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The air of Wakanda felt pleasantly warm on your skin. It was the place you and Bucky deserved, after everything that happened with Thanos, after you both lose your best friends and a piece of you.
For Bucky, they were the worse five years of his life.
For you? It just felt like five second.
Gazing at the horizon, Bucky sat by the lake, the sun's rays illuminating his worn features. You tentatively approached him, hoping to break that wall of silence that followed you the whole journey inside the quinjet.
"I can't believe I can feel the sun hitting my skin again," you sighed, sitting next to him. Bucky didn't reply, grunting absently.
It made you snap.
"Seriously, Buck, what the fuck is going on with you?! You didn't ever dared to look at me once I went back, nor approached me after Tony's funeral. And the quinjet ride? I tried to talk to you, but you shut me down-"
"It has been hard, okay? Everything has been fucking hard in these years!" Bucky barked, finally challenging you, "You don't know the void I felt when you turned to dust, all those five years blaming myself and asking why it shouldn't have been me!"
His words made you speechless, allowing him to continue.
“And when I saw you again, back in the ’40s, you were just as beautiful as the day I first met you. And I couldn’t hold you in my arms or kiss you, because I knew I’d mess with the timelines if I did. But it was real to me then. It's real to me now. Time doesn’t change that.”
You swallowed, chest tight as the weight of his confession settled between you. "Bucky…" you murmured, leaning close to him. "I didn't know- I thought they changed you wholly."
"I thought so, too," Bucky replied, looking at you with glassy eyes. "But being alone in these years and seeing you again in our time… I don't want to lose you again."
“I’m here," you murmured, squeezing his hand softly, "We will start over, one step at the time. Fixing what it's broken."
And under the warm sun, you both sealed this promise like a prayer.