long after you're gone ➢ stucky

two;

I take a deep, unnecessarily-long breath and open my bedroom door to the open living space that is shared by the rest of the Avengers. Luckily, Tony and Natasha were the only two occupying the space at that moment; usually everyone spends their time there watching TV, playing on the arcade machines in the far corner or just being a nuisance when I wish to sleep.

"Hey Steve-ster, long time no see. Having fun in your man cave?" Natasha sings out from the Donkey Kong arcade machine, immediately followed by a shout of defeat directed towards said game. I laugh awkwardly in retaliation. "Yeah... about my man cave, I-"

"Want to move out? Thought you'd never ask." Tony stands up from the couch in front of the television, switching off the re-run of How I Met Your Mother in the process. I plastered a confused look on my face as he strode towards me in an nonchalant fashion. "You've clearly hinted towards it before, don't lie." I shrugged my shoulders in agreement.

"What's with the sudden change of heart?" Natasha said, as she walked away from the machine that had clearly been punched too many times towards Steve and Tony. "I've been meaning to find my own place y'know, it's quite a hectic lifestyle here and I miss being alone 24/7, to be honest with you."

I didn't exactly lie to them, it was just a white lie. I do want to get away from the buzzing environment that is the Avengers tower and have some me time but I'm just leaving out the fact that the me time included me overseeing Bucky's mental healing. Same difference.

"Understandable, I get sick of me too Cap." I opened my mouth to say I wasn't sick of them at all but Tony put up his hand and laughed. "I'm pulling your leg Steve, don't worry." I laughed quickly along with him, before starting to swiftly return to my soon-to-be old room.

"Where you going to move to?" Natasha yelled out to me.

"I was thinking Brooklyn."

---

The 15 hour flight to Wakanda was long and irritating, but I distracted myself looking at houses for me and Bucky on Google Images. I would've normally taken a quinjet there but because Tony doesn't know I'm getting Bucky, I have to go more incognito than usual. Hopefully Bucky doesn't mind public planes. Tony knew that Bucky was still alive and was being treated in Wakanda but he was told initially that it would take a decade at least to fix Bucky's problem, so he took the news fairly calmly. God knows what he'll do once he finds out he's fixed and staying with me at my new house.

As soon as I exited the plane, I was escorted by three men, who I knew to be employed by T'Challa, towards a parked car right outside the large airport. Although the architecture within the airport fascinated me, the men did not waver in bee-lining me towards the door, much to my distaste. Once I was inside the black, parked car, the men chilled out a bit; actually talking to me like normal people.

Ten minutes later, I find myself being pulled from the car and escorted once again; this time towards a stone wall I know to contain the secret entrance to T'Challa's facility. I zone out for a moment due to the beautiful trees and bushes that surrounded us but before I could admire any individual plant, I was pulled away again. I wish they would stop doing that.

After several minutes of riding elevators and walking up stairwells, we finally make it up to the main lobby section of the facility. I breathe an inaudible sigh of relief as I go to take a seat at one of the close arm chairs. Just as I hit my behind on the chair, a familiar voice echoes around the room. "Captain Rogers."

I stand up again, almost cussing under my breath because I just sat down and I had to get up again. "Your Highness, good to see you again," I say as I walk over to shake his hand. He takes it strongly and shakes once before letting go again. "Follow me, your friend should be waking up soon." My eyes lit up and I smiled as I followed T'Challa into the hallway. I've missed Bucky so much and I didn't even realise it until now. I'd truly felt empty for the last year and I just thought it was because none of my team were really my friends, but it's clear to me now that Bucky had just been missing from my life. It's so cheesy but it's true.

"We have given him the fluid already so he should be back to normal once he wakes up." I raise an eyebrow at T'Challa's comment. "Should be?" I say, confused at what he meant by it; considering he said the cure is complete. "Although we have run thorough tests on the cure for Mr. Barnes, we have not tried it directly on him so there is a slim chance it may not work. Very slim chance though."

My heart suck a little at the thought of Bucky having to go back under immediately after waking up. I'd just got him back and losing my best friend again would be torture.

We came up to a door at the end of the seemingly never-ending hallway that was all too familiar to me. The last time I came to this room, Bucky had been put under cyro for the first time on his own terms. It an emotional day and not only for him. He may have lost a year being asleep but I lost a piece of me for a year.

The door swung open at T'Challa's push and I smiled. Bucky was in a reclining bed that was set to be half sitting up and half laying down. His eyes were closed peacefully, like he was having a nice dream. A nearby doctor gestured me to take a seat directly next to the bed, which I graciously took. "He'll be awake soon, prepare yourselves" The doctor who offered me the chair spoke. I tensed up a bit, grabbing the arm rest on the chair.

After what seemed to be a lifetime (but in reality was only two minutes), Bucky's blue eyes fluttered open; his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as his eyes adjusted to the light. He turned his head to the right to scan the room and his eyes fell on me. He did what looked to be a double take.

"Steve," his raspy voice not having changed a bit. I smiled gleefully back at him, relaxing from my stance of tension in the armchair.