Eyes of Fire | Bucky Barnes

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Seeing his best friend and the other superheroes who had saved his life was nothing like he'd been expecting it to be.

In a perfect world, they could all lie back and relax with beers and food, trading war stories and jokes as easily as they traded half-hearted insults and sneers. Even if he wouldn't have truly fit in with such a lighthearted atmosphere, he had minor hopes regarding their reunion.

These circumstances were much different.

Instead, warriors lined the walkway of the landing platform amongst the chaos that currently was the Wakandan royal palace. King T'Challa stood in the middle, relaying commands to the Dora Milaje.

Bucky watched from afar as the ship — airplane? Fighter plane? Bucky's aircraft expertise was not at all where it should've been — descended gracefully, making contact with the ground with only the wind and dirt it kicked up to mark its arrival.

The back of the aircraft opened to reveal Steve and Natasha, followed closely by, if his memory was correct, Dr. Banner and War Machine.

But, predictably so, his gaze returned again and again to Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers, his best friend, whose resilience despite his frail body inspired him and established their friendship.

Throughout their childhood, they stood by each other as he got into fights, standing up for what Steve believed was right. Even after Steve's mother, Sarah, died, nothing changed; he told him he would be beside him to the end of the line. And he'd kept that promise. They both had.

He was used to saving Steve, but there came a time —multiple times — that Steve was the one doing the saving.

Even after they parted ways so Bucky could fulfill his military service, having not seen each other for months, Steve was unwilling to accept the possibility that Bucky was dead after his unit had been captured. He had set out on his own for the facility where he'd been taken. Even though Steve had received the serum by then, Bucky knew nothing would've stopped him from helping after he was made aware of his capture.

Steve had infiltrated the facility alone and rescued the prisoners, found Bucky strapped to an experimentation table, dazed and disoriented. Steve had freed him.

And then came the day he, Bucky, died. The day on that dreadful train that they were attack by a soldier with a powerful HYDRA Assault Rifle. Steve had desperately tried to save Bucky, but the damage on the train was too great. The rail that Bucky was holding onto snapped, sending him plunging into the icy mountains below. The rest, from there, was blurry.

He later learned that he had attacked Steve, as the Winter Soldier of course, struggling against the part of him that recalled of their time together. The brainwashing and torture he'd experienced had begun to lose, until he made the mistake of asking his handlers who the man was, indicating that he still had some faint memory of Steve. The handler, Pierce, had ordered the scientists to wipe his memory and subject him to more brainwashing.

Then came the next time Steve saved him during their brief battle on the helicarriers, where Steve and pleaded with Bucky to remember him, refusing to fight him or even defend himself. Bucky refused to listen, and instead tried to complete his mission of killing Steve. He brutally beat Steve, insisting that Steve was merely his mission. Steve told him to finish it, and that he was with him "to the end of the line."

The words stirred Bucky's memory,

He realized, belatedly, that both he and Steve would never be able to live without battle. Here they were again, charging half-cocked into a war against enemies with capabilities they weren't able to comprehend.

Bucky greeted the team as they passed him, nodding silently as Wanda and Vision made their way into the medical center, no doubt to get to work on the stone's removal.

Steve Rogers stopped directly in front of him, releasing a sigh as the pair shared a hug. They weren't the types to share common pleasantries or small talk, not after how long they'd known each other, and definitely not after all they'd been through. Their lives included too much risk, too much danger to get caught up in how are yous and such.

Steve could tell with a single look.

"What's got you distracted, Buck?"