Who Am I? » [Stucky]

28. PTSD

"Who was that?" Bucky asked as Steve wandered listlessly past the TV the next morning with his mobile in hand.

"Nick Fury... As it turns out that fund isn't for shopping trips; it's 'for emergencies'," Steve couldn't help but snicker childishly; he had just got in trouble with his boss for splashing the government's funds on clothes.

"You should send him the most ostentatious and expensive bottle of champagne you can find to say sorry," Bucky suggested with a mischievous wicked grin, smiling over the sofa at Steve.

"That's the best idea I've heard in aeons." Steve unlocked his iPhone on the double and fired up Safari brimming with excitement as he carried out the unspeakable deed. "I'm right on it."

"You're welcome," Bucky called over the sofa, winking at Steve.

"Oh! Also please don't tell anyone about Fury. He's kind of supposed to be dead, but I can trust you, right?" Steve awaited a reply, knowing what the answer was going to be.

"Of course," Bucky replied. Steve had put his faith in him and that made his smile widen further. "Who would I tell, anyway?" Bucky's heart sunk a little as he thought deeper on it, and the smile was tainted with the internal sadness.

"I don't know..." Steve tried to move the topic along, not wanting to dwell on the depressing topic and end up with a repeat of a few days ago.

Once Steve had finished ordering the unnecessarily big bottle of champagne with the note 'Sorry. -From Steve' attached dropped down on the sofa next to Bucky, sinking into the soft spongy surface of the couch.

"What's this?" Steve asked, narrowing his eyes at the screen in concentration, trying to tune in with the program.

"Star Trek," Bucky chirped happily. "It was one of those things on your list and there appears to be a marathon on this sci-fi channel today."

Steve nodded in contentment. "What's with that guy's ears?" He wrinkled his nose at Leonard Nimoy as he appeared on the screen. "And that hair!" He found himself gasping in distaste.

"He's a Vulcan," Bucky quickly informed him, trying to get Steve to stop talking, waving a hand so silence him as he watched the TV. Bucky had been enjoying the show all morning.

"A what?" Steve chuckled, looking at Bucky's grumpy concentration face.

"Vulcan. Hush."

Steve smiled. Apparently Bucky had been really getting his teeth into the show and had picked up some of the terminology already.

"That hair is even worse than my glasses," Steve joked, poking fun at the styling of Spock's hair.

Bucky snorted unattractively into his coffee choking on it and coughing. "Don't!" He spluttered with difficulty.

"Sorry..." Steve chuckled to himself again.

The two occupied their morning with watching back to back episodes on the channel and getting through a significant amount of coffee. Steve withdrew his little black book secretively and scored a proud bold line through yet another thing on the list. Him and Bucky were getting a significant amount done.

When it had reached about one o'clock guilt for being inactive slowly creeped into Steve's mind like an army sieging a fortress; slow and damaging. His heavily muscular and active body was begging for some use; he had been completely idle all morning and his neck was starting to ache from being stuck in the same position for an extended period of time.

"You know what, buddy? I'm going to go and get some training done downstairs." He slapped Bucky on the thigh cheerily before bounding off to his bedroom to get changed into his joggers and a thinner lighter t-shirt.