Chapter Text
“Bucky? Bucky!”
The shouting pulled him from sleep and he groaned, muffled into Steve’s freckled shoulder.
“Make them stop,” Steve grumbled, voice slow with sleep.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Bucky couldn’t resist saying, a big grin splitting his face. Now Steve groaned, and he hit Bucky with a pillow, but he was smiling, too, and he came back in close to kiss Bucky once, twice, three times.
“You’re never gonna get tired of saying no to me, huh?” Steve asked ruefully.
“Nope,” Bucky said. “But hey.” He pulled Steve back in for more kisses, less innocent this time. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of saying yes to you, either,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. Steve laughed a little, nuzzling his nose around with Bucky’s, and was leaning in again when the pounding on the door started.
They both sighed, but guilt was tugging at Bucky the same way the curse used to. He patted Steve’s hip and rolled out of bed, pausing to tug on a shirt and making sure Steve was covered before opening the door.
Annabelle and Elizabeth all but fell into the room, thanks to the way they were leaning against the door. Elizabeth was near tears and Bucky clucked his tongue before leaning down to scoop her into his arms. It was lucky the metal arm was so strong; she was growing like a weed.
“Hey, now,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t say anything,” she mumbled, tucking her face against his neck. “And I couldn’t see you so I got scared.”
He held back a pained noise. He didn’t have to ask what she’d been scared about; for one thing, it didn’t take a genius to figure it out, and for another, she’d been having nightmares for months about him suddenly dropping dead or disappearing.
Again, not hard to figure out why.
Bucky gave his youngest sister a tight squeeze and then crouched down to set Elizabeth on her feet and pull Annabelle into his arms, too. She was nearly ten and had decided she was mostly a grown woman by now, but her lower lip wasn’t looking too steady, either.
“I’m sorry,” he told them both. He couldn’t promise he was never going to die or disappear again; he didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t keep, and he couldn’t, not with the way he and Steve were planning to get back to work in the Guard soon.
“Lizabeth’s just being silly,” Annabelle said, like she hadn’t been right there beside her. “You can sleep and we know you’re okay.”
“Can you sleep in our room again?” Elizabeth asked. Bucky looked over his shoulder at Steve, who had moved to the end of the bed, lying on his stomach with his chin resting across his arms so he could watch them. His hair was sticking up ridiculously in the back and Bucky felt a wave of affection so strong his knees almost went weak.
“Well, what about Steve?” Bucky asked. “You don’t think he’d get lonely sleeping in here all alone?”
“He can sleep in our room, too,” Elizabeth said, getting excited now.
“Yeah, a big sleepover!” Annabelle said, forgetting she was being aloof and grownup. Bucky rubbed his hands over his face. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to sleep in their room, and he wasn’t sure he could handle sleeping beside Steve in their room.
“How about this,” Steve started. “Tonight, we will have a campout on the grounds, with a fire and a tent and everything.” Both girls cheered, and Steve waited a second before going on. “But Bucky and I will keep sleeping in here.” Now they booed, and Steve laughed. “I’m not done!” He promised. “We’ll get Mandy to enchant a mirror and you’ll have one and we’ll keep one in here and whenever you’re worried about Bucky, you can use the mirror to see him.”
Bucky shot Steve an alarmed look. He wasn’t so sure about them peeping in whenever they wanted. That would be highly inappropriate, and Bucky sure didn’t plan on curbing their own lifestyle to accommodate the occasional sister spying on them.
Steve, of course, could read every dirty thought playing through Bucky’s mind, and he was gasping with laughter because of it. Bucky narrowed his eyes. They’d see who was laughing when the girls ran with this idea instead of forgetting about it, like Steve was probably assuming they would.
“Hey,” Becca’s voice behind them made them all turn to look. She had her hands on her hips. “Why am I the only one up and helping Mandy in the kitchen?”
“Well, you are the only one who’s Finished,” Bucky reminded her cheekily. Becca rolled her eyes. It probably would’ve been funnier if Bucky hadn’t told that joke at least once a day for the past few months.
“I needed Bucky,” Elizabeth said, slipping her hand into his. He ran a hand fondly over her hair, which made her squawk indignantly and rush over to Becca to make sure her bow was still in place.
