Bucky Barnes Oneshots

Past and Present

It's been almost 80 years since Bucky had been captured by Hydra and it's been 83 since he had seen the love of his life.
You.
You met Bucky three years before he enlisted for the army and it was love at first sight.
He took you out for dinner, took you dancing and finally made it official when he took you on a midnight walk through Central Park.
You, Steve and Bucky were the closest friends and despite being worried that Bucky would forget about him, Steve loved you and you were his best friend, after Bucky of course.
So the day came, after three years of dating and being head over heals with each other that Bucky was shipped out to England and you could barely deal with the thought of him being gone so he gave you something to remember him.

An engagement ring.

As soon as he won the war, he had planned for the two of you to get married and spend the rest of your lives together but Hydra jeopardized his plan by blasting him off the side of a train and capturing him.
Steve, who had also left you, believed his best friend was dead and someone had to tell you that your fiancé was killed in action and Steve volunteered to break the news to you.
Devastated was an understatement.
You were heartbroken, the most important part of your life was gone and you saw no reason to keep going but you did.
You lived a life without Bucky and every day you remembered him and every day for at least twenty years you cried over the memory of him but with time passing, you grew stronger and could look at pictures of you without shedding tears.

You never married again.
There were a few candidates who had potential but no one could ever live up to James Buchanan Barnes who could make you smile in every given situation.
So you stayed alone for the rest of your life.
With Steve also gone, you really had no one left but you managed to get by on your own.
You lived a healthy life, which is why you were edging the triple digits but you were barely in any condition to take care of yourself.
You had Steve for that.
He found you 70 years later and you thought you were hallucinating when you saw him, not having aged a single day.
He explained everything, from how he crashed the plane, froze up and how they found his body in the ice 70 years later and thawed him out.

He was more than happy to find out that someone from his past survived and he came by your apartment every Friday to check up on you and spent hours talking with you.
Then DC happened.
Steve almost lost his life when his childhood best friend who he believed was long dead, had returned but not like he remembered him.
He had lost his left arm and it's been replaced by a metal prosthetic and he had no recollection of who you and Steve were.
After the events in Leipzig at the airport, Steve and T'Challa worked hard to get Bucky his memory back and they were successful.
The occasional gap in his memory but apart from that, it's like the same Bucky from decades ago was back.
Steve was unsure whether to tell him that you were still alive but one day when Bucky asked after you, he had no other choice but drive to Brooklyn and bring him to you.
So here you were, in your bed when the jingling of keys sounded outside of your apartment door and you knew it was Steve.

"Steve, your late!" You called and smiled when his head poked in the room.

"I know but I brought someone. An old friend." Steve smiled and opened the door entirely, revealing a confused Bucky standing behind him.

"J-James?" You stuttered and Bucky struggled to recognize you but you recalled the ocean blue eyes right away. "Bucky, is it really you?"

Slowly it dawned to him, your voice sparking an old memory in his head and he entered the room and took a seat next to your bed.
He hesitantly took your hand in his right one, not wanting to scare you with the metal appendage and teared up when he recognized the small diamond ring on your finger.

"It's me, [Y/n]. It's really me." Bucky said quietly and ran small circles over the back of your hand.

"I'll give you some time to catch up." Steve said with a proud smile and closed the door behind him.

"It's unfair, you know? You and Stevie are in your hundreds and don't look a day over twenty while I am 99 and look like a fossil." You pouted to which Bucky chuckled.

"You're beautiful." He countered and you weakly slapped his arm.

"Bucky I look like a plum. A 100 year old plum." You said with a weak smile to which he kissed your hand with a grin.

"I love plums." He simply said.

From this day, Bucky would join Steve on his weekly visits and in your last weeks, you felt more alive than ever.
But with every visit, your condition worsened, you grew weaker and could barely hold up a conversation with them without breaking into a coughing fit or just being too weak to stay awake.
Bucky would enjoy every minute he had with you but deep down he knew that he was going to lose you again and that it was most likely to happen soon.
He and Natasha grew closer and she was more than happy for him when he told her that his fiancée was still alive.

One day though, Natasha received a message from the retirement home you were stationed in, saying that you had passed away during your sleep and that there were some personal belongings for a Mr. James Barnes and Steven Rogers that needed to be picked up.
It was Friday and Natasha had already sent a text to Steve and the two soldiers sat in one of Tony's cars when Bucky's phone vibrated in his pocket.
Pulling it out, he read the message again and again, not wanting to believe what it said.

_______________________________

Natasha R.
She's gone, in her sleep. I'm so sorry.

_______________________________

"I'm sorry, Buck." Steve said but Bucky remained quiet. "There are a few things, she left us. Do you want to go pick it up now or should I get it some other time?"

"Let's get them now." Bucky muttered, losing the inner fight with himself and a single tear rolled down his cheek.

When they arrived, Bucky stayed in the passenger seat and Steve knew to give him a moment for himself while he went inside.
Bucky felt empty, unable to feel anything but emptiness whenever your name echoed in his mind.
It was unfair really.
The first time death separated the two of you, it ripped you apart but this time, Bucky was the one left alone in a world he felt like he didn't belong in.
Steve returned with a small elegant box and placed it in the backseat before he drove back to the compound.

Back home, when they entered, everyone felt sorry for the Winter Soldier.
Even Tony knew that Bucky didn't have it easy and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder but Bucky just shrugged it off and disappeared in his room.
In there, Bucky sat on his bed, the black velvet box sitting in his lap, waiting to be opened.
He was hesitant, he didn't want to be confronted with his past with you just yet but curiosity got the best of him and he slowly opened the box.

An envelope laid on top of a bunch of pictures and other little items, such as your engagement ring, that you seemed to have gathered over the past in honor of your lost lover.
Opening the letter, Bucky could already feel tears dwell in his eyes but these were your last words to him, he needed to read them.
_______________________________

Dear James,

Somehow, I always believed that I was going to see you again.
Even after I received the condolence letter when you were "killed in action".
Something told me that you couldn't just be gone and it seems like I was right.
You know how I always had faith in you, that you were a good person, meant to do great things.
For example end a war and save our country.

I don't need to know what happened to you after the war, what they did to you.
All I need to know is that you are with me today even if it's just for a short amount of time.
Seeing you, after I thought I had lost you, gave me new strength and the last weeks of my life were the best I've ever lived.
I felt like a little girl in Brooklyn again, all because of you.

I know you better than you think I do, so I know that you're going to isolate yourself and suffer alone in silence but you have Steve and other great people around you that are going to be there for you, now that I'm gone.
Let them help you, they are your friends.

I loved you more than life itself and I promise you that even in death I will be with you.

Till the end of the line

Love,
[Y/n]
_______________________________