Time, Spread Out and Thin

Five Bucky-moments in Steve Rogers' long life.

Pairing: Bucky/Steve
Rating: general
Warnings: It Got Sad, Pre-CA: TFA to Post A:IW
Tropes: Pining
Words: 500
Original Release Date: 14 Nov 2018
Prompt: MCU Almost-No-Rules Bingo Card 1: I3 Ice Cream, B4 Wind Chimes, I5 Vacation, G1 Pet, N2 Sleeping Late


Bucky came back carrying two ice cream cones and handed Steve one with a grin on his face. "What do you think?" he asked.

"'Bout what?" Steve asked through his first bite.

"'Bout today, I mean. What do you reckon it's the best day of the summer?"

Ah, so Bucky was picking up the conversation they'd been having before he'd darted off to grab them a cone each. Steve glanced out at the sea, all the beach-goers and the golden yellow sky as the sun was going down.

He looked at Bucky, joyful and smiling, and nodded. "The best, Buck."


Steve stretched and turned his head, feeling his neck crack with a satisfying pop. He inhaled, enjoying the sleep-warm scent of Bucky curled close to him and the delicate sound of wind chimes past the broken window. He knew they shouldn't be together like this, curled around one another in a bed in an abandoned manse in France but he trusted his own senses and knew his men well enough not to worry too much.

They'd seen Bucky keep up with him in combat; they'd seen bruises heal overnight.

They didn't say anything then. They wouldn't snitch about this either.


Steve frowned as he grabbed Bucky's hand and pulled him to his feet from where he'd been thrown from being a little too close to the detonation site. He didn't look too bad for getting tossed like he had but still, Steve worried.

"Why don't we go on vacation when we get home?" he asked.

Bucky scratched at the back of his head knocking soot from his hair and asked too loudly, "Vacation? What, you mean, to like, the Grand Canyon or something?"

When Steve nodded Bucky looked around at the destroyed Austrian countryside. He agreed and mumbled, "Yeah, okay."


"You need a pet, Rogers," Bucky said, reaching forward and hooking a finger around one of the goat's horns in front of him, shaking it gently side to side. "Stop that," he chided softly, "You don't need to eat Steve's bootlaces."

Steve's heart ached as he watched Bucky. He almost didn't know how to act around him anymore, what with the decades lost between them. Since he'd been in Wakanda, he'd never brought up if he remembered what they had been to one another and Steve couldn't be so selfish to ask.

He watched Bucky and pet the goat instead.


Sleeping late is an odd sensation. He'd rarely done it even before the army, or the war, or after the ice. He looks at the little hut around him and sees hints of Bucky Barnes all around. For a moment, he hadn't remembered and when he does, his nose tingles and his eyes go blurry. He's sure Natasha or Rhodey will come to get him soon. Tell him to stop wallowing and form a plan.

The only plan he'd been thinking about for so long was gone, like dust in the wind.

All he's left with are regrets.

And goats.