Bucky's face was streaked with sweat, his eyes shut tightly and eyebrows furrowed. His shoulders jerked, pain—imagined pain—twisting his face. He screamed; he screamed so loudly Steve thought something had really hurt him.
"Buck. Hey, hey, Buck, it's okay." Steve shook his shoulder.
Bucky jerked again, blankets wadded up around him, and then his eyes opened. They were wide and scared, the eyes of a caged animal.
"It's okay," Steve said again. "You're okay."
The fearful look faded, replaced by confusion. "Wha-Steve?"
"Yeah, it's still me. You all right?"
Bucky's eyebrows lowered farther over his eyes. "You're in my room—you're in my bed..."
"I'm only on your bed," Steve corrected from his seat on the edge of Bucky's bed. He tried to grin, but couldn't quite pull it off. "You were screaming, Buck. I wanted to make sure you were all right."
Bucky looked down at his hands. "I'm fine."
Steve moved a little closer to his best friend. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Bucky shook his head slowly. "I hate them, Steve. The nightmares. I'm asleep, I'm in the middle of them, and it's real. I'm there again. Then I wake up, and I think 'it was just a dream,' and for a fraction of a second I'm okay. Until—" He broke off, looked Steve right in the eye. "Until I remember that it wasn't just a dream."
Steve held his gaze, searching for words. Sam was better at this stuff... "I'm not going to let them take you again, Bucky. I promise."
There was a flicker of something in Bucky's eyes, and then the corner of his mouth turned up in a quiet smile. "I know you won't."
Steve put a hand on Bucky's shoulder, then stood up. "Anything I can get for you? Do you want a drink, or—"
"No thanks, Steve. I'm okay now."
"Okay."
"Sorry for waking you up."
Steve smiled—a tired smile. "I wasn't asleep." He turned toward the door. "Get some rest, Buck."
Bucky didn't answer until he was nearly out of the room.
"Wait, Steve?"
Steve glanced back. Bucky was sitting with his legs over the edge of the bed, a hesitant look on his face.
"I'm not going to go back to sleep," Bucky said, almost apologetically. "Could—would you—Can we do something?"
Steve walked to Bucky again. He wasn't going to sleep either, anyway. "Sure. You want to watch a movie?"
A mischievous grin played on Bucky's face. "Is it as good as the ones you were in, back in the day?"
"You know what, Bucky—" Steve started. Bucky laughed, and then Steve was smiling too hard to even pretend that he was mad.
"Let's watch a movie," Bucky said after he'd caught his breath. "I haven't seen one in ages."