“Well, Bucky needs to get dressed,” Becca said. “And Steve needs to get out of bed sometime today. So we’re going to go to the kitchen to help Mandy while these lazy boys get ready to get to work.”
Elizabeth and Annabelle giggled. Steve raised an eyebrow. “You can’t boss me around anymore,” he said, mock-serious. “I’m bigger than you are again. And I am the king, you know.”
“Not technically until coronation day,” Becca reminded him sweetly. “You could still be dethroned before then.”
Steve laughed, one of those big, happy laughs with his head thrown back that filled Bucky’s entire body with warmth and light. It made him want to burrow into Steve’s arms and never move.
Becca ushered the girls away, throwing a look over her shoulder and saying, “Don’t be gross. Get dressed.”
Bucky waved her away and closed the door before settling back onto the bed beside Steve. Steve immediately moved his head to use Bucky’s thigh as a pillow, rolling to his back so he was looking up into Bucky’s face.
“Good morning,” Steve said, smiling softly.
“Good morning,” Bucky echoed, leaning down to give Steve an uncoordinated, upside-down kiss. It was sappy, and cheesy, and ridiculous, and neither of them cared one iota. They’d earned it, and Bucky would be as stupid as he wanted.
Bucky ran his fingers through Steve’s hair. “What do we need to do today?”
Steve hummed in thought. “Well, we’ve got a meeting with the HYDRA Council.”
“My favorite,” Bucky muttered. Steve made a face in sympathy.
“I’m moving to have Ross removed today,” Steve told him, voice burning with anger. “He has no place in that room.”
“Steve,” Bucky sighed. “You can’t just remove everyone who has doubts about me.”
“Why not?” Steve asked petulantly. Bucky gave his chin a little flick.
“Is it the whole coalition or just our kingdom?”
“Just us. Peggy sent a messenger yesterday and said they were delayed. Didn’t I show you? Apparently Howard decided to come with her and now he’s trying to charm every woman in every village they pass through.”
Bucky snorted. In truth, Howard was a fuzzy image in his mind, someone Bucky had met once a few months ago while he’d still been recovering, but he didn’t want Steve to know that. Steve liked Howard, in the cautious sort of way he liked anyone who wasn’t Bucky, so Bucky would do his best to get along with him.
“Gabe’s probably pretty sad she won’t be here today,” Bucky said. Steve grunted his assent. Bucky pulled his hands from Steve’s hair and squinted down at him. “Are you sure you’re happy for them?”
“Buck!” Steve exclaimed, sitting up so fast they almost smacked heads. “Of course I am. I certainly can’t be with her.”
“Thanks to duty,” Bucky said, hoping he didn’t sound too bitter. He’d made his peace with Peggy, and with her relationship with Steve, and he really liked Peggy and was glad Steve had another friend who’d known him when he was still small. But he couldn’t help the tiny wriggle of jealousy that still sat in the back of his mind.
Steve, of course, looked right through him. “Because I already loved someone else before I met her, and he’s here with me now.”
Bucky knew Steve loved him. They’d both said it a million times. He’d known it before he’d “died” and he’d known it as soon as he remembered who Steve was. But still. His heart gave a little leap when Steve said it so easily in a conversation about something else like that. But he didn’t want to change the mood in the room, so he teased,
“Oh, good, you hadn’t told me you loved me in like twelve hours. I was about to forget.” He fought a cringe when he realized what he’d said. Jokes about forgetting things weren’t quite as funny as they could be.
Steve rolled his eyes, luckily. “You’re an asshole.”
Bucky laughed. “I thought you loved me?”
“I do. But that doesn’t mean you’re not an asshole.”
Bucky gave Steve another upside-down kiss. “Right back at ya, pal.”
They got a bit sidetracked for a while, but Steve really was quite beholden to his duty, all joking aside, so he reluctantly pulled back. Bucky sighed a little, but he couldn’t fault Steve. His dedication was something Bucky loved about him, usually, when it wasn’t getting in the way of other things he wanted to be doing.
“Time to get up?” Bucky guessed.
