Nightingale (Sequel to Solider Boy)

Ten

In the pale light of a crescent moon, the scars on Melody's back were silver. Bucky ran his hand over the bumpy, puckered tissue and Melody squirmed.

"That tickles," she said, squirming and Bucky laughed.

"I know," he slid his hand down her back, tracing circles over the skin. She sighed as he did that and Bucky bit his lip to stop his grin. He loved the little noises she made when he did things like that. They were so cute.

Melody sighed again as his hand moved towards the center of her back. "Think Steve will break down my door looking for you?"

"He might," Bucky admitted. When it came to him, Steve was incredibly prone to extreme overreaction. 

"I thought so," she sat upright, the blankets falling off her body and she swung her long legs out of bed. 

"Where are you going?" Bucky asked, hand falling into the empty space she'd occupied seconds before. Already, the bed too large, too empty without her in it.

Melody rummaged around in nearby nightstand and pulled something from the drawers. "I'm getting dressed," she answered, pulling what might have been a pajama shirt over her head. "I'm sure Steve doesn't want to see me naked anymore than I want him to."

"Does  what I want in this situation matter?" Bucky asked as the mattress shifted when she climbed back into bed. "I sort of liked the view I had earlier. And whatever retort you're thinking stop it right now." Melody had, for the most part, abided by her promise to stop objecting when Bucky told her she was beautiful, but only verbally. He wasn't Wanda Maximofff, but he didn't need to be able to read minds to know what went around in the doctor's head. 

"I wasn't thinking that." she protested and Bucky huffed loudly. "I'm serious you know," she insisted. "I wasn't thinking anything like that."

Bucky rolled over onto his side. "Promise?"

"Promise."

"Good," he smiled. Looks like you're finally getting that brainwashing out of your head, he thought to himself. Finally, after decades of laboring under them, she was finally seeing her father's words for what they were-lies.  "Melody?" he asked after several moments of silence. 

"Yeah?"

"Do you want me to go back the lab?" 

Melody blinked slowly. "I thought you didn't want to talk about it."

"I don't," he admitted, reaching out and grabbing her hand, which was resting by her face on her pillow. Twining his fingers through hers, Bucky continued. "But we don't have time to not talk about it. Tell me what you think."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I want do want you to go back."

"Why?"

"Well the obvious one is that as long you have that in your head, they could steal your life again. It's a weakness Hydra can and will exploit if they get within earshot of you."

"And what's the less obvious?" Bucky asked, stomach twisting. Steve had said much the same before, but Melody's cold frankness made it worse. 

"I love you," her hand tightened around his and as she said that and her voice grew thick. "And..." her voice grew thick. "It doesn't matter as long as Hydra's still in your head. They could make you forget me and it won't matter what either of us feel. A tear slid over her cheek and it was turned silver by the moonlight pouring into the room. "Selfish as it is, I never want to look at you and know that you don't love me anymore."