Lucy's body froze as her mind flashed through the possibilities that the man could be capable of. She had to decide if she was going to stay, or leave the injured man to fend for himself. She clutched the stick in both hands and let out a quick sigh. The thought that she was condemning the health of this man because of his gruff appearance disgusted her.
Admitting defeat, she placed the stick on top of the nearby crate and took a brave step towards the wall adjacent to the man. While watching the man for any signs of disturbance, she silently slipped off her backpack and crouched down with her back against the wall.
She unzipped the backpack to be greeted with 3 things that she was craving - food, water and warmth. She didn't eat when she got home, which is why the muesli bar and bottle of water were looking wonderfully luscious sitting on top of the neatly folded blanket. Her gaze shifted between the backpack and the man.
The man's clothing appeared to be damp, which probably meant that he is going to be quite cold, not to mention he was most likely going to wake up dehydrated and hungry.
She grabbed the contents out of her bag and awkwardly shifted towards him. She hesitated briefly before placing the items beside his feet. She didn't want to be too close to him if he woke up, and therefore decided his feet would be close enough.
She then returned back to her wall and began to study the man more. Upon closer inspection his face looked tortured, nothing what you'd expect on a dangerous man. She found his metal arm and face so beautifully intriguing, she pulled out her art book and charcoals and began to draw him. From the soft bristle of his beard, to the wildness of his hair. Her eyes flickered between book and reality - creativity flowing through her fingertips and onto the pages.
Her favorite part was drawing the silver metal arm. To achieve the way the light reflected off each panel, she used her finger tips to slightly smudge the area causing the tips of her fingers to turn black from the charcoal.
After completing the sketch, she looked at it objectively fixing a few loose ends. Something was missing and she couldn't quite pin what it was. She slipped her bangs behind her ears, turned the page and started another.
The Winter Soldier was trapped in the horror of flashbacks featuring unfamiliar faces, voices and scenery. Some with a scrawny young boy, men with guns and some with people screaming to their deaths by his hands. He could feel cold streams of sweat slither down his temples as the images flickered through one after another.
Suddenly all of his senses returned at once. His eyes open and wild, he hastily grabbed for the blade beside his leg. His movement so abrupt caused a girl across from him to jump dropping a book from her lap. His heart was racing, body prepared to annihilate the possible threat. However somewhere in his brain, something was screaming no.
His heart beat began to slow as he noticed the pages of the fallen book. They were charcoal drawings of his metal arm and his face. His mind flew back to other memories of a blonde boy drawing followed by laughter. He clenched at the pain, gripping his blade just a little tighter.
Lucy curled into the wall, digging her nails into her legs. Regret and fear were consuming her, resulting in the inability for her to think straight. Say something, just say something she thought. She gulped forcefully before working the courage to finally speak.
"H-hi..." she murmured.
Disappointed hit her in the face like a brick wall. There is a man in front of her exhibiting the signs of a panic attack - while holding a knife - and all she could manage was hi.
The man instantly turned his attention to her, eyes pouring into her soul watching her like prey. Her fingertips began to fiddle with the laces on her shoe before working the courage to speak some more.
"Sorry, I hope you don't mind, you arm is very beautiful, my art sense kind of took over..." she mumbled finding it very difficult to look into his piercing eyes.
Beautiful, the word took a few seconds to skin in. His arm was used as a weapon of destruction and death, how could it ever be beautiful. He glanced away at the ground to decode the meaning for the word, until he noticed some items beside his foot. He squinted suspiciously at the bottle, bar and blanket.
Lucy noticed that he was staring at the items she had left for him, "I haven't done anything to them, I swear, the seal on the bottle isn't even broken," she interrupted believing that she had to prove herself for him to know she wasn't a threat.
The man shifted his gaze back to the girl. He didn't like her hospitality, he found it questionable, and he was hardly in the mood to deal with any odd activity. He gripped his blade a little tighter and shifted himself to get up from his position. However his body objected, his right arm and ribs screamed in pain resulting in him falling back to the ground. He mentally examined his body and deduced that he must have a broken arm and a few broken ribs. After all, he did just have a beam fall on top of him.
Lucy outstretched her arms to help him, but he fortified himself with his blade. Lucy surrendered backwards and sighed.
"I'm a train nurse, I can help you," she said confidently.
