Avengers Academy

PART FIVE

- Bucky -

Bucky only played dumb. Of course he noticed people muttering things about him all day. He didn't know what it was that made him such a target (probably the arm) but he just ignored it because sometimes ignorance is bliss. Most of the time, that wasn't true, but this time...

Bucky and Steve sat in Bucky's bed, tented by the blankets they had stuffed under the bottom of T'Challa's mattress, so they hung down around them. It was their own little super soldier fort. They were watching Star Wars: A New Hope because Sam had suggested it and they both agreed to watching it together. They passed a bag of m&m's between them and Bucky rested his chin on Steve's shoulder. He missed the days when he was bigger than Steve. Steve used to be so tiny and adorable, not that he wasn't adorable now.

As the main characters started on their journey to save the princess, Bucky found himself yawning. It had been a long day of playing with Clint's dog and letting people paint his nails for him. Speaking of which...

"I never asked you," Bucky whispered. "Do you like them?" He lifted his actual hand for Steve to see.

Steve held his hand up lightly. "I do, Buck. Maybe I'll have the girls do mine sometime."

"Hmm," Bucky hummed in agreement. He yawned again.

"You can close your eyes for a bit, you know."

"Okay," Bucky felt his lids droop and after a few minutes of listening to the shooting effects of the movie and Steve's breathing, he fell asleep.

Unsurprisingly, Bucky slept without nightmares. Surprisingly, he awoke to Steve's arms wrapped around his waist.

Carefully, he untangled himself without waking him so it wouldn't be awkward when they woke up, but it honestly really wouldn't be since before the whole "ice thing," whenever Steve got cold (which was quite a lot) they would get as close to each other as possible.

Stretching, he accidently hit his metal arm on the top bunk with a loud "clank." He immediately cringed and recoiled.

"Buck?" Steve sleepily said, sitting up and rubbing his eye with his left hand.

"Hey," Bucky stood up slowly and looked up at the top bunk. T'Challa was gone, but so was one of his blankets and his pillow. Bucky wondered where he went.

"I can't believe we both fell asleep," he laughed. Bucky only smiled half, too busy wondering what T'Challa thought of this. For some reason he respected the Wakandan prince way more than what made sense and wanted him to think highly of Bucky.

"Hey, don't worry," Steve consoled. "It's a weekend. We don't have class."

"Oh, right," Bucky said, fakely. At least Steve knew something was wrong. "We should head to breakfast and tell Sam where you went."

"Right," Steve rolled off the bed and stood with Bucky.

They headed out the door.

Pushing the door closed with his foot, Bucky's heart stopped. The word "Longing" in Russian was written vertically down the door.

He stood frozen. Who the hell knew about this? Steve didn't even know about this. He held back tears because this wasn't him. This wasn't him. Anymore, he reminded himself. There would always be a little part of him that...

"What is it, Bucky?" Steve asked softly, slowly taking his only hand. Behind his eyes, Bucky could see anger.

Bucky held tightly to Steve's hand. He never told him, but now he felt like Steve deserved to know. Plus, he couldn't say "nothing."