The Mimic

141

"Come on, Buck! Catch me!" The hallucination of y/n giggled, racing through the tall grass.

Bucky was surrounded by perfectly green fields. The bright sun beamed down upon his skin and the sticky summer air filled his nostrils, yet there was only one thing that he was focusing on. Y/n.

In his eyes, she looked heavenly. She always did, but this was different - there seemed to be a glow around her. Every single movement was gentle, and every piece her hair was perfectly in place. Even her smile was flawless.

No, it was all too good to be true. That wasn't y/n's smile. She always scrunched her nose up whenever she smiled like that. That wasn't y/n.

There weren't any cuts or bruises from fights, there were no bags under her eyes from the constant sleepless nights, there wasn't anything that defined her as y/n. And, as Bucky continued to stare, it became more and more obvious to him that he was hallucinating. Y/n didn't run like that. She didn't frolic in the grass. If they were running, it was a full on race. Hell, the hallucination had even gotten her little mannerisms wrong. Y/n was wearing her mission boots. She hated her mission boots. She would've gone barefoot in the field if it was the real y/n.

Bucky's smile dropped once he realised it all. He stopped running, standing still in the tall grass as his eyes stayed locked on the fake y/n. He didn't understand what was going on. Everything felt so real. He could feel the warmth of the sun, he could hear the chirping of the crickets around them, it all felt like it should be real. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, glancing down at himself to see if there was anything wrong for him, and there was.

For one, he was in his uniform from the 40s, and his hair was cut short. But the most noticeable difference was the fact that he had two arms. Two arms. Not a metal one, a real arm. And he had feeling in it. He had complete control. It was as if he'd never fallen off of that train. As if he'd actually been able to live out a good life with y/n - one that would've been impossible if he never fell, but one that he'd been imagining for a long, long time.

Why was his mind giving him a happy hallucination? This never happened. It was always something terrifying, so what was going on? Had something bad happened? Had that sniper actually been able to shoot him in the head? However, before Bucky could even process it all, the fake y/n spoke up again.

"Is something wrong?" She asked with a frown, tilting her head to the side as she looked at Bucky. There was no way in hell that y/n could've approached Bucky in such a short amount of time. The last time that Bucky looked at her, she was miles away in the field. Yet there she was, stood in front of him with no signs of fatigue or being out of breath. "Or are you just being a sore loser because you can't catch me?" She teased with a smirk, reaching a hand up to cup Bucky's cheek.

Bucky slapped y/n's hand away almost immediately. He took in a sharp, overwhelmed breath, stepping backwards in attempt to get away from her. "You're..." Bucky cut himself off, tears beginning to appear in his eyes as he looked at the fake y/n. He wished it was real. He wished that they could live in their perfect sitcom world. A world where Hydra didn't exist, where the Avengers didn't exist, and where their only worry were the silly problems that were always resolved by the end of the episode. That was all that he wanted. But he knew that a perfect sitcom world would never exist, and neither did the y/n that stood in front of him. "You're not real." He breathed out, anxiously glancing around as he waited for something horrifying to happen.

The fake y/n's frown just seemed to deepen, taking steps toward Bucky as he continued to step back. "What do you mean?" She asked in a gentle tone. Every single time that she reached out for him, her hands were slapped away. And every single time that her hands were slapped away, more and more tears begun to fall until she was practically sobbing in front of Bucky. "Please, Buck. Why won't you let me touch you? What's happening to you?" She asked, practically begging for him to stop moving away.

But Bucky was begging too. He was begging for the fake y/n to stop. "Stop it. You're not real." He whispered, raking his hands through his hair out of stress. This was the scary part. Being stuck in a world without the actual y/n. His chest seemed to tighten with every shaky breath, and his vision blurred from the amount of tears threatening to fall. He couldn't even look her in the eyes. Seeing her cry just made him feel even worse. He wanted to hold her and comfort her, but she wasn't real. "You're not real." He repeated over and over again.

"Bucky please..." The fake y/n whispered, continuing to cry as she tried to reach Bucky. "I don't know what you're talking about! I don't understand!" She cried out in desperation, taking in a sharp breath when her hands were slapped away again. All of that fake joy was gone. It wasn't a perfect dream, it was a nightmare. A nightmare scarier than anything Hydra could do to Bucky. "I'm right here! I thought we were having a good day!"

"You're not real!" Bucky suddenly yelled, finally allowing the tears to fall. "You're not real! You're in my head!" He shouted. He'd finally snapped, screaming at a hallucination as if it were a real person. All he wanted was y/n. Something had happened to cause the hallucination, and he needed to know what it was. He needed to know what was going on in the real world, he just had to wake himself up. "You're not real!"

*****

Y/n suddenly froze at the sound of Bucky's yelling, her eyes wide in concern and surprise. She understood that tone of voice. That wasn't anger, that was distress and fear. It was a tone that she only heard after a serious nightmare or hallucination. Shit.

She had managed to escape the city, and was busy evading the police and trying to find Bucky until T'Challa and the Dora Milaje arrived. It was hard, especially due to the fact that she was alone. She had no idea if Bucky was hurt or not, she had no idea about his whereabouts, she didn't know anything. But after hearing him so distressed, y/n knew that she had to find him.

There was only one place that she hadn't checked, and she'd been avoiding it for a specific reason. However, it sounded like Bucky's voice was coming from that direction.

Bucky's voice was coming from the same field where the Zemo incident occurred. The same field that y/n almost killed Bucky in.