Ophelia

Dreams

She reached up and placed her palm against his stubble-covered cheek. The smile lit up her face, lit up his world. As her green eyes bore into him, peering through every layer of his being, navigating through every fibre of his body, she saw every part of him and she loved every part of him. Layer upon layer that had been built up around his heart, the shell that he became over the years of being a HYDRA weapon; Ophelia peeled them back delicately with her smooth fingers, being so gentle and making sure not to hurt him. Eventually she reached his heart, the beating red bulb protected by his ribs. She pulled it out, the only person to make it there, the only person who could hold onto that heart of his and really love him. The only person who would hold onto that heart and protect it like it was the most important thing in the world.

Because to Ophelia it was her world, the most important thing to her was Bucky.

She would die to protect him.

She did die to protect him.

Ophelia looked at Bucky, her green eyes turning sad as she clutched his heart tighter. It began to hurt, his lips parting and a gasp coming out. The agony of her hand tightening around his beating heart, how it made him ache deeper to his core.

"I'm so sorry Bucky," she whispered, but her lips never moved.

"Don't go," he pleaded.

"I have to," she replied. "It's time for you to go. It's time for you to move on."

"I can't, O."

"Oh, Bucky." She looked down at the heart in her hands, the placed it back inside his chest.

"No," he protested, but he couldn't move. He was frozen there as she began to put his layers back, protecting his heart. "O, please don't do this."

"You're the strongest person I have ever met," she told him, placing that last layer back perfectly. She leaned in and let her lips hover just before his. Bucky could smell her, the budget shampoo they bought from the dollar stores, the hint of coffee that hung around her, her natural scent that he could lose himself in. She kissed him, their lips touching again for the first time in -how long? How long had it been?

Bucky let his eyes close, savouring the touch of her skin on his. When he opened them, she was gone, fading away from his sight. He tried to plead, to protest, to beg for her to come back but she disappeared into dust. Silent sobs racked his body as he too began to fade, something was overwhelming him, pulling him out of his catatonic state. He gritted his teeth, shut his eyes tight.

***

"Good morning, Sergeant Barnes." A smooth, female voice came to his ears. It was not the voice he wanted to hear, but when his eye fluttered open and he saw a woman he recognized from long ago, he released a breath.

He sat up, running his cold hands over his face. "Please put me back in."

"You see her in your dreams, don't you?" Shuri asked him.

He nodded, not ashamed, but feeling strange about admitting it to her.

"You cannot lose yourself in dreams and forget the real world goes on, she would want you to live on."

Bucky knew she was right, but it left a bad taste in his mouth. "I know, you're right... I just..."

"You'll always have her in your heart and in your mind. You do not need to worry about losing your memory here, and she will always be there." Shuri smiled. "Come, I will show you around."