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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 rolls his eyes and casually gives him the finger as he turns them back towards home. "Feeling's mutual Wilson." Both the harassing and the mutual respect that neither of them will ever, ever admit to.

He shifts his attention to Steve, "And you're not a second best anything. You're here and that's all that matters." The world is better with a Steve Rogers in it.

God knows his world is better for it.

[bottledblond]

Sam glances between the two from the backseat as the other man gaze at one another for a few seconds too long. It’s not just an old fashioned thing, Sam is pretty sure.

He’ll have to tease Bucky about it later, if only to see the guy swing on him.

It will be worth it.

Sam takes his leave from the roof of Bucky’s building as Steve gets settled and cracks open his book to jot down notes from today. He does a quick sketch of Sam in his wings too, and is shaking him in when Bucky returns from Sam’s send off.

It’s been a good day. Scary and thrilling. The best.

[woundedwinter]

The conversation on the roof this time had been easier, even if he could see that spark of "I'm gonna start shit" in Sam's grin as he took off from the roof.

In another life they might have even been friends. For now he'll settle for whatever they are.

He closes the door and pauses to plug his phone into the charging cable in the kitchen. Promise kept, he's keeping his phone on all the time now.

"Hey. Sam is on his way back to his place. I think we can make it Jersey way tomorrow unless the Doc has a quicker lead." Bucky is all smiles and far more relaxed. The future is so much easier when he's got a purpose.

[bottledblond]

“Sounds like it’s going to be fun,” Steve says with genuine enthusiasm. For now, his place here is secure and maybe he’s even making some friends. Sure. One used to be the other Steve’s friends but the man and women from SWORD seemed promising.

It beats going to college or working in a shop, he can say that much.

“This isn’t what I imagined for us, but I really like it. It beats coming over Sundays for backyard barbecues with your wife and kids.”

[woundedwinter]

Steve looks excited about their upcoming mission and Bucky can't help but smile along with him. He was always the man with the plan, super strength or no.

Mention of a wife and kids pulls a laugh from him. "Yeah, don't think that was ever in the books for me, but this isn't a bad start to a new life huh?"

[bottledblond]

“You would have picked one eventually,” Steve replies, pulling his book back over. “Or found someone new.” He follows his pencil along the wings in his book, biting the edge of his lips in concentration.

The conversation seemed over for the moment at least until Steve’s stomach interrupts his sketching.

“You’re feeding me too much. It’s come to expect food now,” Steve says, laughing. It’s a pretty good night, and he ends up helping Bucky do meal prep before he goes back to his sketching.

When it comes time for bed, Steve back in Bucky’s night clothes, the blond pushes back from the table.

“If you want to sleep in bed again, I’m all for it,” Steve says, off handedly. He doesn’t realize how it sounds.

[woundedwinter]

"Guess we'll never know," which seems the safest way to leave things while Steve goes back to drawing and he reads over what Woo had already sent him about Wanda and Westview.

Dinner was comfortable and he was happy to clean up with help until it was over and Steve could go back to what he was working on.

The offer is a surprise and he blinks as he pulls his shirt off, leaving him only in his dog tags and shorts. "Uh, yeah sure. If you want me to."

[bottledblond]

There's no way Steve is taking his shirt off unless he has to. He knows his concave chest can be a little bit of a surprise for people. He knows his back is crooked too and he's skinny enough that his spine stands out. And sure, Bucky's seen him many times without his shirt on, but that's different from sleeping next to him without it.

Steve takes the same side of the bed from the night before, though he does turn slightly towards Bucky as the other man gets in. Without asking, a skinny arm stretches across his own chest so his fingers can lift the dog tags.

He doesn't have his contacts in now, so he can't make out the words, but his thumb brushes across the raised surface.

"No idea where they put mine," Steve says, though he doesn't really mind. He hadn't been a soldier.

[woundedwinter]

Steve may be smaller but so many people have overlooked all that strength crammed into one skinny body. Bucky looks down as Steve reaches for his tags, "I do." Because of course he did. Getting his tags had been an uphill battle until Pepper threatened the museum with whole of Stark Industries legal team to recover them for Bucky.

And he'll let Steve look as long as he likes while he memorizes the way that it feels with him closer, his arm resting on his bare skin.

"Just kick me if I get too warm for you tonight okay?"

[bottledblond]

"Maybe not kick," Steve says, not asking where his tags might be. Likely, they aren't his, but the other Steve's. Maybe Bucky has them? A keepsake. Maybe Steve Rogers hadn't poofed out of existence with them on.

Eventually, Steve lets the tags go and the fall into Bucky's armpit with a renewed warmth from Steve's hand. He doesn't turn away from Bucky, looking up at him instead.

"I don't want to get in your way," Steve says. "So tomorrow, make sure it's job first, me second."

[woundedwinter]

As if he could promise him that. Steve Rogers has never once come second in his mind. "I can't do that. We're working this as partners. You're not riding along just because I want someone else to listen to that isn't Sam."

He folds his arm across his chest, "You're working this with us. Sam and I can scout ahead, you can see the patterns that we don't and if we find anything I'll go in and handle it."

