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[bottledblond]

Not every universe in the far and wide cosmos is as lucky (however unlucky itself that seems) to encounter Thanos during a time where people live who can do something about it. Steve Rogers, a particular version of Steve Rogers who had only just suffered through his first night of basic training in New Jersey as part of the Army’s Project Rebirth and thus had not yet become Captain America, bent to untie his shoes and saw his hands begin to disintegrate. He doesn’t panic, panicking is for people who do not live like every breath is their last. Instead, he blinks in surprise as the barracks fill with shouting. He has time to contemplate two things. One, he wishes he’d done more with his life. And two, he hopes Bucky will do all right.

He’s still thinking about that last issue when he exhales his last in a universe where Captain America never existed and finishes it bent over in the ruins of the barracks, roof half open to the sky and walls a burnt and ashy gray.

It takes him an hour to get to the road and by then, his asthma is already getting the best of him. He blacks out for the second time ‘that day’ and wakes up staring at the ceiling of what is obviously a hospital.

It just doesn’t sound or smell like a hospital. Sure. People are running around and yelling, but it smells painfully clean, artificially so, and there are machines he’s never seen before connected by wires to his body. He does the thing people should never do and yanks them loose. The machines squawk strangely and frantically and Steve is almost out of bed when two large men in green pajamas force him back.

Nothing makes sense to him for days. People come to talk to him, to find out who he is and who his family is. Evidently Steve Rogers is a popular name, because they bring in more people to talk to him, to ask him questions about his life, but no one has any answers.

He explodes, as he’s wont to do when frustrated, demands answers, but nothing they say makes sense.

By then, the war is over. Not World War II, which has evidently been over for over half a century, but this new war. And Bucky Barnes had been told of his presence. Steve is in bed, arms crossed, looking dour and getting an infusion of something that honestly is helping him breathe better when Bucky bursts into his now private room. It’s been two months

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[woundedwinter]

Bucky is a mess of tension as he leaves the cell to find Sam and Bucky. He's getting deeper and deeper into the mire and it feels oddly like choking on ice and electricity all over again.

But seeing Sam and Steve laughing?
Fuck.
It loosens everything in his chest and he doesn't feel like he needs to prove himself. He exhales as he gets back to them.

"Having fun?" He's not jealous, not all. He's happy that they're okay.

[bottledblond]

Big blue eyes snap to attention immediately and Steve leans out of the passenger side window. “Are you okay?” he asks. “Did he give you anything to go on?”

Also, Steve has shotgun now. He’s not getting out. Bucky can revert to the backseat again.

He has no idea that it’s a familiar place for him to be. At least the car isn’t a subcompact.

[woundedwinter]

"No," because he's not okay. Not at all. That bastard knows how to work his insecurities and his anger. "Yeah. I got a name and a place to start."

He slides into the back seat and rubs his eyes. That had been too much. Too intense.

"We'll need to get in the air again."

[bottledblond]

The smile dissolves from Steve’s face. He wants to shift to the backseat and be a comfort but not in front of Sam. Bucky will want his dignity. Steve just buckles himself in, and gazes at Bucky’s partial reflection in the side mirror.

Sam does the same in the rear view.

“Gotta tell me where so I can see what’s leaving the base first,” Sam says. He already has his phone out.

[woundedwinter]

Bucky needs time to think, to pull himself out of his own head so he's grateful for the privacy and the space.

"Germany. The doctor who made the serum is in Germany." He lists out a half dozen locations Sam can arrange transport to.

Serum. His mind keeps tripping over the idea and Sam will kick his ass for it but he doesn't care.

[bottledblond]

You’re telling me that there is actually more of this stuff? Shit. It’s being mass produced? Shit,” Sam curses, making Steve smirk at him. The double cussing is just funny to him.

He doesn’t mind another trip, though the airplane doesn’t hold as much joy for him now that he knows his ears aren’t too fond of landing.

He’s just about to turn to ask about their destination when Sam slams on the breaks. He can almost feel the belt cutting into his chest.

“I’m sorry, Barnes, did you say Madripoor? Yeah, no. We’ll have to drop in. Are you crazy?”

Steve exhales, rubbing his chest. “Where’s that?”

“It’s an island of pirates and thieves,” Sam frowns.

“Oh.” He turns towards Sam, and Bucky behind him. “We’re going right?”

[woundedwinter]

He shoots Sam a flat look, "I've been there before. My pardon was never made public, I can get in and find out what's going on."

Only.. "I can't go alone. I was never alone in the past. Even if I claim to be a freelance merc, I can't do it solo. It would cause problems."

