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Bucky opened the door that led to the rooftop with a practice ease before moving towards where the figure was sat on the ledge. He sat beside Clint, his flesh hand covering Clint’s, causing the other man to look towards him and smile.
“Took you long enough.” He teased, that godforsaken, teasing, little beautiful smile growing on his lower face as his eyes danced with mischief.
“Shut up.” Bucky grumbled without any heat behind it, stealing a kiss from Clint before he could tease further. Clint’s hand comes to gently cup Bucky’s jaw for the duration of the kiss, lingering even after they pull away, his eyes softening the longer Bucky looks at him.
Clint laced his fingers with Bucky’s
“You’re so soft.” Clint whispers, no longer teasing, he instead speaks with a quiet awe as he shuffles closer, head leaning against Bucky’s shoulder.
“I’m not soft.” Bucky scoffs, however he disproves this by using his metal hand to move the hair for Clint’s eyes and gently adjust his jacket. He even turns his head to give Clint’s head a kiss.
“Mhm” Clint responds, knowing he’s won but also aware it’s better to not gloat and ruin the moment.
The skyline ahead was beautiful. Blues and purples circle in the air, the faint glow of stars beginning to reach earth twinkle as the city scape below lights up, neon signs and L.E.D bulbs creating humanity's own stars.
Clint breaks the silence. “I want to run away with you.”
Bucky sits up and turns towards Clint, thus causing Clint to sit back up and turn his gaze towards Bucky. What Bucky reads is pure honesty, pure desire for freedom.
“Run where?”
“Away from the fight.” Clint responds simply. “We can get a place, maybe a city apartment, somewhere near the dock so we can see the sky and the city depending on what window we look out of. We can be normal. We can cook and sleep together, live and love together. I’m rich, richer than you think and we won’t have to work but I’ll get a job teaching kids archery and you can… you can work in a book shop, see what pages have to offer you now. We can get a dog and a cat, not go running every time a fight breaks out. We can live as us.”
Bucky just stares, his eyes fixed on the man who set forth the best plan Bucky’s heard possibly ever. “You mean that? You want to live as us? No more fighting, no more surviving. Meeting neighbours, doing groceries, doing chores, you want that? With me?”
“Bucky, I’d marry you.” Clint says without hesitation, without a hint of apprehension and once again Bucky just stares, until he doesn’t, until he captures Clint’s lips in his own, pouring every said and unsaid feeling of love into him. Bucky’s never kissed so emotionally and intensely before.
Bucky pulls back, breathing heavily as he stared into Clint’s eyes, his mind set in stone. “Let me propose when we leave. When we run away I’ll get down on one knee and propose and make you mine in a courthouse with two witnesses as long as you’re mine.”
Clint nods, “Promise?”
To which Bucky whispers “I promise.” Before sealing it with one final kiss.
~~~
Bucky awoke in Wakanda to no Steve. The last thing he remembered is Steve standing in front of him and suddenly no one was there. Bucky picks himself up from the floor and looks around into the silence that soon grows into confusion.
No enemy is around, no alien fighting him, he was mid battle only seconds ago and now he is surrounded by only half of those he fought before, all waking to complete confusion.
Where is Steve? Where is anyone? Where is Clint?
Oh God Clint, where is Clint? Is the battle over? Can they run away? He needs to find Clint, needs to make sure he’s okay.
Suddenly, Sam pulling at his arm, pulling him towards a group of monks? Possibly wizards, as they explained to him that its been five years.
Five years? He’s lost more time? Lost more time with Steve? Clint? Oh God Clint, has he lost these years too? Has he ran away without Bucky? Has he been gone too long? Is Clint okay?
Bucky reloads his gun as Sam explains the plan, portals (portals?) will open and they will suddenly be in the midst of a battle against Thanos, everyone together.
One more fight. One more fight and it’ll be over, Bucky can put the gun away as soon as this fight is over, he and Clint can run away into their suburban apartment and live the dream. One more fight. Bucky cracks his neck, rolling his shoulders back only to catch a glimpse of a familiar figure in a designer trenchcoat with a sokovian accent and a smug tone..
“Barnes!”
Shit. What the fuck is he doing here? Why is Zemo here?
The confusion, and possible fear, must have appeared on Bucky’s face if Zemo’s smirk was anything to go by, it grew as the man approached
“Ah! Mr Barnes! I had informed the sorcerers I could assist in making you a better soldier.” His fingers brushed Buck’s jaw and cleaned dust from his shoulders as his eyes danced with joy.
Bucky’s eyes meanwhile fill with panic, raw unfiltered panic. No, no, he just recovered, just was shown how to be better, just had it under control. “You can’t-“ he’s ashamed with how hoarse his voice sounded.
“Oh but I can, and luckily for you, I remember exactly what I have to say.” He rubbed his thumb under Bucky’s chin, “tickle, tickle!”
Bucky slapped his hand away, anger filling his eyes, causing Zemo to smirk and whistle low, “Uh oh, maybe you don’t need my help if you’re this angry.”
“I don’t need your help. I fought in World War bloody Two without anyone in my head. I don't need you in my head-“ Bucky spoke unwavering but a plea entered his tone slightly in the end, begging to not be brought under again, to lose himself once more to the words.
“Oh, but you do.” He smirked before his voice turned Russian.
“Longing.”
No, no not again.
“Rusted.”
He’s barely capable of controlling his thoughts, why is he trying to break his progress?
“Seventeen.”
Bucky points his gun at Zemo
“Daybreak.”
Zemo points the gun forward
“Furnace.”
Bucky’s insides twist as his brain empties and he begins to think only of the words.
“Nine”
“NO!” He screams, begging to be free.
