3
A few months had passed since the incident, and Bucky had been back to his old self for a while. He had insisted on helping you do literally everything for the week following because of how bad he felt about your wrist. Everyone had come home within the week following his breakdown, and Steve had asked you for a full debrief of what went down and he had spent an entire day in seclusion with Bucky, talking it over. Steve wouldn’t tell you what they talked about, insisting it was up to Bucky, and you respected that. All that Steve did say on the subject, however, was that Bucky is still wracked with guilt about injuring you, but that Steve doesn’t think he did it on purpose. (“Sometimes he gets into these…trances and he doesn’t always know what he’s doing.”) You had insisted that it was alright, you understood, you knew Bucky would never intentionally hurt you, etc.
About seven months after the incident, Doctor Strange had asked for you to come back to the sanctum to help with a new batch of recruits seeing as there were only 3 sorcerers left after the attacks lead by Kaecilius. You had agreed, and your leaving was bittersweet. You knew that it would be another few months, maybe a year or so, before you would come back for any real measurable period of time. The gang had gotten so used to you that they (mostly Steve) insisted on having dinner together to say goodbye. Wanda had made a giant pot of paprikash; Natasha made some pirozhki; Steve made a meatloaf and a pie; and Tony had ordered pizza and Chinese as backups. It was a real clusterfuck of a dinner spread, but it tickled you to see how much everyone enjoyed your company.
You had all eaten together around the briefing room table as the dining room table wasn’t big enough yet. You had all talked and laughed and told stories. Some of them asked you about the particulars of the sorcerer training and you told them some funny stories about Wong and Strange’s ridiculous interactions, about the Sorcerer Supreme before Strange took over, how she had stranded him on Everest to help his powers manifest, how she had been almost like a mother to you before she died. You had been crying a little without realizing, and Bucky, who was sitting beside you, had reached under the table and put his hand on your knee in sympathy. You smiled and wiped your eyes, moving on the conversation to what the fuck Tony and Bruce were doing that had blown the lab up again. You had put your hand on top of Bucky’s and squeezed it gently. He kept it there for a while past dinner.
As everyone was cleaning up, Bucky pulled you aside into a hallway. He was struggling for words, but eventually just held out a small gift bag to you, your favorite color.
You raised an eyebrow and smiled, taking it from him. “What’s this for?”
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and swallowed. “I um. Well. I wanted you to have something to remember me by while you’re away.”
You reached into the bag and pulled out a small ring box. You looked back at him, both eyebrows raised in surprise now. “Bucky, you aren’t proposing are you?”
His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and he shook his head. “No, nonononono that’s not, no.”
You laughed and shoved his shoulder gently. “Chill man, I’m kidding.” You looked down and opened the box then let out the tiniest of gasps. It was indeed a ring, but not an engagement ring. It looked like a class ring, but very old and worn down. The centerpiece was blue, the same blue as Bucky’s eyes, and you could just barely make out the words “United States Army” circling the stone. It was attached to a simple silver chain necklace.
Bucky swallowed. “It was um. It was my service ring. From the military. Steve had it. Said he found it after… after I fell. The chain broke and it must’ve fallen off during the fight on the train I guess.”
You were blushing now, holding the ring gingerly between your fingers. “Bucky, I… I can’t take this this is too much.”
You were reaching to give it back to him but he shook his head and shut your fist over it, holding your hand with both of his. “You’re one of my best friends, Y/N/N. You’ve become such a big part of my life. I want you to have it.”
You looked up at him, meeting his steely blue gaze with your own before you smiled softly. You turned around and pulled your hair to the side, holding the chain out to him. He stepped close to you, close enough you could feel his body heat, and he reached around you to clasp the necklace around your neck. He lingered a moment longer than necessary before stepping back, and you looked down at the ring settled against your chest. You smiled up at him and stepped into him, wrapping your arms around him. “I’ll treasure it forever,” you whispered.
He hugged you tightly, resting his head on yours for a moment.
In the hallway beside you, a portal crackled open and you groaned, seeing Doctor Strange stepping through. “Y/N it’s nearly time for introductions. Hurry up.”
You rolled your eyes and shooed him away before looking up at Bucky. A big part of you wanted to kiss him and profess your love, but you didn’t want to ruin your friendship, especially before he had time to respond. Instead, you stretched up on your toes and pressed your lips to his cheek and hugged him again, quickly, tightly. You pulled back and stepped backwards towards the portal, smiling at him. “I’ll call you like every day. You’re not even gonna have time to miss my ass. It’ll be like I never left.”
