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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]

Bruce gives him a fond nod, allowing Tony to go and feed in private in one of the lower rooms. It feels strange and wonderful to have him in the villa, but he doesn't need to tell either of the men the way he feels. They feel the same thing, he's sure.

He pushes to his feet, careful not to crush the table as he does so. "You two should eat as well. If Tony comes back tell him I'm in the lab, second door on the left down the hall."

For now, Bucky is okay with the coffee.

"One last fight, huh?"

[bottledblond]

Steve doesn’t know if he can eat right now. His stomach is doing a two-step better than his feet even have and it’s messing with him. He stays seated, accepts the coffee without drinking it, and gives Bucky a determined face.

“Technically it would be the first fight I actually have a shot at,” Steve says with a smirk, though he’s really not feeling that either. “We’re going to find these other people... and we’re going to talk to them first. I want to know everything about them.”

And then they can discuss the after math. When he’s no longer at risk for shattering.

[woundedwinter]

"Yeah, but you've been fighting your whole life," he counters with an easy smile as he gets up to start poking around the kitchen. Steve will need to eat something and so will Sam when he decides to join them.

While he rummages he talks, telling Steve about the Blip and what it did to the universe, wiping out half the population in an instant. "They want to return the world to the way it was then. I guess some people saw it as a good thing. There were more resources, jobs, houses and less government involvement. Shared grief turning into something good I guess."

"Then when the Avengers undid it, the world was thrown into chaos."

[bottledblond]

“This is different. It’s bigger and it matters more. I don’t know what it must have been like to lose half the world and then for that world to come back again. But I’ve read about it. The people who lost whole families and made new ones only for the previous to come back. People who lost jobs. And homes. It sounds horrible. I want to help these people, Buck.”

He wraps an arm around the back of a chair.

“Refugee camps aren’t the way. They’re never the way. But I don’t think I can survive it if I meet up with them again. I want to talk to but I also want to live through it. And... I have something else to live for now, right?”

Which is of course when Sam decides to join them. He glances between the two. “No, please,” he says, sitting down. “What’s that you have to live for now? Other than yourself?”

[woundedwinter]

"It was terrible," he supplies because the scope of the loss was staggering, impossible to try and comprehend.

He pours Sam's coffee and doctors it properly before sliding it over. "Steve's gonna take Tony's serum." No more distractions or fighting about it. This time Steve can do what he was meant to do. Help people.

"Steve wants to help. We're gonna let him." God knows they need more people in their corner.

[bottledblond]

Sam glances Steve’s way and nods. “Already knew that was what you were gonna do,” he says, his smirk becoming a smile. “Well all right then. Just having strength and speed isn’t going to make you Captain America though. You’re going to have to learn some basics.”

“I know basics. Bucky’s been training me. Before he was drafted, he trained me for years. And we trained a bit since the school. I know my way around a ring, Sam,” Steve says. “And I’m not going to be Captain America. I know the symbolism behind the uniform and the shield but that can’t be me. And I don’t want it to be.”

Sam gives Bucky a look. “We’re getting a speech,” he murmurs, and Steve just keeps talking.

“Sam, you’re the one to wield the shield. You’re the guy that’s got to be the shield. Don’t you think Steve would have wanted that?”

[woundedwinter]

Bucky snorts and goes back to pulling out a few things for them to eat. "You have no idea," he answers with an easy smile.

Steve's declaration might surprise them a little, but only because of how right it feels.

"You're right, Stevie. Sam should be the one." Not him, and he's relieved that Steve doesn't want the mantle. The shield carries a hell of a burden to it. "You're the Cap America needs right now."

[bottledblond]

“You were his best friend,” Sam says, frowning. “He would have wanted you.“ there’s no way he’d be Captain America. That’s just dumb.

The blond doesn’t look impressed. He taps his fingers on the table in a slow, rhythmic motion. “Buck was still under care in Wakanda,” he points out. “No way would he want his best friend to be Captain America until he was ready. And Sam— Honestly, Captain America doesn’t need to be another white man from the 40s.”

He gives Sam a little shrug. The idiot’s only been in this century for a few months and he already knows that the symbol for this country has to be someone like Sam. Not someone like Bucky.

And definitely not someone like himself. No matter what Bucky says.

