Steph shifted to look up at Bucky's face and vowed, "They're not taking you away from me," in that same tone she used whenever she was facing impossible odds but she'd decided she was fighting anyway.
For probably the first time ever though, she had running as an option. She would rather live a fugitive than lose him again. So Madripoor was in the cards; no extradition treaty. Plus the art black market was something she could learn to dabble in and use to their advantage.
And then there was her last resort: time travel. Their discussion had been brief, but the surviving Avengers who had been involved in the heist had unanimously agreed that she return the Stones. What if she took him with her, and they just... didn't come back?
"I actually need your help with something." Might as well get him on board already, even if only for a backup plan. "Think you're up for one last mission?"
There was a soft, almost sad, smile on Bucky's face when he looked back at Steph then. "Hey, don't worry. I'm not giving up or anything," he told her honestly. "We'll figure something out." Maybe he could offer to be put in the custody of Captain America. Can't be more than 30 feet away from her or something. Whatever was decided, he was going to do whatever possible to stay by her side. They'd been separated enough.
But his brow perked when she asked that. "With you? I guess I can put off being a house husband for a while longer. What do you need?" Bucky had no way to know Steph had already discussed any other missions or anything. It must have been before he came back, since he'd been glued to her since the fight ended.
"Someone has to return the Stones. Job kinda fell on me." Steph recounted how they'd gathered the Stones and brought everyone back, and how the Stones had to be returned from the times and places they had been taken. "It would be nice to have someone watching my back though."
That, and a part of her actually wanted Bucky around in case something did go wrong. What if she got stranded somewhere in time? They would at least be together.
"But it probably won't be for a while. Not until after Tony's funeral, at least. Your trial might be underway by then." She wasn't outright suggesting they bail, because she knew he felt he had to atone for the Soldier's sins, and the trial might help him find closure somehow. But she sure as hell wasn't letting the government lock him up, or worse.
Bucky had to blink at Steph for a moment. "So... you're asking me to time travel with you?" He had to ask, just to make sure he was following properly. "Also, you didn't think I'd say no to that, right? Steph, sweetheart, I love you, but you are probably the most reckless person I've ever met. No way would I let you do that by yourself."
Knowing Steph, if she went on her own, she'd probably get herself killed, or get some kinda wild idea to go save Bucky from his future or something stupid like that. Or even just get lost somehow. He wasn't about to risk losing her like that.
"If the trial is going when you need to go, we'll figure out some way for me to be with you for it. Don't worry."
"Yeah, time travel. And space travel. Some of the Stones were housed in other planets. I'll let you pilot the ship."
Steph couldn't even be mad at Bucky calling her reckless and implying that she was going to do something stupid without him around. She was now excited at the thought of him living his science fiction dreams. He never got his flying car, but hey, he could pilot a spaceship for this one. They could even visit other planets while they were at it.
"If the trial is going when we need to go, we can be back before anyone notices we're gone. Time travel. Have you seen Back to the Future yet?"
There was no helping the laugh that bubbled up in Bucky at that point. "So, you're telling me," the smile on his face was a hell of a lot happier than it had been just a couple of minutes ago, "that not only am I getting to marry my dream girl, but I get to time travel and go to space." If someone told him he would have the opportunity to do all that when he was in his teens or twenties, he would have thought they had absolutely lost it. Back then, he would have had a hard enough time believing his feelings for Steph were returned, let alone the rest of it.
The question about whatever Back to the Future was made him roll his eyes, though. "I went from escaping, to being on the run, trying to figure out who I was, to being in cryo, to raising goats. If it's some kinda movie or TV show, then no, I haven't seen it," he answered, chuckling. "I'd say most of my experience with TV was just me standing on a sidewalk watching a store display through the window. Or this movie." With the last bit he gestured towards where Treasure Planet was playing on the wall.
"Welcome to the Avengers, Sarge," Steph teased with a laugh, then pushed herself up enough to give Bucky a kiss. It made her happy to see him happy, and she was going to do everything in her power to keep it that way. He deserved so much better than the shitty life the universe had given him the past several decades. "We'll have time to plan the op after the wedding. And get you some flying lessons with Rocket." Had she mentioned he was a talking alien raccoon?
It was also nice to get to talk about mundane things like movies, instead of missions and battles. "That's alright, that's more date night ideas for us." They could still go to the movies like the old days, or stay in with takeout. Whatever he liked or was comfortable with. She was partial with the latter, but there was also the appeal of finally doing the sneaky, incident things some couples did in cinemas.
