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They had gone back on the run on a Monday. Fitting, right? Everything went to hell in a handbasket on the most hated day of the week. Steve and Bucky had stayed in Wakanda for thirty years, living a quiet, peaceful life. Bucky had tended his goats; Steve had been a noncombatant advisor for the Avengers and T’Challa and Shuri, as well as doing manual labor wherever he needed to.
Bucky and Steve, of course, knew that they wouldn’t age. The serum that ran in each and every cell prevented aging. The Wakanian’s however, got curious. What was their secret? Not even vibranium could prevent aging. Eventually, it had reached a boiling point, with some people from the city coming out to their cottage to try to stage a kidnapping. Of course, even though neither was fighting anymore unless the world was ending, they were no slackers and had kept in good shape. Really, the fight was over before it began, and T’Challa had invited them to the palace to talk.
“We can’t keep you safe anymore. Sure, for a year, five years maybe, if you’re lucky, they would listen, but eventually, they would ignore the order and come after you again. The next time they might not be so underprepared,” T'Challa tells them.
Shuri has been crying. Bucky can tell, tears of frustrated anger. The pissy expression with red-rimmed eyes is familiar from when she would get frustrated while working on unfucking his brain. She speaks up, “We can give you everything you need to find somewhere safe, but we can’t make any guarantees. Now, it’s up to you.”
“Thank you, Princess, Your Highness.” It’s Steve who speaks. They’ve talked about this before, knew it would happen eventually. They have contingency plans. “We could never have survived those first few years without you, so we will be eternally grateful to you for everything you’ve done.”
They all four take deep breaths, and then they are all exchanging hugs. They’ve become friends, good friends, in the past thirty years, and consider each other family. It’s heartbreaking that they’ll have to separate now.
Within the week, Bucky and Steve are packed up; everything contained to a quinjet. They’ll use it to get wherever they’re going now, and then they’ll send it back to Wakanda.
Shuri presses phones into each of their hands. “These are completely untraceable and unreplicable. There are only four in existence, and we have the other two. Stay in touch, okay? We’re going to miss you.”
They smile and nod, and there are more hugs and goodbyes exchanged before they finally leave, heading for Europe.
It takes Natasha seven months to find them after they go on the run again. It turns out that she’s not aging either. Apparently, The Red Room knew what they were doing when they injected her. She stays with them for the most part after that, occasionally vanishing for a few weeks or months before reappearing.
It takes Sam a year to find them. He wants to check up on them. They’re friends, however odd the friendship is. They keep in touch after that, meeting up every other month or so in a neutral location so that both parties are untraceable.
It takes Tony seven years to find them. He’s old and wants to let them know that he’s putting enough money for them for at least fifty years in a secret bank account under a fake name. It had taken time, but Bucky and Tony had become friends during the time Steve was a consultant. It turns out Tony can’t resist teaching someone about tech.
Tony is the first of the ones they keep up with to die, at 97. He ended up living a good life, having two children with Pepper, and having stayed in contact with Peter his whole life after they met. Natasha, Steve, and Bucky all attend the funeral together. They grieve with Pepper and Peter and the twins, Morgan and Daisy. When they go home, a small cottage in the middle of a forest with no way to get to it besides hiking, they all three reassure themselves that the others are there, that they won’t be abandoned in the long run.
T’Challa is next. His death, at 87, hits Bucky and Steve a lot harder than Tony’s had. T’Challa had been family, for better or worse. They stay with Shuri for six months to help her through before they have to vanish again, with a promise of more frequent visits. The pain of T’Challa’s death lingers with them always.
Sam is after T’Challa. He grew to be 101, developing dementia in his last few months before his death. His death hits Steve especially hard. In another life, they would have fought and died together, brothers in arms. He regrets that they couldn’t have been closer in the end then they were. Bucky and Natasha have to help Steve get out of his head enough to attend the funeral and grieve. It takes months before he can participate in life again.
Shuri is the final one of the ones they keep up with to go. It’s quiet, gentle, in her sleep. She was 98. She got to keep inventing up until her final days, her hands' steadiness and her mind’s soundness never giving out. Bucky is the one that grieves for her the hardest. Shuri had practically been a little sister to him, and he had outlived her. Steve and Natasha help him, hold him. She knew she was loved when she died, and that was something she got to carry after her.
After Shuri’s death, they vanished for good, always flying under the radar, ghosts throughout the world. The stories about them, however, always continued. The thing that was most often spoke of, however, was how deeply they loved and grieved. That in and of itself was legendary. People always spoke of them reverently, and always tried to have what was considered a Steve and Bucky and Natasha love. A love that surpassed all limits, all lives, all circumstances. A love that lasted truly forever.