Stucky One Shots

Number Twenty-Seven: Tight-Lipped

"Hey, Steve," Bucky hums, wandering into the room. The blonde looks up and over at him then looks back down at his book.

"Hi," he says, Bucky wanders over and flops beside him on the couch.

"What's up?" He asks and Steve swallows, keeping his eyes on his page.

"Nothing," he lies and Bucky looks at him suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing? Hmm," Bucky hums and Steve nods a little, telling himself to remain calm. Something was up, all right; Steve had been keeping a secret from him. A dangerous one.

"Yeah, nothing," he lies but his voice trembles slightly.

"What is it, Steve?" He sighs, picking up the blonde's book and closing it, but folding a page corner to mark the spot.

"Nothing," Steve protests, crossing his arms. Bucky gives him a look.

"Tell. Me," he growls and Steve swallows nervously before taking a breath and beginning to tell his tale.

///

Four days earlier.

Steve had wandered down into the Avengers archive, intent on finding more information about Hydra to tell Bucky, hopefully to help his memory, which wasn't totally back yet. He'd pulled out a box of files and started digging through. He'd found one, pulled it out and begun to read it. This file was all about Zola.

He skimmed the page quickly and he got a sinking feeling. He hadn't realized sooner, but Zola, when he'd first seen him when he was searching in Red Skull's base, was running away from him. Running away from where he'd found Bucky. Zola tortured Bucky, and Steve let him go. He should've tracked him down. But, he didn't.

///

Steve'd known he'd had to tell Bucky eventually, but he just couldn't. 'Hey, Bucky, you know Zola, that guy who tortured and nearly killed you? Yeah, funny thing, I saw him- and get this- I just let him go instead of tracking him down. Fancy that.' He couldn't think of how to word it. It felt like a bad thing to do, Steve even claimed he was always honest, but whenever he was asked what's going on, all that came to mind was a lie to cover up what he was really thinking. Days it'd gone on and everybody started to notice how strangely the blonde was acting. Bucky was the most curious; he and Steve never kept secrets. Well... almost never. Bucky had kept a few secrets from the blonde before, but always came clean eventually.

///

Present day.

"Buck... uh, you know Zola, right?" Steve starts slowly and instantly knows he's started wrong. Bucky's left hand twitches a little and he blinks, staring at Steve. The blonde could tell Bucky was tensed up now.

"What about him?" Bucky replies in a voice that was too calm, which also told Steve that the brunette was trying to keep his cool and not freak.

"Uhm. Y-you know when I rescued you, back in the day?" He asks slowly and Bucky nods a little.

"Zola was there, right? But this doesn't make sense, Steve, why are you bringing this up now?" He frowns a little, crossing his arms.

"I saw him before I found you. He looked at me and ran, but I didn't follow him. I should've followed him," Steve says hurriedly and Bucky freezes, watching him. Since he doesn't speak, Steve continues. "He hurt you and I just let him go." He mumbles and Bucky blinks. He steps forward and hugs him, and Steve looks at him, surprised.

"Why're you bringing this up now, Steve?" Bucky asks quietly before pulling back and looking at him.

"I was down in the archive looking for facts about Hydra or something to maybe help you remember and I ran across his file, it just reminded me," he explains and Bucky nods.

"Well, you got him in the end, didn't you? Destroyed that bunker or whatever?" Bucky muses and Steve frowns a little. "Fury told me. And even if you had chased after him, I would've still been there and you wouldn't have found me." He explains and Steve nods a little.

"I guess so," he sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. Bucky smiles a little at him.

"Don't worry so much, pal," Bucky hums, clapping a hand on his shoulder before sauntering out. Steve sighs in relief, that had been scary. But everything was fine now, and Steve was glad for that.

A/N: sorry, guys, if this didn't make sense. Wanted to have it up today for the challenge and I couldn't really think of much else.