[bottledblond]

“You want me to pretend I’m your handler?!” Sam’s head is going to turn around on his neck. “That sounds like bad news all around. The trigger might be gone... Buck, I’m saying this as a friend, it’s a bad idea,” Sam pleads.

Steve doesn’t actually know what’s going on. He looks between the two, feeling uncomfortable without knowing everything that’s going on.

[woundedwinter]

"None of this is a good idea," he challenges, still tense and angry from his visit inside. "But it's the best option we have."

He looks out the window, jaw tight. "It can't be you. They only gave me blonde male handlers." Using his weakness for Steve against him for all those decades.

"It'd have to be Steve."

And he really hopes that Sam doesn't crash the car as a result.

[bottledblond]

Sam is so glad he pulled over.

“No. Steve, no offense, but you don’t have a mean bone in your body. You’d never pull it off. And might I remind you that we have no way of getting to Madripoor? And I’m an Avenger?”

Because all of those things matter.

“Do you just happen to have a spare quinjet laying around?!” The answer to that question is yes. Tony left Bruce Banner everything.

[woundedwinter]

"We call Bruce. He'll get us a jet and we can get in." Banner has access, resources and if it's mentioned that the serum is about to hit the market, he'll want to help stop it.

A frustrated sound, "I know this plan sucks but it's all I have right now!" He closes his eyes and uses one of the stupid breathing exercises to bring his pulse down.

"Get us to a hotel. Steve needs to be brought up to speed and we to call Bruce about transportation."

[bottledblond]

The drive to the hotel is met with a lot of quiet and a lot of frustrated, angry grunting between the driver and the back seat. Steve isn’t sure what to think so he just starts scribbling the things he knows and the blanks that need to be filled.

He doesn’t look intimidating but people often overlook him. Or don’t see him at all. He can build a mob boss sort of persona around that. He’d grown up during prohibition after all.

The hotel Sam gets them is gorgeous by Steve’s standards. There are two beds and a table and a balcony that he immediately makes a beeline too.

He knows the other two men are having issues with this but Steve is determined to pull them all out of this funk.

He has no idea that it’s something the old Steve would also be planning. Take charge. Stop the bullshit.

[woundedwinter]

He doesn't speak, gaze distant as he tries to keep from falling into memories of the past. They check in and he drops his bags. Steve can see the balcony but he's got to look over the security, check lines of sight and the integrity of the doors.

Bucky has to check them twice before he digs out his phone.

"Call Banner. We need to start planning."

[bottledblond]

“Aren’t you two friends?” It’s not that Sam and Bruce aren’t... it’s just that Sam always get like a secondary Avenger. A runner up. And Bucky was never an avenger but he’d been friends of sorts with the guy’s husband over the course of the Blip.

Still, he accepts the phone to make the call and watches Steve outside looking over the railing for a little while longer before he steps into the hallway leading towards the bathroom.

Steve is a lot calmer than the other two, and gives Bucky a smile as he joins him. “I know you’re worried. You don’t want to be that man you used to be. But I’m with you. I’ve got your back. Always, Buck.”

[woundedwinter]

"I can't.." he bites out as he drags a hand through his hair. He's struggling as it is and he still feels like he failed Bruce when he couldn't protect Tony in the end.

They talk once in a while, but he's trying to get better about recognizing when he's having a hard time.

"That's the thing," he huffs out. "I didn't have a choice. They could just say a set of trigger words and I would.. go away. It was like sinking into ice."

"I never wanted to kill or hurt those people. But I did. I remember all of them." Steve will have to know, if they're going to try this.

He gives him a strained smile. "I know Stevie, and that means more to me than I can tell you."

[bottledblond]

Whenever Bucky calls him Stevie, he might as well melt. He wants to take Bucky’s hand, but they’re in public, in the daylight, and Sam is right inside. Instead, he makes a halting sort of shuffle, one step towards Bucky, and tilts his head almost invitingly. It’s like a touchless hug in a gesture.

“A sew of words would trigger you to become a weapon.” How... awful. And to remember it all? “You would just do whatever you were told?” Because there could well be worse things than killing. Torture, for instance. Bucky could have been made to hurt people for fun, for information, for revenge.

He has to put himself in the shoes of a person that would use another person like a tool. Like he was just an extension of his malice.

Malice to hurt someone enough to keep hurting other people.

“The Bucky I know couldn’t hurt anyone. That’s why I know it wasn’t you. And why this is going to be easier than you think. Just... you can’t laugh at me while I do it.” That’s going to be the hardest part. “Can you... can you tell me about the people that used to send you out on your jobs?”

