What's next?" Bucky asks, when all was said and done.

"Next?"

"We saved the world, Steve," he points out, indicating the damaged, but still standing world around them.

"We've saved it a few times, now, Buck."

"Yeah, but this time…"

"Was…"

"Definitely," he agrees eloquently.

They continue gathering the supplies Bruce has said they needed, when Bucky presses on with the thoughts that have plagued him for awhile, now.

"It's been mostly you, though."

"What?"

"I mean- fell off a train, captured by Soviets, brainwashed by Hydra. I haven't exactly been a world-saving Avenger, have I?"

"Course you were, Bucky. You are an Avenger. We all are, now."

Bucky stops him with a hand on his shoulder, staring at the ground as though it'll give him courage.

"See, the thing is, you don't have to be."

Steve looks into his best friend's eyes and is once again taken back by his strength and… acceptance. Bucky's expression is one he's seen far too often for the short time they've spent peacefully with each other in this future.

"Steve, you know I'd follow you anywhere, right?"

"Course I do, Buck. To the end of the line."

"Yeah," he sticks his hands in his pockets, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he reopens them, he's as stubborn as he's always had to be to compete with the determined little punk who doesn't know how to take care of himself. "You been saving the world, saving me, for over eighty years now, pal. Pretty sure this is the end."

Steve shakes his head unenthusiastically- doesn't want to understand what his best friend is implying even though it's all he's wanted for a long, long time now.

"The stones have to go back, Steve. Someone has to take them. Doesn't mean they have to come back, too."

"Buck, I-"

Bucky takes a deep breath.

"Nat's gone. Tony's… gone. The world is safe. This new world. 's not fair to make you restart all over again. Not when you got th' chance to go back. Back to Peggy. Have a life. That life you wanted after the war. War's over, and you can stand down, soldier."

Steve looks at his friend, and if both of their eyes are a bit red-rimmed, neither are going to mention it.

"You know, I could save-"

"Don't know how that would turn out," Bucky stops him. "Didn't seem to do that Thanos fella any good, tryna change things like that."

"You want me ta just leave ya, knowin' what's happening?" Both of their accents get stronger the longer they talk, but neither mentions it.

"I'll get to choose a life, now. So will you. I ain't worth risking the world again. Not when we just put it back together. Not when others sacrificed so much." Bucky reasons, the funerals he'd attended still fresh in his mind. "… Expendable. That's the word. I'm expendable in the grand scheme of things."

He gives Steve a shaky smile, then gestures to where Bruce is setting up the machine. Steve gives him a long, searching look, then a flashes a small smile of his own before walking over to retrieve the stones and Mjolnir, finally prepared to live a life of his own choosing as well.

After spending awhile looking out at the lake, Sam bids Bucky and his old friend Steve farewell, going to help the others with their tasks (and secretly excited to show them the shield). Steve promises they'll meet up again soon, but he stays peacefully watching the water. Bucky stays with him.

"Hey, Buck?" The older, more eloquent Steve finally breaks the silence.

"Yeah, Steve?"

"You're not expendable."

Bucky looks at his best friend, who came back for him once more, in the end. So many years have been lost between them, and yet he still recognises the conviction in his expression. He faces the water again, willing the moisture from his eyes.

"I know, Steve. I know that, now."

A/N: I mostly liked the Endgame ending. I just feel a few small conversations like this were left out. Bucky doesn't belong there anymore, but Steve does, and I wished they'd had time to establish that.

Title from Michael W. Smith's Friends are Friends Forever