Steve made an apologetic noise. “I feel bad.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Bucky said under his breath. “A working king. You could be one of those fat cats who sit around on the throne eating chicken legs all day, but no. You gotta care about people and actually rule.”
Steve laughed and shoved Bucky off the bed, rolling off after him. “That’s your way of being supportive, I’m sure.”
“Sure, let’s go with that,” Bucky said. He threw a shirt at Steve and hit him in the face. Steve huffed and put him in a headlock.
“Are you kidding me?” Bucky cried, outraged as Steve started to give him a noogie. “How many times could I have done this to you our whole lives and I didn’t do it? I let you have your dignity!”
He got the upper hand, thanks to his metal one, and they wrestled around for a while, but again stopped before it went anywhere good.
“You’re gonna kill me,” Bucky said seriously. “I’m just gonna drop dead from frustration.”
Steve snorted. “If I can stand it, so can you.”
“Are you trying to dare me into a sex standoff?”
Now Steve grinned, leaning down to nip at Bucky’s ear. “Of course not. That’s a lose-lose situation if I ever heard one.”
“Good.” Bucky pulled back and laughed at the affronted look on Steve’s face. “Come on, King Steven,” Bucky said innocently. “You’ve got meetings to attend.”
Steve said a few unkingly things and they finally left their room, still elbowing and shoving at each other. Coulson saw them coming and looked pained.
“Your Highness,” he said. “You’re late.”
“I’m not—” Steve paused and noticed the sun streaming through the window. “Oh. We’re late.”
They did not look the least bit dignified as they ran down the corridor, but they stopped when they got to the meeting room. Bucky reached over and smoothed down Steve’s hair for him. Steve’s face went dopy for a second and Bucky shook his head, biting down a smile.
“We don’t have time for you to be cheesy right now,” he said, like he wasn’t floating on cloud nine to see that look on Steve’s face
They walked into the room and most of the delegates for the HYDRA council smiled at them. Ross didn’t, and Bucky tried not to hunch his shoulders too much.
“I apologize for my tardiness,” Steve said, slipping into his formal king-speak. “We had some pressing matters to attend to.”
Monty snorted and coughed to cover it up. Gabe pounded him on the back, pretending to be concerned when he was really just laughing, too. Steve shot them both a dirty look, but it did nothing to quell their laughter.
“If we can get started,” Ross said dryly. He wasn’t Bucky’s favorite person. He wasn’t anyone’s favorite person, Bucky was sure. “Now, Mr. Barnes, you were telling us about your assassination of the royal farrier, Albert Richter.”
Bucky shuddered, feeling like he’d been doused in cold water. He thought of the little girl, skipping along and holding her father’s hand, and the scene she must have found when she went back into the kitchen. Steve was standing up before Ross was finished with the question.
“Councilman Ross, if you cannot be civil—”
“Is that not what happened? He said himself—”
“Your phrasing of the question—”
“If you take issue with the manner in which I speak—”
“As a matter of fact, I do, and I would appreciate—”
“Steve,” Bucky said firmly. Steve snapped his mouth shut, nostrils flaring. He was furious, and it mattered to Bucky, it mattered a lot, but he wasn’t going to let Steve run off the rails in his own meeting. “Yes, I shot Albert Richter. I was under orders and I didn’t know who he was besides his name. I was told he was trying to kill the king.”
Ross’s eyebrows went up skeptically, but Bucky saw more than one face at the table crumple a little.
“But before you said you didn’t remember King Steven.”
“I didn’t,” Bucky said. He paused for a second, trying to choose his words carefully. “I didn’t remember my past, or who Ste—King Steven was. I just knew…there was a part of me that knew it was my job to protect the king. I knew the king was important to me.”
“And they exploited that,” Steve said quietly. His hands were out of sight, but Bucky could tell from the set of his shoulders he was clenching and unclenching them. He was barely holding it together. These council meetings were almost harder on him than on Bucky.
“So you allowed yourself to be manipulated into murdering anyone who refused to join HYDRA’s ranks?”
Okay, they were harder on Bucky.
“He was cursed.” Natasha’s quiet voice cut through the tension of the table and everyone turned to look at her. Her face was completely blank.
“So he’s said,” Ross said. “How can we believe that?”
