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The last thing Bucky remembered was Steve Rogers.
The last thing Bucky remembered was Steve Rogers, arms outstretched as Bucky fell towards the ground, and never landed.
And the first thing Bucky registered when he felt himself get lifted off the ground as if marionette strings were attached to his back and pulling him upright, was that Steve Rogers was no longer in front of him.
In some far-off corner of his mind, Bucky saw his hands reassembling in front of his eyes, but he figured he'd been through so much weird shit that it barely meant anything. No, the only thing that was important was the fact that Steve was no right where he had been a few seconds before.
"Steve?" Bucky called out tentatively, taking a step forward. "Steve, where'd you go?"
Panic began to mount as Bucky looked around the Wakandan jungle, with no sign of his best friend or anyone else, for that matter. "Steve!"
A hand on his shoulder had Bucky spinning around and gripping the person's wrist, twisting hard. The person fell to their knees, Bucky still holding their wrist at an awkward angle. Then Bucky realised who it was, and dropped their wrist.
"Where's Steve?"
"I swear, it's such a one-track mind with you two," Sam Wilson muttered, rubbing his wrist as he staggered back to his feet. "For two years, all I could hear was 'Where's Bucky? I need to find Bucky, oh my poor husband blah blah blah'. And now as soon as that son of a bitch is gone I wake up to hear 'Steve, Steve the love of my life, where are you?' I'll tell you, man, it's fucking exhausting."
"I'm not going to play games with you, Wilson!" Bucky knew that he was almost hysterical, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. "He was right in front of me - he was just a few feet away - and now he's gone!"
"Okoye has disappeared, as well," a new voice said, and Bucky turned to see T'Challa limp out of the trees. "I... I tried to help her to her feet. My arm..." T'Challa looked down at his arms, as if not believing that they're there.
"I fell," Bucky remembered. "My legs were gone. I would've fallen on my face, but I didn't. And then I was just getting pulled up again."
"Vision?" They all turned to see Wanda on her knees, looking down at the ground in front of her in shock. She looked up at them, and her eyes were full of tears. "He was dead. He died, right in front of me. But his... his body's not here. Where is his body?"
She staggered to her feet, and would have fallen over again if Sam hadn't caught her in time. T'Challa looked at Bucky, his eyes wide.
"Time has passed."
"No, no, that's impossible," Bucky said, taking a few steps backwards. "It was literally seconds ago, I remember. I fell and then got back up in the space of like, ten seconds."
Out in the fields, a cluster of tribes were shakily getting to their feet, and a wave of people from the palace had started to run out.
"Where did the damage go, then?" Sam demanded, holding Wanda to his chest. "Come on, Barnes. Look around you."
Before Bucky could respond, sparks started flying - bright orange specks of pure energy, creating... circles? The circle slowly got bigger and bigger, until it was large enough that a man stepped through. He was tall, wearing red robes and sporting facial hair so ridiculous that Bucky hadn't seen the likes of it since Tony Stark.
"There's no time to explain," he started off with.
"That's promising," Bucky heard Sam mutter.
"But we need to go, now."
"Go where?" Wanda asked weakly.
"To fight Thanos," the man replied, sounding almost bored.
"Thanos was right here," Bucky said, crossing his arms. "If we're gonna go, we deserve an explanation. And also, who the hell are you?"
"My name is Doctor Stephen Strange," the man said tiredly. "I'm a wizard. Back in 2018, Thanos managed to collect all of the Infinity Stones and destroyed half the universe."
"What do you mean, 'back in 2018'?" T'Challa asked. "It is 2018 right now."
"Not anymore," the Doctor replied. "You were some of the many that were killed. It has been five years, but now the Avengers have managed to bring everyone back and they are facing off against Thanos, who wants to kill you all again. Now can we leave?"
"Where's Steve?" Bucky blurted out. Doctor Strange sighed again.
"He's facing off against Thanos alone with no backup as we speak."
"For fUCK'S SAKE-"
----
His shield was destroyed. Thor and Tony were unconscious. The other Avengers were probably dead, buried under the rubble of the compound. All he had was a hammer and a chip on his shoulder larger than the Empire State Building. And the most powerful being in the whole universe - a being that had murdered almost everyone he loved - was standing in front of him.
Did Steve Rogers quit?
Please.
He would've taken on the Titan and his entire army bare-handed if it came to it. Which, by the looks of things, it probably would. But that didn't matter. Steve had nothing to live for anymore.
So instead of sitting back and accepting defeat, and praying that the Titan would spare him, Steve Rogers swung Mjolnir as hard as he could into Thanos's kneecap. Behind him, Thor was struggling to sit upright, and Stormbreaker crackled weakly beside him. Tony was still unresponsive.
And as Thanos took him by the neck, Steve still fought with every ounce of being that he had, even as he felt his windpipe being crushed and his spinal cord bending dangerously close to snapping in two. Then Steve heard the five words that made him believe again.
"Hey Cap. On your left."
And as Thanos dropped him in surprise, Steve turned around to see sparks flying in a circle, around and around in a hypnotic pattern. Then another circle started up. Then another. Then another. Then the sky was full of orange circles. Then an army flooded out.
And as Thanos watched with horror, Steve hefted the hammer in his hands and held it up to the sky, lightning crackling beneath his skin and through his body as a huge bolt of electricity shot down and blasted Thanos high into the air. And as M'Baku's people ran past him, screaming bloody murder, and as Leviathans came towards them, shrieking at the top of their lungs, and as Scott as a fifty-foot giant tore his way out of the wreckage of the compound carrying Rhodey, Bruce and Rocket in his arms, and as Nebula and Clint and a green-skinned girl emerged with the Gauntlet, Steve staggered back up to his feet, and charged the enemy.
