Chapter Text
“Cap, incoming from 4 o’clock!” in the heat of the battle, Hawkeye’s shout echoed through the intercom. His voice was kind of muffled due to the rush of wind from his current location, perching on the very top of a 10 stories building with his bow standing on ready.
“Roger that!” the so called leader of the team replied, straight to the point as he spun around and braced his shield high enough to offer him protection and a mean to counter the incoming attack. The enemy showed him no mercy as it barreled toward him with its horn gleaming under the light of the sun. The end of the horn was pointy enough to cause even Captain America to swallow a phantom lump down his throat but he pushed his fear down. The vibranium would be able to withstand it, he was sure of it. But he could at least dull it up by cracking it with a good hard shove, with his shield. “Come and get it,” he whispered, eyes sharpening in focus.
The Avengers fought waves after waves of experiments, cross-species, which once again had ‘slipped’ away from the tight guard of OSCORP. S.H.I.E.L.D had been monitoring the said company for quite a while and was ready to blow it to kingdom come should the permission being granted. Or at least when they had gathered enough evidence that what they experimented on behind that glass tower was illegal. Though seriously, after all that had happened, lots of people were questioning how come OSCORP was still able to stand without crumbling. Perhaps it was the fact that even though thousands suffered from its mistreatment and flaws, millions had been helped by their reach and innovation.
All of the Avengers were spreading all over the battlefield, as once again Manhattan had been flooded by inhuman force. It was nothing compared to the Chitauri attack back in 2012 but the damage that could be inflicted could easily reach the threatening level should no one take an action. And so, the Avengers were called to sweep the whole city clean of any threat in forms of unfriendly humanoids. Hawkeye kept watching the whole team move from one point to another between every shot of his arrows, giving them the navigation they needed from up top as neither Iron Man nor Thor who got the ability to provide them with aerial point of view had their hands free.
Hulk roared as he crushed one of the nearest cross-species with his bare hands, growling dangerously before throwing the carcass over his shoulder and rushing toward another. A couple experiments flinched and decided to make a run, while some of them chose to face the Hulk. Black Widow slipped gracefully through the enemy’s defense and landed deadly attacks with precise accuration. She knew where to hit and drop her enemy without creating needless mess. Next to her, close enough to keep an eye at his companions but far enough to provide them with space to avoid friendly fire, Captain America pushed himself forward to hold back an attack from a rhino-like cross-species.
As he had predicted before, the shield could withstand the attack but apparently the force he let out was not enough to break the horn. The impact was absorbed by the metal and gave the captain enough time to land a counter attack. He took a deep breath, focusing his strength on his biceps and forcing his shield to push the cross-species back. The momentum gave him the chance he needed to increase the gap between them and he drew his shield up before bringing it down to break the cross-species’ horn. It worked. He couldn’t help but let up a silent triumph deep inside his head that worked as an extra pump of adrenaline for his body.
“Cap! Incoming!” Iron Man’s warning came a little bit too late. The captain only got the time to see one of the enemies had manage to slip past his guard and was about to put him down, sending its sharp claws straight to his midsection.
“I got it!”
A couple strings of web followed the familiar voice that had caught the Avenger’s attention; at least those who currently got their hands free at the moment. A flurry of red and blue swung from one building to another, shooting another string of the same substance at the enemy to hold it in place. Captain America recognized the newcomer as an ally and let his focus wander to the real matter at hand. With the cross-species unable to move, landing a killing blow was not a big deal. The battle ended soon after the new ally joined, as the Hulk, Iron Man and Thor had obliterated most of the enemies.
“Okay, that should do it,” the Brooklyn accent slipped past the captain’s lips as he smiled, teeth lining up nicely to blind those who saw it. “Good work, guys! Drinks on Stark when we get back!” he unclasped his helmet and took it off. His bangs fell limp and stuck to his forehead from sweat and caked blood, nothing too alarming since his cell should have regenerated and closed the wound. One of the cross-species gave him quite a hard blow on the head and managed to leave a crack on his helmet, but nothing else.
“Hey!” Tony Stark let the face plate slid open, revealing the famous billionaire inside with a playful pout.
“A good day for celebration!” Thor boomed out a laugh and grinned from ear to ear. “Man of Spider! It brings me comfort to see you doing well!” he gave Spider-Man a firm clasp on his back. The man in spandex flinched from the friendly blow but showed no sign of resentment from the treatment.
