#nightnvrse

     “ Well too bad, Claire. No disrespect, but you’re a NURSE. Not       a superhero. You took a couple karate classes and now you       think you should be out runnin’ the streets? Is your ass BULLETPROOF       now? “

It was an understatement to say that Luke was upset. How else was he supposed to feel? His girl was out in a fucking hoodie and a ski mask fighting thugs with weapons? It didn’t matter that she had come out UNSCATHED, or that she’d saved someone else --- not to him, not right then. He could really give a shit about the outcome. He was too busy thinking about what COULD have happened. What MIGHT have happened. 

Cradling her head in his lap, blood spilling between his fingers from a wound in her gut. Clutching her fragile and broken body almost too tightly, watching deep breaths turn shallow, and then still.

Nostrils flared as the fuming giant paced back and forth, fingers extending fully at his sides before curling back into tight fists.

     “ What were you even thinkin’? Hangin’      with those KARATE KIDS has got your ass trippin’ “

     “ Did he have to go to Mexico and harvest        the agave PERSONALLY, or...? “

Luke knew that he was being a little pissy, but COME ON. It didn’t take fifteen minutes for two beers and a couple shots of tequila did it? Maybe it was just the bartender in him rearing its head --- he’d been out of the cocktail game for over a year, but going to the bar STILL got to him.

Not the atmosphere. Never that. Say what you would about the DIVE AESTHETIC, but Luke almost felt at home amidst the greasy bartop and deafening chatter. It had been easy to remain anonymous amongst a sea of faces. The crowd here was older, but lively --- even if some of them girls KNEW BETTER.

The bartender, however, sucked.

     “ Sorry. I know its taking forever.         --- Are you, uh, having a good time? “

Claire could probably see him wincing with every syllable, like his own awkwardness was causing the man immense pain. Since he’d gotten out of jail, things had been...not awkward but...TENSE, between them. A certain friction in the air that made every single breath a SEARING one.

He could barely stand to LOOK at her, Luke all too aware of the weight of Claire’s gaze. Just as warm and tangible as the touch of her knee against his own, each BRUSH making the muscles in his thigh twitch.

     “ We could go someplace else. “

potential angst starters

    the tone in her voice doesn’t sound too WELCOMING to his ears. her words are setting him off at just the simple mutter of them. she KNOWS. that’s the first probability that pops into his head. he’s ended up here after STUMBLING and passing out on the alleyway floor by her apartment from blunt force trauma. she may have searched him, too. may have found the GUN still in his jacket. maybe she wants him to think she did. she could be testing him. PARANOIA’S already got the best of his decision-making skills at the moment. already twitching and moving his fingers to ghost over the jacket where his PISTOL is. he can’t trust her. not if she knows that he’s just killed someone today. he can’t have her TELLING everyone.

                    BO BURNHAM STARTERS :: ACCEPTING

            bucky barnes is tired. his right fist aches where the skin has split open over muscle and bone, there is a cut on his temple slowly leaking blood in a trickle down his face, and the flesh where scar tissue meets metal is raw to the touch. this means nothing to him. but to claire — to claire, the doctor he went so many years without, this is DANGER. he’s been through danger. he’s seen wars and pain and torture. he’s breathed gun smoke and the iron taint of spilled blood too many times in too many different ways. danger is nothing new. but that crack in his heart at her bloodied hands? the doubt lingering in his mind as he watches her gaze harden and her chin tilt? WELL, THAT SURE AS HELL IS.

                                    “ i know i can’t, claire. but i gotta at least try. ”

            somewhere out there is his sister, scraping by in her shitty apartment in the city. somewhere on the outskirts of hell’s kitchen is a mother struggling under the weight of months worth of medical bills and a fading memory of the past.. somewhere in hospital basements or church meeting rooms or clinic lobbies are men and women fresh from two rounds with a devil that looks a lot like war. bucky doesn’t just fight for himself anymore, he fights for THEM. so, battered and bruised, he has to at least try. 

       BLOOD -- it’s all she can SEE when she closes her eyes -- crimson seeping it’s way into every corner of her young mind. She had volunteered for this -- willingly put herself out on the FRONT LINE knowing that she might not live to see the end of it all. She knew what she had signed up for -- but the IMPACT hadn’t hit ‘til that first raid -- ‘til she saw the Prewett twins LIFELESS -- their sister SOBBING, screaming. Since then, her inner monologue is one of FEAR -- one she can’t shut off no matter how hard she tries.                         I COULD BE NEXT. I COULD BE NEXT. I COULD BE NEXT.