The battle was a blur. First Steve was knocking his way through a fleet of aliens, then he was running with the Gauntlet and throwing it to the spider boy from Queens, then he was body-slamming Shuri out of the way of a missile. At some point, Steve found himself with Rocket on his shoulder as the raccoon laughed maniacally and shot everything in sight with a gun twice the size of him. There was a fucking Pegasus in the air, being ridden by a dark-haired woman with a sword and a blue cape.
And then, before Steve knew what was happening, an alien had knocked him down and pinned him to the ground, its pincers snapping around his face. Steve flung his arms up to protect his face, but instead of the pincers ripping through his jugular, there were gunshots, and the dead weight of the alien fell on top of him. And before Steve could throw it off him, someone was pulling it off.
"What have I told you about picking fights with fellas twice your size, huh?"
And it was Bucky, eyes sparkling and hair in his mouth, with dirt and grime and sweat all over him. And he was the most beautiful thing Steve had ever seen.
And then Steve had grabbed his saviour by his belt loops and pulled him down on top of him, Steve's arms going around Bucky's waist and holding on as tight as he could as Bucky fell into his lap.
"Happy to see me?" Bucky laughed, his tight grip betraying how he really felt.
"I've missed you so much," Steve whispered. Bucky held onto him tighter, his fingers carting through Steve's hair. He pulled away slightly to look into Steve's face, and his eyes were full of tears.
"I've missed you too."
And then Steve was lurching forward to capture Bucky's lips with his own, sliding his tongue between Bucky's teeth as he gasped. Then Bucky's hands were fisted in his hair as he pulled Steve as close as he could, kissing back as fervently as he could. And they were in the middle of a warzone, and Steve had alien guts all over him, and he was pretty sure a few of his ribs were broken, but it didn't matter because Bucky was there, Bucky was literally straddling his lap with his arms around Steve's shoulders, and the only way they could be closer would be if Steve was actually inside Bucky, which was impossible given their circumstances.
"Rogers, so help me if you're actually making out with your boyfriend in the middle of a battle," Carol's voice said through his earpiece. Bucky let out a broken laugh against Steve's lips and pulled away softly.
"We should probably get up before someone kills us," he whispered. Steve couldn't help but lean in for another kiss, lingering for probably a second too long.
"If we survive this, I'm definitely retiring in Wakanda with you," he murmured. Bucky laughed, standing and pulling Steve up with him.
"As long as you're okay with the goats being in the house with us," he said, a grin on his face.
"Please don't tell me you're being serious."
Then Bucky laughed, kissed him one more time, and ran back into the battle.
-----
Steve reappeared on the platform, the briefcase in his hand empty. He felt exhausted, he was covered in sweat, and he'd almost been thrown off the cliff at Vormir by Johann Schmidt. All he wanted to do was collapse into a bed and sleep for the next week.
Bucky had his hands in his pockets, his eyes wide and shocked. When Steve met his gaze, his mouth slowly stretched into a smile.
"Miss me?" Steve teased, coming to stand in front of him.
"You wish," Bucky shot back, but he was smiling too much for it to be anything but fond. "I'm surprised you came back. Thought you'd stay with your gal in '45."
Even through his joking façade, Steve could see the unshed tears in Bucky's eyes, the slight wobbling of his bottom lip.
"She was never my gal, Buck," Steve said, placing a hand on the jut of Bucky's hip and pulling him closer. "I've belonged to someone else for much longer."
Bucky's long fingers ghosted over Steve's chest. "I know. But you had the chance of a normal life."
"What made you think I'd want a normal life?" Steve asked softly, stroking his thumb across Bucky's cheek. "Baby, there's nothing I want more than to retire with you in Wakanda with your goats."
Bucky laughed wetly, the first of his tears starting to fall. "I thought you were just joking about that."
"You have no idea how much I've missed you, Buck," Steve murmured, pressing a small kiss to Bucky's nose. "I've had enough of saving the world. I just wanna be with my best guy."
Bucky smiled, his whole face lighting up. "Then how about you get over here and give your best guy a kiss, huh?"
Steve readily complied.
----
Bucky grasped at the headboard, soft pants escaping his mouth at every one of Steve's thrusts. Steve buried his face in Bucky's neck, pressing open-mouthed kisses to every bit of skin he could get to as he rolled his hips rhythmically. Bucky's hands tangled in his hair and pulled him up for a kiss, their tongues intertwining and breaths mingling. Bucky's pants slowly turned into high-pitched whines and moans, and Steve tilted his hips upwards to thrust directly into Bucky's prostate, feeling his own release building up. Just before he went over the edge, Steve felt something cold and wet press against his naked calf, and shrieked, jerking away from it. Bucky propped himself up on his elbows and looked over Steve's shoulder, before starting to hysterically laugh, Steve's dick still inside him.
"Seriously, Buck?" Steve yelped, his voice still a few octaves higher than normal. "Why are the goats in the bedroom?" The goat closest to him pressed its nose back into Steve's foot, and his leg spasmed.
"Because you didn't close the door properly!" Bucky wheezed, collapsing onto the bed in a fit of giggles. "They were curious!"
"Why are they inside in the first place?!"
"Because you said they could be!"
It took ten minutes for Steve to usher the goats out of the bedroom, back into their pen, and lock the bedroom door for good measure. He turned around and glared at Bucky, who was looking far too pleased with himself.
"You know, you're lucky I'm not gonna make you sleep on the couch, Barnes," he warned.
"That's Rogers-Barnes to you, stud," Bucky shot back, still grinning. "Now, I think you were in the middle of something?"
Steve grumbled the entire way across the bedroom until Bucky shut him up with his lips.