"I don't know if I'd go that far. I'm joining you, not... everyone." His voice was teasing when he said it, but he didn't really think he was Avenger material. And probably wouldn't be wanted by most of them, anyway, considering his past. "And, hey, I already know how to fly planes and helicopters. Is it that much different?"
Bucky let his eyes close again, comfortable and content and grinning softly. "There's lots of places for date nights. Movies, dinner, museums, Coney Island..." Not only were they in New York City, where there were a million options, but they could also just have evenings where they walked around exploring how much places they knew in the past had changed in the years since then. "Hope you don't care that I'm going to want to stay in most nights though."
It was one op, but Steph figured they might be able to use it for Bucky's trial anyway. She knew a thing or two about public perception, after all. Between Bucky becoming an Avenger, Captain America marrying the Winter Soldier, and the pool of evidence of HYDRA's atrocities, he should be able to walk free, unless the plan all along was to use him as a scapegoat for the government's failures.
"What's mine is yours once we're married, remember?" That wasn't how it worked, but it also wasn't like there was an official membership process or anything. "Look, it's one mission and we're out. I just want us to be together in the history books again," she teased some more.
After a while their conversation shifted to flying a ship and Steph's first trip to space. "Fucking worst. Worse than the Cyclone," she swore. The view of Earth from space was really something though, and she wanted him to see it.
Then the topic moved back to date nights. "Roadtrip," she added to the list. On their bikes would be fun, but they could also just rent a car. "But hey, I'd rather stay in most nights too. We could play board games, or read, or slow dance in the kitchen." Having sex was a given after their dates, so she didn't list it anymore.
"Just say when and where, and I'll be right there with you. You don't have to convince me." And it wasn't just for the sake of getting to live some of his sci-fi dreams, either. But that was definitely a bonus.
Bucky laughed softly as Steph listed various things they could do. "We used to do two of those things all the time," he said, grinning. The board games and reading passed the time when they were hanging out, even though they didn't have many games. Just a couple, but it was better than nothing. The dancing would be... not new, but they didn't do it very often.
One night, when he had danced with her on the Boardwalk on her birthday, while badly singing Cheek to Cheek actually came to mind often.
"You know, I used to wish those nights were actual dates."
"Me too," Steph agreed wistfully. "Especially the one when I turned 17. The dancing, not the Cyclone. Do you remember that at all?" Having made peace with their feelings, her doubt was now because of what HYDRA did to his head, not because she didn't think he'd have considered the moment important. "I wanted so badly to kiss you."
Everything would've changed if she did, she knew now. They'd have made plans to marry the following year.
No use dwelling on what-could-have-beens though. Still, it was nice to think about how much they wanted each other.
"I think about that night a lot," Bucky admitted, smiling softly as he held her. "It was one of the first really clear memories I got back." It might have been because it was also one of the memories Bucky tried to hold onto so tightly when HYDRA was trying to erase who he was in the first place. Most of the memories he tried to hang onto during that time were of Steph.
"But, hey, we got here eventually." Hell, he was just a couple days away from marrying her. "And now we get to have all the date nights we want."
He still couldn't believe what massive idiots they'd been, especially with just how long they'd known each other, but there was genuinely no one else he'd rather spend his nights with, and there never had been.
"Not just nights, though I don't think we're morning persons anymore." Steph still went on runs in the morning, but only after being up for most of the night. She hadn't really been sleeping well since the war; before that she at least had those nights where she wasn't too sick or tired and Bucky was over for her to curl into. Maybe things would be better now that they had that as a permanent arrangement. Hell, she didn't think she remembered sleeping as soundly as she did the past two days.
"I still get nightmares of the train, or of being trapped in the ice, or of you crumbling into dust," she admitted. "Most nights I just stay up to draw, then the next thing I know it's dawn, and I go outside to run."
"I have a lot of nightmares," Bucky said with a sigh. "The train, the things they did to me, the things I did for them..." There had been so damn much.
But he had slept so well beside Steph. No, he didn't sleep for quite as long as she had. And also no, he didn't think she was going to be a magic pill to keep him from ever having nightmares again. But it had been the most peaceful sleep he'd had in more years than he could count.
"They get... bad sometimes," he started, feeling like he should probably warn her if she was going to spend her nights curled up beside him. "I've, uh, woken up swinging a couple times."
