I'll Follow You Down (Bucky x Reader)

Last Time

Well, good news, we convinced Banner to help us. Bad news, things didn’t go as smoothly as we would have liked. Our test runs didn’t exactly bring the outcome we wanted.
In defeat, Steve walks away and goes outside, probably to clear his head. I can see the frustration on his face while he walks away. Then I hear tire screeching noises coming from outside, and a black car rolls up right next to Steve. As the window rolls down, I see Tony. I smile as he gets out of his car and begins talking to Steve. I can only hear snatches of the conversation through the open door, but I can only assume it is all good. I see the two of them shake hands, then Tony opens his trunk to reveal Captain’s shield, handing it back to him. As Steve walks back in with Tony, he notifies us it’s time to call in the rest of the team. Natasha and I make our way to the office and start making calls.

As members start arriving, the last one we have to get is Thor. Hulk offers to go along with Rocket to try to convince him. I speak up and offer to go as well. With no further discussion needed, I leave with the other two in search of Thor in his New Asgard.

When we arrive, we meet the Valkyrie and Hulk introduces me and Rocket.
“He won’t’ see you.” Is all she responds to us.
“It’s that bad huh?” Hulk asks. She nods her head in confirmation. We decide we still need to try so we make our way up to the house Thor has been living in. The house is in terrible shape. It seems Thor has given up forever, and it makes my stomach hurt.

We finally find Thor in the living room and when he recognizes us, he reaches out to give us huge hugs, tell us how good it is to see us. Then he begins berating a kid through the video game system and opens another drink. He is joking and seemingly happy, till Banner mentions Thanos. Then Thor gets quiet and very somber; he says through gritted teeth to not say that name. Banner tries to console Thor, but he just keeps pushing back. Banner tries to tell him that he helped him when he was in a bad spot, and that they need him now. Thor tells us he feels like no help at all, just ask his city, as he sits down heavily in a chair. I walk over to the chair and place my hand gently on his arm.
“Thor…” I say quietly, waiting for him to look up at me. As he meets my eyes, I try to convey every emotion and thought I want to say into a moment. Our family needed us. “Please.” I plead with him. He looks away, pausing for a moment, then pats my hand with his other hand, nodding finally in agreement.
Now that the team was together, we were able to finish our plan. The test run with Clint had worked exactly how we could have hoped. Now, it was a matter of figuring out where and when each stone was. That was…eventful. And confusing. But finally, we think we had it sorted.

“Six stones, three teams, one shot.” Steve says as we look at our laid-out plan. We all put on our special time travel gear and enter the platform, ready to do this. Steve says one of his usual inspirational speeches, and I can’t but smile so big at him. I reach out to take his hand and hold it until we are propelled through the wormhole and shot into New York.
“Alright you know where you’re going. Two stones uptown, one downtown.” He says just as the past Hulk jumps down and starts destroying things. “Maybe smash a few things along the way.” He adds, looking to Banner.
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“We’re improvising.” Steve finally says. “You both, get this back to the compound.” He adds, handing Loki’s scepter to Scott. Scott and I look at Tony and Steve questioning as they talk back and forth about things, I have no comprehension about. Something about going back to another time to get the Tesseract. Finally, Scott gets their attention.
“Look, if you do this, and it doesn’t work, you’re not coming back.”
“Thanks for the pep talk, pissant.” Tony responds, then turns to Steve.
“You trust me?” Steve answers with, “I do.” I walk over to them and force both to look at me.
“You BOTH need to come back, you hear me.” I say in a serious yet loving tone. They both smile at me and nod. “Don’t worry kid, I couldn’t leave you alone without supervision.” Tony jokes, winking, then ruffling my hair. I laugh as I back away, at a safe distance from them. They suit up and then they’re gone. Once they are gone, Scott and I suit up ourselves and get ready to head back.
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As we all appear back at our starting point together, we all look around questioning.
“Did we get’em all?” Tony asks.
“Are you telling me this actually worked?” War Machine adds, smiling. Then Clint falls to his knees and we all turn to him, realizing there is someone missing.
“Clint where’s Nat?” Bruce questions. Oh no. No, no no. We weren’t supposed to lose anyone doing this. This was supposed to bring everyone back.
I bite my lip as I feel my eyes get wet and I can see Clint’s are doing the same thing. We all stand silent, stunned at the realization of it all. A group of us head out to the dock by the water, trying to digest what has happened. Thor tries to make a point that if we have the stones, we can bring her back. But Clint repeats over and over that it can’t be undone.
“it was supposed to be me.” Clint finally says. As I sit next to Steve, I see the tears finally come for him. He doesn’t typically cry, so it hurts so much more seeing him like this. “She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it.” Clint adds as his voice breaks. I think about reaching out to Steve and placing my hand on his. But I think better of it. I know there isn’t anything I can do for this hurt. Then Bruce abruptly throws something large into the water and says “She’s not coming back. We have to make it worth it.”
I can see this register with all of us and Steve stands up quickly, wiping the tear away and saying with confidence, “We will.”