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“Steve.”
It was the last thing that he heard before looking up and seeing Bucky just cease to exist. His body disintegrated into ashy black flakes gradually replacing his body and falling to the ground.
Steve ran to where the remnants of Bucky’s body had been and grasped at flakes. His throat felt like it was closing upon him and a numb panic was steadily setting in. He had been here before. he had watched him die before. He couldn’t do anything about it then, and he couldn’t do anything about it now His breathing started to become more rapid. His head became fuzzy, his vision blurred. He felt like he was going to pass out.
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Steve,” he heard with a slight shake to his shoulder.
“Steve, wake up please.” It sounded like Bucky.
Steve opened his eyes he didn’t know were closed. He was looking into Bucky’s eyes. His hair that had grown so long was tied up how he does when he goes to bed at night.
Steve dragged him to his chest and held him close.
“May?” Bucky asked.
“May,” Steve confirmed. They never named Thanos after what had happened. They just couldn’t. So they only talked about it as the month in which it happened.
As Steve clung to Bucky trying to remember that Bucky was still there and that he wasn’t gone for very long.
“I’m okay Steve,” Bucky said holding him closely with his one remaining arm.
“I know,” Steve said, partially trying to convince himself that he did indeed know that Bucky was still.
It was now years after Thanos had come and murdered half of them. He had just blipped half of them out of existence after just tossing them around with rag dolls. They had somehow, Steve was still completely confused about how, defeated him and used to the time stone to recover everyone who had been lost. Bucky had retired his arm, unless there were aliens falling out of the sky he wasn’t ever going to put it back on. The two of them happily owned an apartment in Brooklynn together. They often traveled from New York to Wakanda, since Bucky had grown an affinity for the place and loved taking science classes with them, he wasn’t at all dismayed that he was surrounded by twelve-year-olds.
As Steve calmed down the apartment came back into focus. their bed, the comforter surrounding them, the pillows underneath his head, and the morning light streamed in through the window. At least he had made it through the night this time. Usually, Bucky would have to wake Steve up from a nightmare—or vice versa—in the middle of the night and then they wouldn’t get any sleep for the rest of the night.
“What do you want for breakfast?” Bucky asked him softly as he noticed that Steve was calming down.
“Do we have anything to make pancakes?” Steve asked. This was their tradition. One of them would have a nightmare. the other would ask what they want for breakfast, and they would respond that they wanted pancakes.
Bucky chuckled, “We’ll see what Sam has left us.”
Steve smiled, he had forgotten that Sam was spending a couple weeks crashing in their spare room. He had business meetings in New York and didn’t want to spend the money on a hotel room for that long.
When they came into the kitchen Sam was sitting on a barstool next to their kitchen island. He took one look at them and just asked, “May?”
Bucky nodded before digging through the cabinets.
Steve went over to sit next to Sam. Sam patted him on the back before asking, “What are your plans for the day?”
“I’m just going to draw, maybe go on a run.”
Sam nodded, “Take it easy my man.”
Steve smiled a smiled that didn’t quite reach his eyes and watched an unbelievably real Bucky. A Bucky who wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.