Steve Rogers x Reader

Right Where You Left Me

Summary - Did you hear about the girl who lives in delusion?

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"Look she's a friend, and she got left behind too. I just thought..." Sam trails off, tightly gripping the steering wheel.

"That I could fill the super soldier void in her life?" Bucky scoffs, staring out the window like a teenager being forced to spend the day with their parents.

"You knew Steve. Arguably better than anyone else, I just thought you could help. Commiserate. Hate Steve together-"

"I don't hate Steve," Bucky quickly interjects.

"Well, I wouldn't blame you or her if you did. They were together for years, and it's not like they just broke up. He's gone. There's no one to hate, and even if there were, what other person would listen to someone hate on Steve Rogers?"

"I still don't understand what you want me for. Seems like I can only make things worse."

"She's all alone now. And from what I heard, she's not doing so hot."

"Again, what exactly am I supposed to do? Shit on Steve with his ex-girlfriend? Doesn't sound very helpful."

"We're just checking on her, maybe seeing if we can nudge her back in the right direction. That's all."

"You know, you've got a real thing about picking up strays," Bucky snarks, knowing firsthand Sam's penchant for picking up abandoned stragglers that tragically fell through the cracks.

"Yeah, I know."

"Fine," he sighs. "Where is this place anyway?"

"Not too far, just off the highway," Sam vaguely replies.

And the second Sam pulls into the rundown parking lot with more potholes than actual parking spaces, he can see why Sam didn't offer any descriptor about the derelict establishment. The diner looked like it had been left as a relic of its time, un-nurtured, unkempt...abandoned. "This is the place? I thought you said she was apart of your little boyband?"

"She was," Sam huffs, turning off the car. "And then he left, and I never heard from her again."

"Have you ever thought that maybe she doesn't want to see you? You were Steve's friend," Bucky reminds him as the two of them step out of the car.

"That's not entirely true."

"You weren't Steve's friend?" Bucky humorlessly chuckles.

"I knew her first - I introduced the two of them."

"Of course you did," Bucky exhales, shaking his head.

Sam shakes his head, unsure of what to feel about the role he played in your relationship with Steve.

On the one hand, he'd seen the relationship at it's best. He'd never seen you nor Steve happier. But he'd also seen it at it's worst, distance, timing, the fights you had about him leaving and whether or not you would go with him. It was a lot of strain on a budding relationship. But from what he'd heard, during the blip you two were each other's rocks.

And then Steve left, and except for a few short text messages, Sam never saw nor heard from you again. "Just take what you see with a grain of salt, okay?"

"What I see?" Bucky asks, a bewildered expression on his face, but Sam's already walking into the rundown diner without offering any further explanation. Bucky steps away from the car, following him, he hisses, "Sam?" '

There's no response. He shakes his head and pushes the heavy door open.

The smell of stale grease and burnt coffee overwhelm his senses, but that's not what catches his attention at all. It's the fact that his dead friend is sitting there, looking as well as he did the last time Bucky saw him.