Of Love and Lines (MCUxReader)

Eleven

Bucky POV

Antiseptic burned through Bucky's nostrils as his mind fought against the darkness holding him under. Feeling slowly moved its way from his heart outward, his limbs dead weight on the bed beneath him. A steady drone of machinery was combating against the sound of his chattering teeth, ice filling his very bones.

As panic surged into his mind, his breaths whistled out of his lungs and he fought to open his heavy eyes.

"Hey. You're okay." Something heavy landed on his already weighed down arm.

That voice. You know that voice.

"Bucky... oh my god."

Bucky's head lulled, the dim lights above him blurring together as the sound of his restraints releasing echoed through the room, through his head.

"It's me. It's Steve."

A shadow blocked out the light and Bucky blinked his eyes trying to get the hallucination to clear. It wasn't the first time his abused mind had run away from him.

But the more he blinked, the clearer the image in front of him became. It wasn't a shadow. This wasn't a hallucination.

"Steve." He smiled weakly between short breaths, his mind working in overdrive as he attempted to get a grasp on reality.

Steve pulled him off the table he'd been strapped to, grabbing onto his hips to steady him when he swayed.

"I thought you were dead."

Bucky's eyes widened when he had to look up to meet Steve's concerned gaze. "I thought you were smaller."

"Come back to me, Buck."

Bucky clenched his fists, shaking his head until the memory passed. Cracking his eyes open, he squinted into the lights of the medical room. When he attempted to turn his head to the side, the muscles in his neck cried out. He pushed through it though, needing to see for himself.

Steve leaned over the side of the bed, his hand resting on Bucky's forearm as he gazed down at him, his face drawn in worry.

"You back?"

"You know me." The Captain spoke the very thoughts fighting to take precedence in Soldat's mind as he pushed back to his feet.

The flames surrounding them flickered in the Captain's eyes. The very same eyes that seemed to draw Soldat into their icy depths, a pull his soul was helpless to avoid. But he had a mission.

Gritting his teeth against the pain firing along every inch of his body, he lashed out. "No, I don't!" He screamed more to himself than the man his fist surged into, sending the Captain flying backwards to the cracking glass beneath them.

"Breathe, Bucky. You're here. You're safe."

Bucky's breaths were ragged, all but lifting his torso off the bed with each inhale. His fists landed at his temples, digging in as if he could stop the memories by sheer force.

"Stop. You'll hurt yourself." Steve's hands wrapped around his wrists, fighting against him.

The pressure in Soldat's skull sent his vision tunneling. He needed to get out. Get away. But he was unable to release the fist that held tightly to the man's uniform as he trudged through the water.

When his feet finally hit the rocky shore, he fell to his knees all but collapsing next to the unconscious body he'd drug up with him.

His mission wasn't complete yet. He needed to eliminate his target.