The Same Star ~ Chapter 9
~Steve’s POV~ Bucky flies out of the med room, metal arm slamming into the other side of the hallway; breaking the drywall. He turns around and locks eyes with the captain.
Oh god no.
He’s the soldier.
The relapsed soldier starts towards him. Dead, almost gray eyes connecting with Steve’s vibrant blue. Steve stands his ground. Refusing to run from his friend.
“Bucky, stop. It’s me, Steve Rogers. I’m your best friend. We saved yo-” Steve gets cut off as a flesh hand wraps around his throat.
“You’re my mission… You’re..”
Steve notices the grip on his throat tighten, “Stevie,” Steve chokes out, “I'm-Your-Stevie.” He says as his vision starts going dark.
Suddenly the hand is gone. Steves breaths turning to urgent gasps, making him think of his asthma attacks from the past.
As his vision returns he hears a sobbing breath from his side, “Stevie? Stevie talk please.”
Steve could barely breathe, let alone talk, but he knew his friend needed him.
When Bucky asks someone to talk, whether its Steve or Natasha or Sam, it means just that. He needs to be grounded. Sometimes he asks after a panic attack, or just on a bad day. They typically say the same beginning, then something the two went through together. Steve’s is always the most detailed.
“Your name is James Buchanan Barnes, but your friends call you Bucky. You were born March 10th, 1917 in Shelbyville Indiana. You were drafted into the United States Army, a sergeant starting in 1943. Even though you told me you enlisted, to spare my feelings. You’re the only son of George and Winifred Barnes, you have three sisters, and although you’d never admit it Becca was always your favorite. She’s still alive and is waiting for you, but knows it may take time for you to feel comfortable… Um, when you were 12 and I was 11 you saved me from Joseph O’ Conner. He was 16. He’d been grabbing on girls, pulling up their skirts and grabbing at their chests, of course I couldn’t have that.” Steve smirked at that, and could’ve sworn he heard Bucky scoff under his heaving breaths.
Steve looks over at his friend hoping to see him coming out from his ball on the ground, but sees him still curled up tightly, staring into his knees. Seeing this, Steve knows he needs to continue his story.
“Anyway… I saw him walking towards Barbara Jones, I think she was only 14 at the time. He reached for the bottom of her skirt and I just saw red. I was more than a foot shorter than him but I ran up and grabbed him by the collar and pulled. Damn guy barely moved an inch, but it let Barb get away. Next thing I knew I was getting dragged into the alley behind the movie theater on Pennsylvania Avenue. I was already having an asthma attack from being dragged, but when the kickin’ and hittin’ started I was sure I was done for… last thing I remember thinkin’ was that you would probably be the one to find me, and how would you tell my mom…”
Bucky was still gasping, but it had gotten a little smoother, not as ragged.
“Next thing I knew, one last punch landed against my ribs before I felt him get ripped off of me. I have no clue how you found me, but you did… My guardian angel. But I was still having an asthma attack, and I could feel fluid going into my lungs and I knew something… something was wrong, something bad. I was now more worried that you would have to watch me die, I didn’t want that for you, I knew you would feel like it was your fault and I didn’t wanna die knowing you’d blame yourself. I think I heard you bang on the back door of the movie theater, and the old man working there, I think his name was Mr. Wilson, well he ran out… Turned out he was a doctor ‘in a past life’ as he said when I visited after I was better. He kept me alive till the ambulance got there… You kept me alive Buck.
Steve was stuck in a flashback, but was pulled out when he heard his best friend’s voice.
“I found you, ‘cause from the first time we met… I made a habit of looking down every alley way I walked past… Just in case.” He said in between gasps for air, his words incredibly shaky, but still coherent.
Steve looked over at Bucky, who was no longer in a ball but still unable to make eye contact with Steve.
“I’m not a guardian angel Stevie, I’m a monster… a murderer. I hurt Tony, I tried to kill you again. What if I do this to Y/n… what if she doesn’t survive? It would be my fault anyway.”
Steve wraps his arms around the shaking man.
“You are not a monster Buck. You have saved me so so many times. I’m sure you didn’t notice, but you didn’t use your metal arm, at all during your relapse. You may not have felt in control, but you obviously were, at least subconsciously. You are getting better Bucky… And Y/n will be fine. She is strong, so strong. She is your soulmate, that means she is like you, a fighter. You need to believe in her, and believe in yourself.”
He suddenly felt arms wrap around him, tightly holding on to his friends body, face pushed into Steve’s chest.
“I’m sorry Stevie… I’m so sorry.” Steve hears, muffled in his shirt before Bucky goes limp in his arms.
