Chapter Text
“Bucky, Sam! I've missed you!” Steve beamed, “Sadly I hear the would is going to end again?”
Bucky opened his mouth trying to remember why they were there, was he even told? Thankfully Sam saved him.
“Same shit different year. It’s good to see you Steve!” Sam walked past Bucky and gave Steve a hug.
“Oh my gosh sir I mean you look great Time just doesn’t affect you does it! The ship’s right over here oh you’re going to love the new Avengers tower…” Scott started talking at Steve and didn't stop.
Steve was polite as always and kept responding to Scott, but the entire flight back his eyes didn’t leave Bucky, nor Bucky’s left him. The words Bucky wanted to say started to sear his throat as he sat there, his mind racing, he wanted to shout at Steve, wanted to hug him, wanted him to hear him. He had questions that only Steve could answer and here he was, but the world was ending, his feelings didn’t matter as much as the world. Once they landed Bucky got off walking into the New Avengers tower before everyone else.
“Did you”
“Got the cargo.” Bucky hissed storming past.
“Good.” He heard Yelena finish, ice clinking behind him.
He walked towards his room trying to ignore everyone. Every person he passed it got harder not because he cared what they thought but because they were there. At first it was mostly people he had seen before, the fantastic four, then some of the Avengers then some kids, why the hell do they have kids here, then it was Bob in front of his door.
“Oh hey Bucky.” Bob said, looking up at him.
Bucky tried to push him away to get inside.
“Bucky wait!” Bob shouted trying to stop the super soldier, Bucky just kept him back trying to not hurt him.
Opening the door Bucky hoped to see his room empty, but from Bob in front of it he expected to see people kissing on his bed. Instead he saw ghost beat up sleeping on his bed, two people above her, one he didn’t recognize in a red suit with white eyes, the other he knew as Ant man’s partner, The wasp, she had some Vile that she was injecting into his teammate.
“The fuck you doin in my room, with my teamate.” Bucky hissed from his doorway.
“It was the only open room up here and she needed help.” The boy in spandex said.
“What’s wrong with her room.” Bucky asked.
“Someone took it and the equipment in it and took it all apart to make a lab for himself so we had to improvise.” Wasp replied.
“So what I just have to find somewhere else to sleep! Get out of my space!” Bucky yelled.
“Unless you want her to die that would be very stupid to do.” Wasp replied, “But if you want her to die I can make that happen.”
Bucky grumbled before slamming the door after him, “Once they’re out, no one else goes in, do you understand?” Bucky told Bob.
“What do you want me to do?” Bob asked.
Bucky pulled out a gun from his belt and handed it to Bob, “Shoot them.”
“What if it’s Yelena?” Bob asked as Bucky walked away.
“You’ll die.”
Bucky walked back through the very crowded halls, making a B line for the Helapad, he made it there then climbed up the side of the building, the wind whipping through his hair. Grey filled the sky, rain coming soon, what else did the universe feel like throwing at him. Bucky made it to the top of Avenger’s tower and sat down staring out over New York City.
His city, it’s changed so much sense he was a child, a hundred years of being a mindless soldier will have technology advance like that. Even with all the changes it’s his city, the one he grew up in, running into alleys and getting in fights because of
“Hey.” Steve said, walking up to Bucky.
“Steve Rogers, what did I do to deserve a visit by the esteemed first Captain America?” Bucky asked as Steve sat down next to him.
“What? I can’t come and sit with my oldest friend?” Steve asked, sitting down next to Bucky.
“Well the world is ending, you’re needed, if anything was going to take you away it would be that.” Bucky had his eyes trained on the horizon trying to keep his eyes from looking at Steve like they wanted too.
“Bucky, come on, I’m here to save the world but that doesn’t mean I can’t see you. Ya know, check in.” Steve said, his hand landed on Bucky’s back.
“You would know if you stayed.” Bucky hissed, shrugging his hand off.
“Bucky, I.”
“Said you would be with me till the end of the line. Then you left me.”
“I just wanted to go home. I wanted to see Peggy, I wanted to try to have a normal life I…”
“LEFT ME! STEVE, you left me! You left back home and didn’t even THINK to bring me. That’s MY home too! That was MY time period, MY life that I lost too, I was taken the same as you! You said I’m with you till the end of the line. I get that it’s your line, because you left for your happily ever after and I am still here, holding onto that fucking line!” Bucky spat.
“Buck I.” Steve said, “I didn’t mean to leave you, Peggy just.”
“What Steve! She what!”
“She loves me.”
“AND WHAT ABOUT ME!” Bucky was crying, he didn’t mean too, it was just happening.
“It’s different.” Steve tried, “Bucky I can take you back with me if thats what”
“Steve you don’t understand you left!”
“I don’t understand?! I saw you fall off the train Bucky I thought you were dead!”
“I wish you had died Steve because then I wouldn’t have to stay up at night remembering that you love her more, that you chose that over me, that you were such a liar you didn’t even think to take me with you! At least I had the decency to make you think I died you just went off and took your happily ever in the home we were both ripped from!”
“Bucky I just wanted to try and have a normal life.”
“Well I’m glad you got that Cap, glad you got to have all the life you wanted, the soldier part and the human. Remind me again who wanted to be a soldier, remind me again who joined an experimental program to become the perfect soldier.”
“Me.”
“And remind me who got drafted into the military right out of college? Who didn’t ask for this?”
Steve was quiet for a second before saying, “You.”
The rooftop was silent after that, the wind whispering sweet nothings into the men’s ears as the cars honked and rev miles away. Bucky couldn’t stop the water leaking from his eyes. He still hadn’t looked at Steve, he didn’t have the strength, the energy, the care.
“I’m sorry James. I didn’t mean to hurt you so bad I just…” Steve trailed off, New York filling the empty space.
“You were thinking of yourself for once.” Bucky finished.
“I guess.”
“Was it worth it?”
Steve was silent.
“Be honest.”
“Yes. It was worth it, and beautiful.”
“I’m happy for you Steve. Just wish I could have been part of it.” Bucky said as he stood up walking away.
“Bucky you could come back with me! I’m going back and you could come with me.” His voice was filled with desperation.
The offer was beautiful, it’s all Bucky wanted to hear, the only thing Bucky had wanted to hear in months. He wanted to go back so bad, to be back to 1945 and have the life he always should have. The life that was taken from him by that train, by hydra, by the American government drafting him into World War Two.
“Unlike you, I keep my word.” Bucky said before climbing back down to the top floor of the tower.
It had gotten dark by the time he had been up on the roof, everyone had either gone to bed or just left the common area. Bucky walked his way to his room without seeing a single person, how it should be. When he got to his room Bucky almost tripped over Bob who was asleep at his doorway.
“Got to bed Bob.” Bucky said dryly, taking his gun from the man's hands.
“Yes sir.” Bob slurred, picking himself off the floor and wandering toward the front room.
Bucky walked into the room happy that the Bugs had left. Ava was splayed across his bed, she looked better than before, he didn’t know how she got hurt or why but he felt bad for the kid. He at least got a childhood before he was turned into a weapon, she was Five when the accident happened that turned her into an experiment.
“Sorry kid,” Bucky said, grabbing one of his pillows and laying on the floor, “keep fighting, I don’t want to lose you.”
Any of you.