These characters are not mine.

Steve/Bucky slash. Songfiction. Since learning that Bucky is alive, albeit brainwashed into the Winter Soldier, Steve refuses to give up on the man he loves. Loreena McKennitt's beautiful piece, "Penelope's Song", is based on Penelope, the ever-faithful wife of Odysseus… and since Loreena herself saw the death of her fiancé, his brother, and a mutual friend in 1998, I suspect that this song might have been inspired partly by them.

Penelope's Song

Steve hardly believed what he had just seen. The Winter Soldier, whom the Avengers were trying to capture, was none other than Bucky. The man he loved was alive! How could this be?

"You all right, Cap?" Tony's voice broke through Steve's reverie as the Avengers assembled around him.

"Steve, we had the Winter Soldier in plain sight and you choked," Natasha quipped before she noticed Steve's shaken look, "What's wrong?"

"Verily, your face betrays a matter of importance to you, good Captain," Thor added, "What ails you, my friend?"

"I know who he is…! I know his face anywhere! I thought he was…"

Steve's voice caught as suppressed memories gushed with abandonment from his mind. The dull ache in his heart that never fully left now nearly swallowed him as he felt his lower lip begin trembling.

"Cap…?" Clint watched Steve quizzically.

"Steve, what's wrong?" Sam eyed him anxiously. Steve's distress was painfully clear now and it scared his teammates. They had never seen him so upset before.

"Steve?" Bruce tried to put a reassuring hand on Steve's shoulder before Steve flinched away, "It-it's nothing," he nearly sputtered.

"Well, that's the most someone's upset over nothing," Tony remarked, his face serious.

"Steve, you've seen everybody here in their darkest moments and you've helped us through them," Natasha stepped forward, "What's bothering you?"

Steve gulped. As accustomed as he was to holding his tongue about his romance with Bucky, as wary as he was about sharing something so private, something inside of him just snapped. He just couldn't keep quiet this time.

He trembled the whole time as he told his team about Bucky, that horrible day on the train, and his hope that he would be reunited with Bucky when he crashed Schmidt's aircraft. Now that he had seen the Winter Soldier face-to-face and recognized him as Bucky, everything that he thought he knew had been turned upside down.

Instead of the derision and hostility that he expected, Steve was astonished to find overwhelming support.

"Steve, I had no idea that you were shouldering such a burden…!" Sam murmured as he pulled Steve into an embrace.
Steve was speechless. Was this really happening? Were they actually accepting him? Natasha joined the huddle and Tony and Thor laid their hands on his shoulders, confirming for Steve that this was real.

"Cap, why didn't you say anything about this?" Tony inquired, "You didn't have to go through this alone."

"Some things are just hard to say…" Steve felt tears prick his eyes as the words escaped his lips.

"I know," Natasha nodded.

"I love him…!" Steve's voice was trembling, frightened, barely audible, "I know that he must have been brainwashed… I just have to retrieve him…!"

"Be careful, Steve," Clint warned, "Even if he recognizes you, he might not be the man you knew."

"No," Steve blinked back tears, "I know that he's still Bucky. I know that he's still in there. I have to believe that…!"

"Anything that happens to you, Captain, I stand beside you completely," Thor reassured.

"We all do," Sam added.

The Winter Soldier stared through the barred door of his cell, watching Steve. It still jarred Steve to see him like this, but they had him and Steve was determined that he would not lose him again.

The assassin's face was pale and gaunt, unshaven, with dark rings under his eyes. His hair had not been cut in a while and the raven tresses spilled onto his shoulders in a tangled mess. His lips, once so sensuous and inviting to Steve, wore a menacing frown and his once playful eyes now seemed empty save for cruel disregard for life.

Their first meeting had gone more-or-less as Steve expected. Instead of the lighthearted teasing that Bucky usually offered he now only spat acid venom at his former lover. It stung, but Steve had promised himself that he would not the Winter Soldier see his pain. He would save that for Bucky.

As difficult as that first encounter since the fall from the train, the meeting had still cracked the armor of the Winter Soldier. Even before Steve first spoke, he could see the assassin's eyes flicker with a hint of recognition.

"You all right, Cap?" Tony asked as he ambled into the kitchen, yawning from the late hour.
"Yeah I'm fine," Steve sighed wearily.
"And you sure look like it, since you're awake at two-thirty in the fucking morning," Tony rolled his eyes as he filled a glass with water for Pepper, becoming annoyed with her nighttime cravings, "Are you sure that you're all right?"

Steve was silent for a moment before he sighed again, "I've made progress with Bucky. I know that I have, but I don't know what my next move is now… I just feel like I'm hitting my head against a stone wall."

Tony sighed in agreement. He could understand sitting awake at night, unable to sleep. "I'm going crazy myself, trying to figure out if I'll be a good father… I don't know how you manage to hold out like you do, Steve."

"I just have to believe that there's a reward in all of this, Tony," Steve murmured as he blinked his watering eyes, "I know that he's in there. I just don't know when he'll be himself again…"

"He's asking for you, Rogers," Fury reported, "I hope that you realize that he is still potentially dangerous."

Fury had barely delivered the news before Steve sprang to his feet and dashed off to the holding cells. His mind was racing even faster than he was, wondering what he would find when he reached Bucky's cell.

Speeding past the startled guards, Steve only stopped when he reached the cell that had become so familiar to him.

"Steve…!" Bucky's face was twisted in anguish as he reached through the bars.

In that instant, Steve knew. Even before they exchanged a whole sentence, he knew that Bucky was himself again.

In one, quick instant, the emotions that Steve had suppressed for so long flooded his heart to bursting point and he reflexively wrenched the cell door open, deaf to the protests of the guards.

They caught each other just as Steve began sobbing. "You're home, my god, you're home…!"
They exchanged a clumsy, desperate kiss before they buried their faces in each other's necks.
"Bucky, my love…!" Steve gasped as he ran a hand through Bucky's tousled hair, the silk sending shivers through him, "I thought you were dead…!"
Bucky rested his tear-streaked face against one of Steve's bull shoulders, "I'd forgotten how big you were…!"
Steve squeezed Bucky as hard as he could without hurting him, "I don't care who the big one is. I just want you, soldier…!"
"I'm yours, babe. All of me…!"

Fin