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One of the last things the Winter Soldier remembers is that Bucky Barnes is Evening moiety. When he remembers this, the troubling memories click into place like gears. Every memory of standing too close, of arms around shoulders makes sense. Bucky is Evening, and Steve Rogers is Morning, and they were going to get married.
The Winter Soldier is whatever moiety gets the job done. If he needs to get close to a mark who's Evening, he'll be Morning, or vice versa. Most of the time he isn't any at all. You don't need a moiety to kill people. If he ever started to remember his moiety, or show signs of feeling one way or the other, the scientists would force him back into the chair and wipe him.
Three months after Hydra is destroyed his memories start to become more coherent, actual images instead of ghosts and feelings. After six months, he starts to wake in the night with half-remembered images of missions the Winter Soldier ran. He remembers Steve, from Bucky Barnes' past, skinny and pale and leaning in after a dance, Barnes telling him they just need to find the right girls. Research tells him that Peggy Carter was Evening too, so the Winter Soldier assumes they were working on the Morning woman.
When he finally remembers his moiety, the Winter Soldier feels like Bucky for the first time in an age. He walks the streets in a hoodie with a cap on and the hood up, glove covering his metal hand, and watches the passersby. Morning, Evening, Evening, Morning. There is something comforting about knowing this part of him. Some days he still isn't Bucky, but always now he is an Evening. When he has been Bucky for a few days, he tracks down where Steve has been staying, looking for him. He stalls actually going over, worried that he will revert to the Winter Soldier again, but it's not like he has any other option. His handlers are dead, some at his own hands, and there is no other use for him than this. The Winter Soldier is useless, but Bucky and Steve were going to be married. He is Evening, and sometimes he feels the ghosts of thin hands against the small of his back, and he can do this much.
It is dark when he gets close enough to see through the windows of Steve's house. The light is on in the kitchen, and he looks through his binoculars to see Steve cooking on the stove. He's laughing at something someone has said. Bucky looks at the others in the room. The red-haired woman, Natasha, alias Black Widow, is setting the table. Bucky blinks back memories of putting a bullet through a woman in front of his mark and looks over to the flying man. Sam Wilson. He's chopping vegetables, bumping shoulders with Steve as they talk.
Bucky watches as they eat. They are friendly, familiar. Every smile and joke speaks of companionship and affection. Clearly they are part of Steve's life. He is planning what he has to do to win them over when he sees.
They've finished dinner, and Natasha is washing the dishes while Steve and Sam are joking about something. Natasha rolls her eyes and leans over to kiss Steve, nudging him towards Sam, who is laughing as he pulls Steve forward against him, and their mouths are touching and Steve's hand is at the small of his back. On Steve's hand is a gold band.
He retreats.
Bucky is fighting HYDRA agents in Syria when they find him. He's been making use of himself flushing out the moles hidden in what's left of SHIELD while he figures out what to do with his life. He is not who he was, but then, he thinks, neither is anyone else. Bucky tries to keep himself occupied. On the mornings he isn't staking out SHIELD offices, he gets breakfast at a cafe he likes near his hotel. The waitress is Morning, and she flirts gently with him when she brings him coffee. He forces himself to smile back at her. Just because he remembers him and Steve doesn't mean he has to dwell on it.
He's just taken out the agents' comms and is bearing down on their position when Captain America and Black Widow corner him in the warehouse they were holed up in. The whirr of turbines outside mean that Sam isn't too far away. Bucky sighs and puts up his gun. He's expecting Steve to sigh, maybe hug him and ask him to come home. He isn't expecting him to push him up against the wall and kiss him like a drowning man coming up for air.
Bucky's hands lift without thought, curling themselves around biceps, metal fingers pressing bruises into skin, before he remembers to pull back. Steve tries to follow him before his eyes open and he flushes, embarrassed. Bucky swallows. "Steve. I can't."
"And why not?" comes the question from his left. Sam walks in, shrugging off his wings as he comes to stand beside Natasha.
"Because he's - you're married, Steve," Bucky says, helplessly. "Me and you and Peggy, we was gonna get married. But." He can do this, he knows he can. "I'm happy for you. I am. But I can't be around you and just watch. I just can't."
"Who's asking you to?" Natasha asks. Her arms are folded, staring at him neutrally, but he thinks he can see a softness to her lips. Beside her Sam is stood, smiling gently. When he begins to speak, he tucks his hands into his pockets; Bucky, still hedged in between Steve's body and the wall, can't bring himself to worry about potential weapons. "We know how he feels about you, man. We can guess how you feel about him. Did you think we'd ask you to give him up?"
"You don't have to," says Steve, bringing Bucky's attention back to him. He looks painfully earnest: it makes him look younger than he is. Bucky remembers half a dozen times he's looked that way before. That he can remember is still a privilege to him. "Buck, if you don't want to, you can just come home and we'll never say another word about it. But if you do..."
Bucky looks from Steve to Natasha and Sam, who are still waiting patiently. He thinks about marriage, about being part of a family again for the first time this century. He thinks about learning to mesh with this marriage already complete.
He leans into Steve, burying his head in his neck. He stays there for a moment, to gather his strength. "I want a ring," he says, lifting his head.
Steve beams. He says, "I think we can manage that," laughing, as he kisses Bucky again before moving back. Sam and Natasha move in to herd him out of the warehouse, Sam throwing an arm around his shoulders as they walk.
"I'll introduce you to a good goldsmith," Natasha says, linking her arm in his metal one. Steve laughs and complains about the price all the way back to their van. Sam rolls his eyes at them and bumps Bucky companionably.
"Just wait 'til you meet Hill."
The name sounds familiar. "Shouldn't you call her Maria?"
In the light of the fast-rising sun, Sam grins. "You'll see when you meet her."
In the end, he only remembers to mention the HYDRA agents when he sees them locked in the back of Steve's van. He doesn't dwell on it; for once, the mission isn't the most important thing.