Attachment Theory - Bucky BarnesxOC

Part 47: long exposure

18+ WARNING MINORS DNI

Bucky wakes up in the middle of the night, his eyes fluttering open. Alice sleeps next to him, her lips slightly parted and a peaceful expression on her face. He stares up at the ceiling and takes a deep breath. No nightmare this time. He wonders what pulled him from sleep, until he realizes he has to go to the bathroom.

With a gentle sigh, he sits up. What he sees sitting in a chair on the other side of the room makes his blood run cold and his heart begin to pound. The sound of worn-in leather creaking fills the room as the figure adjusts his position. Bucky hears the sound of his boots sliding against the floor, but all he sees in the darkness is bright blue eyes staring at him behind a curtain of dirty brown hair. A mask is fixed to his face. The Soldier.

Bucky has never had this dream before. He's never looked at himself like this. There are bags beneath the Soldier's eyes. They're hollow and empty. He's been given a mission.

But this isn't real.

Bucky looks to Alice and reaches over, shaking her shoulder gently.

"Ali," he rasps. "Ali, wake up."

She's silent, her breath rushing softly in and out of her mouth.

"она не слышит тебя. вас никто не услышит," the figure says, his voice low and gravelly.

She can't hear you. No one will hear you.

Bucky can hear years of pain and torment living in each word.

"Why are you here?"

The Soldier takes his mask off and rests it on his thigh. He draws in a deep breath.

"I won't let you kill me."

It takes his mind a few seconds to figure out what the Soldier is referring to, and then he remembers the brain implant. Once its installed, the Winter Soldier programming should, effectively, be obliterated. Completely overwritten. Bruce said it was like a computer program, but Bucky barely knows what computers do, much less what a program is. Alice has tried to explain it to him, but it goes over his head.

Bucky's throat tightens.

"I have to."

"No, you don't." The Soldier meticulously cracks the knuckles on his right hand, using his thumb to push his fingers into the palm of his hand. A series of quick pops fill the room. It's a habit Bucky developed in childhood to torture his sisters at the dinner table. He was the only person who thought it was funny.

"You don't have control anymore," Bucky rasps. "All you ever did was cause me pain."

He hears a crack. The wooden arm of the chair snaps beneath the pressure of the Soldier's metal arm. Steel whirs.

"I kept you ALIVE!" The Soldier bellows. "Everything you have is because of me! I protected you, James."

"My name is Bucky," he whispers.

The Soldier smirks.

"Without me to keep you alive, to keep you strong while Pierce and Hydra tortured you, you wouldn't have that beautiful woman beside you. You should be thanking me." The Soldier tilts his head to watch Alice sleep. His eyes flick back to Bucky.

"You won't even let me touch her."

"She would hate you," Bucky seethes through clenched teeth.

The Soldier is silent, staring at him through icy blue eyes.