Steph hugged him tighter, burying her face into the crook of Bucky's neck. "That's alright. You can't hurt me anymore."
They both knew it was a lie, of course. He'd nearly killed her on that helicarrier. But at least she wasn't weak and sickly anymore. If he did at least accidentally strike her while asleep, she'd just end up sporting a bruise for a while.
She kissed his jaw. "Hey, if you ever need to... I don't know, sleep in the other room, give yourself some space, that's fine too, alright? We haven't been roommates in years." Technically not even roommates, but he'd been over her place enough he might as well have lived there.
"We'll figure it out as we go, alright?" he told her simply. He didn't want to sleep in the other room if he didn't have to, so hopefully Steph would be at least calming enough to keep him from swinging. Bucky didn't think she'd be able to get rid of the nightmares entirely or anything, but not lashing out would be a good start.
Bucky let out a single, humorless laugh then, followed by a sigh. "You sure you wanna tie yourself to me?" he asked, even though he knew she wouldn't turn him away just for that. "I don't think you could find many people with more baggage than I come with."
"Hey." Steph pushed herself up so she was leaning over Bucky, her expression serious and determined. "I'm sure. Don't even bother trying to change my mind."
She rested her forehead against his, closing her eyes and suddenly grinning. "I'd bet that if you went back in time and told me in... I don't know, in '43, that you love me, past me would take you, baggage and all. But I don't wanna fight her for you, okay? She has her own dumbass to deal with in a few decades."
She knew she would love him, always. Hell, she'd have tied herself to him before the Wakandans intervened, if he'd allowed himself be around her.
Bucky tightened his arms around Steph, hugging her tightly as he closed his eyes. "I'm not gonna go confess to past you. Then I'd just have to explain all my shit, and that wouldn't be good for anyone." It was a joke, but it was a bad one, and Bucky knew it. "You already know about all that, and you're still dumb enough to sign up for a lifetime of it."
And he would be thankful every day that she was dumb enough to sign up for a lifetime of it. Bucky didn't know what he would do without her. Hell, he would probably still be trapped without her.
Either way, thinking about the fact that she was signing up for it made him grin just a little again. "I wish Becca was still around so I could tell her I was bringing you into the family. She would have been excited as hell." And probably would have demanded to be Steph's maid of honor or something.
"And whose problem would this dumbass be now? Yours. So who's really the dumb one, huh?" Look, Bucky was asking for it. Giving each other shit for being stupid was part of their love language, and Steph wasn't going to let the opportunity pass.
Him mentioning Becca gave her an idea. "You know, we could visit her. We just need to pick a point in time where it wouldn't matter if she knows we're alive and from the future." Or if Becca believed it at all. Steph remembered going to Camp Lehigh with Tony to grab the Tesseract, and seeing him get a chance to talk to Howard. It had done him some good. Maybe talking to Becca would help Bucky too.
Bucky and Steph were going to end up giving each other shit until the day they died, he was sure of it. It was just what they'd always done, and part of how they became friends in the first place. Bucky didn't start out treating her any differently from the other kids just because she was smaller, and even on that first day he could see she could stick up for herself, but that was part of what he had liked about her. She didn't let her size stop her.
Sure, over time, he began to treat her a little differently from everyone else, but it still wasn't because of that. It was more because of the feelings he had for her and how he tended to put her before anyone else. Didn't mean he'd stop calling her a dumb punk, though.
Laughing softly, Bucky let his natural hand slide down to give her ass a squeeze. "Hey, at least I picked a dumbass with a great ass," he teased. "I've always liked your ass, though. Even if most of your clothes used to hide it."
But then, Bucky blinked a bit, staring at Steph. "Wait. We could do that?" he asked, the idea sparking a little bit of hope in him. Even if it was just to say goodbye to her, that would be more than he ever thought he would get. "We would... probably have to be pretty careful about when, though, huh? And if she's an option, we could also stop by and see your mom." Like Bucky would ever pass up a great opportunity, like seeing his sister one more time, without considering if they could do the same for Steph.
"Where were all these compliments 90 years ago?" Steph teased just a little more. She wouldn't have believed Bucky if he also didn't tell her how he felt though, thinking he was just saying things because he was her best friend. In any case, she was taking them now. It actually was vindicating to know that he liked her just fine before the serum.
