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

Chapter 18

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Hot steam rose, clouding her vision only at first. Bucky stood in the shower with his hands on the wall and his back to her.

He had his black Henley shirt rolled up to his elbows and his wet hair covered his face. His pants were literally sticking to him as the water ran down them.

With his right fist he kept hammering against the tiles. Not so hard that they cracked. But strong enough that Emilia thought she could feel the slight vibration.

An agonized growl escaped from his mouth. It was accompanied by a suppressed desperate scream that seemed to never end.

For a moment Emilia was petrified. She didn't know what to do or how to get him out of there. His broad back literally shook under his wail and the sound boomed in her ears.

Finally, she broke free of her stupor and hurried toward him.

"Barnes."

He didn't respond.

"Hey, Barnes!"

She placed her flat hand on his shoulder blade.

Only a split second later, Bucky wheeled wildly and grabbed her wrist. In shock, Emilia slipped the book from her other hand, which fell thudding to the floor.

The drops of water flew towards her and felt like millions of tiny flames on her skin, literally burning into it.

Enveloped in water vapor and rigid with shock, she was unable to move. Emilia could only look at the reddened face in front of her, from which fear-filled, wide-open eyes were staring back at her.

Bucky just looked at her in confusion for a few seconds. His breathing was rapid and unsteady.

A moment ago he was still driving away the horrible images and sensations under boiling hot water - as he did every time the nightmare was too unbearable.

And suddenly she was standing in front of him. He didn't hear her coming.

His eyes moved from her face to what he held in his left hand. Horrified, he released his fingers from her wrist and stood still beneath the merciless flow of lava.

Adrenaline pumped wildly through Emilia's body.

Involuntarily, her palm lay down on his face and rested for a moment on his heated cheek.

Bucky felt the hot water slowly cool pleasantly. Without really noticing, Emilia lowered the temperature using her skills, but kept it running.

The longer she looked into his eyes, the more saw the pain in them was not just from his memories and dreams.

Her soft stunned voice was barely audible through the splashing: "What are you doing to yourself? Why...?"

She realized all at once what he was probably not doing for the first time. With a flick of her wrist, she turned off the faucet.

The sudden anger mixed with concern over Bucky's self-destructive actions overwhelmed her from one second to the next. And he could literally perceive in her expression how angry she was.

"Are you out of your mind?! What the hell were you trying to do?! Re-training to cooked ham, or what?!"

Furious, she stood in front of him and literally tried to stare him into the ground.

The emerging slight glint in her eyes didn't escape him. For a short moment, it bored into his chest like a knife, causing a slight glimmer of hope.

"Congratulations! You've already got the right color!"