Avenger's One-shots and Preferences

What's Next?-Bucky Barnes (w/ Steve Rogers)

This takes place after Endgame.  Reader gets a little upset and gives Steve a thorough tongue-lashing for leaving his friends behind, especially his best friend Bucky.

Some angst and some fluff in the end.

"Don't do anything stupid till I get back," Steve tells his best friend. "How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you," Bucky jokes back. The two hug before Steve travels back in time to put the time stones back in their respective periods.
"It's been ten seconds, what's taking so long?" you wonder out loud. "Uh, look over there," Sam points. Lo and behold Steve was there sitting by the lake, his shield by his side. While Sam went over to greet the old man, you turn to Bucky, wondering what his reaction would be. You were half expecting the former assassin to be just as shocked as you were, but that wasn't the case at all. Bucky just stood there, a small smile on his face. It didn't take long for you to put two and two together.
"You knew," you realize, "you knew he was going through with this weren't you?" "It's what he really wanted," Bucky responds.

That was then...back when you actually thought Steve was going to come back before any of you knew it. Well he did come back alright, just not the way you thought he would be. Steve had decided to live the life he always wanted in the time period he belonged in and with the woman he loved.

While you were glad Steve finally got his happy ending, there was one thing you couldn't quite shake...what about his best friend? What about Bucky? The poor guy had been through so much, where was his happy ending?  You don't know why, but you began to feel some resentment to Steve for putting his own wants in front of the needs of his friends. You were not about to let this fly, even if Steve is actually the age he's supposed to be right now.

Old man Steve was currently residing in the house he made home with his late wife Peggy (it may have been suggested that he should consider moving to a retirement home but some objection from the old man resulted in a compromise that he could stay at home with life alert installed). You knock on his door and for him to answer, which surprisingly didn't take as long as you thought it would due to his age. "Well this is quite the surprise," Steve greets with a smile, "come to pay your respects to his old man before he passes?" "Why is it we never made those jokes before when you were actually older than you looked?" you deadpan. "Well most of the time was spent trying to save the world, that might have something to do with it," Steve provides for an explanation, "Come inside, I just made tea and cookies if you want."

You take a seat on the couch and sip some of the tea and take a cookie from the plate Steve offers. "So how's retired life treating ya?" you decide to start the conversation. "About as boring as I expected it to be," Steve honestly answers, "But on the other hand, I'm glad I was finally able to make it back to this point in time, you know. It took sometime for me to keep remembering Alexa and Google hadn't been invented back in my day." "I'm willing to bet Peggy would get suspicious that you were seeing another girl on the side whenever you tried to say, 'Alexa, pull up some recipes for grilled cheese sandwich," you lightly joke. "It may have nearly come to that at some point," Steve admits, "Try explaining to your loving wife that you actually came from another point in time in the future."

"And came back to the past cause you would rather live throughout the forties, fifties, sixties, and so on then spend the life you had ahead of you with your friends," you mutter, eyeing Steve, "You know, the people who actually care about you." "What?" Steve seemed confused. "You know I was a little confused at first after you left us behind," you get right down to it, anger starting to rise a little, "you know, cause I thought you knew you had people here who looked out for you and cared for you the past few years or so since you came out of the ice. Even things were confusing at first, you had people to walk you through it every step of the way. And of course when things got really bad and the world needed saving from external forces, those same people became part of your team and I was under the impression you came to accept them like family or something." "(y/n)..." "Not to mention we already lost teammates who willingly sacrificed themselves to save the world...no the ENTIRE universe, and you just take all that for granted?!" You stand on your feet. "I'm starting to think you didn't just come here for a pleasant talk then," Steve realizes. "We were more than just a team you fought besides Steve, WE WERE YOUR FRIGGING FAMILY!!" you exclaim, "and you left all that behind right when the opportunity presented itself, not giving a damn about what any of us would do without you. I mean, whatever happened to moving on like you kept repeating at all those damn support groups you and Nat constantly dragged me to the last five years? You just went and put your own selfish desires above the needs of your friends, especially the man you considered your best friend."