They moved on to planning their little mission side trip. "I mean if we couldn't, I already fucked up the timeline somewhere by telling past me that you were alive." If anyone would cling to such a claim, it would be her. Past Steph was hopefully leveraging the Avengers now to search for her Bucky — unless the Tesseract vanishing posed a bigger problem. She hadn't exactly been privy to how that went.
"Maybe we could visit Ma just before she passed," she mused thoughtfully. "She would be happy. She never teased me, but she did want to know how I really felt about you."
90 years earlier Bucky had definitely thought and felt every one of the compliments he'd been giving her, but he didn't think she would want them from him. At best he figured she would just brush them off, thinking he was just being nice, even though he would have meant every word.
"So, you went back in time to get those stones, but decided you needed to make a pit stop to tell yourself that I'm alive?" Yep, that sounded like the sort of insanity that Steph would get up to. And the fact that it didn't even really surprise him? He really was a dumbass for not realizing how deep her feelings for him went.
"Anyway, we'd probably need to do the same with Becca. Visit her not long before she went, probably around the time you visited her before." Sighing, he pressed a kiss to the top of Steph's head again. "It might help them when they go, you know? Knowing that it took a while, but we finally got here." Hell, they'd already be married by the time they went on their trip and everything. "I don't think the fact that we'll be married will surprise either of them. Probably just how long it took. And maybe the time travel."
Steph chuckled. "More like, I got into a fight with past me and needed to distract her to land a blow and knock her out." She recounted how, at that time, they were fighting someone who could take on other people's appearance, so seeing double had made her younger self assume she was the enemy. "Fighting yourself is weird. You make the same moves, have the same weaknesses. So yeah, I figured telling her you were alive oughta work. If I'd had more time, I would've given her the coordinates to the facility in Siberia." But she hadn't been prepared for that.
Bucky had a point. She nodded, shifting to snuggle a bit more into him. "My Ma was worried about me being alone after she passed. And Becca, God... she told me how heartbroken she'd been. You had a funeral, at least. My death was just splashed on the front pages of every paper in the country."
"Of course you got into a fight with yourself. Only you, I swear," Bucky said, grinning softly. If anyone was going to end up in a fight with themself, it was definitely Steph Rogers.
However, at the mention of the papers, Bucky's grin disappeared. "Yeah, I... I know about the front pages," he started, frowning as he thought back. "I held out for longer than they expected, so they were still working on breaking me when you crashed. Sometimes they'd bring those papers in to show me. Sometimes they'd read excerpts." HYDRA had known good and well that Bucky was close with Captain America, so they knew they could use those papers against him. At least they didn't realize how close they were, not that it would have changed anything.
"Hey!" Steph laughed and punched Bucky's arm playfully. "I didn't do it on purpose! How was I to know I would run into her?" She knew what it sounded like though, so she couldn't really complain about his teasing.
She pursed her lips into a thin line as he recounted how HYDRA had used her supposed death against him. It was even worse now that she knew how he felt about her. "I'm so sorry, Buck." She buried her face into the crook of his neck. "You know I'd change it if I could, right?"
She'd thought about using the Stones to go back and save him. Stop his fall or stop HYDRA or whatever it took. But how could she leave him now? This Bucky was hers, and while saving another version of him would temper her guilt, this one just wanted her to be here.
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For probably the first time ever though, she had running as an option. She would rather live a fugitive than lose him again. So Madripoor was in the cards; no extradition treaty. Plus the art black market was something she could learn to dabble in and use to their advantage.
And then there was her last resort: time travel. Their discussion had been brief, but the surviving Avengers who had been involved in the heist had unanimously agreed that she return the Stones. What if she took him with her, and they just... didn't come back?
"I actually need your help with something." Might as well get him on board already, even if only for a backup plan. "Think you're up for one last mission?"
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But his brow perked when she asked that. "With you? I guess I can put off being a house husband for a while longer. What do you need?" Bucky had no way to know Steph had already discussed any other missions or anything. It must have been before he came back, since he'd been glued to her since the fight ended.
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That, and a part of her actually wanted Bucky around in case something did go wrong. What if she got stranded somewhere in time? They would at least be together.
"But it probably won't be for a while. Not until after Tony's funeral, at least. Your trial might be underway by then." She wasn't outright suggesting they bail, because she knew he felt he had to atone for the Soldier's sins, and the trial might help him find closure somehow. But she sure as hell wasn't letting the government lock him up, or worse.
