Magic had been one of the more unpredictable ways of coping.
Bucky had tried, alongside the rest of the world, to get a grip on alien invasions, shrinking men, flying men, magical stones or guys turning green.
One eventually got used to that.
Even if the government was fighting a change of the status quo every chance it got.
But there were the other things.
A levitating Yoda in front of a museum.
A random guy on the street, turning coins into living butterflies.
A lady being sawn in half.
Mind reading.
Things disappearing.
Bucky just needed to know.
Bucky just needed to know how things worked.
Because if he could understand those, he might get a better handle on the rest of his life.
It was irrational.
He himself understood that.
But he had time.
And determination.
There were… certain… concerns, that just maybe one of the worlds most dangerous assassins didn’t need to become even more dangerous.
But leave it to Steve to dig his heels in and just do what he believes to be best.
So Steve goes and gets Bucky Mark Wilson’s Cyclopedia of Magic, Marvin’s magic boxes, Dan Brown DVDs… and watches how Bucky gets absorbed for days.
It also means that Bucky gains the ability to occupy hours with something as simple as a set of cards.
To Steve it is glorious.
Everything that stops Bucky from turning into a human statue gets Steve’s stamp of approval.
And still Bucky wants to know more.
So they hit Youtube next.
Antique books shops.
The Houdini Museum.
And Steve doesn’t comment.
He doesn’t comment on Bucky's new found tendency to hoard mirrors.
He doesn’t comment too much on the few tricks Bucky shows him.
And he most definitely doesn’t comment on the fact that Bucky and Stark finally have things to talk about.
Steve only just stops short of signing Bucky into the Society of American Magicians.
Mainly because they do meet a magician.
A real one.
One Dr. Stephen Strange.
A magician who has committed himself to protecting earth.
Steve isn’t fast enough to stop Strange from whisking Bucky into some alternate dimension.
And he only just allows himself to be pacified by the promise to get Bucky back in three minutes max.
Bucky won’t tell just what he saw in there.
And it will take Steve months to figure out that Strange showed Barnes different versions of his possible future.
They might have been in there for ages.
To Steve it takes 2 minutes and 57 seconds before Bucky materializes again.
By then he feels like he is vibrating out of his own skin.
And Bucky is back at starring aimlessly.
Steve can’t run fast enough.
It is only 40 feet. And it feels like forever.
Steve hides them both behind his shield, desperately trying to reassure Bucky that everything would be fine.
Because things need to be.
Because Steve can’t fucking loose him again.
Because…
… and Bucky understands.
The sentence Steve doesn’t dare to say yet.
But it was there.
In one of five possible futures.
Marrying Steve was actually an option.
One version ended with Nat killing them both.
Two ended with Steve sacrificing himself for the world yet again… and Bucky following him hot on his heels.
And one… one ended with Bucky giving up instead of turning his life around.
But… marrying…
Bucky can’t yet wrap his mind around that.
And yet…
Bucky just has to know: “Do you promise?”
And Steve is about to start, with all the reassuring words in the world…
And Bucky stops him, face set, deliberately allowing the Winter Soldier to address the magician:
“Do.You.Promise?”
And Strange is menacing in his indifference: “I don’t joke about that kind of things. So, do you promise?”
… promise, not to destroy his new found family…
“What if I choose green?”
It was the wrong answer, since Strange is definitely gearing up for a fight.
Still, Bucky needed to push: “For a jacket. What if I choose green?”
And Steve was already muttering under his breath that Bucky could damn well do as he pleases.
While Strange sounded honestly irritable: “Is this your biggest concern right now?”
No, planning your wedding apparel when the other person involved didn’t even dare to think about proposing yet… probably wasn’t the most important thing.
Or it would not have been. For people who had not spend decades doing other peoples biding…
It would take Wong a bit of time to figure that Strange had needed three false tries (one had ended with being attacked by Nat's daggers, two having an incredibly furious Steve charge with the rage of an angry bull), before he settled on the most off hand tone of voice: “For all I care you can go in yellow spandex. Do you accept the rest of your verdict?”
Bucky applied a bit of creativity to his phrasing: “No more hiding from the world, more interaction with people.”
Wong never figured out how many tries Strange needed to settle on a simple “Yes”.
Because there should have been more to the deal.
But for now it was all Strange got.
And as far as Steve is concerned, it is already more then Strange deserves.
Steve is the last one who will hinder Bucky from enjoying life.
But even that should not be an order…
That night Steve is far from composed.
It was too close.
Bucky being gone for too long.
Just vanished from the face of the earth… again.
And maybe Bucky should not have seen that.
But it does a lot for his heart.
Maybe Strange wasn’t making stuff up.
Maybe this could be real.
And if it wasn’t, then maybe time could make it so.
That, unfortunately, didn’t stop another five almost-apocalypses.
Which in the end leads to a not exactly stable Bucky to complain to a - yet again profusely bleeding - Steve, that the other can’t die, seeing that Bucky has not even proposed to him yet…
Leave it to Steve to choose that moment to drag his feet back after being already halfway through deaths door…
It was probably the most impressive feat of stubbornness Steve ever performed.
Bucky just vows to keep Steve out of harms way for the time to come.
By the time Steve and Bucky did marry - a good three years later, because Steve had been waiting for a real proposal, and this time Bucky had wanted to make it perfect - Steve even was over his displeasure of meeting Strange. And allowed the sorcerer supreme to be present…
…who personally ensured that Bucky’s wedding suit was a perfect blend of Steve’s blue and and Bucky red star.