Endgame has me shook and I've bawled like 5 times since I saw it. The ending wasn't what I was expecting, and I don't know how I feel if anything. This is one of MANY fix-it fics I wrote in response to the ending. This one is for Natasha.

When Sam finishes talking to Steve, Bucky can only wonder what the old man has to say to him.

The weathered 80-year-old, despite his hunched shoulders and wrinkled skin, sits with the same confidence only Steve Rodgers can possess. Bucky is familiar to it, of course. The confident air that surrounds the small man isn't the same one that sticks to Captain America like a second skin.

Bucky knows because the confidence had always belonged to Steve Rogers. And Bucky knew he was no longer looking at Captain America, no. Steve had passed on the mantle to Sam Wilson, who Bucky knew deserved to carry on the legacy more than anyone.

Still, Steve's eyes sparkle as Bucky sits next to him.

Steve and Bucky. Just as they started and just as they always had been.

"Hey, jerk." Steve starts, his voice thick with emotion.

Immediately, Bucky can't help but feel tears gather at the corner of his eyes at the look in Steve's eyes.

How lively, how peaceful, his brother looks.

Because Steve isn't just his best friend, he is his brother. And Bucky knows Steve better than anyone else to know how mischievous the sparkle in Steve's eyes could be.

For a while, they simply talk.

Steve tells him he's sorry, that for once in his life he chose to be selfish. Chose to live and grow old and boy, did he live. The wedding ring that sits on his left hand is a testament to that, (without a shred of doubt, Bucky thinks of Steve's special girl and of the life they must've built) and Bucky takes note of the way there are laugh lines that adorn the sides of Steve's eyes.

Laugh lines that, as he stares at them, help him finally understand.

Steve had always been selfless, and so Bucky swallows any bitterness that pools in his mouth with a small smile. Steve deserved to be selfish for once in his life, and Bucky decides he can turn a blind eye to what it all means.

But it hurts.

It hurts, knowing his brother is old and dying. And Bucky only knows this because somehow, the glint in Steve's eyes is always telling. To Bucky, at least.

But it seems for Bucky's own sanity, they continue talking for what seems like hours before, finally, Steve says the words Bucky has been anticipating all afternoon.

"If I had one more thing planned." Steve's voice is whispery. "Would you follow me, one last time?"

The air seems to escape his lungs with Steve's question, and after what feels like years of his heart hammering away in his chest, Bucky finally manages to tear his gaze from the lake, and slowly, draws his eyes to meet Steve's.

Brown meets blue, and in that instant, Bucky lets the first tear fall.

"I told you, punk," Bucky croaks, affectionately. "I'm with you, 'till the end of the line."

This time, the tear falls down Steve's face as the old man smiles.

"' Till the end of the line." Steve agrees.