“I was cursed the same way,” Natasha said calmly.
“I saw her before and after she was cursed,” Clint vouched for Natasha.
“And there are witnesses from Bucky’s birth where the warlock Zola laid the curse,” Steve added.
“Is Zola not known for his curses?” Dernier reminded everyone.
“We’ve all sworn on the king’s name about what we saw at the Academy,” Morita said.
Ross folded his arms. “I’m just having a hard time understanding how he could’ve been forced to do something.”
Bucky had to hand it to him—at least he wasn’t outright saying Bucky was lying. He had implied it more than once, sure, but he had the decency to at least suggest he was open to hearing more evidence.
Bucky cleared his throat. “I stabbed Steve,” he said, proud of himself for keeping his voice steady. “I would never have—I wouldn’t have done that. Steve’s my—” He had to stop for a second. “Steve’s my best friend. He’s part of my family. I lo—”
He cut himself off again. He didn’t have to give that to Ross. That was for him, and for Steve, and this random delegate who wasn’t even the leader of this council didn’t get to force that out of him.
“Is the king’s recommendation not enough?” Sam asked. “You don’t believe him?” There was an uncomfortable murmur through the room. Steve nodded his thanks to Sam.
“We have the locations of HYDRA strongholds, thanks to Bucky’s information. I move to have this council adjourned and for the Guard task force to resume the destruction of HYDRA.”
The motion went through, and the meeting broke up. Steve was at Bucky’s side immediately, a hand at the small of his back, but delegates kept coming up to talk to Steve and Bucky needed to get away.
“I’m going to go check on the girls,” he murmured to Steve. Steve nodded, but his eyes followed Bucky all the way out the door.
“There’s the scoundrel!” Bucky would’ve been more worried if it hadn’t been unmistakably Monty yelling those words. He turned around and flipped the Commandos off.
“Like it’s not bad enough I have to be accused of treason and murder, now I gotta talk to you guys?” He joked.
Gabe narrowed his eyes. “I hate that Ross guy.”
“He’s just doing his job,” Bucky said weakly. He hated Ross, too. But he couldn’t pretend he didn’t understand why people might not think him trustworthy.
“If there’s one thing I will never doubt in this world, it’s your dedication to our sovereign,” Dernier said, wiggling his eyebrows.
“And I certainly don’t want to see that dedication again,” Morita grumbled. All their teasing was half-hearted; they were all grinning and he knew they were happy for him and Steve. After he’d come back, after he’d been ready to face everyone again, they’d confessed that his love for Steve had never exactly been secret, and they were all just happy the two of them had gotten their acts together and figured things out.
Before the whole dying-but-not-dead-and-assassination thing.
“I’m going to the kitchen to check on my sisters,” Bucky told them. “Don’t you guys have some target practice to do?”
That earned him some groans and grumbles. He was still the best shot—no one had beat him yet. It was maybe a little unfair, considering the intense training he’d gotten for over a year, but he didn’t mind exploiting it in favor of some teasing.
When he got to the kitchens, he paused just outside the doors for a moment, smiling at the scene inside. Dugan was hard at work, coring some apples obediently while Mandy hovered over him, despairing of his lack of ability.
“Well excuse me for getting out of practice with opposable thumbs while I was turned into a dog,” he pointed out. Then, of course, Mandy felt guilty, because she was a fairy and she hadn’t noticed an enchanted human running around the castle for years and years.
“Dum-Dum,” Elizabeth said. “Can you cut this?” She was holding up a string of paper that Bucky could already recognize would turn into a doll. Dugan had decided to keep his job as royal protector, though Steve didn’t need it anymore. Instead, he was in charge of wrangling the two younger girls in the months since Bucky had taken them from his mother’s cousins and brought them to live in the castle with him and Steve.
“Lurking again,” Becca said, making him jump. “You know they like it better when you come inside and talk to them.”
Bucky shrugged. He didn’t want to mention that he sometimes still had trouble being around people, that the guilt still ate at him like acid and made him want to scream and throw himself off the tallest bell tower on the grounds to make it stop. From the look on her face, he thought she probably knew.