[bottledblond]

Steve's face looks angelic when he's happy. He's certainly not angelic in any way but happiness does look good on him. "I really have always been better at puzzles," he tells Bucky, and then rolls over to get the light.

He stays on his side, back to his friend, if only because the night before he'd woken up cuddled against the larger man. He'd rather not do that again. Especially if Bucky doesn't end up sleeping tonight. That would be embarrassing before a mission.

[woundedwinter]

He's missed that smile. Bucky lays in the quiet and the dark until he can hear Steve's breathing even out and grow slower as he drifts off to sleep.

The bed is still too soft and after an hour of trying to sleep with no success, he slips out of the bedroom back into the rest of the apartment. Bucky tugs down a cushion from the chair and the blanket he normally uses. He mutes the television before turning it on, switching around until he finds an old baseball game. The broad swaths of green and easy movement distract him from the noise in his head and the hard floor beneath him is familiar enough that he quickly drops off to sleep.

They have a job to do tomorrow and he's looking forward to it.

[bottledblond]

If Bucky doesn't wake up to Steve opening the bedroom door, getting distracted again by the television and it's wonders, or the sound of him creeping across the floor, he'll get woken up by a kick.

"I got too cold," Steve says, sounding like he's complaining. It's morning, he'd gotten a really good night's sleep, and he was raring to go. Overnight, a text had come in from Woo with a location and a meetup time and while they had enough time for breakfast, once Steve finds out about the text, he's going to want to go.

[woundedwinter]

He's awake the moment he hears Steve moving and Bucky shifts just enough so Steve doesn't accidentally kick his left arm. He smirks and catches his ankle after the kick, but keeps it careful so Steve doesn't overbalance and fall on his ass.

"Just for that, you get to start the coffee." He pulls himself up and returns his stuff to the couch before padding over to his phone. The text is skimmed over and he considers how much time they have before he'll have to get them out the door.

"Thirty minutes Steve. We got our marching orders." A quick cold shower and he's going through his closet. Tac gear and extensive weapons might not be needed on this mission, but he's not taking any chances. It's all still in the duffle in the back of his closet and he pulls it out, setting it by the door.

[bottledblond]

Steve had been shown how to use the coffee machine but that doesn't mean he's great at it at the start. He manages to figure it out while Bucky is going through his phone and makes a little 'ah ha' sound as if he'd just conquered a small army. The smell of fresh coffee is already brewing when Bucky mentions their mission and Steve's eyes glow with excitement.

He's back in the clothes from two days ago, but he doesn't mind. He used to go a week in the same trousers, sometimes two, and he still looks presentable.

Or he thinks he does when Bucky comes out of the bedroom in that.

Steve has to remind himself to breathe. It's not the first time he's been distracted by the guy but this is different. This leaves his heart fluttering like a bird in a cage.

Bucky's bound to notice him staring like that, though.

"uh," he says, racking his brain. "Uh... any shrunken black shirts...?" His white shirt will be out of place.

[woundedwinter]

Bucky sets down the bag before realizing that Steve is a little distracted with what he's got on. He shrugs and smooths a hand down the vest, "I know. It's probably too much and Sam's gonna roll his eyes, but I like being prepared." And the stuff he ordered for Steve still isn't here but there's also a pretty good chance he fucked something up while trying to order it all in the first place.

"I might," he crinkles his nose as he thinks before stalking back into the bedroom to rifle around for something that might fit him better. "Took me a few tries before I figured the machines out."

There's an old Iron Man shirt Barton had given him but he tosses that aside and settles on a blue long sleeve that had always been too snug in the shoulders to be comfortable. "Here, try that one. Once we get this job done we'll do some real shopping, get you clothes that fit."

[bottledblond]

Amazon only ever delivers when you're away anyway, so chances are, when they return from this little trip, Steve might have a few things waiting for him. He will be extremely impressed by such things, but for now...

"No one's blaming you for being slow. You're adequate in other ways," Steve grins.

This blue shirt will do. It's big on him, but he folds under the cuffs of the sleeves and tucks it into his pants. He looks like he belongs helping out at a tech store or a big box store, but he wouldn't get the reference.

[woundedwinter]

"Punk," he smiles affectionately as he picks his bag up and goes for a couple of travel mugs. "Come on, I'll fill up the coffee here and we can get something to eat once we're on the road." There are heavy duty nutrition bars in his bag but given they taste like drywall Bucky's in no hurry to start in on those.

Steve always looked good in blue. Bucky grins over at him as he buckles in and he programs the location of the meetup into the car's GPS.

"Woo sent over some of the basics, but we'll get the rest when we meet up with them."

[bottledblond]

The basics basically outline 'circus themes' and 'clown-like behavior.' Steve stares at the phone and the text, trying to read between the lines, but that's all that's there, along with Darcy's messages following up that she is 'over' the circus. Steve can't help but scratch his head as he sips on his coffee and tries not to spill something called a breakfast burrito on Bucky's shirt.

They arrive at a little town in central Jersey, several hours later, and Steve jumps out of the car to stretch. Sam and Darcy are already there, standing at the back of a van filled with computing and scanning equipment. Steve doesn't wait for Bucky, he just hurries ahead to see what they're doing.