Bucky/Sebastian Stan Imagines

A/N - It's Been A Long, Long Time

This needs to be said. Please, hear me out patiently. For those of you complaining about Steve's ending in Avengers: Endgame, stop it. Just stop now & think about it some more. It's not lazy writing; it's not a disservice to his character arc/development; it's not a betrayal of his friendship with Bucky. It's what he's wanted for as long as we've known him, & more.

Steve's most painful goodbye was with Peggy at the end of The First Avenger. She was his last thought, his driving force, his moral compass. Bucky was his best friend, but never all of that. In Age of Ultron, his vision wasn't Bucky, but Peggy. She was the one telling him to come home, to stop fighting. Throughout Endgame, Steve's motivation was still his love for Peggy. He looked at her picture, not Bucky's.

You know how Pepper looked at Tony & said "Will you be able to rest?" Later, in *that* scene, she told him he could rest now. Doesn't Steve deserve the same peace? Isn't it time Steve gets to rest, too? After all, he's been through a hell of a lot. More than someone his age should ever have to go through.

Yeah, I know, technically he's over a hundred. Whoop. Mentally, he's still not even thirty. He lost his parents, had to fight in a devastating world war, watched his best friend die, met the love of his life with whom he wanted to have a family, & then died himself. (In his mind, anyway, he was prepared for his sacrifice to be permanent.) Then he wakes up only to find out that he failed in literally everything he had tried to do. The tesseract was still around, powering weapons, Bucky was alive after having been tortured & brainwashed all these years, Hydra was still around, & he saw Peggy old & then had to attend her funeral.

Of course he chased after Bucky for two-three movies! Bucky was the one remaining link to his past, the Steve he was inside when all people could see was Captain America. Bucky represented the last chance Steve had to set things right.

Remember what Steve said to Natasha: "We tell people to move on, but not us." He finally realized by that point that he had to move on, he had to let go of his past & his pain. We know he hadn't done so yet when he saw Peggy... The yearning, the loss, the love, was written all over his face. She was the future he could have had.

Finally, at the end, Bucky was alive & no longer alone. And Steve was still feeling loss. Don't you think that as soon as he realized his chance, to go back & be with Peggy, that he'd seriously consider it? He could have the future he wanted, now that Bucky was safe. Plus he could save Bucky in that alternate timeline a lot sooner, & help Peggy found Shield while rooting out Hydra for good. Tempting, isn't it? To have a second chance to do everything right. That's what they all just fought for, & now he gets a second second chance.

Also, don't you think he would have discussed this with Bucky beforehand? A) You can't tell me that they sent Steve back with the stones immediately, the day after Tony's funeral. They had to have taken some time to set it up, to work it out. B), you saw Bucky's face. You heard him say "I'm gonna miss you." He knew exactly what Steve was planning, because he'd given Steve his blessing to do so. Bucky accepted it. He was going to be okay. He just wanted his best friend to be happy.

So Steve finally, finally, got to move on. Let go of his pain & find peace, have that dance, be Steven Rogers instead of Captain America. It was the best ending possible for our hero. The best conclusion to Endgame that I could have hoped for.

The End.