Bucky is uneasy about using the training pool with Steve, for obvious reasons. Every time Steve dives, Bucky has to fight the compulsion to go in after him. Every time Steve goes under the surface, he can see a tattered Captain America plummeting into the Potomac. There's something else there too, something buried too deep to reach just yet. It bothers him, but he can't quite place it.

He sits by the side of the water, trailing one foot over the surface and watching the ripples, watching the others.

Natasha is repeatedly dunking Tony over his sputtering protests, and Clint and Sam are in the middle of an intensive squirt-gun battle that has absolutely nothing to do with training. Bruce has decided to read beside the pool for once, and though they've splashed his book once or twice, he's studiously ignoring the 'juvenile' behavior of his teammates.

Thor's upstairs watching some kind of 'reality show' on the TV. Bucky's glad of it. Lightning and water are just a bad combination, and though Bucky finds him friendly and welcoming, he also finds him a bit overwhelming.

Steve is straying too close to Natasha's dunk-a-thon and he's likely to be next, Bucky notices, absently.

The atmosphere in the room is relaxed and easy and fun, but he can't seem to get the steel out of his spine or the unease out of his mind. It's familiar. But why?

It's not until Steve gets dragged under by Natasha's expert hand and comes up coughing up water that the world explodes around him and Bucky's sixteen again, standing on a pier overlooking the Hudson bay.


"You sure about this?" He says. "I understand if you don't wanna do it."

Steve is not a swimmer. He likes water well enough, but he can barely dog-paddle without getting winded. Bucky would normally rag on him for backing out of a dare... but this time he's honestly hoping Steve will. This just seems like asking for trouble.

"Yeah… Yeah, I can do it." Steve says, looking down at the water, eyebrows lowered in his trademark stubborn resolution. Bucky knows there's nothing on earth that will stop him from going through with the dive now, so he doesn't try. Steve always digs his heels in harder when you argue with him.

"Alright." He says, backing up and giving his friend room. "Knock yourself out, kid."

He isn't expecting Steve to take him literally.

He's dimly aware that someone is talking to him, that his face has gone slack and his eyes are probably staring vacantly, but he's not really present enough to care. A 15 year old Steve has vanished beneath the water and he hasn't come back up.

"Steve?" Bucky leans over the edge of the pier, but there's no sign of the scrawny twit anywhere. "Steve, c'mon man, this isn't funny. Don't screw with me, pal." There's silence. Not even the sound of splashing.

"Shit."

Before he even realizes he's made the decision, he's diving in, body slicing through the water smooth and sharp as a knife. After searching several fruitless moments, he starts to panic. How long can a guy stay under before he drowns? He's about to go up for air when he finally spots blonde hair drifting in the current.

There you are...

"Bucky, c'mon, say something…" There's a hand shaking his shoulder.

He can't reply. He's busy.

He drags the limp, thin body to the bank, arms feeling like lead. If Steve had an asthma attack underwater, he's probably done for and Bucky doesn't know what he'll do in that case. He doesn't let himself think about it.

He learned some basic first-aid and how to help someone to breathe after the first attack he witnessed. He laces his fingers across Steve's chest and pulses his full weight into it. If he bruises the kid, it'll serve him right for scaring Bucky half to death.

Steve gags and a weak trickle of water escapes his mouth. Bucky heaves him up

"Come on you stupid little bastard, cough it up." He growls, aware that his heart is pounding. Don't you dare die on me.

Steve chokes and sputters and coughs and finally throws up a mixture of lunch and filthy bay water next to Bucky's shoes. He's conscious but Bucky can see the start of an asthma attack coming on. He sighs, but takes it in stride. What else is new?

Rogers is a walking disaster, he thinks resignedly, pulling Steve into his chest and taking deep breaths, the way he was taught.

"C'mon kid, stay with me." He mutters, while Steve wheezes and chokes into his shoulder. "Breathe in, breathe out. Focus Steve!" He knows he's probably not supposed to shout at the patient, but he's scared and it's making him angry.

They sit this way for 10 long, tense minutes. Bucky breathing in, breathing out, Steve trying to match him. Finally, the painful gasps melt into uncomfortable wheezing, to sporadic coughing, to Steve, panting but breathing steadily, flopped bonelessly into Bucky's shoulder.

"I take it back…" Steve mutters. "I can't do it."
"Damn right, you little twit." Bucky mutters, but he hasn't let go of his friend yet. He's not quite ready to. "You scared the crap outta me, and now we're both soaked. My mom's gonna have a fit."
"Sorry, Buck." Steve looks genuinely repentant, coughing into his arm. "Tell her it was my fault."
"Yeah, she'll know it was." Bucky sighs, finally pushing Steve away and helping him to his feet. "It always is."
"Not -" cough "-not always."
"Rogers, you're my best friend. I love ya like a brother, but damn are you a walking pile of trouble sometimes." Bucky wrings out the dripping hem of his shirt, and shakes the excess water off of his arms. It's a lost cause, but it's better than nothing. He glances at Steve, who looks absolutely mortified and he can't help but soften a bit.
"C'mon, brat, let's get you home. Last thing you need is to get sick."
Steve nods and follows him like a puppy.
"But don't you ever pull that shit on me again, you hear me?" Bucky says, though they both know full well Steve's to stubborn to do leave a challenge alone. "Promise me I'm not gonna have to pull your wheezy ass out of anymore rivers?"
"I'll try." Steve shrugs.
It's the best he's going to get.


"Bucky!"

2014 snaps back into focus like a rubber-band and suddenly he's nose to nose with Steve crouched in front of him, dripping water everywhere, and staring at him like he's just come back from the dead again. He wonders how long he was out of it, though he can't imagine it was more than a few minutes.

Bucky looks back at him, still absorbing the memory, then suddenly, abruptly, starts to laugh. It's loud and completely inappropriate, and he knows it but he just can't help himself. He's not sure if he or Steve is the more surprised by it.

"I told you… the last time I fished you out of a river... never to do it again. But do you ever listen to me?" He manages, finally. The small crowd around him just stares, but after a moment, the razor-sharp tension in Steve's body abruptly drops.

"I almost forgot about that." He says softly.

"That makes two of us." Bucky smirks crookedly at him. "But you're not off the hook for doin' it anyway, Rogers."

"You boys wanna run by me what the hell just happened there?" Tony pipes up from behind him, towel draped over his shoulders.

"It's a long story." They answer together, and Bucky can't help it. He'd dissolves into laughter again, and this time Steve joins him.