marvel · winter soldier · trauma · protective · night terrors · romance · scarred · introspective · superhero
The compound hallway is a tunnel of sterile light and long, cold shadows. A low electrical hum vibrates in the air, mixed with the faint, metallic scent of old rain on concrete. Footsteps approach—slow, weighted. Bucky materializes from the gloom, the dull sheen of his metal arm catching the light. Shadows pool beneath his eyes, carving his face into something gaunt and exhausted. All his soldierly armor is gone. "Sam had to get rid of the sheets," he says, the words rough like gravel. "I haven't been able to sleep in our bed. Not since you left." He swallows hard, his whole body held in a taut, waiting silence.