Steve awoke with a start to the sound of muffled screaming. Hopping out of bed and stumbling through the dark apartment he made his way to the other bedroom on that floor. Shoving the door open easily despite the lock, he saw Bucky twitching on the bed. His body tensing in an imagined pain as screams escaped through his clenched teeth.
"Bucky, Bucky," Steve said shaking him gently to try and wake him up before the others got in there. Bucky and the others were warming up to each other but there was no way Bucky would want them all to see him like this, vulnerable.
"Bucky, you're safe, it's Steve." Steve continued getting progressively rougher in attempts to rouse him. Finally, with a speed Steve sometimes forgot Bucky possessed, Steve was on the floor with Bucky's metal hand trying to close around his throat. Steve squirmed and grabbed at Bucky's hand to keep himself from passing out.
"Bucky" He rasped out, his grip loosening while one of his hands made a half-hearted grab for Bucky's shoulder. He watched with fuzzy vision as Bucky began to blink rapidly as he reassessed the situation before releasing Steve and immediately walking to the other side of the room, holding his metal arm against his chest as if to keep it from acting on its own.
Steve laid on the floor for a couple seconds, a few coughs rattling through his body as his breathing evened back out. He sat up and let his fingers brush his now tender neck; if he wasn't a super soldier the bruises would have taken days to heal but Steve knew his would be gone in a couple hours. This would keep any awkward questions from the others to a minimum.
"Steve" Bucky spoke softly from where he was staring out the window.
"Yeah Buck?" Steve hauled himself up and over to the window beside Bucky, not touching him quite yet because after incidents like this he always needed some time to recollect himself.
"Why did you do this?"
"Do what? Wake you up?" Steve asked, raising an eyebrow at the vague question.
"No, well yes; but why did you do all of this" Bucky gestured to the room and Steve, "for me?"
"Because that's what friends do." Steve answered, gently grabbing Bucky's shoulder and turning him to face him.
"I just tried to kill you." Bucky said flatly.
"Kill me? That's awfully ambitious, even for you." Steve replied, stretching his arm over Bucky's other shoulder, pulling him closer but making sure it was loose enough that Bucky didn't feel trapped.
"Steve I'm being serious, I've been nothing but trouble. I constantly have nightmares, I have tried to kill everyone on the team at least once this year because of some stupid trigger word, and I mean Steve I may be getting better but I still walk into a room and count the exits before evaluating the threat risk of everyone in the room."
"Bucky…" Steve pulled him into a hug, which Bucky returned with his good arm, keeping the other by his side. "Of course you nightmares, anyone would after what you've been through. Plus, it's not like the rest of sleep much better. I still have nightmares at least twice a week and I know Nat does too even though she likes to pretend she's above it. And about trying to kill everyone, we all do it. I mean sometimes me Tony go at it pretty hard, but hey we can all take care of ourselves; we're superheroes remember and though you may be good I doubt you're good enough to take anyone out before we could get you help."
"Steve, thank you." Bucky mumbled, his face tucked into Steve's chest.
"Hey, I'm not done, but why don't we move to the bed since it is 2 am."
Bucky just nodded and hopped onto the king sized bed with Steve before putting his head on Steve's shoulder.
Steve ran a hand absentmindedly through Bucky's hair as he continued, "Then, about your hyper awareness; that's standard behavior for all of us at this point I think. I do the same thing because the last thing I want is for us to go into a fight unprepared. We're all a family now and I couldn't handle it if someone got seriously hurt on my watch."
Steve watched as Bucky nodded a little in agreement, his eyes slipping shut and a soft breath falling from his lips. Steve, figuring he should let Bucky get some sleep, moved to get up but a hand grasped his wrist and he looked to see Bucky's eyes focused on him, "Stay with me please."
Steve felt his eyes widen a fraction but he reminded himself that as kids they had spent many nights in bed together for a variety of reasons and this was no different. He slid back in bed, pulling the covers over the two of them. Bucky sighed and snuggled back into Steve's side, starting to nod off. "You keep the nightmares away." Bucky whispered quietly, even for Steve's super hearing.
Steve watched as Bucky finally fell asleep and then did the same, because Bucky kept his nightmares away as well.