Cosmic Love

die first

[New York, 2024]

"I'm fine, Sky." Maia lied as she walked into the kitchen in their apartment.

"No you're not and you're pushing me away, Elle!" The redhead snapped. "I just...I think you tell everyone in your life that you're fine, but when you come home late at night and you go into the bathroom and look in the mirror all you see is an empty person who you don't recognise and you hate it because Tony's not here to pick you up off your feet anymore!"

"He has nothing to do with this!" Maia defended even though she knew her girlfriend could tell when she was lying.

"Really? So you don't feel an ounce of guilt for not showing up to his funeral just because Sam was there? You don't feel guilty for basically abandoning Morgan when she needed you the most?"

"Shut the fuck up!" Maia snapped, finally turning face Sky. "Instead of micromanaging my life why don't you focus on the fact your mom is dead!"

"You didn't just say that." Sky muttered in disbelief with tears rolling down her face.

"Yeah." Maia scoffed. "I did, Skylar."

Maia stormed out of the apartment and walked around the busy streets of New York.

❀•°❀°•❀

It was 11pm when Maia finally got home, the apartment was dark apart from light escaping at the bottom of the bathroom door.

"Sky, baby, I'm sorry." Maia said after knocking on the bathroom door. "I shouldn't of said that about Natasha, I know you miss her."

No response.

"Sky...please say something." Maia begged as she flicked the hallway light on. "I'm staying here until you open this door."

After a couple of minutes water appeared at the bottom of the door and started running into the hallway. "Sky?" Maia panicked as she started banging on the door. "Skylar open this fucking door right now before I kick it in!"

No. Response.

Maia backed up a little before delivering a hard kick to the door, effectively making it fly open to reveal something that would be permanently ingrained into Maia's mind until the day she died.

"No, no, no. You're okay, you're okay." Maia repeated over and over again as she rushed over to Sky.

The redhead was limp in the bathtub with blood flowing out her wrists at a slow pace, the water that Maia knew was originally clear, was now a deep shade of red.

A sob escaped Maia's mouth as she applied pressure to Sky's cuts.

notdeadnotdeadnotdeadnotdeadnotdead

Maia's heart and mind was racing but she managed to collect her thoughts enough to call 911.

"Hello, what's your emergency?" The operator asked.

"My girlfriend- you have to send someone!" Maia sobbed as she put the phone on speaker. "She's dying!"

"Okay ma'am, paramedics and officers are being dispatched to your location." The operator stated. "My names Melody, can you tell me what happened?"

"We got into an argument and I left the apartment and when I came back she's in the bath and there's blood everywhere and she's not waking up and I don't know what to do." Maia sobbed as the bloody water spilled onto her once white top. "You have to send someone!"

"Okay, what's your name?" Melody asked.

"Maia."

"Okay, Maia, I need you to check if your girlfriend is breathing." Melody explained as Maia let out another sob.

"Okay." Maia muttered before holding her finger underneath Sky's nose.

She wasn't breathing.

"No, no, no, no, no." Maia repeated over and over again. "What do I do?"

"Sweetheart..." Melody trailed off, nothing but sadness in her voice. "I'm gonna need you to stay on the phone with me until the paramedics arrive."

"She's not dead, she can't be, I only just got her back." Maia started pacing around the flooded bathroom as heavy footsteps echoed through the apartment. "She can't be gone!"

The paramedics walked into the bathroom and checked Sky's pulse before shooting each other a look that Maia really didn't like. "What are you doing? Save her!" Maia yelled as one of the paramedics lead her out of the room.

❀•°❀°•❀

"Jamie!" Maia yelled as she lightly kicked Bucky's apartment door. If Natasha hadn't just died, she would've gone to Maria but Maria had enough grief of her own, she didn't need Maia's on top of her own.

"What time is it?" Bucky groggily questioned as he opened the door, instead of being awoken by horrific memories from his past, he was awoken by Maia.

Maia immediately barged into his apartment and that's when Bucky knew something was wrong, she'd never do that if she was in a good mental place. "Maia, what's wrong?" He asked as he noticed the blood on her top.

The blonde broke down in tears, almost falling to the floor but Bucky caught her. "Maiabelle, you need to tell me what's going on right now." He stated.

"She's dead." Maia sobbed. "She left me again and she's never coming back."

"Who?"

"Sky."

Bucky immediately wrapped his arms around the girl and let her cry in his arms.

❀•°❀°•❀

Maia sat at Bucky's kitchen table with him, pushing the cereal in her bowl around. "If you don't eat it soon it's gonna get soggy." Bucky tried to lighten the mood with a joke, just like Steve and Sky used to do.

"I can't." Maia muttered, pushing the bowl away from her as tears filled her eyes.

"Not eating anything isn't gonna bring her back." Bucky told the blonde.

"It's my fault, James." Maia said, no louder than a whisper. "We got in an argument and I told her to stop micromanaging my life and to focus on the fact her mom is dead and then I left and when I came back she-"

"You didn't know what was going to happen Maia." Bucky said as he gave Maia's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"I should've."

Silence settled over the two because Bucky didn't know what to say. He knew he couldn't make Maia believe him and he knew she didn't want him waisting his breath on her.

"I wanna dye my hair." Maia stated.

"What colour?" Bucky asked after eating a spoon full of cereal.

"Brown." Maia answered as she stood up. "I'll be back soon."

"Okay." Bucky sighed before Maia left his apartment.

I/N: I know I COMPLETELY skipped over the blip but I PROMISE there's a reason and what happened during 2018-2023 WILL be addressed in later chapters