Pure Tears. Pure Love. Pure Pain.

Chapter Forty Four

The first thing you saw was a gold portal, sparkling in front of you. A battlefield. Blood. Steve. The giant purple grape you had fought before.

"What the fuck?" you whispered, stepping through the portal as Sam landed next to you. "I thought I was dead," you asked him, remembering your slow death. How you had watched as Tony's face fell as you disappeared into nothingness. And now you were here.

"Spoiler alert, you're not," Sam responded, and you rolled your eyes. It was great to see that him dying hadn't affected him in the slightest. "Have you seen Bucky?"

You felt your shoulders tense. Until now Bucky wasn't even in your mind. Now he was. "Did he die?" you asked, and Sam shrugged, "For real die or not for real die?"

"I don't know," Sam replied, watching you intently, "Last time I saw you I was fighting you,"

"Yeah," you replied sadly, "probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life," you were masking the fact that you hadn't regretted siding with Tony ever since the day Bucky walked away from you. Which was now repeating in your head.

Bucky turning his head away from you, following Steve towards the jet you had tried to protect. Nat switching sides, as Bucky held a knife to your throat. Your eyes pleading as he stared at you, his gaze hardened. It didn't feel real. It was like it wasn't him.

The knife falling to the floor in front of you as the jet kickstarted. It was all you could stare at. And then Bucky was gone. That was the last time you ever saw him.

Until now, you had been searching around as more portals opened. Sam flying overhead, mostly making jokes at Steve through the earpiece, but he was looking for Bucky.

You stopped short at the sight of Bucky, he looked different. His hair was longer, he had more of a beard. His arm. It wasn't silver. What had happened to his arm?

He was facing away from you, and your breath hitched in your throat. "Bucky," you tapped his shoulder, saying his name making your heartbeat a thousand miles a minute, "Hey,"

"Hi,"

"So, I feel like we're waiting for a movie screening," you joked, looking out over the masses of people who you mostly didn't even know, "So,"

"You um died too huh?" Bucky said, shrugging, clearly exhausting all his conversational points.

You nodded, hoping he would eventually turn round to look at you. "Yeah, I did, weird, right?"

It was then that he turned to look at you. He failed to keep eye contact with you, looking around uncertainly. You could sense all the emotions he was feeling, it was a skill that came with being an assassin.

"Bucky are you okay?"

"No, no I'm not fucking okay," at least he was honest, "I just died, I died y/n, and now I'm here and you are here as well. What am I supposed to pretend that this is normal?"

"Well I think everyone is in the same boat," you placed a hand on his arm, "Bucky I still love you, what happened was- it was the worst thing possible, we should never have gone against each other,"

He smiled, it was a tiny smile but there was a flutter in your chest. You opened your mouth to say something else, but you were cut off by Steve. He was holding what looked like Thor's Hammer, and was shouting for the avengers to assemble.

Bucky kissed your cheek, "Good luck out there," he told you, as you grabbed a pistol.

"Right back at ya Barnes,"

You followed Sam's lead through the earpiece, in between fighting off aliens and being confused about all these new people you tried looking out for people that you used to know.

Peter wasn't far away from you, currently in a headlock trying to kick his way out. You headed over, knocking one of the aliens out could with your gun before kicking the other one in the stomach.

"Y/N," Peter said, a smile on his face despite almost dying. He pulled you into a tight hug, "I'm so happy to see you," he was much more relaxed in demeanour.

"Are you okay?" you asked him, inspecting the bruise on his neck, "Who did that?"

"An alien threw a rock at me,"

You laughed, before placing a hand over your mouth. "I'll bet you ten dollars it comes up in the first twenty minutes of your conversation with Ned,"

Peter laughed, "I've barely seen anyone I know, just you and Steve," he looked around him sadly, this kid was like fifteen, the stuff that you see will scar you for life. You warned Tony, but they never learn. "This is insane,"

"I know, one minute I was dead, the next I'm like fighting the grape again," he chuckled, letting your heart warm up. Even though the two of you were standing in the middle of a battlefield, the biggest battle either of you had ever participated in, it felt a bit better.

Hearing a shout from Sam through the earpiece, you left Peter and headed for where Steve was apparently wielding the power of the fucking Gods.

Sam was laughing as he landed. "Fucking hell," he said in disbelief, "Do you see this y/n? Steven Rogers, the tiny kid from Brooklyn is stronger than Thor,"

"As strong as," Thor corrected to which you patted his shoulder sympathetically, "As strong as,"

Tony joined you. For a minute it felt like you weren't five 'superheroes' in the middle of the battlefield. There was a moment of silence, not really sure where to break the ice after how long it could have been (you were still unsure but you were guessing a few years based off Thor's beard)

"So where's Natasha?" you asked, looking around for any sight of the red head. Steve's solemn gaze was not the response you were looking for. "What?" you asked, furrowing your brow, "What happened?"

Thor squeezed your hand, as Tony sighed.

"In order to get you back, we needed the stones," Steve said, "Nat and Clint went to get the soul stone, a soul for a soul. Clint returned with the stone, but he didn't return with Nat,"

"Oh my god Steve," you said, your voice breaking along with your composure. You flung your arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug, "How long ago?"

"A few hours,"

Your heart was shattering over and over today. "Five years she hoped to see the day you and Bucky got married, even at our own wedding she only thought about how she failed the two of you," he sniffled, his eyes gleaming as you rapidly blinked away your tears, "She should've lived,"

"You got married?" your heart dropped into your stomach, "Married? Married? Was Wanda there?"

Steve moved away, and you knew that you probably shouldn't have asked. You also had your answer. Thor followed Steve, and Tony embraced you in a hug. "I missed you kid,"

You smiled, before Tony pulled a hip flask from his suit. You tilted your head, "To this finally being over,"

"I'll drink to that," you said, taking the flask from his hand and drinking from it, "Watch out for the spider kid," you shouted at him before following the glowing red which you knew belong to Wanda.

And where she was, Thanos was.

A/N: this probably isn't film accurate but there's no way I'm putting myself through endgame again 😌