Chapter Text
Putting the last of the groceries away, Bucky sighed before getting up to work on cleaning the rest of the apartment. There was a thin coating of dust on everything because Bucky had been gone for a while, so he pulled out a rag and got to work.
Dusting had always been Bucky’s job. It wasn’t good with Stevie’s asthma, which was why the omega had cooked instead of clean. Of course Bucky had offered to cook as well, but Steve wouldn’t hear of it.
“Such a stubborn little punk,” Bucky murmured, lovingly wiping dust away from Steve’s picture frame. “Couldn’t let me take care of you.” Well, outside of heats at least.
Bucky was just setting the picture back down when his front door opened. It had to be Sam, that was the only other person who had a key and Bucky had heard the lock click. Lock picks sounded different, so he didn’t have to worry there.
“Hey,” Bucky smiled absentmindedly as he started cleaning their wedding picture, “What brings you over here?”
A few months ago it would be because of how down Bucky seemed. How Sam was worried he would do something stupid with all the memories of his mate surrounding him. Now though, it was more of a mystery.
Which would be solved if Sam actually said something. “Sam? Everything alright?”
“Oh yeah,” the beta sounded furious, “Except for the part where you tried to murder some guy in custody.”
Bucky set the picture frame back down, terrified he would clench his first and break it. “You mean that Hydra agent?”
“Of course, unless there was someone else you threatened to kill,” Sam spat out, “Seriously man. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that that piece of filth had spent months trying to kill my mate,” Bucky snarled, lips curling back in naked aggression. He knew he had to look feral right now, but really couldn't bring himself to care. “That he’d been planning the best way to take Stevie away from me and I could make it stop right then and there.”
“By killing him?” Sam looked disgusted, “Man, we’re better than that. We’re the good guys, we don’t torture prisoners.”
Bucky snorted and turned away before he said something he would regret in the future. Torture and murder was a small price to save Steve. His hands were already stained with blood from the war. A little more from Hydra filth wouldn’t change anything. He was always willing to pay the price, willing to sacrifice anything for his mate.
Even if he never saw Steve again, giving the love of his life one more day to live would be worth it.
“Look, Bucky this isn’t like you,” Sam sounded exhausted, “This whole thing with Steve is messing with your head.”
“Don’t…”
“it’s true and you know it. Before all this, you weren’t happy, but you were coping,” Sam’s hand was supposed to be a comforting presence on Bucky’s shoulder, but today it just felt like a brand, “This is tearing you apart. Will there even be anything left when this whole thing is over?”
Bucky knew his laugh was mournful. “It doesn’t matter. None of it does without him here.”
“Man. We talked about this.” A hint of frustration was starting to creep into Sam’s voice. “You can’t put your life on pause for your dead mate.”
“And like I said last time we talked about this, I am not going to forget the love of my life!” He had to get out of here, had to get away from Sam and his probing questions and his demands…
Or he would have if everything had kept going like normal. Instead, Bucky stumbled to the ground as absolute agony ripped through his body. Distantly he was aware of the fact that he was screaming, writhing on the ground in agony.
His bond. His bond had come screaming back to life in the most painful way possible. Every nerve was screaming, tearing itself apart and rebuilding in the worst possible way. Becoming a super soldier hadn’t hurt this much. Even Steve’s death hadn’t hurt so bad, but that had been more because he had been numb through the agony, the absolute pain of realizing his mate had died.
Sam was screaming, calling for help. Bucky could barely hear it over the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears. His bond. He could feel it lighting up inside him again. The butterfly feel of his mate alive once more, delicate and trembling in Bucky’s mind.
“Steve,” Bucky gasped out, flailing wildly to reach out and grab Sam’s hand, “Sam… my bond…”
“It hurts. Yeah I know man,” Sam murmured, “I know it can get bad.”
“My bond is back,” Bucky breathed out, “My Stevie...he’s alive.”
“What? Here?”
He was. Bucky could feel it, could feel Steve’s heartbeat starting to beat alongside his. “He’s here. Sam, Steve’s here somewhere,” Bucky lurched to his feet, “I need to get to my mate. I need to see him!”
Bucky wasn’t sure how they got moving, not really. All he knew was that one minute he was slumped across Sam’s lap and the next they were stumbling into Stark’s tower. There must have been a whole period of time that was just missing but it really didn’t matter.
The second his feet hit the floor inside the tower, Bucky knew where he had to go. His legs strengthened at the realization, letting him take off at a dead sprint through the hallways until the went skidding into the medical bay.
Some part of him was aware that Clint was seated in the room. That there were medical professionals fluttering around and machines taking readings. But none of that mattered.
Not when his Stevie was lying in the bed.
“Steve,” Bucky breathed, stumbling to his knees next to the bed. Shaking hands reached out to grab his mate’s frail hands, gently lifting them up to press and adoring kiss to the knuckles.
Steve looked like shit, he really did. He was too pale and had an oxygen mask pressed snugly over his face. His lips were tinted blue, dark circles hung under his eyes, and his face was too thin. But he was the most beautiful thing Bucky had ever seen, wires included.
