An angel stands behind the shoulder of the blonde-haired man. Her white dress, flowing in a breeze he cannot feel, billows gently over his blue-clad shoulder, just touching the white star in the middle of his chest. The blonde, who the angel knows is named Steve, quickly but carefully steps from the solid floor of the freight car and onto the rickety wall that has been blown to shreds, creating a whole in the side of the train that blasts the man with frozen air, snow settling in his hair. He's anguished, his brows furrowed deeply over light blue eyes that are filled with pain. His gloved hands steadily grip the railing along the wall as he climbs along the side of the train, the ravine hundreds of dangerous metres below, to his fellow comrade outside.
The friend in question, handsome with dark hair, is James Buchanan Barnes. His face is pinched into an expression of horror as he dangles precariously from a single grip on a flimsy rail, his feet flailing in the harsh winds. His death is only moments away. His breathing is harsh and quick, and he knows it, too. He can sense that his end has arrived.
This is the man the angel has descended for. This is the man she has been sent to collect, to guide him from the earth where he will meet his death and then on to the afterlife. James Buchanan Barnes, she was told. But his friends call him Bucky.
Steve stretches out a gloved hand toward his friend, desperately reaching for him. "Bucky! Grab my hand!" He yells against the wind.
She watches from her perch, her wings glowing gold against the gloomy white of the mountain ranges and the metallic grey of the freight car. The two men so very nearly touch hands, their fingers just scraping one another's, when the railing fails them. The angel can only watch. It is not that she lacks the power to save the man, but that she is not allowed. For her to intervene with a man's death, rather than simply guiding him toward the light, is prohibited. She would lose her wings.
She can only watch as Bucky Barnes slips away, tumbling into the ravine below with a terrified scream that echoes through the canyons. His body slowly gets smaller before it morphs with the white and black landscape, into the snow and rocks and river trailing lazily along the ground below. And then, the angel can only watch as the Captain, always so strong and steady and lively, breaks down whilst he clings to the train, tucking his head into the wall to hide the horrendous sobs that rip through his body, his eyes growing red and puffy, thick tears falling from his cheeks.
The angel watches a moment; watches the anguish and the loss and the pain she should be all but used to. But this time, it feels different. She does not know how, or why, but it feels different. It does not feel like a loss of another person, but more the loss of one's self. It feels as though Steve has lost a half of himself, as though part of Steve, and possibly the most important part, just tumbled away into the ravine. In that moment, the angel realises that Steve Rogers and James Barnes were never meant to be without one another, were never meant to be separated. Their souls are combined, morphed, patched together into one whole. In losing Bucky Barnes, the world would also lose Steve Rogers, and the angel hardly thought that fair.
Within seconds, the blink of an eye, the angel appears at the bottom of the ravine, the sound of the train rattling above faint. Her feet just graze the snowy ground as she glides toward the limp body already half buried in the snow from the forceful impact. He's missing an arm, the limb a few metres away in the snow, detached at the shoulder. There is blood, more blood than the angel has seen in a long while. It soaks into the purity of the white snow and stains it, stains it dark red with loss and pain and hunger for life. The ring grows outward from the pained man like a halo of death.
The angel leans down, hovering over the frail and broken body. There is faint, hitched breath coming from Bucky, small puffs of white cloud emitting from his slightly parted, plump lips. They move then, and barely any sound comes out, but she can faintly hear, "Stevie? Steve please… Save me."
The angel carefully, gently, places a hand on his forehead and immediately grey-blue eyes snap open the meet hers. A mortal can only see an angel when they're allowed access, and that is usually only in a time of death. Today will be different.
"H-help–" Bucky tries, wide eyes full of trust and pleading with the angel.
"You're okay, child," the angel promises in a voice like sugar and honey, gently patting down his dark hair. "You will not die today. I promise you that."
She leans forward then, despite the man's weak protests from his only remaining arm, and breathes right into his open mouth. The breath, almost a kiss with their proximity, creates an amber light that circles from her lips onto his own. It enters his mouth and it lights up, as though he were holding a star atop his tongue. The light travels through him slowly, crawling along his skin in golden cobwebs until his entire being is touched by the angel's breath. Bucky's grey eyes, which have turned gold and glow with the light, close for a moment as he savours the feeling. For a moment, he seems at peace, as though he had died after all. But then, he takes a deep, filling breath with cleared lungs and drinks in life once more.
When Bucky reopens his eyes, the angel above him has disappeared, and he is left alone in the snow once more.
