[Shield Winter] Meeting upside down

Fever is simply the most annoying ailment in the world.Chills all over, muscle aches, dizziness, stuffy nose, and buzzing in eardrums.No matter who you are, you always seem weak-willed in the face of fever, and superheroes are no exception, and Steve Rogers after losing his serum is no exception.

He was lying on the single bed, confusedly unable to tell whose room it was.The bed covered with thick straw is like a hard stone at this moment, making people ache all over.Steve closed his eyes uneasily, turned over and over on the bed, rubbed his temples with his fists, and opened his mouth to breathe like a stranded fish.

A cold feeling brushed his forehead, and Steve opened his eyes, seeing what he saw was covered with a layer of light red due to the high heat.In the center of the field of vision is Bucky's face, and the black and blue eyes make him look a little haggard.Seeing Steve opened his eyes, Bucky put the cool towel in his hand on his forehead viciously.

"The Rogers boy is always so stubborn. It's all right now, and you are the one who suffers."

Bucky muttered, turning around to dip the small cotton towel in his hand into the alcohol in the tile bowl.For the one-armed guy, this movement is not very smooth, especially when the disobedient buddy on the bed is still pulling him hard.

"Bucky, I'm... sorry."

Steve calls him, teeth clinking in his voice.The thin and pale hand grabbed the hem of Bucky's robe, so hard that his veins bulged, as if he would disappear before his eyes if he didn't hold on tighter.

Bucky relented almost instantly.What else can he say?Ever since he met this stubborn little blond man when he was a teenager, he never forgave this guy without a sigh.

"Accept your apology, buddy." Bucky wiped his forehead and neck with an alcohol towel, "Rodgers went to Su Rui to ask for medicine, but Su Rui said that you are not recommended to use antipyretics at the stage when the serum fails, hers The research has made some progress, and you will be wronged to survive this time."

Steve couldn't really hear what Bucky was saying, he only caught the words "Rodgers...not recommended...grievance...".So he held Bucky's wrist with the other hand, and his voice was soft: "I'm sick, I'm wronged, you can't go to Rogers."

"God, you're burnt out, of course I'm here to take care of you."

Bucky couldn't help crying and laughing as he watched his hand being held in his face by Steve, and the heat of the other party's speaking fell on his palm.Worrying about that, Bucky moved his hand and touched it against Steve's cheek, all the way down to his neck - the heat was hotter than his hand.People with high fever subconsciously look for coldness. Steve only felt that Bucky's hand was extremely comfortable, and he rubbed it in the other's palm indiscriminately, like a young lion who knows nothing about the world.

Bucky, who was being pulled by him, couldn't help shaking.He was sure that Steve's lips brushed against the lines in the center of his palm, and the slight itchiness came from there, quickly numbing his scalp and heart.

—It’s too hot.Whether it's Steve's cheek, neck, or this unexpected kiss...is this even a kiss?Probably a little more than a gentleman's hand-kiss, but his throat was stuck, as if there was a lump there that he couldn't spit out or swallow, and if the doctor could take it out and open it up, he would find it full of blood. All writhing guilt.

It shouldn't be, it's just a small accident, how can he indulge in this taste?

Bucky gently withdrew his hand, and Steve fell asleep under the comfort of alcohol and a cool towel.He stood up, moved his numb limbs, and licked his lips over and over again, but his mood was still in a mess.Thoughts turned into wool, the young lion cub pulled out a thread with its paws and wrapped itself in it, turning the already not sober mind into a messy ball of thread.

"Stop, stop," Bucky muttered to himself, fisting his hands, rolling his fingertips over the part Steve just rubbed, "Go make some porridge, do something else... yeah, take the time to ask Su Rui's research situation, all of this is crazy, and it must return to normal as soon as possible."

The fever subsided fairly quickly, thanks to the failure of the serum, which didn't make Steve's immunity fall back to the last century.After the fever subsided, he was a little lethargic. Bucky came to change his towels several times, but he never woke up, probably because he was too deep in sleep and was dragged into a nightmare. His face and expression were not very good.

Only Steve knew he was dreaming.There was a long and winding corridor in the dream, and countless suspended huge images stretched from both sides of the corridor. He saw countless buckies, countless losses, countless wars that they walked through together or failed to walk side by side.The pain-forged snow mountain train whizzed past his head, he dodged in the corridor, and his whole body ached from the wall that changed its position.

"Bucky..."

The moment he called out his name, all the pictures stopped suddenly, and a shining figure appeared at the end of the corridor. Steve recognized the iron arm, and he stumbled and ran in that direction, but he could touch it in the next second. When Bucky was in front of him, another figure appeared in front of him, taking Bucky out of Steve's world with just a stretch of his hand.

The man who was left clenched his fist and saw a bright white star on the chest of the man who took Bucky.

"Cough cough cough..."

He woke up, and the nightmare dissipated, leaving him covered in cold sweat.Steve stared at the wooden roof for a while, the surroundings were quiet, Bucky was not there, and there was a bowl of warm water on the small table next to him.He swallowed a few times, and the burning sensation in his throat has completely disappeared, and there is still a little taste of rice soup in his mouth.

Steve took a gulp of cold water and decided to go find Rogers.

"What's so urgent to call me over? Steve's illness is not good yet, I should watch him."

