Sometimes he would get like that. Well, not sometimes. All the time. Almost every day Steve would have an asthma attack, or he would get sick, pass out, anything.
He remembered taking care of him.
"Holy cow, Stevie, you know you can't run off without me, especially not at night." Bucky said, carrying his tiny friend up the stairs to their apartment.
"I know, Buck, but I just.. I heard something, what if someone was in danger?" Steve asked, followed by a cough.
"You get me, alright? You could easily snap in two like a twig just by someone slamming the door to hard," Bucky said, placing Steve on the couch.
"I just wanted to make sure everyone was alright by myself, I don't want you to do everything for me," Steve said.
"You don't want me to, but you need me to," Bucky said.
Now, that never happened. He never got sick. He hadn't gotten sick since before the experiment. That made him different, which Bucky didn't like.
Not that he didn't like how healthy Steve was, that was all he cared about, him being safe.
But he missed taking care of him and making sure he was okay. Lately, he'd felt like he was troubling Steve with his constant nightmares and panic attacks, even though he knew he wasn't, because they would do anything for each other, and a small nightmare was nothing compared to what they'd gone through.
"Hey, Buck, you good?" He heard, from a familiar voice.
Bucky blinked and looked up to see Steve, Peter, Tony, and Natasha all staring at him.
He nodded slowly.
"You just.. blanked out for a minute there," Steve explained.
"Sorry.." Bucky said running his fingers through his hair. He desperately needed a brush.
"Yeah, it was kinda weird," Peter said with a mouthful of cereal.
"Pete, don't talk with food in your mouth!" Steve said, Peter laughing sheepishly.
Bucky smiled. Change or not, he was just glad Steve was okay. Besides. No matter how strong he gets, he'd still always be his Steve.
-------------------------------------
He felt himself slipping from existence, he wasn't sure what was happening, when he saw Steve.
He looked messy, beaten up, like how he used to.
"Steve...?"
And he was gone.
Steve stared in disbelief. No, this wasn't happening, not again. It shouldn't have been him. He'd lost Bucky so many times, he couldn't lose him again, not after they'd just reunited. He didn't deserve this.
He didn't.
Shit.