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Steve and Bucky were on the couch. Bucky has his head in Steve's lap while Steve runs his fingers through Bucky's hair. Bucky's just thinking and decides to finally ask Steve for some help.
"Hey Steve? Can I ask you a favor?" He starts.
"Sure Buck, what do you need?" Steve easily agrees.
"Some of my memories," Bucky closes his eyes, "I can't tell if they're mine. Or, y'know, what Hydra wanted me to believe. Could you just, I dunno, tell me? Like if they really happened or not?" By the end Bucky sounds so unsure of himself.
Steve's fingers never once falter in their path through Bucky's hair, "Of course."
A few moments pass in silence. Bucky takes a deep breath to steady himself, then opens his eyes to meet Steve's. "When your mom died... I looked after you?"
Steve nods, "Yeah Buck, you did. You were my best friend, so you suggested we get that apartment. I wasn't eating, I barely got out of bed. I was a mess and you helped me find a way to keep going."
Bucky releases a breath he didn't know he was holding, glad that was his memory. "You rescued me. Back in the war. That Hydra base. You found me and got me out of there?"
Steve hates how uncertain Bucky sounds about having been rescued. "I did, " Steve chokes out past the lump in his throat. "You kept repeating your name and tag number. Like you were trying to cling onto who you were. I found you and got you out of some medical lab after freeing everyone else they captured. You weren't with them, but I knew you had to be there. I wouldn't leave until I found you," Steve trailed off. "We led all the others back to camp together."
"That's when they first," Bucky takes a shuddering breath and shakes his head. "I just remember not believing you'd found me. That there was no way I'd get out of there. I couldn't remember if that was real or if I was so desperate to be saved that my brain made it up."
Silence passed while Steve stroked Bucky's hair. Bucky processed what Steve told him, relieved it was real. Glad Steve had found him that day.
"Any other memories you're questioning right now?" Steve carefully prompted. "I can answer them whenever you're ready," he reassures, not wanting to pressure Bucky.
Bucky turns his face away as he states what he knows, "I'm just a weapon. Only good for harm. A means to an end."
Steve's fingers still and Bucky stiffens. Steve guides Bucky's face to look at him, but Bucky's eyes are tightly shut. Awaiting an outcome that Steve knows isn't true.
"Look at me," Steve urges and eventually Bucky's eyes meet his. "That's not real. Hydra made you believe that. That's not your thought, it's theirs. It's wrong ," Steve says fiercely with such conviction. "You are not a weapon. You're not some tool. You're a good person , Buck. Please try to believe that. I know it. You've always been good, okay?"
Bucky can't help the tears trying to fall. He weakly nods with a sniffle.
"You were forced to do things you didn't want to," Steve continues on. "You were tortured. They wanted you to think that you were a weapon so that they could control you. You aren't what they tried to make you into Bucky. You're a good man who always looked out for me. You fought the guys who picked on those smaller than them. You'd take a girl out to meet her friends so she'd be safe. There is nothing bad about you. You're one of the best people in this world. One of few to this day."
Bucky can't hold back his tears any longer. They fall freely and race down onto Steve's lap. Bucky slowly sits up and clings to Steve. Steve guides Bucky's head to his shoulder and scratches the hairs at the nape of his neck.
"Thank you," Bucky wetly chokes out.
Steve just holds him closer still.
"I will always tell you if something was real or not," Steve promises.