Gut Punch

Bucky's new SSR partner keeps engaging in destructive behaviour and though he doesn't feel qualified to give him a talking to, he does it. Because it's what Steve would do.

Pairing: Bucky & Sirius
Rating: teen
Warnings: Canon Disabled Character, Mentioned Suicidal Thoughts, Self-Destructive Behavior
Tropes: Bucky Barnes lives, Coworkers (SSR), Sirius Lives, Time Travel
Words: 1,375
Original Release Date: 04 Aug 2018
Square: I2 - "Sometimes I think you like getting punched."

Bucky was having the nightmare again. He knew it, he recognised it, but he still couldn't shake himself out of it. He was falling. He could still see Steve above him, hanging onto the side of the train car. In the dream, he watched the train until it was out of sight. In reality, he had started tumbling mid-air; he'd seen the rocky mountainside rushing up to meet him faster than he could imagine. The sharp hit of the first jagged rock sent the dream into a hazy mix of white and red and pain. It wasn't until he was up and stumbling around in the direction he knew the rendezvous point was that he came back to himself. That was the same in both. When he was found, dazed from the cold and the shock and the blood loss, they said he'd walked almost a mile. The family that had found him took him in, bandaged him up as best they could and put him in a bed. They said he slept for almost two weeks. They had expected him to die.

But he hadn't.

When he'd resurfaced, they'd fed him and shared their possessions with him with a generosity and kindness he wasn't expecting. He had wanted to leave as soon as possible, surely they couldn't keep up with an extra mouth to feed in the heavy snow and cold, but they had refused to hear it, telling him he wouldn't survive if he headed out into the snow alone. He'd have to wait for the snows to melt. In those months of coalescence, they shared their secret with him. A secret he wouldn't have believed when he'd just been a simple fella from Brooklyn.

Magic was real.

Bucky woke up with a jolt. Normally the dream turned into a full out nightmare, being found by HYDRA and turned into a weapon like Steve had signed up to be. He supposed it followed closer to the truth now because of his newest partner in the SSR.

When he'd finally come out of the snowy mountains it was to learn that Steve had died a few days after he'd fallen and the Allies had won the war. When he was finally back in New York he'd felt lost. He was missing an arm and missing his best friend. What was he supposed to do? For a time, he was in a dark place. Then Peggy came round and suggested he join the SSR. At first, he'd said no—because what good would a cripple be as an agent?—but she'd convinced him that Steve would have wanted him to continue on.

So now he was Agent Barnes.

It'd been about three years since the war and in that time SSR had learned about magic. It hadn't been from Bucky, no he wouldn't have shared his rescuers' secret like that. Peggy had even cornered him and asked what he knew when she broke the case because he was the only agent to not be shocked or outraged ("Why hadn't they helped the Allies in the war?" had been heard from many of the other agents for weeks after they'd learned about the existence of wizards.) And perhaps because of that, he'd been the one selected as the senior partner for the newest SSR agent.

One, Sirius Black.

Black had his own long history including 12 years of false imprisonment, two wars of his own, and time travel. He'd fallen through some mysterious veil of purported death and stumbled out almost fifty years into the past. The SSR had heard of him and offered him a chance to do some good as an Agent. He and Bucky were still getting used to one another.

A noise caught Bucky's attention and he blinked at the clock at his bedside table of the motel they were staying in. Three in the morning. What the hell was going on out there? He rolled out of bed and grabbed his pistol from where he kept it on the nightstand. Stark had modified it so he could reload and cock it with one hand so he didn't bother with the prosthetic. He crept toward the door and used his toe to push it open a bit further from where it was cracked. He peeked out and tried to locate the noise. Odd, shuffling footsteps in the corridor. He glanced at the other bedroom door. Was Black asleep?

Bucky moved out past his door and kept his back along the wall as he moved toward the door leading out into the corridor. He was almost to it when he heard an even louder bang and the recognizable accent of his partner, "Fuck it. Alohamora." The door lock flipped and the door swung open, Bucky shifted at the same time, pointing his weapon at the man's face for three seconds before lowering it once he got a better look at him.

Black's face was red and purple.

"Who rearranged your face?" Bucky asked.

Black tilted his head and gave a little shrug. "Some bird's fellow, I guess." He stumbled further into the room and knocked the door closed with another loud bang. The displaced air sent a wave of whisky-tinged odour Bucky's way and he sighed and flipped on the safety on his pistol. He stepped back and set the gun on the end table next to the sofa.

"Sit down, I'll get the med kit," he told Black. As he walked around the sofa to dig through their equipment bag he muttered, "Sometimes, I think you like getting punched."

"Not particularly," Black muttered. "Wouldn't be so bad if I could use my wand."

"On random men who're just protecting their girls from your philandering ways?" Bucky pulled the small kit from the bag and moved to set up at the table. He twisted the switch to turn on the lamp and Black winced from the light.

"I just want to get my dick wet, mate."

"I don't need to know that," Bucky said. He tore one of the antiseptic pads open with his teeth and spit the paper out. He dabbed at the busted skin at Black's temple, eyebrow, and lip. There was blood on his upper lip and at his nose. "Did your nose get broke too?"

Black nodded and sighed. "Yes. Fixed that already."

Bucky worked in silence as he cleaned up Black's face. Once all the blood was gone and he'd treated all the wounds he could see, he set the supplies down on the table and leaned back. He studied Black's face for another moment before asking, "What are you really doing, Sirius?"

He grinned but it was sad and brittle. "I never thought time travel would happen to me, you know? And if I ever did think about it, I expected to go back to my own lifetime. My friends..." he trailed off and Bucky nodded.

"I know what it's like to lose good friends in the war. When one day they're there and the next they got their head blown off. I know what it's like to lose my best friend." He paused, watching Black's eyes, watching him swallow down his pain. "You can't keep doing this to yourself. They wouldn't want you to." They shared the silence for another heavy pause before Black nodded. Bucky nodded as well and patted him on the shoulder. "All right, pal. Why don't you get some sleep? We're on a plane back to New York tomorrow. If you promise not to try to get under the dame's skirt, I'll see if I can't get us a double date when we get there. We'll go dancing."

"Sure," Black said. He got up and headed to his bedroom. He stopped and looked back at Bucky. "Thanks."

Bucky nodded and watched as he closed the door behind him. He sighed and looked down at his hand. He didn't feel qualified to give that speech, much less to a man older than him, but he hoped it had helped. When Peggy had given it to him, it had. When they got back State-side he needed to make it a point to see her. Maybe they could drive down to Arlington. He missed Steve.