Author's Note: I do not own Captain America or his characters, this is a work of fiction, however I do own the plotline and Arabella. This will contain Marvel Cinematic Universe spoilers and/or characters. Please, do NOT steal my shit or I will personally hunt you down and kill you. Have a nice day!
Edit: this story is currently being edited to also be posted at Wattpad. UPDATE: March 31st, 2017.
Warnings: This story will contain coarse language & other strong adult themes.
"I see something!" I hear the screams in the distance as the rain falls heavy upon both of us. I'm scared, more scared than I've ever been and it's because I don't know if I'll ever see him again...
"I promise I'll find you." I say between sobs, my voice breaking as the words leave my mouth.
He caress my face with his right hand, my head leaning into his touch as I close my eyes. He smiles at me even though I can't see him and says; "Good," his voice is soft, prompting me to open my eyes. "Cause I wouldn't have let you leave with a different answer."
And then I see the flashlights behind him, his lips find mine in a fast but desperate kiss, urging me to start running away. "Go now!" are his last words, and so I do as he tells me to.
My feet carrying me as fast as they can through the woods, as my tears keep pouring out from my eyes; I can barely breathe. I no longer know where I'm going and the only thing on my head right now are his sorrowful eyes, his chapped lips on mine and his words. He was mine for a second, I had him back, finally, and now... he's gone, he's gone because of them.
"She has to be here!" I hear someone scream, my heart beats faster.
"I see something moving!" Another voice says.
Shit.
"Shoot!" The first one replies.
"NO!" I hear him scream from a further distance "Arabella! Get do—"
But it's too late and I feel the bullet go through my stomach, the impact making me fall down to the ground, breathing out heavier, louder, as a matter of fact. My hand goes straight to clutch the open wound on my stomach as blood starts oozing from it.
I hear some voices coming in my direction, so I do my best and crawl to hide behind some bushes as quickly as I can. My free hand covering up my mouth, hoping, I can stop myself from breathing so loud—from crying so loud— I'm shaking and I can't think straight anymore. I want to move but I'm paralyzed out of sheer fear.
"Shit!" one of them curses, "I thought I had her!"
"There's blood," the other one points out "she'll bleed to death and with this rain she won't go far. Forget about her, we'll look her up when this shit stops; right now we need to take the other guy back to the lab."
"Fuck!" the first one curses again, "boss is not going to be happy."
It takes them about three minutes to finally be far away enough for me to move, or at least try to do so, the wound on my stomach keeps bleeding, but I try my best to do something about it by ripping a piece of fabric from the bloodied shirt and tie it around my mid-section, to at least stop the bleeding, just for a little bit longer.
I try to walk as best as I can between the trees, leaning on them for support but I'm dizzy. My vision is blurry, and that could be because of the drugs they put into my system earlier or because of the blood lost— I'm sure, I'm experiencing. I can barely feel my legs as they tremble and I feel myself starting to get slower, until my body completely stops, unable to go further.
Collapsing into the floor, knees first; I, soon enough feel the wetness of the ground soaking through my skin as I feel my eyes getting heavier... The last thing I see, are the lights above me; lights from what seems to be a helicopter, but I can't be sure. Regardless, my hand reaches out, calling for help, before completely blacking out.
"Ah, ah, ah..." my brother stops me just as I'm about to leave the front door. "And where do you think you're going, young lady?"
"Ummh, I'm going to town." I say, innocently.
"No."
"Howard," I groan, "I'm just meeting my friends! And I'll be back by curfew. I promise."
"Arabella..."
"Pleaseeeeeeee." I say childishly with a huge smile on my lips, "it's Saturday night and we aren't doing jack squad."
He laughs at my words, "where are you going?" he asks, crossing his arms over his chest, leaning against the nearest wall, a smirk on his lips.
"To an adventure with Steve and Bucky, of course." I smile; Howard starts to laugh as he rolls his eyes.
"Fine, but only till nine. Okay?"
