Work Text:
After the final defeat of Thanos, Steve and Bucky started spending more time together. Rather than taking one of the extra living spaces at the Avengers compound that was offered to him, Bucky decided to move in with Steve in his designated living space. Steve appreciated the company and no longer being alone there.
At first they were in separate bedrooms. But Bucky had nightmares. Steve had them, too. Steve’s usually consisted of seeing Bucky fall from the train, or disintegrating when Thanos snapped his fingers. Steve couldn’t imagine what Bucky’s nightmares must have been like. They were the one thing that Shuri couldn’t do anything about, even after she’d completely removed the latent effects of his brainwashing.
Late one night, Bucky knocked on the door of Steve’s bedroom. When Steve answered for him to come in, Bucky stood with the door half open, asking if he could sleep with Steve for the rest of the night. Steve said yes without giving it a second thought. Bucky had slept alone for enough of his life already, and Steve had slept alone for the past 5 years.
It wasn’t until they were both awake the next morning that Bucky told Steve that his nightmares had been the reason he’d wanted to sleep next to Steve. Steve didn’t prompt him about the content of the nightmares, figuring that Bucky would talk about that when he was ready. Steve told him that he had nightmares of his own, and that anytime Bucky wanted to sleep in Steve’s room, he didn’t even have to ask.
Steve began to notice that Bucky seemed a lot more well rested on nights he slept with Steve. It made Steve wonder if up until that point, Bucky had been dealing with the bad dreams on his own, not wanting to tell Steve so as not to worry him. Steve didn’t say anything about that at first, either. He was just glad his presence could be a comfort and an aid for peaceful sleep.
Eventually, as the two were about to part ways one night to go to bed in their separate rooms, Bucky confessed that since he slept so much better with Steve than without him, regardless of the dreams, he wanted to sleep with Steve every night, bad dreams or none. Steve’s response was simply “of course.”
Some nights Bucky would wake up in a panic after one of the dreams happened. It would wake Steve, too. Steve would slowly reach out to touch him, whispering soothing phrases like “I’m here, Bucky”; “you’re safe, Bucky”; “It’s me, Bucky.” Usually two words, followed by Bucky’s name, and that was all it took for Bucky to start calming down and then fall back to sleep.
Sometimes Bucky was the one to reach for Steve. After a few instances of this, Steve speculated that based on the way Bucky held onto his shoulders with both arms, Bucky wanted Steve to pull him close. And so Steve did, slowly moving the two of them closer together until Bucky was fully within Steve’s embrace. Bucky settled his head onto Steve’s chest, and the fast breathing and shakes that typically resulted from him jolting awake and normally took a few minutes to dissipate subsided immediately.
And so that became Steve’s go-to response to Bucky’s panic, whichever one of them reached for the other first. Steve found that he enjoyed having Bucky in his arms. He didn’t even find the metal arm uncomfortable. He hoped Bucky didn’t, either.
During the days, Steve found himself looking at Bucky more and more. He liked seeing the familiar face of his longtime friend, and then he started seeing something more there: beauty. The depth of Bucky’s eyes, the shape of his facial features, all framed by his long dark hair.
Bucky seemed to notice, and he started looking at Steve more, too. Bucky also started touching Steve more often, leaning against him, wrapping an arm around him. Steve always returned the gesture. When he did so, it made Bucky smile, and Steve smiled, too.
One evening they were sitting on the sofa, each of them with an arm around the other, looking one another in the eyes. Steve took note of how Bucky’s gaze would occasionally drift to Steve’s lips, which made him notice that he was also, subconsciously, looking to Bucky’s lips.
So Steve slightly inclined his head as if to ask a question, and Bucky gave a subtle nod in response. Then they both leaned in for the kiss. Steve closed his eyes right as Bucky’s lips touched his. It was gentle, yet the desire and satisfaction were palpable. There was no shame felt by either of them, no reason to deny the undeniable. This was a different time than the one they had been raised in, after all.
That event established them as lovers. They kissed every day and loved it each time. They slept closer to one another, always facing each other, sometimes with Bucky settling right into Steve’s embrace as they both got into bed. Other nights Steve would look across to Bucky’s sleeping face. Bucky looked ethereal in the low light coming through the curtains on the bedroom window, almost angelic. When Steve woke from his nightmares of seeing Bucky ripped away from him, all he had to do was look across to see the man he loved, safe and sound.
In those moments, Steve contemplated how lucky he felt. Bucky had survived the fall from the train, been brought to the future along with Steve, and broken through Hydra’s brainwashing. 5 years after Steve watched Bucky turn to dust, Bucky had emerged through a portal to fight at Steve’s side once more. Now they shared a home and a bed, having fully realized their mutual attraction.
The only other thing Steve could think to want was an end to Bucky’s nightmares, to somehow erase the past torture that caused them. Steve could use an end to his own bad dreams as well. But each time it happened to either of them, the other was there to soothe them back to sleep. They never had to be apart again, and that was more than enough. It always would be, for both of them.