Part One
Bucky felt a little bit dizzy, he still had to remind himself to breathe every now and again because holy shit, this was actually happening. There was no way he could have dreamed or faked this, and even so he absentmindedly curled his toes inside his shoes until the sensation was vaguely painful, the mild flare of pain registering. He did this just on the off-chance that Hydra was in charge of Preya and they had him again.
But Hydra couldn't pull this off. They couldn't pull off this place with all these different people, smiling, happy, innocent people. They couldn't pull off this mysterious island that people can't escape, they couldn't pull off Steve Grant Rogers standing in front of him looking at him like there was nothing more--
The sound of the phone beeping made Bucky blink and he just bit his lip slightly, huffing out a laugh, eyes shining and looking at Steve with such fondness. There really was nothing else like him, he was closer than a brother, closer than a friend, and the fact that Steve had stood by him through everything, through all the shit Hydra had put him through, even after Hydra had made him their puppet, even after he'd killed Tony Stark's parents...
Swallowing hard, Bucky blinked again, trying to calm himself down again. He was going to start blubbering right fucking here in the middle of Ravenmoore Square. He didn't care, but he knew that if he started he wasn't going to stop. James Buchanan Barnes hadn't cried good and proper since before all the shit with Hydra, since they were both kids, and even then it hadn't been anywhere like this.
Nodding numbly at Steve's words, he still remembered when he'd bumped into Bruce on his first day here, Bucky who was looking like a frightened animal, a deer frantically trying to stay standing on slippery ice. Bruce, wonderful, calm, friendly Bruce, who wasn't a soldier like him and Steve but it didn't matter because he had a strength the two of them couldn't begin to fathom, had helped him find his footing that first day. Hydra couldn't fake Bruce Banner, either.
"Yeah," Bucky felt like his vocabulary was escaping him, all he could do was just stare at Steve, touch Steve, cling to him like a lifeline. But his eyes said everything words couldn't, the way he looked at him like he was his whole world (because he was), the half-smile and hopeful rest of the smile in his eyes at hearing Steve, seeing Steve, smelling, touching, knowing that Steve was here. "I know."
He really did know. Bucky had waited so long, so damn long, too damn long to say anything like this. It had been in his mind, for over sixty years, before his fall, before Hydra, before the Howling Commandos. Back then you couldn't say it, back then it was taboo. But the love that Bucky had felt for Steve had always been there even when they were kids, just a thing in childhood at first, the way he'd hug his smaller friend, the way he'd step in if Steve tried to take on a bully too bigger than him, the way Bucky would patch Steve up, the way they would explore the world together.