Inspired by buckyjerkbarnes's the coming of our golden age on AO3. Title from The Last of The Real Ones by Fall Out Boy.

So this is my predictions/fix it fic for Infinity War and the MCU in general. After most Marvel movies, I tried to write a fic for it, but didn't get around to posting them. So I saved them for this. Basically filling in missing scenes in different character's perspectives, but they're all interconnected to the big battle. I know, I know, it hasn't come out yet, so what would I be fixing in the first place? But I just can't risk it. Y'all, I really can't.

So, this takes place in the year 2020, because that's my graduation year and my favorite future year to look forward to. So, four years after Civil War. For this chapter, Bucky is fully recovered with a shiny vibranium arm.

Enjoy!

Don't Freeze

It was a Thursday morning of being out in the market when the Ring first appeared.

Bucky was purchasing groceries. Cooking was fun for him and it was one of the activities he enjoyed while in Romania.

The civilians were already used to his presence in the market, a few greeting him by name. Some of the kids called him White Wolf, a nickname he didn't mind at all, a small group of them inviting him to play soccer in the street. He respectfully declined each time.

He heard a few surprised Xhosan words coming from the crowd. He turned to look at them pointing to the sky.

Then he saw it.

A metal ring hovered in the air, small in the distance. But it was nothing like the Wakandan aircraft in the hangar. Nothing like the commercial planes that now flew over the country.

Shit.

Bucky dropped the potato back into the crate and pulled out his phone to dial his only contact under the T. He felt a slimmer of relief when the king answered on the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey, uh, T'Challa?" Bucky asked. "You...you might want to look outside."

Bucky didn't sleep much the night before Steve was set to arrive.

Then again, ever since that Thursday of last week, he hadn't been sleeping much at all.

What Bucky felt was a lot of things. The adjectives for it were endless when it came to how Bucky felt; call it nerves to seeing his best friend again, anxiety in general of the great unknown of outer space. But most importantly, fear of the giant floating metal ring in the sky.

So, the end of the world was coming. He knew that feeling all those years ago, during the war, what with Hydra threatening to bomb half the planet. Except that now, it wasn't a world at war. No Axis versus the Allies, nothing like that; it was a tall purple man who had an army and a glove of powerful stones that could destroy planets.

Scratch that, they were stones that have destroyed planets.

Okay, so maybe the end of the world was an understatement.

Maybe end of the universe would be better fitting.

Despite the circumstances that the end of the world as he knew it was looming around the corner, he couldn't help but feel some excitement that the Secret Avengers were coming.

Steve.

Steve was coming, after nearly four years of not seeing him. Four years of Steve going around the world with the Secret Avengers and personally delivering the remaining HYDRA bastards to the gates of the hell they belonged in.

All Bucky could communicate with Steve through was with phone calls and for the first time since Romania, he formed a life without Steve in the immediate picture. It was hard. It was easy. It wasn't like losing a limb, but there was an absence.

Steve always talked about their future together, whatever it would be.

But now, with this war and a threat bigger than themselves, Bucky wasn't sure there would be a future for anyone else.

Bucky was pacing.

He had eaten a moderate sized breakfast, gotten dressed in a good amount of time, brushed his hair a few times. Ready before the half hour that T'Challa said to pick him up on the way to the Quinjet.

So maybe he was nervous.

Maybe he was a little bit nervous about everything. About what was going to happen in the future he may or may not live to see. About seeing Steve again. Fuck.

"You do know if you keep pacing like that, you're going to make a hole in the ground," T'Challa's voice came from the doorway. Shuri came in tow, her braided hair pulled up in two buns.

"I'm well aware," Bucky said, slowing down his pacing.

"Whatever you do, don't freeze when you see Captain Rogers," Shuri snickered. Both siblings snickered at some inside joke that Bucky didn't know the punchline to.

"I'm not gonna freeze," Bucky scoffed. Whatever the hell that meant.

"How were you when you heard his voice?" Shuri used her pinkie and thumb to mimic a phone and held it to her ear, but most importantly to mock the shocked silence Bucky went through to the point that Steve though he had hung up. Shuri mocked Bucky's voice with an exaggerated "Uh...hi."

Steve had called shortly after Bucky was ready to talk to him. At least, Bucky was sure he was ready until he heard his voice and felt all those feelings rushing back at him. and, well, he let out a delayed hi. He wasn't at fault. Nobody could have blamed him. Whatever. No big deal. No matter what the royal siblings said, it wasn't a big deal.

Except, of course, that meant absolutely nothing to Shuri and T'Challa, who witnessed the whole ordeal and were struggling to contain their laughter. At least T'Challa was graceful about it; Shuri had to leave the room to let out her laughter in the hallway.

Bucky rolled his eyes, "Whatever, your majesties."

After Bucky left the room, he heard Shuri ask "He is going to freeze isn't he?"

Okoye then said, "Like a baby gazelle in the headlights of a moving car."

Both of them laughed out loud, making no effort to obscure it. Bucy knew they knew he could hear them. But rather than fighting them on it, he kept moving to his suite.

No use in fighting Okoye in an argument he knew he was going to lose.

The walk to the Quinjet felt longer than it was. Bucky's heart couldn't stop racing. He lacked a weapon to hold on to, what with him taking a vow that he wouldn't pick up a gun unless it was life or death. Aside the kitchen knives he used for cooking, he didn't keep a weapon in his suite. He was absolutely safe in Wakanda.

The upcoming war was not here yet, so the vibranium laced assault and sniper rifles sat dismantled in their cases in the armory.

He caught Sam's glare of 's hate for him had dwindled over the years to bitterness that Bucky could understand. Natalia was blonde now.

And then there he was.

Steve's hair was longer. He had a beard. He looked unrecognizable to the Steve from 1944. Or 2016.

Steve greeted T'Challa first with a hearty hug that spoke volumes of trust between the two men.

"Steve."

Bucky couldn't wipe the grin off his face. Steve was back. His Steve. He was back. He looked so different, so good. So happy, even if it was just only going to last for a few moments. He had color in skin, a smile that made Bucky feel so warm like the clouded sun above them.

It was like they were back in Brooklyn before the war, before everything went wrong.

Fuck, he was so gone for.

"Buck."

Bucky didn't know he was sprinting to him until he felt the impact of the chest colliding, Steve's arms wrapped tightly around him.

He let his metal hand tangle itself in Steve's hair,

Steve broke the hug, but didn't let go of his arm. Nor did he back away from the close distance between them.

"How have you been, Buck?" he asked, smile not leaving his face.

And okay, Bucky wanted to kiss him so bad, right there and there, who cares who was watching, to pour out every feeling he felt in that action-

He stopped that train of thought.

Not the time. Not the place.

Get it together, Bucky.

So he did.

"Not bad," Bucky said, before remembering the circumstances they were all in. "For the end of the world."

Steve let out a short laugh, "Yeah, there is that." He dropped his hand from Bucky's arm.

Bucky followed his gaze into the sky, where the Ring hovered thousands of meters above Wakanda. Silent, with a even more menacing threat that was soon to come.

"Yeah, there is that, alright," Bucky repeated.

"Glad to have you back, captain," T'Challa said. "Even if it's under having to save the world circumstances."

"It's always under having to save the world circumstances," Steve said.

T'Challa smiled. "Let's get moving, then."

And that's chapter one! This fic is going to be from multiple different perspectives, but it was fun writing Bucky's. Thank you for reading! Reviews are welcomed!