“I know you’ll swing by sooner or later,” Clint whistles, climbing down from the building with a little help from his grappling hook. “Well, it’s a little too late since we’ve taken care most of those things, though.”
The Brooklyn guy laughed as he shook his head. “Apparently, your term of ‘late’ works pretty well as ‘right on time’ in my dictionary. Thanks for the help, kid,” he grinned and gave Spider-Man’s covered head a good ruffle. If the smaller man was offended by his action, he should do better than halfheartedly slapping Cap’s hand away.
Spider-Man crossed both of his hands in front of his chest. “I’m not a kid,” he huffed. “It was only right of me to help, anyway. Since those creatures getting away were partly my fault…” he mumbled those last words under his breath as if trying to let nobody catch what he meant. “Anyway, catch you guys later!”
“You sure you don’t wanna hang around for a drink or something?” Tony raised an eyebrow. One more mouth to feed wouldn’t leave a dent on his account, neither will a thousand but he was just trying to make a point.
“Nah, maybe next time!” Spider-Man jumped to the nearest building, using his webs as leverage and swung out of the area. Last to come, first to go. It was kinda unnerving to receive help from someone they barely know; all they know was Fury was all about recruiting the guy into the Avengers but apparently it wasn’t working. But at least they knew when it comes to fighting the bad guys; they were on the same side.
Tony sure showed a sign of disappointment as the arachnid faded from sight; not that he would put it into words. It was clear as day that the guy had at least enough brain cell inside his skull to impress the billionaire as they often spent their time mid battle exchanging scientific retorts and other mumbo jumbo other could barely catch. “Well, his loss then,” Tony shrugged. “Okay, time to head back then? You guys sure you don’t wanna eat kebab or something? No?” nobody responded to his non-so-subtle invitation. “Right… To the tower it is. You guys better clean yourself up real good for tonight’s party; especially you, Barnes.”
James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes offered his friends nothing but his trademark smile; the ones that made Tony want to kick puppies. “Me? Last time I remember, it was this birdbrain here who came mud-covered, bare-assed to interview,” he pointed at Clint who spared no time to slap his head upside down with his bow. Natasha let out a disgusted snort but the smirk she was putting on indicated how the memory amused her greatly.
Clint scoffed. “Fuck you, Barnes,” he hissed, baring his teeth as he recalled the memory. “You sold me out and ran away at the very last moment!” he and Bucky was planning to pull a prank at Thor but Bucky decided to chicken out at the last minutes. No, Clint had no intention to picture how his nefarious plan ended up biting him in the ass.
Bucky grinned. “Me? Selling you out? Why, how rude of you, Barton! I would never do such a thing!” he faked a hurtful face that looked more like a face cramp by the way he was holding his laughter.
Natasha clucked her tongue and shook her head, now trying her best to maintain her poker face. She remembered how mortified Tony was when Clint appeared on stage with nothing but his birthday suit, Thor tailing right behind him with booming voice. She couldn’t live it down for one whole week; neither could Bucky. “Kids, enough playing around. The clean up crew is on their way. I’m gonna head back now, you guys coming?” she chuckled, swatting her hand around to shove a certain memory away. “
Bucky combed a couple stands of stray hair out of his face with his fingers. A hot bath sounded so appealing at the moment but he knew he there was more important thing to do right now. He swung his arm up to check on his watch, only to realize he was not wearing it. Right, he was in his uniform. Figures. “Tony, what time is it?” the brunette called
“Eleven, right on time for early lunch if you ask me. You guys sure you don’t want kebab? Pizza maybe? Donuts? No?” Tony mumbled. Bucky kinda ignored him; he was not really hungry right now. He already had his fill of brunch before he departed from the tower while Tony got no time to grab something before rushing out of his lab.
It was almost noon, but at least he got enough time make a detour before attending tonight’s party. So to the tower for now, a quick shower and take the bike out for a ride. Should he wear the suit Tony had prepared for him before he went? Nah, it would end up all wrinkled and Tony would probably wring his neck, either him or Pepper Pots. “Guys, I might be late to the party. Think you can push my so-called speech back or something?”
Tony threw him a nasty glare. Bucky knew what he had in mind. “I know it! You owe me 100 bucks, Barton!” right, of course they would bet on it. Everybody knew Bucky didn’t like it when he had to give a speech to a lot of people. He had enough charisma and charm to put people on their knees but talking like a fucking political puppets were none of his talents. Some might call it stage fever but nah, he was just uncomfortable with it.
