Who Am I? » [Stucky]

165. Anything and Everything

Galdhøpiggen, Norway

The whole team was jousting with oncoming headwinds, dragging their frozen ice-encrusted feet through the compact ocean of snow and hiking through the ghastly gale. Knife-like snowflakes frosted their tactical snow gear and was braided into their hair

"I said I never wanted to see snow again..." Sam complained loudly to be heard over the storm raging across the mountainous frigid landscape.

For miles there were only mountains and snowy plateaus and plains. Pikes, braes and cols. Craggy jagged outcrops resembling the edge of flint stones made up the ridges of mountains, like the spines of the peaks – fine and steep enough to slice the wind in two. Summits crested above other pinnacles, peeking from behind other mountains and adjourning over the grey horizon. Down below, clouds disillusioned the depth of crevices, gorges and fissures that threatened to swallow them up should they veer from the beaten track and fall. Each gust of wind made them shudder grimly and teeter with distraction. The path ahead was nearly unseeable, for all they knew, steps away loomed a rift that would send them hurtling down into a white abyss and condemned to a snowy grave.

“You think you never want to see snow again? Stevie and I had to hold up in a shack, during winter, in Bangor, for around a month...” Bucky reminisced; outdoing Sam’s complaints with a cocky smirk and squeezing Steve’s thickly gloved hand a little harder.

“Yeah, but your fiancé and I flew to Ukraine and walked through hellish conditions like this for about six hours to rescue you. You should be a little more grateful...” Sam grunted back, one arm cradled around Maria’s back to shield her from the wind and the other resting on the buckle of his belt, reassuring himself that the ropes and carabiner clips were still there.

“You never told me this, Steve...” Bucky said with a heartfelt expression of guilt and gratitude.

“You didn’t need to know. It wasn’t important. I never felt it was relevant to mention it. And I knew you’d scold me for going to such great lengths to save you – but you did the same for me, sailing that Russian submarine to get me back to America...” Steve’s words were transformed into a gushing stream of steam as he breathed into the snow filled air.

“You know I’d do anything for you. Everything,” Bucky reminded him with a tiny harsh squeeze of Steve’s hands, compressing his fingers more tightly where they were woven between his own.   

“You pretty much have done...” Steve said, thinking of all the time they’d spent together since they’d first met: keeping him safe, keeping him well, comforting him through sickness, financially supporting him after his parents died, saving him countless times through the war. Then he re-emerged, recovered, romanced him, saved him again and saved him again. He had a funny feeling that Bucky might never stop saving him.

PDAs began bleeping. “Before you two make us all puke with your romantic-ness, we’re here...” Lance groaned bitterly from the front of the pack, hearing of such sentiments making his stomach swirl and he had to restrain his eyes from admiring his ex-wife.

The team approached the ledge that overhung the canyon below and began to assemble climbing equipment. Mallets were withdrawn from pouches and pegs pounded into the rock like chisels carving it away. Ropes were looped, twisted and knotted and yanked and tested until they were sure they were tight. Carabiners were wound up and billeting contraptions put in place, gates locked and levers pushed into positions. Then one by one, they tied themselves into the web of wires and ropes, their hearts racing.

They all stood with their backs to the edge and their heels just dangling over the edge, all clutching coils of ropes with gloved hands, preparing themselves for the plummet that existed just short of them. The wind assaulted their bodies as they waited for the order.