Steve rolled back on his heels when Barnes raised his gun. His abdomen ached suddenly with the memory of being shot, but he didn’t flinch or bring his shield up in front of him. He just stood for what felt like a decade before Bucky lowered his weapon and attacked him with something else he couldn’t prepare for: questions he had no answer for.
“I don’t know where we are and I’m not sure why. I just woke up here.” He twisted his shoulder to gesture at the room behind him without turning his back on Barnes. Steve remembered reading the file, he knew now some of what was done to his friend and he knew that he had to be cautious now which was more difficult than he could anticipate. He wanted to reach out to Bucky, to put a hand on his shoulder and pull him close. The mystery of where they were and how they’d gotten here paled next to how happy he was that they’d somehow found each other. But he knew it wasn’t something that he could afford to dwell on too much until they knew that this placed posed no immediate threats.
He pressed his tongue across his bottom lip and narrowed his eyes as he looked Bucky up and down quickly as a thought formed in his mind that he didn’t really want to entertain.
“Is it really you?” He asked gently, raising his hand to brace himself in the doorway. “This isn’t some dream, or something, is it?”