shield | b. barnes

"I had to use my arm to break the window."

[Corinna]

It's been 3 hours since I've said good night to Bucky and I still can't fall asleep. My thoughts are racing through my mind a million miles a minute and every single one of them includes Jay, Rumlow, and Bucky. 

I groan softly as I sit up, dropping my head into my hands, regretting the action instantly as a dull pain erupts in my right arm.

"Well, if I can't sleep, I might as well make my time useful." I mutter to myself as I get out of bed.

I quietly walk over to my desk and turn on the table lamp and huff in annoyance when I see that my laptop isn't there. That means I left it on the coffee table. "Great."

I blindly make my way into the living room, making sure that I didn't step on the squeaky floorboards since Bucky is asleep on the couch. I wrap my arms around my body as I feel the cool breeze come in through the broken window and make a mental note to myself that I have to get it replaced before leaning over to take my laptop from the coffee table.

As I turn around, I hear Bucky turn in his sleep and I instantly stop moving. I wait a couple of seconds to pass before taking another step, but I hear soft groans coming from him. Within seconds, they get louder and I turn around in alarm.

From the light pouring in through the window, I can see a deep frown settled on his face as he mumbles something in his sleep. Suddenly, he yells something unintelligible, causing me to quickly put my laptop back onto the table and cautiously walk over to him.

As I get closer, I notice that he has a thin layer of sweat on his forehead despite it being chilly in the room. I hesitantly bring my left hand towards Bucky's shoulder, not sure if I should wake him up or wait a few more minutes to see if he'll calm down, but his tortured expression makes the decision for me.

I gently shake him, "Bucky, wake up!"

His eyes are still closed and he's still mumbling something with a frown so I decide to shake him a little harder. He sits up suddenly, his left hand wraps around my neck immediately as I clutch his metal arm, struggling to breathe.

"Bu-bucky," I mumble through my jagged breaths. I continue scratching against his metal arm, trying to make him let go, but I fail terribly.

Bucky abruptly pulls his hand away from my throat as he quickly stands up. I fall to the floor in a fit of coughs as I try to get some air back into my body.  

"Shit. I'm-I'm sorry, Corinna. Are you okay?" He asks. He doesn't make any movement to come near me. 

"Yeah, yeah," I say between coughs. I push myself off the floor and turn to look at Bucky as I rub my neck. He's looking at me guiltily, his mouth set in a tight line as his hands lay limply by his side in fists. "I'm fine Bucky, don't worry about it," I say, cautiously taking a step towards him. He doesn't say anything as he looks at me with a frown. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

He shakes his head, looking away from me as he runs a hand through his messy hair. "No."

I pinch my lips together, looking down at my laptop, thinking about what I should say next. "Well, I don't think both of us are going to be getting any sleep tonight, so might as well make a move on our hunt for Jay," I say casually as I walk past Bucky to turn on the lights. I walk into the kitchen to grab a glass of cold water before walking back out and handing it Bucky, "Here." He wordlessly takes it from my grasp, before downing it.

I walk over to the couch and push the afghan I gave to Bucky to the side before sitting down. I reach over for my laptop and a pen and notebook before sitting back in my seat. I turn to give Bucky an expectant look, waiting for him to sit next to me. He seems to be having an internal debate about something, but he finally walks over to sit next to me.