You’ve always known how to fake being okay. It’s practically your superpower—alongside the real one that makes you valuable to the Avengers. You smile through the debriefs, make jokes during the downtime, and bury the shaking hands and racing thoughts deep where no one can see them.

Except Bucky.

He sees too much—maybe because he’s been where you are. Maybe because he still is.

It all unravels on a mission gone sideways. A new villain unleashes a gas that taps into your worst memories, magnifies fear into something tangible and paralyzing. You freeze. The panic takes over before you can fight it, and you hit the ground, barely aware of your own breathing—or the lack of it.

You’re drowning in memory. And then you feel his hands. Rough. Steady. Real.

“Hey. You’re okay. You’re not there anymore.”

Bucky fights off the hallucinations in his own head just to pull you back from yours.

After the mission, you expect the pity. The lectures. The avoidance. Instead, Bucky sticks close. Quiet, but there. Present in a way no one else ever has been. One night, he catches you wide awake in the common room, staring blankly at the TV at 3:00 AM. No sound. No light in your eyes.

“You don’t sleep either,” he says, like it’s not a question. Like it’s a truth he’s known for a while.

And you finally exhale.

What starts as quiet company turns into something deeper—shared scars, unspoken understanding, and maybe the first real chance you’ve had to stop surviving and start healing. Together.

But the villain isn’t finished, and neither are the nightmares. The next attack could push either of you past the edge. And when it does, you’ll have to decide: fight alone like always… or finally let someone in.