(no subject)

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason hasn't slept a night through since he was fourteen years old. It's nothing new, half his nightmares so familiar they happen almost by rote, though there's a few that still manage to terrify. He goes to bed in tired expectation, feels his body sleep and his brain light up. The fighter in him smiles and welcomes the chance to meet each falling crowbar with something better than child-sized fists, meet them with guns and blades and bombs, and in his dream Jason doesn't start screaming until the shadows grow long and bat-shaped.

He falls asleep in silence.

Jason wakes to his own gasping breaths in bed and the earth shifting beneath him.

"What the f - " he starts, but the world only shakes harder, something in the movement focused, personal. It's shaking his bed harder than anything, and Jason reaches out against the attack, seizes the gauntlet beneath his pillow and wishes it was a gun.

"You'll fucking wish - " he bellows, but as soon as the words leave him he feels himself forced violently back, propelled from his sheets and right into the air. His heart races - his bed's so close to the wall, he's gonna hit and there's no time to twist, nothing to grab, nothing to stop him and it's too fucking late to -

Jason's body flies through the bamboo with a mighty crack and is caught by the ground, coming to rest a dozen yards away with great rivets of earth in his wake.

There's a million things he should be doing. Lying there stunned feels like the best start.

[ooc: open to all in game, posted privately for preplay~ Jason just blew out the side of his hut, still in the boxers and tank top he went to bed in. His power is the sonic scream.]

Comments

[onlyapassenger]

"Jason!"

It's little more than an exhale, but the urgency is clear regardless of volume. Picking his way through the splintered remains of the wall, Bucky darts forward, gun in hand; he makes for an interesting picture, still dressed in well-worn pajama bottoms, his feet bare, his hair tousled from uneasy sleep, but there hadn't been much time to spare. He'd been anticipating an attack with so rude an awakening, but it's increasingly clear as the dust begins to settle that there's no one in the area except for him and Jason -- or at least no one he can see.

He ducks down at the kid's side, stance protective from an assailant that may or not have lingered.

"What the *$(% just happened?"

[prodigaljaybird]

"Hit me," Jason exhales, stubbornness keeping his eyes open until his vision swims to a halt. "Couldn't see it." He sits up with a swallowed groan, expecting to feel his ribs ache in protest, but all the pain is at his back. Small fucking favors.

He looks to Bucky, feeling sure that if Bucky had seen whoever it was they'd already be bleeding out, and doesn't feel as reassured as he might. If Bucky hasn't brought the attacker down while inside his own home, what chance does Jason have? "Nobody's snuck up on me that bad in...ever." It should be frightening, but Jason's more caught up in the shame. He's better than this, he wants Bucky to believe it as much as he needs it himself, he's better than this.

Jason opens his mouth, but all that escapes is a gasp when the earth begins to shake, tossing Bucky violently across his vision. "B-Bucky," Jason gasps. It never once occurs to him that he might be the one shaking.

[onlyapassenger]

"Breathe."

It's an order, not a suggestion; Bucky's gaze locks onto Jason's, concern plain behind his eyes, but there's not time for reassurances. The pieces of the puzzle are quickly falling together, the lack of a visible attacker potentially explained by the way Jason himself is vibrating, the strange quality of his voice--

"I need you to breathe."

[prodigaljaybird]

If Bucky were anyone else, Jason would tell him that breathing is a fucking stupid command when he is already, and that there's some asshole villain on the loose while they sit here staring at each other, but Bucky's Bucky, and Jason listens, still shaking so hard he can feel his teeth knock together.

He grits them and sucks a rattling breath, and then another, mystified but relieved when the shaking begins to lesson. "What the fuck," he says when he can speak again, "is even going on? How'd you know that would work?"

[onlyapassenger]

"Observation," says Bucky, clapping a hand to Jason's shoulder once it looks like the worst of it is over. "Which is fancy code for a damn lucky guess."

[prodigaljaybird]

"You think it's me," Jason infers, still watching Bucky with wide eyes when he searches for it, whatever it is in him that could make the earth shake. His chest feels odd, tight in the way that heralds a cough, but there's no itch there.

Jason twists his head, a guilty set to his shoulders to be doing this in front of Bucky, but he has to know, he has to get whatever this is out. He opens his mouth and watches, wide eyed, as the bark of the shout that escapes him shoves through the air, punching a crater right into the earth.