Dreamboy

Night terrors

Bucks turns, slowly walking up to him with a tired smile. Steve leaves the wall to meet him, hoping to be able to ward off any too familiar advances his friend might want to make on him. But Bucky only places his hands on Steve's shoulders, not even pulling him closer, just smiling, and once the noise drowns out a bit, saying: "It's nice to have you with me again." Cap's hope goes up, praying Bucks might have seen through the charade, and finally noticed that this is not the reality he came from. But then his partner adds: "After all, it's a special place for us.", he laughs a little, "Still can't quiet believe you damaged private property just to write something sweet for me!" Steve furrows his brows, and turns to look at the spray paint covered wall, when his friend smirks: "On the other side, silly!", lowering his arms.

Rogers is thankful he's retreating on his own, and actually he'd rather not go looking at what his other self has drawn on the concrete, but Barnes half leads him to go round the corner, so with a sigh he follows the invite. Yet when he sees the gray cement, hardly lined with paint, and more covered in ivy, he starts to search it with his eyes, confused at what Bucks might mean. The floor is littered with some bottles and cans, probably thrown from one of the passing trains. But the wall looks rather blank, only a few practice scribbles from graffiti artists, and some vulgar pictograms are on it.

🌟

Steve steps a bit closer, and finally sees something that might fit the bill, half covered by the ivy, when he hears a metallic click, something like a thud, and shattering, as the concrete above his head loses a chip, falling next to his foot, and leaving a crater with a hole in the middle. Like a bullet would do. He turns around, and sees Bucky standing a few feet behind, pointing a gun at him. His eyes get big and he wants to ask: "But Bucky..." "You better stop taking my name in vain, pal!", Bucks growls at him, "Or else this is gonna be a very long night for you! There is only one man who's allowed to call me that, and you're not him!"

Steve blinks at him, to explain: "Now hold on, that's not...", but Bucks just hisses: "Don't even try to deny it! No matter how fucked up he might be from amnesia gas, Steve would never, ever forget his kids, and look at them like they're some surprise obstacle his superiors failed to inform him about!" His eyes glare at Steve with cold hate, and a hidden fear he's trying to suppress. Just like the real Bucky. Hydras creature. The part of him, they molded into the Winter Soldier, and that he'd sometimes let loose, when they needed someone ruthless to do a job, that nobody wanted to do.

It hurts Rogers to see him back like this, he wants to apologize, wants to tell him the truth, wants to comfort him: "Okay, look, I'm really sorry, Bucky, but I am the real Steve! I am..." "SHUT! Up.", his friend interrupts however, aiming the gun a little lower, as he snarls: "And don't speak to me like that, I've warned you! I don't know what you are. You look like Steve, you sound like Steve, you smell like him...", he steps a bit closer, "Your lips even taste the same as his. But you are not my husband." Cap slumps a little at this awkward revelation, putting up his hands to show he wont be a threat, and backing away, as he tries to reply: "Well, uhm, that may be right, but it's the other way around! He wasn't real."

Another strange thudding click is the answer, and he suddenly feels a burning pain on his left upper arm, next to his elbow, while the wall behind it splinters into a new crater. He has to clench his teeth and cover the area with his hand, when he feels he is hurt and bleeding. And realizes, that the White Wolf just shot at him! "That felt real, didn't it?", his old comrade mocks, "Now unless you want to keep up your charade and mimic Steve's 'I can do this all day', you better stop your bullshit and answer me!", then he turns dead serious and demands: "Where is he? What did you do to him? He better not be dead, or else I'm gonna make you wish, you were!"

🌟

Now Steve is starting to fret. The pain feels real, and he has no doubt that Bucks would make good on his threat, if his answer doesn't satisfy him. And remembering how fruitless his last endeavor to escape the dream was, he fears this could turn ugly. So he looks his friend in the eye and hopes he sounds sincere, when he tells him: "He isn't dead. I didn't kill him. But it's not like he exists anymore either." His buddy's look changes for a second, into a confused and fearful one, but then his brows sink into a vicious frown, as he snaps: "That was the worst possible answer!", and shoots at his right shoulder.