Stucky One Shots

Dearly Departed

This was requested by linalygemini , warnings for angst and general sad!

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When Steve'd said goodbye to his husband he hadn't realised it would be the last time.

It was a simple takedown situation, Tony had said. Required a small team who actually knew how to use weapons to destroy a HYDRA base and the few remaining agents that lingered there, like cockroaches.

So, in other words, Steve wasn't invited. He hadn't been too concerned, Bucky was a skilled fighter and could easily handle his own -- his only worry was the general worry that accompanied Bucky charging into danger without him.

"Be careful," he had warned him; Steve remembered he didn't look up from his book while Bucky had stood by the door, getting ready.

"Always am," Bucky had replied, and he was looking at Steve, still engrained in his book. Bucky had smiled, unseen, then walked over and kissed the top of his head. "Love you, Steve."

Steve smiled at the page then finally looked up, brief enough to catch a glimpse of his soft eyes and gentle smile. "I love you too."

That was the last he'd seen of him.

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Steve paces the floor enough to wear a thin track into the carpet, clutching and releasing his fist as if that repetition will help. He's already called Bucky maybe five times, left two voicemails, and texted nearly half a dozen times too -- and still, radio silence.

He's in the motion of grabbing his phone when there's a knock at the door.

His heart leaps into his throat; hope, he thinks, but then he forces himself to think it through. This was Bucky's home and the knock was gentle and uncertain -- someone who didn't visit often. Steve swallows his disappointment and pulls the door open.

"Tony?"

Stark looks exhausted -- usually tired eyes are downcast, and there's a weariness on his shoulders Steve hadn't noticed before. He didn't want to meet his eyes. That was a bad sign.

"Hey, Cap. Um-- can I come inside?"

So Steve goes through the motions of making him a coffee, automatically adding creamer and a scoop of sugar because that was how Bucky always took his. If Tony didn't like it, he didn't comment as he accepted the warmth gratefully.

"Sit down, you're going to need to." Tony sighs, readjusts, and forces himself to hold Steve's worried gaze. "Um-- Barnes, he didn't -- " His breath hitches in his throat, Steve was still staring at him but something was dawning in those brilliant blue eyes and Tony didn't want to have to witness the realization. It was hard enough being there in person; dealing with the aftermath would be devastating.

"We lost him," he chokes out and clears his throat, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "He, uh, went inside to take out one of the targets and then it-- the building just-- "

"Who's responsible?" Steve's voice sounds distant, even to himself -- he was staring at a spot over Tony's shoulder, he wasn't even sure his heart was beating anymore. "Who set it off?"

"HYDRA got to it before we could do anything," Tony rushes to say, reaching a hand out as if to reassure him. "We went in as it was going down, we couldn't see him and I had to get everyone to safety, so -- "

"So he's... " Steve trails off. He couldn't bring himself to say dead, there was no way his Bucky was dead -- it was so foreign to feel and so achingly familiar. Tony goes off on a tangent, we did the best we could, don't blame yourself for this, I'm sorry Steve, and it sounds like the buzzing of flies and nothing more.