WS AU - 16

Cont...

It had been six months since the fall of Shield and one since Sokovia.

Bucky would never admit it but he was tired. Of fighting, of leading, of looking for someone who didn't want to be found.

Sam was a true angel through it all allowing him to keep Avenging and taking the lead on looking. But they were really out of options.

Bucky stared off the wharf as the lights of Coney Island reflected off the dark water.

He had contemplated throwing himself in once when he'd come out of the ice. The new world had scared him, the past moving farther and farther away. He'd felt cold then, not just physically but emotionally as well, simply, empty.

If he was honest, he felt the same way now, but Steve needed him he couldn't just throw himself into the abyss. So he sat and leaned back looking at both the stars and the lights on the ocean and wondering where his best friend was.

"The last time I was here my friend got me sick on the Cyclone." The voice froze Bucky.
The man came up and lowered himself down next to Bucky letting his feet dangle like when they were young.

"You remember that?" Steve ask watching the lights on the water.

"Joke's on you. You're the one that wanted to go in the first place." Bucky choked out in shock.

Steve chuckled, "I don't recall. I just remembered puking my guts out and cursing you from the depths of my soul."

Bucky laughed at that, "That I recall vividly. You could swear in your sleep. We joked about that later though."

"Yeah, we did." Steve agreed quieter now.

Bucky fell silent as well remembering when they had joked about that. Before their whole world changed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let go. I should have looked harder -"

"No. You did the right thing. I had a long time to think about it and I remembered after we rescued the 107th you were beyond sick. But then you got better. I started noticing how you changed, stronger, faster, smarter, more ruthless and I realized they had changed you." Steve shook his head. "If I am what happens with what they hate then I don't want to know what happens to what they made. If you had come after me you would have ended up with me serving them. It's good this way, we both survived."

Bucky was silent a long moment thinking over his words, "I forgot how good you are with words. You come up with that on the fly?"

Steve chuckled, "Jerk. I try and be sincere and all I get is your sarcasm."

"Hey! Watch it Punk I'm not above throwing you off the pier!" Bucky shot back laughing.
Steve chuckled along.

"Here." Bucky up pulling off one set of dog tags he had around his neck. "These were all we found."

Steve took his dog tags carefully as they clanked against his metal fingers. There was hesitation, guilt, and fear on his face. "I'm not the guy I was. I'm not the man you remember."

Bucky frowned looking over at the man so utterly broken he didn't believe he could put himself together again. The yellow in the lights cast an eerie glow on both of them casting them as angels or nightmares no one would know. "You don't have to be. I don't expect you to be the same. Time has changed, so have we. I'm not the same guy from 1943. You don't have to be either."

Steve looked at the tags a long moment before sliding them over his head. "They'll come."

 "Then they'll be asking for a losing fight," Bucky said standing. "The end of the line ain't coming for a while."

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