The angel is called to earth once more, this time for the Captain.
When she finds him, he's sitting at the pilot seat of a large, uncontrollable plane. He bangs the controls and twists the steering column, and yet the plane continues on its undeterrable course toward the coasts of North America, where it will unleash destruction on the cities.
She had only resurrected Bucky mere days ago, leaving him to be found at the bottom of the ravine. It so happens that the Captain had failed to find him, and now she finds herself with another predicament – Bucky is alive, dragged away through the woods by a group of men, and the Captain is now facing death as well. Perhaps she made a mistake with Bucky. Perhaps, the two men were meant to die within days of each other. They would have been reunited in Heaven within days. But instead, she has ensured the survival of James Barnes, and she must do the same for Steven Rogers. Without that, her efforts have been futile.
The Captain and a woman are talking over the radio. The angel has been watching the Captain closely, and she knows who it is – Margaret Carter, or as the others call her, Peggy.
Peggy pleads with Steve, but he won't have it. "There's not enough time. This thing's moving too fast and it's heading for New York. I got to put her in the water. Right now, I'm in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer, a lot of people are gonna die. Peggy, this is my choice."
Steve takes a compass from his pocket and opens it, setting it up on a small ledge of the control panel. The smiling face of James Barnes, dressed in his army blues with a cocky smile to match, looks back at Steve. Immediately, the Captain's tense shoulders droop just a little.
"Peggy?"
"I'm here," Peggy answers, and the angel doesn't miss the sadness in her voice.
"Please, don't disconnect," Steve asks of her.
"I won't, I promise."
The Captain looks back at the compass then. "I'm coming, Buck," Steve promises the picture.
The wall of white approaches, the entirety of the glass filling up. The youth on the man's face is evident in his fear. Steve's skin, reddened with exhaustion and fear and the cold, lights up a bright white, unmarked by time or battle or stress. His baby blue eyes reflect the light, turning ever brighter, almost as blue as a newborn baby.
"Oh, God," Steve whispers.
Before he can screw his eyes shut, the angel puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. Steve whips around, eyes wide, and locks onto the angel's own golden orbs.
"You'll see him again," the angel promises Steve. "Bucky," she clarifies. "It will take a while, but you'll be reunited."
Before Steve can respond, the wall of white hits them, and Steve is thrown forward against the control panel with a force to knock the breath from his lungs and send him into unconsciousness. The angel barely moves from her position, floating just above the ground behind Steve. The plane groans and shakes and snaps as it sinks into the icefield. A wing breaks off outside with an almighty creak. The plane grows hot as fire fills the cabins, the explosives onboard detonating at once. The plane rumbles, and yet Steve remains unconscious, slumped against the control panel with the compass securely in his hand.
The water rushes in through the broken glass at the front of the cockpit. It's freezing water, numb-inducing, and it floods the room. The water level rises slowly, inch by inch, and the sound of rushing water grows louder.
After a few moments, Steve awakens with a gasping breath. He sits up slowly with a yelp, blood pooling down his face from a gash across his forehead. His uniform front is turning red from blood, soaking into the navy blue and tainting the white star.
He moves to the side and falls from the chair onto the cold metal floor, landing with a splash in the freezing water. Immediately it turns red around him. Steve crawls on his hands and knees toward the back of the plane, trying to get away from the water. He eventually collapses in a heap, rolling onto his back. He reaches over for his shield, only a few metres from him, but can't reach it. He frowns in pain and frustration and desperation. The angel steps over and gently kicks the shield into Steve's outstretched hand. He grabs it and pulls it toward himself, holding it over his chest.
The angel kneels beside Steve and Steve looks up at her, brows furrowed.
"What's happening?" Steve asks, though rather he coughs it out, along with a bit of bright blood.
"I've come to save you," the angel tells him. "It won't take long, and I won't leave you," the angel promises. "Just lie here and try to think of him. When you wake up, everything will be better."
She lies down beside him then, not feeling the cold water that is quickly encircling Steve's body in its grasp. She takes Steve's freezing hand in her own and threads their fingers together. The gold aura that surrounds her slowly creeps from her hand onto Steve's and then up his arm, eventually covering his entire body. Steve's baby blues turn gold, just as Bucky's had.
The time passes quickly as the water fills the cabin, freezing in the cold air. It climbs up Steve's arms, covers his chest, and then slowly rises up his head, threatening to cover his face. And yet, Steve doesn't seem frightened. The angel's aura calms him.
"Think of your Bucky," the angel repeats.
