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Bright yellow light peeked through the curtains. I lay with a pillow over my face hiding from the sunlight. The effects of last night's nightmare still clung to me with embarrassment, and how I'd waken Bucky up.
I turned over in my sheets, pulling them over my head. I just wanted to pretend that nothing happened.
...red pooled in my hands as my vision faded into black and—
Pressure on my shoulder shook me awake. My eyes flashed open. Bucky's eyes poured into mine with concern.
"What... what the hell are you doing in here?" I blurted out.
"I heard... you woke me up," his voice was gentle and etched with worry. His eyes zigzagged across my face for any signs of distress. "I thought something might've happened. Are you alright?"
"You scared me," I admitted, placing a hand over my chest. My heart pounded against my chest. The FitBit on my wrist beeping softly, betraying my cool demeanor.
"Are you okay?" he asked again. The worry in his voice was impossible to miss.
"I'm fine you can go back to your hut," I insisted, flipping around in my sheet. I grabbed at the edge of my comforter and threw it over my face. He obviously wasn't appreciating my efforts to get him out. He grabbed the blanket and pulled it down.
"You don't seem fine,"
I continued to face the wall."I am now so you can go back to sleep," I heard the weight of his feet on the floor. "Bucky, it's nothing that hasn't happened before. I'm okay,"
"You get nightmares too?" his soft voice broke through the silence. A slice of guilt went through my heart as I continued to lie.
"Everyone gets nightmares, it's not unusual," I said, reaching for the comforter again but his grip on it is too strong and I can't pull it away.
"Nightmares aren't uncommon but it's unusual when you wake yourself up screaming,"
I crossed my arms staring up at the ceiling. "Like I said, nothing that hasn't happened before,"
"And it makes it okay that it's happened more than once?" He asked. I didn't know what to say so I said nothing. "Josie, what happened?"
"I woke up and I screamed because a tall handsome stranger with one arm was standing over my bed,"
Bucky ignored my attempt to deflect, knowing my strategies too well by now. "What happened in your dream?"
"I was being kidnapped by a crocodile dressed in a tux wearing a patch over its eye. He was running down a spiral staircase made of Twizzlers, an unexceptional dream really in the landscape of my dreams. if I can fall back asleep now maybe I can go back inside to see how it ends,"
