#winterbucky

“You’re the only one that I could trust to come to. Without breaking down, that is.” Bucky mused, legs kicking the empty air beneath him. He looked younger like this. A metal arm was still digging into the bed, but a lock of his hair was sliding into the middle of his forehead, slowly. The wings on his back looked new, which wasn’t that surprising considering they were. But they looked soft, like the fluff of a new born bird, rather than strong and armored, like an angel warrior. 

Winter never wanted to wrap him up in his arms and protect him more. 

“I understand.” is all he said instead. Bucky smiled, shoulders shaking like he was supressing laughter. 

“I know you do. You always do.” he finally looked up, locking eyes with Winter. Winter inhaled slowly. Bucky always had blue eyes, but they were softer, occasionally shifting to Yasha’s gray eyes or Winter’s own green eyes. There was no mistaking the blue of these though. Electric. “It’s kind of funny...I’m coming to you to ask you something, even though I know it’s not really necessary. I mean...when I was human...I never really saw it clearly, but now that I can see...it all, I see you so much clearer...”

“You’re not making sense.” Winter stated softly, after a few silent moments of Bucky staring introspectively into the distance. He looked like a painting...

“I know...it’s just...everything is a lot to take in right now. I can see...everything now. I can see that you love me. And Yasha. And you even love other people too. It’s why I don’t have to ask you to protect everyone. You’ll do it anyway...there really was no point in me coming here.” Bucky pushed himself to stand and Winter lurched forward, panicked. 

“Wait, are you leaving?” Winter asked, automatically realizing how stupid that sounded. Of course he was...

Bucky didn’t try and hide his laugh this time. “You’re really smart Winter...you know the answer to that...but I don’t know...I could say something like ‘I’ll always watch over you’, but that’d be stupid...because you’ve always been the real one right? The real ангел-хранитель ((guardian angel)).” Bucky mused, “Yasha was right to give you that nickname...”

Winter didn’t ask how Bucky suddenly knew Russian. Instead he just watched as Bucky turned to him again, smiling still, looking even more like a painting as his wings stretched out, soft and careful. 

In the blink of an eye, Bucky was gone, a single feather floating down from the ceiling.