text ➞ un: barnes (hover over italics for translation!)

[foes]

[ this ever so slightly mangled super soldier had a slight mishap during the anti gravity—slash—space walk excitement a couple of weeks back. took an inordinately hard hit to his inordinately hard head, and he's been in a quasi mini coma ever since. though his vitals never seemed to sink too low, that was probably a worry for his pals when there isn't too much in the way of medical treatment on board this ghostly husk of a ship.

exactly how many times is this jerk going to pull a snow white in his lifetime, anyway?

now that he's struggled sluggishly awake, bucky honestly wouldn't blame someone for punching him.

first thing's first, though, as he silently pushes the tendrils of monsters and their ephemeral claws back from the dark corners of his mind —

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he's the worst of all

— there's the hunger. ]

don't suppose anyone's found any source of food on this hunk of junk besides the replicators? seriously anything. really stale protein bars. rotten fruit? i used to eat MREs like a fine delicacy, promise i ain't picky.

just not too keen on falling back into the hallucination side effects right now.

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[foes]

God, you know... as risky as eggs are in a place like this, I could really go for an omelette right about now... fully loaded.

[ he puts his face into his hands, groaning quietly. memories are hard to decipher, and then sometimes they're as clear as water in the gulf; you can see straight down to the white sand. he remembers breakfast with steve growing up. eggs sunny side up, sausage, toast, his mom's homemade jam... right before things got just a little too hard.

the smell of this stuff isn't quite the same. texture's off, too.
then there's the ghosts... the guns...

but then venus said something had been fixed... ]

[unshielding]

Let me see what I've got here.

[ He'd aimed for variety, not sure what Bucky's apetite would honestly be up for, but he'd aimed for staple foods. ]

The closest I have is pancakes, but I can go back if you want an omelette.

[ Even with the teasing, he really doesn't mean to baby Bucky. He knows Bucky's capable, but he'd always been capable, too, back when Bucky had helped him out. He knows exactly how hard it is to let people help you, even the people you care about the most.

It's just that he hates to see Bucky suffer after everything he's been through. ]

[foes]

—Pancakes? With syrup?

[ he squints, intrigued, nearly forgetting his reservations.

fuck, he's hungry. is that orange juice? he starts to reach for it. ]

[unshielding]

[ When Steve smiles, it's warm and real. He's been so worried about Bucky since they got here. It's good to see him awake an coherent and hungry.

He grabs one of the forks and takes a bite of the pancakes before handing them over to Bucky. The testing wasn't a joke if it will help Bucky. ]

Of course.

[foes]

[ he really can't bear the thought of steve fucking taste-testing his food for him. it smacks too much of weakness or— like he's worth too much, or something equally repugnant, even if in the long run it would work to serve the purpose of making sure he doesn't end up off the literal rails.

so as soon as steve takes a bite, bucky doesn't wait for results. he reaches for the plate and fork and shoves a fully disrespectful mountain of pancake into his mouth, chewing ravenously before washing it down with the orange juice also on the table.

for shitty replicator food? it kind of tastes like heaven after two weeks of nothing but nightmares.

he offers steve a goofy grin— dribbling a dab of juice down his chin like a prize idiot.

welp. ]

[unshielding]

[ The thing is that after everything Steve's done for Bucky, after everything Bucky's done for him? Bucky is worth more to Steve than anything in the world. He doesn't really care if that makes Bucky uncomfortable.

Besides, if one of them is going to hallucinate, they really are all better off if it's Steve and that's not just his self-sacrificing streak here.

Right now, though, he's just relieved to see Bucky eating. ]

Good?

[foes]

[ he reaches over and gives steve a light slug in the shoulder with his right fist. ]

Yeah, it's good. I'll have five more, thanks.

[ bucky actually laughs, just a little, a muffled rasp around his fork. ]

[unshielding]

You're just going to eat nothing but pancakes?

[ Steve laughs along with him, taking the light hit in stride and moving to sit next to Bucky. The idiot has to know how worried he's been, even if he doesn't say anything. He really doesn't think he can handle losing Bucky again. ]

Be my guest. It's still an improvement over nothing.

[foes]

Maybe. [ he grins, lopsided, already serving himself a second plate. ] You gonna have a problem with that?

[ buck chews in silence for a minute, just letting the fact that he's awake, that there's companionship in this floating tank of horrors wash over him. the right side of him where steve has chosen to sit is warm.

it's so familiar. they've been side by side for so long.
there are so many holes in his memories, but he knows that in his bones.

shoulder to shoulder with steve rogers.

the warm silence stretches on so long that he thinks maybe he's been lost in it an hour; he breaks it out of necessity, keeping himself present. ]

'Course, I could do with some protein, too.

[unshielding]

[ Steve just shakes his head and watches Bucky eat with an intensity that might not be appropriate for watching something so mundane.

It might not, save for how many times he's lost Bucky and how many more times Bucky has given him a scare and he still can barely believe that Bucky is here, alive and intact and with his metal arm still there and he's eating and smiling, the warmth against his shoulder a reminder that unlike Peggy, Bucky's not an hallucination.

Whatever HYDRA made him do, whatever they did to him, none of it matters right now. He has Bucky back and he knows this man just as well as he knows himself.

The words shake him from his own reverie and he bumps Bucky's shoulder gently with his own. ]

Chicken?