"Yes!" I jump on him to kiss his cheek, "thank you!"
"Yeah, yeah..." he says, with a chuckle, "and stay out of trouble, sis."
"I will!" I yell, as I leave the house.
Coney Island is every kid's dream come true, as it is mine. I used to come with Howard when we were little but now, that's become quite a difficult task since he stopped being my brother Howard and became Mr. Howard Stark—head of Stark Enterprises.
"Arabella!" someone screams in the distance as my eyes start to roam the crowd, looking for the owner's voice. My eyes finally landing on Bucky's hand raised high next to Steve who is talking to him but the man doesn't seems to be listening to the blonde's words, his blue eyes are glued to me, a smirk painting his lips which only causes a blush to appear on my cheeks.
I had met the troublesome duo back in school; when I was ten years old and Bucky and Steve were both eleven; I had just moved in after my parents had died and since Howard had left college to take care of me, becoming my legal tutor, he decided to pack our bags and move down to Brooklyn so we could have a fresh start. Steve was in my history class, laughed at my terrible jokes and later on introduced me to Bucky. I got along pretty well with them, became close as time passed and well, the rest, as they say, is history.
"Hey, guys." I say when I get closer. Bucky's eyes never leaving my face; as I struggle to contain the blush menacing to spread through my cheeks.
"Hi, Bells." Steve greets me with a hug and a kiss to the cheek, "you look very pretty today."
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and smile at him, "thank you, Stevie."
"No," Bucky says, catching our attention. "She looks beautiful." I blush at his words and Steve rolls his eyes at his friend's flirty behavior.
"Shall we?" he continues, offering me his hand and I nod awkwardly, as he laces his fingers with mine as we three, start making our way to the fair games.
Bucky and I, we were... well, we were Bucky and I; and since I was the sister of Howard Stark and Bucky was known for being a little bit of a casanova it was no wonder why I had decided to keep our relationship a secret from my brother but that only lasted for so long, since he caught us walking on the park, holding hands and kissing.
And that of course meant, we were caught in my room getting steamy.
To say he screamed was an understatement, he was furious and it took me more than I would like to admit, to calm him down and erase the thought of killing Bucky from his head. I managed to get him off the hook, but Howard still threatened him heavily, something about cutting off some precious parts of him, if he ever betrayed or hurt me. Bucky did an amazing job to prove my brother that he was serious about me—about us—and well, my brother decided to accept it. For my sake, thank God.
"C'mon, Steve!" Bucky cheers, clapping as Steve attempts to win something at some pretty lame bottle game. I laugh at my friends silliness as I, for a moment, let my eyes wander through the crowd, just to stop on a man wearing a black coat and a hat, that doesn't let's me completely see his face, but I can tell his eyes are staring at my direction.
"Hey," Bucky says, drawing my attention away from the mysterious man, "what's on your mind, gorgeous?"
"Nothing." I smile at him, my eyes quickly glance back to the man in black just to find him missing, making me frown.
"Hey..." Bucky starts, standing in front of me, taking my hands in his and giving them a light squeeze to capture my full attention. "Is this because of..."
"Oh god, no..." I roll my eyes with a laugh, "don't even start on that, I haven't told Howard." I say. "He is so going to flip."
"Because we're moving together?" Bucky smirks.
"Yeap." I say, popping the 'p' at the end.
"Oh, c'mon," Bucky says, "it can't be that bad, doll."
"Babe..." I start, "I bet you 10 bucks, he will definitely flip."
"I could use 10 bucks," he says with a smirk, "deal."
"Hey, Steve!" I yell over, catching the blonde's attention "I'm hungry, can we go have something to eat?" I ask him and he nods his head before dropping the water gun.
"That game was boring, anyways." He chuckles.
Sure, Steve...
"You only say that because you were losing!" Bucky laughs, bringing Steve closer to him, his other hand never leaving mine.
"So, what are we having?"
"NO!" Howard yells at both me and Bucky "She is not living with you, Barnes."
