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It wasn't until now that Steve really paid attention to the way Bucky was breathing. Being the super soldier that he was, hearing people breathe was just a normal day. Normally, it was simple, casual. Inhale, exhale. During a fight, there were so many breaths and gasps that it was almost like a sensory overload. The intake of breath before someone lunged at him was always a giveaway, and the gentle exhale when they're knocked unconscious even more so.
But Bucky's breath was always one he picked up on. During the war, he was tactical, quietening his breath when they approach enemies. When they were fighting one another and the other Avengers, they were deep, almost desperate, as if each action would be his last. Now, however, they were different. Jagged, quick, almost as if he were running a marathon in his head, and his nose was simulating the necessary actions for his brain to get oxygen. Like a million thoughts were running through his head at breakneck speed, and each idea needed its own breath.
The elevator jittered and shook - being an old Hydra compound it was a given - yet Bucky's breath never wavered. In such close proximity, Steve could tell that Bucky was unsure. The thoughts in his head were unresolved, as lost as he was just mere hours ago, as he regained a sense of who he - James Buchanan Barnes - really was, and not what Hydra had made him to be.
Yet there was something familiar about Bucky's breathing. It took Steve a moment, until he remembered - one dreary, cold night in the trenches, Steve awoke to the sound of heavy breathing. It wasn't necessarily loud, per say - his super soldier senses meant that even the lightest whimper sounds as audible as a whine. The barracks were empty, apart from him, and... Bucky.
His breathing that night came flooding back to Steve. It was just like it was now - heavy, yet jagged, quick, yet full of power. Steve knew he couldn't move, as it would disturb the other Brooklynite, so he listened intently. There was the faintest sounds of rustling - the sheets were paper thin and it was below freezing outside - yet there was something heavy in the air. Steve listened closer - suddenly, Bucky's breathing had picked up. It was quicker, now, almost like he was shivering beyond compare. Steve was about to turn around and say something, when he recognised the gentle sound of skin against skin, and no sooner had he registered what it was, Bucky's breath hitched, and a moment later, the softest moan - almost inaudible, even to Steve - came.
"Steve."
It took the man a moment to realise that both the moan and the sound of his name were coming from Bucky's lips, both in that moment and in this one, now, on the elevator.
Steve's eyes snapped up to find Bucky's staring deeply in to his. His gaze was strong, and unyielding, and his breath had steadied ever so slightly. He didn't realise it, but Bucky had stepped closer to him, closing the gap between them. Bucky was now so close that Steve could hear his heartbeat - thumping wildly, like a war drum, in his chest.
"Bucky...?"
"Steve... Whatever happens here, just know that... Just know..."
Steve looked into the other man's eyes. They stared deeply into his own, right down to his very core. Bucky didn't need to say another word. Steve knew. Steve had always known.
"Don't worry, Bucky. It's alright. I know."
Bucky's eyes flickered, and Steve knew that's what his oldest friend needed to hear. Bucky's breathing levelled. The elevator began to slow gently - their destination was approaching. The end very well was inching closer. And at the same time...
So was Bucky.
He was right up against Steve now, his chest against Steve's, his breath on Steve's lips. Steve could hear his own breath hitch slightly, as Bucky's hands worked their way around his waist, pulling him tighter. He could hear Bucky's breath, heavy in the air and ringing in Steve's ears like a sonic boom.
He could hear both of their breaths stop as Steve closed the gap between their lips, locking them together in the warmest embrace, that one kiss resolving every fight they ever had, that one kiss rending Steve powerless against his best friend.
That one breathless moment, in that elevator, saying the three words both of them were too afraid to say to each other, the eight letters that had the potential to change absolutely everything yet nothing at the same time.
And now, as Steve looks upon Bucky's sleeping face, about to be frozen in time, he is reminded of that one breathless moment where they confessed their love for one another without so much as saying a word.
All because the man's last breath was filled with so much power, and love, that it shook his entire core.
"Steve."