the other side of the line
Bucky finds Peter after he blows up a building trying to get rid of an infestation.
He takes him back to the farm, back to Sam and Bruce and the others that are left over from the time before.
Peter's another mouth to feed, but he's also another fighter, another warrior.
When Bucky looks at Peter, he misses Steve more than he misses his arm, a nice warm shower, or a steaming cup of coffee. Bucky looks at Peter and hears his own voice taunting him in the back of his head that he traded his little guy from Brooklyn for a little guy from Queens and he didn't...did he? No, no one could ever replace Steve. It's just that Peter's so much like Steve before the serum, all good, all fight, and all bad luck; always getting right back up and into the fight. Steve after the serum was mostly the same, but just different enough that Bucky hated it. But he loved Steve, always, until the end of the line. The end of the line has come and gone though, and Bucky's alone on the other side except for when he looks at Peter and Peter smiles back at him.
I don't normally go here BUT
I can't kick this post-apocalypse winterspider AU from my brain.
