I.
They went to Sweden. They bought a small house outside a small town near the Baltic Sea.
Steve dyed his hair brown, grew a beard and Bucky cut his hair, shaved his beard off and if anyone asked they were brothers. Two young men who moved from the States to Sweden to experience something new after they lost their family. It wasn't a total lie, they were brothers and at least in Steve's case, he did lose his family.
T'challa and his people were kind and Wakanda was beautiful but they couldn't put a whole country and monarchy in jeopardy, so they left after Bucky's arm was replaced and T'challa gave him a red book that he found in Zemo's possession and told him that it was his. He didn't look inside, didn't tell Steve about it and burned it the first night at their new house.
Steve was resentless. They helped out on farms during summer and fall, trying their best to not reveal their actual strength. But now it was winter and no work for them to distract them. Steve checked the news every morning and evening. Some people called Steve and his friends heros and the true defenders of freedom, others called them traitors and criminals.
Usually when both sides argued on a talk show, Steve would sigh, rub his hands over his face, turn the tv off and go into the basement and run on the treadmill. People would notice if the new guy in town run a marathon every day faster than Usain Bolt. Yes, Bucky has been working on his pop culture references. It was nice to numb your mind with the internet as a limitless source on information when your mind was haunted by the things you did. The things they made you do, Steve would say. But in the end it didn't matter, it were his hands that did the killing and torturing.
Steve's friends were safe. They couldn't go back to their old lives but considering everthing else, they were remotely fine. Sam Wilson stayed in Wakanda and became friends with T'challa. Lang sneaked his way back to the US and when Steve repeately apologised for dragging him into this, he just shrugged, said Captain America needed his help and besides he was used to being a criminal.
Clint took Wanda and they went to a safe house in Canada where his wife and children waited for them.
„Auntie Nat took care of them", he winked at Steve and hugged him as a goodbye. Bucky had no idea what it meant but it made him sick that this man and his family had to leave their life behind because of him. He knew that Steve spoke reguarly to them and he himself even talked to Sam from time to time which only ended in them laughung and insulting each other.
„What about your girl?", Bucky asked his friend during dinner one time
„My girl?!", he looked confused and then suspicious like he knew too much about his buddy's love life.
„The blonde? That you kissed? I think I threw her on a table in Berlin?"
„Oh, Sharon. She's not my girl, Bucky!"
„So you now go around kissing women? I always assumed you only would kiss dames that you were into!"
„I don't go around kissing women!" Now, Steve looked offended. „It just happened! She helped us and I don't know... It didn't mean anything."
„You kissed her as a thank you? Boy, whatever happened to thank you notes?"
„Haha, very funny. Finish your steak!"
He later learned that Sharon still worked at the CIA and was transfered to a tiny, windowless office in Tokyo. And he learned that she was Peggy Carter's niece and that information made Bucky laugh so hard he nearly fell off his chair.
He didn't mention the fact that Steve never talked about Stark's son or the red- headed woman that let them escape.
They could go out running now since the darkness of the winter months gave them some anonymity.
The house was quiet and dark when they returned and they went to the kitchen to grab some water bottles and when Steve turned the lights on, he stopped and Bucky walked straight into his back.
„Hi boys."
Bucky went around Steve and saw the red headed woman from the airport sitting at their kitchen table, smirking at them.
„Natasha", Steve breathed and Bucky looked at him and the punk fucking beamed at the woman like Christmas came early and he basically ran over to her, wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the chair. She seemed surprised by his reaction, then confused and finally collected herself quickly and patted Steve on the back.
The woman's name was Natalia. No wait,her name was Natasha, he reminded himself. Are you sure?