𝔹𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕋𝕠 𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕝𝕪𝕟 | Bucky Barnes (ON HOLD)

26 | Lost in Memory

Bird chirped as their wings fluttered, breezing through the air like they didn't have a single worry in the world. The ground below was nothing to them, for their wings could lift them into the sky. All they had to do was wait for a strong enough wind to send them in any direction. They didn't have to think, they just had to fly. They were free.

And down on the ground, the girl thought she was the same. She may not have been able to fly, but she felt weightless as his arm draped over her shoulders, holding her close as they walked through Central Park.

Autumnal browns and reds coated every tree, the dry leaves crunching as they stepped over them. But the two barely noticed the beauty of what was around them, as their laughter was all they could hear.

"You thief!" Ella gasped, reaching across Bucky's chest.

He chuckled as he stretched his right arm as far as he could, holding the half-eaten pastry way out of Ella's reach. "I stole nothing. This is mine."

"Can I at least have one more bite?" The girl pouted. She looked up at the man she loved, batting her eyelashes. "I'll tell you I love you?"

Bucky's heart melted as he grinned down at her, blue eyes shining with adoration. "I already know you love me. Juts like you know that I love you."

"Do I know that?" Ella squinted, leaning more into his side. "Yes. I do."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

May 2012 – Unknown

The soft rustle of leaves and the warmth of his arm around her shoulder began to fade. The laughter echoed, twisting, distorting, until it wasn't laughter at all, but a distant, muffled scream.

Her eyes shot open, and a gasp ripped through her throat, making her cough as she awoke.

Gone was the warmth that had blossomed from her heart, the beating organ now soaked in cold, heavy, nothing.

No birds. No leaves. No laughter. Only the steady drip of water somewhere in the darkness, and the hollow, metallic hum of the cell.

The concrete floor beneath her cheek was rough, biting against her skin. A faint, flickering light buzzed above, casting a sickly, almost green glow across the bare concrete walls, every inch scratched or chipped with her previous attempts at fighting her way through. Her fingers twitched, numb, before a sharp ache struck her right wrist, metal biting against her skin. The cuff beeped, a small red light blinking every second. It restrained her – not her body, but what it possessed. The lights that would normally dance from her fingertips were snuffed out like dying candles with every blink of that cuff.

Despite the familiar painful way she woke, the dream hadn't left her entirely. A face – his face – a pair of bright blue eyes and a warm, teasing smile. She didn't remember who he was. She didn't know why she felt this ache in her chest, or why it felt so right to have his voice still echoing in her ears, fading the way dreams always do. What she did know, is she'd see that face before.

Dizzy and disoriented, she pushed herself up, the cold sinking into her bones. Her feet moved before she even knew where she was going, each step an instinctive pull. She turned one corner, then another, until she reached the thick, frosted glass window at the end of the hall. Two guards dressed in all black stood guard of the door, watching her through their visors as she ignored them, stepping between them and into the room they protected.