INNER DEMONS ▹ B. BARNES [slow updates]

fourteen.

Bucky was having the same nightmare again, where he killed Mr. Nakajima's son. He tossed and turned but eventually managed to make it through the night. The same lullaby comforted him, a song he could only remember in his subconscious, apparently.

He blinked himself awake with the sound of giggling and humming. The morning sun reflected on two kids playing with the shield and a woman humming the song from his dream. The scene was almost ethereal, and he had to blink a couple more times to make sure he wasn't still dreaming.

"Hey," he greeted the kids, who got startled. They panicked, trying to put the shield back in place, and fled the scene, not wanting to get in trouble with their uncle or mother.

The woman, though, remained unfazed, shuffling around the kitchen preparing breakfast.

"Someone holds me

Safe and warm

Horses prance through

A silver storm

Figures dancing gracefully

Across my memory."

Bucky straightened himself on the couch, frowning in her direction. She was singing the song of his dreams, but he didn't know if it was a coincidence or if it meant something.

"Far away, long ago

Glowing dim

As an amber

Things my heart

Used to know

Things it yearns to remember--"

"It's you," he declared. Lorna paused and turned to him with a confused look. "You sing this song while I sleep."

"Sometimes, when I return to the apartment in the middle of the night, you're having a nightmare, and I do it to try to calm you down."

"I heard this song before."

"My mom used to sing it to my siblings." She approached him with a cup and plate in each hand, which she put in front of him on the center table. It was black coffee, eggs, and bacon.

"I remember it from Wakanda," he commented, a faraway look in his eyes.

"I used to sing it there, too," she revealed. "While working with Shuri on deleting the Winter Soldier program from your brain. I saw you having a nightmare last night. It's no big deal."

"Why do you keep doing that?"

Lorna shrugged, trying not to avert from his intense stare. His blue eyes were hypnotizing.

"You deserve a good night of sleep. And, as I said, it's no big deal."

"No, not this," he shook his head. "I mean all these things you do for me. In Wakanda, the nightmares, even breakfast!" He motioned to the untouched plate. "Why do you do all these things when we barely know each other?"

The young woman pursed her lips.

"I know what you went through with HYDRA," she began quietly. "And I know how difficult it is to move on from it and how it feels like losing everything, including your own self. Tony was the one who kept me afloat, but now that he's gone, I'm trying to find on my own a way to live and cope with everything. And then I saw goodness in you that I couldn't see in myself. So, I wanted to cherish it because it gave me hope. Hope that maybe I'm not a lost cause."