Keira Jones had a heart of stone, but her power was to feel other people's emotions.
Bucky Barnes was feeling too many things all at once, although his alter ego had done things that made him want not to feel anything at all anymore.
Together, the...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The heat in the room Keira was standing in was starting to become too unbearable, and she kept fanning her face with a paper to avoid sweating too much.
"He's in a limbo. He's not Bucky Barnes, the memories of that man are still far from being remembered, but he has forgotten some things about the Winter Soldier, as well. He has no name, as of now."
"Why did this happen?" Steve had his hands intertwined on his lap, his eyes lost outside the glass window although his focus was still on Fury's words.
"Keira's powers. They sedate him, avoid his memories to acknowledge themselves clearly. But she will stop only when remembering doesn't cause him dangerous breakdowns."
"Will it ever happen? Isn't there the risk he gets too... dependent?"
Instead of answering, Fury turned towards Keira, waiting for her to give Steve an answer. She didn't know much about her own powers, considering the amount of times she had used them could be counted on the fingers of a hand, but she knew Bucky's progresses, and she had started noticing Steve's worries as well.
So she nodded, but it didn't end there. "There is, but what I'm doing doesn't differ from any type of therapy. Bucky isn't capable of dealing with the trauma he went through on his own, so it looks like he's becoming more and more dependent, but it will quickly change when he starts getting stronger. He soon won't need my help anymore." Hopefully, she added in her head, because spending time with the man wasn't really making her days too thrilling. He did nothing but freak out when she managed to obtain something more from him, and she had to dosage her powers so that they didn't affect her as well. The fact that she hated him, also, didn't make the situation any easier.
Steve nodded, staring at Keira for a while before glancing over towards Fury, who had started talking once again.
"From what you told me, things are getting better for him, but you'll still see him three days a week, like we started. We see how these weeks work out, then we'll decide whether to change the schedule or not."
Both Keira and Steve agreed with him and walked away quickly, heading towards the cafeteria together without even asking each other if that was okay. They grabbed their food and sat down at an empty table, starting to eat in a comfortable silence.
"Why are you still here? I mean, Bucky's here, so it makes sense, but don't you have someone to save? A population to protect or an intergalactic enemy to kill?" Keira suddenly asked, her mouth full.
Steve scoffed loudly. "Surprisingly, there are not impending missions at the moment and, since Bucky's here, I'd rather sleep in here than back in New York. And by the way, I have to make sure you and Bucky don't claw each other's faces off when we're not looking."
Keira rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. She knew Steve was right, and it was enough to avoid her replying with a witty comment.
"People told you enough times, so I'm not going to be one of them, but let me tell you than if you had met Bucky before he became the Winter Soldier, you would have probably fallen in love with him like every other girl did."