“When you showed up at school,” she started, then stopped and looked away, blinking hard. “Bucky, Steve came and told me you were dead. And then there you were. You were alive, and I know it was awful, I know you sometimes wish you’d died but I—” She was crying now, still fighting it but losing mightily. “I was so happy to see you.”
He pulled her against his chest, his little sister who’d always helped him against the curse, as best she could. She used to follow him around at lessons and counter-order every casual thing his classmates said.
“Hey,” he told her quietly. “I don’t always think I deserve to be here. But you girls, and Steve? You make it worth it.”
She nodded, her head bumping his shoulder, and he gave her a little squeeze. “Besides, I won’t get you for much longer, right? Some rich nobleman’s going to come visit Steve and see your stitching and fall madly in love.”
She snorted and pushed away from him. “I don’t want to get married any time soon. And I’m not going to marry anyone who thinks my stitching is impressive.”
Bucky laughed, happy the finishing school hadn’t scooped out her heart and her personality, and the sound drew the attention of the two younger girls.
“Bucky!” Elizabeth shouted, as if she hadn’t seen him for weeks instead of hardly more than an hour. “Look, Dum-Dum’s helping me make paper dolls!”
“Liza, don’t call him Dum-Dum,” Bucky scolded. “His name is Sir Timothy.”
Dugan snorted. “The sir never really fit,” he confided. “Steve used to call me Timmy.”
“Timmy?” Annabelle giggled. “That doesn’t seem like your name.”
“You girls can call me Dum-Dum.” He winked. “I got pretty used to it.”
“But you’re not a dog anymore,” Annabelle reminded him. “You’re a man now!”
Dugan feigned shock. “What! Then why did I eat my breakfast on the floor?”
Elizabeth and Annabelle howled with laughter, and Bucky heard some chuckling in the larder. He left Becca helping the girls with their dolls and found Mandy amongst the pears from the fruit trees on the grounds. She was looking out the doorway almost fondly at Dugan, and Bucky raised his eyebrows.
“Mandy, do you fancy the dog-man?” He asked quietly so no one else would hear.
“Don’t call him that,” she scolded, two little splotches of pink coloring her cheeks. Bucky couldn’t help the hoot of laughter he let out.
“You do!” He cried. “After all the complaining you did about him as a dog, you like him as a man.”
“Oh, hush,” she ordered.
“I don’t have to,” he reminded her. Her face softened.
“You don’t,” she agreed. “I’m glad. Though I do like when you used to do as you were told.”
“He never really did as he was told,” Steve interrupted, coming in the larder and making them both jump a little. “He always found ways to mess up orders.”
“Not always,” Bucky said regretfully, thinking of the scar that ran down Steve’s shoulder.
“Yes, always,” Steve said firmly, knowing exactly where Bucky's mind had gone. He laid his hand on Bucky’s elbow. “Will you come for a walk with me?”
Mandy scoffed and Steve and Bucky turned to look at her. She noticed them looking and rolled her eyes. “Oh, a walk, that’s what they’re calling it these days?”
“Mandy!” Steve said, blushing furiously. Bucky felt every part of him go fond. He loved when Steve blushed. He tugged at Steve’s hand.
“Come on,” he said. “Before you burst into flames.”
Mandy was still laughing at them as they walked away, and then they had to deal with Dugan and Becca smirking when they said they were going for a walk, too, so by the time they escaped to the grounds, alone, Steve’s face was positively scarlet.
They were quiet as they walked. Neither of them mentioned where they were going, but their feet carried in them off the castle grounds, toward the Royal City and their tree at the edge of it. They were too big now to climb it, too big even to sit at its base and lean against it comfortably, so they stood under it and looked up.
Steve finally broke the silence after they’d be looking for a few minutes. “So,” he started. “Back out to fight HYDRA.”
Bucky’s stomach tightened a little, but he nodded. He didn’t say anything. Steve clearly had something on his mind, and he’d spit it out when he felt like it.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long.
“Are you sure about this?” Steve blurted. “I just mean—you don’t have to, Buck. You could stay at the castle and, I don’t know, bake cookies all day or something. You earned rest.”
Bucky moved forward to lean against Steve. “And what would you do?”