Steve closes his eyes, a single tear frozen at the side of his eye. Slowly, his brow unfurrows, and a small smile grows on his blood-stained lips. The angel watches as he slips away into darkness to await being reawakened, free of pain and turmoil. She can hear his heart beat slow, his breathing even out, and his grip on her hand slackens. The angel replaces her hand with Steve's compass, the metal freezing to his skin immediately as she closes his hand around it and the picture of Bucky inside.
"It isn't the end of the line yet," the angel tells Steve in a whisper.
The angel lies with the blonde for days. She promised she would not leave him, and she won't. His breathing stopped long ago, along with his heartbeat, as the ice formed around him, and his body was frozen in time. He'll be preserved for the years to come until he's uncovered, and he won't have aged a day. Still, though the angel knows he sleeps, she can't bring herself to leave just yet.
She may be worried about returning to heaven, as within the last week she's performed two resurrections. She'll lose her wings, but what happens to a wingless angel remains unknown except for those who've experienced it. Rumour has it they are dropped to earth. Perhaps, should she be earthbound, she'll have the opportunity to see Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes reunited.
There's just something about Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes that draws her to them, and she still hasn't quite figured out. But no matter how long she lies there staring at the Captain's frozen features, it doesn't come to her. She can't think of anything past them being soulmates, and perhaps that is what they are. Two souls forged together in the depths of heaven to be eternally linked to one another, to never be parted for long, to always find one another, in whatever time or form. Perhaps that's what Steve and Bucky are to one another. And perhaps that was why she couldn't bear to separate them.
Steve and Bucky are sitting in the fields on Bucky's farm in Wakanda. Bucky's goats are somewhere, munching on the long stems of green grass. They can hear them talking with one another, echoing through the open land.
The sun sets on the horizon, throwing the world into a light show of oranges and pinks and purples. The two boys from Brooklyn watch as the sun disappears on the horizon, behind the trees and hills and rocks, only a pinprick before it slips away.
They sit and sit until the world goes black, a comfortable silence between them. Then, the world lights up yet again, this time with the millions of stars in the far blackness and the thick glow of light from the city behind them. Bucky stares up at the stars, as he has nearly every night since they came to Wakanda. Only now, he wears a small content smile on his face, something that's been missing for a long time. Steve finds himself looking at Bucky more than he does the stars.
"There's something else I remember that I haven't told you about yet," Bucky says suddenly. He turns to look at Steve and Steve quickly looks away as though he weren't staring. Bucky smirks knowingly.
"Yeah? What's that?"
"I was touched by an angel," Bucky says easily.
"An angel?" Steve asks.
"Mmm. When I was at the bottom of the ravine, this… woman came to me. She was beautiful… unearthly beautiful." Bucky's eyes widen at the memory, and a soft look of total admiration comes over his features. His brow furrows, but his mouth sits in a slack and content smile. "I'd never seen anyone like that before and I haven't since, and I doubt I ever will. She had these glowing golden eyes, and wings that floated behind her, white feathers. She had this aura around her. And she gave some of that aura to me, somehow. She healed me. I would have died right there and then had she not come to me. When I woke up, she was gone, and… well, you know the rest."
Bucky speaks slowly, like an old man recounting a joyful memory from his youth. And Steve guesses, that's exactly what he's doing, in a way.
"An angel saved you?" Steve repeats slowly, his mouth hanging slack.
Bucky sighs, rubbing his forehead. "I know, you don't believe me. But, Steve–"
"I believe you," Steve promises quickly.
Bucky's head whips to him, greasy hair tied up in a bun at the nap of his neck.
"Because I saw her, too. When I crashed the plane, she lay down beside me and held my hand as the ice took over me. She told me to think of you, and I did. That's the last thing I remember before I woke up."
"So, an angel saved both of us?" Bucky confirms. He frowns then, looking intensely thoughtful. "Why?"
"I'm not quite sure that's the type of thing you ask why about, Buck," Steve says quietly. "I think it's the kind of thing you just be thankful for."
"Oh," Bucky replies. He looks down at his hand for a moment, then back up at the stars above them. "Thank you."
Steve smiles sadly at Bucky. He scooches closer and takes Bucky's hand in his own, and Bucky rests his head on Steve's shoulder. The warm wind ruffles the leaves and their hair as the two of them sit in silence again, watching the night pass by. Steve's eyes are locked on the stars, and on one star in particular that seems to shine brighter than the others by far and seems to be shining on him.
"Thank you," Steve whispers. "For everything."
