Temerate: To break a bond or binding promise.
Steve knows it's not Bucky's fault; Lord knows he knows. How he can't help occasionally forgetting Steve's name, his birthday, his favourite things.
How sometimes he stares at his own reflection for hours in the mirror, before turning to Steve and, eyeing him very carefully, asks him when he got so buff.
"Swear to God, Steve," Bucky whispered as they lay curled up, legs tangled underneath the covers, "I swear I won't forget this. They can't do anything to make me forget you."
Steve still doesn't know who "they" is, and Bucky isn't, won't, or can't say.
And yet - Steve wants to take Bucky roughly by the shoulders and shake him, shake him until he can hear his brain rattling around inside his skull - because he has forgotten, and is all but a stranger.
And then Steve catches Bucky glancing at him from the corner of his eye, his gaze dark and heavy and loving, and Steve swallows back his anger and anguish and fear, and tries to look forward to rebuilding their relationship.
Second first kisses, second first dates, second first whispered promises underneath the sheets...
"I'll try harder this time," Bucky promises him, his words muffled and hot against the hollow of Steve's throat. "I promise."
And Steve presses kisses into his dark, long hair, and doesn't say anything.