There was no point dwelling on the past. It was a lesson she'd had to learn the hard way. She wouldn't have realized it for herself if things hadn't come to this. She hated it, hated the damage she'd caused, but now she knew better.
What she didn't know was what to do with herself after she finished getting this Bucky and his Steph back together, and making sure the Bucky of her timeline wouldn't get locked up so he had the chance to finally live his life. How could she tell him how she felt after she'd already broken his heart by leaving? Would his anger hurt more, or would the fact that he might choose to stay with her anyway, because it made her happy?
He looked away again then, the frown forming on his face. It was his near permanent expression, so it was natural for it to come back. "Yeah. I'll tell her." But then he paused. "If she wants to come back. She might not want to." Just a little while ago Steph had been telling him about the medical advances that could help her.
Plus, what if she just flat out liked the other Bucky better?
"I'm not going to try to force her to come back here with me, though. Not if she wants to stay there." It wasn't like Bucky never forced Steph to do things, but it was mostly things like carrying her out of fights that she Definitely Didn't Start, or making her get back in the bed when she was sick. Things that were for her own good.
"So you're coming?" Bucky did say come back here with me. "And you might wanna stay in the future for a while. It's not like the world is gonna implode if there's two of you." Or at least it hadn't so far, in the times Steph had traveled back. "We can tell you apart anyway." She tapped his left forearm. "You still got this."
Okay, so maybe she shouldn't have touched him more than this weird linked arms thing they'd been doing for a while now. But they had lapsed back into something comfortable, like the old friends that they were, and it just... happened. She couldn't even pull away, letting her fingers rest there.
"I dunno if I can tell him," she admitted quietly. "I mean, what for? I left him, when he wanted me to stay." That she hadn't known what he really wanted was a shitty excuse, so she didn't make it to absolve herself. She had no right to do that.
"I guess I am," Bucky said with a sigh. If nothing else, he'd at least like the chance to say goodbye to her. Sure, there was the possibility that she would want to come back with him, but for what? To go back to having little to no treatments for her ailments? And, from the sound of it, she wasn't alone there. That other version of him was likely with her anyway.
The tap on his arm and the comment about it surprised him slightly, though. "What do you mean? Did something happen to his arm?" It wasn't likely she was talking about his coat, after all. Bucky reached over with his right hand to let it rest on top of Steph's. It was crazy how, even though she was so much bigger than she used to be and it physically didn't feel the same to have her sitting against his side that way, something about it still felt the same in other ways. Comforting, almost, knowing it was Steph beside him, even if she was so drastically changed from how he knew her before.
But he could still be mad at her and comforted by her at the same time. That was a fact he had been well aware of since they were young.
"I don't know, Steph. Maybe explain why you left him? Because he probably doesn't see it the way you do. If he's anything like me, he probably just sees that the best friend he's ever had, not to mention the woman he loves, is just... gone." In this entire conversation, Bucky hadn't even considered that the other version of himself might have found someone else during or after the war. That just didn't seem possible to him.
Steph pursed her lips for a moment before answering, "He lost his left arm when he fell. He has a metal prosthetic now."
She paused, like she was considering how much more to tell him, but it wasn't that. She was simply distracted by Bucky's hand on top of hers. This was a lot more contact than she expected from someone who was mad at her and who was pining for the girl she once had been. However, instead of pulling away, she welcomed it, so touch-starved as she was between the five years after the Snap and the years she'd been in the past.
She closed her eyes as she considered his advice. "Probably too late for a love confession though," she said quietly after a stretch of silence. "But I guess it's for the best. I'm so tired, Buck." She hadn't planned on saying anything, but she supposed it was fine since he likely had no idea the sort of tired she meant.
"Oh." What else could he say to that? Bucky was pretty sure she meant when he fell of the train--which Peggy had saved him from thanks to changes Steph apparently made. So, by that logic, he had been moments away from losing his own arm.
The next thing made him chuckle slightly, though. "What makes you think it's too late?" he asked, shaking his head. "I don't know his life since things split or anything, so I'm going out on a limb here. But how many dames have you seen him with since the war?" Bucky was going to guess zero, cause that's how he would be. Hell, it's how he was, even without the added traumas Steph had mentioned.
"You don't think he ain't pissed or hurt that I left? And that's on top of all the... other things." Steph shouldn't, she really shouldn't, but she leaned in and tentatively rested her head on Bucky's shoulder. "He's already been through so much shit, he doesn't need to deal with mine."
She wanted to be with him more than anything, but she didn't think she deserved to be — for entirely different reasons now than when they were younger. It was stupid, yet it was hard to shake. Grief and guilt probably just worked that way.
"He died, you know. For real. Was gone for five years, until we figured out a way to travel through time and reverse shit. There was this... alien warlord, and he wiped out half the universe. We couldn't defeat him the first time." She closed her eyes. "Bucky was in Wakanda, recovering, and I had to ask him to fight again. I bring him nothing but suffering..."
