[Bucky still wasn't entirely sure how it happened.

The two of them had become closer over the months in Quarantine, something about Will's way of approaching a problem from a different angle and always understanding when Bucky needed to flee had helped Bucky feel more and more comfortable with him. Somehow they had developed a friendship, and that's all it was supposed to be for either of them.

Then there was a night, a confusing night with alcohol on Will's part and terrible dreams on Bucky's, and somehow they had ended up in an embrace much more intimate than mere friendship. What they had now would be hard to define, but it was definitely something more, something that had grown into the occasional kiss and a mutual but unspoken understanding of deeper feelings.

It's late at night when Bucky shows up as he always does, unannounced and at random through a window, perching on the windowsill to look in.]

Anyone home?

[He's been on the run for what feels like decades, but is really only a few months. He knows he's doing a good job at being hidden because ever since the helicarriers fell out of the air there hasn't been a single confirmed sighting of him, and he knows that Steve is looking. Not just Steve, either. He's just not ready to be found yet.

The easiest way to move between countries, he's found, is by stowing away on private chartered flights. They're usually less attended than commercial flights, and if he can get on board then it's fairly easy to avoid the one or two passengers and crew. He has no idea that the flight he's stowed away on is Tony Stark's private jet, and that it's only Tony himself on board.

At least not until he hears a disembodied voice speaking throughout the plane once they're in the air. It's JARVIS, not that he has any idea who that is.]

Sir, scans of the plane show that there's a man crouching in your cargo hold. I wasn't aware you were transporting any men today.

[Bucky knows that Steve doesn't really understand why he chose to go back under instead of live his life in freedom; but, to Bucky, this was freedom. He didn't have to worry that he'd hurt anyone ever again while he was out cold, nor did he have to worry that someone else might be coming for him with the whole might of Wakanda surrounding him.

He's expecting to be out for years until a way is found to effectively remove his programming, maybe even forever if one is never found, but that's not to be. All of a sudden unconsciousness is becoming consciousness again, the familiar chills and nausea of coming around from cryo-freeze wracking through him as he looks up through blurry vision to see the king.]

What--?