ʜɪꜱ ꜱᴀᴠɪᴏʀ ━ Bucky Barnes/Avengers

21: once and for all

"Are you just going to stand here?"

As I kept my eyes fixated at Bucky through the window, Steve stayed next to me, trying to get something out of me. But I was so focused on him, I wasn't aware of anything else.

"Diane."

Steve calls my name out once more, finally snapping me out of my thoughts. I turn to him with with a questioned look.

He releases a sigh, "Were you even listening?"

"I'm sorry." I say, averting back my gaze to Bucky while resting my hands on the glass.

As soon as he arrived, they took him straight down to the lab to help him. Tony and Bruce had been working on him, healing him, studying him as comfortably as they can. They were helping him, like I had promised Bucky.

"How were you able to convince him?" I ask Steve, not looking away.

"I didn't. It was his choice. I just wanted to check up on him, knowing he remembers everything. When I got to Bucharest I found him in his apartment, holding the plane ticket in his hands. He looked at me with the most regretful face ever. So I hugged him. Talked to him. Told him to he could come home if he wanted to."

"And he agreed, just like that?"

He shook his head, "He told me you wouldn't want to see him, not after he left. Is it true?"

I gave it a moment before I responded back. Of course I wanted to see him, but now that he's actually back, I'm too ashamed and cowardly to face him. I have no idea what to say.

"If you're thinking you didn't do anything or you failed. You're wrong. It was you who brought him back, Diane. It only took Bucky on his own part to willingly come back and try."

Bruce and Tony exit from the room, giving us permission to go inside. As Tony passes me, he places a gentle hand on my shoulder and leaves.

"Just go in there and talk to him." Steve tells me. He gestures me to head in and I hesitate, but I end up slowly making my way inside the room where Bucky sat.

He looks up when he hears me come in.

"Hey." He greets me with a low and soft voice.

"Hey." I greet back the same way as I take a seat next to him. I kept my distance, a few safe inches away for him. I was so used to giving him space, it still stuck to me now.

We both sat there in silence, not knowing what to say.

Bucky breaks the quiet atmosphere first, "I guess I should thank you. For bearing with me, trying to help me, and sending me back."

I shake my head, "It was nothing. It was all Steve, really."

"No, it wasn't. Both of you saved me. He knocked me back to my senses and I'm grateful to him for that. But you, you helped me remember. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't had come."

His words lightened some of the weight on my chest as I release a little smile to myself.

"And I guess I should apologize, for everything." He continues, "You have every right to be mad. I did that to protect you, but I gave you such a hard-"

I cut him off by placing my hand on his mouth, catching him off guard. "Don't apologize." I tell him simply. "I told you I can bear it all, as long as you came back and you did. Let's just leave it at that. I should be the one apologizing because I left you. I should have stayed with you."

He slowly takes my hand off from his mouth and kept it in his hand, resting them on his lap. "You did what was right. You thought about yourself first. There's no need to apologize for that."