Bucky was about to snap back at Steph, but when her head came to a rest on his shoulder, he just... didn't. Instead, he let her finish what she was saying and let himself get his thoughts in order.
She had already told him so much about her time, even if it was just in snippets. But it was crazy. He'd have to come up with actual questions for her at some point, but instead of doing it then he decided he just wanted to focus on one thing at a time, and that one thing was that she was clearly hurting.
"You don't really think that him being mad or hurt would make his feelings change, do you?" he asked, voice soft as he squeezed her hand under his. Bucky knew his own feelings were far too deeply ingrained in himself for that to be the case for him, so the other version was probably the same, or similar.
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There was no point dwelling on the past. It was a lesson she'd had to learn the hard way. She wouldn't have realized it for herself if things hadn't come to this. She hated it, hated the damage she'd caused, but now she knew better.
What she didn't know was what to do with herself after she finished getting this Bucky and his Steph back together, and making sure the Bucky of her timeline wouldn't get locked up so he had the chance to finally live his life. How could she tell him how she felt after she'd already broken his heart by leaving? Would his anger hurt more, or would the fact that he might choose to stay with her anyway, because it made her happy?
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Plus, what if she just flat out liked the other Bucky better?
"I'm not going to try to force her to come back here with me, though. Not if she wants to stay there." It wasn't like Bucky never forced Steph to do things, but it was mostly things like carrying her out of fights that she Definitely Didn't Start, or making her get back in the bed when she was sick. Things that were for her own good.
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Okay, so maybe she shouldn't have touched him more than this weird linked arms thing they'd been doing for a while now. But they had lapsed back into something comfortable, like the old friends that they were, and it just... happened. She couldn't even pull away, letting her fingers rest there.
"I dunno if I can tell him," she admitted quietly. "I mean, what for? I left him, when he wanted me to stay." That she hadn't known what he really wanted was a shitty excuse, so she didn't make it to absolve herself. She had no right to do that.
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The tap on his arm and the comment about it surprised him slightly, though. "What do you mean? Did something happen to his arm?" It wasn't likely she was talking about his coat, after all. Bucky reached over with his right hand to let it rest on top of Steph's. It was crazy how, even though she was so much bigger than she used to be and it physically didn't feel the same to have her sitting against his side that way, something about it still felt the same in other ways. Comforting, almost, knowing it was Steph beside him, even if she was so drastically changed from how he knew her before.
But he could still be mad at her and comforted by her at the same time. That was a fact he had been well aware of since they were young.
"I don't know, Steph. Maybe explain why you left him? Because he probably doesn't see it the way you do. If he's anything like me, he probably just sees that the best friend he's ever had, not to mention the woman he loves, is just... gone." In this entire conversation, Bucky hadn't even considered that the other version of himself might have found someone else during or after the war. That just didn't seem possible to him.
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She paused, like she was considering how much more to tell him, but it wasn't that. She was simply distracted by Bucky's hand on top of hers. This was a lot more contact than she expected from someone who was mad at her and who was pining for the girl she once had been. However, instead of pulling away, she welcomed it, so touch-starved as she was between the five years after the Snap and the years she'd been in the past.
She closed her eyes as she considered his advice. "Probably too late for a love confession though," she said quietly after a stretch of silence. "But I guess it's for the best. I'm so tired, Buck." She hadn't planned on saying anything, but she supposed it was fine since he likely had no idea the sort of tired she meant.
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The next thing made him chuckle slightly, though. "What makes you think it's too late?" he asked, shaking his head. "I don't know his life since things split or anything, so I'm going out on a limb here. But how many dames have you seen him with since the war?" Bucky was going to guess zero, cause that's how he would be. Hell, it's how he was, even without the added traumas Steph had mentioned.
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She wanted to be with him more than anything, but she didn't think she deserved to be — for entirely different reasons now than when they were younger. It was stupid, yet it was hard to shake. Grief and guilt probably just worked that way.
"He died, you know. For real. Was gone for five years, until we figured out a way to travel through time and reverse shit. There was this... alien warlord, and he wiped out half the universe. We couldn't defeat him the first time." She closed her eyes. "Bucky was in Wakanda, recovering, and I had to ask him to fight again. I bring him nothing but suffering..."
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She had already told him so much about her time, even if it was just in snippets. But it was crazy. He'd have to come up with actual questions for her at some point, but instead of doing it then he decided he just wanted to focus on one thing at a time, and that one thing was that she was clearly hurting.
"You don't really think that him being mad or hurt would make his feelings change, do you?" he asked, voice soft as he squeezed her hand under his. Bucky knew his own feelings were far too deeply ingrained in himself for that to be the case for him, so the other version was probably the same, or similar.
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