To the end of the line - stucky

Mama Steve

Bucky felt like he was slowly waking up from a long night's sleep as his surroundings started to come into view, someone coughing in the distance. But it was confusing. He was confused about something, like he shouldn't have been sleeping. Maybe he'd just had a really deep sleep and woke up with a fuzzy head like he sometimes did? But then he reached an uncoordinated hand to his head and felt padding. What was going on?

"Bucky? Are you awake?"

It was Steve, why was Steve here? He spoke again, asking the same thing, but he sounded much closer this time. And it was then, all of a sudden, the memories came rushing back. He sat up and gasped, breathing heavily as he pulled at the thing on his head.

"No! Don't touch", said Steve, pulling Bucky's arms back down.

The man took a moment to sort out the jumble of his head and looked around to see the fire still going but running low. He was between Steve's legs, the left one elevated on the bag of water, and bloody bandages sat in the corner.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked worriedly between coughs. "Do you remember what happened?"

Bucky suddenly turned towards Steve and started running his hands all over him, checking for injuries.
Steve grabbed his frantic hands and made him look into his eyes.

"I'm okay, it didn't touch me because you saved me".

Bucky's wild eyes relaxed slightly as his hands slowed and went back to his own head.

"You've got a cut", explained Steve, gesturing to the side of his head before picking up a water bottle.

"Drink", he demanded, holding it up and slowly tipping it into Bucky's mouth.

He made sure it didn't wobble too much as he coughed, not wanting to drop any freezing water onto the man.

Bucky gulped half of it down before he closed his eyes and sighed in relief. It didn't last long before he flung his eyes open once again.

"Why are you coughing?!" He basically shouted. "Are you sick? Let me feel your head".

Bucky reached over and placed a hand on Steve's slightly warm forehead. It didn't feel like a fever, but it was hard to tell as they were normally freezing here. If they were at home, he probably wouldn't think much of it.

"I'm fine, Buck, I promise. You were laying on me sleeping, it was like having two giant blankets".

Bucky wasn't convinced but decided to leave it for now. He wouldn't get anything out of Steve, and the man seemed okay otherwise.

He let Steve pull him back down between his legs as he settled his back into the blonde's chest again, looking over as Steve held the last of the rabbit over the fire.

Bucky's stomach audibly rumbled and made Steve chuckle as he slowly turned the meat, making sure all the bacteria was burnt off. The last thing they needed was for one of them to get sick.

Bucky slowly felt his eyes getting heavy again despite just waking up. He might have even fallen asleep for a couple of minutes when Steve gently shook him awake.

"You need to eat something, Buck", he said after the man looked up at him grumpily.

A small piece of the food touched at Bucky's lips, so he opened his mouth and let Steve give him some of it.

It was so good, and he craved more, but his brain wanted to shut off again, and he was nearly asleep when Steve fed him another bit.

"Come on, stay awake to eat and then you can sleep some more", he bribed.