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Knowing Steph, if she went on her own, she'd probably get herself killed, or get some kinda wild idea to go save Bucky from his future or something stupid like that. Or even just get lost somehow. He wasn't about to risk losing her like that.
"If the trial is going when you need to go, we'll figure out some way for me to be with you for it. Don't worry."
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Steph couldn't even be mad at Bucky calling her reckless and implying that she was going to do something stupid without him around. She was now excited at the thought of him living his science fiction dreams. He never got his flying car, but hey, he could pilot a spaceship for this one. They could even visit other planets while they were at it.
"If the trial is going when we need to go, we can be back before anyone notices we're gone. Time travel. Have you seen Back to the Future yet?"
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The question about whatever Back to the Future was made him roll his eyes, though. "I went from escaping, to being on the run, trying to figure out who I was, to being in cryo, to raising goats. If it's some kinda movie or TV show, then no, I haven't seen it," he answered, chuckling. "I'd say most of my experience with TV was just me standing on a sidewalk watching a store display through the window. Or this movie." With the last bit he gestured towards where Treasure Planet was playing on the wall.
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It was also nice to get to talk about mundane things like movies, instead of missions and battles. "That's alright, that's more date night ideas for us." They could still go to the movies like the old days, or stay in with takeout. Whatever he liked or was comfortable with. She was partial with the latter, but there was also the appeal of finally doing the sneaky, incident things some couples did in cinemas.
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Bucky let his eyes close again, comfortable and content and grinning softly. "There's lots of places for date nights. Movies, dinner, museums, Coney Island..." Not only were they in New York City, where there were a million options, but they could also just have evenings where they walked around exploring how much places they knew in the past had changed in the years since then. "Hope you don't care that I'm going to want to stay in most nights though."
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"What's mine is yours once we're married, remember?" That wasn't how it worked, but it also wasn't like there was an official membership process or anything. "Look, it's one mission and we're out. I just want us to be together in the history books again," she teased some more.
After a while their conversation shifted to flying a ship and Steph's first trip to space. "Fucking worst. Worse than the Cyclone," she swore. The view of Earth from space was really something though, and she wanted him to see it.
Then the topic moved back to date nights. "Roadtrip," she added to the list. On their bikes would be fun, but they could also just rent a car. "But hey, I'd rather stay in most nights too. We could play board games, or read, or slow dance in the kitchen." Having sex was a given after their dates, so she didn't list it anymore.
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Bucky laughed softly as Steph listed various things they could do. "We used to do two of those things all the time," he said, grinning. The board games and reading passed the time when they were hanging out, even though they didn't have many games. Just a couple, but it was better than nothing. The dancing would be... not new, but they didn't do it very often.
One night, when he had danced with her on the Boardwalk on her birthday, while badly singing Cheek to Cheek actually came to mind often.
"You know, I used to wish those nights were actual dates."
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Everything would've changed if she did, she knew now. They'd have made plans to marry the following year.
No use dwelling on what-could-have-beens though. Still, it was nice to think about how much they wanted each other.
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"But, hey, we got here eventually." Hell, he was just a couple days away from marrying her. "And now we get to have all the date nights we want."
He still couldn't believe what massive idiots they'd been, especially with just how long they'd known each other, but there was genuinely no one else he'd rather spend his nights with, and there never had been.
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"I still get nightmares of the train, or of being trapped in the ice, or of you crumbling into dust," she admitted. "Most nights I just stay up to draw, then the next thing I know it's dawn, and I go outside to run."
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But he had slept so well beside Steph. No, he didn't sleep for quite as long as she had. And also no, he didn't think she was going to be a magic pill to keep him from ever having nightmares again. But it had been the most peaceful sleep he'd had in more years than he could count.
"They get... bad sometimes," he started, feeling like he should probably warn her if she was going to spend her nights curled up beside him. "I've, uh, woken up swinging a couple times."
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They both knew it was a lie, of course. He'd nearly killed her on that helicarrier. But at least she wasn't weak and sickly anymore. If he did at least accidentally strike her while asleep, she'd just end up sporting a bruise for a while.
She kissed his jaw. "Hey, if you ever need to... I don't know, sleep in the other room, give yourself some space, that's fine too, alright? We haven't been roommates in years." Technically not even roommates, but he'd been over her place enough he might as well have lived there.