Sam almost looks uncomfortable. “I don’t want—“

“I think you do,” Steve cuts in. “You’re a guy willing to do stupid things to serve his country. That sounds exactly like me. That’s how I know you’re the one.”

[woundedwinter]

He shakes his head, "No, not me. I have too much to work through still. I'm not the kind of symbol that the world needs right now." Not with his history.

"Sam it should be yours. This whole time all you've wanted to do was make things right. You want to help people."

He grins as he slides a plate on the table. Nothing fancy, but it would be filling. "Pick up the shield Sam. The man said it's yours."

[bottledblond]

Steve still doesn’t want to eat. He just shoved food around his plate in the classic avoidance strategy of annoying children everywhere.

“Just think about it. I know you said you donated it... but I’m sure you can get it back.” He pushes back from the table and sets his lips. “Just think about it, Sam. I’m going to go and see Doctor Banner. I uh... I think I need to do this alone.”

He gazes at Bucky for a moment, but he’s not going to do anything right now in front of Sam.

“I’ll be back soon.”

[woundedwinter]

None of them are really all that hungry. Bucky wants to object but he nods and swallows down anything else that he wants to say. He's with Bruce. He'll be fine. Safe as he can be.

So he fills coffee mugs. "He's right you know."

"Annoying, but he's right."

"Pick up the shield."

[bottledblond]

“If they’ll let me have it,” Sam says, just within Steve’s earshot as the blond heads down the hall. He can’t help but smile. Bucky is right. People will listen to him if he has the right things to say and if he means everything that comes out of his mouth. Maybe he’ll be useful in this world after all.

He’s quiet as he nears the lab and lightly knocks on the door. “Doctor Banner?” Or is it Stark? He goes with what Bucky and Sam have been saying. “It’s me, Steve. I uh... I wanted to come down and be ready for whenever Mister Stark is done his uh... dinner.”

“Mister Stark is done is dinner,” Tony says behind the blond, making him jump. He can’t help it. It’s amusing and he laughs softly. “Go on in. Let’s get this back in you,” he says, holding up a vial.

[seven_phds]

Bruce is working on turning things on, speaking to FRIDAY as diagnostics are run and the whole lab is brought back online.

He turns as the two enter, "FRIDAY, give access and full protocols to Tony Stark."

The AI hesitates. "Yes Bruce."

There's a smile for them both. "I think we're ready when you are Steve."

[starkingenuity]

Tony let’s Bruce do the futzing. There’s a lot that the medical profession finds necessary to sanitize the area and be comforting that he just is not suited for, but he sits on the edge of the stool with his arms across his chest and his sleeves rolled up without moving. Or breathing.

Steve states at him a moment too long before he rolls up his own sleeve and watches Bruce use an alcohol swab to clean the area. He looks between the two men after that, but a glance back to Tony finds the vampire’s stool empty. The creature is next to Bruce the moment Steve glances back, having moved entirely too quickly for anyone’s comfort. He drops a now empty vial on the same tray as the used cotton swab.

“We make a great team,” Tony says, unable to stop full on flirting with Bruce. The man is not his husband. They have various touch points that are similar in their histories but they don’t share the same memories. Not that it matters. Bruce is Bruce. The men himself is the same and that’s what Tony can keep himself from loving and fawning over. “You can go, Rogers. Oh! I thought of a comeback to the whole shower thing that involves a flea bath but that won’t work right now. But I wanted you to know that I’m witty and charming. Okay, bye,” he dismisses.

Steve, though, just looks confused. He doesn’t move from the seat. “But—“

Tony rolls his eyes and holds up a finger to the man he had been staring so lovingly at. “One second, beautiful,” he says and turns to Steve crisply. “That’s it. You’re done.”

“But I—“

“Close your eyes. Listen to your heart rate a moment. And then go and bend a girder. You might get a hot flash in a little while but probably not. That really is it.” Steve stands slowly, looking at his own hands for answers while Tony sighs. “Kids these days, am I right? They need so much hand holding.”

[seven_phds]

Some things, even across worlds, never change. Bruce can't hold back the fond smile, even if it makes him ache. He's been so lonely since Tony sacrificed himself to save the universe. His brave, impulse, wonderful husband.

"It's okay Steve," he promises him, even if Tony's speed was a little surprising to them both.

