8

LIKE

𝕃una scrutinized the tousled, dark hair covering Kit's head as he sat, hunched over, the dining stool with a spoon in between his lips. She wondered how nonchalant he could be after giving her the fright of the month. He was a child, no older than four, but that didn't mean he would let a nightmare that rattled him out of his bones go forgotten. 

Kit's small body had burned with the heat of a thousand suns, amber gleam flickering between his fisted hands. She had bitten her tongue and shook him awake, hoping he would at least scream himself out of the nightmare. His eyes were golden, emitting light of a radiant star and mumbled the words of a premonition into her ears. 

She focused back on her son, still obliviously chomping on his cereal and flipping the pages of his favourite comic with a smile. Letting out a tough sigh, she tossed her empty glass into the sink and slid into the seat beside Kit. His eyebrows drew askance, dropping the book to listen to her. She caught a glance of the title; Captain America Saves The Day! She recalled buying the book at a corner store, amid the multitude of other items she would have preferred. All she wanted was the smile on his face. 

'Do you like this one?' Luna questioned in a small voice, hoping to start scanty and begin to ascend.

Kit nodded with fervour, his light eyes brightening. 'I haven't read the issue before this but I could figure it out.'

'I'll try and find the next,' she offered and instantly brought a grin on his face. She graced one of her own, reaching out to grapple a bony hand of his between hers. Her mouth went dry when she tried to force out her next words.

'Do you feel fine, Kit?' She asked, running a thumb over the tender skin of his wrist in a comforting gesture. He nodded tentatively. 

'I guess so.'

She was not satisfied with his answer. 'You can tell me anything, my heart. Please, I want to help you.'

He looked down at their entwined hands and Luna couldn't gauge his expression anymore. She craned her neck forward, curious for his answer. His lips were being nibbled on which meant that he was not unaware of the dream situation. She felt slightly at ease.

'It wasn't a nightmare,' he told sullenly. His heartbeat increased a fraction as if he were reliving his dreams. 'It was a vision.'

Her voice lowered to a whisper. 'Do you want to tell me what you saw?'

It was a long beat after that he decided to answer slowly. She waited, eager.

'I saw,' he gulped, 'a man. Two men. In a throne room.'

'Two men,' she repeated, trying to understand. 'Were they familiar?'

He nodded, afraid to answer her further. She made her eyes soften, hoping to calm him more.

'Who were they, my heart?'

'I can't remember their names,' he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to recollect his memories of the dream that bolted him awake. 'One wore a cloak. The other was a king on a ship.'

'What were they saying?'

He shook his head timidly. 'I don't know.'

'You said he's coming here,' she continued to prod, nodding coercively. 'Remember? You said someone was coming - was it the king?'

'I don't know,' he said again.

'You do know, Ka'rier, you just have to remember. Who was it?'

'I said I don't know!'

An intangible force pelted into Luna, knocking her over the stool and the roar of her son's anger reverberating in her ear. Her fearful eyes flit around the room where the unhinged objects and movables had started to levitate in a spiralling motion and a sudden sputtering behind her, causing the overheated kettle to explode. The heated droplets stood frozen in time and the steam encasing around it like a shapeless bag. Enduring the trainwreck principle, she had no choice but to remain still and take in the effect of her heir's more distinguished vigour.

Petrified, she tended to Kit who had his hands crushed on either side of his head as if to stop his sense of hearing itself. His face scrunched together as if in pain and another cry sounding from him, asking the voice to stop. Her heart tore at the anguish in his voice, scrambling to his side instantly.

'Ka'rier,' she breathed out, 'look at me.'

His pale lids fluttered open and the force of the breeding ochre in his eyes came with the force of a trampling elephant. The golden glow died out when he focused on the soft features of his mother, a coagulated thud echoing around them to signify the return to their places. The swish of the kettle, too, some of the heated water splattering over her legs.

'What the hell was that?'

As soon as Bucky spoke those words, he was by Luna's side in an instant and kneeling by both of them. He shortly scanned the room to see the disorganized mess and the crushed kettle that laid by Luna's feet. He didn't have to piece anything together, already knowing what had transpired here. Just when he thought he could have a normal morning with the Shears and maybe take them out for breakfast, a whole verbal bomb had gone off in their apartment. He was unable to comprehend, mostly because of his hunter instincts coming to play.

'I'm sorry,' the boy said, his voice cracking. He looked at Bucky next. 'I'm sorry I did that.'

When Luna didn't react so Bucky took it upon himself to comfort the young boy. He reached out, patting his thin shoulder and pulling a hesitant smile on his face. The boy did the unexpected, furling his hands around Bucky's full shoulders and pressed his nose into his neck. 

Luna watched them with a bland face, not a single muscle in her face twitching. Her insipid look was off-putting and Bucky had to force his gaze away from her. He used his metal fingers to rub a hand down Kit's back, holding to console him.

'I'm here with you,' Bucky murmured into his stiff skin. 'Don't be afraid, Kit.'

He felt the boy nod and say again, 'I'm sorry.'

'I know,' he reassured. 'We'll work it out.'

