Screaming.
That's what Steve woke up to almost every night. Sometimes it was his, but most times, it was Bucky's. It's not like they slept in the same bed together, or even in the same room like they did back in Brooklyn when they were kids. But Bucky screamed so loudly and so often that Tony and the rest of the Avengers (excluding Steve) wanted to soundproof his room. Steve wasn't having it, though, and forced Tony to not soundproof Bucky's room, but instead the whole floor and move everyone to a different floor. Of course, Steve stayed on the same floor as Bucky, because that's what best friends are for. And besides, Steve had gotten used to being woken up at 3:30 in the morning by Bucky's screaming. Every time it happened, Steve would get to Bucky's room and wake him up as fast as he could. Sometimes, when Steve couldn't sleep because of his own thoughts or a particularly emotionally difficult mission to handle, he would creep into Bucky's room and sit in a chair that he'd pull from the corner of the room next to the bed and wait for the nightmare to start. It was those nights when Bucky slept easiest after he woke up because Steve was there making sure he was okay. Becuase Steve would never let anything hurt him because it was Steve, and Steve would do whatever it took to protect him, not that he really needed any protecting. But it felt good to get a good night's sleep every once in a while.
But tonight, when Steve woke up, it was different. Instead of the usual screams of tortured agony, Steve was awoken by a broken, pleading cry of "No! Not Steve! Anyone but Steve!" coming from the other side of the hallway. Steve ran down the hall into Bucky's room (Bucky kept the door unlocked because Steve would kick the door down if he couldn't get in). He grabbed Bucky's shoulders and straddled his hips to stop him from thrashing.
"Bucky, Bucky, Bucky," Steve said, progressively getting louder to wake the brunette up. "Bucky!" he finally yelled, and Bucky sat up, frantically looking around.
"Get off me!" He yelled, throwing whoever was on top of him off and into the wall with his metal arm.
"Buck," Steve groaned as he slid down the wall. He mentally kicked himself because he should have known better than to get on top of Bucky when he was having a bad dream.
"Steve?" Bucky whispered, looking around, trying to locate where the voice came from.
"Yeah, Buck?" Steve replied, standing up from his position on the floor.
"Ohmygodareyouokay?" Bucky rushed out in a single breath, rushing over to help Steve up from the floor.
"I'm fine, Buck. I'm more concerned with what happened to you," Steve said, waving away the hand Bucky offered to help him up and finally reaching a standing position, leaning against the wall. Bucky dragged over the chair from the corner of the room and urged Steve to sit down in it.
"I'm sorry Steve. I'm really sor-." Steve cut Bucky off.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Steve responded, looking at Bucky and refusing to sit in that stupid chair. "I'm fine. Tell me what it was about."
"What?" Bucky asked, genuinely puzzled because he'd forgotten the whole reason Steve was even here in the first place.
"The dream. Tell me what it was about," Steve urged, wanting to know how he could have possibly mattered in the dream.
"No," Bucky replied, being as stubborn as a mule.
"Please, Buck. Please tell me. I want to know," Steve pleaded.
"No, Steve," Bucky said, still being as stubborn as ever.
"Please. Bucky, please tell me. Bucky plea-"
"I said no Steve!" Bucky yelled, punching the wall to the left of Steve's head with his metal arm. "Alright?! I said no." Bucky quieted down at the end, realizing what he'd done when he looked into Steve's terrified eyes. If Steve had been a little to the left, or Bucky a little to the right, that could have ended with a lot worse than a fist-sized hole in the wall. "Oh my god," Bucky said, slowly backing away from Steve after retracting his arm from the hole in the wall. "Oh my god Steve I'm so sorry. Stevie, I'm so sorry." Bucky was almost out the door when Steve gathered his wits and realized what Bucky was about to do.
"Bucky no. Bucky please don't go."
"I have to Steve. It's the only way to keep you safe."
"I am safe. I'm perfectly safe when I'm with you."
"No, you're not. Look what I just did. What if your head was there Steve? What if you were there?"
"But I wasn't Buck. Look. I'm fine. Look at my face. See, Buck. I'm fine. I'm fine Buck."
"But what if one day you aren't. What if one day I hurt you and I never get you back. I can't lose you again, Stevie. I can't go through it again."
"You won't lose me Bucky. You won't. You know why?" Steve didn't give Bucky a chance to answer. "Because I love you, Buck. I love you. And I'm with you 'till the end of the line."
"Really?" Bucky looked up from where he was staring at his feet and made eye contact with Steve. "You really mean that?"
"Of course Buck. Come here," Steve outstretched his arms, beckoning Bucky in for a hug.
"I'll tell you if you really want to know. About my dream," Bucky said after a short, comfortable silence.
"You don't have to if you don't want to sweetheart," Steve said, and Bucky smiled into his shoulder at the nickname.
"No, I want to. It was back when I was in HYDRA, and I can't remember how it started, but you were dragged into the room. You were beaten and bloodied and I almost didn't recognize you. But then you looked up and I saw your beautiful blue eyes and I knew right then and there it was you. They started strapping you to a table and that's when I started yelling. I guess you heard me and came in to wake me up because the next thing I remember is you trying to stand up off the floor over there," Bucky explained, burying his head into Steve's shoulder to stop the tears flowing down his cheeks.
"I'm right here sweetheart. I'm right here and I'll always be right here whenever you need me. I love you Bucky," Steve said, pressing a kiss to the shorter man's forehead.
"I love you too Stevie," Bucky said, sniffling into Steve's chest.
A/N: Hey guys. It's me here. So this is my first Stucky fic, but I think it turned out pretty well. It ended up at about 1100 words, so it's a pretty good length. It's finals week and I was bored after I'd finished my AP Human Geo final so I started to write this. Sorry if it's a bit bad, it's like 10:30 and I'm freezing cold. Anywho, hope you enjoyed.
-xXCynthiaXx