Thanks For The Memories

Chapter 2

STEVE ROGERS

 

                Bucky dropped Tony's hand as if it were burning him and took two steps back, shaking his head.

"I shouldn't be here. I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have brought me here. I killed your parents and I meant to kill you too. You shouldn't have let me in your home. People are gonna end up dead." He hit his head with the heel of his hand, the flesh one, and whispered, "I'm sorry, Tony Stark."

My eyes widened in shock, I hadn't realized that Tony was also a target of the Winter Soldier. I made to move closer to Bucky, but he backed away from me as well.

"It wasn't his-"

"It's ok." Stark quickly cut me off, "Well, it's not ok as such, but I understand. I really do. So you killed my parents, and a whole host of other people too, but we all make mistakes. Stark Industries is responsible for the deaths of millions of people and you killed, say, a hundred? One fifty? Compared to me, that's barely a blip on the radar." He smiled at Bucky, who gave only a wary look in return. "And don't give me that shit about not staying here. You're more than welcome in my home. Besides, I'm gonna get your memories back."

                He then made some gesture to Natasha that seemed to mean 'make the coffee'. She got up and, God knows how, made the gorgeous smelling, black liquid pour from some weird contraption on the opposite wall. The thing, almost certainly made by Stark, was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I could not get my head around how Natasha put coffee beans in the top and collected steaming hot liquid from the bottom in all of two seconds. I mean, there's modern technology and then there's Stark technology. He really is on a whole different level. But he knows it, and seriously lets it get to his head.

Natasha gave me a mug of that well needed caffeine and glared at Tony.

"Can't you get that stupid robot of yours to play the servant around here? Or JARVIS?" She muttered and she gave the next cup to Bucky, who frowned at it for a moment, as if he couldn't quite remember what it was. Sadly, that didn't surprise me.

"That 'stupid robot' was destroyed when Killian had his men blow up my house. And JARVIS is far too advanced to do the menial tasks. It's well below his pay grade."

"Your AI does not have a pay grade and besides, you gave the Mandarin your address. What did you expect?"

                I tried to tune out their mocking of each other and turned to Bucky, who was staring into his coffee. We were like that once. We were carefree; conversation and wit coming easily, to Bucky at least. We were young and the only thing we had to worry about was growing old. I remember wanting to live forever, to always be young; but to be fit and healthy too, saving people like I tried to do in those alleyways all those years ago. I wanted to be normal. No more asthma. No more panic attacks. No more beingshorter than Bucky. I had all of that now. Every single dream I had came true. But not without a price. Yeah, I seem to be forever 24 and yeah, I'm a hero but I understand nothing of the world I live in. I can run for miles without tiring but sometimes, the best test of stamina is staying still. I'm taller than Bucky now but he barely even knows me, so I'm not gonna be kissing him any time soon. I have what I wanted, but I'm isolated. I'm an outsider and everyone knows it. Zola was right, I've realized; I don't fit in. I'm a man out of time.

 "You're staring again, Steve." A faint smirk played at the corners of Bucky's lips making my cheeks burn as I thought about what used to make him smile. "But not like a love-sick puppy this time. More like a puppy that's lost its owners."

"But either way, I'm a dog." I raised an eyebrow, a skill I had gained when I became Captain America.

"No, not a dog. A puppy." He looked back down into his coffee as I laughed, "I don't trust this stuff. I don't trust anything that comes out of metal contraptions on walls. It's too similar to the torture devices they used on me."