Work Text:
Of course, Steve recognized Bucky's eyes on that rooftop. But how could he trust himself when he'd been seeing those eyes everywhere since Bucky fell? In the park, in the bar, on the street, on missions. He couldn't afford to freeze up this time like he had so many other times; he thought he had seen those eyes. But it didn't matter; the person had jumped, and he'd lost track of him. Something still nagged at him, though. Those eyes looked a little too familiar, a little too like his Buckys. He was probably just making it up, though…right? The person's shoulders, the way he had held them, were so similar to how Bucky had when he got serious on a mission. His hands they way they caught the shield ...yes, it was a metal hand, but they too moved at the wrist, always the wrist, you'd know he was army trained in the forties. The shape of his hips even under all that battle gear... No, Steve was making it all up; he just missed his old friend.
The lips, that's what gave him away in the end. When the mask came off, Steve knew. He knew. The way they still curled up slightly, years of a permanent cocky smirk still lingered and always would. The faint scar just above his upper lip, where the butt of a rifle had caught him, Buck still wasn't used to the kickback quite yet. The memories of those lips were too hardwired into Steve's head to mistake them for anyone else's. Cold nights in their apartment in Brooklyn when Bucky had held him close, both of them praying Steve wouldn't catch a cold, not again. Bright lights blazing in the sky on the fourth of July as they sat on the roof, fingers intertwined. Bucky had always said the fireworks were just for him. Grass swaying in the summer breeze, pigeons gliding on the spring air. Steve sketched the birds as Bucky playfully chased them, insisting Steve needed a close-up model. The war, quiet nights at camp around the fire. The smoke always lingered in Bucky's hair; Steve could still smell it in their shared tent as Bucky wished him a goodnight. And the last time he ever saw those lips in person, as they screamed Steve's name into the cold winter night as he fell.
“Bucky?”