Bruce reaches for a pair of silver bracelets from a drawer. "If you start feeling strange, come find us and I can do a full workup." But he trusts Tony's work, the same way he's trusted him in everything.

"Give it at least a day to get used to the changes before you three take off again."

[bottledblond]

It’s not until he climbs the stairs without being winded that Steve feels in any way different. He’d been walking up them, trying to concentrate on his heart and scratching his head when he found himself not having to struggle to reach the top. He pauses, glances back down the stairs and then runs back down. He takes them two at a time next, and on his third go, jumps up six stairs at once, clearing the whole thing in two jumps.

He hits the wall on the last one, laughing all the while.

“Buck!” he calls, dashing back towards the kitchen. He’d only been gone for a few minutes so it’s not like Bucky would have gotten far. In fact, he knows he hasn’t. He can hear him and Sam half talk and half frown at each other.

Steve doesn’t have the hang of stopping from a run, though, and he slides right past the doorway and into another wall.

“I’m okay!”

[woundedwinter]

They're mid-argument again when he hears a body hit the wall. He's on his feet in an instant, stopping with a grin when Steve goes blasting by them and hits the wall. Good thing Banner had a reinforced villa.

A surprised laugh bubbles up as he reaches to pull Steve to his feet. His heart sounds strong and healthy and it's the most amazing thing he's ever heard.

"Feel okay, pal?"

[bottledblond]

Sam had trotted out after him, though he hangs back, leaning on the wall. “Gave is a heart attack,” he says, looking relieved as Steve brushes himself off. He remembers listening to the other man tell him all about how he could barely walk without breaking something for awhile until getting used to his strength.

Though still five foot four, Steve doesn’t stand with a lean. His eyes are a clear blue with green flecks. His hair seems more vibrant. His skin is supple and smooth.

“I feel great! I can actually breathe,” Steve proclaims.

[woundedwinter]

"That didn't take long," Bucky comments, taking in a healthier and stronger Steve. "Okay, time to start some real training then. You'll need to learn your limits and your strength."

He nods at Sam. "Get suited up."

[bottledblond]

“You want to do this right after that crap you made me eat for breakfast?” Sam mutters. “All right. I see how it is.” He faces the pair a little wave and strides back to his room to get on the wings.

This should be interesting, but also hopefully a relief. Bucky can get his mission set and go back to crossing names out of his book. And Steve can have his health and his taste for adventure. Sam can get behind both of those things for his friends.

At the end of the hallway, Steve wraps his fingers around the tail of Bucky’s shirt, gently, and grins. “Was Start always creepy or is it a vampire thing?”

[woundedwinter]

"There's nothing wrong with my cooking!" He yells after him. Picky asshole.

The touch has him going still and he chuckles in response, "Stark was always a pain in the ass. Naturally he's gonna use his vampire abilities to harass people, but he doesn't mean any harm."

"He's a good guy." Eh. "When he wants to be."

[bottledblond]

“Doctor Banner thinks he’s the bee’s knees,” Steve says, the Brooklyn in his voice almost thicker than usual. He’s really feeling his own now, feeling like he’s never felt in his whole life really. Health looks good on him. It always has. But now Bucky can experience it without all of the crazy muscles to go along with it.

Steve tells Bucky about the experience, the whole four minutes of it, and they head out onto the lawn.

“I might last a punch or two now!”

[woundedwinter]

"He was married to Tony. At least a version of him."

He drinks it all in, happy and strong Steve in a body that has always been his. It's perfect and he grins at him as they step out. A roll of his shoulder to check the calibration of his left arm.

"Yeah you just might. But remember hit easy to begin with. You've got to get used to being stronger."

[bottledblond]

“Yeah. And a version of me was married to a version of you,” Steve says, half teasing and half curious to see Bucky’s reaction. A few minutes of kissing doesn’t get them engaged, but Steve can’t stop thinking about that kissing and when there might be more of it.

Out in the grass with the high, ivy covered walls, Steve squints up into the trees.

He can make out birds in the branches. He can hear the sound of the leaves rustling.

“I don’t know what to do first,” he says. “I kind of want to see how far I can run.”

[woundedwinter]

"I remember," he says, his smile going soft and warm. It sounds pretty nice.

"Okay, so we can start with that." He smacks his shoulder. "Tag. You're it." With that he bolts off, not at full speed, but faster than most people can run. "Catch me!"