“Why am I not surprised?” he sighed. “I gotta pay someone a visit so maybe I’ll be back later than predicted. I’ve prepared a speech so you can shove those bets up your ass, Stark. I’m not backing down, you can count on it.”
Natasha raised an eyebrow. “It’s that time of the year already?” how the time went by. It was like it was just yesterday when Bucky bought a bouquet of roses and hopped into his bike for a ‘date’. Bruce told him that rose wasn’t exactly the one people would choose for that kind of occasion but the brunette just shrug it off and say it was better this way.
“Yeah, feels like it was just yesterday, huh?” Bucky smiled. He still gotta buy those flowers since he got no time to prepare one beforehand. He was thinking about lilies this time, but maybe tulips would be good too.
The team departed and made their way to the tower as soon as Jolly Green returned to Bruce Banner. Tony had prepared a change of clothes for him for obvious reasons, mainly to save the poor guy from embarrassment in case people showed up before he could cover that thing he should put away in public. Bucky laughed, nudging Clint with his shoulder as they exchanged jokes while Thor tried his best to understand what was so funny about what those two were talking about.
Bucky couldn’t believe how right it felt for him to be here right now. Now, if people asked about it, he could say for sure that his decision to drown himself together with Valkyrie deep into the Atlantic was the best choice he could even make. There was only one thing he couldn’t help but regret a little bit.
If only his best man could be here with him, everything would be perfect.
-0OoO0-
The first thing Bucky remembered when he woke up after his 70 years long sleep was that everything was so calm. There was no scream filling the air, no smell of gunpowder or blood, no smoke to paint the sky dark as his brothers in arms fell to the ground… It was peaceful. And then the radio… That snapped him back to his senses as he worked his brain to figure out what the hell was going on. When he broke through the guard and obstacle those agents put to keep him in place, he already knew that the world he knew was no longer there. This wasn’t his world, at least not the one he was supposed to live on.
“You’ve been asleep, Cap. For almost 70 years,” was all that Fury spared to him. He wanted to take it as nothing but a joke, that the dark skinned man in front of him was trying to make fun of him. But those buildings that surrounded him, those lights and blinking screens all over the places; those things forced him to see what he wanted to ignore.
He was in the future.
Man, if only Steve could see this.
He considered himself quite strong and had a remarkable skill to adapt. He spent about two weeks to get familiar with the technology that had rivaled what Howard Stark had created back in the 40’. But then the work called. And then he met the Stark of this era, a guy with an ego as big as his father and yet quite broken like Bucky himself. He could see the resemblance, how his brain works in a similar way as his father. They didn’t actually hit it off and become best friends on the very first meeting, but it surely worked out in the end. And now when Bucky saw Tony he saw him as Tony Stark, not a fragment of what Howard Stark used to be.
And then he met Natasha Romanoff and dr. Bruce Banner. Natasha was the type of girl that could easily be described as femme fatale. She was fierce and sharp, and yet elegance never left her very being. They got close real fast and knew how to take care of each other in various situations. Of all people, she was the one he found himself being partnered with in most of his missions. Not that he was complaining, of course. And then there was Thor and Clint. Barton was a piece of shit and that was why they both get along so well.
“You should’ve met him, Steve,” Bucky laughed as he traced the smooth surface of the headstone with his fingers. His smile was nostalgic with a hint of loneliness, but it wasn’t the time to break down. He had done this before, and he surely did feel better now than the last time he did such thing. “Man, I’m sure you’ll slap my head upside down for all the crazy things we’ve pulled together. I can still remember how Nat almost broke my fingers for trying to fold her report paper into a paper plane. She can be hard at times but she was a softie inside.”
He kept letting his tongue passed those words around and narrating his days as a member of the Avengers like there was someone who could spare his the time to listen. The thought that the man he cared about the most was near, even in the form that couldn’t be touched nor seen by him, brought him a little comfort.
Bucky sighed and sparks inside his eyes dimmed a little. A cloud of sadness filled his chest and increased the weight he had to bear deep inside. “Stevie,” he bitterly curved the corner of his lips up and he spelt the name affectionately. He had decided to go with lilies this year and smiled bitterly as he laid those flowers on top of a peaceful grave. He was so damn close to blowing up when he found out that the grave had been left unattended when he slept inside the ice. He spent one whole week to make sure the grave was all nice and tidy. “If only you’re here with me… I miss you sometimes, most of the time-…”
Who was he kidding?
“All the time.”