He chuckled and crossed his arms across his chest. “I’m sure it won’t,” he said.
You laughed and then yelled out a quick goodbye to everyone else, not even sure who was within earshot. You would text them all later. And then you stepped through the portal and waved goodbye one last time, and then closed it.
Xxx
You had kept your word. You called Bucky almost every single day, and on the days you didn’t, he called you. You had worn his ring over your heart every day, not even taking it off to sleep or shower. In some weird way, it felt like he had almost claimed you as his girlfriend, and the thought made you giggle like a teenager. Of course this wasn’t the case, but you couldn’t help but wonder. After all, back in his day, giving your girl your class ring meant you were going steady or some shit like that. But you digress.
The months were long and boring. You actually didn’t have much time to pop home to see everyone after all. These new recruits were just all over the place. Some were gifted as shit like you and Strange, and others were also terrible as shit, like Strange. Wong wasn’t any help, either, spending nearly all his time in the library instead of out on the grounds teaching. Before Kaecilius’s rebellion, it took about 1 master to every 2 students to teach them properly, but you and Strange were all that was left. It was rough, to say the least, but you were making progress. The students had gone beyond portals and defense and were now in their battle training, nearing the end. In just one or two more weeks, they would be ready to go off on their own and study independently on whatever they wanted and be able to grow and develop into masters so more recruits could be trained. You knew a few of them would become healers, two or three of them had shown great interest in defensive illusion, and the rest, who knew? You certainly didn’t, but the end was in sight and you were rejoicing. You could go home soon. Home to your own bed. To your own shit. To Bucky.
The closer it got to “graduation” (really it was just everybody going out to get shitfaced together to celebrate the communal progression beyond mediocrity,) the less you were able to focus. It had now been 7 weeks since you had last physically seen Bucky, and even that was only for like two hours before you had to call it a night and come back to Kamar-Taj to sleep before lessons. And you missed him. You missed him like crazy. Strange knew, of course. You were really close to him and to Wong. They were like annoying-ass brothers to you. Strange had noticed the ring and asked about it almost the second you were through the portal, and once you admitted that Bucky had given it to you, that was all he could talk about. He liked to tease you about it, but you mostly quipped back about Christine and he would just roll his eyes and change the topic. Wong was mostly just happy you found someone to love, but worried Bucky didn’t love you back. He didn’t say it like that, of course, mostly what he said were along the lines of “don’t marry yourself to him before he’s even said he likes you,” and while you understood and even agreed with what Wong said, you couldn’t bring yourself to ‘divorce’ the idea of Bucky. For you, for now, he was the one. And the one almost got you killed.
One of your students was a prodigy, Felton. You’d never seen anything like it. He had come to Kamar-Taj with the abilities of a student who had been training for years, but refused to talk about his past. Even the doc couldn’t get a read on him, and for a Sorcerer Supreme, that meant something. The doc had insisted on training him directly because it was obvious this student scared you, although you didn’t know why. Something about his aura was dark, threatening to you, but he had done nothing directly wrong and was obviously gifted, so he was allowed to stay.
There had been an incident in the Hong Kong sanctum. Strange had left to take care of it, leaving you and Wong alone with the students. Wong actually came out of his hole in the library to help you, and he took the weaker students because you were getting frustrated. Something was different this day. There was something in the air that made you highly uncomfortable, and underneath this discomfort, you were thinking of home. It was just a few days now before you could return. You had been training the higher-skilled students on some forms of defensive weapons, training them how to find what weapon felt right to them and how to use it best to their abilities. You had demonstrated your daggers to them, explaining that your preference for close-up fighting was the reason behind them instead of, say, a whip. You had asked them all to meditate upon themselves, to look inside to see what kind of fighter they were, if they were defensive, offensive, protective, far-ranged, close-ranged, etc., and to try to picture the weapon that felt most correct to them. You had had some real weapons laid out for them to use as inspiration if they needed it. Some chose swords, some shields, some a bow and arrow, but Felton had chosen nothing. You decided to let the others go off and train against each other to get used to their new choices, make sure it was right, that it suited them. You had approached Felton as he meditated, your hands behind your back, and raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never known you to hesitate before.”
