It Only Takes a Second

- X -

Harry whimpered, thrashing in his sleep.

"No, please," he cried, curling in on himself. He gripped the sheets tighter to his body as he battled the nightmare.

"Hey, Harry!" A voice called, hazy in his mind. Suddenly, there was the weight of a hand on Harry's arm, shaking him awake.

Before Bucky could process what was happening, Harry had shot out of the bed like a bullet and was now cowering in the corner of the bedroom behind the coffee table.

"Whoa there, are you okay?" Bucky asked, approaching Harry slowly as if he was approaching a wounded animal.

"Please don't, I promise I'll do better," Harry pleaded, arms covering his head.

"Harry, it's okay. You're okay, you didn't do anything wrong. Wake up, bud," Bucky said softly, kneeling down in front of Harry. Carefully and very gently, he grabbed Harry's hands and pulled them away from his face.

"It's Bucky. I'm not going to hurt you," he murmured as Harry looked down quickly as the hideout behind his hands was compromised. Bucky took a finger and lifted Harry's chin so that he had to look at him.

"You with me?" Bucky asked, gazing into Harry's big green eyes.

Gulping, Harry nodded. His hair was matted to his face, damp with sweat, and he felt as though he had just run a marathon. Realizing what had happened, his face grew hot with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry. Did I wake you? I didn't mean to. I'm sorry," Harry rapidly apologized, standing up from where he had previously been huddled in the corner.

"Nah, I was already awake. I was passing your room on my way to the kitchen, and I heard you," Bucky replied calmly, as if this happened to him all the time.

He had been staying the night in the next room over with Steve when the Avengers had been called out on a mission, and once Steve had left, he hadn't been able to go back to sleep. Since it was 4 in the morning, Bucky just decided to get up, eat an early breakfast and slip out before Harry woke up.

As Harry's head grew clearer, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Bucky, what are you doing here?" He asked. "And where's Tony?"

Tony was normally the one that took care of him after he woke up from nightmares. He always felt bad for interrupting the man's sleep, but he gathered that the billionaire rarely slept anyways. Even still, he always felt bad about inconveniencing him.

"Um," Bucky chuckled, biting his lip as he tried to figure out how to answer the question at hand. "I stayed the night here."

"With Steve?" Harry asked, cocking his head slightly to the side. Bucky let out a nervous laugh.

"I'm not going to judge you if you say yes, you know," Harry pointed out. "In fact, I'm going to judge you more if you say no."

This time, Bucky laughed a genuine laugh. "Well, in that case, yes. Yes, I was."

"I thought that's what was going on," Harry responded quietly, nodding to himself.

"Well aren't you the little detective?" Bucky chuckled.

"I always had to be aware around..." Harry trailed off, glancing up at Bucky in fear. "I'm sorry."

Harry was mortified. He hadn't said this much to anyone in the tower, other than Tony and maybe Pepper, and now, here he was, spilling his guts to the man he had just met. The only reason he knew to trust him was because Steve trusted him.

"Harry, it's fine. I'm not going to be mad at you for telling me anything," Bucky replied, his voice low as he tried not to thing of how bad things must have been for Harry. Steve had filled him in on a little bit of the child's backstory, but it was enough to paint a vivid picture that Bucky wished nobody would ever have to see.