For Better or for Worse (Stucky)

Sickness And Health

Bucky knew something was wrong when -after they'd made up and had a great morning- Steve locked himself in the office after telling Bucky he needed to do some paper work. Steve never locked doors from Bucky. He had never locked his bedroom when they'd had their separate rooms, never locked the bathroom either when he showered. In case Bucky needed him or something from him.

So when Bucky made some tea and wanted to bring it to Steve -who'd been working for a couple hours already- he almost dropped the cup when he bumped into the closed door. „Steve?" He called, holding onto the cup with the hot tea carefully.

„I'm working, you okay?" Steve called, his voice startled as he opened the door a bit, peeking at Bucky.
The brunet looked at him and handed him the mug carefully, unable to hide the disappointment in his face, „I'm fine. I made you tea. Why did you lock the door?" Steve moved a bit as Bucky glanced over his shoulder, forcing himself to smile at him. „It's just part of my job, lots of the stuff we deal with is confidential. I'm lucky to be allowed to do it from home anyway."

Bucky looked at his lover and back towards the office, sighing. „Well okay... Have fun then." He said, turned away and stopping when Steve pulled him back gently, kissing his cheek from the side gently. „I love you."

Bucky smiled softly, still not that happy about the locked door but figuring he needed to try and trust Steve. „I love you, too."
Steve sighed against his skin, his lips shaking a bit as he pressed another kiss onto his cheek. „You're so wonderful."
Though he smiled once more at the compliment, Bucky still didn't like that Steve seemed to be treating him slightly differently ever since he came back from his mission. Of course, Bucky loved his affection. He adored it. But it still set him on edge in some way, making him doubt if Steve having missed him was really the only reason.

„Thank you." Bucky said softly as Steve smiled against his cheek, still noticing his increased body temperature and deciding to bring it up later.

Steve slowly let him go and watched him walk off towards the kitchen, noticing his slightly slumped posture and the rosy color of his cheeks. Closing the door again and twisting the key -knowing Bucky hated it but wanting to protect him-, he returned to the desk and sat down once more, smiling as he realized what a sweetheart Bucky was to make him tea.

Sighing as he sipped his tea, he looked at the screen, reading all the titles of the recordings from the USB. He hadn't opened any of them yet. He'd been reading through the file more intently and every time he saw the title of a recording, he couldn't get himself to open it just yet. „My darling." Steve sighed as he looked at one picture of Bucky in the file. It was one of him in his army clothing, looking as handsome as always with his little lopsided hat, eyes visibly shining despite the black and white nature of the picture. He had always been such a ray of sunshine. Before HYDRA had broken him.

Steve was reading thoroughly through some stuff from the early 50's and sighed as he grabbed headphones and plugged them into his laptop -not wanting to risk Bucky hearing the audio-. Putting one of the earbuds in, he clicked onto a recording that seemed to have to do with this person named Ivchenko that he'd read about.
Bucky wasn't in the metal chair this time, but rather in a tiny room, tied to another chair that looked like one you'd find at the dentist, bright lights pointed at him as he seemed to be waking up while a white-haired, almost bald man sat down across from him.
„Focus." The man said, an eastern accent audible in his voice as he held his own hands, moving them in a twisting motion.

„Shut up..." Bucky crumbled, sounding tired but not as erratic as he had in the other recording. It made sense as this one was older and Bucky hadn't been through as much just yet.
„Focus, Winter." The man said and Bucky squeezed his eyes shut. „It's Bucky. Just be quiet."