Gently, Bucky reached up to brush stringy blonde bangs from a too pale face. “What happened to him?”
“I did,” Clint sounded exhausted.
Part of Bucky wanted to turn, to snarl at the alpha encroaching on his weak, vulnerable little mate. But a larger part refused to turn away from Steve even for a second. “What did you do?”
“The Hydra guy made it all click. The entire time, we were trying to prevent him from getting to Steve but Steve was never the target,” Clint sounded exhausted.
“But Steve still died,” Bucky had to press another kiss to Steve’s knuckles at the thought.
“Yeah, but Hydra was never there,” Clint admitted, “I was the only one who kept popping in from the future. So when the guy said that the whole point of this was to bring someone forward through time, I got it.”
Bucky growled as Clint came to stand by his side. It was a fight to remind himself that Clint was a friend, to both him and Steve. That he had no romantic interest in Bucky’s mate. “What did you get?”
“I was the Hydra agent that killed Steve,” Clint shrugged helplessly at the venomous glare Bucky sent him, “Or that’s what everyone thought. I yelled Hail Hydra, grabbed Steve, and brought him to the future. And since time travel was undetected back then…”
“It looked like a suicide attack. Like you killed Steve,” Bucky breathed out the realization.
Clint shrugged, “Yeah. Well. Hard to check that he was alive when he was seventy years in the future.” Clint reached out to fondly pat Steve’s ankle before stepping back, “I’ll be back in a couple hours to check in on him.”
It took an extreme amount of effort for Bucky to grit out, “If you want to stay…”
“No,” Clint’s grin was bright and boyish, “I’ve watched your unfolding saga of sexual tension from the front row. I’ll let you two figure yourselves out before seeing the second act.”
A second act. That sounded perfect, Bucky mused as he went back to watching his sleeping mate. A whole new world to navigate, another life with the love of his life, and it was going to be amazing.
It could have been seconds or hours for all that Bucky cared. He was the epitome of patience as he watched every muscle work as Steve slowly came back into awareness. Sky blue eyes slowly opened, hazy with the good drugs as they gazed around the room.
Bucky knew he was grinning like an idiot, but he couldn't help it. His face hurt from smiling so much, from his face practically splitting in half as Steve smiled sleepily back up at him.
“Bucky,” Steve breathed happily.
“Hey there gorgeous,” Bucky cooed, gently pulling the oxygen mask off so he could finally kiss Steve. And oh god, his little mate tasted as good as he remembered. No. Even better than he remembered. “I’m so happy to see you awake lovely.”
“Hm. Missed you,” Steve curled sleepily up, tucking himself as close to the alpha as he could on the thing bed, “Missed you so much husband mine. Don’t leave again.”
“I’m never going to leave you. Ever again,” Bucky promised nuzzling into Steve’s neck. And oh, his little mate’s delicious scent was sweeter than any flower. “Always going to be here darling boy. Always going to take care of you.”
“No,” Steve pouted.
It was the cutest thing ever, Bucky couldn’t possibly be blamed for smiling like a sap. “No?”
“I’m going to take care of you,” Steve announced grandly, reaching clumsily to pat Bucky’s cheek. “You're to reckless, so I got to look after you.”
“I’m reckless? Whose the one laid up in a hospital bed.”
“Not my fault,” Steve huffed out, but still allowed Bucky to gently draw him into strong arms. “Clint dragged me through time. Did you know that?”
“He just told me,” Bucky murmured. “Probably so I wouldn’t yell at him for putting you in danger.”
“Because you’re ridiculous, I get into danger all by myself.” And yeah, if there was any doubt that Steve was on the good drugs that just banished it. “Anyway. Clint brought me to now and then I had an asthma attack before the bond hurt and then I woke up here.” Steve smiled dopily up at him, “I’m glad though. I’m here with you, so it’s worth it.”
“Sure is Stevie,” and what else could Bucky do but kiss his darling mate’s smile. He was helpless to resist this specific temptation.
Steve sighed into the kiss, settling more comfortably into Bucky’s arms. “I’m in the future,” Steve whispered, his voice tiny, “Everything’s so shiny and fast and I don’t know what to do.”
“You get better so I can take you home,” Bucky murmured. “And then we’ll figure this out together.” For the first time since that awful day in the Alps, he could feel himself at peace. The universe finally made sense with his life safe and sound in his arms.
Later, Bucky would worry about how to bring Steve into this new century. They would figure out what to do with a mathematician who hated math but didn’t know anything else, a computer whose job was no longer necessary. Bucky would figure out how to get Steve used to cellphones and Netflix, while introducing him to modern history and society.
But that was tomorrow’s problem. Today, all Bucky had to do was hold and kiss and love his mate.
A happy rumble left Bucky as he curled around Steve. “Love you Stevie.”
“Love you too Buck,” a yawn left the omega, even as Steve tucked himself further into Bucky’s embrace, “You going to be here when I wake up?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Bucky promised, “We’ve got all the time in the world now love.”
Steve’s smile was the only answer Bucky would ever need, and it was glorious to see it again.