Bucky has been acting different ever since the Void incident. More reclusive than usual, quieter than usual--at least around you--and generally avoidant of you. Of course, you had no clue why. You suspect it had to do with the shame rooms, but he insisted that he was fine. Even after you told him what you saw, he still made it seem like it was nothing he hadn't seen before.

But that's the thing. You're privy to his nightmares. You were there when even his mind was freed in Wakanda. You've been supportive of his decision to join the Thunderbolts*. You thought you were doing something wrong. Maybe said the wrong thing, been too pushy about getting him to tell you what's going on. He started staying out well past than when he usually gets home after the last time you tried to talk to him.

You started to worry even more once you regularly woke up in the middle of the night and he wasn't there. Sometimes the sheets would be warm, sometimes cold, or just barely warm enough. He would go to sleep with you in his arms just for you to wake up alone. On the nights he wasn't feeling too bad, he came back to bed before you woke up like he never left. You just decided on staying in bed for your own sanity for the past two months.

That was until tonight.

Meanwhile, he's been waking up at ungodly hours from his nightmares, that's not new. What was new was an old memory resurfacing after being in the Void. Of all the horrible things he's had to do and been through, that one where he woke up from a nightmare, thinking he was back in the Winter Soldier days, and when he blinked, his metal hand was around your neck. He'd never seen you so terrified in the entire time he's known you. And the worst of it all is that it was because of him.

He woke you up and almost killed you. Why you were still with him was beyond comprehension. That was one of the first rooms he'd been in by himself as he tried to maneuver the rest of his trauma. From that day forward, he swore he would never be the cause of your pain or fear ever again.

He was fast asleep on the couch, Alpine curled up on his back-- he hated sleeping on his back--when you walked into the living room. What you didn't expect was to see him like this, his hair all in his face and seemingly sleeping soundly. It made your heart ache. Because now, you started to actually think you were the problem. Would you wake him up to try to talk about this issue now or...try again in the morning?