It was hard to breathe.

Her ears rang, and she was laying on something hard and uncomfortable. Her wings ached, and her chest felt empty.

She'd never felt so drained of life before. It was as if the buzzing under her skin had died out, the heavy thrumming of her heart now a simple, almost nonexistent beat. The magic in her was gone, nearly every drop of it. Weirdly enough, it made her joints ache, her sight blurry and her limbs heavy.

She could barely feel her wings.

"Astrid? Astrid can you hear me?"

A familiar voice asked, sounding far, far away.

"Uhm, sir, where did we get a dragon?"

The voices blended into an odd choir. She could swear they were swirling above her, incoherent and filled with hundreds of emotions.

"Her wings are shredded. Do you think Loki can fix her up? And can we remove Thanos from her mouth, it's unsettling."

Her head hurt, and the last time she had a headache like that was when she had stolen six barrels of rum of an unknown label. She had felt particularly gloomy and stealing the barrels to drown in her own sorrow had seemed a good idea at the time. She knew she should have stopped after the third barrel.

Her breathing was ragged and she felt someone pry her mouth open, she heard huffing and gentle fingers traced her sensitive wings.

She blinked her eyes open, startled by the blurry figure in red who was adamant on removing something from her mouth. She grunted and spat the foul tasting thing out, trying to get the dust off her tongue as she tried to get up, only to fall on her side and nearly crush the man in red. He yelped, fluidly moving out of her way before she had a chance of crushing a spider accidentally. Astrid generally liked all life forms, even spiders. So she would have felt pretty sad if she had accidentally fainted on him. 

"Calm, Ayida. Let us heal you." A strong accented female voice said sternly although she could detect an undertone of admiration. Were they talking to her? Astrid shook her head, clearing her vision as she detected a black woman standing near her but a safe distance away should she try and squash them again. She noticed she was surrounded by people, warriors in red and doctors who were hesitant to approach. The boy in red and blue was gawking at her, seemingly unaware that he was making her uncomfortable. 

"Wizard, where is the Wizard?" She asked the woman, obviously startling her when her voice rung in her ears. Astrid wanted to get away, she didn't like the people around her, their blatant stares and the smell of gunpowder, mud and death in the air. Around her, people were helping the survivors and detecting the bodies of the fallen.

"He is on his way. But please, do refrain from  moving too much, you're injured." The woman said again as Astrid finally pushed herself up. Her wings were drooped on her sides, something she would never do but she just felt so exhausted. The anxiety rolling in her stomach was the only thing that still kept her going. Only then did she notice the purple, muscular hand laying next to her on the ground. Noticing the golden gauntlet on it made her nearly want to vomit. 

She had torn his hand off. 

"Just get me the wizard and help those who really need it." She said with a tight voice, turning away from the woman when her sight became blurry again. She heard a familair whirring noise shooting over her. 

"Pete!" 

She watched as Tony landed next to the spider, stepping out of his iron suit as he crushed the slender boy into his arms. She tilted her head, looking at the two with sadness that startled her to her core. She watched as the boy buried his face into Tony's chest, hugging him back tightly. 

"I'm fine Mr Stark, we won. We won!" 

His voice was high pitched as if he was holding back tears, Astrid looked away, feeling as though she wasn't supposed to witness it. 

"We did, and why the heck aren't you in one of the medical dents?" he scolded, pulling back as he looked him over for any sort of injures. 

"Ugh, you two are making me sick with all those positive emotions oozing off you." She grumbled, still looking into the distance to see if Strange was to be seen anywhere. She'd be properly pissed if he just took off and left her there. Who knows, maybe she would bite Tony's head off just to get back at Stephen. 

"Ah, okay, I see why check up wasn't in your list of priorities. Pete, Astrid. Astrid, Peter." 

Peter waved, beaming up at her as she gave her a side eye, not feeling like she was really ready to meet more people. The boy looked way too eager to be in her presence. 

"Stark, I'm sorry but she is in dire need of medical attention, I suggest leave introductions for later."

"Wizard!" She yelled as she noticed Strange hovering in the distance, deciding to ignore the doctor woman again. Black spots swam in her vision as she stumbled to the side slightly. Tony pulled Peter aside, pushing him back a little to make sure he wouldn't be squashed. 

"Woah, maybe you should really lay down for a second, Night Fury." 

She ignored him, digging her claws into the soil to keep herself upright. Strange landed softly next to Stark, looking more put together than the rest of them. 

"Get me out of here." She said impatiently before anyone would suggest that she takes a breather and lets some strangers dote around her. 

"Astrid, you may want to-"

"No I may not. I don't want to be here a moment longer than I have to. I bit your bad guy, you got me a toy, deal done. Now make your secret tunnel and be done with it." 

"You sound like you need a hug, what do you say? I'm closing in." Stark said, his arms wide open as he approached. He was wearing his armour again Astrid noted. She raised her lip in horror, using her tail to keep the man away from her. Stephen sighed and suddenly he looked as tired as the rest of them. 

"If you're sure, we do have some great doctors here-"

"Wizard." she was getting agitated and Tony wasn't helping much as the man was trying to push her tail away. Strange nodded and summoned a portal, she dove towards it, pushing Stark back as she did so without giving anyone another moment to speak. 

