me pilot a little, come on. You look like you're about to explode." He stated, grabbing the controls of the quinjet while Steve moved away to sit down on his place. Steve took the seat next to him and moved so that he could see the entire intern of the quinjet and, more specifically, Keira and Bucky.

"I was an idiot. I really thought I could leave him- them alone." He sighed, rubbing his forehead as he closed his eyes.

"You could have never expected it, Steve. One thing was if SHIELD wanted to imprison Bucky, but what happened there... no one could have expected it." Sam tried to reason, although it was the fifth time he said those words, and they didn't seem to breach into Steve's impenetrable wall.

As soon as Steve had woken up, still pretty beaten up by the fight in Helsinki, Tony filled him up with what he had heard from Keira and Bucky. He tried to reach them as soon as Tony finished talking, but was convinced otherwise when Tony made him realize he was still too weak to endure a trip on his own, and Keira and Bucky were in no immediate danger. What they couldn't have realized –although Steve still blamed himself for it- was that the government had found out about their whereabouts and had decided to pay Bucky and Keira a visit. By that time, though, Steve had luckily already ignored Tony's advice and had taken a quinjet with Sam, who stated he had nothing better to do anyway.

It still seemed like they had arrived too late, though, because what had happened there would have changed Bucky and Keira's lives forever, in a way they would have never imagined.

Short but quite important chapter, hope you enjoy!

Elena xx