Injured - Bucky Barnes Fanfiction

Chapter One

Ava whimpered, curling into the dark corner of the alleyway. She was clutching her bruised, bleeding stomach, her eyes slowly drifting closed. The poor girl was only nine, and she was beaten and bloodied, filthy and frail, starving and sickly. She had just finished her most recent beating, as a gang if teenagers had decided it would be fun to wake her in the night by attacking her.

She had been living on the streets for two years now, and they hadn't been kind ones. She had run away from an abusive home, thinking she would be better off. She was wrong. The last thing she had eaten was half of a slightly rotting apple, and due to her beatings she hadn't been able to get to water in over two days. She couldn't be sure, but she thought they'd broken her right leg, from how much it hurt.

She had learned to be afraid of everyone, and because she was afraid that the more people that saw her, the more she would be beaten, she tried to stay out of sight. That was the reason the authorities hadn't found her and helped her yet.

But her soft whimpers had caught someone's attention, someone who was just walking to clear his head. He did that often, but it was his first time walking this street. His senses became alert, eyes scanning the darkness. Though he couldn't see anyone, he was certain he had heard something.

And it sounded like a child.

He carefully stepped into the alley, still unable to see Ava due to the shadows. Unfortunately, due to the street lamps behind him, she could see him. She let out another small noise of distress, which he heard. She could tell he was rather large, and because of that her mind told her he could cause her a great deal of pain.

"Hello?" He called out softly, still trying to find the cause of the sounds. His trained eyes caught the slightest amount of movement in the corner as Ava tried to push herself back further. He slowly came closer, but hearing the terrified sound Ava made, he stopped and crouched down to make himself hopefully less threatening.

Her eyes were wide with fear as she watched him, and her fear only grew as she realized he knew she was there.  She didn't think she could survive another beating tonight. "P-Please, d-don't hurt m-me..." She begged softly, desperation clear in her tiny voice. That alone broke the man's heart, hearing the child so clearly think he was going to harm her.

"Hey... I'm not going to hurt you..." He promised, and she watched him raise his hands up, almost in a surrender motion to make his point. She didn't believe his words, as everyone that found her ended up hurting her in one way or another. "Why don't you come into the light, so I can see you?" He asked gently, trying to get a better look at her.

Ava didn't want to move, didn't want to show the man how weak and defenseless she was, but she was afraid he would become angry with her if she didn't do as told. So, she slowly, and not to mention painfully shifted out of the corner, allowing him to lay eyes on her. 

His eyes widened as he took in her tiny, beaten form, and he now understood her earlier plea for him not to hurt her. He didn't want to imagine what this poor had been through to cause her to look like this. He met her eyes, though she couldn't see his, and he could see the fear in them. 

He looked down at her, wanting nothing more than to scoop her up and take her back to the tower, to get some food into her and get her cleaned up, but he was afraid if he did that he would only add to her fear, so instead he simply moved from his crouched position so he was on his knees as he got lower to the ground.

"Hey..." He whispered softly, not even sure what to say to the poor girl. "What happened, sweetheart?" He asked gently, though she simply stayed quiet and shook her head. She didn't want to talk to him. He bit his lower lip, sighing as he tried again. It was obvious she was afraid of him, but he couldn't just leave her here like this. "What's your name?" He tried again, and he felt relieved when she spoke to him. 

"A-Ava..." She whispered softly, unsure of why she was telling him this. Maybe it was so he would hopefully leave her alone if she did. He smiled kindly, though she couldn't see it very well. 

"That's a nice name." He responded quietly, keeping his voice down as to not frighten her any more than he already had. 

"My name's Bucky."

So, yeah! This is my new story, it's an idea some of you know I've been working on for a while now. Because I know sometimes I can get confused with which Bucky it is in a story, this is kind of like if Steve had brought him back to the tower before Shield did. So, silver left arm, long hair, and he's still not fully accepted by the community yet. 

I hope you guys enjoy reading this one as much as I like writing it!