She fell into a heap of dark scales when she stepped through, landing in front of her cave. The crispy mountain air surrounded her immediately, pushing away the smell of death from her nose. She breathed a little easier when the portal behind her closed. 

Through half lidded eyes she looked at the man slumped against the rocky wall, completely passed out. She hoped he wasn't dead, she didn't tussle with an alien only for her new companion to have been died of cold five minutes after being in her home. She would have fallen asleep right where she was if it wasn't for the man. 

She pushed herself up slowly, making sure she wouldn't fall over the edge of the cliff. She walked over to the man, relieved when she noticed his shoulders moving steadily, letting her know she was in fact, still alive. She carefully studied him, noticing the worst injury was to his side which seemed to have stopped bleeding. 

She curled her tail around him gently, carrying him inside the cave with her. She didn't venture far from the opening of the cave, feeling too tired to do so. She laid down with a tired sight, gently laying the man close to her on the other side so she was acting as a windshield for him. In other circumstances she would have never even touched someone without their consent like that. But she was exhausted and he was passed out and injured so she thought it was safest for him to be tucked under her wing against her belly where it was warm and sheltered from the crispy air. 

She allowed her last bits of magic to reach out to him, assess the damage and fix what was broken. Before she could really even get to work, she felt herself slowly succumb to the darkness out of exhaustion. Astrid just hoped the man wouldn't be too mad if he woke up before her. 

When Bucky felt himself waking up, he hadn't expected to feel warm. The last he could remember was freezing cold as he stared out into the wilderness waiting for the dragon to return. He couldn't remember passing out. The cold had brought back many unpleasant memories that he had tried to fight off. 

The flashbacks from his time with  HYDRA didn't hurt like they used to, but they always brought his spirits down. It felt like no matter how long he was away from them, he still had to keep on fighting them in his mind. 

After he was convinced that he had wallowed in self pity for long enough and he had to face the world again, his eyes fluttered open. He was slightly confused to realize that he was in darkness with something warm over him. He frowned, tensing when he heard something breathe deeply very, very close to him. 

It was the dragon and he was fairly sure he was tucked under her wing. He detected holes and rips in the thin skin, he suspected her wings were the most vulnerable part of her. He was slightly surprised to find himself cuddling a dragon, especially when her tail was curled around him. 

He couldn't tell if she genuinely didn't want him to freeze or was she just afraid her breakfast would stumble down the cliff. For whatever reason, Bucky suspected it might be the latter. He carefully tried to slither his way out of the warm cocoon, nearly sweating at the warmth. He was happy the dragon didn't even stir when he carefully crawled out from underneath her wing. He realized that he felt good, wonderful even. His healing had never worked so fast before. 

He walked around her, towards the opening of the cave where the early morning sunrays were carefully caressing the dew covered grounds. He scanned the area around them, making sure they didn't have any uninvited guest. When he was convinced there wasn't anyone around, he turned his gaze towards the dragon again, studying her now that he wasn't half passed out and bleeding. 

Her scales were dark, ink black from her spine but they took a violet tint under her belly. The sun didn't glisten against her scaly skin, making him realize just how dusty she was. She could also detect a dark, nearly black dribbles of blood on both of her wings. Her wings looked rough, they hadn't looked like that before, making him believe that something had definitely gone down with Thanos. 

Thanos, he frowned, looking into the distance again as he wondered what exactly had happened. He had no way to contact anyone and the only one able to tell him what had happened out there was currently in deep sleep. Was Steve okay? Had they lost anyone? What was the damage? 

When he looked back, he was greeted with a pair of violet eyes looking at him. He hadn't even detected a change in her breathing pattern. There was a moment of silence between them as Astrid looked at the man sitting on the ground. 

She hadn't paid much attention to him before since there was a Wizard and a man wearing gleaming red metal suit before, but now that there was just the morning sun and the two of them, she could take a proper look at him. His face was impassive, hiding any emotions he could be harbouring towards her. His dark hair was a dangled mess and his face was caked with dust and droplets of blood. She couldn't tell if her presence disgusted him or not, it unnerved her. 

But one thing was for sure, the man was handsome as hell.

She felt rather self conscious when his glacier eyes studied her, reminding her of the uncomfortable pain that rippled through her. She was still too weak to properly heal herself. Damn wizards and aliens for even existing. 

"Are you hungry?" She asked, feeling stupid immediately. Of course he was hungry, what sort of question is this? He made her anxious, it had been a long time since she'd been alone with someone. Especially when she was... this thing. People usually didn't take kindly to beasts like Astrid. 

She had to admit, despite ripping an aliens arm off the other day, she was properly terrified of the handsome man sitting next to her cave. 

"What an idiotic question, of course you are, unnskyld. Wait, sorry, you're American. What I meant to say was, sorry it was a stupid question. On the other hand, maybe we should head down, clean up, then food?" 

She wanted the ground to split open and swallow her whole. She was a scary, big dragon and there she was, already making a fool of herself in front of... great, she had forgotten his name, too.

Bucky was rather surprised at her nervousness, not having expected it. 

Astrid pushed herself up, flinching at the ache in her wings. They weren't dragging on the ground but still, they hurt too much to be snugly tucked against her like they usually were. It didn't go unnoticed by Bucky as he too, stood up. 

"I'm fine, wouldn't mind cleaning up a little."

“Great! Off the cliff we go then.”