★

When Bucky suggested to Luna about granting him a change in environment after his sudden lapse, she had no chance but to give in. Kit needed a scene change so as to keep his mind off the overcompensatory power that flowed through him. He had no idea how to confront Kit's matter since he was no SHIELD agent but he knew this was a matter of theirs. Seeing that it was Luna Shear, there was no way she would agree to compromise their identities.

At first, he was elated to introduce Kit to a new environment (his apartment) and hoping it would ease him out of his unfiltered state that he was undergoing. But it appeared to backfire.

Bucky recalled from his captive Hydra days when he would finally be able to breathe fresh air and bringing back a small flash of memories at the back of his mind. He would see the virescent trees in the concrete jungle like they were heaven itself and all the blood, rot, metal seemed to impede all of a sudden. The scent of death would hang around him constantly but Bucky couldn't help appreciate the changing world every time he woke up.

'Calm down,' he whispered into her ears. 'You're in great hands. Hand, I mean.'

Luna laughed under her breath at his bad attempt for making a joke. She peered up at him, with those deep pools of transient amber that he could touch and see stardust. 

'Bucky?'

She was looking at him the way every man wanted to be looked at, a promising gleam in her eyes as she nodded. Buck couldn't help but notice even the slightest of variations in her face, like how her eyebrows dipped down further than usual. Or how the perfect down curve of her lips was invisible because of the motherly smile she gave Kit. Her hair that was being tucked behind her ear was billowing around her clavicle like bronze ringlets, unlike the soft waves that would pool around her torso. 

'I think he likes you, ma.'

Bucky's flew wide open with horror. 'What?'

Luna's cheeks caught colour as she dawdled away from his side, busying herself with a lone apple in the basket. She continued to do so until Kit spoke again.

'My mom,' Kit chewed on his lips innocently, 'do you like her?'

Embarrassment descended over him like a formidable missile, as tormenting as they are. He didn't know whether to laugh it off as a joke or act nonchalant, superior notwithstanding his knowing gaze. He was nearly ten times the kid's age and he could've said anything in the twenty seconds it took to come up with a decent answer.

'Kit!' Luna hissed before him. 'Behave or - '

'Of course not,' Bucky answered bitterly. Way too bitterly. 'Luna's my friend.'

'You're lying,' he retorted, unfazed by his steaming glare. 'You like her.'

'As a friend,' he corrected. 'I don't like Luna like that.'

'Like what?' The kid prodded, his smile growing. 'Like you want to kiss her?'

He could kill this kid and make it look like a suicide. It was so simple. Besides, he had done it dozens of times. He forced himself to think about Luna and keep himself rooted in compassion.

'Ka'rier,' Luna raised her voice, her eyes sharp enough to cut through diamonds. Her face went hard as her voice came out like venom, she looked terrifying. 'Have you no manners, no shame? Is that the way to speak to a person?'

Kit hung his head. 'Sorry, mother. Sorry, Bucky.'

'They go in vain,' she hissed. 'How dare you, Ka'rier?'

Bucky wanted to interfere but he felt the remain silent as well. Just as he thought of intervening, Kit opened his mouth to speak. 'I was just - '

'Not another word,' she lifted a finger to silence him. 'I don't care if it was just for fun. What I hold for Mr Barnes is friendship. He is risking his life to help us. We respect that. Do you understand?'

Kit stayed silent. 

'I said, do you understand?'

'Yes, mother,' he said softly, his face pulled down to a frown. 

At least he didn't go into another one of his superpower moods and wreck his apartment. When Luna muttered under her breath and walked out the door, Kit looked up at him with a furthered knowing grin. Oh, this kid was in for an added earful. Bucky glared at him.

'You like her.'

'Jesus, boy, your mom just brought hell down on you,' he hissed at him. 'How are you not scared?'

'She does that all the time,' he stuck his tongue out, his words edging to a groan. 'Tell me, best friend. You still like her, don't you?'

'I am not your best friend and I don't,' he growled, wanting to end this conversation. He turned his back on the kid, grabbing a beer from the refrigerator and plucking the cap open with his bare hands. He was that annoyed.

'She likes you, too,' he whispered like it was secret. Bucky's heart hammered weirdly. 'She asks about you. Smiles when I talk about you. She definitely likes you back.'

At that moment, Bucky couldn't help but imagine them together. Luna was a distinct woman despite her emotional flaws and if she were to flaunt what she had, she could move the world how she had liked it. His skin tingled when Kit said those words, the beating in his ears turning erratic. Okay, so he might have harboured a tiny crush on her. But he knew if anyone were to get within a twenty-four-hour span with her would have. She was hella' attractive.

Bucky reminded himself that he had mercilessly slaughtered hundreds. His missions would always end with the same electricity being smashed into his brain but none of that compared to what he was being told to right now. So he deviated the conversation, wanting to take a hit at the boy.

'Forget about us,' he mused, leaning forward with a scanty grin and linking his hands together. 'What did you see in that little vision of yours?'

Oh, he was hit, alright. 'W-what?'

'This morning,' he shrugged. 'You obviously know who those people were. I can tell when someone's lying.'

He swallowed tightly, the grin on his face completely vanished. Bucky felt a little bad but he had to. He had to find out what the hell was on with this kid and his creepy dreams.

'I don't know.'

'Drop the act, kid,' he sighed. 'You can tell me.'

'I saw...' he shut his eyes and taking in a breath. 'I saw my father.'

★