Initiation ▷ BUCKY BARNES

TWO

THE SOUND OF SOMEONE PACING IMPATIENTLY IN THE ROOM began to sound through Avery's head as she slept. A light moan escaped through the brunette's lips as she pushed herself to wake up and take in her surroundings. The woman was half expecting to be cuddled up on her brown leather sofa in her small apartment but was stunned when she realised that she was in a bed instead – oddly enough, it wasn't hers.

A wave of confusion swept through the young woman and she rapidly sat up in the bed to get a better look at her surroundings. As she did so a jolt of pain subsequently rushed through her entire body, particularly through her leg. As she hadn't been expecting it Avery let out a cry of pain and squeezed her eyes shut to try and block everything out, her lip quivering as she clutched her throbbing leg. When the majority of the pain had subsided the brunette opened her eyes to find a deep set of blue ones staring blankly into hers.

Avery let out an ear piercing scream and the man in front of her furrowed his brows whilst keeping a firm grip on the glass of water in has hands. He held the glass out, motioning for the woman to take it from him.

This time it was Avery's turn to furrow her brows in confusion but realisation suddenly dawned on her. Memories from what had happened at the restaurant and then at the bar swamped through her mind and the woman could feel her heart racing as she stared directly into the stranger's vacant eyes.

"You got me out from underneath the rubble." She said quietly, her voice hoarse and breathless; indicating to the stranger that she was nervous.

However, this didn't faze him and he simply held the water closer to Avery.

"Drink."

Avery took the glass from his hand and held it towards her mouth, pausing for a moment before taking a sip of it.

Rather subtly the brunette looked at the beverage to check that there was nothing in it. Once she was sure that it was purely water and no other substance Avery raised the glass to her lips and took a long swig of it.

The brunette hadn't realised just how thirsty she was and quickly downed the entire glass before setting it down on the nightstand beside her. Once she'd done so she looked up at the stranger to find that he was already watching her rather intensely, his eyes fixated solely on her as if she was the only thing that mattered in the world.

As their eyes locked the man looked away from Avery and stared down at the floor in silence, embarrassed that he'd just been caught staring at the brunette.

"Thank you." Avery said quietly in an attempt to forget what had just happened seconds ago.

The stranger nodded, but said nothing more and Avery sighed. The silence between them was eating away at her and Avery was dying to ask him question after question about what had happened within the last few hours. The only problem was that he didn't seem very talkative which meant that squeezing answers out of him would be very difficult.

"Is my leg broken?" The brunette decided to ask out of all the questions racing through her mind. With his eyes still glued to the floor the stranger nodded.

"A few of your ribs too." He said quietly and rather bluntly.

Once he'd finished speaking Avery pulled the duvet off of her and took her shirt off to examine her ribs. As she did so the stranger's eyes quickly looked away from the floor and then at her face before flickering down to her bare chest. His eyes widened upon realising that Avery had taken her shirt off and hastily looked away, his cheeks flushing a pale shade of pink as he did so. Avery couldn't help but blush also as she hadn't expected him to look at her, but quickly went back to doing what she was doing in the first place. Her eyes squinted as she saw the black and blue marks around her ribs and the brunette let out a huff of frustration before putting her shirt back on.