RLB (A Stucky Story)

Good Friends

Steve's P.O.V.

I don't know what to do. I'm lost and scared. I'm afraid of losing Bucky again, I'm afraid of what Hydra will do with the information they now have, I'm afraid that maybe I'll lose this battle...

"Steve!" Sam exclaims. 

"What?" I ask panicked. "Are they here? Is Bucky okay? Wha-"

"Calm down. It's just that I've been calling your name and you've been spacing out." He says in a concerned voice. I sigh in relief.

"Plus you've been working out all day and haven't come out for anything." I then look at the clock on the wall to see it's 10:30pm. Wow, I've been here for 9 hours straight!

"Oh, I um didn't realize the time." I said looking down. Sam then walked over to me, giving me a gallon of water and a pat on the back.

"Listen, I'm not going to ask you if you're okay because it's obvious you're not but you need to let it out. I don't really like Bucky all that much but you fell in love with him and I understand that." I choke on my water when he says I love Bucky.

"Before you try to deny it, literally everyone knows and as long as you both are happy we don't care." I gulp not being able to look him in the eye.

"Thanks, I guess."

"That's not all I came over to talk to you about though." He then takes a seat on the nearest bench and waves for me to sit down beside him so I do.  

"I know what it's like to lose those closest to you. When I was young I faced lots of racism and it made me despise the world. My parents were Catholic and believed in peace. Because of how the world treated us I thought of them as ignorant for it. We had a fight over it. That night... dad went out side because there was some street fight. He died trying to break it up." I gulp.

"I'll never forgive myself for what happened. It was so hard on mom and I but momma always wanted the best for me. She worked long nights and longer days to provide for me. I owe her so much. She was so strong and independent."

"Was?" I asked afraid of the answer. He gave a weak smile.

"She was mugged and killed. Momma didn't play with hood rats. She made sure to put up a good fight. She broke one guy's nose and broke the arm of another. Like I said, momma was strong. Maybe even a little crazy." He lets out a soft chuckle with tears in his eyes. He then takes a deep breath.

" I sometimes think about how my life would be different if I had just walked that one block. Would she be alive? Would we both be dead? I'll never get to know." We were both letting tears fall.

"I thought that after dad died I was lonely but I guess the saying you never know how good you've got it till you've lost it is true because when I lost the last person I cared about I was truly alone. I felt like I had nothing left to lose. It was a dark time. I wanted to do nothing, I had no energy to do anything. That changed when I was looking through some of momma's old things. I found a letter addressed to me. It talked about how proud she was of me and how she had a secret bank account with my name on it with more money than I needed to go to school like I wanted. It broke my heart to think that I was letting momma's hard work go to waste. I had to make momma's hard work mean something. So I joined the military and well you know the rest of the story."

"What I'm trying to say is I don't want to lose anyone else in my life. You're in a slump. I know all of this is hard for you but we need you to get your head back in the game. We need our leader  to bring us in to battle and not be distracted. I know that you feel alone, scared, hopeless even, and that's okay as long as you stand back up. Momma used to always say," You may get knocked down a hundred times but as long as you pick yourself back up you've beat them. Don't you dare EVER give them the satisfaction of keeping you on the ground."

"Steve," he puts his hand on my shoulder. "this isn't a lone man fight. No matter how alone you feel. You have your family right behind you, me, Natasha, Tony, everybody. We are here for you. This Hydra deal, we'll beat it, together, as a team and as a family but all of our heads need to be in the game to do that. You need to focus because if you don't we might not get off the ground." I'm all choked up. I whisper a thanks and Sam walks me upstairs.

"You hungry?" I ask, smiling. He smiles a toothy grin back,

"Starving."

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Bucky's P.O.V.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

I just stay on the bed and don't reply. It's probably Steve or Nat trying to get me to come out and eat. Then I hear the door slowly open.

"Hey, uh, James?" I frown. The only person who calls me James now a days is Bruce.  I open my eyes and give him  a glance. He is holding a tray of grilled cheese, soup, and celery. One of my favorite lunches. My stomach growls at the sight but even as hungry as I am, I have no energy to eat it. These depressing thoughts have taken over. I roll over on my side so I'm not facing him or the food. Bruce sighs.

"It's been three days. Come on, please eat something." He begged. Bruce walks over to the side table laying the food down.

"Listen, I know we aren't really friends but I do care about you." he takes a deep breath.

"I know what it's like to lose control and be horrified by what you've done. I know what it's like to be experimented on, to be hunted down, to lose those closest to you." He trails off to a whisper at the end. I turn over to see him looking at the ground.

"Who was it?" I ask softly.

"Her name was Elizabeth." He straightens up and cleared his throat. "She was my wife and-" I see tears run down his face.

"She was pregnant." My eyes widen.

"She and the baby died due to poisoning by Emil, also known as The Abomination. He was a mutant like me that killed them because his wife was killed. He thought it was unfair that I got to keep mine. This created a deep hatred for one another. When they died, I thought I had killed them with the gamma radiation in my body because it would sometimes make Betty sick. For years I believed I was an unlovable monster that had no place in this world. I felt alone... then I found out the truth. He had killed them with the gamma poison in his body. When I found out it was him I went on a rampage. I wanted to kill him for what he did but when I found him I couldn't do it. I would be just like him. I wouldn't be the man Betty fell in love with. She believed in mercy and second chances which she gave me. The thought of turning into a monster like him made me sick. I couldn't kill him. It was the hardest decision I ever made. I've been trying to continue life the way Betty would have wanted but it's so hard." Bruce then wipes away his tears.

"You're lucky you know. You have a second chance to be with the one you love. Take it. Don't let anyone or anything stop you. I'm not saying it's going to be easy but it will be worth it. And this thing with Hydra is going to end up like every other battle we've faced. We are going to beat it and we're going to do it as a family." He wipes off his tears then goes to walk out the door.

"Wait," I called. He stops and gives me a questioning glance. I freeze.

"I- Thanks..." He gives me a sad smile and leaves.

-------AUTHORS NOTE------

Thanks for reading! It's short but I hope you enjoyed  it. I wanted to have a little more character development because I love reading it. Hopefully I can update once or twice a month but who knows. Also the picture isn't mine I got it off google images. If you have any comments or questions let me know and I'll try to answer them. Bye! -Shebe