James Bucky Barnes, the former soldier, doesn't think he's got any gentleness left in him. But Grace Juniper Cunningham, the former child prodigy, strongly disagrees.
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"𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯."
"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴�...
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Who had wanted Colin dead? I hadn't known him all that well. Maybe he was involved in something illegal. My stomach churned.
The most chilling part was the fact that the attack had occurred in the Tower. The Tower was where I was supposed to be safe. We were all supposed to be safe here.
I was sitting on Bucky's bed in one of his long sleeved shirts. He'd left the room so I could change. When he'd left, I was wishing he wouldn't, because I was scared to be alone. But then, after he was gone, I just sat there for a minute, processing.
"Doll?" he called from outside the door. Worried.
"I'm fine," I said. "Come back in."
He did. When he saw me just sitting on the bed, the worry in his face became more pronounced, and he knelt down on the floor in front of me, watching me carefully. He laid his hands on the bed, on either side of me, but I took them and I interlaced them with mine.
He was below my eye level by well over a foot, which felt strange. It was even stranger when I realized this was the angle he usually looked at me from.
"Do you feel better?" he asked. His thumbs were moving in little circles on my hands.
I nodded.
"I don't want you to be scared," he said. "How can I make you not be scared?"
I leaned forward until we were at eye level again, and I kissed him instead of answering. Soft, just for a second. But there was a sort of desperation in the way I felt him respond. There wasn't even a moment of shock or adjustment. He kissed me back with intensity, pressure, surprising me, when all I'd done was brush my lips against his. He would've deepened it if I'd let him.
"Thank you," I said when I sat back. "For caring, I mean."
He was frozen for just a second after I pulled away, and I wondered if that was as close as Bucky ever got to looking breathless. He recovered quickly, and moved on like nothing had happened.
"You wanna lay down? Do you think you can sleep?" he asked, standing up, letting go of my hands.
He was already busying himself with pulling the covers down for me, moving the pillows out of the way except for the one I liked to sleep on.
So I nodded and crawled into the space he made for me. I pulled the covers around myself tightly, rubbed my feet together, squirmed a little bit against the sheets. He was still watching me.
"What?" I asked finally, laughing for the first time since the elevator.
"Can I stay in here?" he asked. "In a chair? So I know you're okay?"
No, I thought. I didn't want that. I didn't want that at all.
"Will you hold me?" I asked uncertainly. "Like that one time?"
