AU where Steve gets hit in Infinity War. he goes down, bleeding profusely, battered and bruised…
and he stands back up and keeps fighting. "Steve?" ...and they lose. and oh god the next years are torture. but he feels himself grow numb, uncaring, focusing on Peggy for no reason. he literally doesn’t get it. and then there's hope. but Nat dies, and then Tony does. and Bucky is back and so is Sam. and he's left with returning the stones. but he’s got no reason to return. he lives out his life and as an old man on that bench gives the shield to Sam. he turns to Bucky, opening his mouth to say something… only to watch Bucky blankly lift a gun to his temple and press the trigger
he screams and thrashes, sobbing, feeling so so heavy with grief. god, this was not supposed to happen. he feels hands on his shoulders, assumes they’re Sam’s
but as his vision clears again, he’s no longer at that lake. and the hands on him aren’t Sam’s, they’re Bucky’s. Bucky talking to him, holding him tightly in place. Bucky, he’d just watched kill himself. he sobs his name out again, and Bucky climbs into bed (and why was there a bed?) next to him. Steve clings to him, crying, the dam finally broken, while Bucky whispers sweet nothings into his hair, kisses his tears away
later, after he was released from what turned out to be a Wakandan hospital, Bucky told him what had actually happened. he’d taken a hard hit and gone down. bleeding out from his guts and the deep gash on his head from the debris he’d crashed into. not getting enough air from how he’d landed. Bucky had called for him (and oh, he must’ve heard that), but he didn’t move
seeing him like that, Thor had gone for the head, effectively ending the war right there. or at least given them room to get Steve into medical
they managed to sew him back up, but he’d lost so much blood that even with the infusion from Bucky, they weren’t sure he was going to make it. and to make things worse, even as his body healed, he wouldn’t wake up
until his spike in heart rate and following thrashing alerted Bucky asleep at his bedside
oh. oh god. none of that had been reality. thank god. the only thing on his mind however- “I love you”
izzy806
tangentwithtanner
gummygunk
prguitarman
blakekathryn
