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“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” Bucky hugs Steve for what he knows will be the last time. Despite what the man has told all his friends, Bucky knows he won’t be coming back. He fights off tears as Steve steps into the time machine.
They discussed it beforehand, but it still breaks Bucky’s heart a little, seeing Steve for the last time. He knows that Steve will be happy with Peggy, but he can’t help but lament for his best friend who will be out of his reach.
“I’ll get you out,” Steve had said.
Bucky shook his head. “You can’t,” he had commanded. “You’ll change too much if you do. We can’t risk that.”
“I can’t leave you there when I know you are suffering,” Steve had insisted.
“You don’t have a choice,” Bucky had countered. “Plus, you are safe in the knowledge that you do get me out.”
“It only takes me seventy years.”
“Yeah, only.” Bucky had hugged him and told him it was okay. But now he has to watch his best friend step into a time machine he will never step out of.
“Where is he?” Sam exclaims. Poor Sam. He didn’t know how this day was going to play out.
Bucky touches Sam’s shoulder. “There,” he says, pointing to the man on a bench not far away. He stays back, letting Sam have his moment with the old captain.
Bucky lets himself into his brownstone in Brooklyn, grief weighing heavy on his shoulders. The second he is through the door he is besieged by a heavy bulk of a man hugging him tightly. He doesn’t resist, and is drawn into the arms of the man he loves.
“How was it?”
“Hard,” Bucky admits. “I knew it would be the last time I would see him. But Sam didn’t. He took it hard.”
“Do you think he’ll recover?”
“He’s tough, he’ll make it through.”
“How about you?”
“Well,” Bucky says and smiles up at the man in his arms. “I’ve got the love of my life hugging me to death.” He smiles. “So I think I’ll live.”
Steve captures him in a kiss, gentle, but passionate. It’s the kind of kiss that could lead to much more, or just end there, a gentle reminder that the person on the receiving end is loved.
Bucky pulls back to ask a question.
“Do you envy him?”
“Envy him?” Steve looked down at Bucky with a questioning look. “What reason would I have to envy him?” When Bucky didn’t answer he continues on. “Dr. Strange did exactly what he said he’d do when I asked him to split me in two. Every bit of me that loved Peggy went into him, and every bit of me that loves you went into me.” He forces Bucky to look at him by tilting his chin up. “While I respect Peggy for everything that she is, there isn’t a single atom in my body that wants to be with her. He got his happy ending, and now I get to start mine, with you at my side.”
Bucky smiles through tear stained eyes. “You’re mine?” he whispers.
“Til the end of the line,” Steve answers confidently. “And hopefully that line goes on for quite some time. Because I’ve got some things planned.”
“Oh yeah, like what?” Bucky asks tentatively.
“Like a wedding to start out with,” Steve says, pecking Bucky on the lips. “Then maybe we can even broach the topic of kids.”
Bucky grabs onto Steve like a lifeline. “Don’t go thinking to far ahead. We’ve got forever to figure out the details.”
“You’ve got that right.”