Stucky One Shots

Part 24 - Endgame Fix-It

*Endgame Spoilers! Just in case no-ones seen it yet*

I thought this was rather fitting as today is the 1 year anniversary (26/apr)

"There is no reason why I can't come with you!" Bucky snapped, pacing angrily in front of Steve. Steve himself was pale, sat on the edge of his bed, preparing to leave.

"Buck, they need you here." He answered shortly, doing his best to open his mouth as little as possible; he felt like he was going to throw up.

"Like hell they do! They lived with me, fighting me back for twenty years, Steve. I've attacked more than half of them and killed more people than I can count. I shot someone through Natalia!" He ranted. Since discovering her Russian roots, something in his brain had clicked the last time he came around from the winter soldier, and now automatically called her Natalia.

"Bucky, stop!" Steve roared, stopping his friend in his tracks. "You know not one bit of that was you. Nat all but cares he shot her and - for gods sakes - half the people he attacked don't remember it!" He finished, putting emphasis on the fact it wasn't Bucky who did that. "Are we done here, I have to go."

"No, Steve, you don't. You can go and come right back here."

"Why would I do that when the love of my life is back in the 1940s?" That stung. Bucky and Steve had been on an on and off relationship for the past two or three years, before the snap.

"Wow, Steve. Those last three years before I dusted meant nothing to you, did they? Peggy was always the one on your mind."

"Bucky you know I didn't mean-"

"Save it. You have some other century to be in." Bucky strode out, regretting that their last conversation was an argument, but Steve had said something he really shouldn't have.

"You're a good man, Sam. This one's on me though." Bucky heard Steve say as he crossed the clearing towards him. Sam looked up and saw Bucky, then stopped walking, allowing Steve to go alone to Bucky's side.

Steve stopped in front of him, regret and anguish in his eyes. "I'm gonna miss you, buddy." Steve pulled him in and hugged him, patting his back, then inconspicuously kissed the side of his head.

"I never said the love of my life was Peggy." He whispered. "I want to spend more time with my best guy." Bucky blanched, now knowing it was him who'd gone too far.

"I'm sorry." He whispered back, just as Steve pulled away.

"It's gonna be OK, Buck."

Steve was gone, Sam was panicking about him not coming back, and Bucky was happy, knowing an alternate timeline him was spending a much-needed life with Steve.

He turned away from the platform, a fond smile dancing on his lips, but looked up at the wrong moment. There was a figure, sat on the bench on the bank of the lake.

"Sam." He called behind him. Sam saw him too, and they both approached the grey-haired figure. After a reassuring nod from Bucky, Sam went and stood by the man's side.

Bucky zoned out during Steve and Sam's exchange, watching, but not listening. He nodded once more at Sam when he looked at him, asking to take the shield. Once Sam had left, Steve remained on the bench, sat military straight, even Seventy years later.

"Bucky?" He asked, his voice different, raspier, but familiar.

"Did it go how you wanted it to?" Bucky replied, not moving from his spot, a few metres from him.

"Not exactly." He patted the space on the bench next to him. Bucky sat with him, leaning into his side when Steve put an arm over his shoulder. Without all the muscle, Steve was softer, more familiar to sit with, his scent wrapping around every sensor in Bucky's body, enveloping him in familiarity,

"I found you, after you fell from the train, took you from HYDRA, kept you out of Winter's head for long enough that the triggers reversed themselves. But we couldn't be ourselves until the '80s, and by that time we were already nearly sixty.

"We spent the life I'd wanted to be us, like we are now, as friends, nothing more. We couldn't. Customs didn't change from anything like in the '40s until so much later, too much later, for us.

"You died about six years ago, I'm a little foggy on the details. Natural causes, old age, peacefully, in your sleep." Bucky lay in silence against his shoulder, then a thought struck him.

"We need to find Bruce. We have enough Pym Particles, we can reverse this!" He announced excitedly.

"I'd like that."

Two weeks later, Bucky was nervously pacing the space in front of the platform again, watching as Bruce and Hank Pym discussed the logistics, making sure every last detail would work.

It did.

Steve returned looking exactly the same as the day he left, second shield in hand.

The very second he was out of his quantum suit, he ran at Bucky, launching himself off the platform straight into a passionate kiss.

"I love you." Bucky murmured between kisses.

"I love you too, my best guy."