Falling (Bucky Barnes)

1 - The Reason No one Should Wake a Supersoldier from a Nightmare

Elissavet Gerakou loves mornings; no she's not one of those annoying 'morning people'. No, when I say morning, I mean like two in the morning. When the world is quieter. When everyone else is asleep. When there's nothing expected of her. When she can be alone. She's always been this way. It's just stuck with her. Even after she moved out of her drunken parent's house and her toxic boyfriend's house.

That was when she moved to the Avengers Tower. She didn't want to live there, but Nicholas Fury had other plans. She's valuable to the team with her healing powers and all, plus she's pretty good at combat. Okay, maybe she's better than 'pretty good'. She's really good at fighting, both close and far range. She can even give Natasha Romanoff a run for her money (and that's saying something).

    Although her parents are dead and her boyfriend is across the ocean, she still doesn't feel safe. Probably due to the fact that her parents along with her various 'boyfriends' gave her severe trust issues. She has a hard time being close to people and loosening up. Which is why she is always up at the earliest times in the mornings when everyone else isn't. She can't usually stay asleep anyways.

And that is why Elissavet is drawing in her dark room at her desk with her small desktop lamp on at three thirty-two in the morning. She has been distant the whole time she has been at the Avengers tower. She usually just talks to Pepper, Wanda, and Natasha. She started to come to sit out of her room a little more after a few months, (she still didn't really talk, but hey at least she wasn't locked up in her room 24/7), but when the new guy came, she went back into hiding. When he came to the tower, she went back to her usual self. She didn't come out of her room unless she needed to grab some food or go on a mission or something.

She doesn't have any particular problem with Steve's friend, James Barnes (who had just gotten out of treatment in Wakanda), she just doesn't like new people -especially if they're men. Elissavet has had a few conversations with him, but they were short and usually only consisted of a few words before silence took over. They both don't really trust the whole 'new people' thing and are not very outgoing, so you can probably see why they don't get much conversation in.

Tonight Elissavet is having trouble sleeping because she is worried about the two beings coming to the tower the next day. Thor is returning to Earth with his adopted brother, Loki. She doesn't mind the whole New York situation because she was informed by Thor that Loki was being controlled. Although everyone else doesn't trust the explanation, she does. It also probably helps that she wasn't really directly affected by the attack on New York because she was still in Greece with her (now ex)boyfriend. She has tried to ignore the things the others have said about him because she wants to give him a fresh start.

She is shading her drawing absent-mindedly until she is startled by a thud. Looking to her left she cocks her eyebrow with curiosity. She hears some movement in the room next-door, James' room. It sounds like he is struggling, she thinks that perhaps he is in danger. She bites her lip and looks down at her sketchbook, her pencil gripped firmly in her hand. When she hears a quiet yelp she whips her head back to look at the left wall, as if she would be able to see through it. Without a moment's hesitation, Elissavet drops her pencil, grabs her knife from inside her top desk drawer, and swiftly moves to the hall.

She opens the door silently, slipping through it. Creeping over to the bed she notices the sheets and blankets tangled in a mess. James isn't there.

She becomes more nervous as she nears the other side of the bed where she hears him thrashing around and whimpering. She gently tosses her knife onto the bed when she realises that there is no one in the room with them, he's just having a nightmare. She looks at the figure on the floor that is covered in sweat. He looks very uneasy.

She silently walks over to him and crouches down next to him. Elissavet takes her shaky hand and places it gently on his arm. "Barnes, hey hey it's okay. Barnes, it's just a nightmare. You're okay, you're safe, I'm here for you. Please wake up. You're okay I promise you that. Barnes hey wake up," she coos softly to him.

His eyes shoot open and a deep breath is taken in. he stares at the ceiling before looking to Elissavet with mad eyes. She tries to calm her fear. He looks crazy like he's not there. There's no emotion at all. The Winter Soldier instead lies on the ground. "James?" she softly whimpers.

"Who the hell is James?" he spits before pushing her against the closest wall.

"James! Stop, please. This isn't you. James put me down. It's me Elissa, you're at the Avengers tower. Your friend Steve is here too!" she pleads, tears forming in her eyes. Her words don't reach the soldier and instead of letting her go, he grabs onto her neck with his metal hand and raises her off the floor. Elissa can't breathe. She is gasping for air trying to make any sound.

Her vision grows faint as she starts to kick him off of her. It takes ten kicks before she is able to escape from his grasp, just barely. With a heavy heart, she knocks him out before slumping onto the ground. She breathes heavily, in-taking the air that she so often takes for granted. She's so grateful for the air that is filling her lungs.

Glancing over to the unconscious person lying in front of her she gets up and sighs. Her neck hurts like hell, she knows that she will have bruises in the morning.

She tries to pick him up to put him in his bed, but she realises how stupid that idea is when she fails to lift him. How the hell is one fairly average human supposed to lift a heavy super soldier?

Answer: they aren't.

She instead settles on laying a blanket over him and placing a pillow under his head. She grabs her knife that's still lying on the bed before silently slipping out of his room.