Radioactive | Bucky Barnes

THE FIRST AVENGER: CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

"Nothing has made me sadder than imagining myself not seeing you ever again"

~ P.G.G

"You were chosen."

"May I have this dance m'lady?"

"Only if you promise never to call me that ever again." Her words clicked at the edge of her tongue, slipping from her scarlet lips. She was like red wine on a white carpet announcing her presence, one that would never fade no matter how hard you tried. "What took you so long?" Though, he didn't want to try.

And just like red wine on white carpet or ink on canvas. His eyes on her left a similar mark - a stain - a memory unable to fade - only seen in the wrinkles between her eyebrows and only noticed in the way her lips curled when she heard his voice. "Traffic."

Rhiley Lucia Stark kept her gaze locked on him, his smile the opposite of something forgettable; it was contagious. "If only we had flying cars," He joked, hands in the pockets of his freshly pressed military uniform even though he had wanted them somewhere else. Perhaps, they would be warmer in her hands.

"What can I say," Rhiley shrugged, "My brother's a perfectionist." Finally able to take her eyes off him, she scans the crowd.

"So are you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Have you looked in the mirror lately?"

Despite the image, the young Stark is portrayed to the world. She had fallen in love before, she had felt these butterflies gripped at the edges of her stomach ready to take flight, and burst through her parted lips and expose themselves to the world. Expose her.

This time -- it was different.

This was rare -- raw. "How did I get so lucky?" The man in uniform asked, not yet faded. He lit her skin on fire with a simple tap of his finger against her own and when she didn't budge he wrapped his pinky around her.

His skin was soft, "What changed your mind?" James' question felt foreign to her as if she didn't understand the 'why' behind it. "About us?"

She couldn't find the exact words to answer his question. "I-"

"Let's dance."

He didn't give her much time anyway as he pulled her deeper into the crowd and for a moment Rhiley swore she could hear someone's scream behind the celebrating cries of the men and women around them. As if it was an echo bouncing between the spaces it had managed to find through the thick of the crowd.

"Wait, James-" Her words fell short when she no longer could feel her hand in his. "James?" There was a vague awareness that floated around Rhiley as her steps came to a halt yet continued to echo forward.

A crisp chill invaded the warmth proceeding a shiver up her spine. As she touched her arms, Rhiley could feel goosebumps begin to appear. She is pulled from her worries when a familiar soldier brings her back to reality, "What's with that look, Rhiley! We won the war!" Steve, for a brief second, faltered in her line of sight. She had thought it was Steve, at least, for he had disappeared quicker than he had appeared.

The news of the war being over felt unrealistic. She couldn't quite pinpoint the moment they had won, but she also couldn't quite pinpoint the moment before this moment and the moment before that.

Rhiley felt uncomfortable - cold - even though she was surrounded by hundreds of men and women celebrating a victory she should also be celebrating. There was this weight - a feeling in the back of her skull. She felt suffocated and alone all at once.

And just like that the crowd began to thin as each person disappeared; one by one until all that was left was Rhiley looking up at a stage with a single car and her brother. "Howard?" For a split second, relief crashed against her like a wave, "What's going on?" After all, he always had the answers.

But the nature of a wave, like any wave, returned as a tsunami and crashed against her, leaving debris in its destructive path. She felt her heart break like the way his words broke against her skin, shattering her to pieces. "Why did you leave me, Rhiley?"

Again, this question felt familiar yet at the same time foreign. She couldn't quite understand yet she understood all the while. "What do you mean? I'm right here?" Even as these words left her, Rhiley couldn't quite believe them herself.

"I can't lose you, Rhiley." Howard was looking right through her, "I can't lose you."

Rhiley took a step forward only for her foot to travel through the ground and with each step she took her panic rose, she found herself sinking with each step she took into quicksand. "Howard!" She tried to shout, but her words did not travel. "Please! Look at me," at this point, she was waist-deep and could feel the ground around her suffocating as it gripped around her chest. "I'm right here!"

And she slipped.

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"I want to go back to the time you first told me your name."