Felton smirked, his eyes still closed. “I’m just trying to be absolutely sure,” he whispered.
You suppressed an involuntary shiver and cleared your throat. “Is there anything I can help you with?” You tried your best to keep your voice steady, to hide the apprehension building up in you.
“No, thank you.” He opened one eye and looked up at you, his smirk widening. “I’ve almost decided.”
You nodded once and then turned on your heel to go observe the other students. A few minutes passed and you were leaning against a pillar, arms folded across your chest, watching them fight but not really seeing. Instead, your fingers brushed against Bucky’s ring and you were barely smiling, imagining the feeling of his embrace. Wong and his students filed past, and he gave you a quick pat on the shoulder and a smile before heading in. They must’ve been done for the day, or at least heading down to the library for some other form of lesson. You turned back to your students and called for one of them to correct his stance before you let yourself zone out again.
Just as you were trying to recall his smell, a slab of metal flew past your head. You squealed and turned to see what had happened, only to see Felton there, grinning wickedly. In his hands were some of the weapons you had brought out, mostly daggers, with a mace tucked into his belt. You frowned, conjuring your daggers to you. “What’s the meaning of this?”
He let out a singular chuckle before he hurled another dagger towards you, this time aiming for your face. You managed to cast it away, but once you had, Felton was on you, tackling you down the hill behind you, far away from your students. You tumbled seemingly endlessly before you hit the bottom, letting out a groan as the breath was knocked out of you. And then you were in the air, Felton’s hand around your throat. He was grinning at you, his eyes alight with insanity. “Where is he?” he breathed.
You glowered back down at him and moved your hands as if to conjure a weapon but instead kicked him in the chest. He let out a grunt and you used his confusion to flip away from him, landing on both feet, daggers drawn again. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
He chuckled slowly, lowly, and then slowly raised his hand. Dangling from his fingers was your necklace, Bucky’s ring hanging heavily. You instinctively reached up to your neck and fury welled within you at its absence. “Oh, I believe you do.”
You let out a yell and lunged at him, moving to strike him in the side, but he swept away. “Where is he?” he said again, taunting, wagging the necklace in your face in a boast. You scowled and lunged at him again, and this time he fought back.
The two of you were head to head for what felt like eons before you finally managed to land a hit, although only grazing his cheek. “WHO ARE YOU?” you screamed between movements.
He only grinned, parrying your thrusts evenly, but also equally unable to land a hit.
The fight dragged on until the sun began to set before he found an opening. He had drawn you onto an old fighting ground, now overgrown with vines and other fauna. As you were coming at him, he managed to sweep his feet so that he caught a vine and tripped you, and he was on you in seconds, he had you pinned, straddling your waist, one hand and one knee holding your hands down, the other hand holding a very real dagger to your neck. “Tell. Me. Where. He. Is.”
You said nothing, glaring back at him. After a minute, he pressed the blade into your flesh, enough to draw a single drop of blood, and still you said nothing. Instead, you spit in his face. Overcome with rage, Felton punched you, once, hard, right in the nose. It was definitely broken, blood pouring down back towards your ears. You spat blood to the side, and only smirked back up at him. “I’ll die before I tell you,” you whispered.
He smirked and withdrew the dagger from your neck. “I can arrange that,” he growled menacingly.
He drew the blade in the air and grinned at you like something out of a bad anime where his eyes were literally glowing with insanity, and just as he brought the blade down into your chest, so too did a blade fly into his neck, throwing him off of you. You could barely see beyond the pain, but you turned your head to see who had saved you. Strange was running towards you, sliding to kneel beside you. He screamed back up the hill for Wong who quickly came to see what was up. When he saw you lying there, he practically jumped down the side of the hill to help.
Strange opened a portal to what looked like…a cleaning closet? and then scooped you up in his arms, careful not to move the dagger. You were beginning to black out, now, darkness creeping on the edges of your vision. Your head fell back to dangle and you saw Wong huddled over Felton’s body, making sure he was dead just before the portal closed.
Strange barreled through the door and started running down the hall shouting, “CHRISTINE!!!”
A young woman in scrubs came running and opened a door to a sparse operating room where Strange placed you on the table. They were talking, but you couldn’t hear what was being said. Your eyes were growing heavy, and just as Strange was placing EKG monitors on your chest, you lost the fight and were sucked under into darkness.