Hiding Winter | Stucky

Steve: Chapter 1

12/1/17 - Disclaimer: I'm noticing that for some reason a lot of people are stopping after chapter one because Bucky isn't in it yet. This chapter creates some build up for the story, so that's why it doesn't have him in it yet. If you want to start right off with him in it, which I don't recommend because you'll just be confused, go to the chapter that says Bucky: Chapter 3. Hope you enjoy!

     Wake up, Steve.

Huh?

Wake up.

Wha... Buck?

Yeah?

Are you... okay?

I'd be okay if you would have saved me 78 years ago.

Suddenly, Steve was holding onto the side of a speeding train, whipping through icy air while he was dangling off of a broken piece of metal. He could see Bucky through his blurred vision staring at him while he struggled.
"Now you know how it feels."
The piece of metal snapped off like peanut brittle, and Steve began to fall to his ultimate demise. As soon as he hit the ground, he woke up.

Steve jolted up and opened his eyes like someone had just dunked his body into Arctic waters. He panted as he reached for his chest to feel his heartbeat, and it was going wild. As he took his hand off of his shirt, he realized that he had soaked his sheets, shirt, and blankets full of sweat. Really? He thought. He sat there for a moment in exhaustion as he tried to process and decipher his nightmare. His mind had been doing this to him all the time, tricking him that Bucky was there, making him seem cruel and brainwashed. He was never like that. He was never cruel in his normal and uncontrolled state.
Steve's dreams for the past 3 or 4 weeks had been quite all over the place, but all of them had Bucky. Every. Single. One. He had dreams of him and his partner in crime (or in this case, justice). He had dreams of them sitting down by the ponds near their childhood homes sitting and watching ducks, he had dreams like this previous one where Bucky was out to get him. He also had ones that were, in Steve's own thoughts, "Scandalous," That last one made Steve the most confused. I mean sure, he had always had "feelings" for Bucky ever since they were kids. Bucky was always the one who was there for him, and so he had a connection to him like no other. He was the first person that he loved, other than his mother of course. One time when Steve was 14 years old, he was sent to the hospital after he got extremely sick from going to downtown Brooklyn with his mother. The only people who visited him were Bucky, and a Teddy Bear Bucky had bought from the store 3 blocks away from the hospital for $0.98. But it wasn't like Steve could openly say he had feelings for Bucky. Everyone thought homosexuals were disgusting and mentally ill. Yet, Steve wasn't a homosexual, that's the thing. He had had feelings for women before too, little crushes every once and a while. But he never loved any of them, except for Peggy, they were just crushes. But he didn't love Peggy nearly as much as he adored and loved Bucky. He loved Bucky. Now that he was in the 21st century, most people in America were okay with that kind of thing. You know, men dating men, and women dating women.
Steve shook his head as if he could shake out his odd thoughts. He slowly, but surely, got up from his bed and took his blue, sweat soaked shirt off and tossed it onto the bed. He pulled the sheets off, along with the blanket he'd been using, leaving the bed's white memory foam exposed. He very quietly walked to the laundry room of the underground building Nick Fury had built for situations like this, ones where the Avengers, at least some of them, had to hide out. Since Fury was planning on the whole team hiding out, there were many empty and desolate rooms. He slowly walked across the hardwood floors of the building as quietly as he could without waking up any of the others.
"Well look who's up," Steve jolted with surprise and nearly had a heart attack. He saw Natasha sitting at the large glass dining table across the hall.
"Looks like I'm not the only one with... insomnia," she said slowly.
"I don't have insomnia... how did you even get in? You don't live here."
"Scott let me in," she let out a slight smirk. "I know how to get around, you know that. Of course having Scott ogle at me all the time doesn't hurt my chances getting in either. Plus, you can't hide things from me."
"I can try," Steve said as he walked off to the laundry room. He sat his sweat-soaked fabrics on top of the washer machine, then sighed. He looked up at the ceiling. Why? He looked back down and started loading his things into the washer and turned on the machine with the detergent and walked away. As he started walking back to his room, several yards down the hall he noticed Natasha in the corner on his eye, rummaging through the fridge.
"Wow, no refreshments? I thought I was more special than that."
"There's tea in the back," Steve said with slight annoyance.
"Now that sounds more hospitable." She looked up at Steve, then back down to the fridge to continue rummaging. Steve eventually made it back to his room. It was bigger than his apartment that he inherited after his mom died. Bucky offered to let him stay at his apartment and live with him. It had been such a tempting offer. Of course he declined though, he didn't want to have to rely on Bucky for housing. That didn't seem right to him. It did prove how much Bucky was willing to sacrifice for Steve though. Bucky had been wanting to live alone his whole life and have his own space. He was the oldest of 4 siblings, and never had time alone from anyone, not that he minded being around Steve. He really loved hanging around with Steve, and he was willing to give up living alone to get more time with him.
Steve laid back down on his bed, and his eyes began to wander around the room. He thought about everything that had been happening lately. Tony cancelled his plans to hunt down Steve and the rest of the crew after he had been sent the package by Steve with a letter and phone. However, he still was hunting down Bucky, and the Secretary of State was still hunting down all of Team Cap, including Bucky. Steve couldn't blame Tony for still wanting to hunt down the guy that brutally murdered his parents, but he still wanted Tony to understand that Bucky was under control, and didn't want to do that. As much as he was feeling bad that Bucky had to go through what he did, he felt bad for Scott too because he couldn't see his daughter at all, and he knew that was getting to him. Steve was so ridden with guilt. He felt guilty that Scott couldn't see his daughter, he felt guilty that he hadn't told Tony what had really happened to his parents, and he felt really guilty that he couldn't have helped Bucky more. Wanda was still trapped in a building, and couldn't see Vision. Steve didn't even know if Rhodes was doing alright. His thoughts slowly started to dissipate, and right before he fell asleep, he looked at the clock. 3:10.