Love that Lasts Forever

fall

A/N: words: 2290. heyyyyy. guess whose aliveeeee. slayed ik so true. anywho. i dont know how to post on time, and i will never learn. but oh well. anyway, enjoy!

The sound of the jet taking off barely registered in Sam's mind. All he remembers was Yelena screaming his name, telling him to get on the jet. Sam thought he'd be screaming by now. Screaming Bucky's name, like what you see in superhero movies, when the hero gets his dame stolen from him. But, Bucky's not lost from him. Bucky's right in front of him. But he still couldn't get to him. He felt helpless, powerless. He was right in front of him. He should've been right beside him, like he always had been. Like the day he found him, Bucky had always been by his side. And he wasn't lost anymore.

Sam had stared at a wall of wood and metal and bricks for more time than he'd like to admit. The wall was the only thing between Sam and the rest of his life. Sam had taken on oceans to get to Bucky. Had faced the force of a thousand bullets just to hold him one more time, which could've been the last. Had let Bucky pick the pieces of his heart and put them back together countless times. And all that was weighed between this fucking wall in front of him.

"Bucky." Sam tried weakly.

"Sam?" Bucky answered back, his voice slurred, and Sam took a running start, his wings out. If the ringing in his ears meant anything, Sam had made it to the other side.

His eyes found Bucky. He almost wished he hadn't. He had his left hand, and only his left hand, gripping the floor, the rest of the building blown to pieces below him.

"Bucky." And he was running, as much as he could on unstable ground. And Bucky, Bucky just smiled at him, despite the colour draining from his face, despite the fact that he was seconds away from falling.

Falling. It's a concept Sam was fairly familiar with. When he was 7, he had fallen from a tree he was trying to climb. When he was 14, he slipped and fell on the first day of the first job he ever had on a puddle of grease. When he was 18, he fell for a girl he had become neighbours with after moving away from home. When he was 22, he fell out of love, because sometimes things like that just didn't work out. He got to fall in love again at 28, when he saw Riley Johnson send a shy smile his way. He watched Riley Johnson fall from his grasp when he was 32, and he thought on that day, he'd keep his head in the clouds, because it was better than being underground. But, he fell in love again at 36. He didn't plan on it. He didn't mean to find comfort in sea blue eyes, and soft touches, and slight smiles that still meant the world to him. He didn't mean to fall in love with the words calloused hands scribbled onto paper, and scribbled onto Sam's heart.

He was watching those sea blue eyes shift with fear, now. He was watching as reality had already set into that slight smile, as a calloused hand dangled at his side. He was watching as tears glistened in Bucky's eyes, as his breaths became more and more shallow. He felt a heart break into a thousand pieces, and realized there was no one there to pick them back up. He realized that heart was his own. He realized the blood in his veins went cold, as all he could do was stare at Bucky. At his husband. At the future father of their future child.

"Take my hand, Buck." Sam finally whispered, extending a hand. Bucky chuckled.

"Can't." Sam's brow furrowed, leaning forward less than an inch to see what Bucky was talking about. What he saw was Bucky's hand, stabbed clean through the palm. A shallow gasp shook through his form.

"Sam."

"Don't, don't say it like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're saying goodbye, Bucky, because we're not. I'm gonna figure this out." Sam assured him, kneeling to face Bucky. "I'm not leaving you here to die, Buck."