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Bucky let out a single, humorless laugh then, followed by a sigh. "You sure you wanna tie yourself to me?" he asked, even though he knew she wouldn't turn him away just for that. "I don't think you could find many people with more baggage than I come with."
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She rested her forehead against his, closing her eyes and suddenly grinning. "I'd bet that if you went back in time and told me in... I don't know, in '43, that you love me, past me would take you, baggage and all. But I don't wanna fight her for you, okay? She has her own dumbass to deal with in a few decades."
She knew she would love him, always. Hell, she'd have tied herself to him before the Wakandans intervened, if he'd allowed himself be around her.
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And he would be thankful every day that she was dumb enough to sign up for a lifetime of it. Bucky didn't know what he would do without her. Hell, he would probably still be trapped without her.
Either way, thinking about the fact that she was signing up for it made him grin just a little again. "I wish Becca was still around so I could tell her I was bringing you into the family. She would have been excited as hell." And probably would have demanded to be Steph's maid of honor or something.
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Him mentioning Becca gave her an idea. "You know, we could visit her. We just need to pick a point in time where it wouldn't matter if she knows we're alive and from the future." Or if Becca believed it at all. Steph remembered going to Camp Lehigh with Tony to grab the Tesseract, and seeing him get a chance to talk to Howard. It had done him some good. Maybe talking to Becca would help Bucky too.
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Sure, over time, he began to treat her a little differently from everyone else, but it still wasn't because of that. It was more because of the feelings he had for her and how he tended to put her before anyone else. Didn't mean he'd stop calling her a dumb punk, though.
Laughing softly, Bucky let his natural hand slide down to give her ass a squeeze. "Hey, at least I picked a dumbass with a great ass," he teased. "I've always liked your ass, though. Even if most of your clothes used to hide it."
But then, Bucky blinked a bit, staring at Steph. "Wait. We could do that?" he asked, the idea sparking a little bit of hope in him. Even if it was just to say goodbye to her, that would be more than he ever thought he would get. "We would... probably have to be pretty careful about when, though, huh? And if she's an option, we could also stop by and see your mom." Like Bucky would ever pass up a great opportunity, like seeing his sister one more time, without considering if they could do the same for Steph.
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They moved on to planning their little mission side trip. "I mean if we couldn't, I already fucked up the timeline somewhere by telling past me that you were alive." If anyone would cling to such a claim, it would be her. Past Steph was hopefully leveraging the Avengers now to search for her Bucky — unless the Tesseract vanishing posed a bigger problem. She hadn't exactly been privy to how that went.
"Maybe we could visit Ma just before she passed," she mused thoughtfully. "She would be happy. She never teased me, but she did want to know how I really felt about you."
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"So, you went back in time to get those stones, but decided you needed to make a pit stop to tell yourself that I'm alive?" Yep, that sounded like the sort of insanity that Steph would get up to. And the fact that it didn't even really surprise him? He really was a dumbass for not realizing how deep her feelings for him went.
"Anyway, we'd probably need to do the same with Becca. Visit her not long before she went, probably around the time you visited her before." Sighing, he pressed a kiss to the top of Steph's head again. "It might help them when they go, you know? Knowing that it took a while, but we finally got here." Hell, they'd already be married by the time they went on their trip and everything. "I don't think the fact that we'll be married will surprise either of them. Probably just how long it took. And maybe the time travel."
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Bucky had a point. She nodded, shifting to snuggle a bit more into him. "My Ma was worried about me being alone after she passed. And Becca, God... she told me how heartbroken she'd been. You had a funeral, at least. My death was just splashed on the front pages of every paper in the country."
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However, at the mention of the papers, Bucky's grin disappeared. "Yeah, I... I know about the front pages," he started, frowning as he thought back. "I held out for longer than they expected, so they were still working on breaking me when you crashed. Sometimes they'd bring those papers in to show me. Sometimes they'd read excerpts." HYDRA had known good and well that Bucky was close with Captain America, so they knew they could use those papers against him. At least they didn't realize how close they were, not that it would have changed anything.
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She pursed her lips into a thin line as he recounted how HYDRA had used her supposed death against him. It was even worse now that she knew how he felt about her. "I'm so sorry, Buck." She buried her face into the crook of his neck. "You know I'd change it if I could, right?"
She'd thought about using the Stones to go back and save him. Stop his fall or stop HYDRA or whatever it took. But how could she leave him now? This Bucky was hers, and while saving another version of him would temper her guilt, this one just wanted her to be here.
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