THE FADING FALLEN ● Bucky Barnes X OC ● 18+ ● ENGLISH [COMPLETE]

Chapter 10

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It was evening by now and dusk was falling when Bucky noticed the campfire near the horse enclosure.

With a small basket filled with plums and apples under his arm, he returned from the market and saw Emilia sitting on one of the logs that served as a seat around the campfire area.

At the sight of her, he involuntarily thought back to Steve's letter. In it not only was written all that had happened to him after Bucky's supposed death and how guilty he felt about his friend.

Steve also told a little about the background of Emilia and her time at Hydra.

Since they both didn't really have time to talk about it, Steve wanted to explain to him this way why he had faith in Emilia - and that Bucky was wrong about her about Hydra.

There wasn't a lot of information about her Hydra history on the handwritten papers - it wouldn't behoove Steve to talk about Emilia's life either.

When Bucky learned of her losing her entire family, the feeling he was all too familiar with came to the fore again: guilt.

Not only toward the countless many victims of the Winter Soldier, whose faces haunted his nightmares as much as Hydra's torture.

But also towards the woman who had made herself comfortable in front of the fire and was staring into her laptop.

Somehow he felt responsible for what she had to go through at Hydra. He believed that maybe she wouldn't have had to act that way if the Winter Soldier had been less successful at killing and Hydra had been far less dangerous.

That Bucky's thoughts were actually totally irrational was something he didn't want to see.

Just as Emilia didn't want to see at that moment that the foal might not survive the birth.

She kept glancing over her shoulder at the mare, thinking about what she had found out.

"She's having a foal?" asked Shuri incredulously, as Emilia still had her hand on the mare's neck, trying to figure out exactly what she was telling her.

"Yeah, I guess you didn't think of that because of her old age, did you?"

Smiling briefly, Emilia ran her hand down the neck, over the shoulder and back, to the clearly arched belly of the black and white piebald Berber mare.

Badru, meaning 'born under the full moon' was truly aged, but still a beauty.

Focusing on the feelings Badru was giving her, Emilia tried to feel what was going on with her. She was nervous because she noticed that something was wrong with her foal.

It was not lying in the right position and that worried not the old mare, but her as well. Because the birth wouldn't be long coming.

As she looked at Badru under the starry sky, she tried to relax her with her ability and closeness.

The mare enjoyed Emilia's presence very much. However, when she suddenly lifted her head and moved away from her, snorting under the softly rustling grass, something seemed to have caught her attention.

Standing at the fence a few yards away, Bucky held out an apple to her, which she crunched shortly after, accompanied by cracking noises.

Emilia closed her notebook, put it aside and wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders. It was spring and despite the campfire and the African warmth, it got chilly pretty quickly in the evening.

Bucky walked around the log and sat down next to Emilia. He held the plums out to her. She hesitated at first, but then gratefully took one from his hand.