[woundedwinter]

"I would do anything. I'd get pulled out of cryo, warmed up enough to get thrown into a chair and tortured while they read the words. Then I was ready to comply. I had no choice."

He wants nothing more than to pull Steve close and use his warmth and genuineness to stay centered but he can't. Not now.

"Hard men. Not always cruel but they wanted the job done." Sometimes more but he can't let that slip. That's something no one needs to know about. "I was Soldat. The Asset."

[bottledblond]

“Soldat,” Steve repeats, and since he’s just mimicking Bucky, the pronunciation is perfect. “What language is that?” It’s too soft for German. It doesn’t occur to Steve that HYDRA was so much more than just part of the Nazis.

Steve lifts a hand and, though he hesitates just before his palm touches Bucky’s chest, before he spreads his fingers across his t-shirt. He needs the connection. They’re about to slip into something that will require a whole lot of trust and an undercurrent that they’re going to have to rely on their friendship more than either thought.

“Teach me a few phrases.”

[woundedwinter]

"It's Russian. I was kept there after the war."

He covers Steve's hand with his own. His pulse is skittering with tension and he uses the contract to help ground him. "Okay pal."

He teaches him the words in Russian, then German. Phrases that had been burned into his memory for decades on end. His eyes go distant and he tells Steve about everything. How some handlers would use touch to break him as easily as that damned chair.

They can do this. Steve is smart and strong and the one person he trusts to help him stop this threat.

[bottledblond]

Though his call with Banner is brief, Sam doesn’t interrupt the two on the balcony. Their eyes are locked and whatever else might be happening, he can see that Steve is repeating words Bucky utters first.

He ends up pouring himself a drink from the mini bar and sits down on the small loveseat tucked behind the wall.

From what he can hear, Bucky is more or less telling Steve just about everything. He himself only knows the gist, so this is nothing is not perversely enlightening.

Steve himself is proving as always to be a quick learner. He can recite the words, and his face has molded into something harder and nondescript. Where they are going is a place for misfits. He’ll fit in, he’s sure.

In their time together, Steve has gradually gravitated towards Bucky too. His arm is now bent at the elbow from where his hand has been captured against the other’s chest.

“We’ve got this.”

[woundedwinter]

"Yeah. Yeah we can do this." Bucky looks down, realizing that he's still holding on to Steve's hand.

"Remember when we're there, I won't be able to refuse you. Not if we're going to pull off a meeting to find this Power Broker."

Slowly he lets go of his hand.

"Let's get back inside."

[bottledblond]

Sam looks up from his drink as if he hadn’t just been listening in and cuts right to it. “Banner said he’ll come and pick us up tomorrow.” He leans back on the sofa and makes a show of kicking off his boots.

It’s a good thing that Steve had packed a bag, because he does feel the need to find an excuse to be alone. He grabs some clothes and heads to the bathroom to shower and to stand under the spray to think.

That leaves Sam and Bucky to have their typical stare down contest.

“You wanna fill Steve in on Banner or should I,” Sam says to finally break the awkward silence.

[woundedwinter]

He can't blame Steve for needing time alone and Bucky looks at the mini bar himself before giving up on the idea.

Bucky pulls his gloves off. "Which part?" Yes he's being difficult but it's something he can control.

"Yeah I'll tell Steve about the fact that our ride is close to seven foot and has green skin."

[bottledblond]

It’s not like Steve ever knew Tony Stark so Sam rolls his eyes. It’s only been a few months since Banner lost his husband but there’s really no need to worry about Steve saying something out of pocket on that one. “He’s taking most of it in stride but Banner...”

Well he’s intimidating. The fusion of Banner and the Hulk had been an incredible achievement for the two smartest men in the world but Sam still can’t wrap his head around how he and Tony could have gotten down like that.

And whenever he sees Bruce, he still thinks about it. Unfortunate. He knows. Sam rubs his hand over his face. “You still sleeping on the floor or do we gotta go head to toe on the second bed?”

Funny how ingrained Sam is on that. Despite his proclivities.

[woundedwinter]

"I know, I know." He's intimidating and will no doubt be a surprise when Steve meets him, but he has faith in his best friend not to freak out too much.

"I'll explain it to Steve in the morning. He's heard enough tonight." Bucky's also done enough talking.

He scowls at the question because while he'd rather sleep with Steve he won't, not with Sam here. "Floor is just fine. I don't want your damn feet anywhere near me."