After the Forties | 𝐁. 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝐟𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐡

TW: Mention of sexual assault.

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"Y-you are my best friend and I p-promise to always protect you. Even if the wh-ole world is against us, I-I will be by your side. It's a never ending promise."

Sighing. She put her head in her hands while sitting herself on the hospital chair. Why did she think that with voicing those words out loud would help her bringing Bucky back? Bringing some kind of realization and familiarity from him. He wasn't Bucky that she knew so well, he was somebody else.

She'd like to imagine every possibility of her life; what it would be when she would grow older. Those possibilities that she held in her heart, the happiest one to the most painful one. Every different scene played out in her brain as she tried to find a way to make a happy ending for them. She could bear all of it. But having Bucky forget her wasn't one in those many different scenarios she imagined of her life.

One moment from a long time ago came onto Lyra's mind. Her younger self was covered in bruises and not so much blood, dress being messed up in dirt. She looked exhausted and distracted, eyes reddening while sniffling. Her hand reached up to open the door knob, but she was beaten by someone rushing through from inside her house, opening the door with a loud sound, "Where were you?! I waited for-"

Bucky's words faded from his tongue as his eyes caught a sigh of the messed up girl in front of him. His eyes fell seeing the face of the girl pale. All his anger and impatient feelings were gone. Now, worry washed over him.

His eyes softened, so did his voice, "What happened?"

For a moment teenage Lyra only stared up at Bucky without saying anything. Then she couldn't help her lips trembling as the following seconds tears running down her cheeks. Sobs left her mouth as she reached forward and crashed her body against Bucky's, holding tightly onto his arms. Bucky didn't reject her, no matter how dirty she was, he embraced back, letting the girl scream out her emotions in his arms. Lyra felt gross and tainted with herself. The only one she could trust right now was Bucky. So, she cried.

Moments later, Lyra and Bucky were sitting on a couch in living room. The boy was cleaning the girl's wounds, wiping away all the blood from her once flawless skin. Lyra never said anything, the only things coming from her mouth were screaming and sobs. Bucky was waiting for her to be calmer, he didn't want to push anything out of her, so he let her be.

Bucky's eyes focused on Lyra's arms that were covered in dirt and blood, hands softly cleaning away the wounds with a wet cloth, "They touched me." Lyra finally whispered, barely audible.

Bucky looked up, meeting her gorgeous eyes, the ones he would always let himself melt into. But he didn't like the state those eyes were in. Red, puffed, swollen. Those didn't suit her well. Whispers from her couldn't get away easily from his ears, always like that. Jaw clenching, Bucky pulled his hands away from her, "They did what?"

Lyra breathed in suffocation, "They touched me." This time her voice got higher as her mind wandered back to the unforgettable yet wanted to be forgotten. She was mad, both at them and at herself. If only she ran faster...

Although none of them noticed it, Bucky's heart broke inside. He hated the way her voice sounded so helpless and dying, like she couldn't breathe and in fact she couldn't. She shouldn't feel this way, not when he was around, "Who are they?" he asked, demanding her to answer the damn question.

The girl shook her head weakly, she knew he would come at those guys she hated so much, "No, Bucky, I don't want to meet them again-"

"You're not gonna meet them, I'm meeting them!" raising his voice was unintentional, but he couldn't help it as he imagined the difficulty Lyra was facing.