Chapter Text
You wake up in the middle of the night to Bucky sleeping right on your chest. You can feel him breathing softly. You lean down to give him a soft kiss, he responds through mumbling in his sleep. You barely hear him say, “mmm… oh?...thanks friend… so sweet…” You wrap your arms gently around the beaver’s body before resting your head on his. He mutters again, “o- oh friend…? Thats so sweet…” as you return smoothly to sleep.
Pitch black fills the narrow claustrophobic halls deep in the island’s core. There is no light here, except for the occasional opening and closing of the shuttering, ancient elevator. You’ve never been able to open the elevator, seemingly only being able to open for a specific person. Or maybe a group of people. You’ve seen specters wandering around the dark halls, never talking or noticing you. You’re afraid of those specters. They seem to stalk you, although they never seemed to hunt. They just watch. You ignore the unsettling feeling rising in your gut as you rise from the “bed”. You stumble towards the door near a dim monitor as the world blinks around you.
T he prison below your… “hideout” was as empty as usual. The bed-frame you left after – well, after you “stole” the bed – rested at the corner of the depressing cell. You walk towards the keypad next to the jail’s bars, quickly entering in the oft-repeated code you’ve entered time and time again. You walk out of the relative safety of the cell into the uncomfortable musky air of the sewers. You barely remember your chief’s warnings to never go in the deeper layers “ at any circumstance. ” You shrug off the warning. After all, you could be the first person to actually live there. Still, there wasn’t any good places to actually live .
You blink a bit, realizing you’ve been pulled into memories of a time long ago. You try to calm yourself, breathing in and out deeply.
You hear a sound near the canopy covering leading out of the prison, a sound of a phone going off. Its Olivia. Your breathing stops as you cover your mouth, looking for a barrel nearby. You can see some near the entrance, but she came closer and closer towards the boundary you stood through. You turned around towards the bed-frame, hitting your hip on the walls near the entrance. Tripping over the bed-frame, you stumble through the walls into the door. Blinking into the red coated room, you frantically looked around the barrels.
The door slammed open. It wasn’t a choice. You run towards the boat.
It didn’t return. No. No. No no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO –
You fall into the blue, slamming into the hard stone ground. Your back – GOD your back – aches as you try fruitlessly get up off the growing pile of – is that blood – red staining the dark below your body. The red – no no no no no it isn’t blood it isn’t blood IT ISN'T BLOOD – covers your fur as you attempt to run out of the prison, before hitting the closed cell bars. Oof.
You cough out blood. Fuck. As you breath in laboured breaths, you come to the realization that this may be your final moments. You close your eyes as you hear Olivia come closer and closer – or maybe that’s your imagination; maybe you just heard nothing maybe–
You wake up. Breathing heavily, you look down to Bucky’s fuzzy head resting on your chest. His eyes are open too, staring at you with tears in his eyes. “He- hey friend, are you okay…?”
“Y– yeah… yeah I’m fine…” you respond, hoping he doesn’t hear the shaky breathing between each pause. “No, no… you don’t look fine… Do you want to talk?” Ah– he saw through it. “I– I had a nightmare…”
“What was it?”
“It was about those– those chasms…”
“The ones below the–” “The island, yes..” you interrupt.
“Ah... If you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine! Just remember I’m here for you friend!” The beaver says, with a slightly goofy smile.
You give a smile back, before wrapping your arms around his body. “Ca- Can we stay here? For a little bit?”
“Sure friend…”
You hear the beaver mumble something under his breath, barely audible: “I love you…”
“Hmm?”
“O- Oh nothing! Don’t worry… It’s nothing…”
You whisper back “I love you too…”