BLUE [BUCKY BARNES]

DECEMBER 16 1991

The plane had been in the air for nearly fifteen hours. It would've been longer if Steve had not gone a lot faster than a normal pilot would. Within the time they had been on the plane Bucky and Elizabeth had each managed to get a few hours of sleep together. Each taking turns to accompany Steve in the cockpit while the other slept.

"We'll be there in an hour," he told Elizabeth who sat beside a sleeping Bucky in the back of the plane. She brushed some hair out of his face and kissed his cheek lightly, earning a sleepy smile from him.

Getting up from her seat, she made her way to the front of the plane to sit in the passenger seat beside Steve. She looked out the window to see snow covered hills stretch off into the distance below them, the sun hiding behind the thick white clouds.

"If anything happens to me," Elizabeth began slowly with her gaze still trained out the window. "You'll take care of him right?" She knew Steve would, but it would ease her conscience to hear him say it out loud. To know that if worse come to worse, Bucky wouldn't be alone.

Steve looked at her out of the corner of his eye as she clenched her jaw. "You know I will," he told her as she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. Steve knew that if the situation was reversed, which he prayed to god it wouldn't come to that, she would do the same.

"Good," Elizabeth muttered with a nod of her head. But as she admired the view before her, an unwelcome thought struck her. "But what if something happens to him?" She asked shakily with her head turned to look at the man beside her. Her panic and doubt slowly took over as she bit at the inside of her cheek.

"You and I both know that neither of us would ever let it get that far," He said confidently, knowing that both of them would risk it all for the man they thought was sleeping behind them.

Elizabeth turned in her seat, expecting to see Bucky still sleeping but instead he stood right between both her and Steve's seat. He was so quiet that his presence startled the both of them, nearly making Steve crash the plane.

"I don't think I'm worth all this," He told the two of them truthfully, overhearing their conversation. Elizabeth felt him fully believe that he wasn't worth their sacrifice. "After everything I've done, how could I be?"

Sighing, Elizabeth took his hand that rested on the back of her seat to place in her own hands. "What you did all those years ago, that wasn't you." She rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb as she told him the words she'd said to him so many times before. Words that she had used to soothe him in the middle of the night or words that she had to use to convince him that he was still worthy of her love.

"You didn't have a choice," Steve added when he saw Bucky still looked down at Elizabeth with an unconvinced gaze.

He looked at him with sad eyes as he spoke. "But I did it anyway," Bucky said with remorse filled in his voice. His words made her heart ache, knowing that no matter how hard she tried to convince him otherwise he wouldn't believe her.

So all she could do was send him all of the love she felt for him. Whether it was in the form of her squeezing his hand tightly or how she made him feel what she felt every time she looked at him. He looked down at her with a sad smile on his face and glossy eyes.

Steve took his eyes off the window and stole a glance at the two. He was glad that his two friends had found each other but he also felt somewhat sad, knowing that he had lost his chance at what the two had a long, long time ago.

He cleared his throat with a look at the two. "You guys better get ready," he told them. "We're landing soon." The two of them nodded. Elizabeth standing up with Bucky, pulling him by the hand.