"Hey, Buck, wanna get back at Sam and Nat for keeping this a secret?" Steve asked as they dressed, Steve in his dirty clothes. He'd called in to say he'd be late and planned to stop by his apartment, maybe take a quick nap. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.
Bucky looked uncomfortable, "Um, Steve…"
"What, it'll be great."
"There was this time…Sam and Nat were there for me, and…"
Steve stopped dressing and turned to him. "What?"
"It's nothing, just forget it, I just…we shouldn't prank them, that's all."
"Bucky, what happened. No secrets, remember."
Bucky scrubbed his hand through his hair. "Look, you remember when you proposed to Sharon?"
"Yeah, about a year out of college."
"Well, I took it hard…a lot harder than I should have."
"Bucky…?"
"It wasn't…it wasn't just that. My contract with the soap was up for review, a pilot I'd be hoping for fell through, I was worried that all I'd ever end up doing was soaps…"
"Bucky!"
"Anyway, I got really drunk, and maybe, took some sleeping pills…and I mean, I didn't want, didn't really want…I called Natasha. She called Sam. I begged them not to take me to a hospital, 'cause it would get into the papers…"
"Oh, my God."
"No, it was fine. They walked me around my apartment all night until I sobered up—"
"I'm going to kill them."
"Steve! I begged them, made them promise not to tell you, because then they'd have to tell you why, and why I didn't call you, and…and it would have been a mess, and it was no big deal, please, please don't blame them. They were just doing what I asked."
"Oh, my God," Steve repeated and sat down heavily in a chair. "Bucky, you could have DIED! What would I have done then? What would they have told me then?"
Bucky knelt beside him, "Steve, please, I was an idiot. Please, just don't"
Steve stared at him for a few heartbeats. "Now we totally have to prank them."