Su Rui resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and operated on the podium: "Don't worry, he will be fine on Wakanda's territory. I called you here to tell you... I have researched how to wipe the particles on the iron arm." Except, but this method will temporarily disable your perception system. In other words, it has changed back to the original model, temporarily unable to be as sensitive as the other hand, able to distinguish hot and cold and feel pain."

Bucky raised his eyebrows, seemingly surprised.Indeed, the vibrating gold arm was too easy to use, and he almost forgot how difficult it was to use the first bulky iron arm without a perception system, probably not much different from the Dummy in Tony's studio.

"Hmm, redeploying the perception system is basically equivalent to rebuilding a vibrating gold arm. The material of this arm is top-notch, but now the Kingdom has restrictions on the amount of mining, so it will take a while... and you seem to be in a hurry." Su Rui paused and spread his hands, "It's not just you, I think the two captains are also very anxious. This is really sad, Wakanda is such a good place, why don't you want to stay longer?"

Bucky pressed his temples: "Trust me, Wakanda isn't the problem. Well let me see... you mean if I accept this arm for now, I can start the process of removing that layer of particles now?"

"Yes." Su Rui's index finger hovered above a green button, "So what are you going to do?"

"immediately."

Bucky agrees without hesitation.He needs that arm, he needs to go back to New York and be busy fighting the evil forces like a hero, instead of being caught between two Steve Rogers like he is now, not to mention the complicated emotions that he doesn't understand … Work always healed these, he never doubted.

Su Rui pressed the start button, and the complex machinery started humming. The regular white rays inside the box cleaned the iron arm in the center, and sparks exploded after touching the surface.

"Cool." Su Rui whistled, "I should give this operation a code name... How about killing God?"

"Won't that have an impact on religious belief?"

"I don't think the Leopard God will care." Su Rui shrugged, and when he turned to look at Bucky, he looked serious, "By the way, the research on the serum is not going well, you have to be mentally prepared."

"what?"

"The chemical reactions in living organisms are too complicated, and I can't reverse-replicate the original sample through the expired serum in Steve's blood. Even with the data from the S.H.I.E.L.D. biological sequence research department and the reference sample extracted from you, the experiment still After repeated failures, I need to overthrow the current thinking and re-plan this research."

"That is to say..."

"He will maintain this for a while, and I can't guarantee how long it will be. Sorry."

Rogers opened the door with no surprise on his face, and even poured water for him like a hospitable host.This made Steve a little embarrassed, he coughed a few times, sat on the wicker chair opposite Rogers, and remained silent.

This is an action that was started rashly without careful consideration.He had a nightmare where Rogers snatched Bucky, so he woke up and came here, trying to say something to Rogers.But looking at this familiar face and Rogers with a relaxed expression, Steve felt speechless.What should he complain about?What position should he take to accuse this Steve Rogers from the book?

"This conversation came later than I expected."

He didn't expect Rogers to strike first.

"Of course, I should have come, but too many accidents happened after that."

"You want to come and talk to me about Bucky." Rogers used a declarative sentence.He leaned forward, using a common posture at the negotiating table, "Actually, there is nothing to talk about. No matter what you say, I will tell you-I won't let go, don't talk to me about what I don't belong to The world, the truth is I'm already here and no one knows how to send me back for a while."

Steve frowned, and Rogers' domineering words made him feel uncomfortable.

"It's just a matter of time. Tony and Banner will figure it out. After all, you don't belong here, and no one knows if there will be any accidents in the future."

——What if this guy becomes two-dimensional one day?Steve swore he wasn't gloating about it.

"Come on, who will Tony and Banner listen to in the end? Nick Fury. And you don't know anything about the deal Fury and I made."

Steve clenched his fists.That's right, Nick Fury certainly hopes that Rogers can stay. After all, the Avengers' abilities and energy are limited. Of course, it will be easier to have a new helper... Damn, is this guy really the righteous Captain America?What right does he have to hold up the shield.

Rogers looked at Steve with a shaken expression, smiled and leaned back on the sofa, his body relaxed.

"Well, I guess I'm not a good person in your eyes, maybe you're calling me unworthy to be Captain America. That's okay, I'm not a villain, let alone a Hydra spy, and I don't want to use any negative words Means to snatch Bucky."

Meeting Steve's cold eyes, Rogers paused every word.

"We compete fairly."

fair play?Steve chews on the word, and it takes a while to figure out what Rogers means: this guy wants to be Bucky's best friend, and since he's also Steve Rogers, I can 100% understand his desire for that status.Thinking about it this way, this guy is a bit pitiful. I heard that Rogers has never seen his own Bucky?In his own words...God, he can't imagine such a life at all.

As for Rogers, he obviously hasn't realized that Steve doesn't think like him.If he could hear Steve's mind going on, he couldn't help but thump that dull head with his shield.Please, hasn't this series of things clearly expressed my intentions for Bucky?But Steve's definition of the relationship between the two stopped at "best friends".

The two Steve Rogers were silent, trying to burn each other with searing eyes.Steve was thinking about agreeing when there was a knock on the door.

It was Bucky.His expression was a little tired, and he was a little surprised when he saw the two people "peacefully" co-existing in the same room.

"Steve? Are you cured? That's fine..."

He didn't wait for Steve's answer, and turned to Rogers, his tone hesitant.

"Rogers, I..." He hesitated, reached out and grabbed Rogers' wrist, "I want to ask you to do me a favor."

Steve stares at their clasped hands, and bites into the soft flesh on the inside of his cheek again.

But this time Bucky didn't come up and poke him.

TBC