Marvel Imagines

Bucky Barnes-One Day Pt. 2

☀︎☀︎☀︎

It had been so long since the memory of Bucky's storming eyes haunted the depths of your mind, but you couldn't pretend that it was something so easily forgotten. For weeks on end, you found yourself constantly worrying about him, crying for him, longing for his simple touch and the sight of his crooked smile—it made your heart lurch in such a painful way that you'd clutch at your chest in hopes of being able to remove it altogether.

But, you weren't that lucky.

Dead end upon dead end was all you and the others could find on your ghost, but you didn't give up. You couldn't give up until one day, you realized that it was all just a cat-and-mouse game and if Bucky wanted you to find him, you would have already.

So, you settled for waiting.

Weeks stretched into months, months turned into a year—one long year in which you held onto whatever fragments of hope you could get, empty promises and whispers in the wind that led to nowhere and nothing.

Slowly, so slowly had you begun to return to yourself and let go of a past that, although not unkind, was damaging you.

Bucky was your love, your first, your everything and that's what you were to him so of course, you could see where he was coming from—the night he lost himself was also the night he had almost lost you and by his hand. But, in pushing you away and avoiding and ignoring you as if you simply did not exist, it caused you a pain almost worse than him disappearing into the night.

The team had watched in concern as you began to fade away from them and from the world in your desperate fight to keep a grip on yourself when one of them in particular decided to do something about it.

The meaning of his actions were well-intended, innocent at first.

He anchored you and kept you from losing your mind, helping you to slowly open back up to the brilliance and the beauty of what you had in front of you rather than what was lost.

Steve had been just as broken up about Bucky leaving as you were and the both of you found comfort in each other's presence, drinking until the early hours of morning and sharing stories whether on or off the battlefield, amusing or serious or meaningful, it didn't matter.

It was something just for you and Steve.

Days were spent in each other's company as a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen, a hand to hold and a person to embrace in a vulnerable state. It seemed to be a difficult task in the beginning but you never gave up on each other and Steve never left your side despite the aching fear that one day you'd wake up and he would be gone, too.

But, he was always there and promised you he'd always be.

After awhile, you urged yourself to move on with a newfound confidence for the future despite a small piece of you wanting to cling onto that hope of Bucky's return.

Steve supported whatever decision you made, but unaware to you, he had fallen; little by little by little until it completely and totally overwhelmed him and by no intentional means. The development had blindsided him—you were his best friend's girl after all and that was something he would respect.

Though, for how long, he didn't know.

He hadn't realized how much you had begun to grow on him, to mean something to him that was more than just a teammate or a close friend.

Bucky had always ranted about you to him like a lovesick idiot.

He would tell Steve how you made him feel and about the little things you did that made him smile. He would marvel at the constant support and love that you plied him with and couldn't imagine being with anyone but you.