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Steve wakes him up on a Friday with tears in his eyes. He barely has time to register anything, to blink open eyes that have been closed for months, before Steve is hugging him tight.
He wakes up slowly but the first thing he notices is the smell of Steve filling all of his senses. It’s almost overwhelming but it brings him home. He feels again. He feels human again. His lungs are filling with real air but that’s overshadowed by Steve. Steve who is here holding him so tight.
“Wha-?” Bucky tries to ask why but his throat dies before the word is fully formed.
Steve lets him go enough to reach over and grab a cup of water, holding his head as he gently pours it down his throat. There’s gentler fingers carding through his hair, long motions that start at his scalp and end with the tips.
When the cup is drained Bucky tries again. “Steve, what?”
“I couldn’t leave my best guy alone on his birthday,” he says and his smile is blinding. Bucky feels a little weak because of it, but that could also just be because he’s only just woken up. His knees buckle a little and immediately Steve is holding him again, strong hands on his shoulder and at his waist. Steve uses it to straighten Bucky but he doesn’t move his hands away. It’s almost as if Steve is holding on to Bucky as much as Bucky is relying on him. It’s like Steve is reminding himself that he’s got Bucky back.
“Punk, did you wake me up for my birthday?”
Steve has the decency to look sheepish and Bucky could feel the shock wearing off and a smile forming. “It’s special.”
“It’s me ya punk. My birthdays aren’t special.”
“Buck, you’re 100 today.”
“Impossible.”
“Possible,” Steve is grinning again and in a flash Bucky sees a scrawny seventeen year old when they were young and carefree. “Buck, you’re ancient!”
Bucky would laugh but he still can’t believe Steve is here. He manages to grab Steve’s hand and pulls it off his shoulder, turning it over and tracing patterns over it with his thumb. Steve smiles down at their conjoined hands and lifts it up to kiss Bucky’s hand.
“Buck, I need you,” Steve whispers like he’s scared to confess what Bucky already knows.
“I know. I always know when it’s you.”
The dam has been building since Steve set eyes on him again and now it breaks. The tears pour from his eyes and Bucky leans in and kisses over them, stopping them from falling past his cheeks. They’re salty but they’re real and Bucky lets his lips linger over the one on Steve’s right cheek. Bucky doesn’t notice he’s crying too until he feels them collect on his chin.
Steve moves his other hand from Bucky’s hip and uses it to wipe the mess off his chin. He then hooks his fingers under Bucky’s chin and pulls him forward. They both taste of salt from crying but it’s like coming home and breathing properly for the first time in months all at once. They kiss until they both run out of air and when they separate they don’t move far apart. Steve breaths heavily, his forehead rested against Bucky’s and Bucky, well, he’s just taking it all in.
He’s out and he’s breathing. He’s awake and Steve’s here. It’s his birthday and he is 100 years old. He is so old and Steve is still here. Steve is once again right by his side, loving him with all that he has to give. Steve will always be right there when he needs him. He’s needs Steve so badly and he loves him with every broken, bruised or reborn fiber of his body.
“I love you,” he breathes out and he can feel Steve’s answering smile before he sees it.
“Happy birthday,” Steve replies and Bucky knows it means the same thing. It’s the language of Steve-and-Bucky and they’ve been perfecting it for decades. It’s the two of them against the rest of the world and Bucky never wants Steve to leave again. He tightens his fingers around Steve’s for just a second and Steve kisses him again; much gentler and sweeter than before. More kisses come in succession, around his mouth and over his nose and cheeks until Bucky feels real laughter bubble up. This is all he could have wanted.
Steve was right to wake him up. They couldn’t have missed this. They shouldn’t have to miss any moment they could have together. Steve shouldn’t have been left alone by Bucky. Now that he’s here Bucky feels human and he knows that Steve is the solution he should have seen all along.
He’s alive, and human, and in love, and the man he loves is here with him on his birthday.