Saving Bucky (Bucky Barnes x Reader)

Chapter 106 - Five Years Angry

*** The First Three Days ***

After the fighting, Steve pulled you kicking and screaming back to the palace. You cursed at him. Shouted. Demanded to know why he wasn't doing anything.

But Steve didn't know what to do. No one did.

Instead of staying and helping you find James, Steve left, desperate to find his girl. At first he tried to take you with him, but you refused to leave. So, mumbling apologies and promises to return, he abandoned you.

Alone, with no one to help and no idea what the hell had happened, you did the only thing you could think to do:  you went back into the forest. In a manic haze, you spent several inconsolable days wandering aimlessly among the trees, shouting for James, praying he could hear you. His name lived on your lips until your voice gave way. And even then you kept walking - circling the battleground and searching for any hint of what had happened. Between your shouts, and in between sunrises, Okoye tried to console you and tempt you back to the palace. Letsha found you near the village once, and tried to lead you back to your hut.

But you ignored them all. You kept searching between each branch.

Until Steve came back for you.

You hadn't even realized entire days were passing until Steve took you by the shoulders, finally forcing you to stand still. The moment you stopped moving, you collapsed. You woke up back in America - in your little cottage in the Ozarks - with an aching body, a fully stocked fridge, and a note from Steve to call him when you were ready.

You never called.

*** The Aftermath: Year 1***

After the fighting in Wakanda, the world burned.

Half of the population was just...gone. And of those who remained, many perished in the devastation that followed. Disaster after disaster, death after death. It took months for the world to stabilize.

You never did.

After you woke up in your cabin in the Ozarks, you wondered if it had been a dream. You called out for James, but only silence answered. So you laid down, and went back to sleep.

Time at the cabin passed both faster, and slower, than should have been possible. You alternated between days of disbelief, and days of despair. You switched between mornings spent believing James would have to walk through that door, and evenings sobbing in cold showers, clutching the bullet that was left behind.

Twice in that first year, Steve knocked on your door. And twice, you kept it shut. Because when you had asked Steve for help that day in Wakanda, and he had instead left you behind to deal with the loss of James on your own, you realized that you weren't really a team. So both times you heard a knock on the cabin door in the middle of the day, followed by a few gentle words of encouragement to open the door, they fell on deaf ears.

You don't need him.

You don't need anyone.

***The Aftermath: Years 2 and 3 ***

It took almost two years to get angry.

And it didn't happen all at once.

In your rare and infrequent trips into nearby towns for food, you had noticed life start to go back to normal. Memorials to those who vanished started disappearing, school buses started carrying children back to classes, and airplanes once more took to the skies.

It was this audacity of the world to move on that pissed you off.

All those people - all those lives - they couldn't just be gone. You refused to believe it. And the more you refused to believe it, the angrier you got. Because if they weren't gone, that meant they were out there somewhere.