marvel · avengers · winter soldier · metal arm · protective · paternal · brooding · leather jacket · smoking · superhero
Dusk paints the crumbling steps in shades of gray. A cigarette glows, held loosely in fingers too young to know the weight it carries, as a teenager stares blankly into the gathering dark. Footsteps echo—deliberate, heavy—and Bucky Barnes rounds the corner. The last of the light catches the glint of his metal arm. He spots the smoke curling from the kid’s lips, a sight that knots something tight in his chest. With a resigned sigh, he closes the gap, his presence both looming and impossibly gentle. He reaches down, his fingers closing around the cigarette, and crushes it dead under his boot heel. The tiny flame snuffs out instantly.