“I’m burning HYDRA to the ground,” Steve growled. “I’m going to kill anyone who contributed to hurting you.”
Bucky sighed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“You don’t have to come, though. I know it’s never been what you want to do.” He stopped before he said that he’d made Bucky come last time, luckily, so they didn’t have to get into that argument again. Steve’s guilt over not knowing about Bucky’s curse threatened to consume him almost every day.
“I go where you go,” Bucky told him. “All I want to do is be with you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
“But you don’t have—”
“I do have to,” Bucky cut him off. “I have to be where you are. I can’t—Jesus, Steve, don’t you get it? I can never be happy if I’m away from you. I broke my goddamn curse for you.”
Steve rested his forehead against Bucky’s. “I don’t want you to come just because you feel obligated. You don’t have to make it up to me or anyone else. It wasn’t your fault.”
Bucky closed his eyes. He wanted to say I do have to make it up. He wanted to say I could’ve fought harder against the curse. But they’d been around and around this subject before and he didn’t want to fight.
“I want to come,” Bucky said slowly. “I want to make sure they don’t hurt anyone else. And most of all I want to make sure they don’t hurt you. You’re not going to stay here with me, Steve. You might try but you won’t be able to. You’ll go crazy. And I can’t be here baking cookies while you’re out risking your neck.” He kissed Steve. “I happen to like that neck.”
Steve huffed out a little laugh. “I know you do.” They were quiet for a few minutes, leaning together and sharing air. “I love you,” Steve said quietly. “I want you with me every minute of every day. But I want you to do what’s best for you.”
“What’s best for me is to be with you,” Bucky told him softly. “We’re better when we’re together, Steve. That’s always been true, since we were scraping our knees on these branches.”
Steve finally cracked a smile. “Yeah,” he said. “That is true.”
“I know, I’m a smart guy,” Bucky said. Steve’s smile grew.
“I don’t know if I’d go that far. You did once ask me if I thought there were merpeople under the lake.”
Bucky laughed. “I don’t seem to recall you being too sure there weren’t.”
Steve chuckled too. “You told me it was possible. I have a tendency to believe what you tell me.”
“So believe me when I say I’m coming with you, and it’s not a sense of obligation or duty or guilt. Okay?”
“Okay,” Steve whispered. “I’m glad you’ll be there. And I’ll protect you better this time.”
Bucky shook his head but didn’t argue. Steve was going to go to his grave—some far-off day, very far-off, if Bucky had any say in it—thinking he should have been able to catch Bucky, or should have jumped after him, or should have found him. None of it was logical, but Bucky knew better than most that guilt wasn’t logical, and he knew if their roles were reversed he’d be in the same boat.
So instead, Bucky just tugged at Steve’s shirtfront and kissed him again. He considered a day wasted if he didn’t get at least a hundred kisses, and by his count he was only about a third of the way there today. They had some work to make up for lost time because of the meeting.
“You know what else?” Steve asked huskily in a pause for breath.
“Hmm?”
“We gotta get planning a wedding. It would be best if we’re married before my coronation, so they can give you your crown on the same day.”
Bucky’s eyes snapped open. “Why, Your Highness, is that a proposal?”
Steve blinked. “Oh. You want me to propose? I thought you just…knew.” He looked suddenly so worried and so guilty it made Bucky laugh out loud.
“That is the least romantic proposal in the history of humanity, I’m sure.”
Steve grinned. “Does that mean you’re saying no?”
“Of course not, you idiot.” Bucky reeled him back in for a few more kisses or ten. “You know I’ve always longed to be King Bucky.”
“I didn’t know that, but I’ll keep that in mind,” Steve mumbled in his ear. “Seems like it could come in handy for me.”
“I can think of some things that would come in handy for you.”
Steve laughed. “That didn’t make sense.”
“Well, you make me stupid, what do you want me to say?”
They were smiling so hard it was hard to kiss, but they didn’t let it deter them. They knew things would get tough in the future—Steve would always be in danger, and there would always be people who were mistrustful of Bucky, and rooting out the remains of HYDRA was going to be dangerous and frustrating—but they’d gotten through tough before. They were alive, and they were together, and that was what counted.
They’d had their sad ending. They were ready for the happy one.