A/N: Whoopsy, the formatting got goofed up somehow. Fixing the pages now. Shouldn't affect the reading experience too much.
Bucky looks thoroughly worked over. He lurches drunkenly from side to side as Steve helps him to sit, head dipping then jolting up. His eyes are sunken and distant and he looks like he has no idea where he is or what's going on.
Even wasted beyond belief, Bucky's never looked this bad. Steve's heart drops into his stomach.
"I thought you were dead…" he breathes, gingerly touching Bucky's filthy bruised cheek, just to reassure himself that this is real. Bucky's really here, and beat-up as he is, he's alive.
Steve's going to get his friend out of here, and everything is going to be alright again. He lets himself believe it. Lets himself stare at Bucky's battered face and tattered clothes, taking him in. Noticing the alarmingly starved, sick look of him.
Bucky blinks dazedly back, glancing down to Steve's heavily booted feet then up to his helmeted head.
"... I thought you were smaller…" Bucky murmurs, confused. His pupils are blown wide, leaving his eyes nearly solid black with faint pale-blue rims. Bucky looks high out of his mind.
Steve hesitates. There's too much to explain, no time to do it in, and Bucky looks like he's in absolutely no shape to retain it anyway. After a quick glance at the room and a moment to memorize an ominously marked map, he plants a shoulder under his friend's arm and hoists him up onto his feet instead. They need to leave. Now.
The rest can wait.
"What happened to you?" Bucky slurs, feet dragging pitifully as Steve hauls him towards the door. Bucky's ineffectively shuffling with his legs, like he's trying to get them beneath him, but he just can't quite do it.
Steve tugs his friend's arm higher over his shoulders and takes the rest of Bucky's weight into his side.
"I joined the Army." he retorts, as lightly as he can. Bucky's head lolls slightly and his eyes roll in his skull, but he comes back into focus an instant later. Steve keeps moving, choosing not to comment on it.
Bad. Bad, bad, bad. This is bad.