BOND | Bucky Barnes

Brothers

Elena felt a twinge of guilt for doing everything her father had told her not to, but as soon as she closed her eyes in bed, Steve's body appeared before her. His gaze, the things he whispered in her ear, all came rushing back. After Bucky, Sam, and Tony had barged in, Steve had taken her to his room and handed her one of his T-shirts. The shirt, which reached down to her knees, made it unnecessary to wear anything else, but she still put on a pair of Steve's sweatpants, as he insisted she couldn't just dive into the cold New York night like that. Throughout the entire process of her getting dressed, Steve, like a gentleman, had turned his back—though not too long ago, he'd been kissing every inch of her body. When he saw Elena, practically drowning in his clothes, Steve had laughed. "God, you're tiny."

"Hey!"

Under Tony and Sam's strange glances, they left the house, and Elena couldn't resist Steve's insistence on driving her home. When he gave her a long, dizzying kiss before letting her out of the car, she had to sit still for a few minutes, trying to get her bearings. Now, lying in her bed, wearing nothing but Steve's T-shirt, she couldn't help but smile to herself.

* * *

The bass of the music pounding against the wall made Steve rise from his bed, irritated. "Bucky! I told you I wanted to sleep in on Sunday!"

He stormed over to the man lying on the couch, downing a bottle of whiskey. "What the hell are you doing at nine in the morning, Buck?"

"Keep it down, my head hurts."

"Why does your head hurt?"

Steve pushed Bucky's feet aside and sat at the edge of the couch, reaching out to feel the man's forehead. His fingers tingled with an electric shock, and he noticed a faint, blue spark between his finger and Bucky's forehead. Steve jumped up, "You went to the facility?"

Bucky hiccupped. "Yeah, so what?"

In the early years of trying to free himself from being the Winter Soldier, Banner had used electricity to help ease Bucky's nightmares. But Bucky, who had been turning into a zombie due to lack of sleep, hated it. The electric shocks were excruciating, but they worked. Last night, Bucky had wanted to come home, grab Steve by the collar, and yell in his face that he'd loved Elena from the moment he laid eyes on her. But the image of Steve's hands on her, the way she moaned under his touch, kept flashing in his mind. In the end, Bucky had decided it would only complicate things and, needing to control his anger, had gone to the facility on his own, without Banner's knowledge, and shocked himself.

"Are your nightmares back?" Steve asked, panicked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Quit nagging, Steve. Go screw your teenage girlfriend and leave me alone."

"Elena is twenty-seven."

Bucky laughed. "You're a hundred, Steve. Compared to you, what's twenty-seven?"

"Buck... I know you don't like Elena, but she makes me happy. Can't you respect that?"

Bucky made a sound. "Oh, she makes you happy, alright. I saw with my own eyes what you two were doing on your first date. Today, she'd probably let you knock her up." As the image of a pregnant Elena flashed in his mind, Bucky regretted his words. The thought stabbed him like a knife.

Steve laughed awkwardly. "I'd want that too, but Frank would kill me, and Elena would end up raising the baby alone."

I would be the father.

Hating himself for even thinking that, Bucky sat up. "Just leave me alone, please." He lied, "Yeah, okay, my nightmares are back, alright?"

"Does that new haircut of yours have anything to do with it?"