“Benign.”
“Please don’t do this.” He sounds childish, one hand coming to cover his ear, a weak attempt to block the voice from entering his mind.
“Homecoming.”
Zemo steps closer, face leaning towards Bucky’s free ear to ensure he is heard completely.
“One.”
He can’t forget Clint, he made a promise, his ring is in his breast pocket ready to propose, he can’t lose Clint and their dream because Zemo turned him once again
“Freight Car.”
“Ready to Comply.”
The Soldier follows the man’s voice as he points towards the open landscape, explaining how a portal will open. On the other side creatures that look not of this Earth, The Soldier is to kill them all, spare no worry for witnesses or bystanders harmed. Complete the mission at all costs, even at harm to oneself. Wait for the command on the other side of the portal then attack. Understood Soldier?
The Soldier nodded compliancely. The man disappears into a portal of his own. The Soldier raises his gun, pointing forward, waiting for his moment.
Suddenly great circles of orange appear, reality in front of the soldier shifting to a battle ground, rubble and a disintegrating building setting the stage for the battle. He marches forward, gun raised, waiting for the command to attack.
The Soldier feels oddly undressed. His work is in the shadows and this battle field is by far too public. He doesn’t care, his orders are to fight, he does.
“Bucky? Oh my god, Bucky! You’re alive- I’ve missed you- I love you, just this one fight and we can run away, just like we planned, yeah?”
A man with a bow and arrow, a brown mohawk and a sword approaches, a grin growing on his face. He seems to forget he’s on a battlefield, looking far too happy.
“Who the hell is Bucky?”
The man freezes, shock and confusion entering his eyes. The soldier ignores him and looks forward. As the man asks stupid questions such as “Who turned you back? Why are you him again?” Both of which the Soldier couldn’t answer and nor would he. This man clearly is not a target or his handler.
He tries to reach out for the Soldier’s shoulder and so he points the gun at him, causing him to lift his hands in surrender. The Soldier once again faced forward, gun trained on the enemies, he could feel the man with the bow knock an arrow into position but his eyes wandered to Bucky repeatedly and consistently. His questioning gaze was offputting.
“Avengers… Assemble.”
The scream and rapid run of those around him caused the Soldier to understand the command and he ran head first into the army, accelerating to speeds he wasn't used to as he fired rounds against these creatures. His bullets were shot off in quick rounds, each creature taking multiple hits until it falls. He throws grenades and bombs without regard for any lives he affects, focusing on killing those ahead of him. He stabs a creature that jumps at him and his dagger breaks inside the body without causing the creature to slow its attack. The Soldier uses his bare fists and causes little damage, until the creature is stabbed from behind, the same sword the bowman was holding creates a large hole in its body before he pulls it away.
“You alright?” He asks, before shaking his head, “who am I kidding, you won’t answer me. Fight with me?”
The Soldier makes some mental calculations and realises his mission might be more successful if he wasn’t alone and so he nodded once and soon he and the bowman were moving forward, fighting as a pair.
They made great progress until the pair were surrounded from above and The Soldier did what he knew best and threw up a grenade, the pin pulled early enough that it exploded in mid air, killing and maiming the creatures.
Maiming, however, is not enough. His orders are to kill, he focuses to heavily on murdering the creature the grenade failed to kill that he misses the scream of the bowman, the heavy fall and the final plea for “Bucky.” The Soldier doesn’t see the bowman join the creatures on the floor in a dead pile, he only turns around and shoots the creature that snook upon him. Not out of revenge, he barely notices let alone cares for this man’s death, his order is to kill these creatures regardless of whoever else dies.
This creature is unaffected by bullets, not even stepping back as it takes the force. As The Soldier reaches for another grenade, the creature lifts a metal beam from the floor and with a swing of greater power than The Soldier could take, he whacks him in the head, the Soldier falling onto this pile of bodies on the floor.
Bucky blinks, eyes opening as his flesh hand reaches to the back of his head, feeling his blood-matted hair and the bump that might kill him. Bucky attempts to sit up but quickly realises he’s lost so much blood he is incapable. Instead he looks around. Evidence of the war still raging fly above, creatures unknown lie around him and then-
Clint?
The sight of Clint makes Bucky’s head rise, shuffling closer despite the immense pain in order to hold Clint’s head.
“Clint?” Bucky whispers, his thumbs gently caressing beneath the man’s eyes as Bucky’s own scan his body and see the stab wounds, deep and complete, blood no longer exiting because his heart had stopped pumping.
“Clint?” Bucky begs as a raw sob tears through his throat, holding the one man who ever saw him, the one man who made living worth it since waking up. “Clint I’m so sorry- wake up for me Clint, please, come on, open your eyes.”
Bucky cradled Clint’s body close to him, pressing his lips to his hair, his forehead, his nose, his lips. He lingers on his lips, Bucky’s head no longer lifting. He can’t move, he can’t sit up.
Bucky Barnes is dying. He’s dying while holding the body of the man whom he loved more than he knew, dead in each other's arms. This is the kind of poetry Bucky would once read before war claimed him.
With the little strength Bucky has left, he dug under his suit and pulled out a ring from his breast pocket, a simple silver band, a promise, a promise to make it forever. He lifts Clint’s left hand and with his own fingers shaking, he slips the ring onto Clint’s left ring finger.
His own hand drops from the lack of strength he has left. But it’s okay, his ring is on Clint’s finger.
“I love you Clint.” Bucky whispers against the lips of his lover as he passes out one final time, finally exiting the fight, not at all how he wanted to, too lonely without Clint’s breath, too empty without the ring and promise of forever, too dark on this battlefield. This wasn’t what he planned, he died without his future with Clint.