2023
It's been several months since Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff gave their lives to bring back the trillions murdered in the decimation.
In the wake of the post - apocalyptic clean up, and the entirety of the universe adjusting to home the life...
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• • •
"Time stands still, beauty in all she is"
Christina Perri, A Thousand Years
• • •
I T wasn't until an hour had passed that Bucky Barnes was greeted with a companion. Steve Rogers walked down the hallway in fresh clothes, a shaved face, and wet hair.
When Bucky saw it was his old friend he visibly relaxed and wiped the stray tears that still leaked from his eyes. He tried to smile as Steve sat on the floor next to him, but it was weak and defeated, and Steve saw right through it.
"I like her." Steve said. "She's much better than any of those girls you used to date back in the day." His voice was casual, normal, as if the girl his friend loved wasn't possibly dying in the other room.
"I don't even remember the type of girls I used to date." Bucky said. He didn't want to remember.
"How did you two meet?" Steve asked. "Was it after everything?"
Bucky nodded and for the first time since he found Charlie, he smiled. "I started jogging; 'cause I remembered you told me it helped. And I ended up at this coffee shop in the town where the facility is. And she works there. And she recognized me and thanked me for bringing her brother back. Oliver dusted."
"Then what?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well what did you do to get her to fall for a punk like you?"
Bucky smiled again. "I was just lucky I guess. I would visit the coffee shop every day and I don't know, eventually it just happened."
"I'm really happy for you, Buck." Steve slapped his friends shoulder.
"How are you here?" Bucky asked, "How did you end up there? I thought Natasha died on Vormir?"
Steve laughed half heartedly. "She did. But turns out Red Skull was there. We fought, I won. I returned the stone and Natasha came back with me. Only when we got back, it was in a different place. I don't know how it happened. And then we were surrounded and taken in. It's all a blur."
"Then who the hell is masquerading as an old version of you?"
"That I don't know. But I'm going to figure that out."
A comfortable silence fell over them, as they both went off in their heads to think about the past and the future that seemed so unclear now. Neither of them knew what was to come.