"Told you so." I mutter at Bucky, who starts chuckling.
"You think I'm joking, Barnes!?" Howard screams and I look at the wooden floor beneath us, maybe if I look into it hard enough I can disappear. "This... thing about you two living together..." he scoffs in our direction, but mostly directed at me "...is not happening on my watch."
"Howard—" I wanna speak but get cut off immediately by him.
"Arabella," the way he says my name has a chill running down my back joined by a bad feeling—is as if I'm about to be grounded for stealing some prohibited candy. "Can I speak to you, ALONE?" his voice straining to emphasize the word 'alone'.
I swallow hard before nodding my head at the angry man. Bucky looks at me, worry written in his features but I simply smile up at him and manage to ease his worries with a kiss to his cheek; I watch one more time his smiling face before closing the door that leads to my brother's studio.
Once inside, I make my way to one of the two leather chairs that are in front of his desk, taking a seat in and leaning back; I watch as Howard struggle with his words—that's new—both of his arms resting on the surface of the desk, leaning his body weight on them. "Arabella..."
"Howard, do you trust me?" I ask, interrupting him and the question seems to catch him off guard but it doesn't lasts too much.
"In your judgment? No, I don't." Auch. "And I clearly shouldn't! What are you thinking!? Moving with James? What if things—"
"They won't." I assure him, "I can—I have been free of accidents in a while, you know that—and I might learn to control them... I might be able to control them fully." I say.
Howard sighs, eyes closed. "Yes, but what if something happens, what if something makes you snap—" he cuts himself short, his eyes meet mine and he continues. "Arabella, you're keeping these boys in the dark..." he shakes his head as he starts to walk around the desk, "and next thing we know, someone might get hurt."
"Howard!" I yell at him, angry and frustrated at the simple suggestion that I would do something to hurt my friends; the books he keeps on the shelves start to move slightly and I close my eyes as they come to a stop.
"See!?" Howard exclaims. "This is exactly what I mean!" my eyes open slightly as moves around the desk and pulls me into a hug. "I'm your brother, we fight all the time but I'm always going to be here for you..." he says, "what if James doesn't does the same... What if..." he trails off, "what if you two, for some reason, take different paths. What if—what if he leaves you, then what?" he asks, pushing me a little so he can gauge my reaction. "You will break and destroy everything on your way, making us have to move again!?"
I look at him with a straight face, not uttering a word. He sighs as he releases me, leaning into the front of his desk with crossed arms above his chest. "Arabella...I didn't mean that, okay? I'm just worried."
"I know." I sigh, "you're right. I'm emotional and might not be able to control myself if something goes wrong. But—I'm taking my chances..."
"Arabella..."
"Howard, I never thought I could be able to have a normal life, okay?" I say, "I thought that nobody would ever give a second glance at me and then..." I trail off.
"And then James appeared." He finishes and I nod softly.
"And the he appeared." I confirm. "This is my chance to be happy, Howard, to be normal."
"You're normal, sis."
"No, I'm not." I snort, "I'm, as you politely say, extraordinarily different."
"Hey!" he defends with a smile, "I mean that as a compliment."
"I know," I say, "but you're my brother and no many will think like you."
"Arabella—" his sad smile let's me know I'm right.
"But I will tell him." I say, interrupting him before he says something out of pure pity. "I just want a shot at being normal. And Bucky? He is my shot... So let me take it, please?"
Howard closes his eyes before a deep sigh leaves his lips. "Fine," he shakes his head, defeat filling his words. "Whatever, move with the boy." my smile grows as he speaks in approval. "But just— lay all the cards for him on the table, okay? And if something happens..."
"Don't worry," I chuckle, "I won't miss my key. I'll be fine, okay?"
I say it out loud, because maybe— if I say it out loud—I will believe it myself.
"I love you, sis."
"Love you too, dork." I chuckle and I can feel him, I swear, rolling his eyes at me.
"Sir," a deep voice says through a secure and encrypted phone line "we found her."