Back To Brookes // back to barnes bk2

10: do you bleed?

      Laura informed me when I came downstairs that Lila had dropped a glass and shattered it, and that I should watch out in case she missed any while cleaning it up. I briefly said okay and went to the living room with Bucky and Clint. I wished I had listened a bit more intently.

"Hey . . . Bucky?" I called as I sat down propped my right foot on my left knee. I was never one to grow faint at the sight of blood - ever - but the sight in front of me made that no longer the case.

"Yes, my love?" He called back from the living room.

"My blood is purple." I responded, gently pulling the decent-sized shard of glass from my heel. I jumped as the gash closed up immediately, but the blood surrounding it stayed.

"Isn't all blood purple-ish until you're cut or something?" He asked, as if I was the one being stupid.

I rolled my eyes. The decent amount of blood on my foot, taking on a very unusual and very fake-looking lilac color, would prove him otherwise even if he was right. Which he wasn't. "One, that's wrong. Two, I did cut myself. And there's lots of blood."

At this they both come into the kitchen, Bucky kneeling next to me and Clint grabbing a paper towel and bandage. Bucky just stared at my foot, at my blood. My purple blood.

"You're not cut." He said.

I smacked the side of his head playfully. "I was. I took the glass out and it healed. Completely. Like, and inch-long cut just completely healed. Doesn't hurt either. I'm putting it down to whatever . . . they did to me."

He looked at me and tilted his head, then looked back at my foot. He then looked back at my face, and ran his thumb under one of my eyes. "Well, damn." He whispered, intently but gingerly noting the color to my visible veins.

Clint came over and squinted at him. "What do you see, Barnes?"

Bucky took the wet paper towel from Clint and wiped the drying blood from my foot. He bit his lip, then looked back at me. "Well, it's a color I've seen before. One I remember pretty well . . . It is the same color as one of the IV's you were given back there. I may be wrong but it seems very reasonable to suggest that it's done more than make you and angry strong woman. The veins under you're eyes, too. I thought it was normal, but they're pretty purple too."

I sat back and sighed. "Well, damn."

"It's certainly a souvenir, Maisie Jo." Bucky smiled.

I glared at him jokingly. "You're the only souvenir that I'm okay with having, James."

Clint looked between the both of us. "So, Hydra did that?"

I twitched at the word. Hydra. Another lovely reminder of what they did as I have to suppress the urge to bite his head off. I breathed out slowly with pinched shut eyes. Breathe, focus, ball it up, shove it down, and take it out on a tree or something.

"Well, damn." Clint and Bucky whispered together.

I cleared my throat and looked up at the two of them. "What?"

"Do you really wanna know?" Bucky asked, making a weird, scrunched-up face to amuse me.

I smiled lightly, unsure. "We'll see after you tell me."

"Before you shut Her down . . . " Bucky gestured wildly at me, trying to find the words to explain. "You - Or, rather, your veins - they . . .-"

"You have sparkly purple spider webs for veins when you go to Her." Clint interjected, putting it bluntly.

"She needs a cooler name." I sighed. "Whatever, I guess. I like purple. I would've preferred black, but whatever. She won't be coming out any time soon for it to be important."