Frozen in his attack stance, he analysed the situation. He knew better than to accept help from strangers, but it looked like he didn't have many options. It wasn't as if he could stroll back to HYDRA and expect professional health treatment - he suspected they were all dead. Even if they weren't, they were probably out there waiting to punish him for failing his mission.
He studied her carefully looking for any signs for him to distrust her, but to no avail. She did not show any signs that he was so used to seeing in other people.
After what felt like minutes of silence, the man dropped the blade and pushed it away with his metal arm. Lucy let out a sigh of relief and smiled. The man broke eye contact and looked off to the side, something about her happiness made it unbearable to look at her for too long.
"I'm just going to grab my first aid kit from the crate behind me, okay?" she informed as she got up and turned to the crate behind her and pulled out the first aid kit.
The man watched her as she swiftly moved towards him and knelt beside him. She had a pale freckled complexion with deep brown red hair pulled into a pony tail. She had a black smudge above her eyebrow, judging from her black finger tips it looks like she accidentally smudged her face with black powder.
Lucy's persona completely changed from the frightful little girl she was before, to ultimate nurse mode. She did a quick analysis of the man for any serious visible damage. His face and knuckles were covered in cuts and grazes, and judging from the position of his arm, it looked to be badly damaged.
"It'd be much easier to help you if you didn't have the top of your suit on," she mumbled feeling slightly embarrassed.
With no hesitation the man began to unbuckle his suit but sharply inhaled with pain at his right arm.
"Do you need a hand, I can help..." she said. However the man pushed through the pain and stubbornly took off the top half of suit - with difficult.
Lucy's mouth fell open when she saw the swelling and massive bruise forming along his ribs and stomach. Multiple ribs were definitely broken, that much was visible. The swelling was seriously concerning, and his arm was most definitely broken.
"Y-you need to go to a hospital, I can't-"
"No. No hospitals," he instructed.
It was the first time Lucy heard him speak, his voice was deceivingly deep and soft. The man avoided eye contact with the girl and fixated his attention on the pattern of the floor boards.
"But I don't have the equipment to fix you," she mumbled also directing her gaze to the floor boards, accepting the possibility that she may not be able to help this man at all. Despite all of her training telling her to call an ambulance.
"Then make do with what you have," he murmured shifting his eyes to the small first aid kit. It was only a very basic first aid kit, a bandage, scissors, disinfectant, pain killers and a couple of band aids. Even he knew very little could be done with that equipment. The equipment she needed was at her house, which the man was in no condition to get to.
"I have more equipment at my house, it's only a five minute walk and I'll be straight back," she informed zipping back up her mediocre first aid kit in front of her.
The man normally wouldn't support this sort of action, she could easily call the authorities, or even worse, she could get HYDRA. But something about the girl reassured him that she wouldn't do either of those things. Instead of testifying, he simply nodded his head once in agreement.
Lucy rose from her position, grabbed her backpack and swung it over her shoulders. She hesitated at the exit and held the door ajar, studying the man one last time.
"My name is Lucy by the way, Lucy Hill," she mumbled reverting her gaze to the floor boards.
Name, what was his name? He had been called many things in the past week, he wasn't sure himself. The blonde man had called him Bucky as well as James Buchanan Barnes, HYDRA had called him Asset, others knew him as The Winter Soldier. But who was he really?
"Bucky," he whispered, "just Bucky," he announced raising his gaze to look her directly in the eyes.
Something about his grey blue eyes looked so torn and haunted, something that she was so experienced in feeling. Lucy smiled genuinely, "Nice to meet you, just Bucky, I will be back within half an hour," she beamed before walking out the door and gently shutting it behind her.
Lucy battled the temptation to look back as she walked away from the shack. The sight of seeing the shack empty would dishearten her. Because a distant part of her was scared that he would leave while she was gone...
Ta-dah! Second chapter completed! I have big plans for Lucy and Bucky, can't wait to get there haha! If you've read this far, thank-you so much for sticking around! It's my first Fan fiction that I've ever written, so I hope it's okay.. :)
Now onto reviews from the previous chapter!
Elksong: Thank-you so much! I hope you continue to think that it's good! Haha :D
CRRB: I'm glad that you like the idea of a blurry past! I intended to make his past haunt him a fair bit in this story - so prepare for more blurriness! Haha XD